by Dave Zornow
CSP Magazine, December 2001

It’s easy find great ad sales research stories when things are going well. You look for information that can position your product ahead of your competitors, focusing on facts that will justify a higher CPM/CPP and a greater share of budget. But what do you tell your clients when budgets are tight, consumer confidence is low and media buyers are buying less media?

Advertising doesn’t stop during a recession, although sometimes it may seem that way. Market downturns represent a significant challenge, but it can also be an opportunity for both buyers and sellers.

Increasing Share of Voice. Your “share of voice” represents the percent of impressions an advertiser receives as compared to all of their competitors. During flush times, increasing share of voice can be an expensive proposition, because advertisers need to outspend their competitors when rates are up and demand is high. But during a recession, buyers can spend less and still dominate a category. Translation: more impact for fewer dollars. But why should advertisers spend when their competitors are off the air? Because if they are planning on staying in business after the downturn, the impression they can make on consumers when they own the airtime in a category will be remembered for years to come. Advertising is an investment in an advertiser’s brand name and an economic downturn can be short term opportunity to dominate viewers’ attention while competitors retrench. Just because budgets are down, it doesn’t mean that viewers watch any less TV or that good advertising is any less memorable.

Spend smarter. In boom times, ineffective buying decisions can be overlooked because blanket broadcast buys will still deliver enough target ratings points to be effective. But during a downturn, clients are looking for ways to increase their efficiency and improve their targeting. Cable’s proven ability to deliver targeted audiences in a compatible environment gives the medium an advantage over less efficient media like broadcast TV and newspapers. LA interconnect Adlink touts this advantage by citing an Initiative Media study that shows viewers are more interested in advertising when it is placed in programming that mirrors the message in the ad. Instead of supplementing a bloated broadcast buy, cable can take the lead in lean times to help advertisers reach their most likely customers efficiently.

Less consumer confidence = more cable? Although consumer confidence and spending may by down, we still need to be entertained. TimeWarner CityCable VP Research Phyllis Leibert says cable is one place people turn when they need news and entertainment but don’t want to go out to movies or the theatre. “Viewing to ad supported cable is up 12 percent during the first week of the new broadcast season as compared to last year,” Leibert notes. Entertainment clients can take advantage of this consumer behavior by increasing their cable advertising to coax movie goers back to their regular routines.

Study your history, know your clients. Use this time to learn more about your clients’ business. Turn to new sources of information like the Harvard Business Review, Fast Company or Business 2.0 for case studies you can share with your clients about what works when business is slow. Jim Birschbach, a TCI local ad sales veteran and who now runs the recruiting firm Birschbach Recruitment, says now is the time to focus on your best clients and prove your value. “You need to build a stronger relationship in tough times with your top 20 advertisers to insure your share of dollars,” he says. If you can be there when your clients need you most, you can cement a relationship that can last a lifetime.

Get more out your research vendors and trade associations. Remember, they’re in the same boat as you -- this is an opportunity for vendors to prove their value. Ask them now for the free additional training they offered last year when you were too busy to take them up on it. Now is when they can earn their subscription fees and membership dues to show you innovative ways to use their information to meet these new challenges. 

Slow growth doesn’t mean no growth – even in the toughest of times, there is money being spent and new advertising being created. This is a chance to show how you can adapt to the times and prove the value of your product. ##

Dave Zornow is President/TNG Research, a media research consultancy and applications development company that works with media sellers and research providers.

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