Years after most of the major agency holding companies have launched or spun off branded audience-buying platforms, WPP's GroupM this morning said it was entering the game with a new company dubbed Xaxis. GroupM said Xaxis would combine all of the "demand-side data" and technology resources of WPP, and combine it with the "trading leverage" of GroupM's agencies into a "single comprehensive resource." It was not clear how Xaxis is differentiated from other audience-buying platforms already developed by its rivals, including Havas spinoff Adnetik and Interpublic's Cadreon, but it claimed it would house "the world's largest pool of audience profiles in its proprietary database and reaching more touchpoints than any other solution in the industry." It will initially launch in 11 countries across North America, the U.K., and Australia and expand into to other markets this year. The WPP unit said it is launching Xaxis in recognition of the "rapidly growing importance of audience-buying" systems that enable advertisers and agencies to target discrete audience profiles online, in mobile and other emerging media. Interestingly, the GroupM announcement stops short of explicitly discussing plans to bring the audience-buying platform to the television marketplace, even though most of the other major agency holding companies have said they plan to add addressable TV buys as the data and targeting systems become available. That's noteworthy because GroupM has a stake in addressable TV advertising developer Invidi Technologies -- and GroupM global chief Irwin Gotlieb is on Invidi's board. "By reaching only the most relevant audiences via a variety of media platforms -- display advertising, mobile ads, video ads and paid social media -- Xaxis delivers dramatically improved performance at lower cost than other industry solutions," GroupM asserted in a statement. Brian Lesser, global general manager of WPP's Media Innovations Group, was named CEO of Xaxis.
A new report from Nielsen finds that the world over, female shoppers are feeling more stressed, more empowered, and more optimistic about what life will be like for their daughters. The survey looked at women in 21 countries and found that almost 80% of those respondents in developed countries say that the role of women will change, and 90% say it will be for the better. Women in emerging markets are more likely to believe their daughters will find better opportunities than they did. While all women feel the stress of multiple roles, the study reports that tension is highest in emerging economies, where women have less discretionary income. Women in India (87%), Mexico (74%) and Russia (69%) reported the most stress among developing countries; in developed economies, women in Spain (66%), France (65%) and allegedly laid-back Italy (64%) reported the highest levels of stress. That creates more opportunities for marketers to reach women with promises of stress-reducing convenience, the study concluded, with women in most markets saying they like TV best for getting to know new products: "In 10 of 10 emerging markets and in 7 of 11 developed countries analyzed, television outranked 14 other sources of information," the report says. Word of mouth came in second. And in 20 out of 21 countries, quality -- not price -- was named as the main driver of brand loyalty. "Women across the globe are achieving higher levels of education, joining the workforce in greater numbers and contributing more to the household income," writes Nielsen vice chair Susan Whiting. "Women are increasing their spending power and with that, they gain more control and influence over key household decisions. As a result, the women of today and tomorrow are powerful consumers, and understanding their habits and attitudes is critically important for marketers and advertisers." When it comes to spending discretionary income, women in developed markets are more likely to cite vacations (58%), groceries (57%) and savings or paying off credit cards/debts (55% each.) Those in less developed countries say they spend extra money on everyday essentials such as clothing (70%), groceries (68%) and health and beauty items (53%.
Michael Bollo, who has considerable experience in Spanish-language broadcasting, has joined the TVB as vice president, marketing and business development. The TVB is a trade group for local broadcasters looking to advance their viability as an ad platform. Bollo joins from Crystal Media Networks, which helps programmers with social media and online initiatives. There, he was a vice president of sales. Before that, he held vice president roles involving sales for V-me, a Spanish-language multicast network, and Univision. At TVB, he will report to Scott Roskowski, senior vice president, marketing and business development. Roskowski touted Bollo's two-decades long experience and various posts "successfully developing business. "He will ... further enhance TVB's efforts to grow more advertising dollars for local television stations," Roskowski stated. Bollo also spent time with rep firms for Cox and Telerep and at agencies such as Zenith and DDB.
Pinnacle Foods Group's Aunt Jemima set out to do a totally social/digital campaign, but it's now back on TV for the first time since 2006, thanks to unusually strong response to the first video in its new "Every Batch Made from Scratch" campaign. Aunt Jemima launched its social and digital campaign in the first quarter, after "simplifying" the ingredients in its frozen pancakes and waffles. While the products have always been made with fresh flour, eggs, milk and other ingredients, the new recipes are also free of high-fructose corn syrup and artificial ingredients. The brand activated its social media campaign, including an Aunt Jemima Frozen Breakfast Facebook page and Twitter efforts, on Feb. 17. A core element is a three-part "Live from the Line" video series, created by Jun Group and directed by Kevin Arbouet, featuring real employees of Aunt Jemima's Jackson, Tenn. plant. That approach came about because the marketing team was so impressed by the "passion and pride" the employees feel about the products, and wanted to share that with consumers, explains Brandi Unchester, senior brand manager, frozen and refrigerated breakfasts, Pinnacle Foods. The brand drove awareness for the first video, which featured three longtime employees explaining the products' "just-like-homemade" process, by offering a free breakfast product to the first 10,000 to "like" the Facebook page, as well as through digital banner ads promoting a $1-off coupon on Aunt Jemima pancakes, waffles or French toast, according to Unchester. (There was no Facebook advertising.) The efforts yielded an impressive 27,000-plus fans on the first day of the launch, as well as an outpouring of positive feedback, such as thanks for showing how the products are made, and for showing Americans making American products, she reports. (The "Every Batch Made from Scratch" message has been incorporated in the brand's packaging, as well as marketing.) The outstanding response to the first video, combined with the timely, "high-quality, real ingredients" messaging focus of the second video, prompted the brand to air that second video on television, in addition to social media, Unchester says. The TV spot began airing June 27 in key markets including Hartford, Conn.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando, Fla.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Charlotte, N.C.; Providence, R.I.; and Jackson, Tenn. The TV spot will air into the fall, while the third video in the series will debut on Facebook in late summer/early fall. The campaign also spans other initiatives, including a "Flapjack Friday" program launched in April, in which consumers who like the brand's Facebook page and submit a photo and short essay about their favorite ways to enjoy Aunt Jemima Frozen Breakfast get chances to win free pancakes for a year. Prizes are judged by a panel, and awarded once per month. In early May, the brand also announced a partnership with celebrity chef Aaron McCargo, Jr. (star of Food Network's "Big Daddy's House"). The chef has developed new recipes using Aunt Jemima Frozen Breakfast products, which are featured on the Facebook page. To publicize the partnership, McCargo hosted an editors' breakfast/ Twitter party in New York City, which drew more than 170 attendees and generated more than 2,000 Tweets during the event. Overall results: Four months into the social media campaign (not counting the brand-new TV spot, obviously), Facebook fans now number 100,000. There have been more than 100,000 video views on Facebook, and more than 4.5 million total impressions, according to the brand. Average monthly active users are at 114%, versus an industry average of 65% to 85%.
As part of the syncing between the legacy Comcast networks now part of NBCUniversal, E! will try to lend some flash to an event that started as a gathering for comic book aficionados. In recent years, however, Comic-Con has generated more star power as Hollywood has premiered sci-fi-type series there, while looking to generate some grassroots buzz. E!, formerly part of the Comcast networks, will stream a red-carpet event live at the annual Comic-Con convention in San Diego in conjunction with NBCU network SyFy on July 23. A red carpet addition to the traditional SyFy party will be available live on E!'s site and SyFy.com. The event apparently is not quite ready for prime time and E! on-air. Among the celebrities likely to attend and ready to give ample interviews to E! talent are stars of NBC's coming fall series "Grimm," described as a "police procedural with supernatural mythology" with roots in the Grimm fairy tales. The show's pilot will be shown at Comic-Con, followed by Q&A with cast members and show runners. Suzanne Kolb, who heads marketing for E!, stated that "Comic-Con is a pop-culture phenomenon that uniquely blends together celebrity and entertainment with sci-fi and comic book culture."
Although new consumer electronic devices/digital video services are making inroads with TV programming, subscription television is still the dominant TV service for consumers -- cord-cutting trends are not yet a threat. Consumers with consumer devices viewing online video content claim to watch between seven and eight hours weekly of programming, it says. But there is no cause for alarm. Overall, there is an 11% penetration rate of specific consumer electronic connected video devices. Still, the study warns that subscription TV sellers must be vigilant in being innovative to combat growing competition. ABI Research practice director Jason Blackwell stated: "In a relatively fragmented connected consumer electronics market, the pay-TV package is still the best means to get the widest range of content. In addition, some programming such as sports and premium content is still pay-TV-centric, even with TV Everywhere initiatives." On the online front: Netflix and YouTube are big consumer favorites for online video, while Facebook captures 97% of social networking fans, with MySpace next in line at 32%. Right now, the survey concludes that "cord-cutting has not occurred at the rate some had previously thought ... but the threat still exists." Scottsdale, Ariz.-based ABI Research says 90% of respondents of a survey of some 2,000 consumers subscribed to a pay-TV service.
Outdoor TV is unveiling 10 new shows for its third-quarter programming line-up, including an array of reality series about hunting and the outdoor life. The new HD programs join 73 other programs set to return to Outdoor with all-new episodes. The new Outdoor TV roster boasts some noteworthy celebrities, including actor Joe Mantegna, who is hosting the first season of "MidwayUSA's Gun Stories," which takes viewers through a history of firearms --- from the design through range use, with plenty of high-speed photography examining the operation and performance of each weapon. "Gun Stories" is scheduled to debut June 29. Another new show, "Realtree's NASCAR Outdoors," set to debut June 30, combines NASCAR with hunting by tagging along with well-known drivers who like to hunt, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Newman, Jeff Hammond, Clint Bowyer, Richard Childress, Ty Dillon, Bobby Labonte and Elliott Sadler. The Outdoor Channel is also bringing back "Realtree Outdoors," which takes celebrity-hunters like comedian Jeff Foxworthy as its subjects.) "These celebrities have proven that the outdoor lifestyle attracts people of all walks of life," stated Tom Hornish, COO, Outdoor Channel. Another new show, "Mudslingers Presented by Sta-Bil," gives viewers a front-row seat for mudslinging -- driving 4x4 trucks in off-road conditions -- with obstacle courses, mud-bogging pits, trail rides and rock climbing. The show also takes viewers inside the process of creating a customized 4x4. Shawn Michaels' "MacMillan River Adventures," set to debut June 28 lets viewers tag along with the WWE Hall of Famer and his friends as they circle the globe in search of big game. "Grateful Nation," debuting Sunday, July 3 follows disabled veterans who are still hunting despite their handicaps, with each episode centering on conversations in the field with Tim Abell, a former Army Airborne Ranger-turned-actor. "Moultrie's The Hit List," which begins June 28 is basically a hunting fantasy come to life, as four expert hunters are equipped with the latest hunting technology and told to turn it loose on unsuspecting trophy deer. While the technology is impressive, the hunters still experience setbacks and misses, giving the show an exciting edge. "ScentBlocker Most Wanted" is a similar concept, giving expert outdoorsmen (and outdoorswoman Lauren Thomas) access to the latest technology in the form of infrared cameras and other equipment as they track big game across North America. It's set for July 2. "Primitive Instinct" follows Gregg Ritz as he goes after big game in remote, spectacular locations, hunting (and trying to survive) in extreme conditions. "Team Elk," presented by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, follows a group of charismatic hunters tracking elk across spectacular scenery in Colorado, Kentucky, New Mexico, Montana and elsewhere. Finally, "HeadHunters TV," coming Sunday, features hosts Randy Birdsong and Troy Ruiz showing what goes into making an Outdoor Channel series.
ABC's "The Bachelorette" and "Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition" continue to gain traction this summer. "The Bachelorette" gained almost 10% week-to-week -- now at a Nielsen 2.5 rating/7 share among 18-49 viewers, up from a 2.2 rating. "Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition" almost reached the same level, gaining 15% to a 2.3 rating/6 from a 2.0 rating the week before. All this put ABC in the lead over its competition, averaging a 2.4/7. It earned a 2.2 rating the week before. Fox was next, thanks to "MasterChef," at 9 p.m. with a 2.0/6 -- 11% better than its last outing on Tuesday night, but 9% down from its Monday edition. Adding in a lower-rated "MasterChef" rerun earlier in the evening, Fox averaged a 1.6/5 for Tuesday. It earned a 1.7 rating a week ago. NBC also graced the airwaves with some original programming -- albeit a canceled "Law & Order: LA" now playing out the string of leftover episodes. It earned a 1.5/5 rating at 10 p.m., 15% higher than a week ago. With some reruns earlier in the evening, NBC earned a 1.3/4 for the night, the same as a week ago. This tied CBS -- in a total rerun mode with its usual Tuesday comedies. CBS had a 1.3 rating a week ago. Univision also claimed a 1.3/4, the same as the previous week, and CW had a 0.2/1.
IHOP is killing its eight-year-old "Come Hungry. Leave happy" tagline with the launch of an integrated marketing campaign with a new tagline: "Make it an IHOP day." The campaign for the Glendale, Calif.-based restaurant chain includes TV, point-of-sale and online. It leverages IHOP's breakfast-inspired signature dishes and limited-time offers to demonstrate how a great meal at IHOP makes the entire day better. The campaign is an evolution of the "Come hungry. Leave happy" campaign, says IHOP Restaurants Marketing Vice President Joe Adney. "The 'Make it an IHOP day' campaign taps into something that our guests have told us: That starting or finishing their day with great food and a great experience at IHOP makes their whole day better," Adney tells Marketing Daily. "The new campaign is designed to build an emotional connection with guests through a 'pay it forward' feel." The first spot using the new tagline highlights the limited-time "Summertime Favorites" menu which includes funnel cakes. English and Spanish versions of the spot in 10-second, 15- second and 30-second versions will air nationally. The buy targets high-impact prime-time and syndicated programming, Adney says. The spot can also be seen here or on YouTube. IHOP.com has undergone a reskin to mirror the "Make it an IHOP day" look and feel and includes an interactive tool that allows users to scroll for 101 ways to have a great day. The campaign has also been tailored for use by local markets for radio, billboard and local market advertising initiatives. The campaign was created by McCann Erickson West, which IHOP named as its agency of record in June 2010 without a review. The Los Angeles office of McCann Erickson will manage the IHOP business, guiding brand strategy and broadcast creative. The shop worked with IHOP from 2002 to 2007 and developed the restaurant's "Come hungry. Leave happy" tagline.
Network prime-time television was generally pretty lackluster on the last Sunday in June; cable shows weren't exactly stellar either. The highest-rated prime-time broadcast show was a rerun of NBC's "America's Got Talent" during the 9 p.m. hour, which earned a 1.8/5. Running opposite "Talent" from 9 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., a rerun of Fox's "Family Guy" scored a 1.7 rating/5 share, the second-best TV rating result of the night. One new startup for the summer, a new season debut of NBC's "The Marriage Ref," hit a low-ish 1.7/4 rating. This is down from its 2010 finale, when it earned a 2.0 rating. Other new offerings for the night -- CBS' "60 minutes" and NBC's "Dateline NBC," both at 8 p.m. -- each registered a 0.8/3. Some highly promoted cable shows posted decent -- but not great -- numbers. The second episode of TNT's "Falling Skies" dropped 25% lower to a 1.5 rating among 18-49 viewers (4.2 million viewers overall), down from a 2.0 rating for its two-hour launch a week ago. The drop in ratings was expected. The "Skies" lead-in was returning TNT show "Leverage," which got to a 1.0 rating among 18-49 viewers (up 10% versus its year-ago ratings premiere) and 3.4 million viewers. NBC won the night with a Nielsen 1.4 rating/4 share among 18-49 viewers, down from a 1.8 rating a week ago. Fox was at a 1.3/4 (it earned a 1.3 a week ago); Univision, a 1.1/3 (down two-tenths from its 1.3 rating a week ago; CBS, at a 0.9/3, was up two-tenths; and ABC, at a 0.8/3, was up one-tenth of a rating point.
It wouldn't be a stretch to call Chiquita a vibrant consumer brand. Seeking extra wattage, however, the company recently partnered with the animated movie "Rio" for a multichannel ad campaign. The effort, which ran from March 23 through May 8 -- before the animated film was released -- aimed at driving consumer engagement with a Chiquita-branded microsite. It promoted both "Rio" and Chiquita through interactive games and activities, videos, healthy recipes, and a sweepstakes. Working closely with Chiquita, media agency Gotham Direct created the multichannel media strategy, which sought to leverage the Chiquita-"Rio" partnership via rich media banner units, cross-channel promotions, on-air radio endorsements, broadcast and cable tv ads and print and in-theater ads. All were designed to drive traffic to and engage with the microsite. "We wanted a smart yet engaging media campaign around the Chiquita Rio Web site that could provide trackable, measurable results for our brand," aid Craig Stephen, vice president North American Bananas and Fresh Select. To reach the target audience -- parents and their children -- Gotham Direct targeted top online parenting sites, including Disney and Kaboose and various high-profile video sites, like Hulu and YouTube, as well as popular social-media venues and traditional media. In addition, special "Rio"-themed stickers on Chiquita bananas were created and placed on millions of bananas to generate awareness. Within two weeks of the media campaign's launch, targeted traffic and engagement levels on the Chiquita.com Web site skyrocketed. Traffic was more than 15 times what the site had experienced during that same period the prior year -- or the amount of traffic the site received for the entire six months prior to the "Rio" campaign. What's more, within six weeks the media campaign had generated over 400 million impressions and over half a million unique visits to the microsite -- exceeding the client's expectations. "This is a true success story, about how an established brand such as Chiquita can successfully create a full-on integrated branded partnership with a movie ... and create a highly successful media campaign to promote that partnership," said Shattuck Groome, partner, Gotham Direct. Founded in 2002, Gotham Direct, is a privately held media planning, buying and analytics agency with offices in New York and London. Additional clients include 1800 Tequila, Hotwire.com, JPMorgan Chase, Gore-Tex and New York University.
If you want to understand the limits of TV ratings points, then consider this classic tidbit from TV lore. In the late 1940s, the water levels in Detroit reservoirs would plummet on Tuesday nights, from 9 to 9:05. Upon investigation, the Detroit authorities figured out why: Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theaterended at 9, and "it turned out that everyone waited until the end of 'Texaco Star Theater' before going to the bathroom." (That's a quote from Berle's autobiography.) It's an old story, one you may have heard it before -- but it's a very important point for understanding just how captive TV audiences were back in the day. Before time-shifted viewing, TV viewers booked their life schedules around the network's content. They engaged with programming with more than just engagement. They had commitment. That means a lot in terms of metrics. Because in such a highly engaged world, anyone who's seen your ad has probably incorporated your message. And so GRP (Gross Ratings Points) -- a measurement of the size of your audience -- becomes a measurement of the size of the audience that's committed to engaging with your ad. Clearly, things have changed. TV viewers aren't committing a hallowed half-hour for programming; they're time-shifting to watch around their own schedules (often in small chunks of viewing). Sports, which is perishable content, is a notable exception (which is why Super Bowl advertising still gains top dollar) -- but you pretty much need to go to the movies to find a captive video audience that's even remotely reminiscent of the audiences of classic TV viewership. Today's viewers also face a ton of distractions. One study finds that as much as 33% of Americans multitask while watching TV, with more than half of those multitaskers surfing the Internet and watching television at once. And as a study from the IPG Media Lab and YuMe reveals, smartphones are an even bigger cause of ad avoidance than DVRs. In case you haven't noticed, a lot of people have smartphones. Which means that today's viewer has a wild range of engagement levels -- completely riveted to programming at times, completely riveted to text messaging at others. In that kind of environment, impression data alone really doesn't mean much. Understanding ad effectiveness requires layering engagement data into the picture as well. We're seeing that thinking a lot more from major media players. One recent example: Kantar Media and Milward Brown have announced a new tool for understanding TV ad engagement. The tool asks critical questions like when viewers look at an ad, when they turn away, and the sequence of the ad within the pod. Look for more TV engagement metrics tools to come. And look for engagement to replace other standard metrics in a lot of other channels, too. Because the discussion about the history of TV engagement isn't just about GRPs. It's about the fact that, in a world of universal Attention Deficit Disorder, intense media clutter, and millions of messages vying for consumers' attention at any one time, the fact that people see something doesn't mean they actually care. Which means that the impression will only lose value as a stand-alone metric as time goes on. Instead, look for the industry to continue to migrate toward engagement-based thinking. For just one example, consider how Laura Desmond, CEO of Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), has gone on the attack against the traditional system of media mix modeling pp calling instead for a far more nuanced understanding of consumer "experience." SMG's MediaVest has followed suit on that thinking, opening a new human experience practice this month. When will the impression die completely as a metric? Probably never. But as more opportunities arise for measuring engagement, and as impressions (and even clicks) mean less and less all the time, we'll have to all learn new ways to make our numbers engaging. I'm sure municipal water departments nationwide will agree.
I enjoy headlines more than most. I appreciate the art of the headline, the (sometimes) drama, and the (often) silliness that provides a break in the day. A good headline should be informative, quickly, whether introducing the news or commercial content -- of which advertising is one form. This was a point made to me in a dramatic way by a former boss, the legendary Peter Rabar. I was working on the Columbia House account at the time. We were direct marketers of music and video, and the headline that was making us millions of dollars in revenue was "11 for a penny." Being disciplined, we were constantly testing alternatives. Nothing worked better. (Remember this was direct, and we knew precisely what worked.) And being very young and convinced that there had to be something more "creative" and therefore more effective, I was constantly suggesting alternatives. Peter then made a suggestion to me. He said he thought I should test my alternatives by displaying them on a sandwich board while walking up and down 53 Street and Madison Avenue, at 5 p.m., observing people's reactions. Interesting suggestion, I thought. His methodology was creative, but his intent was not immediately obvious. I then discovered that there was a busy subway on the corner of 53rd and Madison and, at 5 p.m., the "respondents" did not have a lot of time for my message. Sort of like the real world. As I thought about what the outcome might be, Peter's goal became very clear. A professor can teach the concept of a value proposition, and even the art of expression. But it might take the reality of a walk on Madison Ave, with a sandwich board, during rush hour, to understand that there was only one headline that was going to beat "11 for a penny." It was "12 for a penny." Lesson learned. Today I am fascinated and often entertained by the financial markets, and the flood of opinion that passes for information about where we're headed. And I'm constantly reminded of the famous line from the retiring Hollywood executive who said, "Nobody knows anything." Let me share some of my favorite headlines from the past week in what passes for financial information: "Optimism Jumps But Pessimism Remains High" "Economic Outlook Tough And Realistically Optimistic" And the one crossing into politics, "Perry Could Win, Or Not" You can't make this stuff up. I was walking yesterday on 42 Street in New York. I passed a man sitting on the sidewalk with a sign that read "Tips." He wasn't playing a guitar or singing or reading poetry. He was just asking for, and receiving, tips. A real direct marketer.
The bane of any media or entertainment existence is where to find more growth -- specifically, TV advertising growth. Through thick and thin, in bad and good overall TV markets, the NFL has endured well for its TV partners -- especially when it comes to TV advertising. Wildly strong gains were achieved this year -- amid an overall strong TV advertising market. In poor years, like in 2008 and 2009, the NFL still posted gains when every one else took cutbacks. Who's to think that anything will slow this train down? (Only a sustained in-season lockout, I'm guessing). So with this in mind, the preeminent professional sports league, the NFL, is floating the idea of yet another package of games -- an early season eight-game Thursday night schedule where it hopes to grab another $500 million to $700 million in rights fees from one lucky TV network. All of this is on top of the $4.5 billion it already gets collectively from Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN. If successful, this would mean the NFL would grow its media revenues from 10% to 16%. In effect, the NFL estimates there is a specific level of more TV advertising dollars to be had. This new early season Thursday night package would match up nicely with an eight-game late season Thursday night package of games on the NFL's own NFL Network. Turner Broadcasting, a Comcast sports network (Versus, no doubt), or perhaps Fox's FX Network would seemingly be in the hunt. Carving out a new package doesn't add more games to the schedule; it essentially takes away some games from existing networks. But this doesn't necessarily mean less advertising. The guess is the fewer regional games on CBS and Fox (right now they have six or seven, depending on the week) means the remaining games would expand into other markets. CBS and Fox each sell national TV advertising inventory. Some had questioned whether the NFL will cut back on the fees that CBS, Fox, NBC, and ESPN pay. I don't think so. Previously, the NFL started up a "Sunday Night Football" franchise on NBC from scratch, offering a full season of games. In recent years, the NFL opened up the late season eight-game Thursday night schedule on its own NFL Network -- as well as a DirecTV consumer fee-based package. History is on the league's side. TV advertising revenue doesn't seem to be hurt when new packages are added. In the past, the NFL has found other ways to accommodate its TV partners, such as with more playoff games or other events. It could do the same again. The NFL hasn't guessed wrong yet. Some of this is indeed tied to the lockout -- that is, owners are looking for more revenue. Then again, if a lockout happens -- and a whole season gets cancelled - things may be viewed differently. To make back those losses, a more rapid expansion might be in the works. This might include what NFL players already say they are opposed to -- adding more games to the schedule, going to 18 regular season contests from 16.
A welcome revolution is coming to television advertisers. The continued digitization of TV will give brands more control over how and where advertisements appear and will provide increasingly precise and actionable performance measurements. To truly take advantage of this revolution, brands must first address the growing need for shorter and uniquely formatted creative, which are being driven by radically changing audience viewing habits. To fully understand the digitization of TV, however, brands should first look to online video. Video ad campaigns delivered online give advertisers the ability to understand who is watching, how much of it they are watching, and how different creative and format types are impacting viewer engagement. These actionable insights provide brands the opportunity to get an immediate and accurate snapshot of campaign performance, and develop more effective creative based on viewer behavior and needs. This real-time easy-to-measure and easy-to-optimize approach is dramatically different than that taken by broadcast television, which targets the same mass of viewers with the same TV commercials-over and over again. In the past 60 years, enormous dollar amounts have been spent trying to get brand messages across to TV viewers without any real understanding or proof of ROI. The deep and detailed measurement provided by digital media contrast sharply with the "finger in the wind" estimates historically provided for TV. What will brands get out of the coming sea of change? For one thing, control: Before TV digitization, the entire traffic process was controlled by TV and cable companies. Advertisers sent their creative to CBS or NBC and the network took over from there. Where the advertisement was delivered was largely out of a brand's hands. In contrast, with digital video, brands can take advantage of the mediums that serve the online market and gain back this control. With the emergence of digital TV and the maturation of digital media also comes the ability to easily move assets between platforms -- from mobile to online to TV, and back again. This creates ample opportunity for reusing creative if it's deemed successful, providing the ability to synchronize campaigns across channels, and ensuring a greater level of message consistency while comparing performance across mediums. These are the knowns about the digitization of TV. What's unknown at this point is how the mix of traditional players, new entrants and rapidly changing audience viewing habits will affect brand advertising in the space. For starters, the TV model has achieved a high level of success, despite being plagued by vague measurement. Rating and measurement companies like Nielsen and even comScore will change at a much slower pace, waiting first for new entrants and new technologies to prove themselves as serious competitive threats. In the meantime, online content owners are redefining"TV" and how it is watched. Netflix recently purchased the rights to a new 26-episode TV series, "House of Cards" starring Kevin Spacey, turning the subscription-based, Internet-streaming movie leader into a content developer. The growing influence of non-traditional companies on digital TV programming will amplify the need for brands to have direct insight into the kind of creative that resonates with viewers. Another major trend affecting brand advertising: the decline of live TV viewing - thanks in part to players like Netflix and in part to time-shifting viewing through DVR technology. Viewers are developing a fondness for "binge viewing," in which they watch several episodes of a TV show at one sitting, instead of checking in week after week for new episodes. Additionally, viewers are flocking to online video. According to comScore Video Metrix, 174 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 14 hours of online video in March 2011. All of these trends will trigger changes in how brands address and attract audiences. TV ads will likely need to be shorter, mirroring what works online. Brands will need to speak to an online audience that expects immediate gratification, a high level of interactivity and the ability to socialize content. The only way for advertisers to determine what approach works best in the new digital TV landscape is to jump into the water and start swimming. The biggest and savviest brands in TV advertising have already realized the benefits of the intelligence they can gather from online and mobile video, and they will be among the first to expect the same insight from their TV ad spend. __________________________________________________________________________________________________Editor's Note: Are you a Video Insider? 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What would you say the media industry -- networks, advertisers, and agencies -- does best? Innovate? Seldom. Work together? Often. Make money? Well, that's the point, isn't it? I'd say that what the industry does best -- what everyone has in common, whatever our role is in the ecosystem -- is tell creative stories. Yes, content is king and it's all about the creative. That's why we watch. We want to laugh, cry, and be entertained. Which television programs enjoy the longest runs? The ones that attract viewers with the best characters and most compelling narratives. And which commercials are most memorable? The ones that tell the most engaging stories. These are the commercials that we watch, recall, and talk about with our colleagues at the water cooler. Sometimes they even achieve the holy grail of viral success. But the biggest challenge for all of us in the media business has always been to identify the right audiences for our stories: for networks to find viewers who connect with their programming and for agencies and advertisers to find the narratives that most matter to their brands. With the abundance of analytics now available to networks and marketers -- second-by-second ratings, household purchasing data, census-level demographics -- it should be easier than ever to find those audiences. Because finally, data can tell stories, too. As Canoe Ventures' David Verklin says, "Data is the new creative." Data now drives advertisers' connections with audiences in the way that creative did in the past. Granted, one cannot succeed without the other, but without the right data, the best creative effort will fall flat. Even virtuosos need to play to the right audience. The old metrics -- remember POOR points? -- don't tell the story advertisers need to understand in order to connect with viewers. A soft-drink marketer might know that four programs in a given time slot attract women aged 18 to 49, but those high-level metrics won't show where to find the best ROI for their particular category. Talk about soda without the fizz! For advertisers, there is now an opportunity to optimize exposure with actual purchasers of a given product, on networks and programs they might have overlooked. For instance, did you know that NBC's "30 Rock" rates very highly with European car owners? (VW is actually the highest.) Or that Lincoln and Mercury owners are more likely than owners of other cars to watch the Gospel Music Channel? Conversely, data can tell networks where to look for ad dollars. "Real Housewives of New York City" on Bravo gets high ratings in many CPG categories, from air fresheners to granola. But remember that the system that analyzes the data is a computer - not a brain. So when Bravo shows a high rating for razors, planners and buyers need to consider the context before pulling the trigger. While stories are not always obvious, sometimes they are: MTV rates highly with fans of Red Bull. Data can also reveal opportunity where Nielsen doesn't tread: Bloomberg TV, for instance. There are no Nielsen ratings for Bloomberg TV, and yet the network offers a high-value platform for financial-products marketers. While this may be an obvious point, the data can tell marketers even more. For instance, that households that watch Bloomberg TV are far more likely than those that watch CNN or CNBC to hold an American Express card, drive high-end foreign cars, and own a brokerage account. Hello, Mercedes, Lexus, and BMW? Advertise here. Yes, data just might be the new creative. The opportunity for all of us now, as we wade through virtual oceans of that creative, is to take the stories we tell and turn them into dollars.
For TV advertisers, going long -- in football parlance, running the clock -- is always a disruption. Current TV's hour-long "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" has been doing this regularly, running a few minutes into the next hour, for 63 minutes in total. All this presumably to cut into the viewership of other news shows after "Countdown," like the similarly targeted MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show." At first Olbermann and his producing crew, had no problem with this. After all, they were giving viewers more than their money's worth. Of course, what isn't mentioned is what happens when you upset Current viewers, who might like to watch a show on CNN, MSNBC or other TV content. The irony of course is that Olbermann just came from the confines of NBC Universal, MSNBC to be exact -- and it was NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker that came up with idea of "super-sizing" TV shows back in 2001. As a ploy to combat the then-very-strong CBS "Survivor," Zucker rolled out 40-minute episodes of the half-hour "Friends," "Will and Grace" and "Just Shoot Me." For the most part, this strategy has been largely abandoned -- apart from those extended one-and-a-half or two-hour versions your favorite reality competition show. Even in its heyday, "super-sizing" always felt like a short-term stunt for viewers. Ten years ago, too, Zucker's extra-large TV shows didn't face the issue of "disruption" technologies. Today, it's a different story -- what with 43% of U.S. viewers having other means of getting complete TV viewing of programs at any hour, at any minute of the day, with time-shifting DVR technology. Now, Current TV says it is cutting back on "Countdown" to its proper hour-long length. Olbermann says he does not want to hurt his friend Maddow, a long-time colleague at MSNBC. Others believe that when Maddow's contract runs out, he'd love to recruit her to Current TV. Don't worry. TV marketers will continue to look for other ways to disrupt, catching the viewer off-guard. What about an hour-long show that suddenly stops after 49 minutes?
"This is really addicting," I admit to my wife after more than an hour of my distracting her from reading with a new iPad app called Video Time Machine. From gangster films of the 1930s to Ford commercials of the mid 60s, Wonderama in the early 70s to Chet Huntley explaining to Dick Cavett why he was signing off from the Huntley Brinkley Report, this app is a trove of historically indexed video for the hard and softcore media mavens. "Ya think!" she shoots back sharply. Well, until I happen upon a clip from her childhood. "Sigmund the Sea Monsters!" She yelps. Yes, Sid and Marty Kroft (who had to be on some of the wildest hallucinogens this side of magic mushrooms) descended from the twisted genius of Banana Splits and Lidsville with this throwaway Saturday morning sitcom involving a green pint-sized sea monster and two boys, one played by Family Affair child star Johnny Whitaker. "Ew, wow, this was a lot worse than I remembered it," my wife says after a few minutes of the clip." And so it goes with media nostalgia. It almost always plays better in memory than in actual rerun. But the brilliance of Original Victories, Inc.'s Video Time Machine, also available in a less polished Web version, is that it is video aggregation/curation done with real style and purpose. The iPad iteration lets you set the year and one of about half a dozen topics (news, movies, ads, etc) to call up one to 60 or so clips that have been curated by the editors and submitted by users. The iPad interface is perfect for this activity because you can swipe across the pile of results. A few perhaps obvious lessons come from this great app. First, video is data. Like all of the other names, dates and places online or in any spreadsheet, when properly indexed all of the video pouring onto the Web can be creatively recombined and parsed into new products and offer new insights. Second, what Video Time Machine does is very simple in that it leverages and streamlines for us a behavior many already use at YouTube. Many people already go to YouTube as a nostalgia machine, calling up TV and film clips from their childhood. This app recognizes that YouTube is a Wayback machine. The best digital products don't try to introduce new behaviors so much as complete behaviors that many consumers already perform in a less efficient way.