Despite the financial shocks of the coronavirus pandemic, companies are continuing to invest in marketing, a new survey shows.

The CMO Survey from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business showed that spending on marketing rose as a share of companies’ overall budgets from 11.3% in January to 12.6% in May.

Christine Moorman founded the CMO Survey from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

The study, which collated responses from 274 senior marketing executives at for-profit companies in the United States, further revealed that spending on marketing as a percentage of company revenue escalated to 11.4% in May, up from 8.6% in January.

“The overall view is that in a typical recessionary period where these foundational elements are shaken, marketing does tend to go to the chopping block first in general, and then advertising has always been the first to go,” Christine Moorman, the T. Austin Finch Sr. professor of business administration at Duke University and founder of the survey, told The Wall Street Journal. “But I don’t think this is a typical time.”

The WSJ suggested that a reason for marketing spend not dropping off a shelf, as might be expected, is that “many companies want to protect their competitive position even in a tough environment. Some are also rushing to meet increased demand online as efforts to fight the novel coronavirus mean consumers are venturing out less and many bricks-and-mortar stores are temporarily closed or offering limited service.”

While word that companies are still investing in marketing could be seen as good news by those in the promotional products industry, the survey also sounded a few downbeat notes. Marketers told survey researchers that department head counts have shrunk, on average, by 9% due to economic fallout tied to the coronavirus pandemic. Nearly a quarter of respondents don’t expect those jobs to return.

Meanwhile, overall revenue has declined by an average of nearly 18% during the pandemic, according marketing leaders who responded to the survey.