A year after launching a new, more sophisticated form of auditing media buys in the U.S. marketplace, a leading U.K.-based media auditing firm has found some surprising differences in the way agencies buy media in the U.S. and the rest of the world. One of the most significant conclusions, says John Billett, founder of London-based Billetts, and its fledgling Media Performance Monitoring America unit, is that the "spread" in the costs of media buys in the U.S. is much greater than abroad, meaning there is a much wider gap in the prices paid by marketers and agencies. Other big findings include the fact that the size of a media-buying organization has little if anything to do with the prices they pay, and that multinational marketers appear to be embracing the practice of media auditing much faster than domestic U.S. advertisers. Billett, who competes in the U.S. with home-grown "media performance monitors" such as Media IQ who work with marketers and agencies to improve the performance of their media buys, says the business is growing, and that he also has launched a "nascent" business to monitor interactive and online media buys and plans to introduce a "print product" by the end of the year that would evaluate the performance of magazine ad buys. To date, he has worked with big multinational marketers such as Nissan, KFC, Sony, Ford and Unilever and their agencies on their national TV buys in the U.S. One "indigenous" U.S. advertiser to embrace the service is Ace Hardware. Billett says MPMA has found the gap in TV buying costs among the U.S. agencies he has evaluated is in the plus or minus 25 percent range, 10 percentage points higher than the European average of plus or minus 15 percent. "You might have thought that this has something to do with volume," he says, "but it does not. And I think this is the best news possible for media agencies. It says that it isn't simply about scale, but that strategy and negotiating skills do make a difference." Being "nimble," using negotiating skills, and being prepared to move TV advertising budgets around or shift them into other media, he says, is what influences prices more than the volume of ad budgets controlled by a media buyer. Billett says this revelation runs contrary to the trend toward consolidation of media buys into a handful of mega media agencies. "If this is true, why are agencies developing scale? My conclusion is that it's for their own benefit, not their clients," he charges. One reason he says the U.S. market has a bigger gap than Europe's media buys, is that the U.S. marketplace is an older and more mature TV advertising marketplace. That means marketers who came into the market at different points in time tend to pay markedly different CPMs. Mike Lotito, managing partner of Billetts rival Media IQ, says his firm has found even more significant pricing gaps among U.S. agencies. "The range is gigantic," says Lotito. "There are so many issues that come into what price you get, but if you look at the base of the advertiser and the type of category they're in, it makes sense." Lotito and Erwin Ephron, a consultant who is an investor in and advisor to MPMA, will share more insights about the U.S. TV advertising marketplace Thursday during MediaPost's Outfront Conference in New York. Meanwhile, Lotito says marketers are beginning to embrace the concept of performance monitoring, which goes well beyond price to evaluate the schedule, mix of ads, and the position of ads with in commercial pods, as are their agencies and the TV networks. "This is all about making TV work again - work the way it did 15 years ago when you could buy three spots and reach 90 percent of the country. People are beginning to understand that," he says.
Get ready, America, for the true harmonic convergence: Bravo is bringing former R&B star Bobby Brown together with the Dalai Lama. Okay, how about seeing Red Sox Centerfielder Johnny Damon with tinfoil in his hair as his long tresses get highlights! Or perhaps you would rather watch Richard Hatch, the winner of the first "Survivor," dunk "The Apprentice"'s Omarosa in a tank of water? These are just a few of the 30 new programs that will make their way to Bravo within the next few months, as the NBC Universal-owned cable network unveiled its upfront presentation Tuesday. At least five series will begin appearing this summer: "Sports Kids Moms & Dads," in which parents live vicariously through their athletic children; "Hidden Howie: The Private Life of a Public Nuisance," featuring the pranks of comedian Howie Mandel; "Kathy Griffin: My Life on The D-List," which looks at the offbeat comedienne's hapless attempts to rise above the D-List when even her agent won't return her calls; "Situation: Comedy," in which Sean Hayes (of NBC's "Will & Grace") supervises the pitches of potential sitcoms; and "Being Bobby Brown," a look inside the life of the former R&B star--and husband of Whitney Houston, although the show doesn't feature the fallen diva's check-in to rehab. Still, "Being Bobby Brown" does show the star getting some advice from the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan monk. Meanwhile, there are interesting twists for returning shows, such as "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," which has the fab five give makeovers to the entire Boston Red Sox team, while the players teach Carson (the "fashion expert") how to slide into home base like a pro. Network executives sought to downplay all the attention "Queer Eye" has gotten, insisting that it is known for more than just that hit show, which is in its second season. Thus, the network is previewing a significant amount of shows as it hopes to maintain "buzzworthyness." "The work 'buzz' is certainly overused," noted Lauren Zalaznick, the president of Bravo and Trio networks. "But that's what our programming is noted for." Zalaznick and other network execs also sought to highlight the network's attraction to upscale viewers. "You're going to hear this at every upfront you attend, but no one else can credibly make this claim: we are the number one network in terms of upscale viewers, in terms of people who earn over $75k annually, in terms of dual-income couples, in terms of people buying a second car," she said. "And we're going to launch about eight new series between now and Labor Day that will solidify that." The network touted other stats, such as noting that Bravo's viewership has more than doubled since 2003, and that the first quarter was its highest for every major demo. "Over half of Bravo's programming is original, which is unusual for a cable network," said Jeff Lucas, senior vice president, NBC Universal, cable entertainment sales, covering USA Network and Sci Fi Channel, in addition to Bravo. "I sleep very well at night, thinking about our upfront," he added. "We have a lot to offer advertisers, namely that more than 60 percent of Bravo's deals involve some kind of brand integration. Furthermore, look at our success in the scatter market. In the second quarter, Bravo averaged 10 percent increases in CPMs. We added 15 new advertisers and more than doubled our ad revenue." He declined to say what the precise figure for the network's revenues were. Some of the other shows currently in development for the 2005/06 season, which the network hopes will capture both buzz and upscale viewers, are "The Battle of the Network Reality Stars"--which brings together former reality stars and the celebrities who made the original "ABC Battle for the Network Stars" such as Adrienne Barbeau, who made the dunk tank famous back in the late 1970s. Another show, "The Real Housewives," allows a peek at jaded, lonely--albeit very wealthy--women in an actual gated community in Los Angeles.
Monster Worldwide, the parent of online classified site Monster.com, said Tuesday it is considering shedding its directional marketing business, which consists of a Yellow Pages advertising agency; direct marketing interactive business--including search engine optimization and management services; and direct response units. "Given our corporate strategy of focusing our energy and resources on growing the Monster franchise across key local, national, and global markets, we believe it is an appropriate time to evaluate strategic alternatives for our Directional Marketing business while considering what's in the best interests of our shareholders and other stakeholders," said company CEO Andrew J. McKelvey in a statement. Spokesman David Rosa added that the directional marketing business was "not a very good fit" with Monster's core job search business. "We looked at all of our companies across all of our services, to make sure that they were all feeding the monster, if you will." Monster's directional marketing arm accounted for 11 percent of the company's 2004 revenues, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although Monster's directional marketing businesses posted a $3.8 million profit last year, annual revenue decreased to $94.1 million, from $103.3 million 2003. The company attributed the loss to Yellow Pages directories closing--a trend it expected to continue through this year--and fewer Yellow Pages ad placements. Monster also reported Tuesday that first-quarter profits rose to 17 cents a share on total revenue of $246.9 million, up from 11 cents on revenue of $182.4 million a year ago.
As part of its plans to offer high-definition and video-on-demand programming through its fiber optic system by the second half of 2005, Verizon has struck a long-term affiliation agreement with Showtime Networks for its movie services. Verizon is currently building its fiber optic system in 14 states--Verizon currently has landline service in about 30 states--and is "talking to every cable network you can think of" in order to have programming ready, said Sharon Cohen-Hagar, a Verizon spokeswoman. The fiber optic system is called FiOS. Aside from Showtime, Verizon has similar agreements with Starz, A&E Networks, Discovery Networks, NBC Universal Cable, and others. Under the agreement with Showtime, Verizon will carry 11 Showtime Networks channels on Verizon FiOS TV when it launches later this year. The programming includes Showtime, and its The Movie Channel and Flix brands, plus high-definition and video-on-demand programming, she said. Verizon FiOS TV is positioning itself as an alternative to cable or satellite. But locking in cable nets is only the first step. "We still will have to obtain cable franchises and licenses before we can operate, but we're moving ahead and hope to have the programming available in selected markets"--Cohen-Hagar wouldn't say how many of the 14--"by year's end."
At least one marketer is cutting deals on its own in this year's upfront without the aid of a media buyer: software maker Ontra Presentations has signed on several broadcast and cable networks to use its video applications to make their pitch to advertisers and agencies. On Tuesday, Scripps Networks--the parent of cable nets HGTV, Food Network, DIY, and others--signed a deal with Ontra to help prepare its upfront presentation. The New York City-based software company has so far garnered business from ABC National Sales (one ad sales exec for the network, when asked to describe it, extolled the software as "Powerpoint on steroids"), NBC stations, Warner Brothers Domestic Television Distribution, FOX Broadcasting, Tribune Entertainment, and others. The selling point of Ontra's software is the ability to group videos together into a presentation that includes at least five different networks--something that Scripps' salespeople needed, said Jon Steinlauf, senior vice president of ad sales for Scripps. The software also stores and manages a library of slides representing each network, giving salespeople access to each network presentation of the Scripps Networks without additional training. "The Ontra presentation allows all of our salespeople to speak intelligently whether talking about the details of one program, network, or the value of working with Scripps in general," says Steinlauf. "With the Ontra Presentation, they can now cross-sell the networks, which translates into higher revenues for all of Scripps." James Ontra, Ontra's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement that "Powerpoint is a horse and buggy in comparison," and that the company was in the process of signing up additional networks.
Many years ago, I first suggested that the true promise and potential of digital media is intimacy. Accountability, I argued, could follow only in the wake of a willingness to engender and sustain one-to-one relationships, and intimacy would naturally emerge as the digital mamaloshen (mother tongue). Fade out. Fade in. More than a decade later, our reluctance to embrace intimacy finds us -- not surprisingly -- further removed from both real accountability and intimacy than ever before. We suddenly find ourselves compelled to compensate for the fact that our target audiences now flee our entreaties at every opportunity with marketing strategies designed essentially to overwhelm and obfuscate. What might have evolved as a cooperative relationship between marketers and consumers has evolved instead into a nasty and escalating game of cat and mouse. We became intoxicated with the massive narcotic power of our own technologies and media, and surrendered ourselves to them. Indeed, Marshall McLuhan's conclusion that the "medium is the message" describes the process of narcissistic narcosis, what happens when we become obsessed with our own images, and utterly absorbed by our own reflections. The narcotic effects of our obsessions with and addictions to media and the technologies that deliver them had predictable consequences, not least among them the ability to defer if not completely obliterate the emotional moment -- an essential function of all addictive behavior, and the pathological surrogate for emotional honesty. Gone with the emotional moment was the creative culture whose essential job was to invoke the emotional encounter and establish a co-conspiratorial intimacy based on mutual needs and desires, replaced instead by more technology designed to deliver more tonnage. We grew totally obsessed with our enhanced and vastly accelerated ability to deliver the message, at the expense of our ability to craft the message itself. Any entreaties to re-institutionalize the creative culture as the key to precipitating and engaging the emotional moment in the pursuit of intimacy will fall on deaf ears as long as we continue to sublimate the creative idea to the tyranny of ROI. There will be little room and even less demand for quality creative as long as our addictive response to functionally limitless bandwidth remains unchanged: Eat all you want, we'll make more. More, of course, is the only thing required of us by any addiction. Under the oppressive yoke of our addictions, we must work harder and longer with reduced expectations just to generate the same high. Once upon a time we could live with the uncertainty represented by the notion that advertising worked 50 percent of the time. Now, however, we find the fact that we know with absolute certainty that advertising doesn't work 99.8 percent of the time absolutely unbearable. Our response is classic addiction 101: Faster, smarter, better. Eat all you want, we'll make more. The result: millions of consumers and thousands of corporations spend billions of dollars just for the opportunity to escape their escape and turn us off. Millions of consumers and thousands of corporations have been hit over and over again from every conceivable angle -- and none have been touched in the process Enough is enough. If we're going to make the collective effort to reach out and touch someone thousands of times each and every day, we simply better have something more worthwhile to say, some message worth touching them with. Return on investment is a lousy and poor performing alternative to the real ROI: Return On Intimacy. What are your thoughts? Many thanks, as always, and best to you and yours... Please note: The Einstein's Corner discussion group at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/einsteinscorner/ is dedicated to exploring the adverse effects of our addictions to technology and media on the quality of our lives, both at work and at home. Please feel free to drop by and join the discussion.