Can a developed country with a thriving advertising market transport it to an underdeveloped country without one? The Russian-American Media Entrepreneurship Dialogue has support from President Bush and American media groups who are seeking to build a stronger ad supported media in Russia. American groups have traveled to Russia to meet with Russian media executives and Russian President Vladimir Putin, filed a 70-page report on their progress and early this month met with Pres. Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to inform them of their progress. The goal of the project is to develop a free media in Russia, because "independent media is the backbone of democracy," according to the report. But there's much more to it than that. Among the project's stated goals are three pertaining to advertising: * The elimination or reduction of the Value Added Tax on advertising to remove a major obstacle to developing the Russian advertising market * Placing limits on the amount of advertising that can be sold in state controlled media to increase the share available to commercial media * Changing restrictions on the percentage of advertising that media can accept to increase the growth of competition in the open market. "We're not trying to open the ad market in Russia for U.S. advertisers," says John Sturm, president/CEO of the Newspaper Association of America, which supports the dialogue along with the National Association of Broadcasters. "There's a lot of steps that have to be taken before anything can flourish there. The problem is there are government subsidies to the media and value added tax and the government dominates it. It's not the Communists, but the government influence. And there's no measurement of media in Russia. All those things contribute to a lack of incentive to create a vibrant advertising market. If you can sit there and have them hand you a check, why would you go out and sell advertising. That's why we start by removing the subsidy. We have to do a bunch of things for an advertising market to flourish on its own." Sturm traveled to Russia with RAMED in May and visited a newspaper, which had 150 reporters and two ad salesmen. One goal of the program is to boost the number of ad sellers, because ad supported media is the American model the Russians will try and copy. Sturm doesn't know what will happen next. "The government doesn't tell us, we work it out with the Russians on the sidelines," he says. "It's largely done on the private side." Much of the Russian media is privately owned, but it is "infantile," Sturm says, and largely undeveloped. American newspaper companies have pledged $50 million to develop an investment fund for Russian media when a model for a solid Russian media is in place.
Nissan North America Inc. will launch new advertising this fall with the hopes of building the brand and boosting the fortunes of a product line that includes the reintroduction of the classic Z-series sports car as well as existing and new models. The “Shift_” campaign asks consumers to take a new look at a bold, new Nissan that has emerged, said Steve Wilhite, VP marketing at Nissan North America. The Japanese automaker, third behind Toyota and Honda in the U.S. market, has been retooling every aspect of its business, from financial to product development to marketing. The “Shift_” effort arose after Nissan and TWBA/Chiat/Day LA was asked to come up with a unified branding message. The top level of Nissan was happy with the advertising of its models but less enamored of the overall branding. Nissan had been using “Driven” since 1998, but executives felt that and other slogans didn’t capture Nissan’s fun and excitement, Wilhite said. “We never used the tag lines as a creative brief or as a foundation to build the brand on,” he said. “They wanted one brand, one voice, everywhere in the world,” said Rob Schwartz, TWBA/Chiat/Day’s global creative director. “We came up with a global thought: Shift_.” Its premise is built around this message: “A shift can change a person, a life, the world or it can simply change the way you move through it.” The message is altered slightly in the parts of the world where Nissan does business. In Japan, it’s “Shift_The Future.” In Europe, it’s “Shift_Expectations.” In the United States, the “Shift_” is everything from expectations to desire, dreams to passion. The message will shift depending on its branding and the positioning of the model Nissan is promoting. “Some people think of it as a tag line,” Wilhite said. “It’s really much more important than that to us. It’s a wonderful way for us to talk about our brands and our cars.” The new ads will kick off Sept. 4 with television spots and a mix of print, outdoor and Web, said TWBA/Chiat/Day Media Director Richard Rivera. The TV buys include fast-paced, image and music-driven spots along with other, slower-paced ones that use still photography in a documentary-style. Some of the magazine ads, three-page layouts built around the Z, were shot in black-and-white using fashion, sports and other non-automotive photographers for a distinctive look. Both branding and product messages will be mixed throughout the placement instead of just a branding message at the opening, he said. “There will be a lot of pieces of eye candy but it’s all coming from the same store,” Schwartz said. The new look, print and broadcast ads, and the new Z and two sport-utility vehicles, were unveiled at a party Wednesday night at Eyebeam Gallery in the Chelsea section of lower Manhattan. The party drew about 100 Nissan and TWBA/Chiat/Day employees plus executives from magazines and networks.
In June, OMD managing partner Dan Rank played a key role in one of the biggest cross- media deals the industry has seen. OMD and Disney confirmed they had struck a $1.2 billion deal that would give OMD spots on nearly all of Disney’s media products, including the ABC-TV network, Disney’s O&O TV and radio stations, cable networks including A&E and Lifetime, print publications, and Internet sites. And as the agreement starts to move into action for the fall premiere season, Rank looked back on his deal and other issues in an interview with Media magazine. One new twist in the OMD deal is its movement beyond a traditional ad buy. Selecting his words carefully, Rank says, “It does include some things beyond simply the exchange of rating points for dollars. There are a lot of areas that we’re exploring, including program production, product placement, joints and promotional opportunities.” Rank is no stranger to opening up the networks on product placement. “If well done, I think it’s really effective, and I don’t think it takes away from the program.” That said, to work Rank thinks it must be “organic” above all else. For example, if ABC’s Drew Carey sips from a can of Pepsi while at his desk, he feels that impression can be very effective for his client. Ad techniques such as that will grow in importance in the future, he says, considering the development of technology that will allow consumers to zap commercials. While still several years away from becoming a serious challenge, OMD is already looking at ways to get around such devices, both internally, and with clients and the networks. “It has the ability to change the economic model of this industry,” says Rank, predicting over-the-air TV networks would have to become pay-per-view just to stay in business. In the meantime, the networks are coming off their strongest upfront in two years with primetime rates up about 20% over 2001. “We’re very comfortable with the prices we paid,” says Rank. “The question that we have to look at now is how much of that money is real. It’s just hard to imagine all the money will stay.” He thinks it came from pool of money advertisers usual designate for the scatter market, so if there’s no large-scale cancellations, he expects to see a soft scatter market this fall. More cause for concern, he says, is the “dive for dollars” that the cable networks continue to be forced into. “Cable continues to struggle with the economic model that was created by the networks. The cable networks just can’t embrace that economic model because their will always be more supply than there is demand.’ That struggle with how to increase spot prices in such an environment continues to be “great news” for agencies like OMD In March, OMD restructured its U.S. operations. Rank, already responsible for OMD’s national TV unit, added oversight to OMD’s local TV and radio buying. These days, he works on average from 6am to 8:30pm, plus he travels frequently. You can tell he never really adds it all up, since when you ask him to do so he sounds surprised, then tired, himself. “Advertising, despite the fact that you have to work harder and smarter than years ago, is still a lot of fun for me. I feel sorry for the Wall Streeters, the economists, and the lawyers. When I go to a neighborhood cocktail party, everybody wants to talk to me.”