He explained that his company did not have to make any rash decisions, as they saw the signs coming out of the United States and Europe and were able to make changes to the marketing focus and adjust accordingly.

For Chapman, the key to successful marketing, both in good times and in bad, is measurability. His marketing plan combines offline and online strategies and tracking results down to the finest possible detail. Only in this way, he said, could he adapt for optimum impact.

'We use press advertising, but a large part of the budget is online. We use job boards, such as Classified Post, but we also have a comprehensive programme for search engine optimisation.'

The focus on metrics, using a sophisticated tracking system and a highly detailed database, allows him to analyse accurately not only how many people have clicked on a particular keyword but also which clicks led to job applications and placements. With that level of information, he explained, he managed his budget by looking at the data and making educated decisions.

Susan Field, chief executive of Hong Kong, the mainland and Singapore communications agency Impact Asia, agreed that new marketing channels offered companies more opportunities to reach their target audiences and develop an active dialogue with customers.

'The PR [public relations] industry has not been hit as hard as some other marketing channels during the downturn because PR can be a more cost-effective discipline. However, the days of just sending out a press release and hoping for the best are long gone,' she said.

In today's communication environment, she believes, marketers need to look at more creative routes to strong client relationships, such as experiential activities, partnership marketing and campaigns that embrace key opinion leaders.

For Chapman, the experiential element is an increasingly important part of his marketing mix, but he stresses that the experience and dialogue can also take place in an online environment. As an example, he cites his company's recently launched video portal that archives interviews and news items generated by its PR programmes. 'We talked about all of the opportunities we get with broadcasts on public channels such as Bloomberg and Sky Business. Sometimes there are only relatively few people watching at the time they are broadcast, so the value is limited. We wanted to leverage that content.'

Now the company buys licences for all those clips and hosts them on a dedicated site so that interested parties can access information in their own time. The portal is also being extended to include a channel of one-on-one interviews with top financial managers. This, according to Chapman, will have the dual benefit of allowing job-hunters to go to school on the experience and advice of proven winners at the same time as associating the interview and the opinions in it with the Robert Half brand.

Another channel used extensively in Robert Half's marketing mix is e-mail, a medium that continues to suffer from negative associations with spam and phishing. Chapman dismissed the concerns, stressing that all his company's activities were based on subscriptions or permission.

'It's only viewed as spam if you're sending information that's not relevant to the people who receive it, and that's why the segmentation is so important. You have to build up trust over time and demonstrate that you're giving good advice.'

As for social networks, Field is in no doubt that they will grow to form an integral part of corporate marketing. She acknowledged, though, that most companies who had tried to exploit the networks so far had 'failed to develop a dialogue with their network and simply tried to push sales information in entirely the wrong environment'.

Facebook and Twitter did already feature in Robert Half's multichannel mix, but were, Chapman explained, still in their pilot phases. He expects to develop social networking presences for the Asia-Pacific over time but points to recent research showing Hong Kong and Singapore at least 12 months behind the US and Europe in adopting social networks. He is in no hurry to jump in. The key to success for him is less which channels to use in order to access his target market but more the quality of the information delivered.

'We're always looking to leverage any content and channel it to the people it is relevant for. That is the way we see marketing going. It's about how we can maintain dialogue with job-seekers and employers. If the content is relevant, valuable, trusted and respected, you will get benefits.'

Despite some indications of economic recovery, Chapman remains 'cautious' with his marketing budget. Any increase in spending or refocusing of activities would, he insisted, be subject to exactly the same analytical scrutiny as was used to help him manage his way through the downturn. When the evidence is there, however, he will be prepared - a mindset Field believes all marketing departments should share.

'The smart companies are already looking ahead and preparing for the bounce back,' she said. 'That means having a strategy in place, a campaign lined up, and a readiness to hit the 'go' button as soon as the budgets are given the go ahead.'