While the accounting scandal at Aegis Group’s Posterscope USA is being reported widely now, in the wake of the arrests of the two former executives allegedly behind it, Aegis discovered that something was amiss back in 2009. That's when it recognized five years of overstated revenues and profits for the division in its annual report for that year, the company said Wednesday. But the legal pursuit of the alleged perpetrators of the scheme -- former Posterscope USA President Todd Hansen and company financial director James Buckley -- was just beginning. After it had uncovered the irregularities, Aegis went to U.S. authorities. “This prosecution was sought and initiated by Aegis, and the evidence was provided by Aegis to U.S. prosecutors as we do not treat such matters lightly,” an Aegis Group spokeswoman explained. The U.S. Attorney for Manhattan and the Federal Bureau of Investigation jointly carried out the criminal investigation that culminated in the arrests and charges against Hansen and Buckley two weeks ago. The government alleges that the pair systematically overstated revenues and profits at Posterscope USA to meet performance goals that would guarantee them certain salary and bonus levels. “We will not have to reissue any financial statements,” the spokeswoman added. “This matter was dealt with for accounting purposes in 2009 [and] there are no further outstanding implications for the business going forward, financial or otherwise.” Indeed, a reader of the company’s 2009 annual report, issued in late April of 2010 (one month after a press release was issued detailing 2009 financial results) would have come across a sidebar with a few sentences noting that an internal “comprehensive investigation” into Posterscope USA’s accounting practices concluded that unnamed “former senior managers” at the unit had “improperly reported over-stated revenues and profits between 2004 and 2008….this has been reversed in full through underlying revenue in 2009.” Both Hansen and Buckley left the company “of their own volition” while the investigation was ongoing, the spokeswoman confirmed. The company’s annual report indicated that the internal investigation was launched by the then-new regional management team put in place in North America. That team is headed by Nigel Morris, who was named North American CEO of Ageis Media North America in May of 2009. He has declined to comment on the matter. The criminal trial of Hansen and Buckley will be held at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Earlier this week, Hansen’s lawyer William Portanova confirmed that Hansen had been arrested in California, where he resides, and was released on his own recognizance. Portanova said Hansen would appear at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to formally enter a not guilty plea within the next week. Buckley’s lawyer, Jennifer Brown, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Buckley resides in New Jersey. Both of the former Posterscope executives were charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud. Hansen was charged with an additional count of mail fraud. Each count carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.
For the holiday season-to-date, consumers have spent $9.7 billion online -- marking a year-over-year growth rate of 14%,” according to new comScore data, said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. During the first 20 days of the season -- which began on November 1 -- daily online spending peaked on Wednesday, Nov. 16, at $688 million, comScore reports. “With the persistent backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty and continued high unemployment, consumers appear to be increasingly favoring the online benefits of convenience and lower prices,” Fulgoni notes. “Based on the expectation that these positive spending trends will continue for the season, this year promises to be a Merry Christmas indeed for online retailers.” For the entire 2011 holiday season -- from Nov. 1 through Dec.31 -- domestic online retail spending will reach $37.6 billion, representing a 15% year-over-year gain, comScore predicts. What’s more, such a gain would represent a nice improvement over last season’s 12% year-over-year increase. “Due to the strength leading up to and during the holiday season-to-date, comScore’s statistical models are forecasting that U.S. retail e-commerce spending will grow at a rate of 15% versus last year,” Fulgoni said. “These projected growth rates reflect the significant channel shift we’re witnessing from offline retail as an increasing number of consumers rely on the online channel for initial browsing, price comparisons and completing transactions. With this continued momentum, comScore anticipates nearly $38 billion in online consumer spending during the November and December time period.” Alongside its reporting of behaviorally monitored e-commerce spending, comScore said it is also conducting regular surveys of approximately 1,000 consumers to determine attitudes and sentiment in regard to the holiday shopping season. In the most recent survey, conducted during November 17-21, 2011, consumers indicated that they believe retailers’ promotional activity for the early part of the season has increased in relation to last year. Specifically, 33% of respondents indicated that they are seeing more discounts, sales and promotions versus last year compared to just 7% who said there were less. As with past years, one of the more prominent incentives for online purchases remains free shipping. When asked how important free shipping is for making an online purchase this holiday season, slightly more than three-quarters -- 76% -- of consumers indicated it was important, while 47% indicated they would abandon a purchase if they got to checkout and found that free shipping was not included. Furthermore, comScore behavioral data indicated that 40% of retail e-commerce purchases in the third quarter of the year included free shipping, while that percentage peaked in the fourth quarter of last year at 49%.
Through nine weeks of the new season -- and heading into the holiday season lull of repeats and specials -- Fox is still the leading network among key 18-49 viewers. The network, which has boosted its fall fortunes with new shows “New Girl” and “The X Factor," is averaging a Nielsen 3.0 rating among 18-49 viewers (3.89 million), from Sept. 19 through Nov. 20. CBS is next, at a 2.8 rating (3.63 million). CBS credits more dominating performances from its Monday night lineup, including a revived “Two and a Half Men” (a 6.3 average rating, so far) and a new entry “2 Broke Girls," with a 4.8 rating, the best among new shows, as well as other areas. ABC sits in third place, with a 2.5 rating (3.14 million) among 18-49 viewers. Many of its older shows have seen a decline in viewers, including its once top-rated “Dancing with the Stars." “Modern Family” remains strong among the top prime-time shows, with a 5.7 rating so far. One surprise program -- new fantasy series “Once Upon a Time" -- after four episodes is at a big 3.9 rating, the second-best-rated show on the network. NBC is next at a 2.4 rating (3.11 million). Its “Sunday Night Football” continues to the top-ranked prime-time show, with a massive 7.9 rating. But the rest of its schedule continues to suffer. “The Office” is its next-best effort at a 3.0 rating -- down in viewers from a year ago. NBC has top-rated “The Voice” returning in mid-season, and highly touted musical-based drama “Smash” starting up. CW sits at a 0.7 rating among 18-49 (934,000 viewers). In an effort to slowly build the network, it has renewed almost all its new shows -- including “Secret Circle, “Ringer,” and “Hart of Dixie." All the network’s median ages are generally getting older. Among the big four networks, Fox remains the youngest -- generally a favorable metric for most national TV advertisers, at 47 years old. NBC is next at 48.8, followed by ABC at 53.6 and CBS at 55.6. Although still struggling in terms of overall numbers of viewers in particular demographics, CW still tallies a median age of 37.4.
Playboy is head and shoulders above other magazines when it comes to Facebook “likes," according to the latest data from MagazineRadar, which found 5,582,512 “likes” for the venerable cheesecake purveyor, compared to just 1,770,491 “likes” for Vogue and 1,345,104 for People. These disparities are especially interesting considering that Vogue and People have audiences several times larger than Playboy. According to the latest audience figures from GfK MRI, in mid-2011 People had 42.9 million readers and Vogue had 11.5 million, versus 6.11 million for Playboy. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, in the first half of 2011 Playboy had total paid and verified circulation of 1,509,982, compared to 3,556,753 for People and 1,248,121 for Vogue. Some of the other top magazine brands on Facebook, as measured by MagazineRadar, benefited from extensive brand presence on other media platforms, sometimes preceding the magazine itself: Food Network Magazine had 2,172,187 likes, and Cooking With Paula Deen had 1,569,655. Further down the list, Cosmopolitan had 1,207,509 “likes,” Seventeen had 1,084,625, and Reader’s Digest had 1,007,259. Teen Vogue had 944,945 and The Economist had 879,941. Magazine-branded social media platforms reach over one in 10 American adults, according to Affinity’s most recent American Magazine Study, which found that 27.4 million consumers -- or 12.4% of the country's adult population -- access a magazine-branded social media site every month through computers or mobile devices. What's more, these consumers visited an average of three different magazine social platforms per month. Of 170 magazines tracked by Affinity's AMS, 23 are attracting over one million visitors per month through their combined social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and other social media destinations. Glamour Publisher Wagenheim Exits Jason Wagenheim is stepping down as publisher of Glamour after less than three months on the job, but will continue to work at Conde Nast in another capacity, according to the company. He is being replaced by Bill Wackermann, who previously served as publisher of the title from 2004 until September of this year, when he was promoted to executive vice president and publishing director with responsibility for Glamour, Brides, W, Details and Bon Appetit. The latest move returns him to direct oversight of Glamour, although he still retains oversight of Bon Appetit, Details and W.Peyser to Editor, Budget Travel Marc Peyser has been promoted from former deputy editor for Budget Travel to editor of the publication. News of his promotion comes close on the heels of the magazine winning the Society of American Travel Writers’ Lowell Thomas Award for Best Travel Magazine. Peyser left his longtime position as senior culture editor in Newsweek for Budget Travel in February, following Newsweek’s rocky, high-profile merger with The Daily Beast. MyRecipes.com Launches Dessert App MyRecipes.com, the Time Inc. Lifestyle Group’s digital food and recipe portal, has launched its first app, MyRecipes Daily Indulgence, which is available for $3.99 on the iPad. The app offers over 400 recipes across seven dessert categories: cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pies, frozen treats, holiday goodies and low-sugar treats, with how-to videos delivering step-by-step instructions, and test kitchen notes providing additional advice on preparing and presenting desserts.
Maybe the NFL has become so popular that people are increasingly turning the TV on longer before kickoff. Maybe the economy has been such a turkey that people need some good cheer. That may explain why ratings for the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade have been rising, up in 2010 for the third year in a row, while total combined viewership on the two networks that carry it -- CBS and NBC -- were 12% above the event a decade before. Nielsen said total viewership has been fairly steady for the past two decades, hovering around 30 million. Macy’s has been the sponsor since 1924. Last year, viewership came in at 29.6 million, up from 28.9 million the year before. The high in the past 20 years was 1993, at 31.1 million. The percentage of 18-to-49 viewers has dropped slightly, comparing 1991 and 2010. In 1991, 38% of viewers were in the demo. Last year, it was 34%. In a world where young people are using so many devices, viewing is notably down among viewers 2 to 17 (27% to 19%) and those in the 18-to-34 segment (20% to 13%).
When CapCities acquired ABC back in the 1980s, CapCities’ CEO was asked about the new organization being bigger and better. As the story goes, the CEO’s reply was a classic. “Bigger isn’t better,” he said. “Better is better.” I’m especially mindful of that story as I see a rush to digital and watch a wave of consolidation in the media-buying software industry. The media-buying industry is rapidly evolving, and yet many agency systems providers are still struggling to keep legacy reporting systems up to date. Even as many media buyers rush to incorporate digital demands into campaigns, their systems often fall short of providing solid core offerings that can organize and manage the entire advertising roster, including traditional. This raises another concern: How can advertising be aligned with the times, if it is supported by old systems? Put another way, I see many system providers taking a Band-Aid approach. They want to say they offer digital and claim to understand the new media world, but struggle to find a place for digital in their legacy systems. Using Excel? Really? Some agencies have even abandoned systems and moved to Excel. Let’s be honest, Excel isn’t a digital system. There is no reporting, no security and no reliability. Because of this, account executives are incorrectly billing clients and organizing digital purchases because many are still utilizing programs (like Excel) for their buys. What gets lost in this data shuffle could spell long-term disaster for agencies that are working to stay current with new digital initiatives. It is a huge step back. Even if you take Excel out of the equation, many system providers are putting digital offerings on top of dated legacy buying/selling software. As technologies change, offering clients an antiquated system that still struggles with targeted, traditional advertising is not a "better." System providers need to truly lead rather than react. Where Are We Headed? My call to action is for the industry to truly be better. Meaning, those who are taking this piecemeal approach must start to challenge their systems to adapt with the changing times. Agencies need to do a little internal soul-searching and ask, “Am I really using the most up-to-date technologies? Am I accounting for our digital needs, while still not neglecting more traditional media? Does my staff have the proper support tools to efficiently buy digital? Am I giving our clients the best service and product?” For any agency CEO, the answer to these questions should be “yes," and that’s yes on overall quality in all areas. For the software providers, you have to do more than just shout out: “We’re digital. We’re big. We’ll build it, and you’ll come to us for client needs.” Forgive the baby boomer in me for the dated reference, but what was said 25 years ago is still true. Better is better. Period. Just ask your clients.