Even as the r-word gets bandied about the chief marketing officers who spend money to promote global brands say “spend levels . . . (will) . . . be mostly holding steady or trending upward in 2008.”

So says the CMO Council in a press release summarizing the results of main-in surveys from about 800 of the group’s roughly 3,000 members. I consider the results of such surveys more useful in spotting trends rather than getting reassurances about spending so I focused on the following list of priorities displayed by MarketingCharts.com:

“The 12 leading areas of marketing dollar allocation in 2008 are expected to be the following:

1. Strategy and branding

2. Events and trade shows

3. Operations

4. Direct marketing (including telemarketing, mailings, email)

5. Sales support

6. Online marketing (website, SEO, SEM, viral, podcasts/blogs, communities)

7. Advertising

8. Market research

9. Systems

10. Merchandising and promotions

11. Public and analyst relations

12. Customer data integration and analytics”

Look how far down the list falls advertising, the mother’s milk of the beleaguered print industry. Look how high are events and shows. Where does your media business get its revenues?