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US ad spend to grow by 2.7 per cent: TNS
MUMBAI: Total US ad spending is expected to increase 2.6 per cent in 2007 to $153.7 billion, according to the full-year forecast released by TNS Media Intelligence which provides strategic advertising and marketing information.
This anticipated tepid gain is the smallest since the media economy emerged from its 2001 recession and follows estimated advertising spending growth of 3.8 per cent in 2006.
Ad expenditures are forecast to increase by just gain of 3.2 per cent in the second half, paralleling an expected late year uptick in overall economic activity.
TNS Media Intelligence president and CEO Steven Fredericks says, “Our outlook for 2007 is tempered by the absence of two biennial advertising events, the Olympics and federal elections, which tend to contribute an incremental 80-100 basis points to growth rates. More significant, we expect share of total ad spending will continue to shift away from the top 100 marketers, as media fragmentation enables more brands with smaller media budgets to participate in the market, while concurrently helping dampen media price inflation.
“Based on our forecast, 2007 is poised to be the third consecutive year in which the advertising sector more closely tracks growth in real GDP as opposed to its historical reference mark of nominal GDP. The forces driving this new pattern appear to be sustaining and there is little reason to believe a return to the old order will be forthcoming.”
Internet display advertising is expected to continue growing at double-digit rates in 2007 with syndication TV, outdoor and magazines also exceeding the overall market average. Network TV is projected to be almost flat versus 2006, while newspapers and spot TV are expected to experience outright declines in ad revenue.
MAM
‘You packed my parachute’: Avinash Kaul’s farewell salutes Network18’s unsung thousands
The outgoing chief’s LinkedIn post skips the boardroom tributes and goes straight to the security guards, drivers and office boys who kept the machine running
MUMBAI: Most farewell posts by senior media executives follow a familiar script: gratitude to leadership, a nod to the team, a hint of what lies ahead. Avinash Kaul’s is not that post.
Writing on LinkedIn on his last day at Network18 Media & Investments, where he spent nearly 12 years rising to chief executive, Kaul bypassed the boardroom entirely and directed his most heartfelt words at the people furthest from it: the security guard who greeted him before the building was fully awake, the fleet staff who drove him to airports at ungodly hours, the office assistants, the housekeeping teams, and the administrators who, as he put it, “held ten thousand invisible threads so the rest of us could look organised.”
“You packed my parachute,” he wrote. “Every day. Without fanfare, recognition, or ever asking for it.”
It was a striking note from a man who leaves behind a considerable operational record. Kaul joined Network18 managing three channels and exits with responsibility for 20, alongside a publishing business, a growing connected television footprint, and what he says is the highest revenue and highest channel share in the group’s history. He was quick to deflect the credit. “Not because of me. Because of 4,000 people who showed up, every day, in every department, across the country.”
To content teams across India, he issued a reminder that carries some weight given the pressures Indian news media currently faces. “Keep being custodians of trust for 700 million people. That is not a small thing. That is the whole thing.”
To colleagues in revenue and ratings who found him relentless and hard to satisfy, he was unapologetic but generous. “There was never a single moment of ill intent in my heart. Everything I pushed you towards came from one belief – that you were stronger than you knew, and I was not willing to let you settle for less than your real capability.” Those who believed him, he said, flew. Those who did not taught him to be a better communicator. He was grateful to both.
On what comes next, he offered a hint wrapped in metaphor. Something is being built, he said, prepared for “the way you pack a bag before a long climb. Not out of restlessness. Out of readiness.”
In a media landscape that rarely pauses to acknowledge the people who keep the lights on, it was, at the very least, a different kind of goodbye.
