I’ve seen quite a few Request for Proposal for AdBuilders lately which is a good sign in these economic times. Advertising must go on and taking costs out of the process with an online AdBuilders is still a really good idea.
What surprises us the most is how few of the AdBuilder RFPs are requiring an Internet component. They want to have their dealers customize newspaper, radio, tv, direct mail and lots of other stuff which we’re glad to do but they don’t ask about microsites or local search or landing pages.
Here’s a recent study from TNS Media Intelligence that shows that U.S. ad spend is down 14.2% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to last year. You’ll see that every category is down except for the Internet.
Even local newspaper is down 25% yet brand managers continue to have a newspaper component in their AdBuilder but don’t have an Internet component.
I think it’s a lot like the way we say our military is built to fight the last war. Our AdBuilder requests are built for the way advertising used to be.
Brand managers who are smart enough to look forward and see how important the Internet is to local advertising will have a huge advantage over their competitors as will their dealers.
And, even though the RFP doesn’t ask for an Internet component, rest assured, we give them a strategy and the means to execute it.