Hearst's media services company LocalEdge will adopt Analog Analytic's Bigger Better Deal platform, a white-label daily deal service aimed at supporting local media companies and advertisers. The companies plan to announce the partnership Monday. The deals are tracked and optimized using an analytics platform and other technology. Hearst is one of many publishers signing on, according to Analog Analytics CEO Ken Kalb, who once ran a paid-search optimization company. He views daily deals through tech-tinted glasses, integrating best practices and analytics technology to run deals for Newsday, Newsweek, and soon one of the three top cable companies in the United States. The deals are not limited to the U.S. Analog also supports offerings worldwide in China, Greece, Japan and England. In fact, Kalb says the company will launch a platform for Thompson Yellow Pages in India this week. The phenomenon of the daily deal has nothing to do with group buying. "It's about an advertising medium for small businesses," Kalb says. "They no longer have to spend thousands of dollars to create the ad and thousands more to run it. Plus, the advertiser gets paid before they deliver a service to market." The traditional deal gives merchants that advertise about 50% of the gross profit from the daily deal, the publisher gets 40%, Analog takes 7% and the remainder goes to the credit card company. Perks are built into partnerships between Analog and publishers. The idea centers on a consumer-based revenue model, supported by traffic, analytics and optimization tool. And if publishers don't have a local daily deal, they can source one from other local properties in the area. If one publisher has access to a great deal, it can push it to the network and generate additional ad revenue. The OC Register, which launched in beta recently, ran a deal last week for a boat ride from Newport Beach, Calif. to Catalina Island, off the coast of California. The publisher sold 5,400 tickets for $34 each in one day -- nearly generating $188,000 from the deal, and additional syndication brought in more than $30,000, according to Doug Bennett, president of interactive at Freedom Communications, which owns the OC Register. Bennett runs Daily Deals for the company. The OC Register daily deal promoted a two-hour Duffy boat ride in Newport Beach harbor that by midday Friday generated 57 sales for $69. "At the end of the day we will have probably sold about 200," Bennett says. "It's almost performance advertising because advertisers see exactly what they get for the amount they spend." Bennett says that since the smaller properties don't have enough subscribers or readership to run a daily deal, the publisher will extend the duration -- for example, for the weekend or several days. Since smaller advertisers typically don't want to spend money to run a daily deal, traditional sales organizations don't know how to support them. So publishers need to adjust the thinking of sales staff to support these smaller deals -- and avoid running the same deal more than once monthly. The deals are not limited to online or mobile. Some deals run on broadcast TV or radio that drive consumers to online. Bennett says Freedom Communications is tossing around the idea of using QR codes on television, along with near field communications (NFC) somewhere in the mix. Bennett says "it's not as simple as it may look," but traditional publishers must catch on. Revenue and circulation counts are down and many publishers -- including Freedom Communications -- rely too heavily on traditional advertising, so figuring out how to generate money from the Web has become a priority. "We've had to adapt to the digital world," he said. "There will come a time when most of our business will come from online."
Social media isn't just social media platforms. That message was a core theme during at least one panel at the Advertising Research Foundation 2011 Think conference in New York on Tuesday. Brad Fay, COO of the Keller Fay Group, said the firm's research, based on its TalkTrack platform -- which Keller Fay Group says is the only continuous monitoring system of all marketing-relevant conversations in America -- shows that some of the highest concentrations of social networkers are both in new and old media. "Facebook and Twitter audiences report themselves to be frequent recommenders in every category we look at," he says. "We find that people 13 to 69 who are Twitter audiences offer 100 weekly brand mentions -- they are very engaged in brands -- versus 65 for the general public," he said. But he added that traditional media also offers strong social value. "When people talk about brands even today, more of that conversation happens offline, face to face or over the phone than online," which he said accounts for only about 8% of the conversation. "The other thing is when people have conversations about brands they reference what they saw in ads, and TV ads are still the most referenced. Television does that more than any other touchpoint." Fay explained that when the firm looked at a range of media, including print, Internet, and TV, out of 113 media, the top ten in terms of the size of its users' social networks are WSJ.com, the Washington Post, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. Traditional media also leads within market categories: auto category brand mentions within consumer social networks are highest among consumers of Car and Driver, Men's Health, WSJ.com, Go.com, Sports Illustrated, CNET, Rolling Stone and Fox Sports, per Fay. Unilever's Dove brand's efforts to reach male consumers involved the company using both big-event traditional media commitments, such as this year's Super Bowl, plus Web videos and social elements featuring New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. Bill Pink, partner and head of marketing science at Millward Brown, which worked on the program, said each media has its advantages: TV was responsible for the big awareness boost the brand got among men, and its effects fell off at a slower rate than print, but online elements did not show any diminishing returns over time. On a graph of relative influence in terms of awareness building, online appears flat, but Pink points out that a deeper look at online elements of the campaign reveals large differences in the effectiveness of Dove's various Web programs. Videos showing Brees in the shower "were the most costly relative to Dove's other online programs, but had biggest effect relative to other creatives," Pink said, "and the most efficient. Even though we spent a lot behind it, we knew it was effective. So while online had a small incremental effect in total versus all media, within the online world we can see clearly what works."
A clue that traffic for the online streaming of NCAA tourney games was significant this weekend came as the live feed frequently staggered. On Monday, Turner and CBS said that so far this year, there has been a 47% increase in total visits to the free "March Madness on Demand (MMOD)" offering of every game online. The nearly 50% increase covers broadband and mobile access and accounts for 26.7 million visits. The most prominent MMOD advertiser is Capital One, but Coke and Subway are two others. There has been an average of 2.4 million unique Web visitors and 702,000 unique users via a mobile app per day. Somewhat remarkably, 36% of all MMOD streams on Saturday and Sunday came via an iPad or iPhone app. The iPad app is new this year. The numbers do include four more games than a year ago, but that isn't the driving force behind the numbers. One reason could be increased consumer hunger for online video. Another is that a subset of the population without access to the games on cable may be turning to the Web. There has also been increased promotion and more access points to the games, including via SI.com (run by Turner) -- and surprisingly, via ESPN.com, which has been offering a link to the online option. Of course, there may be a greater interest in the tournament. On TV, the games have been carried across Turner outlets TNT, TBS and TruTv, as well as CBS, and have averaged 8.4 million total viewers -- up 14% from CBS' 7.4 million last year. The four-network setup, which is new this year, allows viewers to watch any game they want in its entirety if they have the channel. On Sunday, viewership was up, but games went for about 12 hours and through prime time. That differs from past years, where the CBS window was shorter. There was a fast national household rating of 6.6, up 16% from CBS on the same day last year. That is the highest household rating for the first tournament Sunday since 2000. Total viewers came in with an average of 10.5 million, plus 18% from a year ago.
NBC hasn't had much luck in the regular season for the last few years. But it has had decent success in the summer. With that in mind, the network will look to build on its top-rated "America's Got Talent," which is going into its sixth season. NBC will offer up a mix of returning summer reality efforts, new unscripted shows and some fresh episodes of existing scripted fare. The twice-weekly "America's Got Talent" will start Tuesday, May 31 at 9 p.m., with a two-hour broadcast, and then go into a one-hour time frame June 7 through June 28. It will expand back to two hours at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, July 5 until September 6. For its second night of the week, "Talent" will debut its Wednesday run on June 1 at 9 p.m. and continues through September 7. The Tuesday "Talent" edition averages a 3.5 rating/10 share in adults 18-49 and 12.2 million viewers; Wednesday's "Talent" averages a 3.4/ 10 in 18-49 and 12.6 million viewers. "America's Got Talent" was the No. 1 summer series in total viewers for each of its five seasons. Comedian Cedric "The Entertainer" is hosting the new reality show "It's Worth What?" "Worth" is a game show where contestants look for hidden gems found in one's attic, then are taken through a series of challenges that escalate in level of difficulty, as they guess the item's price. Another new game show -- "Still Standing," based on the hit Israeli series of the same title -- offers contestants the chance to win by out-guessing 10 opponents in 10 fast-paced and dramatic trivia battles. NBC says the days and times for these game shows are TBD. In its second season, "The Marriage Ref" from Jerry Seinfeld begins Sunday, June 26, at 10 p.m. New for this season, couples will appear in-studio and face a panel of celebrities and comedians who decide which spouse is right. NBC's highly touted answer to "American Idol" is "The Voice" from Mark Burnett and Warner Horizon Television, which begins Tuesday, April 26 at 9 p.m. and continues with new episodes through the end of June. "Love in the Wild" features 10 single men and 10 single women, experiencing remote jungle challenges and experiences -- all in the hope of finding love. During an elimination, couples will decide to stay with their current partner -- or not. Original episodes of "Law & Order: Los Angeles" will continue on Mondays at 10 p.m.; NBC will present the final season of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" (which has been on USA Network) on Monday, May 30 at 9 p.m. Another series concluding this summer is "Friday Night Lights," which airs Fridays at 8 p.m.
The new season of ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" lifted the network to an expected big Monday night. But its numbers were down 20% versus its late spring premiere outing. Still, "Dancing" was at a hefty Nielsen preliminary 5.1 rating/15 share among 18-49 viewers -- a strong result in today's TV market. This was against a 6.4 rating among 18-49 viewers in the March 2010 start. A two-hour "Dancing" at 8 p.m. gave ABC's "Castle" a big lift at 10 p.m. -- nearly a 20% gain to a season-high 3.3/9 -- and a win in the time period against CBS' "Hawaii Five-O," which took in 2.9/8. ABC took in a 4.5 rating/13 share for the night, easily winning Monday night overall. CBS was next with a 2.8/8 average on Monday. Against strong competition from ABC, CBS had a rocky night. "How I Met Your Mother" at 8 p.m. lost 15% to a 2.9/9; "Mike & Molly" gave up a bit of ground -- down over 10% at 9:30 p.m. to a 3.0/8. Good news: "Mad Love" at 8:30 p.m. was up 10%, to solid 2.3/7. Fox was right behind CBS with a 2.6/7. "House" lost hardly any ground versus "Dancing," at a 3.4/10, at 8 p.m. "The Chicago Code" at 9 p.m. also maintained the same results versus its last original episode with a 1.9/5. NBC had another difficult Monday, at 1.4/4 for the night. "Chuck" dipped to a series low at 1.5/4; "The Event" stayed the same at 1.2/3. "Harry's Law" went south over 10% to a 1.6/4. Univision was a bit better than NBC at a 1.5.4. CW, in reruns with "90210" and "Gossip Girl," averaged a 0.2/1 for both 18-49 viewers and 18-34 viewers.
TV Land, which has been laughing all the way to the ratings bank, will look to continue the momentum with two more new comedies, including one with former "The Nanny" star Fran Drescher. TV Land said the show "Happily Divorced" is based on Drescher's life. In it, she plays a Los Angeles florist who is back in the dating scene, after discovering her husband of 18 years, whom she still lives with, is gay. Its original 10 episodes are scheduled to premiere June 15, along with the new season of "Hot in Cleveland," which will likely provide a strong lead-in. Also coming, but not until next winter, is "The Exes" (working title), with Donald Faison ("Scrubs") and former "Seinfeld" standout Wayne Knight. TV Land has quickly moved into the original comedy club, emboldened by the breakout success of "Hot in Cleveland." Season three of the series headlined by Betty White is set to have 24 episodes, as many as a network would order for a full season of a hit comedy. By one measure, TV Land prime-time ratings in the adult 25-to-54 demo are up 27% this season. Total viewers are up 38%. "Retired at 35," TV Land's second original sitcom after "Hot in Cleveland," has been renewed for a second season, also to come next winter.
In the latest sign that it plans to launch several new networks, Univision has named an executive to head sales for the new outlets. Peter Lazarus -- who has led sales at flagship Univision, TeleFutura and Galavisión networks -- becomes executive vice president, sales strategy, new networks. Lazarus will be replaced by Univision veteran Maelia Macin, who becomes executive vice president of network sales, overseeing the three networks. Univision has indicated it could launch an all-novela channel and maybe a Spanish-language sports network that could compete with ESPN Deportes. The company has said it plans to invest $20 million to $30 million for network expansion and upgrading broader sales and research functions. Univision has not offered specifics about its plans, including what kind of distribution it might pursue with new outlets, although Spanish-language pay tiers seem likely. In addition to the new launches, Lazarus will lead sales for the TuTV networks and Televisa channels in the U.S. Macin and Lazarus will report to David Lawenda, president of advertising sales and marketing. Macin joined Univision in 1992; she has been in a senior vice president role for operations that includes Univision's stations in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson and San Francisco. Lazarus, who at one time led Olympic sales at NBC, came to Univision in 2008.
Nokia's recently announced alliance with Microsoft to help take on both Apple and Google in the smartphone market won't produce jointly developed phones until next year. Until then, Nokia is still pushing its latest Symbian-powered smartphones, like the E7. To that end, the company kicked off a global campaign for the device that began shipping last month and is aimed mainly at business users with a slide-out keyboard and Microsoft Exchange pre-installed. While previously billed by Nokia as the "ultimate business smartphone," the new campaign created by Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam promotes broader consumer embrace of the phone. Built around the tagline "Success is what you make it," the TV spots launching showcase a variety of E7 users, from a young female commuter in what looks like Hong Kong to a pair of male-bonding Finns at a rustic alpine sauna to a group of young game-players using the device's HDMI input to play a car-racing game on a large living-room screen. These and other scenes are set to a jangly rock soundtrack provided by English indie band Lovvers. The message: the E7 is young, hip and fun, and accomodates a variety of uses. The campaign launches with a series of 15-, 30-, 45- and 60-second TV (and in-cinema) commercials that will expand with a two-tier print effort. The first set of print ads will highlight the features of the product through headlines tied to the E7 and different definitions of success. A second group of print ads will feature different lifestyles, "focusing on small human success stories," according to a Wieden + Kennedy release. Avi Greengart, who leads consumer device research at Current Analysis, said Nokia has always built its top phones for both consumer and business users. "And the E7 is their flagship device for now, so they have to sell it as broadly as possible," he said. Working with the agency's Amsterdam office on the E7 effort were R/GA London (digital), 1000heads (word-of-mouth), Hyper happen (activation), KLP (retail), JWT (adaptations) and Wunderman (B2B).
As the Advertising Research Foundation opens its 75th Anniversary Annual Convention this week, it is fitting to take another look at the discipline of research and measurement in the context of today's vastly changed MediaTech environment. And guess what? It's sexy. It's hot, it's where creative thinking is required and is being applied to address the issues vexing CMOs and their agencies all over town. Really? Our frame of reference, at least for most, has been that research is necessary, but boring and non-creative. Ask a successful brand manager or creative director where the insight comes from, amd you may get a different answer. Ask a leading media planner today how to make sense of the chaotic (fragmented doesn't cut it any more) media space, and you may get a different answer there also. There is a saying that what gets measured gets done. The challenge today is not the lack of measurement, it's the lack of standardization of metrics and methodology -- and therefore the inability to integrate the too rapidly expanding channels and touchpoints. This is the great challenge, not just in research, but in marketing today. At a recent conference this challenge of integration was likened to "putting a man on the moon" by the respected head of research of a major broadcast network. But put a man on the moon we did, and we will do again. With a program this week looking at everything from biometrics and neuromarketing to social influence and ROI, ARF is another of our trade associations bringing the issues forward and providing a forum for discussion and next-generation solutions. We're so far removed from the days of check the ratings, make four phone calls and go to lunch, that it no longer has meaning, even if this was the way advertising worked for many years and many billions of dollars. Today we need to clarify our goals, and simplify the complexity of two-way, broadband, mobile, social, tablet, multiple OS, always on, data-based communications. We need to find the way forward by testing and measuring what works and how it works together. We say we 're about problem solving in our industry. and over the years we've consistently done that. Who knew that the creative resources needed to tackle our biggest issues today might best be applied in that once sleepy discipline of research?
What's the marketing problem with "Glee" for some musicians? Not everyone -- from Barbra Streisand to Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters -- is exactly pining to be associated with the Fox show. (Streisand originally had some frank comments about the show, then apologized). In the old days, TV marketing for musicians -- or using one's "art" -- was looked down upon. It wasn't cool; it wasn't hip. But in the last decade or so the music industry has undergone a traumatic disorientation -- plummeting sales, that is. And with the radio business in somewhat of a disarray because of a plethora of new media choices, artists seemingly need marketing alternatives. Big TV shows can help sell their music, their bands, their brands. It started long before Madonna, Lady Gaga, or Britney Spears songs appeared on "Glee." It started long before famous musicians and singers started appearing on "American Idol" as special "mentors," guest talent, or otherwise. Think of all those TV show theme deals. Think of the deals The Who made with the "CSI" franchise. But it wasn't always this way. Jim Morrison was pissed when other Doors band members agreed to sell the rights to Buick to use "Light My Fire" in a commercial. He nixed the deal. This anti-commercialism could only be found in the late '60s/early '70s, when new popular music still had some rebellious roots. Seems those disgruntled musicians feel that the producers of the top-rated "Glee" expect a certain level of groveling, that modern-day musicians should be waiting in line to be a part of Fox's soaring primetime music marketing machine, all to get a bit of promotional spin that would help start careers, re-start careers, or keep one's name big in popular culture. "Glee"s Lea Michele character, Rachel Berry, has a lot of familiar stuff in her singing that would remind you of Streisand. So it has been no surprise that business reporters would question Streisand about this. Foo Fighters? Harder rock bands' oeuvre wouldn't seem to be traditional or nontraditional glee club material, But "Glee" wanted Foo Fighters' "Times Like These." Grohl said no way. Who needs whom more? Few big musical acts can write their own ticket when it comes to concerts or selling their music. Bands like Radiohead and some others can let their fans -- consumers -- name their own price when it comes to buying their music. How many musicians can afford to do that? Sometimes the problem with musicians and "Glee" -- especially for Streisand -- comes from a concern with backward association. It's a prideful thing. "My niece, my young niece saw 'Funny Girl' on DVD and said, 'How come you're singing so many songs from 'Glee'?" Streisand said recently.
According to a recent report from Kantar Media, total advertising expenditures increased 6.5% in 2010 and finished the year at $131.1 billion. Ad spending during the fourth quarter of 2010 was up 7.0% versus last year, propelled by the long-tail of small advertisers outside the Top 1000. Ad expenditure highlights include: Spot TV expenditures jumped 24.2% in 2010. Spanish Language TV spending rose 10.7%, assisted by the World Cup event. Higher sell out levels helped lift Cable TV expenditures by 9.8% and healthy demand from CPG marketers and credit card companies pushed Network TV spending ahead by 5.3%. Internet display advertising increased 9.9% compared to the prior year, the second largest growth rate among media sectors. Outdoor advertising was close behind with a gain of 9.6%. National Spot Radio brought in 18.6% more ad dollars versus 2009 and Local Radio achieved a 4.9% increase. For each of these, higher spending was driven by the financial service, media and auto dealer categories. Expenditures in Consumer Magazines were up 3.3% while National Newspapers rose 2.7%, primarily due to publishing expansion at the Wall Street Journal. Ad spending in Local Newspapers sank 4.6% versus a year ago despite a small uptick in the volume of space sold. Local Newspaper spending has now declined for 21 consecutive quarters. Spending among the ten largest advertisers in 2010 reached $16,345.8 million, a 3.7% increase compared to last year. Among the Top 100 marketers, a diversified group accounting for close to one-half of all measured ad expenditures, investments climbed 8.8%:
Last week I attended a Roundtable Breakfast at the Paley Center with Google's Marissa Mayer. She mentioned a content-recommendation study at Carnegie Mellon that piqued my interest. The project, dubbed Elvis, had found that collaborative filtering -- aka recommendations -- is most effective and most interesting when it relies not on a largest-possible sample of participants, but on a midsize sample that allows for serendipity. When a population of up to about 50 subjects used Elvis for music recommendations, the results were random and unreliable: The user whose profile best matched yours actually didn't share much in common with you. At the other end of the spectrum, with a too-large user set of 2500-plus, recommendations were uninteresting and predictable; you met your musical twin. It was in the middle that things got interesting. The best collaborative-filtering algorithms, Mayer said, incorporate a stochastic element to provide a little randomness. It's what makes the PANDORA Internet Radio System, which I love, inspire such loyalty from its users. It's in the middle of the continuum that things get interesting for media analytics as well. Case in point: Just a few years ago, if you had a television spot you wanted to air, you didn't need to know much about your audience. What did the Ratings Book say? Were you targeting men or women? Older or younger? Then a bit more sophistication was added. Gen X or Baby Boomers? Urban or suburban? And recently, a little bit more. Want women who like action movies? Now you can have them. But the decisions were still pretty simple, because your options remained fairly limited. Like the Model T, you could get any color you wanted as long as it was black or white (or maybe now grey). Not anymore. With the explosion of digital databases, we've gained the ability to slice and dice the data to find exactly the right consumer for a given product. But now just the opposite problem exists: the risk of paralysis by analysis. Too much data, too many choices. A veritable Tower of Babel. So how do we provide a compelling media analytics solution to marketers who want to define and target niche populations and measure the results of their efforts? Aim for the middle of that analytics continuum. Give advertisers enough flexibility to customize their own solutions, but not so much that they become overwhelmed by the possibilities (no paralysis by analysis here) or put off by the blunt instruments of the past, the amorphous "women 18 to 49" and its equivalent segments. Guide them in thinking about the numbers, without defining their segments for them. And let them define their own segments in whatever way best supports their business, then leave the system and processes to do the rest. All without eliminating the serendipity that will keep the analysts engaged and customers loyal.
A major earthquake leading to a tsunami that swallows not just homes, but people and everything in its wake -- that may seem incomprehensible. Now it seems the laws of nature want to extend collateral damage to some TV news history. The supply of Sony's professional videotape started getting tight within days of the earthquake that rocked northern Japan. Sony has a major production plant in northern Japan for all sorts of tape, digital storage material, and other products. TV coverage of major traumatic events puts all the frivolous stuff we get serious about -- the NCAA Men's Tournament, "American Idol," Sheen, you name it -- into a different light. For the moment, we look at images of ultimate destruction and wonder what those locations looked like before. TV news channels now show us many before-and-after results, giving us a historical perspective. Storage of those historic images is key. Pixels need to be stored somewhere -- disks, portable storage devices, whatever. Professional video businesses might be affected by the Sony shortage, but in the short term, the likes of YouTube and other venues for for non-professional video keep growing. In that light, the distribution of those newsy, historic images won't really be lost. But that's not the real story.