Automotive Advertising: The good news is the news could be worse

There's a great article in today's New York Times

It's one of the few articles I've seen discussing the advertising slowdown from the local/dealer perspective instead of from the manufacturer point of view:

Ads from automakers — running nationally and locally — fell 19 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared with a year earlier, according to research firm TNS Media Intelligence.

Ads from dealer associations fell 62 percent, while ads from the individual local dealers declined almost 40 percent.

Local traditional media — television, radio and newspapers — are more reliant on automotive advertising than any other medium. In 2008, TV stations got 23 percent of their total advertising from auto, followed by local newspapers at 17 percent and radio stations at 14 percent, according to a Sanford C. Bernstein & Company report released this month.

Terry Lancaster is the co-founder and a managing partner of Instant Events : Automotive Advertising which provides car dealers with Radio, TV and Print Advertising plus pre-packaged sales events with no long-term contracts and no media or sales commissions. You can reach him at 800-352-3305