August 31, 2010

Yesterday, in our continuing series on budgets we shared that Borrell and Assocates is projecting ad spending next year at less than 5% of this year's projected levels.

We talked about accurately representing the market in your forecasts and let's face it, that's always a crapshoot ... an "educated" guess.

Make sure you get the "educated" part of that right.

• Talk to your competitors and see what they are forecasting the market to do. They'll tell you because they want their numbers justified as well.
• Talk to your local TV GM and ask the same question.
• Get a realistic read on your key accounts. Do you expect (and you should specifically ask) their spending to increase, decrease or stay the same?
• Get your hands on a local economic forecast. Every local university has an econ professor who prognosticates. Get your hands on that report.

Get every piece of "intell" you can so when you are sitting in that budget meeting, you can speak with a truly "educated" guess on market projections.