BIA/Kelsey forecasts local ad spend on local media to decline from $155 billion to $144 billion in the 2008 to 2013 period with traditional media like radio, TV, newspapers taking the biggest hit. Growth will come in the digital, online and mobile ad segments. We’re advising traditional media companies to have a strong strategy with an integrated execution. By strong strategy we mean a plan that is well thought in terms of understanding your mission, resources and time frame. If you want to grow revenues, change won’t happen overnight. It will take training, metrics, management and milestones to assess progress. Integrated execution means having a sales team that has a deep understanding of the competitive marketplace because you will be competing against all media with digital, online and mobile offers not just your traditional category competitors, e.g., other radio or television stations. So your sales and marketing efforts must be driven by creative packaging of client-driven solutions.

It’s not enough to just have a web or mobile presence, it really is about having an overall strategy and how you execute on that strategy that determines “success” versus “also ran.”

We’ve got a great line-up of speakers at Winning Media Strategies 2009, May 20-22 in Washington, DC that will provide insights, information and case studies to help you develop your strategies and plan your integrated execution when you get back to work!

Tags: digital, Integrated Marketing, online, sales, Strategy, Web