The money comes quarterly

The annual media budget a plan is built on was never a sum of money. It was a forecast, and forecasts get released in pieces.

Sit in the controller's chair for an hour. There is no pot in an account somewhere holding the year's marketing money. There is a cash position visible about ninety days out, a collections pattern that slips by a fortnight whenever a large customer is having its own difficult quarter, a set of fixed commitments that must be paid whatever happens, and a board number that has to be landed. Against all of that, releasing a full year of discretionary spend in January would be negligence.

So it arrives in tranches. May is running on what was approved in April. July does not exist yet in the only sense that matters, which is that nobody has agreed to fund it.

The planner building a year is also right. Media, production and creators cannot be bought in three-week increments at a sensible price. Anything with a lead time, an annual deal, a studio slot, a promotional licence, a creator's calendar, is cheaper and better when it is committed early, and early means before the cash that pays for it has been collected.

Two correct positions, and the argument between them is usually conducted as though one side were being difficult.

What I have watched work is a plan written in two layers. The commitments that must be made early are named, costed and funded as their own conversation, with the reason attached. Everything else is planned against the quarter that has actually been released, and the year is held as a direction rather than a promise.

The team that does this stops being surprised in the sixth week of every quarter.