Most local media sales managers and account executives expect the healthcare, retail and automotive sectors to be strong for 2012. Broadcast television reps also anticipate an increase in political advertising this election year.

Westerville, OH February 08, 2012

88.2% of advertising sales managers are projecting increased revenue for 2012, according to the annual AdMall 2012 Local Advertising Sales Forecast.

Less than 12% of managers feel that they will be flat or down compared to 2011 sales – a notable improvement compared to 17.6% who said the same in mid-year 2011. By media type, the AdMall study shows cable and broadcast TV managers are among the most optimistic.

“Most local media sales managers and account executives expect the healthcare, retail and automotive sectors to be strong for 2012,“ said C. Lee Smith, President/CEO of AdMall. “Broadcast television reps logically anticipate an increase in political advertising during this election year. The real estate and recruitment advertising sectors continue to remain soft overall, as do expectations for revenue,” Smith said.

The AdMall study indicates 69.3% of media sales professionals are also now selling some form of digital advertising. However, when asked to grade their staff on nine facets of advertising sales, managers ranked their success at digital/online/mobile advertising sales last. Managers also revealed they are struggling to motivate their sales reps to sell differently in the changing advertising climate.

“To separate themselves from the vast number of competitors, media reps need to provide value to advertisers on every sales call,” Smith said. “Managers need to coach their teams on making more effective use of the sales tools at their disposal and helping advertisers make sense of all the digital audiences available.”

The use of smartphones and touchscreen tablets for advertising sales has increased 15.5% heading into 2012. Using apps like AdMall Mobile and other technology makes it easier for media reps to access consultative sales information about their advertisers’ businesses while out in the field.

AdMall conducted the study of 1,116 advertising sales personnel in November-December 2011 to analyze 2011 advertising sales-to-date and projections for the year ahead, as well as challenges faced in the industry.

Additional findings from this study will be available at the Media Sales Today blog and the Media Sales Professionals group on LinkedIn.

The full report will also be available at the AdMall booth at the Key Executives Mega Conference 2012 (Feb. 27-29) in San Antonio and the Borrell Associates Local Online Advertising Conference (March 21-22) in New York City.

ABOUT ADMALL
AdMall is the leading local sales development system for media advertising sales professionals. AdMall provides detailed business intelligence for over 460 business types, and audience intelligence for more than 500 audiences. More than 2,000 media properties nationwide arm their sales staffs with AdMall including television, cable, newspaper, online, direct response, out-of-home, radio, cinema and magazine.

Sales Development Services (SDS), Inc. - a Westerville, Ohio firm founded in 1989 - is the parent company for AdMall. SDS also provides Ad-ology Research, the Media Sales Basics training program, and the Media Sales Mobile smartphone app for iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry.