A housing slump, writers’ strike and unstable national economy add up to slow growth for the Los Angeles advertising market in 2008, but campaign spending will ease the pain.

“After a down year in 2007, we project local TV will achieve another record year from political spending alone in 2008,” according to a forecast by the Southern California Broadcasters Association. “Newspaper will continue to decline in revenue. We project that radio will be hurt by drops in consumer spending, although radio should do well during political seasons.”

SCBA President Mary Beth Garber believes radio spending will be flat for 2008. “The one-two punch of the writers’ strike and lack of money from the housing sector really affects retail advertisers,” she said.

Nationally, experts predict ad spending will increase in the 3 percent to 4 percent range. Group M, a media buying agency, pegs it at 3.7 percent; while competitor Zenith Optimedia comes in high at 4.1 percent. Robert Coen, director of forecasting for agency Universal McCann, also goes with 3.7 percent, slightly better than Leland Westerfield, media stock analyst at BMO Capital Market, who foresees 3.6 percent.

“I expect L.A. will be slightly below the national average,” said Garber. “California won’t see a lot of the presidential money and those are huge dollars.”

Political elections and the Summer Olympics promise a good year for most U.S. broadcasters. Meanwhile, the SCBA predicts that local ballot initiatives such as the Indian gambling propositions will spend more money in California than any national campaign.

Also, the introduction of the Portable People Meter audience measurement system may destabilize the radio ad market, the association predicts, because ratings will vary from previous numbers. Arbitron Inc. plans to bring PPM technology to L.A. in October.

For most media, national spending should be flat in 2008, except for TV and the Internet. Television will be the major beneficiary of elections and Olympics, and Web advertising could grow by 20 percent or better.

Westerfield believes the automotive, home improvement and financial ad categories will suffer the most in 2008.

Bianchi Becomes Leader

ThinkLA, the local ad industry organization, will honor Carisa Bianchi as its 2007-08 Leader of the Year. The award recognizes Bianchi, president of TBWAChiatDay’s Los Angeles office, for her “creative thinking and innovation in marketing and media.”

Last year, Bianchi’s team won accounts for Pioneer, Washington Mutual and Procter & Gamble. Signings in 2006 include Visa, Sara Lee, Leap Frog and the Oscar awards show. During 2007, AdWeek named TBWAChiatDay its Global Agency Network of the Year.

Bianchi also heads TBWA’s Disruption Consultancy, a marketing think tank. An L.A. native, she has worked at ChiatDay for 17 years.

“Ultimately our reputation is in our work and Carisa has been behind some of the best work this agency has done,” said Lee Clow, chairman of TBWAWorldwide.

Bianchi will receive her trophy at a ThinkLA ceremony Feb. 21 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in downtown L.A.

Warfare Wins Online

StreetWise Concepts & Culture, an L.A.-based online agency specializing in the youth market, has won the Outstanding Achievement in Website Development Award from the Interactive Media Council. The winning work appears on the Charlie Oscar Delta community site, built to promote the Activision game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

StreetWise built Charlie Oscar Delta with a range of channels for customer participation, including user-generated content and a member reward system with prizes. Registered members of the site were connected to the Activision team and provided feedback during game development. Members also had access to perk videos, behind-the-scenes vignettes and trailers.

News & Notes

Bob Bloom, former chairman of Publicis Worldwide, will deliver the keynote address at the Southern California Chapter of the American Marketing Association’s yearly kickoff event. Bloom will discuss “Unconventional Approaches to Business Growth” on Jan. 17 at the Omni Hotel in Los Angeles. The Rubicon Project in West L.A. brokered 1.4 billion ad impressions during the first six weeks of its beta phase. More than 2,000 Web sites have signed up for the company’s automated access to multiple ad networks. It Girl Public Relations will introduce L.A. to a new basketball team. The Los Angeles Lightning is the newest franchise in the International Basketball League, which already has teams in China, Canada, and 20 U.S. cities. SnL Communications has added American Sporting Goods to its client roster. ASG apparel brands include Avia, Yukon and Apex. Public affairs shop Englander & Associates has made Ruben Gonzalez a partner. Gonzalez will continue to work with clients such as Westfield and the Los Angeles Hotel Association. Axiotron Inc. has retained Pollack PR Marketing Group to promote the Modbook, a pen-and-tablet interface for Apple’s Mac computer. L.A.-based AtomicOnline has recruited Mike Dodge as general manager. Atomic’s sites include CraveOnline for men, SheKnows for women and TeenCrunch for youth. Previously, Dodge was general manager of the real estate division at Internet Brands Inc. in El Segundo. Multicultural online agency Sensis has expanded its team with new Associate Creative Director Dan Peralta and Senior Designer Manaf Al-Naqeeb. Peralta comes from La Agencia de Orci in West L.A., while Al-Naqeeb comes from an architectural consulting firm in Kuwait.

Staff reporter Joel Russell can be reached at

[email protected]

, or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 237.