Craft beer brewer Breckenridge Brewery of Colorado is extending its low-budget “Truth in Beervertising” TV campaign with two new spots parodying big-brand beer advertising. One of the new 30-second spots, dubbed “The Least Interesting Man in the World,” shows Breckenridge’s head brewer, Bob Harrington, standing motionless and staring with a blank expression as he watches bottle after bottle of the brand’s 471 IPA being capped by a brewery machine. Harrington’s only line: “I like to drink beer. And when I do, I prefer good beer.” A voiceover concludes the spot with “Never stay thirsty, my friends.” In the second spot, Harrington is shown, back to the camera, watching waves roll onto a sunny, pristine beach. As the view pans out, it becomes clear that he’s actually watching a large-screen TV while enjoying a Breckenridge Agave Wheat, whereupon he promptly flips to a football game. This spot has no lines for the brewer/actor, and no voiceover; instead, it ends with a screen message: “Find Your Couch.” If the spots happen to remind viewers of highly visible, high-budget campaigns from Dos Equis and Corona -- well, Breckenridge has no comment on that score. What Breckenridge Director of Marketing Todd M. Thibault will say, however, is that the campaign’s point isn’t about attempting to position the brand’s beers against any specific brand or brands, but instead to humorously convey the message that producing good beer is Breckenridge’s sole focus. “Many beer campaigns always seem to be talking about something else, like their cans’ new technology, or how you should drink their beer when you choose to drink beer,” says Thibault. “We talk about how we always drink beer, and how we like good beer.” The campaign -– including the new spots and the 2011 TV spots -- is from Breckenridge’s agency, Denver-based Cultivator Advertising & Design. Last year’s spots parodied big-brands’ focus on technological innovations, like chill indicators on cans. Those four 15-second ads were produced for $10,000. (Cultivator’s cost efficiencies for the brand include employing the production facilities at Fox 31 Colorado news -- as with last year’s ads, the new spots are being aired on that channel during sports events and Sunday prime time.) This year, the two longer spots were produced on the same budget. The brand now has distribution in more than 30 states, but focuses its limited traditional marketing in its largest market -- Colorado -- relying on viral sharing of its spots to prompt beer lovers around the country to seek out its distinctive beers and ales. In addition to being posted on Breckenridge’s own site (and promoted on its Facebook and Twitter accounts), last year’s spots were picked up by beer bloggers and critics –- a dynamic that the brewery hopes to replicate with the new ads.
New research from the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester shows that 76% of marketers plan to keep their media budgets stable in 2012. About half (47%) of all budgets will go to TV. That’s a 6% bump from the 2010 survey. Marketers are intrigued by the possibility of TV measurement systems based on set-top-box (STB) data offering more insight into TV performance, the ANA and Forrester said. Seventy-two percent of study respondents believe the accuracy of STB information will be upgraded in the next few years, while 47% envision “unique visitors/watchers as the eventual standard for cross-platform audience measurement.” Also, about half of respondents said they are experimenting with or planning to explore various iterations of advanced advertising in the next year. That includes video on connected TVs. The research also found that 70% plan to spend more on online advertising this year -- a bit higher than with social media and mobile platforms. The research is derived from a survey of 124 advertisers in large industries, conducted in December 2011 and January 2012.
Average monthly retransmission fees that TV stations get from cable, satellite, and telco video services continue to climb. Now the average monthly fee is about 33 cents per subscriber per month, as of the third quarter of 2011 -- up 27% over the same period in 2010 and 47% over the same period in 2009, per SNL Kagan, which surveyed 16 TV station group owners. Univision Communications ranked first at 61 cents, and Sinclair Broadcast Group was second at 49 cents. Next came Newport Television and Lin TV, ranked third at 48 cents each. CBS Corp. ranked fourth, with retrans fees of approximately 45 cents. SNL Kagan says CBS pulled in a collective $52.3 million in retrans revenue in the third quarter. CBS Corp. projects that it will pull in about $250 million in retrans revenue in 2012. Previously, SNL Kagan had noted that monthly subscriber fees that go to cable networks can range from 14 cents per customer for channels such as the Food Network to as much as $4 per subscriber for cable sports networks such as ESPN. Looking ahead, SNL Kagan says average retrans fees will remain on an upward trend, giving the leverage of valuable programming to owned-and-operated stations.
DirectTV grew healthy U.S. revenues -- but with a smaller number of new subscribers -- during the fourth quarter of 2011. U.S. revenue climbed 9% to $6.03 billion, with net consumer additions of 125,000. This was against a net gain of 289,000 for the fourth quarter of 2010. For the year, DirecTV ended with a 3% gain to 19.89 million U.S. subscribers. The company's average monthly revenue per subscriber increased to $101.38 from $96.64 in the fourth quarter of 2010. Much of this was due to higher NFL Sunday Ticket sales, as well as price increases on programming packages and leased set-top boxes, and sales of premium channels and advanced services. DirecTV made gains in Latin America and Mexico. Latin America grew 2 million in new subscribers for the year to 7.8 million. Sky Mexico had an annual net gain of 3.7 million. U.S. and Latin America customers now total 32 million. DirecTV's overall revenues for the fourth quarter of 2011 were up 13% to $7.46 billion, with net income climbing 16% to $718 million. Programming costs continue to rise at DirecTV, particularly for its pricey NFL Sunday Ticket package, which gives consumers access to all Sunday games. Overall programming costs rose to $3.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 from $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010. For the entire year 2011, programming costs were at $11.7 billion from $10.0 billion. DirecTV now pays the NFL over $900 million a year for the Sunday Ticket package. This is part of a $4 billion five-year deal that it signed in 2009.
Against some tougher 2010 comparisons, CBS Corp. achieved slightly better revenue and advertising results for its businesses in 2011. For the fourth quarter of 2011, CBS' total advertising revenue -- network, cable, radio and outdoor -- grew 5% to $2.6 billion. For the year as a whole, CBS inched up 2% in total advertising revenue to $9.2 billion. Advertising revenues for its entertainment divisions -- CBS Televison Network, its syndication and interactive businesses -- were essentially flat in the fourth quarter of 2011 versus the same period in 2010. Looking at overall entertainment revenue for the CBS Televison Network, its studios, distribution, CBS Films and its interactive business, the company had a 1% gain to $7.5 billion for the year despite big returns from advertising revenues in the 2010 for the Super Bowl and higher advertising revenues from the NCAA College Basketball Tournament. In 2011, a new agreement had CBS sharing the college tournament games with TNT. For the fourth quarter, entertainment revenue dropped 1% to $2.0 billion, mostly due to unfavorable comparisons to the fourth quarter of 2010, when CBS recorded the second-cycle syndication sales of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. CBS says revenue growth for the year was driven by new licensing programming agreements for digital streaming, growth in underlying advertising revenues for the CBS Television Network and higher retrans revenues CBS' local broadcasting -- TV and radio stations -- were subject to lower political advertising revenues. It witnessed a 12% drop in revenue overall to $721 million in the fourth quarter. CBS TV stations declined 18% in revenue; CBS radio revenues decreased 5%. All local broadcast CBS stations were hurt as a result of lost revenues from missing early-season games due to the NBC lockout. Both TV and radio, however, saw gains in automotive advertising For its cable networks -- CBS Sports Network, Showtime Network, and the Smithsonian Networks -- revenues for the fourth quarter of 2011 improved 7% to $395 million from $368 million. Much of this came from rate increases and growth in subscriptions. Outdoor revenues for the fourth quarter of 2011 increased 1% to $514 million, with publishing revenues also slipping 1% to $229 million in the period. Overall, CBS's net earnings gained 31% to $370 million for the quarter, and almost double for the year, $1.3 billion versus $724 million. Revenues for the quarter inched up to $3.9 billion from $3.8 billion. Revenue for 2011 rose to $14.2 billion from $14.1 billion.
Detailed research into sports or television is never a perfect indicator of success. So you might depend on gut instincts. But what about athletes and TV shows that have neither? By looking at the numbers, few NBA general managers thought that previously unknown Harvard graduate Jeremy Lin would average well over 25 points a game and lead his New York Knicks to six straight victories -- five of them without the team’s two big marquee stars. What can TV programmers learn from this? While we all know the value of media research, scheduling research, and the testing of TV shows, success means more than just looking at numbers. Not all well-tested shows achieve positive results. (Hello, Fox's "Lone Star.") Billy Beane, the baseball general manager of "Moneyball" fame, used cold-hearted research to grab under-valued, under-appreciated players and make the Oakland As into a better team. Would Jeremy Lin have made the list had Beane been an NBA GM? Playing for low-profile (but still NCAA Division 1) Harvard, little in Lin’s background could have predicted his recent rise to fame. In TV, could have anyone predicted that MTV's "Jersey Shore" would not only get the most viewers for any regularly scheduled non-sports cable show, but regularly beat many broadcast network shows on Thursday nights? But we perhaps should have guessed better about the success of another high-profile singing competition show on the order of an aging "American Idol." NBC's "The Voice" is doing very well. NBC might tell you that Mark Burnett’s previous singing competition show -- CBS' summer series "Rock Star" -- was used, in part, as a lesson to figure out what would or wouldn't work in "The Voice." And then there are those shows not built up with big marketing dollars that achieve truly unexpected results -- like ABC's "Once Upon a Time" this season. Maybe such results also have to do with just being somewhat lazy. Looking at the 2010 NBA draft, a lone basketball statistician surmised – based on Lin's field goal percentage and other stats at Harvard -- that he would be a good grab for a team looking for a point guard. Even then some GMs probably probably thought he didn't seem all that "athletic" or that he didn't play against strong competition or go to a big basketball school like Duke, North Carolina, Ohio State, Kentucky or Kansas That's right. Not all television shows have producers like Steven Spielberg or J.J. Abrams attached to them, nor big research pedigrees. But it turns out that even those shows can fail.
CIMM is taking a pro-active role in advancing new media nomenclature and processes with both its Lexicon(terms and definitions associated with Set-Top-Box data measurement) and Asset Identification Primer (glossary of asset terms). These documents form the basis of this column, which offers a common language for Set-Top-Box nomenclature that can expedite the rollout of the data for its many industry applications. Continuing on the commercial pod theme from the past weeks, let us now consider the common elements associated with pods. These constants help in the measurement of commercials within the pods and the measurement of full pods within a program or piece of content. There has been considerable research conducted to ascertain optimal pod length, configuration and positioning. While much of this depends on the type of programming and audience skew of the examined network, certain truisms such as the primacy of the “A” position (first position in the pod) are still generally accepted in the industry. As pod formations and lengths evolve through the Internet and connected TV, we may see different viewing / usage patterns emerge. So, too, as we are able to examine commercial pods on a second-by-second basis via STB data, we may be better able to discern optimal ad patterns between “sub-minute” commercials - 5 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds and 30 seconds - in relation to each other, and to the programming surrounding them. Pod LengthSee also: Pod CIMM DEFINITION: The duration of non-programming content that airs during a program break. (Source: Nielsen) Pod NumberSee also: Pod CIMM DEFINITION: Where the commercial pod is located within an episode, program or time period. 2: The relative position of a pod within a given telecast. (Source: Nielsen) Pod PositionSee also: Pod CIMM DEFINITION: The position of an individual advertisement within a certain commercial pod. 2: The sequential location of an individual commercial within a pod. (Source: Nielsen) Please refer to the CIMM Lexicon online at http://www.cimm-us.org/lexicon.htm for additional information on these and other terms.
If you’ve been feeling like you’re seeing more ads when you watch 30 Rock online, that’s because you are. Long-form online video — like TV shows — included about seven ads on average as of the end of 2011, and that’s nearly double the ad load at the start of last year, according to a report releasing today from online video technology provider FreeWheel that analyzed more than 45 billion video views across sites such as ESPN, Discovery, AOL, VEVO and more. Plus, consumers appear to be tolerating the ads. Long-form videos garnered an 88% completion rate of video ads in the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to 82% in the third quarter. More ads being watched is a good thing for marketers and programmers. But are the ads truly being watched? The great unknown remains — have we all just timed up the ads perfectly for a bathroom break or a quick snack, just as we do with live TV? I’m willing to bet that consumer recall of ads in long-form online video could be dwindling. But maybe that’s just me. Maybe I’m just so busy grabbing a handful of popcorn that I forgot to see who sponsored the Valentine’s episode of Parks & Rec. More ads being sold is a good thing, too. In the first quarter of 2011 just over half of professional video content of any length had an ad in it; by the end of the year three-quarters did. “Long-form content, most of which is brought over to streaming platforms from broadcast and cable, now features ad loads that are approaching those of television,” FreeWheel said. Plus, seven ads per long-form video is still about a third of the ads viewers would see in a TV show on-air.
Program packages costing consumers around $10 per month have been attracting TV business entrepreneurs. For example, Netflix basic streaming and Hulu Plus both cost $7.99 a month, and a number of local digital TV packages have been priced around $10. The trouble is that not everyone wants to pay the same freight to the program owners. Aereo, a New York City service backed by Barry Diller, is a new $12 alternative TV package looking to test the waters. This one -- in part -- tries to go where the likes of FilmOn and ivi TV went before: retransmitting over-the-air broadcast signals digitally to consumers. History may not be on Aereo's side. FilmOn and ivi TV couldn't make the case that they had the right to re-air broadcast signals without some sort of payment to stations. The two companies argued that they were essentially cable operators. Aereo tries a different angle, saying that consumers have the right to receive broadcast stations signals over the air by an "antenna." But Aero's consumers use an antenna that's essentially stored at one Brooklyn location -- and then digitally transferred to devices like iPads and iPhones, as well as to regular TVs. So what's the $12 fee for? "Technological services." Ah. No doubt, broadcasters will make the case that any new TV/video retailer -- or middleman -- is looking to make a buck off their programming wares. That's because, without Aereo, consumers could still get those stations' signals for free. The real issue is the driving force behind these new wave of low-cost TV/video services. I'm guessing that consumers - - even those not necessarily from financially depressed homes -- may not want put all their eggs into one entertainment basket. With so many options available to receive TV shows and movies, some consumers may want to add and subtract services -- especially if they only cost $10 or so a month. This can be far cheaper than $100 to $125 a month bills from regular cable operators, satellite distributors, or teleco packagers. Why not combine Netflix, Hulu Plus, and one of your local cable operator's low-cost packages that provide some bare-bones cable networks? That's still a cheaper overall deal. Smaller, simpler services might for the foreseeable future be the key to satisfying viewers’ video/TV/movie entertainment needs.