Below are important factors to help local-direct clients gain more traction in their media marketing. Thus...you may need to help them see a little into the future...which is, NOW...and help them craft better consumer communication. Philip Jay LeNoble, PhD.

COMMENTARY

Influencers Key to Marketing in A Down Cycle

• by Nick Cooke , January 13, 2023

As the "R word” remains top of mind at clients and agencies alike, marketers are turning cautious eyes to their budgets. Whether or not someone believes we are in a recession or headed for one, there are things brands can do to maintain revenue as budgets get slashed.

First, don’t be “short-termist.” We have seen many of our tier-one clients immediately push budget into fully lower-funnel activity. This will have a positive short-term impact, but after a month or two, you will regret it if you don't balance this strategy out to some extent.

In the social space, audience generation and asset creation are integral to the continued performance of your ads. Everyone knows we're in the age of short-form video content, but CPCs (cost per click) and the ROAS (return on ad spend) on these assets can only be maintained when regularly rotated, especially on TikTok. Your audience pools can only be retargeted so many times. Make sure to continue focusing part of your budget on creating new audiences at the top of the funnel, who you can drive down-funnel over time. 

Second, use nano creators to tell your story. Yes, if you're doing it right, your influencer strategy should be driving excellent conversion results (especially paid media through influencers), but you are also probably wasting a load of money producing branded content. All of the market insight of late points toward consumers switching off to product-focused messaging. Instead, they’re engaging with human-first storytelling.

Save your production costs by using micro or nano influencers. It is worth experimenting with finding genuine customers and advocates who don't have a social media following and harnessing their content creation skills.

Third, harness paid media through influencers. Many of you will be doing this already by boosting influencer posts, but the majority of paid-media budgets are still running through brand channels. The real opportunity is a combination of both working simultaneously.

Be very clear about which dollars and which messaging is being used to build your pool of engaged audiences, and which is being used to convert them over time. As a general rule it should be softer and more brand-focused at the top of the funnel, and more direct, sales-driven, with a clear CTA and possibly a discounted offer, at the bottom.

Finally, spend more of your budget on media and less on creative.

I see this problem all the time: An activation budget ends up being split 50/50 between creative and media. Times are tough, your creative is important, but there's no reason it should cost anywhere near as much as your media.

Not all of this media needs to be lower-funnel, as outlined above. But it is critical to make your reduced budget work as hard as possible. Refreshing your assets is critical, but that doesn't mean it needs to be a hero TV asset and a multimillion-dollar strapline. Authenticity is key while consumer spending is down, and too-polished creative may actually land badly.

 Exciting things are happening as we begin to consume the future.  Chat bots are going to help revolutionize what we as consumers do as we enter the threshold of a blooming technological and artificial intelligent future! Read the story below and begin to imagine the possibilities coming soon. Philip Jay LeNoble, PhD.

Want To See the Future? Talk To ChatGPT

• by Aaron Paquette , Columnist, 4 hours ago

In a turbulent tech market littered with layoffs, diminished funding rounds and notorious bankruptcies and scandals, one sector burns red-hot: artificial intelligence. On Nov. 30, OpenAI launched a prototype of its new chatbot, ChatGPT. Within days, over a million users had experimented with it, and today, OpenAI is weighing a tender offer valuing the company at $29 billion. ChatGPT demonstrates how AI will soon revolutionize search, marketing and content creation.

OpenAI invites users to participate in a “Free Research Preview” of ChatGPT by registering an account and asking questions or feeding prompts to its chatbot. Users can then provide feedback on the quality of its answers.

ChatGPT has limited knowledge of events after 2021, and my first query, “What is the most-watched show on TV?,” elicited a low-quality answer. However, the next question, “How is Gen Z different from other generations?,” elicited a four-paragraph response providing an accurate, comprehensive overview, exploring many themes previously detailed in this column. And the third question, “How is Coca-Cola marketing its products to Gen Z?,” elicited a six-paragraph response that could easily run as a column.

The implications are staggering. For starters, these chat-based queries have the potential to upend search. When researching these columns via traditional search engine, I typically type key phrases into a text box, gets back hyperlinks to hundreds if not thousands of articles, click through eight to 10 of them, bump into paywalls, read the best six to eight stories, and attempts to synthesize them into one column. Now, anyone can type a topic or thesis into ChatGPT and get back four to six perfectly synthesized paragraphs, all ad-free. This could disrupt the last 25 years of Internet search, and billions in ad-sales revenue.

Secondly, AI has the potential to dramatically alter and potentially decimate white-collar employment. Those concerned about “the rise of robots” typically worry about losing blue-collar manufacturing, retail and service-sector jobs. However, with effective AI, there’s even less of a need for human writers. Publishers can run AI-generated content; Hollywood can produce AI-generated movies and TV scripts (featuring virtual talent); brands can run AI-generated campaigns; and lawyers, bankers, market researchers and other professionals can be replaced by chatbots.

And lastly, AI is disrupting education. If I can use ChatGPT to crib six suitable paragraphs on Coke’s marketing strategy, students can do the same with term papers and essays. Already school districts are limiting access to ChatGPT, and teachers and professors are running student essays through counterintelligence programs to detect AI-written content. AI has the potential to improve learning accessibility, but also to increase cheating, plagiarism, and the spread of misinformation.

How might AI revolutionize brand marketing?

*Truly interactive websites: Many retailers including Amazon already use chatbots to help process orders; however, chats can go a lot further in recommending products to consumers, suggesting use cases, and even allowing consumers to experience the product or service (say, by showing a new couch in their living room).

*Custom brand content: Brands can use chatbots to generate thoughtful, custom content for consumers to, say, draft a heartfelt note to go along with their gift; write a poem or love song to their partner; or provide life lessons to their child.

*Idea generation: Finally, brands can use AI for fresh perspectives. The query, “How should Coca-Cola promote soft drinks to Black consumers?” elicited a six-paragraph response with four suitable suggestions. Marketers needing new ideas, thought-starters or insights on underserved communities and emerging audiences can find solutions at the push of a button.

2023 promises to be “the year of AI.” Brands embracing it will demonstrate a natural intelligence that never goes out of style.

 

Nexstar Drops Free Streaming of Live, Local TV Stations' Newscasts

• by Wayne Friedman , 7 hours ago

The largest owner of U.S. TV stations, Nexstar Media Group, will no longer allow its local TV stations' newscasts to be streamed live for free as they air.

Instead, those local newscasts will be offered on a delayed basis on TV stations' websites two hours after their original live airings. The move was made “to fulfill our obligations to our cable, satellite and telecom partners,” said Nexstar in a statement.

Nexstar reaps major retransmission revenue with pay TV providers -- as do nearly all local TV stations -- in exchange for cable, satellite, telco and virtual services carrying TV stations on their platforms that consumers pay for.

Local TV news content is a major piece of local TV stations viewing and revenue-generating content. 

Pay TV providers don’t want TV stations to offer their local TV news programming for free and thus give subscribers more reasons to possibly cut back or drop pay TV services, according to analysts. Industry-wide "cord-cutting" remains a major hindrance to the pay TV business.

Although Nexstar was offering its local TV stations' live TV telecasts in real-time for free on streaming services, it could benefit from extra revenue from advertisers.

This comes from extra carriage via online TV-video distributors where local and regional advertisers -- who buy media time on Nexstar stations -- gain from extra viewer reach.

Nexstar adds: “We also continue to make highlights of our newscasts available through video clips and other coverage after the live broadcast. Breaking news and important weather updates will continue to be offered on the station's websites as they occur, and on our mobile apps and social media platforms.” 

 

Should Networks Keep or Sell Streaming TV Shows? An Old Story with New Tricks

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 11, 2023

Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to take off some big HBO Max shows and movies -- now totaling 81 -- and sell them to other marketers and platforms seem to fly in the face of the  billion-dollar efforts to support all things for their owned streamers' services.

This harks back to when NBCUniversal was starting up Peacock and when then-Warner Media was launching HBO Max.

NBCU at that time was desperate to get back reruns of “The Office," while Warner Media wanted to do the same for “Friends.” Those two shows, respectively, were going to be key library components of those services.

But now, it seems there are overlap and “frenemy” issues when it comes to production ownership and distribution -- at least potential ones.

For example, Netflix's big new hit “Wednesday” came out of MGM Television. Then in March 2022, Amazon -- which owns Prime Video -- closed a $8.45 billion deal to buy MGM Studios. It turns out that Netflix is safe -- at least for a couple of seasons, since its deal for the show included options for additional seasons beyond its first year of production.

It’s becoming more confusing for Peacock, which has the streaming rights to “Yellowstone” -- a show that airs on the cable channel, the Paramount Network, a sister service of Paramount+.

If this seems strange, it should not -- given the recent history of TV production and first-run distribution of TV shows. TV networks regularly bought shows from competing TV production studios that also owned TV networks. (The major odd-studio out for some time has been Sony Pictures Television, which has never owned a major U.S. TV network.)

But over the last decade or so, TV networks and their media companies have expanded and pushed to own and distribute most, if not all, of their produced content -- especially in the U.S. -- in order to benefit from ad revenues for their respective owned cable TV networks or national syndication ad revenue from shows on TV stations.

Warner Bros. Discovery is taking shows off of HBO Max to sell to possible competitors to make more money -- especially those that are in reruns and not in production. This list includes “Westworld,” “The Nevers” and “Love Life.” 

Looking at it in granular terms, WBD doesn't believe the value of those shows is all that good on HBO Max from whatever monthly subscriptions and limited advertising revenues is estimated to get from those shows.

And we know this -- all premium streamers from legacy TV-based media selling companies are losing money... still in the billions of dollars.

This makes you wonder about the lesser excitement now in the premium streaming world. Exactly. There is a long way to go. This stream is a slow-moving creek.

 Good morning and another Happy New Year: We felt that now is the better time to share broadcast news and what's happing in the media business now that the holidays are over and you all are back in the saddle and looking forward to a healthy, happy and another prosperous New Year! Sooo.. here we go again: Philip Jay LeNoble, PhD.

Tesla Cuts Prices, Twitter Ads Down 46% - Who Needs Some TV Marketing Now?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Entropic swings in business metrics are not a good thing. This doesn't affect just loyal business clients -- consumers can lose faith. 

Twitter's advertising revenue is now down 46%, according to reports. And Tesla, with its stock price sinking, has cut electric-vehicle prices by up to 20%. 

Everyone has an opinion about what Elon Musk needs to do. Perhaps he needs some professional help -- including stuff to do with messaging. TV Watch has brought this up before. Now it appears that things are becoming more urgent.

Couple this with competitors who are gaining -- TikTok for Twitter, and virtually every major carmaker on earth for Tesla -- and you figure some strong advice and action is necessary. 

It’s time both Twitter and Tesla get some wide-reaching TV messaging -- kind of a humble “rebranding,” if you will.

Sure, you say -- new digitally inspired, forward-thinking companies don't need old-fogey media to tell young consumers to use their products. Yes -- usually. But maybe this was old-school thinking -- perhaps from about three years ago.

Maybe traditional TV marketing isn't a Musk thing -- especially for Tesla, where there has been zilch in paid TV ads.

What about a new take on things -- TV-wise? Like some key product placement in TV shows -- for both brands -- in scripted, non-scripted, sports, content -- where there is some significant young viewer reach (especially sports)?

Perhaps that media buy could also include legacy TV networks' sister companies' newfangled streaming services, since we know virtually anything digital can draw a young crowd.

Right now Twitter consumer sentiment especially can be a bit low -- not just with users but with some employees, past and present. And for Tesla employees, the thinking seems to be: “Hey, where’s the boss?”

Creative execution would need to be extra special -- perhaps subversive, tricky, or outlandish. Whatever is decided, you would need all-hands-on-deck and a quicker response to perhaps two ships taking on massive amounts of water.

Recent Tesla buyers feel they have been played after buying expensive cars and then hearing Musk is dramatically cutting pricing of autos by 20%. His $77,000 high-end “Y” model now costs $13,000 less.  “I feel like I got duped,” says one customer. 

See what I mean by getting help? C’mon, Elon. Work some of your magic -- with some hubris checked at the door. We’ll thank you for it.

Go for some big tandem brand spin: Twitter and Tesla. We’re sorry. Two good 'T's for your climate, for your thoughts.