• Wall Street Journal (paid subscription required), Monday, May 15, 2006 12 PM

A major packaged goods marketer has decided to avoid the annual TV network media buying frenzy known as the upfront in a move that is representative of the shifting balance of power in the advertising game. The company, Johnson & Johnson, which markets popular brands such as Tylenol and Neutrogena, says it wants to buy TV time on its own schedule, not that of the TV networks, and will wait to purchase spots until late summer when it fits the company's business-planning process. "What we found is, if we can synchronize our business-planning cycle [with buying media time] it will benefit the brand and that is what this is all about," says Kim Kadlec, Johnson & Johnson's chief media officer. The move is indicative in a shift of power from media sellers to advertisers, who have so many choices of where to spend their ad dollars they no longer have to rely on network television as much as in years past. In today's fast-growing digital communications age, marketers are reaching consumers in new ways by advertising on the Internet, on cell phones and on iPods. "It's a supply-and-demand issue," says Bill McOwen, executive vice president, director of broadcast at Havas' MPG. "With the maturation of cable and the digital realm, there are absolutely more choices today."

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