General Motors has awarded its estimated $3.5 billion global media planning and buying account to Aegis Group's Carat, after a formal review that began in August, the carmaker confirmed Tuesday. Other contenders included the U.S. incumbent Starcom, Omnicom Media Group and Interpublic's Commenting on the award, GM's Global CMO Joel Ewanick said: "We wanted a media agency partner with the sophistication to leverage global marketing opportunities." He called Carat's approach "innovative" and able to "drive significant marketing value" that would align with with the company's global and regional brands. At Aegis, North American CEO Nigel Morris said the company has been focused for nearly two years on reinventing itself with a focus on “convergence and globalization. We went in [to the review] with a very seamlessly integrated solution.” Part of the challenge, he added, is providing “deep specialization without any silos” that is essential to making the model work. Morris said the win was a “defining moment for the market and doing things differently.” The shop’s strategy for GM is "consumer-led with digital at the heart of it.” Starcom, which has handled at least part of the North American business for a decade, issued a statement that read: "Naturally, we think GM is making a mistake. Over the years, we produced great work for this client and invested in our long-term partnership during difficult times. Today's news clearly saddens us, but we will get over it and apply our talent and global network to our next opportunity." Separately, Starcom parent Publicis Groupe indicated that the GM media business covered in the review represents “less than 0.5% of Publicis Groupe revenue on a full-year basis.” The holding company noted that the shift from Starcom to Carat in North America will not be completed until June 30. "Publicis Groupe will serve GM on other fronts,” the holding company stated, referencing creative assignments held by Publicis Groupe shops on GM business. Reps for IPG's Mediabrands and Omnicom Media Group did not immediately respond to queries for comment. GM spends an estimated $3.5 billion in ads worldwide and just over $2.1 billion in the U.S., according to Kantar Media. It's the first consolidation review the auto giant has conducted since 2005, when Publicis Group's GM Planworks, then a dedicated GM media planning unit, beat Interpublic’s MediaWorks, the GM buying incumbent at the time. In 2008, Planworks was folded into the operations of Starcom MediaVest Group, and then later, into Starcom completely. The review was not unexpected, given the arrival of Ewanick at the company in May of 2010 as head of U.S. marketing. In December he was promoted to global chief marketing officer. Ewanick and his team oversaw the review process internally, while outside consultant R3:JLB (the entity formed by the merger of R3 and Jones Lundin Beals last year) was hired to assist.
The U.S. advertising business slowed down at the end of 2011, and although MagnaGlobal expects growth to improve in 2012 -- up 3.7% -- it could be viewed as a weak performance. Much of the 2012 gain comes from the usual suspects -- a big political advertising year, as well as the marketing for the Summer Olympics. The media agency unit predicts U.S. advertising will land at $152.9 billion for 2012. Taking out political and Olympic advertising, MagnaGlobal says core media advertising revenues will climb by 2.0% in 2012, to $149.8 billion. That would be a slowdown compared to 2011’s core media growth of 4.5%. Advertising growth for the third quarter of 2011 was 2.3%, and slowed to 1.1% in the fourth quarter. This came after a robust 4.3% gain in the first six months of the year. Looking at core media revenues for 2011 -- but not direct marketing -- marketers' existing business was up 2.9% in 2011 to $147.4 billion. This is still 13% below pre-recession levels in 2007 when the business topped out at $168.7 billion. The biggest category -- broadcast television -- will gain from political and Olympic advertising, up 8.5% for the year. Total television -- cable, syndication, broadcast and local -- will grow by 6.8% to $62.4 billion. The biggest gainers in 2011 will also be the biggest in 2012: Internet marketing/advertising -- with a 10.9% gain in 2012, says MagnaGlobal. But this is down from the growth in 2011 of 21.4%. Specifically, paid search will grow 12.6%; online video, 22.4%; and mobile, 44.2%. Outdoor media will climb 4.0%. Declining categories for 2012 include: newspapers, off 6.0%; magazines, down 5.2%; and radio, losing a bit, 0.8%. Also on the losing end is direct marketing: directories' revenues will decline 19.1% and direct mail, 1.9%.
Building its network of sports enthusiasts, The USA Today Sports Media Group has acquired Fantasy Sports Ventures and its crown jewel Big Lead Sports. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it was rumored to be in the range of $30 million. USA Today parent Gannett Co. was already a minority shareholder of FSV, and said it elected to complete the purchase through the acquisition of FSV's assets. "This acquisition extends our reach and deepens our engagement with core sports audiences,” Dave Morgan, USA Today Sports Media Group's SVP of content and editor-in-chief, said Tuesday. "The Big Lead sites have done a great job developing unique, independent voices and distinct points of view." Formed in January 2011, USA Today Sports Media Group assets already include USATODAY.com/sports, along with digital outlets associated with 81 local Gannett newspapers, and 23 Gannett-owned broadcast television stations. In addition, the group includes HighSchoolSports.net; and the BNQT Media Group, which includes MMAjunkie.com. Founded in 2006 by former NFL digital chief Chris Russo, FSV has thrived by amassing a network of hundreds of small, independent sites focused on niche sports and topics. At last count, FSV were drawing in about 19 million unique visitors, according to Gannett, citing comScore data. Gannett says the combined property will place it into the top five of digital sports properties. Among other new additions to its network, Gannett is getting TheBigLead.com, a source of news and commentary across all sports; BaseballHQ.com, KFFL.com, TheHuddle.com, Baseball-Reference.com, HoopsWorld.com, and HoopsHype.com. Online, sports fare is hotter than ever. As big a sign as any, this year’s Super Bowl will be simulcast on NBCSports.com and NFL.com.
William Eccleshare has been promoted to CEO of Clear Channel Outdoor. Eccleshare comes to the top spot from his previous position as CEO of the international division. He takes over responsibility for the company’s domestic operations from Ron Cooper, currently CEO of the Americas division. Eccleshare served as CEO of Clear Channel International from 2009 to the present. Previously, he held senior positions in the advertising business, including chairman and CEO at BBDO EMEA; chairman of Young and Rubicam/Wunderman EMEA; chairman and CEO of Ammirati Puris Lintas for Northern Europe; global strategic planning director for J. Walter Thompson Worldwide; and CEO, PPGH/JWT Amsterdam. Eccleshare's appointment is the latest in a series of strategic moves under the leadership of Bob Pittman, who was named CEO of Clear Channel parent company CC Media Holdings in October. However, it is the first major change at the company's outdoor division. Several weeks ago, Clear Channel Radio was rebranded as Clear Channel Entertainment and Media. Close on the heels of that change, music industry veteran John Sykes was named president, Clear Channel Entertainment Enterprises. In this role, Sykes will be responsible for leading Clear Channel's push into TV and live events, as part of its ongoing effort to expand beyond broadcast radio and transform itself into a multiplatform digital content company. Indeed, big changes were afoot even before the re-branding, including the creation of a new national programming platform team and new brand management team. Both are expected to exert more centralized control over formats and content at the company’s radio properties.
David Kenny has been named chairman, CEO of the Weather Channel Companies. He is charged with growing The Weather Channel both in the U.S. and abroad. The Weather Channel properties reach 163 million people through multiple platforms: 62 million unique online users each month and 11 million per day. The Weather Channel also reaches 33 million monthly unique users through its mobile platform and 94 million monthly cable viewers. Kenny succeeds Mike Kelly, who joined the company as president and CEO in 2009. Kelly will serve as a special adviser to the CEO and the board of directors of TWCC. In addition, he has been named an adviser to Bain Capital, part of the consortium, along with The Weather Channel Cos., Blackstone Group and NBC Universal, which own the company. Previously, Kenny was president of Akamai, the cloud platform. Before that, he served as managing partner of VivaKi, the digital arm of Publicis Groupe, and was CEO at Digitas. Kenny stated that he joined his new concern “because weather is fascinating.” The consortium added that Kenny had the “experience and vision to drive global initiatives across all platforms.” Based in Atlanta, TWCC operates The Weather Channel cable network, digital properties and WSI. It also runs Weatherscan, a 24-hour all-local weather network; The Weather Channel Radio Network; and The Weather Channel HD.
Meredith Corp. is continuing its buying spree with its acquisition of digital food site Allrecipes.com from The Reader’s Digest Association, significantly boosting Meredith’s digital reach among the female audience. The transaction was valued at $175 million, and is expected to close later this quarter. The acquisition of Allrecipes.com should more than double the audience of the Meredith Women’s Network, to around 40 million unique visitors per month, according to the company, and should also double its advertising revenues. The platform’s mobile apps have been downloaded by over 11 million consumers, and it also hosts the top food channel on YouTube. According to Meredith, Allrecipes.com’s U.S. audience is 70% female, with a mean household income of $73,000 -- and includes nine out of 10 primary decision-makers for grocery purchases. More broadly, the acquisition of Allrecipes.com will give Meredith a new potential customer pool for marketing print and tablet magazine subscriptions, as well as e-commerce opportunities, including foreign audiences that visit 17 Allrecipes.com sites in 22 countries around the world. It also gives other Meredith properties access to Allrecipes.com’s in-house SEO expertise. The acquisition represents a significant addition to Meredith’s growing portfolio of food-related properties and women’s interest publications in general. In October of last year, the company acquired cooking mag Every Day With Rachael Ray and its related digital properties from the Reader’s Digest Association. Last week, Meredith completed the acquisition of FamilyFun from Disney Publishing Worldwide. On the Reader’s Digest side, RDA president and CEO Robert Guth said the deal represents “a significant step forward in our commitment to focus our resources on our core businesses, such as the Reader’s Digest brand.” Meredith Corp. also announced its fourth-quarter results, which showed total revenues declining 10% from $366 million in 2010 to $329 million in 2011. The decline was attributed to the absence of political advertising related to 2010’s midterm elections and continuing weakness in magazine advertising demand. Total revenues at Meredith’s local (broadcast TV) group declined from $97 million to $84 million; revenues at the national (magazine) group declined from $268 million to $244 million.
Growth in mobile video consumption is so poised, it’s difficult to predict how high and fast the curve might move, while the same goes for advertising and other revenue streams. “The opportunity appears to be enormous by any stretch of the imagination,” said Nielsen Senior Vice President Scott L. Brown, noting the boom in smartphone penetration. Mike Bloxham, the executive director of the Media Behavior Institute, said: “There’s a huge amount of growth yet to come in mobile-related revenues … we’re almost at a Jurassic stage of development.” Bloxham did caution that analyst suggestions that the mobile advertising market would parallel growth in usage could be too ambitious. If mobile accounts for 8% of media consumption time, that hardly means 8% of ad dollars would be apportioned in the space, given the many other factors that impact media buying. “That’s complete garbage,” he said in joining Brown on a panel at the NATPE event. “Media money is not allocated based on time spent alone. It’s much more complicated than that.” Ad dollars might not be the top revenue driver in mobile video, Nielsen’s Brown suggested. “The whole pay model versus advertising model still needs to be reconciled,” he said. In addition to on-demand content, there is likely to be an increasing demand for live events streamed on mobile devices, as ESPN is making available now -- especially as social media uptake continues. “People like the instantaneousness of connecting with their friends,” said Linear Media CEO Bill Deutch. The live appeal with social media is something that local stations are banking on as they seek quicker rollout of over-the-air simulcasts on mobile devices. A fourth panelist, Randa Minkarah, a senior vice president at Fisher Communications station group, said the company tested a live stream of the Oscars in Seattle last year that prompted considerable communication on Twitter. The over-the-air simulcasts will carry the ads in the channels, but also offer another ad opportunity in the insertion of an interstitial that will appear when a person changes channels, Minkarah said.
Netflix plans to have five original series available for streaming by mid-2013, part of its efforts to compete with HBO and insulate itself from trouble in acquiring content. "Lilyhammer," starring “Sopranos” and E Street Band great Steven Van Zandt, debuts Feb. 6. The Kevin Spacey-starring “House of Cards” and new episodes of Fox’s “Arrested Development” will be available by early next year. On Tuesday, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said two other ambitious shows are in the works and ticketed for 2013. Increasingly, exclusive content may be an important differentiator,” he said at the NATPE event. In a sense, Netflix is following the arc of basic cable entertainment networks, which over the last decade have realized they need original content to complement syndicated series. Netflix has acquired rights to a slew of TV series recently, but was also unable to renew a streaming deal with Starz. Though it is deemphasizing its DVD mail order business, it acceded to Warner Bros.’ move to double the time before Netflix could make discs available. Netflix, which CEO Reed Hastings has likened to HBO, focused on film distribution for many years, but is now emphasizing TV content. In the October-December period, it streamed 2 billion hours, approximately 60% of which were TV shows. Netflix will not stagger the release of episodes of its originals, choosing to make it all available at once on premiere day, including all eight of “Lilyhammer.” “Core to the Netflix proposition with our customers is choice,” Sarandos said. Sarandos said Netflix isn’t sure what to expect as far as viewership for “Lilyhammer," noting it will take time for the company to find its footing in the production game. He described “Lilyhammer” as “bigger than experimentation, but it’s definitely learning.” Netflix is finding that its users enjoy watching bunches of episodes of serialized dramas in a single sitting, which might help build its library. Studios may find they can get the most money by selling rights to Netflix, since those type of shows generally aren’t standouts in syndication, while DVD sales are challenged. Netflix has exclusive streaming rights to past seasons of “Mad Men” and is likely to make similar agreements. As far as Netflix’s relationship with Hollywood studios, Sarandos said: “It’s just normalized. We’re a buyer. We’re a big buyer.” The company opted not to renew with Starz, since the financial commitment could have precluded it from acquiring more popular content, he said. “When it comes down to it,” he said, “I think it’s a very typical programming decision.”
For those who believe social media activity and traditional TV ratings can work hand in hand, it was a good week: "American Idol" scored well in both metrics for its 11th season debut. According to Social Guide, Fox's big TV singing competition show, which aired two original episodes last week, pulled in 325,000 unique visitors on social media sites for the week ending Jan. 22 -- tops among all TV shows. "Idol" accounted for 9% of all people who make social media comments for TV shows -- and 623,000 comments overall. "Idol" -- apart from big NFL games -- was the highest-rated TV show, according to traditional TV measures provided by Nielsen, for the first week of its new season. MTV's "Jersey Shore" has been the virtual king of all cable TV shows in viewership for some time and -- before the "Idol" arrival for its 11th season -- the most consistent top performer among social media metrics. It came in at second place for the week ending January 22, with 215,000 social media unique visitors, a 6% share, and some 292,000 comments. Still, many TV shows' social media activity have little comparison to their rank among traditional TV viewership. VH1, a sister network to MTV, has seen good social media results for its "Love & Hip Hop" show. Still, it is not a traditional cable ratings juggernaut. This week, it landed in third place, according to Social Guide -- with 163,000 people, a 4.6% share, and 437,000 overall comments. While "Idol," "Shore" and "Hip Hop" might be generally assumed to pull in young TV viewers -- big social media fans -- coming in at fourth place was a typically older-skewing TV event, the "South Carolina Republican Presidential Debate" special on CNN on Saturday. It took in 106,000 people, a 3% share, and 390,000 comments. Fox News' "America's Election HQ" was next at 77,000, with a 2% share and 350,000 comments overall. Other notables in the top 10, ranked fifth through 10th: Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants"; ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars"; Fox's "Glee"; Fox's "Family Guy" (including syndication and cable airings); and VH1 "Mob Wives."
Go to any media conference these days (including this week’s NATPE event in Miami) and talk of “the Second Screen” space will feature prominently on some part of the agenda. People talk excitedly in corridors and meeting rooms about how the second screen will bring home the promise of interactive TV, create more viewer engagement for programs and even drive new revenues.Two things are certain in what has become an increasingly energized space over the last few years: