As it continues to scale up its $3 billion media agency operation, MDC Partners has appointed agency veteran Dene Callas to the new role of managing director of Maxxcom Global Media, the Toronto-based holding company’s media oversight unit. Callas is the No. 2 executive at Maxxcom reporting to CEO Steve Farella. In her new role, Callas is responsible for building the group’s offering and resources. She will work with MDC agencies, including TargetCast, Media Kitchen and RJ Palmer as well as full-service shops like Crispin Porter + Bogusky, as they integrate the growing array of holding company media assets into their individual agency offerings.“We think of scale as the ability to offer MDC partner agencies and clients assets they didn’t have before,“ said Farella. One example: RJ Palmer has a branded content unit that will now be available to media and full-service shops throughout the organization. The same is true of Varrick Media Management, which offers digital trading desk services. Certain media planning and buying tools developed by TargetCast also become available Group-wide, as do social media techniques developed by Crispin and other MDC shops.Callas was previously with Media Storm, which she joined in 2010, and where she was managing director in charge of operations and development.However, Callas spent most of her career at MediaCom and Grey Media, the Grey Advertising unit from which MediaCom was spun off in 1997. She helped turn that agency into one of the bigger U.S. media shops, helping to reel in such clients as GlaxoSmithKline, Volkswagen, LVMH and Hasbro. Callas was MediaCom’s U.S. CEO from 2005-07 before stepping up to a corporate role at GroupM, the media management arm of WPP, which acquired Grey and MediaCom in 2005. She started at Grey in the late 1970s. Describing Callas’ role, Farella said, “she’s everybody’s right hand” -- meaning that she leads in assisting the various MDC shops with their media upgrade and integration efforts. Farella approached Callas about the role at the suggestion of MDC colleague Bob Kantor, chief marketing and business development officer at MDC. Callas said she signed on because the role is “entrepreneurial,” but with the scale and assets of a holding company. MDC, she said, has created “a modern media model with an open platform. There is so much we can do to drive and accelerate growth.” One near-term focus, said Farella, will be the development of a business science and analytics unit to “better understand client businesses, and how what we do effects that.” Maxxcom is also exploring acquisitions, although Farella stressed that nothing is imminent. But MDC has greenlit the idea of select and “complimentary acquisitions that can help us build out our assets,” he said. “Specialization will be important to us as we grow.”
The downturn in print media has not spared business-to-business publications, which saw total ad pages fall 8.27% from 317,108 in the first half of 2011 to 290,879 in the first half of 2012, according to American Business Media’s Business Information Network. Total advertising revenues fell 4.16% to $3.74 billion over the same period, also according to BIN data. On the positive side, other B2B revenue sources are still growing, with digital advertising up 14% in the first half of 2012, to $1.94 billion, and revenue from trade shows up 4.4% to $5.71 billion. Revenue from data and business information also increased 7.4%, to $1.09 billion. As a result, total B2B revenues increased 3.3% to $12.5 billion. In terms of categories, the biggest drop in print advertising by far was seen in health-care advertising, where total ad pages tumbled 16.4% from 80,740 to 67,491, a drop of 13,249 pages. Sizeable drops were also seen in automotive, down 8.5% to 14,557 pages; computing, software, and telecom, down 20.5% to 4,830 pages; and professional services, down 9.9% to 20,263 pages. Out of 22 categories tracked by BIN, only two -- agriculture and architecture, design, and lighting -- saw ad pages increase in the first half of the year. While it’s not much consolation, B2B publications are not alone in their woes, as the latest figures mirror the declining fortunes of the consumer magazine business. According to the Publishers Information Bureau, total ad pages at consumer mags declined 8.8% from 81,658 in the first half of 2011 to 74,476 in the first half of 2012. Total ad revenues (based on official rate cards) slipped 3.8% from $10.44 billion to $10.05 billion. Image by Shutterstock
Consumers don't generally "trust" advertising -- but in certain advertising platforms combinations those trust numbers get better.The worst results, Nielsen says, are from "text ads on mobile phones," which have a 71% "Don't Trust Much/At All" score. Online banner ads hit a 64% number, which is also the same untrustworthy number for "ads on search engine results."By way of comparison, some traditional media does a bit better: "Ads on TV" score a 53% untrustworthy mark; with product placements on TV at a distrusting 60%. Ads in magazines are at 53%, while ads on radio score 58%.The best trusting results are drawn from general consumers' opinions and recommendations from "people I know" information -- where they hit a 70% and a 92% score, respectively, when it comes to "trust completely/somewhat."Nielsen says there is a remedy to some of the negative feelings about advertising when marketers combine social and paid advertising. Looking at ads with and without a social layer, it discovered that purchase intent is much higher when adding a social component.The report says: "Knowing that the advertised brand is liked by our friends builds trust." One example shows that social ads hit 55% better results in ad recall than non-social advertising results.Looking at branded company sites -- owned media -- Nielsen says that in one example a brand's Web site, along with paid digital advertising, drove sales lift three times higher then of paid digital ads alone.Nielsen recommends that marketers look at other combinations for positive results. Image by Shutterstock
As the blackout of the CW affiliate in a large portion of the New York market settles into its fifth week, a top Cablevision executive has signaled that the cable operator feels little pressure to restore the channel to its system. Tribune-owned WPIX has been unavailable in Cablevision homes since mid-August. Four other Tribune local stations are off the Cablevision systems in far fewer homes in other markets. The CW’s new season launches Oct. 1 with a music festival as the network launches three new shows and the final season of “Gossip Girl.” Cablevision and the Tribune group are wrangling over the carriage fees Cablevison would pay to offer WPIX. The dispute could prove an interesting test case on how much younger viewers consume TV via other platforms. With CW series available online, a consumer push to restore the channel to Cablevision could be somewhat muted.The New York market accounts for about 6% of the country, and Cablevision serves a wide swath of homes, not that far below half. Cablevision recently concluded a carriage deal with CBS, which offers higher-rated programming to an older audience. Unlike, WPIX at the moment, it has high-profile sports events. Cablevision CFO Gregg Seibert said the CBS deal was concluded in a “non-confrontational” way. Last week at an investor event, Seibert added that “WPIX doesn’t provide the type of value in our marketplace that CBS provides by any stretch," adding that he did want to "overpay for product that’s not important to our customers. Seibert called it a "balance," adding that the company would prefer "to have no product off the air at any point in time, but sometimes we just have to draw the line.” Of course, during the dispute, a Cablevision executive would not be expected to cite the lack of WPIX as a crushing blow. Cablevision continues to fight in Washington for reform to the structure that has operators paying to carry broadcast stations, known as retransmission consent. “It does feel to me that something has to give, but I don’t know when that occurs,” he said. Cablevision, separately, recently debuted a refreshed logo and branding material for its Optimum service. “It’s really the front line of the transition of the company from being acquisition-oriented and promotional to being retention-oriented and brand specific,” Seibert said. Cablevision has been looking to forestall any customer loss to Verizon FiOS.
Cumulus is bringing its SweetJack daily deal service to 36 new cities around the country, including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Cleveland, Detroit, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., the broadcast radio group announced Tuesday. That brings the total number of markets served by SweetJack to 97 across the U.S. According to Cumulus, over 4 million people have signed up for SweetJack; members can access daily deals for restaurants, retail, nightlife and other local goods and services in each market via the Web site, email and smartphone apps. Cumulus is pushing the service hard, with roughly 1,400 radio stations in 200 markets set to provide $100 million worth of on-air promotion by the end of the year. Last year, Cumulus partnered with Clear Channel Entertainment and Media to expand SweetJack’s reach and promotional footprint, with Clear Channel stations offering SweetJack deals on their Web sites and advertising deals on-air. In March, it selected NimbleCommerce to power the daily deals platform. Cumulus owns about 570 radio stations and associated Web sites in 120 markets across the U.S., while Clear Channel owns around 830 stations and associated Web sites, for a total of 1,400 stations across the U.S. -- around 10% of the national total, many of them located in top media markets. As part of their strategic partnership, Cumulus also agreed to make streaming digital audio from its radio stations available on Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio platform.
After launching its “Enjoy Better” campaign earlier this year, Time Warner Cable has turned to Miami-based La Comunidad to serve as its agency for reaching multicultural audiences. In targeting Hispanics, the agency will work with Omnicom’s Zimmerman Advertising on direct marketing and production.La Comunidad is set to launch a campaign during the holiday season, which will dovetail with TWC’s general-market effort.There has also ample recent activity in the Hispanic market as distributors look to broaden their customer base. Comcast recently debuted a triple-play package that includes 300 minutes a month of calling to Mexico and Latin America. Dish Network is offering a Univision sports network exclusively.“We realize the immense value in effectively reaching the Hispanic community, and we are making that a top priority," stated TWC CMO Jeffrey A. Hirsch.The independent La Comunidad has worked with mun2 and VH1 in the TV space and has an Argentina office.Ogilvy designed the new general-market campaign that La Comunidad will use as a base.TWC has large operations in New York, Los Angeles and Texas -- all areas with large Hispanic populations. In August, TWC sponsored the Dominican parade in New York.
NBC has struck some initial ratings pay dirt with the premiere of its action-drama "Revolution" -- delivering the best results in three years for any broadcast prime-time drama."Revolution" -- about what happens when the power and electricity goes out -- grabbed a strong Nielsen preliminary 4.1 rating/11 share among 18-49 viewers and 11.7 million overall viewers at 10 p.m. on Monday night, nearly matching the two-hour "The Voice" from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., which grew week-to-week by 10% to a stronger 4.6/12 and 13.4 million overall viewers."Revolution" benefited heavily from a big marketing campaign, as well as a big "Voice" lead-in. But as usual, the question for many analysts will be: How is it doing in week three or four? NBC says "Revolution" is its biggest opening drama in five years -- since "Bionic Woman" in 2007 (a 5.7 rating), which didn't last long after its initial start.Still, "Revolution" did many times better than NBC's "The Playboy Club" of a year ago, which revealed a weak 1.6 rating among 18-49 viewers.Fox had a so-so start for one returning and one new show on Monday. A new season premiere of "Bones" at 8 p.m. garnered a modest 2.3 rating/6 share, down 30% from a year ago. New show "The Mob Doctor" at 9 p.m. didn't fix much at 1.5/4.ABC went with "CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock" singing to a steady 1.7 rating/4 share -- about the same as the last time around. The CW's "The LA Complex" gained a bit week-to-week, a 0.4/1, up from a 0.3 rating a year ago. A second new episode at 9 p.m. earned a 0.2 rating among adults 18-49.For the night among the key 18-49 group, NBC scored a 4.4/12, followed by Fox with a 1.9/5, ABC at 1.7/4, Univision with 1.6/4, CBS at 1.3/3, and CW with 0.3/1.
A new report from shopper marketing specialist SAI Marketing on the retail food industry concludes that there are two main camps of food consumers in the country. One group is what the agency calls the “food elite,” comprised primarily of college-educated people from about 16% of higher-income U.S. households. The second group is the rest of us, classified by SAI as “food realists.” SAI says it’s critical that marketers and agencies understand the differences between the two groups because foods designed for one camp are rarely purchased by the other. If a product is marketed as a luxury food item, its required attributes include natural and preferably organic ingredients, as well as a handmade rather than industrial production process. “This can’t be faked,” SAI says of the luxury positioning. When it comes to food, the elites are snobs, SAI suggests. “One-upmanship plays an important role in socializing with peers.” Elites are also endless consumers of food content on TV and other media including print and online. Don’t dumb down the messaging to them, the report warns. It should be “grounded in high-level food culture.” Big words count: “Use more complex language known to correlate with higher educational levels, and use more words and claims related to health.” For the so-called food realists, food is fuel and price is a key factor in purchase decisions. Coupon tactics are effective. “The concept of food as a luxury item is totally alien to this group,” SAI concludes. For them, the diet consists almost entirely of traditional and conventional foods. Bill Melnick, director of strategic planning at SAI, says the luxury food market has benefited from a “post-recession migration to soft versus hard luxury items,” That is, a shift toward goods that provide a pleasurable experience, like fine wine and high-end foods and away from expensive tangible goods like jewelry and luxury model cars. The trend has also impacted travel and tourism and prompted a boost in tours that combine sightseeing with cooking, Melnick said. For the elites, said Melnick, food has become “an external symbol of who you are and where you fit into society.” While the debate rages on about whether organic foods are any more nutritious than non-organic foods, the outcome of that debate and studies supporting each side are not likely to have much of an impact on either food group, said Melnick. The reason: Food habits are largely grounded in "belief systems," which "empirical evidence" is unlikely to alter. A full copy of the report, “A Country Divided By Palate and Passion: How America Eats,” can be downloaded from saimarketing.com.
The recent report that Apple plans to launch its own Web radio service sent tremors through the online music industry. As the biggest player in digital music, the company’s expansion to music streaming could have major repercussions for Pandora and Spotify. A new study by NPD Group points to the possible reasoning behind Apple introducing a competing service. The research firm found that 64% of iTunes buyers also listened to online radio, and nearly 60% use Pandora. That suggests Pandora to date has enjoyed a certain peaceful coexistence with Apple in the digital music space. But that could change if the latter were to start its own radio offering. “The rising popularity of online radio helps explain Apple’s rumored interest in streaming radio,” said Russ Crupnick, SVP of industry analysis for NPD. “As listening migrates from downloads on laptops to streams on phones and tablets, it would make sense for iTunes to offer customers the same integrated experience they have been known for by adding a streaming capability.” Online radio and on-demand services remain the fastest-growing form of music consumption in the U.S. in the second quarter, according to NPD. Consumer awareness of Pandora’s free ad-supported radio service represented half of all Internet users, while one-third were also aware of the company’s paid subscription service, Pandora One. Clear Channel’s iHeartRadio had 25% awareness, followed by Spotify, at 19%, which is twice the level at its launch in 2011. Half of those aware of Pandora used the service in the second quarter, compared to a quarter of those who recognized iHeartRadio or Spotify. Apple continued to dominate digital music purchases, with iTunes boasting a 64% share of the digital music downloads and 29% share of all music sold at retail. Amazon’s MP3 store was a distant second with a 16% share, followed by Google Play, eMusic, Zune Music Pass and others, each with a share of 5% or lower. NPD projects the digital music market to grow by about 10%, on a unit basis, this year. “Despite increased usage of streaming radio and on-demand services, the market for digital ownership is still growing as the market evolves from the desktop to the pocket, and Apple remains well-positioned as the market leader," said Crupnick.
Immediately following his August nomination as the Republican Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney visited Cincinnati. And as I write this, President Obama is about a mile away from Empower MediaMarketing headquarters to kick off his 11th trip to Ohio just this year. Neither candidate is known to be a fan of Cincinnati's Reds or Bengals, but they're investing quality time here to earn Ohio's electoral votes. No U.S. President since JFK has gotten to the White House without winning Ohio. Swing States Turn Into Battlegrounds Once known as swing states, battleground states do not have clear, overwhelming support for one candidate. To push voter support in their direction, both candidates focus time and media dollars on a list of states that changes throughout the election. Coming out of the conventions, there are currently nine states up for grabs. State2012 electoral votes2008 electoral votes CO 9 9 FL 29 27 IA 6 7 NC 15 15 NH 4 4 NV 6 5 OH 18 20 VA 13 13 WI 10 10 110 110 Battleground states are identified using a mix of opinion polls, party registration numbers and how the state has voted in prior elections. Media Spend Makes Marketers Battleground Casualties The bulk of the Election 2012 spend tends to target battleground states because the candidates don't want to waste money in cities and states that will clearly go to their campaign or to their opponent. In fact, political ads started earlier than expected in battleground states -- in late May. This is because Super PAC funding is so high, they have more money to spend than available inventory during the traditional August to November season. As a result, media buyers handling plans in battleground states are already dealing with issues that other media buyers will not have until the final stretch of political campaigning next month. So what do brands and media buyers need to do to avoid becoming a battleground state casualty? Follow the List: The list of states, and the resulting impact on media plans, can change as the election continues. Plan Accordingly: Brands with a presence across multiple local markets need to continually assess whether their plans will be impacted. Prepare for Super PAC Impact: With Super PACs and tax-exempt advocacy groups funding nearly a third of all the U.S. presidential election ads, the current level of spending is not expected to decrease in battleground states or elsewhere during the election. Shift Spend: In addition to shifting from TV and print in local markets into other media, brands can also stand out by shifting into different dayparts and looking at program integrations. Everything from high school football news packages and morning news traffic coverage sponsorship to closed-caption sponsorships can also help brands get their messages through the constant barrage of political ads. Follow the Fight And Keep Options Open As Empower's election media analyst team has noted before, it's key for marketers to be fast, flexible and creative. Keeping an eye on the list of battleground states as it changes will help ensure that you're ready for the impact if a state playing a key role in your media plan changes from red or blue to purple. Empower MediaMarketing's Heather Watson and Marge Pistulka contributed to this commentary.
Back in the days when the Internet was young and social media hadn’t been invented, many of the thrusting young Turks leading the digital charge were keen on declaring that the “old media” companies didn’t “get it.” They were dinosaurs hell bent on their inevitable path to extinction. Much the same was said of bricks-and-mortar retailers and pretty much any large established business. Well, it’s roughly 25 years since those cries began to be heard — and repeated endlessly, along with the phrase “paradigm shift.” There seems to be a remarkably large number of those seemingly tenacious dinosaurs going about their business alongside relatively few genuinely successful (large) digital businesses that started during those halcyon years. The real impact of digital was less about replacing one set of companies with another, and much more about changing aspects of how those companies do business. Often this adaptation has involved acquiring the new digital innovators; on occasion it, has been based on internal investment and innovation. In the TV world, one of the consequences has been that the conversation has moved well beyond the early and primitive debate best characterized as “TV vs. the Web.” Now, in our cross-platform world, we’re now talking about “video” rather than “TV” and – critically – how and where it is consumed and what those insights mean for advertisers, programmers and the business of buying and selling media. Right now, there is no credible doubt that TV remains the pivotal video medium. While online and mobile video (tablet on cellphone) may prevail in certain out-of-home environments, overall and in-home, TV is still the big dog. And that’s fine. The real question here is how these media can be leveraged in tandem to add value to each other and – more importantly – to the advertiser’s proposition when consumers are in relevant setting and receptive mind-states. But that isn’t to say that TV itself isn’t evolving. While the level of DVR penetration and usage, along with VOD consumption remains small compared to scheduled TV, those forms of on demand consumption continue to grow. Similarly, as the currently tiny share held by OTT providers, such as Roku and AppleTV, continue to grow, one has to ponder what the response of the content providers will be. If history is any guide, release windows across these platforms will continue to shrink. If music and movies are anything to go by, the whole concept of distribution windows may come to look like a quaint little relic of the past in five-to-10 years. There are some that say the OTT providers represent a serious threat to the cable and satellite companies and possibly even to the networks themselves. By unleashing access to a rapidly growing world of professionally produced content – as well as “the Web on your TV” as the saying once had it, the theory is that the MSOs and the networks could ultimately be displaced. I’m not so sure about that. Apart from the fact that the content has to be licensed from somewhere and leaving aside my jaded memory of the similar dotcom era predictions, the MSOs are already taking steps to secure their position in the cross-platform ecosystem. With Both TV Everywhere and XFinity leading the charge for the MSOs and HBO GO showing the way for channels, nothing is a foregone conclusion. Rumors are already circulating to the effect that Roku is an acquisition target – and why not? Roku and others that gain traction in the space will almost certainly be acquired in due course — possibly by a cable or satellite company seeking to broaden its footprint. More intriguingly, they could be bought by a consortium of networks and channels looking to be less dependent on the seemingly ever-more-fractious relationship between themselves and the MSOs. And then we will have come full circle. The dinosaurs that were meant to be driven to extinction by the ice age of alternative distribution, will have done what they did in real life for tens of millions of years — adapted with admirable dexterity in order to thrive in a changing landscape.