As many of you are aware, the media landscape continues to change on a daily basis. The integration of digital platforms into a majority of our efforts is well under way. Mobile and social media have continued to provide additional opportunities for brands to connect with consumers in new and inventive ways. Now, other factors are starting to affect our media efforts as we head into Q4 of this year.
Over the past couple of years our clients have had to balance lower marketing and advertising budgets with meeting aggressive sales goals. One thing that helped aide in this pursuit was the relatively low cost of media over the past couple of years. This unfortunately has experienced significant change. According to ZenithOptimedia worldwide advertising growth for 2010 is projected at +3.5 percent and North America has been revised upward from the original forecast of -1.5 to + 1.3 percent.
As early as the last fourth quarter of 2009, we started to see signs that the economy was turning around. This lead to a stronger than projected advertising spend during the holidays in hopes of providing some much needed relief to our retail friends.
As we headed into 2010, the marketplace was projected to continue to flourish as we had multiple political windows and growing consumer confidence. Based on these projections, we had encouraged most of our clients to consider approving annual plans that would protect them from future rate increases.
According to Jack Myers, after the Network Upfronts had concluded we saw increases of almost 20 percent across TV and cable. These increases have continued, especially in local markets hard hit by political ads and the upcoming Q4 holiday push. Automotive, Retail, and telecoms have also started to heavily spend during this time period.
As media costs continue to rise, it’s imperative that we continue to approach our clients’ business from a media agnostic point of view. Through this perspective, we’re able to identify key points of interaction and engagement that can provide additional consideration and intent. Additionally, by continuing to integrate digital efforts into our marketing mixes, we provide the opportunity for increased ROI, effectiveness and efficiencies. We look forward to the challenges of making our client dollars work as hard as possible, even in the face of less buying power and now eroding consumer confidence.
Related Articles:
“Zenith Ups Global Ad Forecast” – MediaPost
“Upfront Marketplace Returns to 2008 Level” – Jack Myers
