As the news of the 2,000th American soldier's death in Iraq hit the headlines, anti-war nonprofits have loosed ad campaigns to publicize the milestone, hoping to pressure the administration to make a drastic change to its war policy. Operation Truth, an online nonprofit started by an Iraq war veteran, this week is sponsoring a $150,000 ad buy, which will run for six days on CNN and Fox News Channel, as well as an online letters-to-the-editor writing campaign to push newspapers to keep the spotlight on casualties in Iraq. The TV spot depicts flag-draped coffins on their way home from Iraq, and asks if there isn't a better way to bring the troops home. Operation Truth prepared the ad ahead of time to take advantage of the news focus the 2,000th death would likely bring. "We had been talking about the 2,000 mark coming up before it happened," explained Eric Schmeltzer, who is consulting with the group. "We were hoping it would come later rather than sooner, but the organization needed to be prepared on what it had to say." Concurrent with the TV campaign, Operation Truth sent a mass e-mail to its list of roughly 40,000 members, urging them to come to the site and send a form letter to the editor of their newspaper of choice, calling on the paper to run daily casualty reports on their front page. "As we pass the grim milestone of 2,000 American casualties in Iraq, it is past time that this newspaper adequately honor our fallen troops by publishing their names on Page One," the letter reads. "It is an insult to America's troops to find the names of their fallen colleagues relegated to the back pages." According to Schmeltzer, roughly 1,650 letters were sent to 529 different newspapers as of last week. Although the ad campaign focuses on the 2,000th casualty milestone, Schmeltzer said the aim of the organization is to get the public, as well as the media, to focus on each death as much as the 2,000th. "The 2,000 milestone is something that's media created. The 1,999th death was no less important," he said. "But unfortunately, that's what happens with the media, and we need to change that." Left-wing PAC MoveOn.org also prepared a TV ad to run highlighting the 2,000th death, and is soliciting donations on their Web site to raise money to air the spot. Their ad features a plain wooden coffin surrounded by desert sands, and asks "how many more?" MoveOn.org did not return calls for comment.
In a surprisingly fast, but not wholly unexpected development, the iPod video has already emerged as a medium for conveying long-form TV ads, better known as infomercials. Last week, a group of users of print and online publishing software maker Adobe Systems' Photoshop software launched what may be the first iPod infomercial, a half-hour guided tour of Adobe's Photoshop dubbed "Photoshop TV." The video podcast, sponsored and distributed by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, was released on Oct. 24, and immediately began climbing the charts of Apple's iTunes podcasts to hit No. 2 on Oct. 28, leaving heavyweights such as National Public Radio, Al Franken, and ESPN in their dust. The video podcast drew more than 6,200 subscribers in its first 72 hours. The free video podcast offers viewers tutorials and quick tips for mastering Photoshop, as well as industry news and interviews involving the digital photo and imaging software. A second episode of "Photoshop TV" will be podcast today.
It's official: 2005 will be the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely." In particular, national advertising has under-performed, remaining essentially flat this year, as has the retail category, the report said--while classified, both print and online, has shown positive gains so far this year, up 4-5 percent. The weak ad environment for newspapers has caused Goldman to scale back its 2006 growth forecast to 3.5 percent from 4.0 percent. The note said national ad growth would once again be weakest at 1.0 percent, followed by retail, 2.5 percent, and classifieds at 3.6 percent. The bright spot continues to be online newspaper revenues, which are projected to grow an impressive 25 percent in 2006. Despite this, online will still represent 5.0 percent of total newspaper revenues. The only really good news for publishers is that the investment firm believes the cost of newsprint, which has risen recently, is likely to fall slightly in 2006, as demand falls more quickly than production capacity. The report said newsprint prices would peak and then slowly recede in the second half of the year. Even so, this good news is scant relief for an industry besieged by flat ad revenues, falling stocks, and fleeing subscribers. Last week, Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer for Publicis Groupe, told a newspaper--the Chicago Tribune--"newspapers are at a tipping point," in which online media will start to take more readership and more ad dollars. He added that newspapers are in the worst situation of all news media for growth as "the least visually engaging and least youth oriented" medium.
Not surprisingly, top cable networks have dramatically increased programming costs over the last five years--and they are projected to go up higher still, according to new estimates released last week by Kagan Research. For instance, ESPN--which spends the most on programming of any cable network--is expected to double costs by 2009, growing almost 14 percent per year for the next three years. Through 2009, Kagan expects the top ten networks to increase spending on programming at a rate of 5.5 percent annually. The greatest gainers since 2000 have been ESPN, Fox Sports Network, TNT, and USA Network. ESPN grew 68 percent from 2000 to 2004 to $25.90 per subscriber per year--the most of any cable network. In 2000, ESPN's number was $15.38. License program rights from sports leagues such as the NBA, Major League Baseball, and the NBA have been the major reason for the rise in ESPN's programming costs. Next on the list is another sports cable network, Fox Sports Network, whose numbers were $14.42 per sub/per year in 2004. In third place is TNT, at $9.27. While it is primarily a network that programs dramas and movies, it also airs high-priced NBA games--which contribute to its high number. The Kagan study says the average for the top ten networks is $7.78 per sub. But for all cable networks, the average is a lot lower--averaging $2.29 per subscriber per year. MTV Network has been on the low-end of programming budgets. It programs lots of reality shows, which are cheaper to produce than other cable networks' scripted programming and off-network programs. But Kagan feels all this is about to change. After ESPN, it expects MTV will have the greatest rise in programming per sub costs for the next three years at just over 10 percent per year. Other big spenders will include USA, TNT, and Fox Sports. Overall programming costs per sub for all cable networks have stayed essentially flat over the last five years. But Kagan says that will start rising--inching up over 3 percent annually--to reach an industry average of $2.69 per sub per year by 2009.
Hours after WPP Group Chairman-CEO Martin Sorrell told analysts that WPP and private equity firm Hellman & Friedman are still "mulling" a bid to take over Aegis Group, the Aegis board issued an advisory saying Europe's Takeover Panel has agreed to impose a deadline of 12:00 noon (GMT) on Nov. 25 for WPP and H&F to "announce a firm intention to make an offer for Aegis." Citing "rule 2.5" of the panel's code, Aegis stated that if an offer is not made by that date, WPP and H&F must "announce that they do not intend to make an offer for Aegis." The announcement follows a report by Reuters that WPP and H&F have been trying to extract more information from Aegis about its operations, especially the "volume discounts" obtained by Aegis media buying unit Carat in its negotiations with media on behalf of its clients. It's unclear whether the implication is that Carat has been deriving revenues based on those discounts, but it was such practices that originally got its French precursor agency Carat Espace in trouble with the French government before it was restructured as part of U.K.-based Aegis. In its statement, the Aegis board said that should WPP and H&F fail to make a bid by the deadline, they would be "bound" for six months by certain restrictions under the Takeover Panel's code. The new deadline comes as French financier and Havas Chairman Vincent Bollore continues amassing shares of Aegis stock, bringing his stake to 20.8 percent of the company. Bollore has indicated he would like to see Aegis remain independent, and does not have plans to force its merger with Havas, as some have speculated he might. Meanwhile, Havas' Media Planning Group unit won an important media account from Aegis' Vizeum unit. French food giant Danone Friday said MPG would handle its entire French media buying effective in 2006. The account had been split between Vizeum and Omnicom's OMD unit.
At the house of a family of four, three bodies were found, but the young daughter was missing--and Nick refused to give up on finding the little girl alive after he figured out that she left behind Bubblicious gum pieces as clues to her whereabouts in the October 20th installment of CBS' "CSI." That's just one of the featured product placements of the past week brought to you by MediaDailyNews and branded entertainment researcher iTVX. Other notable placements include the following: Model hopefuls took part in a commercial, photo shoot, and interview for Secret Platinum Clear Gel deodorant in the October 19th episode of UPN's "America's Next Top Model." The girl with the best picture will have their Secret ad in People magazine. Teams had to create a new salad dressing for Wish-Bone and sell it at a local Stew Leonard's store in the October 19th edition of NBC's "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart." Although only one team could win, both salad dressings are being sold for a limited time. The Donald had his apprentice hopefuls build a parade float that best evoked the spirit of Sony Pictures' new movie, "Zathura," in the October 20th installment of NBC's "The Apprentice." Two girls went off a bridge in their Mustang in the October 24th edition of CBS' "CSI: Miami." The girls walked away from the crash unscathed, but when a body was found, the case took on a whole new light that may take down one of the CSI team. Link back each Monday to see each week's fresh batch of top five branded deals. Click to view and evaluate placements.