When does your company start to plan media budgets for 2011?
Many companies have already started planning and even negotiating their advertising for 2011. Do you generally wait until 4th quarter? Tell why you pick the timing you do.
@radioactivemed
http://www.radioactivemedia.net
http://j.mp/radiofans
800-559-7234
Clarification added July 29, 2010:
I've started a poll to see our timing for our media plans for 2011. When do you/did you start? See the results:
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/94132/qykvc
Answers (5)
Wallace J.
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In August. We have to have several months to prepare for CES 2011 in Las Vegas! ;)
Jan
For clients, we generally start in October as most new rates start coming out then.
@SuzanneVara
At the beginning of Q4, companies and clients have a pretty good handle on the pipeline and begin setting sales targets based on the most current data. Once the next fiscal year sales targets are created, we'll get a good idea of the of the overall budget. Usually, we complete a strawman budget in October that is flat year over year and adjust as those sales targets for the next fiscal year arrive.
Mel C.
Direct Marketing, Measured General Marketing, Publishing, Copy and Trading Professional
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An agency is going to give you an approximate date... so will most ad managers working for companies... because the disciplines of business dictate implementing a procedure called budgeting. The timing of the budget will reflect industry seasonality and vary accordingly.
But a budget is nothing more than a road map or a plan... and plans change. Sometimes ads don't get the results expected and budgets get cut... sometimes the same conditions justify pumping up a budget... sometimes agencies or ad managers are replaced... resulting in changes in media plans, creative, and of course, budgets.
What would you do if your budget defined the placement of an ad in a 10 newspapers once a month and the measured sales achieved were stupendous. Would you stick with your plan or would you increase the reach and frequency to further exploit a proven success?
What would you do if you were an airline and had heavy advertising scheduled for broadcast and print in 24 markets and there was a major crash?
What would you do if you planned a trip using a road map and discovered, while on the road, that a new "short cut super highway" was built after the map was published... after you made your plans... would you take the shortcut and save lots of time and gas... or would you stick to your original plan?
That's why there are contingency segments of budgets... that's why budgets need to be "liquid"...
Randall W.
Advertising, Public Relations, Training, Trade Show Exhibits, Corporate Event Planning, Video Production
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It depends on the client but most planning will begin sometime in 4th quarter.
