Like most things online, so-called eBiz is hot again on Madison Avenue as advertisers and agencies push to convert the costly, labor-intensive, and still largely paper-based process of buying media into automated, electronic systems. So it was more than a little ironic last week when the American Association of Advertising Agencies convened representatives of the major media to update the ad industry on their progress and it turned out that the medium that is most error-prone and least able to trade online is, well, online. "From an eBiz standpoint, we're just not ready to tackle these things," Jeremy Fain, director of industry products for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, conceded to a tightly packed audience of advertisers, agencies and other media industry counterparts in a midtown Manhattan hotel conference room. Despite being pushed by the ad community, the Internet has yet to develop any of the crucial business rules or programming schemas for buying and selling online that Madison Avenue has been asking for, Fain said. In fact, a status report compiled by the AAAA, and listing nine essential steps necessary for eBiz, shows the Internet has achieved only one: the creation of "global definitions" and "headers" necessary for transacting business electronically. That puts the Internet on par with out-of-home, radio, and network TV as the least progressive eBiz trading partners. The most advanced are local TV stations, which, thanks to an early push by the Television Advertising Bureau, have achieved all nine criteria. "We've completed the schema," Abby Auerbach, executive vice president of the TVB, announced during the meeting. Thanks to a corresponding push by the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, national and local cable TV outlets are nearly as advanced, capable of rendering the most essential steps of media buys--proposals, orders and invoices--electronically and online. Even the most analog of all media--magazines and newspapers--have made greater eBiz strides than the Internet, and are now capable of at least taking orders electronically. That's got to be troubling news for online publishers, as marketers push their agencies to weed out labor-intensive, manual steps from their media buys, to make them more accurate and accountable than possible via paper-based trading. Greg Smith, global systems director at Universal McCann and co-chair of the AAAA's media technology committee, said such paper processing and human input drives up buying costs and also creates greater margins of error in media buys. "Why am I paying for this? Why do you have people re-keying in invoices?" Smith, said echoing the complaints from marketers, who themselves are under pressure from corporate management to weed out extraneous vendor costs. But perhaps even more worrisome than the manpower issue is the fact that the Internet currently has the worst "discrepancy" rates--the percentage of advertising buys that do not run as originally ordered-- of any major medium. The IAB's Fain confirmed that as much as 70 percent of online advertising buys are discrepant. That's even worse than the newspaper industry, said Paul Caluori, director of ad management services for the AP, who nonetheless conceded that the print medium still has a way to go before it is ready to comply with the ad industry's eBiz demands. The AAAA also unveiled plans for a so-called eBiz lab (MediaDailyNews, Jan. 16) to help various members of the media test and collaborate on tests to push developments forward. The association expects to update the industry on next steps during its annual Media Conference and Trade Show March 1-3 in Orlando.
SABMiller, South Africa-based brewer of Miller brand beers, announced that it was putting its $300 million account with Starcom MediaVest into review on Thursday, according to Peter Marino, a spokesman for SABMiller. Although the move caused some commotion in the media-buying world, it doesn't seem to be a sign of dissatisfaction with Starcom MediaVest's performance. "Starcom has been a partner of Miller's for nine years, but we're just reviewing that business to make sure we're getting the best value for our dollar," Marino explained. "This is just something that we do periodically as part of our 'best practices' policy." He went on to say that Starcom's is the latest in a methodical series of reviews of Miller's various business-to-business contracts. Nonetheless, media insiders speculated that Miller's review--to be led by Bob Brennan, a former Starcom executive, and Dave Genel, Miller's media director--may also have been inspired by similar account reviews following the disclosure of financial and potential legal problems within Interpublic Group of Companies, including late filing of financial statements required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Brennan and Genel were unavailable for comment, as were executives at Roth Associates, the consulting firm that will manage the review. Marino refused to disclose what other media buying firms might bid on the account alongside Starcom, but did say that Miller would use a "jump ball" approach, in which the company solicits proposals for specific upcoming projects.
In another effort to firmly split Viacom from CBS, CBS and Viacom's Nickelodeon have abandoned their seven-year-old "Nick on CBS" kids' Saturday morning programming block. Now CBS is starting up a new programming relationship with DIC Entertainment for a three-hour block of FCC-required programming, called "CBS's Secret Saturday Morning Slumber Party," for Fall 2006. DIC already runs a syndicated ad-hoc three-hour block of FCC programming, called "DIC Kids Network," on a number of stations, such as Tribune and Fox. Andy Heyward, chairman/CEO of DIC Entertainment, says the CBS programming deal will be a completely separate operation from its syndication business. Although he declined to disclose specifics, he did say it's similar to a revenue-sharing deal. "CBS is a participant," said Heyward. A CBS spokesman wouldn't comment about specifics of the deal. He added DIC would be selling the national advertising time, and run licensing and consumer products of the business. Currently, Tribune Entertainment sells the national advertising time in the DIC Kids Network. This is the latest in the line of networks looking to lease or sell off their Saturday morning kids' programming time. NBC does it with Discovery Channel. Fox Broadcasting Co. does it with 4Kids Entertainment. Media agency executives estimate that NBC gets $8 million from Discovery; Fox gets a larger fee--$25 million a year--from 4Kids Entertainment. DIC will program the three-hour block, half with new programming and half with library product. One new show, "Horseland," a young girl-skewing reality show, will start in the fall. DIC's animated library includes "Madeline," " Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego," "Sabrina: The Animated Series," "Strawberry Shortcake," "Liberty's Kids," "Trollz," "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century," "Archie's Weird Mysteries," "The Littles," "Inspector Gadget's Field Trip," and "Sonic Underground." DIC won't put its name on the new programming block--as other kids' program producers have done. "We are not going to put our brand on it," said Heyward. "DIC is not a consumer brand. Our show, 'Madeline,' for example, is a consumer brand." Programming analysts say it's likely that Nickelodeon bolted from the Saturday morning kids' programming block--once considered the most significant time period for kids viewers. Nickelodeon has been providing Nick Jr.' kids' shows to CBS, such as "Dora the Explorer." But Nickelodeon needed to produce extra episodes of its series to accommodate CBS. This added production costs to the cable network. One analyst said that at best, Nickelodeon might have broke even on the deal. Nickelodeon's executives didn't return phone calls by press time. While Nickelodeon had its name attached to the CBS Saturday morning block--"Nick on CBS"--analysts say that running programming on CBS did not substantially add to the value of the Nickelodeon brand. Nickelodeon is already a worldwide kids network with its own brand appeal. When Viacom and CBS became separate public companies on January 1, 2006, this freed up Nickelodeon to act more independently. In addition to DIC's syndicated programming network, DIC derives licensing revenues from its kids' shows. More recently, DIC also became the kids' licensing agent for McDonald's Corp.
In what is likely the shortest window ever for a first-run network TV hit, "American Idol" is already going into syndication. The first season of the show, dubbed "American Idol Rewind," has already been cleared on Tribune and Sinclair stations covering 55 percent of U.S. TV homes and nine of the top 10 markets. The announcement comes just as Fox has launched the fifth season of the ratings blockbuster, and follows a new report from Magna Global USA indicating that syndication launches have a negative impact on the ratings of first-run network shows (MediaDailyNews, Jan. 18). The weekly syndicated show will feature a combination of performances, results, and never-before-seen audition material. Tribune is looking for a double-run, where the same episode would run Saturday and Sunday some time between 4 and 7 P.M. Tribune will sell the advertising. A company representative said it was too early to determine what level of involvement major "Idol" sponsors Coke, Ford, and Cingular will have in the syndicated version. Since the show will be edited, it is possible their product placements could be tinkered with. On Tuesday, the fifth first-run season of "Idol" had its largest premiere ratings ever on Fox. Tribune and partners FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment are banking that the show's apparently still-growing popularity, first season idol Kelly Clarkson's success as a pop star since winning "Idol," and new audition footage will combine to make it a syndication hit even though the outcome is known. It appears that "Idol's" first season will air during the 2006-07 season--and if successful, successive seasons will move to syndication.
D-Day has finally arrived for the terrestrial radio business: D for digital. Radio's Big 3--Clear Channel Communications, CBS and Great Media--Thursday each said they flipped the digital switch in key markets throughout the United States. CBS began multicasting in 60 stations serving 17 markets nationwide--including Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia--while Clear Channel lit up 25 stations in five markets with multicasts, to be followed by 82 stations in 20 more markets over the next two weeks. For its part, Greater Media, which already multicasts in Detroit, lit up digital multicast stations in Boston and Philadelphia. To push the new multicasts, radio stations are reaching for traditional promotional tricks, including contests and HD radio set giveaways. Generally, consumers are expected to react positively to the arrival of their favorite obscure sub-genres of music and entertainment previously ignored by monolithic programming, and press releases from the big three also made much of the fact that the programming was commercial-free. Of course, radio insiders expressed skepticism that it will remain commercial-free. Dave Newmark of Bid4Spots, an online radio ad sales agency, said: "At the present time most of the HD channels are going on the air without ads, and there's nothing official that commercials will be put on any time soon. But I'm speculating that there are plans for making these into commercial environments in the near future, because terrestrial radio is championing itself as a no-fee alternative to satellite radio." The HD Digital Radio Alliance--composed of CBS, Clear Channel, Greater Media, and other big names--has indeed positioned the medium as a major competitor against satellite radio, offering the same quality audio and choice for no charge, and indicating that multicasts will have commercials sooner rather than later. Vicki Stearns of HD iBiquity, the company controlling digital radio technology, speculated: "At first they're going to be commercial-free, but I would guess they're going to come up with creative business plans some time in the next 18 months." Asked what direction radio advertising might take on the multicast channels, Stearns noted: "The underlying technology provided by iBiquity has a range of capabilities, including radio set text-display and even interactive 'buy button' type-stuff, so you'll be seeing all kinds of new stuff. It's really in the hands of the creative teams at the ad agencies and radio stations right now." Meanwhile, according to Newmark, multicasting is naturally appealing to advertisers: "It's very good news because it provides additional inventory and demographic and psychographic targetability for advertisers--provided that there are adequate measurement systems in place to identify demographic and psychographic information." On this last subject, still a point of contention between radio ratings measurement firms, Newmark cautioned: "That's still an open question."
PASADENA, CALIF.--UPN didn't offer much new programming news concerning regular scripted shows to TV critics here on Thursday. But President Dawn Ostroff did hint that the network may be working on the next wave in reality shows. The UPN chief said the network is working on an unscripted/scripted hybrid reality series for next season starring two former members of the boy band 'N Sync--Joey Fatone and Lance Bass. Ostroff said the show is kind of modern day "Odd Couple" effort, with the working title of "Out of Sync." Fatone will play an Oscar-like character, with Bass playing a Felix-like character. She also said the network is pursuing other reality shows--but more in the aspirational vein, like "America's Next Top Model." The little programming news UPN had to offer focused on "Top Model," which has been renewed for a seventh and eighth season. But other now stalwart UPN shows, "Everybody Hates Chris" and "Veronica Mars," have yet to get renewals for next year. "Everybody Hates Chris" has seen a ratings drop since its much-hyped September debut. But Ostroff said the network has always been "realistic" about where the show would settle. "Mars" ratings improved this season after the network moved the show to Wednesday night. UPN is in the middle of negotiating to keep its wrestling franchise, World Wrestling Entertainment's "Friday Night Smackdown," which has improved the network's young demos on the night following the show's move from Thursday. UPN also announced that two of its high-profile executive producers--Chris Rock and Will Smith--will direct episodes of their respective UPN series, "Everybody Hates Chris," and "All of Us," which will air later this season on UPN.
Toyota will make history Feb. 5 when it runs the first bilingual ad ever in the Super Bowl. The car maker will plug the new Camry Hybrid in a spot with both English and Spanish. The ad, featuring a Hispanic father and son, was created by Conill Advertising, Toyota's Hispanic agency. Although marketers such as Procter & Gamble have run Spanish-language ads on broadcast networks reaching general audiences before, a bilingual spot on advertising's biggest stage is a watershed. "I think it's a natural progression in a country that's so multicultural now," said Bernice Kanner, author of a book on Super Bowl advertising. "Clearly, it shows that Hispanics are a large market for the Camry." The Camry is the third most popular car in America among Hispanics, Toyota said. The company also said that 25 percent of Hispanics in the U.S. who are 18 and over watch the Super Bowl, this year on ABC. The hybrid uses both gas and electric power, which provided Toyota with a creative hook. In the 30-second spot--Toyota's first-ever bilingual ad--the father explains that the car switches between the two and his son replies, "Like you, with English and Spanish!" The father responds that speaking two languages and purchasing a hybrid are related: "I'm always thinking of your future."
What do you get when you ask senior advertising execs from the world's largest tech company, an old-line media conglomerate, a global telecoms firm, one of today's largest ad agencies, and one of the teeniest, to design the ad agency of the future? We were one of several breakout groups at the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) "What's Next" conference in December. Our "job" was to anticipate societal changes and invent a new type of ad agency to capitalize on them. What we came up with: the Connectioncy, a hypothetical firm that could: dramatically reduce the classic "Principal-Agent problem" that can occur in almost any situation where an owner hires an agent, goals are seldom fully aligned and information flow is often incomplete. This is exactly why our imaginary firm will not be an "agency." Generate always-on information-osmosis among advertiser, consumer, and media/publishing entities; and break down barriers between research and creative work. The hypothetical firm will not be housed in one tall building. The "offices" will be hundreds of connected street-level, walk-in, pop-up retail "stores" that look like a cross between a café and a Kinko's (with video, audio, photography and Web stations). The two-day ARF event in San Francisco was a conference in the true sense of the word. People conferred. The size was deliberately kept small (they held two similar events in New York and Chicago) and the sessions---heavy on intimate "breakout" sessions---were designed so that we could connect beyond talking "to" or being talked "to" from a dais. By being about talking "with," the conference itself inspired many of the elements of the Connectioncy. We brainstormed changes in society and industry such as: