New research from the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester shows that 76% of marketers plan to keep their media budgets stable in 2012. About half (47%) of all budgets will go to TV. That’s a 6% bump from the 2010 survey. Marketers are intrigued by the possibility of TV measurement systems based on set-top-box (STB) data offering more insight into TV performance, the ANA and Forrester said. Seventy-two percent of study respondents believe the accuracy of STB information will be upgraded in the next few years, while 47% envision “unique visitors/watchers as the eventual standard for cross-platform audience measurement.” Also, about half of respondents said they are experimenting with or planning to explore various iterations of advanced advertising in the next year. That includes video on connected TVs. The research also found that 70% plan to spend more on online advertising this year -- a bit higher than with social media and mobile platforms. The research is derived from a survey of 124 advertisers in large industries, conducted in December 2011 and January 2012.
Much of the focus of Thursday’s ANA TV & Everything Video Forum was on multiple screens and new cross-platform techniques to utilize them effectively. However, numerous speakers at the forum stressed that the new devices did not spell the end of network television. "TV is not broken," proclaimed Justin Evan, senior vice president, emerging media at ad network Collective. Rather, TV remains the tentpole of the multiscreen environment, accounting for most of the viewing and ad dollars placed against video content, said ANA group executive vice president Bill Duggan. Other screens are essential but supplemental. Though ANA Forums of the past have suggested otherwise, Duggan stressed that “TV is alive, well and thriving.” It's also evolving, just like the rest of the media environment. One executive suggested it’s time to stop thinking of TV as a “traditional” medium. “We should look at TV as new media,” said Mike Proulx, senior vice president, director of digital strategy at ad shop Hill Holliday, a unit of the Interpublic Group. “It’s a very different experience today,” he said, noting the 10,000 tweets per second generated by the Super Bowl on Twitter. While TV is thriving, planning for the medium needs an overhaul, said Proulx, co-author of the new book Social TV. “We need a new planning model,” that focuses on multiscreen integration “to create a rich experience for television across devices.” Case in point -- a multiscreen approach by retailer The Gap that tied into TV’s new fall season, Entertainment Weekly and Social TV app GetGlue. EW readers who checked into featured TV shows in the magazine’s Fall Preview issue via the GetGlue app could receive stickers redeemable for 40% off Gap clothing. Users could also share the offer with their friends on Facebook and Twitter. According to Proulx, 70,000 people redeemed the offer. In the overall scheme of things, “that’s not a big number,” he said. “But it’s emerging behavior.” Another TV-as-new-media example was Coke’s multiscreen Polar Bear ad strategy leading up to the Super Bowl, said Proulx. TV ads drove viewers online, where they could watch the bears reacting to events in the game in real-time. “TV spots drive awareness” of messages appearing on other screens, he said. With effective spots, viewers will migrate to the other platforms for fear of “missing out” on an opportunity.
Arby’s Bob Kraut, senior vice president of marketing and advertising, presented a strong case at Thursday’s Ana TV & Everything Video Forum for paying attention to how consumers react to advertising campaigns. Last year, after enduring a slump that was caused by a poor economy and confusing marketing and off-message menu choices, the company launched a new campaign devised by BBDO, proclaiming Arby’s as the “Good Mood Food” fast-food restaurant chain. Kraut described the initial effort as “We are the World meets Glee.” The campaign was designed to let consumers know that it was okay to enjoy the chain’s lineup of good-tasting comfort food because it was also relatively wholesome and fresh. But regardless of the nutritional value, the ads were a viral hit, said Kraut. “We noticed that people started re-mixing ‘Good Food Mood’ spots on YouTube,” said Kraut. “A lot of young people latched onto this,” he said, noting that many of the re-mixes featured kids and families adapting their own humorous lyrics into redone spots. The remixes prompted the company to develop a user-generated “casting call” contest for new 30-second spots. Entrants had to explain why Arby’s food put them in a good mood. The winner would receive a $10,000 prize and the opportunity to appear in a new Arby’s commercial. The promotion for the contest was relatively low-key, said Kraut, and limited to online exposure. But the response was overwhelming -- the company received 1,400 submissions, almost five times as many as the company expected. The submissions were posted on a new Web site and generated 1 million views a month. A new mobile Web site drew 16% of all online views. To draw attention to the effort, the company even filmed a “flash mob” spot in New York’s Times Square. A social media component featured a Facebook “Philly Zone Page” and a “Tweet Aquarium” for consumers to comment on a new fish sandwich. Bottom line: the entire cross-platform effort resulted in the highest sales gain the company had seen in a decade. Facebook fans grew over threefold to nearly 800,000, while Twitter followers climbed to over 30,000. And tagline awareness grew 60% in 10 months. And while 80% of the company’s budget is still reserved for TV Kraut said “we wanted to extend the message,” given the online response. While user-generated content is always a risk, Kraut said the company believed the YouTube re-mixes and the response to the contest revealed an untapped reservoir of consumers “who wanted to connect with us.” During the depths of the recession, said Kraut, the company was hit by a “perfect storm” of bad economy, muddled marketing and confusing shift in menu items that led to a double-digit sales plunge. But with a new integrated marketing campaign that engaged consumers, an improving economy and tweaks to the menu, the company appears to be back on track.
The Association of National Advertisers announced an industry transition from the “current analog commercial slate into a digital one,” ending a 30-year-old industry practice for tracking commercials within content. The new format comes from the Advanced Media Workflow Association, and the ANA predicts it could save the industry $1 billion yearly with “fully digital file-based workflows.” ANA CEO Bob Liodice called it a "historic juncture" for video advertising. "We charge the industry with the imperative that we transition to standardized commercial delivery formats in all media, and implement Ad-ID throughout our ecosystem.” Agencies and marketers should be able to save hours of work, ANA said, since they “can be sure that the identity of a given ad is now properly embedded,” which should produce new possibilities with cross-platform measurement, as well as interactivity and addressability. The Ad-ID information on ads includes advertiser, product, commercial title and other data.
Discovery Communications has posted more double-digit gains in advertising revenue -- this time in the fourth quarter of 2011, as part of overall healthy financial gains for the period. U.S. advertising revenues for the cable network group grew 13% to $364 million. Overall 2011 results were equally positive -- up 9% to $1.3 billion. Strong sellouts of its inventory in the Q4 period led to the revenue hike. Still, Discovery says these results were reduced by $11 million in advertising revenues because of the change of Discovery Health channel to OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. For the year, Discovery dropped $49 million in advertising revenue because of OWN, a partnership with Harpo Studios. This new network has struggled throughout its first year, averaging around 250,000 viewers in prime time. Discovery's U.S. distribution revenue was up 7% in the period to $282 million and up 12% yearly to $1.2 billion -- the result of higher overall rates and more networks on new digital tiers resulting from expanding licensing agreements. International networks grew 18% in advertising revenue to $160 million for the fourth quarter, and 22% for the year to $518 million. Overall, Discovery Communications revenue increased fourth-quarter revenues 11% to $1.1 billion, and 12% for 2011 to $4.2 billion. Net income soared to $337 million in the fourth quarter of 2011 versus $197 million in the fourth quarter of 2010. For the year, net income was at $1.1 billion, up from $669 million in 2010.
Paris-based Publicis Groupe this morning said it bought back 18 million of its own shares from Tokyo-based Dentsu, marking an end to a 10-year strategic equity relationship between the two agency holding companies that began when Publicis acquired Bcom3 -- which Dentsu owned a minority stake in -- in 2002. The companies said Dentsu will continue to hold a 2.12% stake in Publicis. The cash purchase, which was valued at about $850 million, was completed this morning, and senior Dentsu executives have resigned from Publicis’ board. “The friendly relationship and collaboration between the two groups will continue,” the companies stated. In addition to Dentsu’s continuing minority stake in Publicis, the companies said they would continue to operate two joint ventures, with their original equity shareholdings: Beacon Communications and Dentsu Razorfish, owned respectively 66% and 19.35% by Publicis Groupe. “Moreover, partnerships related to specific clients that the two groups have in common will continue, in the clients' interests,” the companies said.
DirectTV grew healthy U.S. revenues -- but with a smaller number of new subscribers -- during the fourth quarter of 2011. U.S. revenue climbed 9% to $6.03 billion, with net consumer additions of 125,000. This was against a net gain of 289,000 for the fourth quarter of 2010. For the year, DirecTV ended with a 3% gain to 19.89 million U.S. subscribers. The company's average monthly revenue per subscriber increased to $101.38 from $96.64 in the fourth quarter of 2010. Much of this was due to higher NFL Sunday Ticket sales, as well as price increases on programming packages and leased set-top boxes, and sales of premium channels and advanced services. DirecTV made gains in Latin America and Mexico. Latin America grew 2 million in new subscribers for the year to 7.8 million. Sky Mexico had an annual net gain of 3.7 million. U.S. and Latin America customers now total 32 million. DirecTV's overall revenues for the fourth quarter of 2011 were up 13% to $7.46 billion, with net income climbing 16% to $718 million. Programming costs continue to rise at DirecTV, particularly for its pricey NFL Sunday Ticket package, which gives consumers access to all Sunday games. Overall programming costs rose to $3.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 from $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010. For the entire year 2011, programming costs were at $11.7 billion from $10.0 billion. DirecTV now pays the NFL over $900 million a year for the Sunday Ticket package. This is part of a $4 billion five-year deal that it signed in 2009.
'Domino' Returns With Special EditionDomino’s passing was mourned by hip young interior design fans when it closed in 2009 -- but they will have a brief chance to relive old times, thanks to a special edition of the defunct magazine, Domino Quick Fixes, which will hit newsstands April 17 with a cover price of $10.00. A second special edition is planned for this fall. The special edition will feature the “best home decorating stories, focusing on easy, often inexpensive changes that make a big difference,” according to Condé Nast. This will include new content as well as “blast from the past” favorites from previous editions. Domino was published from 2005-2009, when it became another casualty of the collapsing housing market and broader economic downturn. The magazine’s demise seemed to hit readers especially hard, and it was ranked among the “most-missed” shuttered magazines in a survey by Media Industry Newsletter. Domino’s (temporary) return comes amid mixed news for the shelter category and the U.S. housing market. As consumer magazines in general stagnated, with a 3.1% decline in ad pages in 2011, some shelter titles recorded strong growth, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. That includes Architectural Digest, up 9.1% to 911 ad pages; Elle Décor, up 5.1% to 1,176 ad pages; This Old House, up 8.2% to 546 ad pages; and Veranda, up 17.2% to 550 ad pages. Some analysts say the U.S. housing market appears to be approaching its bottom. Most recently, the total number of privately owned building permits and housing starts increased in January, with building permits up 0.7% from 671,000 in December to 676,000 in January, following a 1.3% decline in December, and new housing starts up 1.5% from 689,000 to 699,000 over the same period. SpyderLynk’s Snap-to-Buy Powers Glamour’s Apothecary Wall Glamour is deploying SpyderLynk’s Snap-to-Buy mobile scanning technology for the Apothecary Wall in its March issue. The Glamour Apothecary Wall features products that consumers can purchase directly from the “shop-able” wall using their mobile phones. A total of 21 Glamour advertisers are featuring “Buy it Now” SnapTags throughout the magazine’s March issue, allowing readers to also Like advertisers, score deals and buy products. Readers can also share their purchase information with friends via their Facebook pages. AIM Buys Marine Titles From Source Interlink Active Interest Media has acquired Source Interlink Media’s marine interest titles and associated online properties. The agreement covers Power & Motoryacht, which join AIM’s existing marine portfolio of Sail,Yachts International, Soundings, Soundings Trade Only, Passagemaker and BoatQuest.com. AIM announced that George Sass had been appointed editor in chief of Power & Motoryacht, while Arnie Hammerman was named publisher. Sass previously served as editor in chief of Yachting, where he oversaw double-digit print and digital audience growth. Hammerman is rejoining PMY as publisher, after serving as the magazine’s West Coast sales director from 1996-2008. In 2008, he was hired by the Bonnier's Marine Group as Western regional director. People.com Is Optimized For iPad People.com is now fully optimized for iPad, with enhanced functionality and an improved user experience. In the new, improved version, iPad users can swipe through channels like News, Photos, Stylewatch, Pets and Moms & Babies and interact with new site features, including a trending topics tool and upgraded search box. The site includes an ad campaign by Unilever’s I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, developed by PointRoll, taking advantage of iPad gestures to expand creative. The interactive ad allows users to tap to play a full commercial loop, view the brand’s Twitter feed and access original recipes.
“Radio is in decline.” “Radio is dying.” “Radio is dead.” That’s been the uninformed rap on radio for years, partly because it is rarely covered by reporters either as a business or as part of the cultural zeitgeist. Despite radio silence from many analysts and media writers, however, radio isn’t dead or even sick. In fact, radio’s audience continues to grow. According to Arbitron, 241 million Americans age 12 and up, or 93%, currently listen to radio every week--the largest number in radio’s history. Even as media choices continue to grow, radio remains a top-of-mind choice for consumers. For advertisers, it is an ideal way to reach people in communities across America. Here is why: *More than twice as many people in the U.S. 12 and older will listen to radio on a typical day than will use any Google site (180 million vs. 85 million) *Americans listen to radio for a total of more than 14.6 billion hours each month. *70% of people nationwide tune in to radio each day for more than two-and-a-half hours, while fewer than 70% of people use the Internet each day and use it for about 1 hour 15 minutes. As the economy continues to recover, many advertisers looking to pursue newly optimistic consumers are using radio as one of their primary vehicles. This optimism is shared by BIA/Kelsey’s newest “Investing In Radio Market Report,” which projects solid industry revenue growth over the next five years. The report attributes an increasing portion of these predicted gains to more aggressive digital and online strategies--deflating the theory that the Internet is the next technology that will “kill” radio. Rather, the partnering of “on-air and online” is proving to be radio’s next major source of revenue growth. And Arbitron shows that Internet radio is neither cannibalizing nor replacing traditional radio; it is additive, similar to how FM was additive to AM. Radio has always been and will always be an inventive, influential medium. From Orson Welles’s “War of the Worlds” broadcast (the first postmodern media stunt) to FDR’s fireside chats; from being an indispensable--and often the only available--news source during national emergencies and natural disasters, radio is the medium that has bound us together, thrilled us, changed us. And when the next king of all media emerges, that future Larry, Howard, Rush or Ryan is sure to step forward from a radio broadcasting booth. In a recent article in Ad Age, Mindshare CEO Antony Young suggested that “the hottest digital ad mediums are adaptations from old media.” I would suggest that it’s the categories of “old” and “new” that need redefinition. Broadcast radio is the original and most enduring social medium; it’s local (talk radio being the greatest town hall meeting ever invented. It’s interactive (nearly one-quarter of all listeners have spoken directly to radio station personalities and over 20 million like or follow stations and personalities). It’s mobile (from cars to boom boxes, headphones to iPods to smartphones), and it’s free for users. Video didn’t kill the radio star. TV and the Walkman didn’t ring its death knell. Satellite radio didn’t even dent it. And Pandora and other playlist services won’t dampen the reach and power of traditional radio, either. As a medium, radio is neither old nor new. Radio is a forever media. The melding of radio and digital into ever-more-powerful entertainment and advertising platforms is the next step in the medium’s evolution and a major media story that has largely been ignored. The radio is on -- don’t be the last on your block to tune in.
In honor or Presidents Day, MediaDailyNews will not publish on Monday, Feb. 20th.
In what will surely add volume to the already noisy debate about data collection (and the perhaps false notion that consumers will freak out once it finally dawns on them that it is being done in a big way by retailers and marketers in order to sell them more stuff) TheNew York Times has just published a lengthy story about Target and its data collection and analysis efforts. To folks in the ad business, little of the story will come as a surprise (and might even provide a few tactics to copy), but one utterly fascinating part is about how your brain turns routines into habits that fire without much conscious thought. It goes a long way toward explaining why you develop bad habits and why they are so hard to break. Habits start with a mental trigger and end with a reward. If you can eliminate or change the trigger, you have a fighting chance of changing the habit. The story's author beat a daily cookie habit and lost 21 pounds. Interestingly, the story is not yet another shrill "What Do They Know" attack on Internet data collection. It’s really just about a retailer collecting in-store shopping habits over time to project lifestyle situations in which the customer might be receptive to new kinds of product offers. There is a long aside about the lengths a consumer products company went to, to understand why their go-to-market strategy was wrong, and what they did to eventually make the product a success. So the overall take is that marketers try to leverage psychology (OMG!!!) and research to sell more product. So does the Army, in trying to recruit kids to put their lives on the line. So do politicians, to get voters to like them and their platforms. Nearly every form of entertainment is tested over and over to refine its appeal -- whether this is called "opening out of town" or brain scanning in a lab to see how potential audiences feel about the characters and the story line. Fashion is tested and reformatted for greater appeal. Food is endlessly tested before being unleashed on the public. So are fragrances and lawn mowers -- and, well, just about everything around you. Critics say this is done to sell us stuff we don't want or need. Manufacturers will say it is to refine products so they work best for customers, or appeal to their perceived wants and needs, or to differentiate products from the competiton. The fact that some of the research is centered on how people's brains perceive and react to products should not come as much of a shock. But I think it does cause some discomfort to the great unwashed to learn that retailers and marketers in effect psychoanalyze buyers to get them to buy more, even if the offering is perfect for that moment in their lives. Perhaps they think researchers can peer into the unconscious and deduce that someone is secretly a pedophile -- or worse, a liberal Democrat. No one likes to be "found out," especially by analysts piecing together their lives based on purchase habits. That this has been going on for years and years and is refined into more of a predictive science every day seems not to bother most folks (unless, of course, when it is happening ONLINE!!!). These kinds of stories will give ammo to the privacy industry to be sure, but I suspect most folks will keep shopping at Target as usual.