Paris-based Havas this morning announced healthy, but slower growth amid weakening global economic conditions, especially in the U.S.. Separately, the agency holding company announced a restructuring of its U.K. media assets, signaling a further consolidation of media services under the Havas Media brand. Total revenues rose only 1.8% during the first nine months of 2008, though Havas said organic revenues grew at a rate of 5.8% vs. the same period in 2007. Significant factors in the slowdown were a relatively high base of comparison with strong growth rates the preceding year, the loss of the Dell computer account in Asia, and "a drop in investment in North America," in the tourism, finance and health categories. "Third quarter growth in the United States was penalized by an exceptionally high basis for comparison in 2007 and by a significant reduction in advertising spend in certain sectors such as banking and tourism. These alone account for a 4 point fall in our organic growth in the zone," the company said. Havas is the parent of MPG and Havas Digital in the U.S. and similar media networks worldwide, and on Thursday announced a restructuring of its U.K. media operations that consolidates all its media operation units under the Havas Media brand. The move comes a little more than a year after Havas formed a similar Havas Media brand identity in France, and speculation is that it may ultimately make a similar move in the U.S. All of Havas' digital operations, including Media Contacts, currently operate under Havas Digital. The U.K. reorganization, which is effective immediately, was made to "drive deeper integration of traditional media planning and buying with a variety of disciplines such as digital, data, direct, sports and entertainment, experiential, branded content and PR," the company said. As part of the move, Havas named Lord Watson chairman, and Mark Craze CEO of Havas Media U.K.. Craze was managing partner at MPG U.K. Marc Mendoza, also currently a managing partner, will now assume full day-to-day control of MPG U.K., becoming CEO.
Omnicom Media Group continues to bulk up its senior management team, naming another industry heavyweight - former Aegis Media chief Mainardo do Nardis - as CEO of OMD Worldwide, filling a hole in Omnicom's media organization that has been open since February 2007 when Joe Uva left that post to become CEO of Spanish-language broadcaster Univision. In his new position, de Nardis, 47, will be based in New York and report to Daryl Simm, chairman-CEO of Omnicom Media Group. The appointment is effective first quarter of 2009, presumably when his non-compete with Aegis Group expires. An Italian native, de Nardis has been a player on the global media services scene for more than 20 years. Prior to Aegis Group, he was CEO of CIA (Chris Ingram Associates), which was acquired by WPP Group and merged with The Media Edge to form WPP's Mediaedge:cia network. The appointment comes six months after Omnicom recruited former Initiative star Alan Cohen to become CEO of OMD in the U.S., and subsequently raided a number of key senior initiative executives known for their innovation work. The move helps broaden and solidify Omnicom's media management structure, and alleviates some of the burden from OMG chief Simm who has had to help manage OMD's global operations since Uva left. Omnicom, meanwhile, still has something of a void in its other major media network, PHD, which lost its North American CEO Matt Seiler in July, when he was raided by Interpublic to become CEO of Universal McCann after former UM chief Nick Brien became head of Inerpublic's MediaBrands unit. Seiler had been in that role little more than a year, after succeeding Steve Grubbs in 2007 when Grubbs left to run Omnicom's Fuse Entertainment and Sports Group.
While TV bidding for the coming years of the Bowl Championship Series has already begun, this year's New Year's college football game event--mostly aired by Fox--is still a question mark in terms of advertising sales. "It's a tough time of year for most to advertise, right after the holidays, so the options for BCS are usually few," says one veteran media agency executive. "It will be worse this year. [Because] of the lack of financial [advertisers], it could be a rough year for the BCS." Right now, Fox's long-term multi-year deals account for 75% of its inventory--around 50 spots a game--which are sold. The games include the Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, and the BCS Championship Game. ABC airs the Rose Bowl contest, also part of the BCS series. Given the weakening TV ad marketplace, Fox might not garner much of a cost-per-thousand viewer [CPM] increase from advertisers for the remaining inventory. Last year, media executives say Fox charged up to $500,000 for a 30-second commercial in one of its three BCS games and up to $950,000 for a 30-second spot in the Allstate BCS Sugar Bowl championship game. A Fox spokesman says its big category of advertisers--automotives--have not asked for changes or cutbacks for their deals, although many struggling carmakers have backed out of other high-profile TV events. Auto agreements are four years in length and expire after next year--the same time that Fox's deal with the BCS ends. Fox's automotive makers' deals are with General Motors, Ford Motor, Chrysler, and Nissan Motors. Other advertisers that have multi-year deals include AT&T, title sponsor of the Cotton Bowl; Anheuser Busch; Taco Bell; DirecTV; Gatorade; Allstate Insurance, title sponsor of the Sugar Bowl; Tostitos, title sponsor of the Fiesta Bowl; and FedEx, title sponsor of the Orange Bowl and the 2009 BCS National Championship Game. Media executives say Fox is at a high sellout level right now because title game sponsors are required to make media buys in the other games as well. Still, with about two months, Fox still has a long way to go, according to one veteran media buyer. Fox would not discuss any other possible BCS deals. In addition to financials, another iffy category could be the movie studios that buy into big male-dominated sporting events during the first of the year. Since many films have pushed their opening dates farther into 2009, Fox and others may not have the benefit of that revenue. Although sports TV ad market deals are somewhat insulated from other TV advertising/programming deals, executives note that the general national TV scatter market has all but come to a stop, and that could affect possible BCS deals. TV ad inventory is wide open, and rates are about the same levels--or somewhat lower--as upfront program deals made last June. Reports say that Walt Disney's ESPN has made a $125 million-a-year bid for a four-year deal for the Fox portion of the BCS games. Currently, Fox pays an $82.5 million yearly rights fee, and has proposed a 25% increase to $102 million.
BET Networks has new programming leadership in place. A former MTV executive, Loretha Jones, and Stephen Hill, a BET vet, will share the same title: president of programming. Both will report to Debra L. Lee, the network CEO. Jones will be based in Los Angeles; Hill will remain in New York. Their duties are divided along creative lines. Jones is responsible for all original programming, news, development and acquisitions for the African-American-targeted network. Hill will handle all music programming and specials. Lee called the hires "the next step in our evolution." Before coming on board with BET, Jones, an attorney, was executive vice president of MTV Films/Paramount Pictures. Her TV-producing credits include the series "The Parent 'Hood" and "My Super Sweet 16." She also produced various films, including "The Meteor Man" and "The Five Heartbeats." Hill, considered a key executive in the music industry, was previously the executive vice president of music programming and talent at BET. He is in charge of production for several shows, including "106 & Park," "Rap City" and "The Deal." Prior to joining BET nine years ago, Hill worked at MTV. BET Networks, a division of Viacom, reaches more than 87 million households, according to Nielsen Media Research. It can be seen in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.
Looking to use existing mobile phones to measure and engage with other media, Publicis Groupe's VivaKi Ventures and mobile media company Mobile Discovery will form a new media research and management division. The Reston, Va.-based Mobile Discovery will provide its Connected Media Platform to the venture, where consumers can respond to media--print, out-of-home or broadcast--via their mobile phones. The companies say this provides a "digital return path." Advertisers can develop new media campaigns, and users can respond to ads and services. One catch: customers may get a related mobile ad or service coming back at them later. VivaKi Ventures, the Publicis division that looks to improve marketers' performance in digital markets, will make Mobile Discovery's CMP's technology available to all clients in its agency network, including Digitas, Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia and PhoneValley. "Mobile Discovery has a single, holistic, end-to-end solution that integrates multiple enabling technologies--think SMS, 2D barcodes, and image recognition--making them easily accessible and manageable for our agencies and their clients," said Tim Hanlon, executive vice president and managing director of VivaKi Ventures, in a statement. Mobile Discovery says using offline media, such as mobile phones, can help advertisers generate sales. David Miller, CEO of Mobile Discovery, said in a release that offline ads can trigger multimedia experiences, as well as providing real-time performance-based analytics based on consumer interactions.
Layoffs Grow, So Does Readership A lot of people have lost their jobs over the last month, and sadly, the publishing decimation continues. In the most recent round, National Geographic laid off 13 members of its staff, per Gawker, which first reported the news. Altogether, the publisher is planning cuts of 5% to 10% across the company. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, in the first three quarters of 2008, ad pages at National Geographic were up 0.5%; National Geographic Traveler was up 5.2%. However, National Geographic for Kids was down 42.7%. Also this week, The Economist Group said it would lay off about a dozen employees from its North American division; however, not all of these were from the magazine. Most of the layoffs are in the Economist Intelligence Unit, which handles business-to-business publishing. Through September, The Economist's ad pages are up 5.9%, per PIB. Past cuts include Conde Nast--which has undertaken to trim 5% of its total workforce, including an unknown number of positions at CondeNet, its digital arm. Rodale, publisher of Men's Health, said it would be cutting about 10% of its total workforce. Mansueto Ventures, publisher of Fast Company and Inc., laid off 20 employees and shut its digital division down entirely. Time Inc.--the world's largest magazine publishing company--said it would make as many as 600 job cuts, or about 6% of its work force. On Thursday, 15 positions at Entertainment Weekly were cut. Time Inc.'s Southern Progress Corp., which publishes Southern Living and Cooking Light, already laid off 30 employees or about 3% of the unit's work force. McGraw-Hill said it would cut 270 positions across the company--including 140 jobs at the Information and Media unit, which produces BusinessWeek, along with other B2B publications. McGraw-Hill did not specify how many of these cuts would affect BusinessWeek. American Express Publishing cut 22 jobs. Finally, Playboy Enterprises announced that it would cut 55 employees and eliminate 25 unfilled spots, for a total of 80 positions nixed. MRI Gives Magazines Some Good News Amid an otherwise desolate and discouraging month, the release of Mediamark Research and Intelligence's Fall 2008 data brought a much-needed piece of good news to many magazines, which saw their audiences grow. Although the increase in audience size was hardly universal, many magazines are gaining readers. Increases came across a broad spectrum of categories, including categories that are supposed to be suffering. Forbes, for example, enjoyed a 10% increase in its audience from full year 2007-2008--to just under 4.9 million--while Cooking Light saw its total audience increase 8% to just under 12 million. AARP the Magazine grew 8% to 32.8 million. Health grew from about 7.1 million to 7.8 million, a 9% increase. In Touch Weekly jumped 19% to about 6.5 million. Men's Fitness grew 16% to about 7.6 million, while competitor Men's Health rose a more modest 5% to 11.3 million. Real Simple jumped 14% to 7.1 million. Sue Launches Laughing in the face of the crumbling economy, a new magazine targeting female lawyers is launching. The wittily named Sue: For Women in Litigation is on schedule to hit the newsstands in January. The first issue carries a headline item, "If Women Wrote the Laws," along with teasers like "Girls Just Wanna Have Funds." There is also a list of the 10 most influential female litigators. Part of the magazine's mission is tearing down stereotypes about female lawyers, including the long-lived prejudice that women are not as aggressive in the courtroom as men. Tiger Oak Buys Washington CEO Minneapolis-based Tiger Oak is buying Washington CEO magazine, headquartered in Seattle, and plans to merge it with its Seattle Business magazine. Tiger Oak acquired Washington CEO from Sabey Corp., a real-estate firm also based in Chicago.
On Wednesday, the November sweeps lived up to its name as a big event/stunt TV period--at least for ABC. The network's "42nd Annual CMA Awards" pulled in a night-leading Nielsen preliminary 5.0 rating/13 share among 18-49 viewers, which ran for three hours in prime time. In addition, ABC was atop the leaderboard among 18-34 viewers with a 3.9/11. CBS was the next-best performer overall for the night with a 3.0/8, with "Criminal Minds" leading the way with a 3.8/10--up from a 3.5/9 a week before. "The New Adventures of Old Christine" (2.0/6), "Gary Unmarried" (2.1/5) and "CSI: New York" (3.1/8) more or less maintained levels versus a week ago. Fox was just behind CBS at a 2.9/8, with its best results coming from "Bones" at 8 p.m., with a 3.5/10. A repeat of "House" at 9 p.m. offered a 2.4/6. NBC suffered a bit. Struggling "Knight Rider" at 8 p.m. went a bit south--with a 1.5/4 against a 1.6/4--as did "Life," down to a 1.8/5 from a 2.0/5 a week ago. "Law & Order" was at the same level, a 2.2/6. Overall, NBC was behind Fox at a 1.9/5. CW offered up decent results again with its top show "America's Next Top Model" earning a 1.9/5 among 18-49 viewers and a 2.4/7 for its core 18-34 crowd. For the night, CW was in fourth place among 18-34 viewers, with a 1.7/5. Univision was tick above CW among 18-49 viewers at a 1.5/4, and a tick below the CW among 18-34 viewers, at a 1.6/4. Its best show of the night was "Fuego en la Sangre," earning a 1.9/5 among the 18-49 demographic.