Nielsen says this summer and fall, TV networks will spend roughly the equivalent of $4.5 billion in TV promos -- with the majority of that messaging coming from its own network airwaves. Just over 88% of broadcast TV networks' marketing efforts -- or $4 billion -- comes from its running new season TV promos on its own network airwaves. Roughly 9.3% comes from cross-channel promotion via broadcast networks' sister cable channels. That comes to around $300 million. In addition, 2.4% comes from pay-TV efforts on other networks -- around $100 million.Looking at total gross ratings points: 336,600 goes on their broadcast networks, 35,600 goes to cross-channel promotion on networks' own cable networks, and 9,300 goes into pay TV media efforts. Gross ratings points are the collective sum of all ratings for TV promos.This data comes from research gleaned from national TV English-language networks in the third and fourth quarters of 2011.Nielsen says that in general, broadcast networks relied heavily upon on-channel promos, with less than 10% of promo activity dedicated to cross-channel or paid promos. But this isn't the case for all networks. Nielsen says for one cable network's promo effort, cross-channel is more important, representing nearly half of all promos (45%). Still, another cable network relied heavily upon on-channel promos with hardly any paid promotion. On the opposite end, another cable network went heavily into efficiently delivering on paid gross rating points.Nielsen says more paid alternatives should be pursued.“It’s key to consider promoting off your own network, instead looking to sister networks or online for valuable opportunities to engage with consumers,” stated Justin Rosen, director of media analytics at Nielsen. “Cross-channel platforms may create opportunities to engage not just loyal, regular viewers, but to capture new viewers.” Image by Shutterstock
The lines are being drawn in the wireless data wars. On one side, are the sharers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which offer plans for multiple users to share data minutes across different devices. On the other side: those offering unlimited data packages. On the heels of Sprint’s salvo touting the latter option (via a campaign over the weekend encouraging consumers to “Say no to sharing”), T-Mobile on Tuesday launched its Unlimited Nationwide 4G Data plans, which offers unlimited data at 4G speeds, without data caps, throttling or overage charges. T-Mobile has long taken a public stance against the shared data family plans. In a blog post from May 18, Andrew Sherrard, the company’s senior vice president of marketing, wrote: “Some of our competitors are backing away from simple, unlimited data and moving to family shared data plans. ….T-Mobile believes that consumers today do not want a ‘one size fits all’ approach to shared family data plans, nor would they benefit from that model.” According to the company, the unlimited data packages, which will be available for $20 or $30 a month extra depending on the voice and text plan selected, are meant to give consumers the most out of their smartphones without having to worry about data usage. “Consumers want unlimited data, and this bold move reinforces our value leadership and capitalizes on the strength of our 4G network vs. competitor,” a T-Mobile spokesperson, tells Marketing Daily via an e-mailed statement. “The launch of this plan is the culmination of several months of continuous improvements to T-Mobile’s 4G coverage and performance, allowing us to offer consumers an unrivaled 4G experience on this new plan.” T-Mobile will promote the Unlimited Nationwide 4G service via a television commercial that features the brand’s Carly spokescharacter in her motorcycle leathers using the technology before heading out for a super-fast ride that lights the streets in the brand’s signature magenta color.
Add NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus to the list of executives casting doubt on the future of 3D TV. Lazarus believes the sports TV industry might jump over it to a degree and shift focus to the emerging ultra-HD format. Sony and LG are among the manufacturers moving to launch sets with ultra-HD or 4K capabilities, meaning programming can be seen with four times the picture quality of HD. As for 3D, Lazarus said there is a future, but “I just don’t know how bright it is.” NBC did offer Olympics coverage in the format, but Lazarus said the company will not be a pacesetter. “We will follow, not necessarily lead, and we think that ultra-HD is probably the next migration both in the transmission and consumer electronics business,” he said at a Bloomberg Sports Business Summit on Thursday. Separately, Lazarus also reiterated that NBC broke even or made a profit on the London Olympics, which was a “far healthier” performance than anticipated and “certainly planned when Comcast bought NBC.” Lazarus, who spoke on a panel, also addressed the growing emphasis on a two-screen experience while viewing. The aim is to get viewers to interact with related content to what’s on-air. But he said that even if people are visiting an unrelated Web site, it can be a ratings generator. “They are distracted long enough that maybe they’re not clicking [away] during the commercials,” he said. Also appearing at the Bloomberg event was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who addressed whether Time Warner Cable would begin to carry the NFL Network. He said via other deals a “market rate” has been set, and the NFL has no intention of yielding on it. The NBA is on the brink of placing logos on uniforms. What about the NFL? “We want to make sure we do what’s right for the brand … I don’t see any drive in our league [for that],” Goodell said.
There’s a nip in the air, and football season is officially underway, which can only mean it’s time for the NFL’s finest to get more air time: UGG is breaking its new campaign with Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback and fashion plate. And Gillette is spoofing Green Bay Packer Clay Matthews’ signature move in a promotion for its Fusion ProGlide. The Gillette effort, which will raise brand awareness for the razor as well as money for the Boys & Girls Club of America, urges fans to copy Matthews’ campy sack celebration pose, known as the “Predator.” In a contest scheduled to run through Sept. 27, fans can upload a photo of their version of the pose to Gillette’s Facebook page. With a goal of $100,000, each photo generates a $1 gift. Matthews, who has been to the ProBowl three times, will appear in a new 30-second spot for the brand beginning next month, as well as in digital advertising and in-store merchandise displays. And in its fall campaign, UGG Australia drafts Tom Brady’s inner Marcel Marceau, as he plays some imaginary airport football. The campaign, produced by M&C Saatchi Los Angeles, includes TV, print, digital display and online video, mobile, and social. The almost-wordless spot opens with a boy catching the QB’s attention and throwing him an invisible football. Brady catches it and starts a full-fledged football game, with actors wearing UGG for Men footwear, from rugged boots to casual shoes to sneakers. After the boy scores a touchdown, with a flamboyant flip worthy of an NFL receiver, the players resume what they were doing, as if it never happened. The digital portion of the effort is scheduled to run CBS, Complex, Hulu, NFL, Pandora and YouTube, with print scheduled for Details, ESPN, GQ and the Patriots Yearbook. Out-of-home is also a major component, including a 225 foot-high painted image of Brady in New York City.
YouTube movie rentals are on their way to Connected TVs: on Tuesday, it was revealed that YouTube would add paid movie rentals to its app across hardware partner TP Vision’s line of Philips-branded TV sets. According to reports, the companies will begin offering movie rentals in “select European countries” later this year, and “Philips Smart TV will be among the first TV platforms” to offer access to these rentals, indicating that YouTube rentals will be coming to more Connected TVs soon. YouTube added movie rentals to its Google TV app earlier this summer, but has yet to make any other video on-demand announcements since. As GigaOm points out, it's unclear whether YouTube plans to enter the VOD market to compete directly with existing providers like VUDU or Amazon Instant Video.
Facebook held onto its top ranking in this year’s edition of Landor Associates’ annual Breakaway Brands Study, which identifies U.S. brands showing sustained brand-strength growth over a three-year period. The 2012 study, spanning 2008 through 2011 performance, shows Facebook’s brand strength having grown by 206% during the period. The other brands making this year’s top 10 are Keurig (up 79% in brand strength), Skype (+77%), Amazon.com (+76%), Vizio (+66%), Samsung (+63%), YouTube (+63%), Netflix (+44%), the U.S. Marine Corp Corps (+43%) and Apple (+42%). The study also identified three “brands to watch” that are showing exceptional brand-strength momentum: Kobalt Tools, Foster Farms and Symantec/Norton. To measure brand strength, Landor analyzed consumer data from Young & Rubicam Group’s BrandAsset Valuator U.S. database (based on 15,000-plus consumer interviews in each of the three years), evaluating against 48 measures of brand health. The Breakaway Brands are those that showed significant growth in both of the key measures that drive consumer preference and choice: brand differentiation (including distinctiveness, innovation and dynamism) and relevance (how appropriate it is to a consumer’s life). Analysis of the data, in conjunction with Wake Forest University’s School of Business, revealed that the Breakaway Brands shared three key characteristics or strengths. Here are those three characteristics, and examples of some of the brands that epitomized them. Landor’s full analysis can be read on Forbes.com. *Connection: Facilitating engagement through mini and macro communities. Key examples: Facebook, YouTube, Skype. *Convenience: Delivering more for less and making life easier for consumers. During tough socioeconomic times, many of the brands on the list exhibited an ability to offer consumers an affordable convenience that they otherwise wouldn’t have. Key examples: Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Samsung, Vizio, Keurig, Foster Farms. *Confidence: Ensuring that consumers can trust the brand to consistently deliver on its promise. Key examples: Norton, the U.S. Marine Corps.
Chris Moschovitis and Anna Murray of tmg-emedia are on the forefront of Big Data management and analytics. President Anna Murray started her career as a broadcast news producer and quickly transitioned into the Internet, while CEO Chris Moschovitis has a background in the hard sciences: physics, math and computer science. This combination of talent positions their company in the forefront of analytics as it applies to Big Data sets in the media sector. In my interview with them, Chris and Anna talk about tmg-emedia, data-driven journalism, the fear of change in today’s executive suite, the future of data use in the media and where the industry is going in the next five years. Below is an excerpt from the interview, available on seven videos that can be viewed here.CW: Are there truisms when working with Big Data? Are there any standard rules, or does each Big Data set come with its own set of unique challenges? CM: There is a vast universe of what we call “Big Data” and there is a lot of regulation around it. If Big Data is about individuals or individual behaviors, there is a privacy concern. On the other end of the spectrum, there is Big Data that is just straight-up numbers coming in directly from the consumption of media that are not regulated. So we believe that the landscape is all over the place. Analyzing it and try to make coherent sense out of it is like looking at an ocean: At a very high altitude, the ocean looks like a vague manageable ecosystem. But the minute that you get up close and personal to the ocean you realize that there are currents and many different species living and existing in it in very, very different ways. So I think it matters exactly what it is you are looking at, what you are trying to get out of it and how you want to harvest the information that forms the basis of the analytics. CW: Within your experience working with media companies, how are they transitioning from old media to new media? AM: I think we both have a lot to say on that question! CM: It is a difficult question, and there are some hard realities. I would say that the majority of traditional media companies are in what I call hospice. They are dying because of the inability to see the new landscape and unwillingness to embrace change. Those that are embracing the new landscape, those who are willing to embrace change, are transforming themselves just as a phoenix would. And we see new media companies springing up all over the place and really redefining the landscape. AM: Certainly it is absolutely true that most media companies that we’ve been engaged with have really struggled over the last 10 years. And as Chris says, some of that has been resistance to change. There is a famous quote that I would love to attribute to its author (whoever that might be), which says that there are three types of media company executives: Those who say reality doesn’t exist; those who say reality does exist, but only after I retire; and those who say reality does exist, and I must do something about it. There are a few companies, and we can probably all name them -- I call out Meredith and Hearst -- that have done aggressive transformations online, and who are in the “reality exists and I am going to deal with it” camp. But most of it, frankly, consists of those who say “reality exists -- but only when I retire” types of companies.
It's September, and the real push for political advertising is about to start. Estimates are that 75% of all political spending goes into the last seven to eight weeks of any political race. And, of course, we have a big one sitting out there. Not only that, but it's estimated that nearly 25% more political media advertising money will be spent on TV stations and networks than last time, getting to $3.37 billion, with overall spend at some $5.2 billion.. The biggest piece? Local TV looks to grab $2.8 billion. But how many people will actually get the message? The blizzard of commercials, as well as the rise of Political Action Committee money, threatens to raise the content to mind-numbing and confusing levels. Complicating this, political marketing will face a harder challenge from some not-so-new technology. Nearly half the country now has DVRs and we know that at best (for marketers) commercial skipping occurs at a 60% rate. At worst? Some research says it's as high as 80%. From TV stations’ point of view, regular advertisers are pushed out of the picture because political advertisers get pre-emption rights for airing their time-sensitive commercials. Analysts say that, for the first time in history, the challenger in this presidential race, Mitt Romney, is now out-raising political money over the incumbent, President Barack Obama. And that money will be used to plow even more TV commercial messaging in the way of voting citizens. Where does this media equation lead? Some would say to a higher volume of political noise without much substance. Some would say that better targeting on digital platforms should be the answer. Too late for that, this time around. For TV stations, the rush of political advertising dollars is a welcoming flow -- especially considering the difficult year stations had following the last presidential election. Some months after the fall 2008 economic turmoil, stations didn't just get hit with their usual post-election year hangover, but suffered massively because of a near-depression like atmosphere. Ad dollars went into free-fall, tumbling 25% to 30% or more versus the year before. All this would lead one to believe that stations should be somewhat optimistic and hopeful. But many know better than that, especially in the light of slow efforts to raise the profile and revenues of their branded digital platforms. As is the rule, TV political messages should be sold at the lowest unit rate. And this year, stations have to show everyone those political ad rates and information on website areas. Nice. Four years from now, how much advertising hoopla will stations be anticipating while on the verge of the last eight weeks of a presidential election?
During a recent interview with Media Magazine, Ogilvy’s Chief Digital Officer Brandon Berger offered up one of the most insightful remarks about mobile devices that I’ve heard: “We have this idea that the TV is the first screen, but where is the activity occurring? It’s occurring on the tablet or the mobile device, so which one is the priority screen?” Given the attention that consumers devote to their phones and tablets, it seems clear that the most important screen has become the one that allows viewers to look up information, or buy products, or talk about what they’re watching. To that end, this fresh data point from Ericsson about social TV will likely become a vital stat for our media business. The TV technology firm found that 62% of consumers use social media while watching TV on a weekly basis, and that figure is up 18% from 2011. Of those people who use social channels while the TV is on, a full 40% are talking about what they’re watching on TV. Social TV isn’t just for millenials either -- 30% of consumers who talk about TV shows while they’re watching them are 45 to 59. Another statistic that speaks to the central role that mobile devices play is the finding that 67% of consumers use tablets, smartphones or laptops for “their everyday TV viewing, both for video consumption and to enable a social media experience while watching TV.” But despite the growing popularity of on-demand viewing across many platforms, watching broadcast TV programming live is still the dominant viewing preference, the study found. Pair that insight with the social TV stat and you can see why a social TV strategy is so vital. Yes -- consumers are watching on other devices, but by and large they’re watching on TV and they’re often also talking about the show thanks to social networks on their phones or mobile devices. Together, this research underscores how deeply habits are changing, and how essential it is for programmers and marketers to capture the TV viewer not only on the “first screen” but also on the screen they use for interaction -- the mobile one in most cases. For its research, Ericsson conducted online surveys of about 12,000 consumers in the United States, United Kingdom, China, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Mexico, Chile and Italy.
Consumers aren’t just watching video on many different devices -- they often start a video on one device and finish it on another. In a report detailing multi-screen behavior, Google studied how consumers shifted from tablets to smartphones to PCs for various activities (check out my colleague Steve Smith's full analysis of the report). Let's look specifically at how consumers watch video across screens. About 43% of survey respondents started video on one device and finished it on another. This finding is a powerful reminder for brands and content programmers that their videos need to play well and look good across devices. Consumers are not distinguishing between screens, so brands and providers should optimize their videos for every screen. Consumers are most likely to start watching videos on their smartphones, and then continue on a computer, with only a small portion continuing the activity on a tablet. Computers are the next-most-popular place to begin videos, with about one-third of respondents starting videos on PCs, but tablets lag with only 11% starting video on a tablet. When consumers do make the switch between devices to watch video, about 43% will conduct their search for the video again, another 43% will go directly to the site with the video, and 30% will email themselves the link. These findings underscore that video search, metadata, and proper tagging are vital in this multiscreen world. With all of this agnostic jumping around between different devices, the tags in your video need to be impeccable so that viewers can locate and then finish watching if they put one screen down and pick up another. Given these findings, online video vendors seem to be heading in the right direction with the plethora of multiscreen advancements they have rolled out lately, such as ad networks Tremor Video and YuMe adding more multiscreen capabilities, and specialty vendors like Eyeview implementing its technology across screens. Then there are companies such as mDialog, a video ad insertion firm, which is rolling out tools to deliver one-to-one targeted ads on digital devices for both linear and live streaming. The company's new “smart stream platform” allows programmers and service providers to target individual users on devices such as the iPhone, iPad, Android, AppleTV, GoogleTV, Roku, and Xbox, the company said in introducing the product at the IBC show in Amsterdam. Likewise, online video ad technology vendor Kaltura also launched new features this week to enhance cross-device video delivery, the company said. The goal is to deliver video and have it play smoothly across a range of devices from set-top boxes to computers to gaming consoles to phones.