Coen on deck today

Back in December when he issued his ad spending forecast for 2008, Universal McCann Sr. VP and Director of Forecasting Bob Coen said “we don’t see a lot of high expectations.” Well, the US ad market hasn’t gotten better since then, but rather worse, so it’s pretty likely that Coen will be cutting his forecast numbers when he issues his mid-year update today. To recap, his forecast seven months ago was for total US ad spending will be up 3.7% this year.

He was then looking for local radio to be flat and national (spot & network combined) to be up 1% -- numbers that now appear to be overly optimistic, based on what the year has brought thus far. In TV, Coen had predicted that local would be up 4% and national spot 10%. With the bulk of election spending yet ahead, we’ll see how he feels about those numbers today.

Coen’s previous 2008 forecast is archived on RBR.com.