MediaPost Blogs Research Briefs
by Jack Loechner, 11 hours ago
According to Deloitte's fifth edition "State of the Media Democracy" survey, 71% of Americans still rate watching TV on any device among their favorite media activities. In addition, 86% of Americans stated that TV advertising still has the most impact on their buying decisions.
The survey indicates that the Internet, mobile and social media channels are enhancing the overall television viewer experience, driving people to watch first-run programs and live events during their initial broadcast. And, nearly three-quarters of American consumers are multitasking while watching TV. 42% are online, 29% are talking on cellphones or mobile devices, and 26% are sending instant messages or text messages. 61% of U.S. consumers now maintain a social networking site, where constant streams of updates and discussion forums have made delaying awareness of live TV outcomes a near impossibility.
Phil Asmundson, Vice Chairman Deloitte LLP, points out that "... by embracing the Internet as a platform that encourages audiences to participate in discussions about their favorite programs, television is maintaining its hold on the American public... "
According to this year's survey, 33% of American households now own a smartphone, up from 11% only three years ago, and 40% of U.S. consumers that do not own a smartphone are likely to purchase one in the near future. This marked rise in smartphone penetration in the U.S. market is rapidly changing consumer behavior with 56% of smartphone and laptop owners stating that they used their smartphones as a replacement for their laptop while away from home, jumping significantly from 41% in only three months.
Mobile Internet use is quickly decoupling the Internet experience from the desktop for almost half of the population. This will facilitate new consumer behaviors, likely including increased mobile search, purchasing and social networking:
• 48% of U.S. Consumers have a voice and data plan for their mobile/smartphones; 26% state this plan is their most valued media & entertainment service
•47% of U.S. consumers state their "smartphone" is one of their three most valuable media & entertainment products; ranking it as #4 among owners
•Consistently over the last three years, roughly a third of U.S. consumers use their mobile phone as an entertainment device
According to the survey, since 2007 a consistent 70% of Americans state that they enjoy reading printed magazines even though they know that they could find most of the same information online, and 55% have continued to subscribe to printed magazines. Since 2007, a consistent 80% of Americans who have read their favorite magazine state that reading the printed copy is their favorite method.
James McDonnell, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, says "... enthusiasm for printed magazines is consistent across all age groups, a unique result in consumer attitudes across all the media categories, we surveyed...
Access to mobile devices and broadband have made the average consumer more connected to the Internet than ever and new online storage models have become real options for the mass market. According to the survey, most Americans own a device that allows them to easily connect to the Web - 85% of consumers own a desktop computer, 68% own a laptop/netbook computer and 41% access the Internet on their mobile phone.
Additional Key Findings:
TV continues to reign as the most influential advertising platform, and online ads are considered influential by less than half of Americans. Yet, with the rise of social media, says the report, we are beginning to see online engagement with consumers happening in a much different, more social way:
•The ability of ads on web sites to move traffic to other sites has dropped from 72% to 59% over the past three surveys
•57% of U.S. consumers currently maintain a social networking site
•26% of U.S. consumers are socializing online everyday/almost everyday (via social networking sites, chat rooms or message boards)
•55% of U.S. consumers believe strongly/somewhat that online consumer reviews and ratings influence their buying decisions more than any type of online advertising
•51% of U.S. consumers have purchased a product based on an online recommendation
•65% of U.S. consumers frequently/occasionally visit web sites as a result of someone's online recommendation
•24% of U.S. consumers would find it extremely/very desirable to have an online service that recommends a product based on other consumers' preferences
•65% of U.S. consumers frequently/occasionally visit web sites as a result of someone's online recommendation
•55% of Americans believe strongly/somewhat that online consumer reviews and ratings influence their buying decisions more than any type of online advertising
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
5 Ways to Survive a Sales Shipwreck
bNET CBS Interactive Business Network
By Tom Searcy | March 9, 2011
Old men aren’t the first to die in shipwrecks.
You would think they would be since they do not have the strength or endurance of young men, but in maritime records, young men die first.
Why? Because they flail about and waste precious energy while old men grab onto drifting debris, conserve their energy and wait for daylight to determine what to do.
Right now, one of my client’s business unit leaders is acting just like a young sailor during his first shipwreck. His biggest deals are finishing up with little backlog to absorb the headcount and he’s flailing, yelling into the darkness and panicking. He’s frightened and he has the right to be.
So what can he do?
1. Shut up. Quit talking to everyone about how frightened you are, how quickly the sky is falling, and how new and different strategies need to be implemented. This serves no purpose. Start talking when you have a consistent strategy and when you can articulate it clearly, often, and with conviction.
2. Grab onto some driftwood. Just because you are frightened, doesn’t mean nothing is working. You have to define the core pieces that are working and start building a boat (your strategy) based on them. At the very least, you need to cling to what is working until daylight comes.
3. Quit kicking until you spot land. There are no silver bullet solutions. Changing your offering to the market on a 72-hour cycle confuses your people and your prospects. Follow a strategy with 10 prospects and determine the outcomes. Don’t just take a sample size of one conversation with one prospect and decide that you “have the answer.” Calm down. Follow the plan through 10 conversations with 10 prospects and then decide if a complete change in strategy is necessary.
4. Conserve energy. Make choices. More of more is not necessarily going to yield more. Focus on the opportunities that you are hunting one at a time and with rigor. It is the opposite of the shotgun approach — a flurry of activity in many directions — but it is more effective in the long run. It’s better to pick out strategic targets and drive hard at those opportunities.
5. Give encouragement. Chances are that other people on the team are frightened. Use your experience and judgment to show them that your team will get through this tough time.
As in life, the people who need the most help are usually the least likely to take it. If you are the drowning man, follow this list. If you know a drowning man, give him this list. If you are doing just fine, keep this list. You may need it the next time there is a sales shipwreck.
By Tom Searcy | March 9, 2011
Old men aren’t the first to die in shipwrecks.
You would think they would be since they do not have the strength or endurance of young men, but in maritime records, young men die first.
Why? Because they flail about and waste precious energy while old men grab onto drifting debris, conserve their energy and wait for daylight to determine what to do.
Right now, one of my client’s business unit leaders is acting just like a young sailor during his first shipwreck. His biggest deals are finishing up with little backlog to absorb the headcount and he’s flailing, yelling into the darkness and panicking. He’s frightened and he has the right to be.
So what can he do?
1. Shut up. Quit talking to everyone about how frightened you are, how quickly the sky is falling, and how new and different strategies need to be implemented. This serves no purpose. Start talking when you have a consistent strategy and when you can articulate it clearly, often, and with conviction.
2. Grab onto some driftwood. Just because you are frightened, doesn’t mean nothing is working. You have to define the core pieces that are working and start building a boat (your strategy) based on them. At the very least, you need to cling to what is working until daylight comes.
3. Quit kicking until you spot land. There are no silver bullet solutions. Changing your offering to the market on a 72-hour cycle confuses your people and your prospects. Follow a strategy with 10 prospects and determine the outcomes. Don’t just take a sample size of one conversation with one prospect and decide that you “have the answer.” Calm down. Follow the plan through 10 conversations with 10 prospects and then decide if a complete change in strategy is necessary.
4. Conserve energy. Make choices. More of more is not necessarily going to yield more. Focus on the opportunities that you are hunting one at a time and with rigor. It is the opposite of the shotgun approach — a flurry of activity in many directions — but it is more effective in the long run. It’s better to pick out strategic targets and drive hard at those opportunities.
5. Give encouragement. Chances are that other people on the team are frightened. Use your experience and judgment to show them that your team will get through this tough time.
As in life, the people who need the most help are usually the least likely to take it. If you are the drowning man, follow this list. If you know a drowning man, give him this list. If you are doing just fine, keep this list. You may need it the next time there is a sales shipwreck.
The 10 Immutable Laws of Customer Relationships
bNET The CBS Interactive Business Network
By Geoffrey James | March 15, 2011
Selling at the highest level means building strong customer relationships which create ongoing sales opportunities.
There are ten fundamental laws that determine whether a customer will want to have a long-term relationship with you.
Here they are:
LAW #1: Your customer wants to feel important.
LAW #2: Your customer craves being appreciated.
LAW #3: Your customer is NOT interested in you.
LAW #4: Your customer seeks success and happiness.
LAW #5: Your customer wants you to listen and understand.
LAW #6: Your customer must feel valued before buying.
LAW #7: Your customer buys emotionally but defends logically.
LAW #8: Your customer’s average attention span is short.
LAW #9: Your customer wants you to show true interest.
LAW #10: Your customer wants to teach you something.
If you behave with these laws constantly in mind, your customers will work with you, buy from you, and give you great referrals. On the other hand, if you ignore any of these laws, you’re toast. Your customers will move on to somebody who knows how to treat them right.
The above is based on a conversation with the enthusiastic, enlightening and entertaining sales trainer Jerry Acuff, author of The Relationship Edge in Business.
By Geoffrey James | March 15, 2011
Selling at the highest level means building strong customer relationships which create ongoing sales opportunities.
There are ten fundamental laws that determine whether a customer will want to have a long-term relationship with you.
Here they are:
LAW #1: Your customer wants to feel important.
LAW #2: Your customer craves being appreciated.
LAW #3: Your customer is NOT interested in you.
LAW #4: Your customer seeks success and happiness.
LAW #5: Your customer wants you to listen and understand.
LAW #6: Your customer must feel valued before buying.
LAW #7: Your customer buys emotionally but defends logically.
LAW #8: Your customer’s average attention span is short.
LAW #9: Your customer wants you to show true interest.
LAW #10: Your customer wants to teach you something.
If you behave with these laws constantly in mind, your customers will work with you, buy from you, and give you great referrals. On the other hand, if you ignore any of these laws, you’re toast. Your customers will move on to somebody who knows how to treat them right.
The above is based on a conversation with the enthusiastic, enlightening and entertaining sales trainer Jerry Acuff, author of The Relationship Edge in Business.
Friday, March 11, 2011
CBS Takes Aim At Newspapers With Local Websites
MediaPost's TelevisionNewsDaily
by David Goetzl, Yesterday, 4:47 PM
It makes sense that CBS CEO Leslie Moonves wants to make his company's single-market websites into the new local newspapers. He's got the wide reach of TV to promote the just-rolled-out sites.
Forget about going to the end of the driveway in the morning or even bothering to spread out the broadsheet on the commuter rail. Just fire up -- on the laptop or iPad -- a CBS site covering the local turf, with content drawn from its TV and radio stations.
"We think we can replace the Yellow Pages, replace the newspaper ... when you get up in the morning, you should be able to turn on that local CBS website and get everything you would need -- everything that would be provided by your newspaper," he told investors Monday.
Newspaper reading is declining, so there's opportunity to encroach in the print area. The new battleground is the web, where newspaper sites still dominate locally.
But ours is increasingly a video society --- with people less willing to read lengthy articles. They're hungry for info chunks. And CBS local portals loaded with enticing clips and an easy ability to view breaking news live have a lot of runway.
Even as Tribune Co. makes noise about integrating newspaper and station sites in markets where it has both properties, it's striking that in Los Anglels. at least the concept hardly seems to have made it to the starting gate. LATimes.com and KTLA.com don't even appear to be corporate cousins, let alone brothers.
Yet, even as Moonves offers a plausible plan, local TV station sites have mostly been unable to topple the newspaper counterparts, which began focusing on the web many years earlier. Maybe that's because newspapers had some vision of a wired future, or perhaps because it wasn't too hard for the papers to post copy and photos.
So the dynamic in the broader Raleigh, NC market is remarkable. Capitol Broadcasting Co.'s site for CBS affiliate WRAL-TV has greater web traffic than the local News & Observer, which emphasized the web at a considerable level before many other papers.
In line with the Moonves playbook, WRAL.com has capitalized on the station's leading position in the market.
"All of our newscasts are No. 1," station general manager Steven Hammel told NetNewsCheck. "For instance we have a 21.3 share for our 6 p.m. newscast."
On Thursday, WRAL.com was streaming a murder trial live. And a site visitor's attention was immediately drawn to the one-click opportunity to get inside the court room. On the News & Observer site, there was a story about the case that took some scrolling to find. Pretty telling?
by David Goetzl, Yesterday, 4:47 PM
It makes sense that CBS CEO Leslie Moonves wants to make his company's single-market websites into the new local newspapers. He's got the wide reach of TV to promote the just-rolled-out sites.
Forget about going to the end of the driveway in the morning or even bothering to spread out the broadsheet on the commuter rail. Just fire up -- on the laptop or iPad -- a CBS site covering the local turf, with content drawn from its TV and radio stations.
"We think we can replace the Yellow Pages, replace the newspaper ... when you get up in the morning, you should be able to turn on that local CBS website and get everything you would need -- everything that would be provided by your newspaper," he told investors Monday.
Newspaper reading is declining, so there's opportunity to encroach in the print area. The new battleground is the web, where newspaper sites still dominate locally.
But ours is increasingly a video society --- with people less willing to read lengthy articles. They're hungry for info chunks. And CBS local portals loaded with enticing clips and an easy ability to view breaking news live have a lot of runway.
Even as Tribune Co. makes noise about integrating newspaper and station sites in markets where it has both properties, it's striking that in Los Anglels. at least the concept hardly seems to have made it to the starting gate. LATimes.com and KTLA.com don't even appear to be corporate cousins, let alone brothers.
Yet, even as Moonves offers a plausible plan, local TV station sites have mostly been unable to topple the newspaper counterparts, which began focusing on the web many years earlier. Maybe that's because newspapers had some vision of a wired future, or perhaps because it wasn't too hard for the papers to post copy and photos.
So the dynamic in the broader Raleigh, NC market is remarkable. Capitol Broadcasting Co.'s site for CBS affiliate WRAL-TV has greater web traffic than the local News & Observer, which emphasized the web at a considerable level before many other papers.
In line with the Moonves playbook, WRAL.com has capitalized on the station's leading position in the market.
"All of our newscasts are No. 1," station general manager Steven Hammel told NetNewsCheck. "For instance we have a 21.3 share for our 6 p.m. newscast."
On Thursday, WRAL.com was streaming a murder trial live. And a site visitor's attention was immediately drawn to the one-click opportunity to get inside the court room. On the News & Observer site, there was a story about the case that took some scrolling to find. Pretty telling?
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Customers Expect More than Just a Sales Rep
bNet The CBS Interactive Business Network
By Geoffrey James | March 9, 2011
You may think you’re a sales rep, but that’s not what your customers want you to be. They expect more. A lot more. In fact, customers want you to be all of the following:
A Long-Term Ally. Customers except you to be on their side, when it comes to fighting their own bureaucracy, and fighting the bureaucracy in your own firm. They want you to be there for them, keep communications open, and watch their backs when the going gets tough.
A Business Consultant. Customers expect you to be focused, accurate, and knowledgeable about your products and your customers’ needs and business objectives. They expect you to stay current with THEIR markets and business objectives and create great solutions to match.
A Strategic Orchestrator. Customers expect you to create connections between and within the selling and buying organizations to expedite a sale, encourage the exchange of information, and make it easy for the customer to deal with your company.
A Consistent Cultivator. Customers expect you to plan and manage the totality of the account relationship. On a daily basis, they expect you to make sure that nothing ever ever ever ever ever falls through the cracks.
A Focused Optimist. Customers also expect you to create a positive atmosphere that makes buying from you a pleasant experience. On a daily basis, they expect you to be remain motivated, upbeat, and able meet your commitments, no matter what.
Tall order, eh? But that’s what they want. So do your best to give it to them, OK?
By Geoffrey James | March 9, 2011
You may think you’re a sales rep, but that’s not what your customers want you to be. They expect more. A lot more. In fact, customers want you to be all of the following:
A Long-Term Ally. Customers except you to be on their side, when it comes to fighting their own bureaucracy, and fighting the bureaucracy in your own firm. They want you to be there for them, keep communications open, and watch their backs when the going gets tough.
A Business Consultant. Customers expect you to be focused, accurate, and knowledgeable about your products and your customers’ needs and business objectives. They expect you to stay current with THEIR markets and business objectives and create great solutions to match.
A Strategic Orchestrator. Customers expect you to create connections between and within the selling and buying organizations to expedite a sale, encourage the exchange of information, and make it easy for the customer to deal with your company.
A Consistent Cultivator. Customers expect you to plan and manage the totality of the account relationship. On a daily basis, they expect you to make sure that nothing ever ever ever ever ever falls through the cracks.
A Focused Optimist. Customers also expect you to create a positive atmosphere that makes buying from you a pleasant experience. On a daily basis, they expect you to be remain motivated, upbeat, and able meet your commitments, no matter what.
Tall order, eh? But that’s what they want. So do your best to give it to them, OK?
20 Things NOT to do on a Sales Call
bNet The CBS Interactive Business Network
By Geoffrey James | March 9, 2011
I recently stumbled across an article “10 Things Not To Do on the First Date.” It included mostly common sense stuff like “don’t get drunk.” It was a pretty good article, even though it missed this important tip: Do not pull your T-shirt up around the top of your head so you look like a demented monk, and say: “Can we please now have the oral sex?”
Anyway, here’s a list of 20 common-sense things NOT to do on a sales call:
#1. Flirt with the admin. It may seem tempting, but unless you’ve got soap-opera-quality looks, chances are you’re only going to annoy (or even alarm) the admin, who will tell the boss. Instead: Stay polite, friendly and respectful.
#2. Talk more than you listen. Initial sales calls are all about relationship building and gathering information, which you can’t do if your mouth is moving. Instead: Get curious about the customer and ask questions.
#3. Comment on the memento. The last 372 people who came into that office remarked about the signed baseball on the desk. Ho-hum… Instead: Research the prospect and ask about the prospect’s job.
#4. Pretend to drop by. Who are you kidding? Do you think that it’s going to cushion the rejection if you pretend that it’s not a sales call? Instead: Have something important to say or sell that justifies your presence.
#5. Answer your cell phone. Ouch! Ouch! What were you thinking? How could any telephone call be more important than a real live prospect? Instead: Turn it off and leave it in your briefcase.
#6. Overstay your welcome. Your prospect has hundreds of other things that he or she could be doing, rather than spending time with you. Instead: Set a time limit for the call.
#7. Let the meeting meander. This isn’t the time for a wandering conversation that slowly gets to the point or a long series of complicated questions. Instead: Provide brief agenda of how you expect the call to proceed.
#8. Argue with the customer. If the customer doesn’t agree with an important point, arguing is only going to set that opinion in stone. Instead: ask the customer why he holds that opinion; then listen.
#9: Discuss politics or religion. Such subjects are almost always a trap into opinionated quicksand that’s hard or impossible to get out of. Instead: keep the discussion on business or neutral ground.
#10: Dive into your product pitch. Sure you’ve got something to sell, but if you pitch too soon, you’ll get pitched out the door. Instead: Ask questions to understand needs, before you pitch.
#11: Arrive late to the call. If you don’t arrive on time it tell the customer clearly that you don’t give a damn about them or their time. Instead: Always arrive 15 minutes ahead of time. If you drive to calls, get a GPS.
#12: Appear flippant or sarcastic. A good-natured laugh at a joke might be taken personally by someone watching out the window, without hearing the context. Instead: Watch your demeanor at all times.
#13: Lack requisite product knowledge. The prospect doesn’t want to hear “I need to get back to you about that”…over and over. Instead: make sure you’re trained on your current products and policies…before the call.
#14: Fail to plan the call. Sounds simple, but trying to close when should be qualifying (for example) is a lost sale. Instead: Never enter a door without first thinking about what you plan to accomplish.
#15: Be too business-like at first. Remember you’re building bridges with another human being, not just a notch in your sales gun. Instead: Smile and be friendly… but don’t get too gushy.
#16: Show up with a crowd. If you bring too many people, it will draw customer’s comments about why your costs so high Instead: Use webconferencing when you need to include additional resources.
#17: Fail to check your appearance. Don’t show up with something amiss that a quick stop in the client’s bathroom could head off. Instead: Make a quick pit stop - with a look-over - before the call.
#18: Forget the customers’ names. What could be more embarrassing than actually forgetting whom you’re talking with? Instead: Write down the names down of everyone in the room with a small table diagram.
#19: Be rude to the admin. No flirting, of course, but if you act all arrogant and superior, you’ll just antagonize the help. Instead: Be friendly and respectful of the staff - admin and otherwise.
#20: Ask personal questions. You may think that the customer is your friend, but you can easily screw up if it gets too personal. Instead: Keep the conversation focused on business issues, especially the customer’s needs.
By Geoffrey James | March 9, 2011
I recently stumbled across an article “10 Things Not To Do on the First Date.” It included mostly common sense stuff like “don’t get drunk.” It was a pretty good article, even though it missed this important tip: Do not pull your T-shirt up around the top of your head so you look like a demented monk, and say: “Can we please now have the oral sex?”
Anyway, here’s a list of 20 common-sense things NOT to do on a sales call:
#1. Flirt with the admin. It may seem tempting, but unless you’ve got soap-opera-quality looks, chances are you’re only going to annoy (or even alarm) the admin, who will tell the boss. Instead: Stay polite, friendly and respectful.
#2. Talk more than you listen. Initial sales calls are all about relationship building and gathering information, which you can’t do if your mouth is moving. Instead: Get curious about the customer and ask questions.
#3. Comment on the memento. The last 372 people who came into that office remarked about the signed baseball on the desk. Ho-hum… Instead: Research the prospect and ask about the prospect’s job.
#4. Pretend to drop by. Who are you kidding? Do you think that it’s going to cushion the rejection if you pretend that it’s not a sales call? Instead: Have something important to say or sell that justifies your presence.
#5. Answer your cell phone. Ouch! Ouch! What were you thinking? How could any telephone call be more important than a real live prospect? Instead: Turn it off and leave it in your briefcase.
#6. Overstay your welcome. Your prospect has hundreds of other things that he or she could be doing, rather than spending time with you. Instead: Set a time limit for the call.
#7. Let the meeting meander. This isn’t the time for a wandering conversation that slowly gets to the point or a long series of complicated questions. Instead: Provide brief agenda of how you expect the call to proceed.
#8. Argue with the customer. If the customer doesn’t agree with an important point, arguing is only going to set that opinion in stone. Instead: ask the customer why he holds that opinion; then listen.
#9: Discuss politics or religion. Such subjects are almost always a trap into opinionated quicksand that’s hard or impossible to get out of. Instead: keep the discussion on business or neutral ground.
#10: Dive into your product pitch. Sure you’ve got something to sell, but if you pitch too soon, you’ll get pitched out the door. Instead: Ask questions to understand needs, before you pitch.
#11: Arrive late to the call. If you don’t arrive on time it tell the customer clearly that you don’t give a damn about them or their time. Instead: Always arrive 15 minutes ahead of time. If you drive to calls, get a GPS.
#12: Appear flippant or sarcastic. A good-natured laugh at a joke might be taken personally by someone watching out the window, without hearing the context. Instead: Watch your demeanor at all times.
#13: Lack requisite product knowledge. The prospect doesn’t want to hear “I need to get back to you about that”…over and over. Instead: make sure you’re trained on your current products and policies…before the call.
#14: Fail to plan the call. Sounds simple, but trying to close when should be qualifying (for example) is a lost sale. Instead: Never enter a door without first thinking about what you plan to accomplish.
#15: Be too business-like at first. Remember you’re building bridges with another human being, not just a notch in your sales gun. Instead: Smile and be friendly… but don’t get too gushy.
#16: Show up with a crowd. If you bring too many people, it will draw customer’s comments about why your costs so high Instead: Use webconferencing when you need to include additional resources.
#17: Fail to check your appearance. Don’t show up with something amiss that a quick stop in the client’s bathroom could head off. Instead: Make a quick pit stop - with a look-over - before the call.
#18: Forget the customers’ names. What could be more embarrassing than actually forgetting whom you’re talking with? Instead: Write down the names down of everyone in the room with a small table diagram.
#19: Be rude to the admin. No flirting, of course, but if you act all arrogant and superior, you’ll just antagonize the help. Instead: Be friendly and respectful of the staff - admin and otherwise.
#20: Ask personal questions. You may think that the customer is your friend, but you can easily screw up if it gets too personal. Instead: Keep the conversation focused on business issues, especially the customer’s needs.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Death Of 30-Second Spot Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
MediaDailyNews
by David Kline, Yesterday, 1:58 PM
In the late 1990s, with the advent of the DVR and the emergence of the Internet as an advertising vehicle, media industry pundits clamored to be the first to say the traditional :30 TV commercial, the staple of TV advertising for 50 years, would soon be a thing of the past.
After all, why would anyone with a DVR watch commercials? Then add Internet advertising into the equation, offering rich census data based on who clicked on the ad, how long they visited the Web site, new customer leads, etc. Why would advertisers continue to buy TV? "The :30 commercial is dead" they all cried.
Well, here we are in 2011, almost 15 years into the DVR era. More than half of U.S. homes have broadband, and broadband adoption continues to climb rapidly. Google and others are bringing customers to advertisers through search on a very efficient basis. Even so, guess what is still the dominant platform for advertisers? You guessed it: traditional 30-second commercials.
Believe me, I am not naïve. I know that DVRs can compromise the value of traditional 30-second spots, and that Internet-delivered targeting and metrics will shift more media dollars to that platform.
Yet there are several real reasons why such spots have not only survived, but have actually flourished, including the fact that program producers know the best way to monetize content is to get in front of the largest audiences possible.
If high-quality content like "Grey's Anatomy" was only offered on Hulu type services and/or iTunes at $.99, they would never come close to generating the same type of revenues as they do today with traditional 30-second commercials. Do the media math: The vast majority of high-quality content could not afford to be produced without the inherent supporting benefits of 30-second TV commercials -- a large audience and a CPM model.
In addition, measurement across all platforms will continue to improve. Over time, the Hulu and iTunes models will most likely evolve to become complementary to the traditional 30-second commercial revenue. However, they will not become a substitute for these spots. When measurement improves, and it will, so will ad revenue from 30-second spots. These spots offer advantages similar to those of direct mail -- utilizing widely available general demographic data, implemented on an anonymous basis -- and the rich metrics of the Internet.
Advertisers love targeting, proven engagement and better accountability. Plus, this is not a pipe dream! It has and continues to take place daily, and the cutting-edge of advanced advertising that cable operators provide makes 30-second commercials even more powerful for advertisers. For the foreseeable future, they will continue to be the best vehicle for marketers to brand and sell their products and services.
While some in the industry consider how to jump on this fast-moving train, we at Cablevision already empower 30-second commercials to do more. Across our full footprint of nearly 3 million digital subscribers, marketers are utilizing household addressable ads, RFIs and dedicated advertiser channels with telescoping. So how do we know Madison Avenue is aboard for this ride? They vote with their budgets, and we are seeing unprecedented growth, a meaningful part of which is due to our advanced ads.
As Mark Twain said about himself, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." The same can also be said for the media mainstay: the 30-second commercial.
by David Kline, Yesterday, 1:58 PM
In the late 1990s, with the advent of the DVR and the emergence of the Internet as an advertising vehicle, media industry pundits clamored to be the first to say the traditional :30 TV commercial, the staple of TV advertising for 50 years, would soon be a thing of the past.
After all, why would anyone with a DVR watch commercials? Then add Internet advertising into the equation, offering rich census data based on who clicked on the ad, how long they visited the Web site, new customer leads, etc. Why would advertisers continue to buy TV? "The :30 commercial is dead" they all cried.
Well, here we are in 2011, almost 15 years into the DVR era. More than half of U.S. homes have broadband, and broadband adoption continues to climb rapidly. Google and others are bringing customers to advertisers through search on a very efficient basis. Even so, guess what is still the dominant platform for advertisers? You guessed it: traditional 30-second commercials.
Believe me, I am not naïve. I know that DVRs can compromise the value of traditional 30-second spots, and that Internet-delivered targeting and metrics will shift more media dollars to that platform.
Yet there are several real reasons why such spots have not only survived, but have actually flourished, including the fact that program producers know the best way to monetize content is to get in front of the largest audiences possible.
If high-quality content like "Grey's Anatomy" was only offered on Hulu type services and/or iTunes at $.99, they would never come close to generating the same type of revenues as they do today with traditional 30-second commercials. Do the media math: The vast majority of high-quality content could not afford to be produced without the inherent supporting benefits of 30-second TV commercials -- a large audience and a CPM model.
In addition, measurement across all platforms will continue to improve. Over time, the Hulu and iTunes models will most likely evolve to become complementary to the traditional 30-second commercial revenue. However, they will not become a substitute for these spots. When measurement improves, and it will, so will ad revenue from 30-second spots. These spots offer advantages similar to those of direct mail -- utilizing widely available general demographic data, implemented on an anonymous basis -- and the rich metrics of the Internet.
Advertisers love targeting, proven engagement and better accountability. Plus, this is not a pipe dream! It has and continues to take place daily, and the cutting-edge of advanced advertising that cable operators provide makes 30-second commercials even more powerful for advertisers. For the foreseeable future, they will continue to be the best vehicle for marketers to brand and sell their products and services.
While some in the industry consider how to jump on this fast-moving train, we at Cablevision already empower 30-second commercials to do more. Across our full footprint of nearly 3 million digital subscribers, marketers are utilizing household addressable ads, RFIs and dedicated advertiser channels with telescoping. So how do we know Madison Avenue is aboard for this ride? They vote with their budgets, and we are seeing unprecedented growth, a meaningful part of which is due to our advanced ads.
As Mark Twain said about himself, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." The same can also be said for the media mainstay: the 30-second commercial.
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