TiVo said Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with a marketing research firm that aims to gauge how its user base makes household purchasing decisions based on ad exposure. The deal is with TRA, and will meld TiVo audience research data with TRA's Media TRAnalytics service. TRA will use anonymous viewing data from the 1.7 million "stand-alone" TiVo subscribers--and then attempt to determine how that leads to purchasing decisions. The deal will merge aspects of TRAnalytics service with TiVo's Stop||Watch ratings service, a research product in which data is gleaned daily from a random sample of 20,000 TiVo household units on a second-by-second basis. TiVo and TRA said the deal "will accelerate TRA's stated goal of having 1 million households nationwide of anonymous single-source data (TV viewership associated with household purchase data.)" TRA says the combined data from TRA and TiVo will provide the most comprehensive universe of anonymous purchasing data and anonymous viewership data, which covers many television platforms--digital cable, analog cable, satellite and over-the-air television. The agreement--announced during the Advertising Research Foundation's measurement conference in New York--offers the prospect of determining whether the TiVo-enabled option of fast-forwarding through ads affects purchasing behavior. The companies say the deal is the first of its kind--in which anonymous viewership, demographics and, most importantly, purchasing data will give marketers the ability to evaluate ROI of their media spend. In addition to TiVo, TRA has agreements with three major cable system operators. The company's goal is to produce the largest anonymous TV household sampling in the U.S.
The head of Mediaedge:cia's North American operations said Tuesday that packaged-goods and similar advertisers still have considerable work to do in figuring out the most effective use of the Internet. Lee Doyle, North American CEO, said at the Advertising Research Foundation audience measurement conference in New York that businesses in the transactional arena--the Amazons, the Expedias--have benefited the most from the Web. So have auto marketers, as people use the Internet to research extensively pre-purchase. But what he called "low interest" advertisers in the Internet arena have more research to do. It's unlikely, he said, that an individual will use the Web to research paper towels or other household goods. Those types of marketers, as a result, may only be spending 2% of their budgets on the Web, and continuing to rely on traditional avenues that have served them well over the years. "Low-interest advertisers are struggling in finding how to use the Web effectively," he said. In contrast, automakers and entertainment companies (because of public fascination with TV shows and films) are spending about 10% of their budgets online. Over time, Doyle said he expects the low-interest advertisers to spend more, but that is contingent on improved metrics that reveal more ROI insight. "I think they will spend more, but we need different metrics than we have now," he said. In addition to improved metrics, the boom in Internet video advertising may also persuade them to up their budgets--because video ads are the type of traditional media they have used effectively for decades. They know how to use it "as a persuasion tool," he said. In regard to online metrics, Doyle suggested that better data is needed to gauge effectiveness of the oldest form of Internet advertising: banners. The number of impressions, or simple exposure, is no longer an adequate measurement. A gauge involving engagement or impact is needed, he said. "We need better measures of those things, [so] that we can look across different channels," he added, to determine which media are most effective. Metrics need to be developed that more closely or "directly" align with "business results."
A top researcher in the digital future space offered an intriguing theory Tuesday as to why TV will continue to be a flourishing medium: the downfall of dial-up. The logic: when dial-up was the principal means of accessing the Internet, people spent more time away from the TV screen; now with broadband, they are spending more time in front of it. At the Advertising Research Foundation measurement conference in New York, Jeffrey Cole--director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future--said that prior to 2004, dial-up-powered computers in general were located outside of the central TV room, perhaps in an office. Back then, accessing the Internet was so time-consuming that people would generally log on and spend some 20 to 30 minutes per sitting. That took away from TV time, Cole said. Now, with broadband "always on," the computer is usually located in the central TV area. People log on and off frequently--perhaps up to 50 times a day--for mere minutes at a time. They want the computer where they are spending so much time: the lead television area, the den, the family room, etc. Cole's conclusion: "In the broadband era, the Internet (is) no threat to television." He said that television, defined broadly as content on multiple screens, will continue to thrive. TV, he said, will "be a constant companion." Disputing theories that people will not watch lengthy content on their small mobile screens, he said 30- and 60-minute shows will grow in popularity there, with people either watching all at once or in parts. Sitting in airports whiling away time is an ideal venue for mobile screening. In his address at the event, Cole also suggested that newspapers will thrive in the Internet era. Bucking convention, he said the Internet is a gift for the industry. As a result of the Web's growth, he said newspapers are now back in the breaking news business. Internet speed is forcing them to post information immediately--particularly in the sports and financial arenas. This drives repeat Web traffic and potentially more exposure to advertising, compared to the traditional one-time-only exposure in the morning. Newspapers, he said, have "the greatest opportunity they've ever faced." Before, they couldn't compete as well with the immediacy of CNN or ESPN. Now, the Web's speed offers that opportunity, he said.
Paul Smurl has been named vice president of advertising at The New York Times, the newspaper's publishers announced earlier this week. He will lead sales development, agency relations and presentations, strategy and planning. He will report to Denise Warren, the senior vice president of advertising for the NYT Media Group. The promotion gives Smurl--previously the executive director for strategy and planning--a difficult task: Shoring up the paper's ad revenues at a time when big metro dailies are seeing advertisers flocking to the Internet. While better positioned than many regional dailies, The New York Times has not been immune to the downdraft. In 2007, total ad revenues fell 4.7% compared to 2006, shedding over $100 million to end at about $2.05 billion. And the trend appears to be worsening, with ad revenues down 9.2% in the first quarter of 2008, followed by a 5.1% drop in April and 11.9% in May. Smurl's performance will be closely scrutinized by NYTCO management, which has itself come under intense pressure from shareholders to stem losses and increase digital ad revenues. In mid-March, the Ochs-Sulzberger family agreed to allow two candidates proposed by dissident shareholders from Harbinger Capital and Firebrand Partners to join the board of directors, increasing it from 13 to 15 members. The two investment groups had originally proposed four candidates to be elected by regular "Class A" shareholders. The Ochs-Sulzbergers own special "Class B" shares that allow them to elect nine board members, preserving their control of the company.
They say that in advertising, stand-up comedy and screenwriting you own nothing and nothing's original. Nowhere is that going to be more obvious than when grapes turn sour in a certain region of Southern France. At last week's Cannes Media Lions awards event, Volvo's interactive cinema marketing program--"Driving Game," via Nitro and MindShare--won a Bronze Lion in the "target audience" category. The in-cinema campaign, which ran last October, centered on a video game executed on a grand scale: the game was played by entire movie-house audiences in the UK to tout the Volvo XC70 SUV and support its "Life is Better Lived Together" global marketing mantra. In the game--called "CrowdGaming," by New York-based Brand Experience Lab (BEL), which developed it--audience members moved a virtual Volvo SUV onscreen by waving their arms in the air in unison. The game, which ran in 12 cinemas during showings of "Ratatouille," had audiences working together to earn points on a virtual driving course, with the audience with the most points getting free movie tickets. What a great way to tout Volvo, group-think and vehicles of the virtual kind. MindShare allegedly claims the idea to do this came from it, and MindShare's CEO allegedly sat on the board of the committee that gave MindShare the Lion nod. But the first ad-campaign use of the technology was via New York-based shop SS+K some half a year earlier for client MSNBC.com, per BEL and SS+K. The shop used CrowdGaming to launch MSNBC.com's NewsBreaker video game, wherein one can collect news stories for points. That campaign had audiences at the 2007 premiere of "Spiderman" in National Amusements theaters controlling a virtual paddle in a large-screen version of "NewsBreaker," a game resembling the '70s-era Atari staple "Breakout," wherein players eliminate descending bricks by directing the a bouncing ball. In MSNBC.com's game, when the bricks shattered, real-time headlines would emerge. The game first ran in the L.A. theater The Bridge: Cinema de Lux, and then for nine weeks in other markets. "We did develop it for use by agencies," says David Polinchock, chairman of BEL. "It had not been used that way before SS+K; they and MSNBC helped catapult it by being first to use it in cinemas." Says SS+K in a statement: "SS+K worked with BEL to create the first in-cinema game. The technology predated both campaigns but SS+K had the idea to apply it as an advertising vehicle in their campaign, and msnbc.com took the risk to make it a reality." MSNBC.com's agency also says MindShare/Nitro cribbed from the footage of its NewsBreaker campaign to pass as "Driving Game" audience footage: per SS+K, MindShare's entry for Cannes includes a screen shot from SS+K's NewsBreaker installation at Cinema de Lux, not from a UK theater audience driving the virtual Volvo. Calls to Group M, the parent company of MindShare, for comment were not returned Tuesday by press time.
Alcohol TV commercials are on the rise--and more young people are being exposed to them, especially on cable programs. Georgetown University's Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) says 12- to-20-year-olds witnessed nearly a 40% rise in alcohol messaging from 2001 to 2007. The group says exposure levels to these ads by young people are the highest since the group begin monitoring ads in 2001. But there is some progress--especially from one self-regulating approach from alcohol trade associations. Where 30% or more of a TV show's audience is made up of underage drinkers--under age 21--the group notes that the percentage of alcohol product ads on these programs has been trimmed to 6.3% in 2007 from 11% in 2003. The main problem is cable TV. In 2007, two-thirds, or 63%, of the alcohol ad placements--with more than 30% of its audience coming from young viewers--were on cable television. This generated 95% of youth overexposure to alcohol advertising on television. In 2007, 53% of these ads came from beer advertising and 41% from distilled spirits advertising. "The sad reality for kids and parents is that the alcohol industry's 30% standard is working on broadcast but not cable television," said CAMY executive director David Jernigan, in a release. The group recommends that alcohol companies move toward a 15% threshold for youth audiences in TV shows. The group says that in 2006 and 2007, there were no alcohol industry-funded "responsibility" messages about underage drinking on television. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth says 11 specific brands are responsible for 48.5 percent of the youth exposure to advertising. Those that exceed the 30% youth threshold are: Miller Lite, Corona Extra Beer, Coors Light, Hennessy Cognacs, Guinness, Samuel Adams, Bud Light, Smirnoff Vodkas, Disaronno Originale Amaretto, Miller Chill and Mike's beverages.
When I first heard him, I had long hair and a chip on my shoulder. The sacred store hadn't closed, and the music still played. He was hilarious. He was the wisest man in the world. He said: "The quality of our thoughts and ideas are only as good as the quality of our language." Later, I married, moved to the suburbs and became a Republican. But he didn't change. And although I wouldn't have believed it was possible, he was even funnier. He asked: "Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?" Eventually, I got divorced, came to my political senses, and moved to a two-bedroom at the foot of the Santa Monica Mountains. A year ago, I heard my son shrieking with laughter at a video he was playing on the laptop. It was the wisest man in the world again, giving a lecture on seven interesting words, mesmerizing another young punk. The magnificent old comic was just as funny and, alas, even more relevant than he had been 30 years before. He said: "I like to piss off any group that takes itself a little too seriously." His name was George Carlin, and he was one of the greatest social commentators this benighted nation has ever known. He was also the most extraordinary marketing critic we have ever seen. As far as I know, Carlin never took on the ad business per se. I never heard a Martin Sorrell bit, a fragmentation joke, a Crispin crack or a Nielsen riff. Still, Carlin knew the dark secret that lurks like an ulcer deep within every buyer, planner, art director, copywriter, vice president, cultural anthropologist, evangelist, user-experience specialist and media reporter. He pierced marketing's absurd pieties about serving a need. He made jokes about it. He said, "Only a nation of unenlightened half-wits would have taken this beautiful place and turned it into what it is today--a big, fucking shopping mall. They put the mini malls in between the major malls, and in between the mini malls they put the mini marts. And in between the mini marts you got the car lots, gas stations, muffler shops, laundry mats, cheap motels, strip joints and dirty bookstores. America the beautiful. One big transcontinental commercial cesspool." If Carlin were an ad guy, he'd write the most brilliant creative briefs you ever heard. About the dumbing down of our culture, Carlin warned that "pretty soon all you'll need to get into college is a fucking pencil." He knew that buying things is "the only true American value that's left." And about his country, he said, "I love this place. I love the freedoms we used to have." Jerry Seinfeld wrote in The New York Times yesterday that, "every comedian does a little George." I think we could all use a little George. Carlin, in fact, should be a subject of study in every marketing, advertising and media course in the country. Which, as he would probably phrase it, would just be the right fucking thing to do.