|
|
Tuesday March 4, 2008
Experts: Political Spending Is Booming
Local cable advertising may be suffering a bit from the soft economy, but political spending is booming and experts predict record revenues will be generated from candidates around the country by November.
For more...
[back to top]
Colds Calls, African-American Spending And New Ad Types
COLD-CALL COACH: It’s far from sexy, a bit boring and very daunting to many advertising executives. But prospecting – or cold calling – for clients is crucial for local ad sales success, says Steve Litwer, senior vice president of OnMedia Ad Sales for Mediacom Communications. “You have to make it comfortable for salespeople,” he says. “I go out to our markets and I sit with the AEs for three days at a time and give them the tools they need to feel comfortable with prospecting. It’s not about going through the Yellow Pages either.” Litwer figures he spends about 30% of his time in the field helping teach AEs how to make cold calls. IBM chairman Lou Guerstner would pick up the phone and cold call customers at
IBM, he says. “Everybody’s job is to develop a customer and if I am willing to sit with them and show them how I do it, and talk about ways they can do it, then they will find their own rhythm and get comfortable with it.
SPENDING MORE: African-American ad spending exceeds $2.3 billion annually, according to a recent study from Nielsen. The Nielsen African-American ad spending analysis covers over 22,000 national, regional and local advertisers, across 130+ media vehicles. Local Radio reported the greatest amount of spending on African-American targeted media at $805 million dollars, comprising 35% percent of total spending. National Cable TV reported the largest ad growth with 14.5% during this period. This growth is the result of a number of factors including: Year-over-year growth for BET, the inclusion of TV One in the Nielsen Monitor-Plus service as of January 2007, as well as a number of high-profile TV programs such as House of Payne on TBS, Being
Bobby Brown on Bravo, Flavor of Love on VH1, and Making the Band on MTV. The African-American segment is ripe for the taking. Spending for the top 15 product categories across all media reached over $806 million. Not surprisingly the automotive category has the most spending at $187.4 million, more than double the dollar amount of the number-two product category, quick service restaurants at $79.1 million. With auto being the No. 1 category for cable local ad sales, it stands to reason that African Americans will be attracted to local cable spots selling cars. The Nielsen study also found that because Blacks are more often brick-and-mortar shoppers, they're more influenced by in-store promotions than the general population. They are more likely to visit more stores
while shopping, but are less influenced by sales and discounts. And they are more likely to cite themselves as trendsetters and influencers when it comes to buying items.
TV OR NOT TV: A Forrester Research study conducted in conjunction with the Association of National Advertisers found that the majority of marketers believe that television advertising has become less effective in the past two years, but those same marketers are interested in exploring new ad formats and new forms of video commercials. Sixty-two percent of marketers believe television advertising has become less effective in the past two years, but close to half of the advertisers surveyed have already started to experiment with new ad types to work with DVRs and VOD programs. Eighty-seven percent of advertisers believe branded entertainment will play a stronger role in TV advertising in the coming year. Advertisers are eager to try new ad formats,
including ads in online TV shows (65%), ads embedded in VOD (55%), interactive television ads (43%), and ads within the set top box menu (32%). Over 50% of marketers reported that when half of all TV households use DVRs, they will cut spending on TV advertising by 12%. Some 87% of respondents said they intend to spend more on Web advertising this year. And 72% of marketers said they are very interested in having individual commercial ratings rather than average commercial ratings.
[back to top]
Media research firm TRA Inc. has introduced a scalable advertising research system that measures and reports ROI accountability and transparency for advertising spending. TRA’s system measures an ad’s effectiveness by matching the ads people receive with the products people buy. TRA’s customizable, online dashboard reports provide detailed, actionable data to support media and creative investment decisions, said chairman/CEO Mark Lieberman.
TRA plans to match all-media consumption and buying behavior from more than 1 million national households. David Poltrack, chief research officer for CBS Inc., in a prepared statement, said, “The most promising aspect of TRA’s database is the marrying of television viewing data with product consumption data. This will allow us to provide a direct ROI measure to advertisers, a measure that some might argue is more relevant than the age/sex surrogate measures that serve as the television medium’s currency today.”
Adlink recently completed the first two marketwide video-on-demand campaigns in Los Angeles, the nation’s second largest VOD market in the country with nearly 2 million VOD homes. Adlink launched a preliminary run of its VOD advertising initiative in fourth quarter of 2007 with two advertisers. Each advertiser ran a series of spots across Adlink's 44 TV networks steering viewers to their respective VOD campaigns. One VOD campaign, executed for a luxury automotive client, used 22 of Adlink's premiere networks to direct potential consumers to ten long-form videos highlighting a variety of models and driving experiences. Of the ten, the most watched long-form-video was "The Purchase Experience," which showed viewers the experience of purchasing an automobile. In four weeks, the
automotive VOD campaign generated 4,500 views, said Lisa Palmer, general managaer/general sales manager for Adlink. The other VOD campaign, a public service announcement on healthy living, incorporated a media schedule across all Adlink's networks. It also provided viewers with three animated, educational long-form videos with a call-to-action encouraging viewers to visit the organization's Web site for more information. The three-month campaign generated 13,391 total views and 1,008 hours of long-form viewing with an average viewing time of five and a half minutes.
[back to top]
Steve Litwer, OnMedia
|
|
|
Steve Litwer
OnMedia Advertising Sales Division |
Steve Litwer has been selling cable television since 1992 when his old mentor Sonja Farrand lured him away from the radio business to sell local ad spots in Kansas City, Mo. The two have worked together ever since, having moved from AT&T Broadband to Mediacom Communications in 2001. Since 2005, he has served as group vice president of advertising sales for Mediacom’s OnMedia division. He will now take over as senior vice president, OnMedia Advertising Sales Division, replacing Farrand, who is retiring after 23 years in the cable industry. For more...
--Interviewed by K.C. Neel
[back to top]
ABC To Pursue Ad-Supported, VOD Play
(Excerpted from a 2/25/08 article on the Multichannel News Web site)
Following a test that began in Cox Communications' Orange County, Calif. cluster last fall, Disney-ABC Television Group said it is prepared to roll out an ad-supported offering of its series and sports fare to appear on other cable, satellite and telco distributor’s on-demand platforms. The on-demand offerings would afford the distributors’ one promo spot to tout their respective products and services, while the local affiliate would sell one 30-second commercial per half hour. The platform also bears the network and local affiliate imprimatur. For its part, ABC, which has yet to determine the exact number of spots, will sell the remainder of the inventory, for a total between 2.5 to 5 minutes per hour, far less than the load on the small-screen. With the
fast-forwarding function disabled, added value is brought to the advertisements.
For More…NBC Turns Upfront Into ‘Spotlight’
(Excerpted from a 2/19/08 article on the Multichannel News Web site)
NBC will be holding an upfront event after all, sort of. The Peacock network said that in April it would announce a 52-week primetime slate and then meet with prospective advertisers and agencies for three days in New York, before embarking on a roadshow that would also extend to Chicago and Los Angeles. Those conclaves will be followed by a “spotlight event” on May 12 in Manhattan, during which the full scale of NBCU offerings would be put on display in a multimedia, interactive environment. The location was not disclosed. As for the NBC Universal Cable Entertainment networks, a series of-one-on-one client meetings are in the offing.
For More…Nielsen, Ball State Team Up on Study
(Excerpted from a 2/25/08 article on the Broadcasting & Cable Web site)
Nielsen is teaming up with Ball State University’s Center for Media Design on a study to help figure out how viewers are using traditional and emerging media inside and outside of the home. CMD, in turn, will team up with brand consultants Sequent Partners on the effort, which will pay particular attention to TV and video on multiple platforms. Nielsen is trying to determine the best ways to measure media as it moves from the TV to the computer and mobile devices.
For More…Google's TV Ad Plan
(Excerpted from a 2/25/08 article on the Broadcasting & Cable Web site)
Mike Steib will face an important audience next month, and he's looking forward to it. As director of the Google TV Ads program, he will give the keynote talk at the Television Bureau of Advertisers (TVB) Annual Marketing Conference. Google TV Ads is built on top of the same basic ad marketplace software as AdWords, the self-service system advertisers use to purchase keyword search advertisements on Google and affiliated Websites. Google doesn't produce the commercials, although it has assembled a network of video production companies that can help new TV advertisers. Google is promising that it will deliver measurable results, though it has to make deals with cable operators to get that data.
For More…[back to top]
After pitching the service for years and spending millions of dollars to develop it, Arbitron and Nielsen pulled the plug on Project Apollo, an ambitious single-source measurement venture, as reported by Media Daily News. The companies have been collaborating on the venture since early 2005, and convinced some major marketers and media outlets to participate in the test, but failed to sign any long-term commitments for the highly expensive research.
For More…
As reported on Portfolio.com, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang told attendees at the annual conference of the Interactive Advertising Bureau in Phoenix that Internet advertising revenue would surpass that of any other medium, including TV, in 2013.
For More…
What do Matt Damon and an animated piece of phlegm have in common? As reported on the Wall Street Journal Online, viewers seem to remember them especially well, according to a new test that measured what people recall about TV ads, even when they're zapping through them. The test is part of a continuing effort by NBC Universal to measure the effectiveness of television ads that viewers skip through with their digital video recorders.
For More…
According to MediaWeek, Nielsen has formed a national Hispanic/Latino Advisory Council to help the research company recruit, measure and accurately report on Hispanic TV households. The first meeting of the independent advisory group is March 4 in New York.
For More…
[back to top]
Steve Litwer has been promoted to senior vice president at OnMedia advertising sales division for Mediacom Communications. He replaces Sonja Farrand, who is retiring after 23 years in the cable industry. Litwer had been group VP-ad sales. (see related Q&A above)
Four members of the CableOne advertising sales team received the President’s Club Award for 2007. Award winners are regional sales manager Cheryl Carlson, and account managers Arlene Nelson, SuLin Landgraff and Debra Brown. The national award is given to associates who have distinguished themselves by exceeding goals and displaying exceptional effort in several different categories.
Suddenlink Communications has named Jerry Dow chief marketing and sales officer. He had been a member of the leadership team at Vanguard Car Rental.
Fuse, the music television service, has hired Allan Infield as senior vice president of ad sales, He had been VP of sales at MTVN, in Nickelodeon’s Kids and Family Digital Advertising Sales Group.
Davina Kent has been named San Francisco-based director, strategic alliances at Comcast Spotlight. He had been VP-national advertising sales at TiVo.
MSG Media has hired Kathryn Kerrigan as senior vice president sales planning and analysis. She had been VP-ad sales/planning and analysis for Discovery Communications.
Jack Brown has been promoted to vice president-network sales for Telemundo in Chicago. He had been account executive in the national sales office.
The Weather Channel has elevated Sheila Buckley to vice president interactive national ad sales..
[back to top]
EDITOR:
George Vernadakis
646-746-7140
cablenewsletters@reedbusiness.com
WRITER/CONTRIBUTING EDITOR:
K.C. Neel
303-721-1599
cablenewsletters@reedbusiness.com
AD SALES:
RB Interactive
1-888-7RBI WEB
Onlineads@reedbusiness.com
www.rbinteractive.com
You are receiving this e-mail because you have requested either a newsletter or a magazine from
Reed Business Information.
Subscribe to Multichannel's e-mail newsletters | from Local Cable Ad Sales
Update Your Information | Privacy Policy
QUESTIONS?
If you need further assistance with your newsletter subscription, please contact our Online support staff.
Send editorial questions about this newsletter to:cablenewsletters@reedbusiness.com
Send advertising questions about this newsletter to:Onlineads@reedbusiness.com
Reed Business Information 2000 Clearwater Drive Oak Brook, IL 60523
© Copyright 2008, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. |
|
