Procter & Gamble says it wants to spice up its media planning, and just to prove it, it's smearing a little mustard on its mix. Actually, Mustard is the name of a new magazine aimed at mothers that the packaged goods giant has begun testing in the U.K. While other big consumer marketers have dabbled in custom publishing in the past, what makes P&G's new print stint so interesting is that it coincides with the company's efforts to zero-base its media strategies. It also comes at a time when four big media shops--incumbents MediaCom and Starcom MediaVest Group and contenders Carat and MPG--are coming down to the wire on P&G's coveted communications planning account, an assignment that could radically change the way the marketer uses media. How Mustard will ultimately fit into P&G's new media diet isn't exactly clear. Details of the title are still a bit sketchy. What is known is that P&G is partnering with U.K. publisher John Brown Citrus, and that an initial test issue was mailed out last week. It's being edited by Rachel Shattock, a former deputy editor of Cosmopolitan and She magazines. The big question is whether the new title will function as a custom pub to shill P&G brands, or whether it will be presented as an integral editorial product that will merely foster a relationship with P&G's customers to create a new environment for its brands. "We are always looking at developing new marketing tools to deepen the relationship with our consumers, and given the way that magazines engage with their readership, this is a communication channel that we are interested in testing," said Judith Russell, a P&G spokesperson. While the company declined to say whether the magazine is part of a larger push into the consumer publishing business, Russell confirmed that there are currently no plans to launch this magazine in the United States. "We are taking one step at a time," she said. Mustard will be delivered to some consumers at home, with 1 million additional copies being distributed via the Saturday Express starting May 29th. Print media mavens at some non-P&G shops say they are intrigued by the move, and think it may be a smart move. "My instinct is, a lot of branded publications have been slightly slanted, but P&G stands for a lot of good things," noted Steve Greenberger, senior vice president-director of print media at Zenith Media. "If it has usable information that helps make people's lives better, I think it's okay." Greenberger added that P&G's considerable research strength in the United States might make the company particularly well-suited to launch a U.S.-targeted magazine. "The question is how overly blatant it is," he said. "We have to wait and see what it looks like." Since little is known about Mustard, at this point any judgment may be premature, and several agency executives declined to comment. The new book may be no different than run-of-the-mill custom publishing, which has been a common practice by marketers for years. "This is nothing new," said Mike McHale, senior vice president-group media director at Optimedia. "There are lots of brands that have custom magazines." It's also not unheard of for brands to attempt to launch "objective" magazines. After tobacco manufacturers began withdrawing ad dollars from many consumer magazines a few years ago to avoid targeting younger readers, Phillip Morris began to publish lifestyle magazine Unlimited in conjunction with Hachette Filipacchi. In addition to Phillip Morris brands, Unlimited has featured ads from major brands such as Altoids and Maxwell House. Of course, P&G has been in the original content business for quite some time. The company is credited with inventing the soap opera back in the early days of radio and television. Procter & Gamble Productions, Inc. currently produces "Guiding Light," and once produced longtime soap "Another World."
With top-tier cable networks taking in about $1.5 billion in sales during the second week of their 2004-05 upfront negotiations, it's still unclear exactly when the broadcast network prime-time marketplace will break. Buyers and network executives said Thursday that agencies had submitted budgets for their clients to the networks, but it was likely that the plans won't go back to the agencies until next week, making it possible that the broadcast upfront breaks sometime late next week. One network executive who asked not to be identified said that there was still work to be done ahead of major deal-making. One buyer contacted by MediaDailyNews mostly concurred, possibly anticipating a three-day weekend for Memorial Day. "That could change if one of them [the networks] panics and gets a sense that there might not be enough for them and starts it early," this buyer said. "Everything else is taking on a slower, more methodical pace. Not that the cable networks were insanely hectic, but they obviously moved a lot more readily." Many of the cable networks have been selling time since last week at what is an earlier and faster pace than the past two years, when the broadcast upfront jumped out of the gate first. This time cable's in the driver's seat, at least until the Big Four have their engines started. One cable executive estimated $1.5 billion in business has been written so far on cable. "We're really almost finished with where we wanted to be in the upfront," said a cable executive. Several cable networks said things were progressing smoothly, and much more rapidly than in the recent past. The bulk of the cable upfront could be finished within the next several weeks. "The marketplace is really starting to move now," said Steve Gigliotti, executive vice president of ad sales for Scripps Networks, which own HGTV, Food Network, and other channels. "We've written several deals already, ranging in volume from 30 percent larger to two times over last year's numbers." He estimates an average CPM increase in the high teens. "There's a lot of enthusiasm for cable in general, and specifically for the more targeted networks such as Scripps Networks," he said. "Clearly, the agencies are recognizing the important of audience engagement. I say that because we are attracting non-endemic advertisers as well as endemic advertisers, and they are willing to pay a premium rate to be on our networks. That's very gratifying." The question left unanswered is what kind of upfront the broadcast networks are going to have. "Broadcast hasn't moved, so no one has seen the kind of money that is out there," said one ad sales executive who asked not to be named. "There's money going to the top-tiered cable networks. The big question is, is it broadcast money that shifted, is it all the new money that was going to cable ...? Nobody knows."
Buoyed by an uptick in political advertising and a generally better economy, local TV and radio saw strong gains in the first quarter that seem to have carried into April. This week, both the Television Bureau of Advertising and the Radio Advertising Bureau reported strong year-over-year comparisons to the year before. A year ago, both local media were struggling with up-and-down ad revenues and--for radio in particular--a tough March and April, as the war in Iraq chilled advertisers. While both recovered for a time, the fourth quarter wasn't anything to write home about, and the first quarter was predicted to be weaker than the rest of 2004. Local broadcast television's ad revenues rose 8.7 percent--from $3.7 billion in the first quarter of 2003 to $4.06 billion this year, according to CMR data of spot data in 100 markets released by the TVB. CMR said that television was strong overall, with a 10.4 percent rise in network TV and a 16.7 percent increase in syndicated TV ad revenues. While there's no doubt that spot television has--and will continue to--benefit from advertising connected to this year's political campaigns, TVB President Christopher Rohrs says that it's not the whole story. CMR estimated that campaign-ad spending accounted for only $64 million of the $323 million of the first-quarter increase. "We love the political dollars, of course--and they're definitely part of the story in this year's growth--but it's [only] 20 percent," Rohrs says. That's an important distinction, since local TV is susceptible to a two-year cycle in which stations roll in the dough almost every second year, when there's plenty of election- and Olympic-related advertising. The highs of those years become incredibly difficult comps in the odd-numbered years like 2003--and, looking ahead, 2005. But the non-political strength this year might make it easier next year. In local television, the automotive category remains strong. That's not only factory, but also dealer associations and individual dealers, where total spending was up 14.8 percent. During the quarter, three big automakers increased their spot advertising, increasing market share at the same time. Things continued to flow positively for the radio industry, which had seen its share of knocks last year and even into this year. But April's revenues rose 4 percent overall, with a 4 percent increase in local revenues and a 6 percent rise in national sales as well. Year-to-date, radio's revenues are up 4 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Local revenues are up 4 percent, while national ad revenues--which are about 20 percent of the total--were up 2 percent.