John Hancock Financial Services is launching its first work under Chief Marketing Officer David Longfritz. Longfritz, who in November took what is a new position at the financial services company, says the campaign “reflects the times we live in.” The spots were created using the input from “good old-fashioned focus groups,” he said. “We talked with mass affluent investors and they admitted they’re avoiding investment risk, and as a result, they know they are taking on other risks -- such as lifestyle risk and retirement risk.” The campaign, created by Boston-based Hill Holiday, urges consumers to talk to a financial advisor and include the tagline: “You Are Not Alone.” Creative includes TV and online and launches this month. The TV spot shows 10 different couples sharing the exact same conversation, at the exact same time. The spot is meant to prompt viewers to feel a strong sense of empathy, as it acknowledges that the economy is a big part of our culture. The media buy focuses on sports such as CBS and NBC golf coverage, including the US Open in June, and also the NHL on NBC, the Golf Channel and ESPN/ESP2. Online, the ads will appear on ESPN.com, SI.com, WSJ.com, Forbes.com and financial advisor sites such as Morningstar.com and TheStreet.com. The positioning is consistent with prior John Hancock ads, said James Bacharach, vice president of brand strategy and communications at the financial services company. In fact, the strategy is similar to a strategy originally conceived and executed by John Hancock and Hill Holliday more than 25 years ago, he said. “This latest work continues to depict realistic conversations that focus on people and what is important to them,” Bacharach said. “And we suggest that a strong financial leader like John Hancock can help them find opportunities amid the uncertainty.”
The movement in the TV business to allow voice recognition to select shows and make other commands has a significant audience. A large percentage of Apple iPhone 4S users appreciate the Siri voice-recognition functionality and a notable chunk would like the opportunity to issue similar directives for their TVs, according to Parks Associates. More than 70% of U.S. 4S users are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with Siri, while 37% of them “want to have a similar voice-command interface for their TV set.” There are suggestions that Siri may be part of a new Apple TV. John Barrett, a director in customer analytics at Parks, said the nearly 40% who expressed interest in Siri-type capability for TV sets was surprisingly low. “I would have expected more owners to want Siri for their TV set,” he said. “These are the folks that rushed out to get the new iPhone 4S." Smart TVs from Samsung (which also has gesture and face recognition) have voice control, while it is expected that most smart TVs on the market from various manufacturers will offer it soon. Barrett did say that some Siri users may have concerns how it would work in a living room buzzing with family members and others. "Some said Siri didn't work well against background noise,” he said. “Others said it had trouble understanding commands. These problems could be amplified in a noisy living room, where the main TV would be located."
Adam Dolgins has been named senior vice president of original programming for truTV.
Comcast this week rolled out a new free service allowing customers who subscribe to both Xfinity Internet and Xfinity Digital Video to watch TV on demand on their Xbox 360 consoles. While that sounds like a nice feature for subscribers, Comcast's move potentially hurts Netflix, Hulu Plus and other companies that offer video to Xbox users. That's because programs viewed through the Xbox 360 won't count against Comcast subscribers' broadband data caps, currently set at 250GB per month. "Since the content is being delivered over our private IP network and not the public Internet, it does not count against a customer’s bandwidth cap," the company says in an FAQ about the offering. Advocacy groups Public Knowledge and Free Press both pointed out that such a structure gives Xbox 360 users an incentive to favor Comcast's video service over that of competitors. "The Xbox 360 provides a number of video services to compete for customer dollars, yet only one service is not counted against the data cap -- the one provided by Comcast," Public Knowledge said in a statement. The group renewed calls for the Federal Communications Commission to examine data caps more broadly. Free Press likewise criticized Comcast, arguing that the company was violating the spirit, if not the letter, of neutrality rules. The FCC's neutrality order prohibits Internet service providers from discriminating against content providers. "Comcast tries to justify preferred treatment for its own video on the Xbox 360 by claiming that the content is delivered over a private IP network rather than the public Internet," Free Press policy director Matt Wood said in a statement. But not counting this video against a Comcast customer's monthly data limit gives the Comcast product an unfair advantage against other Internet video services."
Personalization works. At least, that’s what cable network CMT learned during the January online tune-in campaign for its recently launched series “Bayou Billionaires” and “My Big Redneck Vacation.” The network paired up with online video ad technology firm Eyeview to use its personalization tools for online video spots. The video ads contained local tune-in information for the two shows, tailored to the user’s geographic area. Eyeview said click-through rates were up 40% compared to tune-in ads for non-personalized spots. Also, brand awareness rose by about 21% for “definite tune-in intent” when the spots included local details, according to a study Vizu ran on the campaign. Eyeview teamed up with Adobe for access to premium inventory on online entertainment channels for the campaign. As the campaign ran, the network continued to update the ads with daily show times to keep the messages relevant on a real-time basis. These are promising figures that underscore the big picture possibilities of online video marketing — that with tweaking, tailoring and measurement, marketers can achieve powerful results. In related news, real-time buying for online video is rising quickly. Research firm Forrester worked on a study in partnership with video ad network and marketplace SpotXChange and found that real-time bidding in online video ads will comprise nearly 22% of all online video ad spending by 2013. In 2011, real-time bidding in online video accounted for $190 million, and that number will grow to $387 million this year, and then to $661 million next year, more than triple the 2011 haul. Online display advertisers are leading the charge in adopting real-time bidding for online video.
Ken Wollenberg, president/general manager of Experian Simmons, has a range of measurement experience from MRI to Nielsen to Arbitron, which led to his current position at Simmons. In my interview with him. Ken talks about the pros and cons of STB data measurement, research quality, and the modeling and hybridization of STB data and other big data sets -- especially as it applies to Experian and the future of media. Ken also discusses the development of Simmons Connect, a new cross-platform media planning service that links consumers’ consumption of eleven traditional and digital media platforms, including mobile, to rich behavioral, attitudinal and lifestyle information, including brand preferences. Below is an excerpt of the interview. Click here to see it in full. CW: I’ve heard that Experian is developing a way to take Internet data and develop a cross-platform measurement tool from it. KW: We are now at a watershed moment in our industry, as we all work to understand the impact of technology and media on consumer behavior. As the silos break down between consumers’ use of digital and traditional media, it is imperative that tools be developed to provide our clients with the measures needed to understand and account for investments against these behaviors. What Simmons Connect will do is use passive measurement procedures to gather people’s activities on their PCs, their tablet computers and on their mobile phones -- and bring them together with the 60,000 variables that Simmons collects in the National Consumer Study, including that of traditional media. The end result will be a robust look at cross-platform media behaviors within the context of the consumer’s complete set of behaviors. This will be done on a syndicated basis, published quarterly and placed within the boundaries of the complete planning, buying and selling processes. CW: You speak of age and gender as “surrogate” demographics. Do you think we will eventually get away from age and gender as standard measurement demographics? KW: It really depends on how sophisticated the complete system is. One of the reasons we stay with age and gender is the simplicity of it and the ability to carry it through the entire process, including any post-analysis. It is this simplicity that must be overcome. I think that as new generations of planners and buyers and sellers come in and there is a greater demand for accountability, the means will be found to bring this more robust measure, as well as other more direct and focused measures, into play -- and we will slowly move away from age and sex. At the end of the day, behavior predicts behavior, not age and sex.
Ed Erhardt, president of global customer marketing and sales for ESPN says, in speaking at the 4A's Transformation LA event, there needs to be a lot more combined digital platform and TV deals. "I don't want to do four digital deals; I want to do 150." The big issue for Erhardt -- does TV own the digital space or does digital own the TV connected space? This upfront might tell the tale he says in the next couple of weeks. "We need scale."
When will digital online sellers really be part of TV's big upfront selling process? Don't look for big changes anytime soon. "We can't wait for the upfront, clients want results tomorrow," says Quentin George, chief innovation officer of IPG Mediabrands, speaking at the 4'As Transformation LA event. "[But] it's not to say it isn't relevant anymore." Josh Jacobs, president of Accuen Media says, for many in the digital space "the upfront process is an add on." Brian Lesser, chief executive officer of Xaxis, says, "We speak to a lot of advertisers about shifting spending. [One of the problems are] there is not enough quality video." Kurt Unkel, executive vp and general manager of Audience On Demand of VivaKi Nerve Center, says the reality is that upfront will continue to happen. At this point, "being part of the dialogue is important."
Television can be transforming -- but not for every programmer. Cable TV was always pegged to this "transformation" level, always set to be much more than just "television." You know the HBO marketing line "It's not TV; It's HBO." That seems like a bold statement. But it should pertain to all cable TV -- at least for the money consumers pay. It doesn't. There are exceptions: AMC was a small, nondescript movie channel, now transformed to a channel of award-winning and critically acclaimed shows, thanks in part to Charlie Collier, president of AMC Networks. Speaking at the 4A's Transformation LA event, Collier said, "I'm not a transformation guru." Still, later on, he said of his network: "The business and the brand are transforming together." Perhaps it's no surprise that AMC modeled itself after the you-know-what-pay-movie channel. "We used to look at HBO," said Collier. "We used to think, 'Wouldn't it be great to leverage a ‘Sopranos’ or ‘Sex in the City'?" But AMC didn't have anything like that. It had older films, like 1960s’ movie "Cool Hand Luke." Not exactly top-of-mind programming. What now drives AMC's programming strategy? Collier said the network looks at stuff that is "unexpected and uncompromising." So "The Walking Dead" is nothing like "Mad Men," which is nothing like "The Killing." "We don't want one show to look like another," he said. But he said that other cable networks, like HGTV, do just that. Collier wasn't dismissive of HGTV. Yet from a broader point of view, from cable's somewhat original revolutionary promise, is AMC truly different? Not yet. Now AMC is starting its first big reality TV show -- about, what else, the real world of advertising, a look at what "Mad Men" might be like now. "The Pitch" is about advertising agencies pitching against each other for business. One key message in a show trailer came from an advertising executive, seemingly echoing what viewers might want: "This is a business without rules." Yes. Bring on more advertising, TV shows (broadcast and cable) and digital content, without rules. Does that sound dangerous? Exactly.
Social media is getting more ad revenue. But the dollars are coming out of budgets for print, radio, outdoor and other media -- not TV. That is good news for sellers of traditional TV. For a long time, it seemed the Internet was angling to draw dollars away from television. But traditional marketers want to have their cake and eat it too. They still love to spend money on TV, but now realize that adding social media components -- perhaps sold by traditional TV -- could be a good way to go. According to many analysts, social media has helped TV maintain or improve overall usage levels. Many marketers would say it has helped increase engagement levels for their campaigns. This is not to say that TV marketers won’t also be looking to gains from digital video extensions like Hulu, syndicated video players, and their own video players. Perhaps getting that social media connection is more valuable in the near term, with the engagement, conversations and connections serving as an additive to television. There is, of course, continued debate about the good and the bad here. Social media can work in the negative with both TV shows and the brands that offer TV support. Do we care, notice, or become concerned when social media features negative discussion about those Coca-Cola cups on the desks of “American Idol” judges? Or when viewers can’t stand the music video in which the “Idol” finalists bop around in a Ford car. Those who put emotions aside have always reasoned: “Hey, at least they are ‘engaged’ with our brands.” In the coming years, all this will need to be worked out on a wholesale basis, such as: What do TV networks do with 300-plus upfront advertisers? Does everyone placing a media budget get a network-backed social media connection? No matter. Socially speaking, TV has found an ally.
Bob Pittman, chief executive officer of Clear Channel Media Holdings, talked up his industry, during the 4A's Transformation LA event. "Radio is your view to the world -- nothing intrudes," he says. Best of all, he says it's a "cheap way of getting a lot of value." Case in point, the average TV cost per thousand viewers, across all dayparts is $12.50. Radio? That comes to a $5.35 CPM. Radio was the original "social media". "What radio does it replicate word mouth." What else for radio? Pittman says you can change the copy of commercials in less than a day.