Thou Shalt (or not) for 2016....

10.  Thou shalt audit media schedules… ensuring any media rebates are spent expeditiously.

9.  Thou shalt refer to “sales” in conversations regarding marketing… e.g.  “Advertising which drives our sales funnel.”

8.  Thou shalt not spend precious marketing budget on items which don’t drive revenue.  

7.  Thou shalt create compelling content which engages clients.

6.  Thou shalt create media spend plans before spending all marketing budgets on creative development… ensuring proper media levels can be achieved to reach thee lofty sales goals.

5.  Thou shalt actually measure sales activity associated with marketing… true sales/cash register ringing, etc.

4.  Thou shalt have open, honest communications with vendors and agencies.

3.  Thou shalt not spam customers with email.

2.  Thou shalt integrate marketing and communication tactics to create a marketing ecosystem.

1.  Thou shall put together a Marketing Strategy and Plan based on revenue goal attainment, measure and communicate results. 

Scott

2016 Predictions -- the Swami Speaks

1. TV costs will increase 20-25%  As it’s a political year, inventory will start getting tighter during the year.  In addition, the Olympics hit in the summer and that always plays havoc with inventory.  HINT:  lock in your TV inventory now, to avoid the high prices political ads will cause once the candidate pool becomes clearer. 
2. Agency rates will increase. 4-6%  This isn’t really anything new.. they always increase.  But as agency holding company’s are having a difficult time getting toppling growth, they’ll need to pressure top line growth.  Digital ad cost will also increase during the year due to the before-mentioned.
3. Recruitment of solid employees will be challenging.  News this past week shows unemployment is at the lowest rate in years.  The market is still extremely tight and company’s will find it difficult to recruit.
4. Company’s will look to drive more products to lower cost channels… ecommerce, inside sales, etc.  Driving every dollar of revenue will continue to be a focus.
5. Metrics will be pushed even further… All of the investment in Marketing Automation needs to pay off.  This will be the year the investment really starts to pay off.  If it doesn’t drive revenue it’s going to be scrutinized big time.
6. Authenticity will be a key focus.  Politics always shows the worse in people, so customers will be looking for company’s that are truly authentic in the sea of negativity… don’t get caught on the bad side of this situation.
7. PR will suffer.  Politics will make it difficult to get mass messages out into the marketplace.
8. Customer Service will be a differentiator… now more than ever.  
9. Marketing Operations will become a more important function within Marketing.  Keeping control of the marketing train will make this function that much more critical.
10. Budgets for the year will increase, albeit moderately.  Consumer spending seems to be on solid footing and company’s will want to capitalize.  But be aware as we head into the second half of the year… a recession might be looming. And if businesses get even a whiff of this, budgets will tighten and tighten quick.

Of course 50% of these will be wrong, but what the hell.

Scott

2016 Marketing Budgets -- a Few Tips

It’s baacckkkk… Marketing Budget Planning

Glistening Christmas lights, the smell of cookies in the oven, carolers singing the traditional holiday songs and the task of getting your marketing budgets done.  A few thoughts on budgeting.

1. Inflation — take it into account on production, agency fees, etc.  I usually figure about a 2% y/o/y increase.  Media inflation can be a wild card, but check with your agency on an estimate. 
2. Zero based budgeting — I like it.  It helps me apply the appropriate amount of marketing funding needed to reach the sales goals of each product.  In addition, it gets those nasty conversations you must have with business groups which won’t receive financial support before you get into the new fiscal year.
3. Cut the fat.  It’s the time to look at results and make the hard cuts.  If something isn’t working get rid of it.  Stop wasting precious financial capital.
4. Staffing — get your plan together early.  Do you need to upgrade talent, cut non-productive employees.  If so, ensure you’ve budgeted appropriately.
5. Run Rates — get those campaigns aligned and your budgets as well.  Nothing is worse than the decision to create a campaign, but not have the money to carry it out.
6. Capital — work with finance to understand your capital requirements.  Does this get charged to your budget?  Or is it paid out of a “pool” of funds at the corporate level?  Retiring capital investments sometimes helps the company’s financials.  Taking on a new capital project not only impacts capital finances but also operating expense.  Not everything can get charged to capital… so ensure you have the operating expense planned for as well.
7. International — work with finance to understand the impact currency rates will have on your budget.  If the US dollar can’t buy as many UK pounds, you’ll need to budget more to have the same media impact, etc.
8. Agency negotiations — if you’ll be negotiating a new contract… take a look at my post on contract negotiation.
9. Tracking — setup very detailed tracking of your dollars.  The amount spent of different  media types, how much goes internationally, how much you spend on campaigns, business units, fees, creative, etc.  It helps in understanding profitability of marketing and will help you plan for 2017 budgets.
10. Special initiatives — they will come out of left field, so build some buffer into the budget and understand where it sits.  Finance loves to pick at the “miscellaneous” budget line.

Good luck in the coming year.

Scott