In the wake of the cable industry's new advertising effort Canoe Ventures scaling back, more companies continue to talk up their future interactive TV services for advertisers.Time Warner Cable said it has launched Enhanced iTV, which offers its advertisers in specific iTV markets the added capability to deliver a targeted message based upon the time of day. In this time frame, advertisers can reach demographically targeted audiences on a variety of networks. Beginning today, Enhanced iTV is available in existing iTV markets nationwide, which include New York City, Charlotte and Cincinnati.Looking at some of its local TV successes, Time Warner Cable worked with the Ohio Lottery through an iTV effort to obtain data on consumer knowledge of their lottery games. It built awareness of three different games and gained young consumers. As with many interactive TV efforts, Time Warner Cable Media used translucent overlay messaging of TV commercials. For the Ohio Lottery, it ran a media schedule targeted at younger-skewing networks and high-profile shows.In another deal, Charlotte-based jeweler Brownlee Jewelers started up an iTV campaign offering to buy consumer gold through overlays of its TV advertisements. Time Warner says this resulted in a 150% increase in in-store gold transactions and significantly bolstered revenue.Time Warner's iTV efforts, initially launched in 2005, connect businesses with viewers through real-time engagement on their television screens.
Bill Duggan, group EVP at the Association of National Advertisers, has taken NBC to task for sloppy coordination last week between the editorial and ad traffic departments. A story ran on Today about Carnival Cruise Lines and its recent ship disasters, which was immediately followed by an upbeat commercial for the same company. The story ran last Thursday with the news hook that a Carnival ship lost power in the Indian Ocean. Today reported that it took three days to get the ship back to port, amid stifling heat and through waters known for pirate attacks. The story noted that it was just the latest cruise ship debacle for Carnival -- the Costa Concordia which ran aground off the coast of Italy in January was also operated by Carnival. “It took only 10 minutes for the next PR disaster,” Duggan wrote in describing the trafficking snafu on the ANA’s Marketing Maestros blog. “During the very next commercial break, an ad for Carnival ran.” He noted that it was the high-energy spot with the Todd Rundgren track ("I don't wanna work") opening with a teenage girl blowing a big bubble, watching her dad “totally unwind on the cruise vacation.” Duggan further described the positioning of the Carnival story so near to an ad for the company as a “horrific collision between content and advertising.” “Why in this day and age isn't someone at the network (or local station level) monitoring the news content and looking at the commercial log to make sure embarrassments like this don't happen?” Duggan asked. “Advertisers deserve better.” It’s an issue that the media has grappled with over the years. Many local stations, for example, routinely give major sponsors like car companies notice if their news departments are going to run a negative piece on the auto industry, giving clients time to pull ads if they don’t want to be associated with the critical content. But while the issue isn’t new, Duggan asserted that “the stakes are higher now, as mistakes like this are amplified via social media.” Duggan guesses the Carnival spot aired in a local break on WNBC in New York and possibly other select markets as well. “But checks and balances need to be applied at both the national and local levels,” he said. Reps for both Carnival and NBC did not respond for comment by deadline.
Looking to build some momentum on what has become a throwaway night on broadcast TV, NBC will start a road/adventure reality series, "Escape Routes," with Ford Motor Company as a main sponsor.The all-new SUV Ford Escape will be featured during the six-episode limited series. Each week, the six two-person teams will arrive in a new city, where they compete in a series of spontaneous adventures and interactive challenges using their Escapes. "Escape Routes" begins in Los Angeles before heading to New York, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco and Las Vegas/L.A. The winning team will receive the $100,000 grand prize plus two new Ford Escapes.Ford Motor Company executives say this is unique. "This is the first time an automaker has used prime-time television to launch a new vehicle, and it is a great showcase for the all-new Escape," said Jim Farley, Ford group vice president for global marketing, sales and service.Show producers say viewers will be able to watch the progress of the teams in real-time -- as well as allowing viewers to interact with the show with many social media elements.The series -- which will debut March 31 on NBC and its sister network mun2 -- will air Saturday evenings at 8 p.m./EST on NBC. It will also air on its sister network Telemundo's mun2, the network that caters to a young Latino American audience, Saturday nights at 11 p.m./EST. Each episode will also air on nbc.com and mun2.tv the day after the broadcast.James Hoffman, executive vice president of sales and marketing at NBC, says: "We're excited about the show and think the concept of 'Escape Routes' and its unique use of social media will add a compelling element to Saturday nights."Last fall, "Escape Routes" started up for Ford as an Internet/social media effort through Zynga, and with Jenny McCarthy competing against the whole country using the app Words With Friends.
NBCUniversal is joining other big digital companies in participating in a digital media version of a TV-style "upfront" event -- becoming the first traditional media company to do so. For the "Digital Content NewFronts" series of events, NBCUniversal joins AOL, Digitas, Google/YouTube, Hulu, Microsoft Advertising and Yahoo. (NBCUniversal is a co-equity partner in Hulu, along with News Corp., Walt Disney, and Providence Equity Partners.) Plans are set for NBCUniversal to host its presentation May 1 in New York City. NBC says it will "present innovative solutions for marketers across its vast portfolio of Web, social and mobile properties. "This includes stand-alone digital companies, DailyCandy, Fandango, iVillage, Television Without Pity -- as well as the TV-related digital properties for Access Hollywood, Bravo, Chiller, CNBC, E!, G4, Golf Channel, NBC Owned Television Stations, MSNBC, Mun2, NBC, The NBC Sports Group, Oxygen, Sprout, Style, Syfy, Telemundo, The Weather Channel, TODAY, USA Network and XFinity TV. Linda Yaccarino, president of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment and Digital Ad Sales, noting that NBCU, together with Comcast, reaches 77 million uniques each month, stated: “Now more than ever, digital is essential for every successful campaign." NBC says digital online advertising spending is forecast to grow 23% in 2012 to $39.5 billion in the U.S. Just looking at digital video, ad revenue is projected to more than double in three years to $7.1 billion -- up from $2.16 billion in 2011, per eMarketer. There has been disagreement about whether TV network-style "upfronts" can perform for major digital media platforms. Some think it's a waste of time -- that digital advertisers, unlike TV advertisers, buy more of their media on a year-round basis, rather than through "upfront" deals, where typically TV advertisers buy 70% or more of their yearly TV buys before the fall broadcast season starts. Other analysts believe that because traditional TV still commands the bulk of U.S. media dollars, established media companies need to participate in big, glossy-style presentations to get marketers' attention -- and media dollars.
Ford is getting into reality TV. Given what the automaker has been doing around vehicle launches and (especially) pre-launches, the upcoming TV-based platform for the 2013 Ford Escape is a natural extension of what it's M.O. Programs like “Fiesta Movement” focus on a younger demo by having social-savvy people in their 20's and 30's drive the vehicles around, doing various Ford-delineated tasks and generating buzz. But while the new "Escape Routes" does have a heavy digital and participatory element, it is also the first time the automaker is running it on prime time TV as a reality show. Like last year's "Focus Rally: America," the program follows six teams of two people on a cross-country, multi-city "Amazing Race"-type format. And like last year, this one is also produced by reality auteur Elise Doganieri. The new program, produced by Doganieri's production house Profiles, airs Saturday nights starting March 31 on NBC and young-Latino network mun2. The episodes will also air on nbc.com and mun2.tv the day after the broadcast. The show, to air for six consecutive episodes, will be hosted by reality TV show personality Rossi Morreale. The “Escape Routes” trip starts in Los Angeles before heading to 16 markets including New York, Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco and Las Vegas. In each city, the teams will live together in a loft (which will make for its own frictions and drama) while competing against each other in daily challenges that use the vehicles. Viewers can interact with and compete alongside the six teams throughout their adventures at escaperoutes.com. Ford selected four teams to compete for the last spot in “Escape Routes.” Two models from New York, chosen via online voting, are the sixth team. Fans can talk to the cast, Ford, the producers and host on March 8 at 3:30 p.m. EST via a Google Hangout on gplus.to/fordmotorcompany. Crystal Worthem, multicultural marketing manager at the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker, tells Marketing Daily that the show differs from most reality TV in that it doesn't depict events that happened weeks or months ago, but are pretty much contemporaneous with the weekly broadcasts -- so viewers can participate in what happens, change events, and follow the team in the digital space. "There are a lot of cool, interactive twists,” she says. “People who get involved in reality shows have teams they like and those they don't so they want to get involved. Unfortunately, most are shot so far in advance you don't have an impact on the actions the teams take. But with this show you can get engaged with them and interact with them in real-time." Another digital element of the show has Internet personality, iJustine (ijustine.com), embedded with the "Escape Routes" teams where she will stream behind-the-scenes content. The winning team will receive the $100,000 grand prize plus two new Ford Escapes. Online participants can win trips, high-tech gadgets and a brand-new Escape. Worthem says the fact that the show is advertiser-produced is not really an issue from the networks' perspective. "A lot of shows now have so heavy a reliance on brand participation beyond the 30-second spot, there's actually a fine line between studio-produced and advertiser-produced." She said using multiple Emmy-winning Profiles gave Ford clout in the space. "Doing this with producers who have made great content year over year makes it a much easier sell."
“Who is your real TV competitor?” That has always been the question haunting Netflix -- and now, even more so. A little while ago, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said the answer wasn't what some analysts might think -- TV networks, cable or satellite TV distribution companies. He said the closest competitor was HBO Go, the mobile streaming video service of HBO. In that regard, the news that Netflix is now talking to major multiple system cable operators about a possible programming deal shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Prospective pacts might include having Netflix's growing online video service as part of cable broadband programming packages. Many U.S. cable operators now count more on broadband for rapid revenue growth than on their traditional cable TV system operations. But, in addition to this, many big cable operators have big stakes in their own growing online video services -- like Comcast’s Streampix. So that could be a Netflix competitor in the making. While Hastings sees HBO Go -- and maybe HBO itself – as a competitor, Netflix has been viewed as a growing service for reruns of TV shows, not necessarily for movies. That is good and bad news. Here's the good news: Netflix could provide its service as subscription video-on-demand to cable operators who now have mostly free video-on-demand services. The bad new comes from those reruns of shows that already air on TNT, TBS, USA or other places that have "NCIS," "The Office," "Law & Order" or "House." Cable operators have had decades-long relationships with networks that, despite their push for original programming, still get big revenues from off-network broadcast shows. As such, Netflix could run into conflicts with existing deals, which would have to be reworked. We might know who Netflix's competitors are now. But who will they be in a couple of years?
CIMM is taking a pro-active role in advancing new media nomenclature and processes with both its Lexicon(terms and definitions associated with return path data measurement) and Asset Identification Primer (glossary of asset terms). These documents form the basis of this column, which offers a common language for return path data (RPD) nomenclature that can expedite the rollout of the data for its many industry applications. Starting with this week’s column, we transition from the term “Set-Top-Box data” to the more accurate term of “Return Path data” or RPD. While STB data is RPD, Return Path Data is a more expansive term that includes any data collected within the media platform beyond the physical box such as the television itself, middleware, mobile, remote and internet. As the industry expands to cross-platform measurement, RPD is a better term to represent all the various Big Data sets available in the industry. There are terms like Reach (or Cume) that have more than one term to describe the same thing (Set-Top-Box Lexicon: Reach Or Cume), while Frequency is an example of one term that has two different definitions, depending on the context. Reach and Frequency are often paired in discussions of advertising and viewing measurement. As defined in last week’s column, Reach is the number of unduplicated viewers, sets, set top boxes or homes that have been exposed to a piece of content. This week we explore frequency. When paired in the discussion of reach, frequency is the number of times each individual target has been exposed. But in another part of the media industry, definition of frequency is quite different. In the electronics realm, frequency is an electromagnetic wave cycle. That is the fun and the challenge of creating a common industry language. FrequencySee also: Reach & Frequency CIMM DEFINITION : The average number of times the unduplicated homes reached are exposed to a schedule of content, whether an ad, a program, a video or a schedule of spots. 2 : The number of times a complete electromagnetic wave cycle occurs in a fixed unit of time, usually one second. The rate at which a current alternates, measured in Hertz on a telecommunications medium. (Source: CableLabs) Please refer to the CIMM Lexicon online at http://www.cimm-us.org/lexicon.htm for additional information on these and other terms.
"Every1 who can please turn to OWN especially if you have a Neilsen [sic] box." With that tweet to her 9 million followers at 9:03 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 12, Oprah Winfrey caused a stir in the TV world and drew a rebuke from Nielsen for violating its rules against trying to bias the TV ratings sample (but, apparently, not for misspelling the company's name). Oprah's ability to move markets through her fans is famous. Termed the "Oprah Effect," companies featured or mentioned on her show in the past have seen sales sky-rocket, sometimes by thousands of percentages. When Oprah has promoted a book on her show, it has not been unusual for the mere mention to generate the sale of millions of additional copies. In fact, most publishers have run special printings of books (and prepared those eye-catching stickers) in advance of an Oprah appearance in anticipation of a big sales spike. Thus, it's not surprising that when one of America's most influential personalities singled out the Nielsen households among her many millions of followers to watch her show, that folks in the TV industry got upset. However, it turns out it was really much ado about nothing. It didn't work. When you analyze either the Nielsen ratings data for her show that night, or the anonymous set-top-box viewing data of 30 million Americans within Simulmedia's database, you discover that OWN received no discernible bump in ratings from the tweet or any of the many re-tweets. The OWN show that night had the lowest viewership of any new episode airing within the couple of weeks before and after for that time slot for the network. At best, the tweet might have moved a few thousand viewers. That's a far cry from the many millions of books Oprah has helped sell. Now, the lower rating is not surprising. It was running against the Grammys on another network that night. However, the failure of her tweet to move the needle in the ratings at least causes one to wonder whether the Oprah Effect translates to social media. Maybe this is a fundamental limitation of today's online social media? It's not as powerful as TV, and text characters can't do what a personality can do with sight, sound and motion. There are hundreds of causes trolling social media for sympathizers and donors. Are Facebook likes and tweets any more powerful than a segment of the network news or a mention by a talk show host? Not that I have seen. What do you think? Social media can reach a lot of folks, but can it move the needle when it comes to causing them to take desired actions?