Commerce Meets Culture: Why Brands Should Leverage 'Holidays'

Commentary

• by Mark Osborn , Columnist, 5 hours ago

National Watermelon Day, National Ice Cream Day, National Hot Dog Day, National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day — the list goes on and on. With so many “holidays” being celebrated by the consumer, brands would be remiss to not take advantage of these opportunities, whether it’s simply participating or even creating their own. Taking advantage of a holiday is an easy way for brands to create more compelling consumer experiences and outcomes.

Supply the Demand
Companies are becoming more creative when it comes to engaging consumers with brands, and taking advantage of holidays is one great way to increase opportunities for consumer interest and sales. Amazon Prime Day and 7-11 Slurpee Day offer two great examples of retailers creating a marketing event to extend their brand position and create a compelling reason for consumers to make a purchase, focused specifically on their brand.

But there are also many other opportunities usually created and promoted by an industry association (e.g., the Salvation Army and National Pork Producers of America) rather than by any one consumer brand, including National Doughnut Day and National Bacon Day, to name a few.

Know Your Audience
So how do companies prepare to ride the wave that holidays allow? The traditional holidays — Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter as well as Black Friday and Back-to-School — have been an essential part of the consumer industries’ yearly sales and marketing calendars, as demand for certain products is much higher during these periods. But, looking beyond to other opportunities, consumer products and packaged goods companies can anticipate which holidays will align best with their consumer base and develop a corresponding marketing and sales strategy to make sure these holidays are successful.

By using data to assess the types of products consumers are interested in, and reviewing spikes in purchases during the year, sales and marketing teams at consumer products companies can determine where to allocate budgets appropriately, leading to increased brand engagement and repeat consumer purchasers. Amazon took this a step further when creating Prime Day not only to secure more sign-ups to Amazon Prime, but also to help encourage the higher purchase frequency and spending rates that its exclusive service enjoys.

The Internet Connection 
Ecommerce and omnichannel commerce, combined with social media, have helped enable consumer products companies interact and engage directly with consumers in ways that would not have been possible even five years ago. And, it’s shifted the landscape of opportunity from what we once defined as a path to purchase to reach a moment of truth to a consumer engagement lifecycle through which companies can identify moments of opportunity to engage directly with consumers to not only transact, but also to educate and inspire.

This can be accomplished by creating a holistic consumer experience to better integrate into the consumer’s lifestyle by offering content, recipes, or contests, giving consumers multiples opportunities and options to participate in holidays. Furthering these marketing initiatives by offering discounts on specific products or deals on subscription/membership programs around these days can help bring consumers into the revenue cycle.

As both the consumer products and retail landscapes evolve, taking advantage of holidays is just one strategy companies can adopt to move products from carts to hearts. To move beyond influencing purchase decisions to helping consumers achieve outcomes. By watching trends as well as their own consumer and sales data, consumer products brands can create a successful consumer experience, increase their bottom line and improve brand awareness.

Facebook, Twitter Political Ads Should Mimic TV Rules

Commentary

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 11, 2017

Some political TV advertising can be misleading, especially those super PAC (political action committee) commercials. You’re not sure where they come from or who is behind it.
But what Facebook found out is worse: A Russian-backed "troll farm" bought $100,000 worth of advertising space on Facebook through fake accounts, according to the company. The shadowy entity had a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda.

The money doesn’t sound like much -- especially considering the tens of millions spent on the presidential campaigns last year on traditional TV advertising. But the electoral impact could have been sizable.

Facebook found that 3,300 ads had digital footprints that led to the Russian company from 470 suspicious and likely fraudulent Facebook accounts. Twitter has seen some of the same things, according to reports.

The new state of media carries specific problems, such as how you can buy advertising. In particular, reports suggest the Russian “troll farm” was using Facebook’s automated, self-service ad-buying tool.

All that means way less oversight. And in some cases, social media wants to take a big hands-off approach. Twitter told The New York Times: “We, as a company, should not be the arbiter of the truth.” Does that include advertising?

Some in Congress are already thinking Facebook and Twitter could see future regulation regarding political advertising -- much like what TV networks and stations must abide with.

Some of those TV rules: All spots must include a sponsorship ID stating the political ad was “paid for” or “sponsored by” the entity actually paying for the time. Specifics of that advertising need to be publicly available in a political file. TV stations need to offer political advertising at the lowest unit rate.

Still, this isn’t a perfect set-up. Lots of political TV advertising can be obscured any number of ways.
For some time now, social media had been accused of spreading false information -- both user and advertising content. Social media -- users and readers -- love the fact they can be anonymous. Advertisers as well? Perhaps that isn’t a concern when considering a TV commercial for cereal, a movie ticket, cell phone service, or car insurance. But ads for a U.S. president? That source is good to know.

This concern arises as Facebook continues to have measurement issues with advertisers -- especially with video advertising.

Wondering if those faux Russian political marketers are sending in their complaints as well.

Warshaw: Radio Needs More Deregulation Now & Hebert: 2018 Will Be Tough For iHeart, Cumulus

September 6, 2017

Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw likes to speak his mind, and that’s exactly what he did Wednesday. During the Broadcast Finance panel, Warshaw continued his push to see more deregulation of the number of radio stations a company can own. He says without it, radio will be very challenged in 10 years. “We are fighting for survival. We absolutely need more deregulation.”

He also believes radio may be making too much of an effort to save the AM band, and that could come at the expense of the entire industry. “We should not sacrifice the future of this business for a declining band.” That is certainly not going to go over very well with the many AM broadcasters who are looking to the FCC to fix that band so they can survive. It’s an issue FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has championed and its doubtful he’s going to back off on that any time soon.

Warshaw, and many others, say the only way radio can compete for ad dollars with digital companies like Google and Facebook, who are unregulated by the government, the FCC must allow broadcasters to own more stations. “Getting relief on the number of stations we can own is the single most important thing that can happen in our industry.”

Of course, not everyone agrees with Warshaw. Many have also made the case that too much deregulation put the industry in a position where a few companies have so much debt that you often hear radio now has a “cloud hanging over its head.” You also consistently hear that companies with so many stations in a market will drop their rates on the lowest performing station or stations to get more share of the dollars being spent in that market. That last scenario, if done over many markets, for months and years is clearly one of the reasons radio has not grown its share of the overall revenue pie.

Warshaw also wants radio to step up the level that “we attack ourselves.” He says radio needs to have a serious discussion about why advertisers undervalue radio and all the things we are doing wrong.

Hebert: 2018 Will Be Tough For iHeart, Cumulus

September 6, 2017

Wells Fargo Director Davis Hebert, speaking at the Radio Show in Austin, Wednesday, said the market is concerned about the sustainability of iHeartMedia and Cumulus over the next two years. “It may be tough for both companies to get through 2018 without some sort of restructuring. There’s not as much sand in the hourglass and there will be no significant deal volume in the near-term until iHeart and Cumulus get fixed.”

Hebert had high praise for Beasley Media’s performance, especially how the company has been paying down debt. He said Entercom’s stock has been down 30% since the announcement of the merger with CBS Radio but blamed that on the weak performance of the CBS stations. He called CBS Radio a chronic underperformer for two years. He said it’ll be up to David Field to prove the market wrong.

Hebert said investors want to see positive ad sales, conservative balance sheets, more consolidation, and multi-platform extensions. He said investors are worried about the weak advertising environment, audience fragmentation, and radio’s place in the dash.

Hebert predicted that radio will see revenue decline 2% in 2017 and be either flat or up 1% in 2018. He said radio’s ability to expand its audience could be the catalyst for radio over the long run and gave the example of smart speakers as one of the area’s radio should be leaning.

Why the Upcoming TV Season Will Be Unlike Any Other

By Simon Applebaum September 06, 2017 TV / Video Download Archives

We're days away from the beginning of a new television season, and I sense that we are entering a new frontier of this medium's existence.  A huge new frontier.  It’s comparable to an explorer's "eureka" moment of realizing a breakthrough of landmark proportions.  Consider this: The season ahead will be the first to simultaneously play out during not one, not two but three extraordinary eras of TV.

First, we're living in an era of plentiful original programming, both scripted and unscripted.  For the first time ever, more than 500 scripted series alone will be presented from one Labor Day weekend to the next.  While some networks such as A&E are eliminating scripted work, others are increasing that load. And in the coming months, Apple, Facebook and YouTube will join this throng, motivated by a growing assortment of production sources and/or new creative talent emerging from the now nationwide network of TV festivals.

Second, people all over the medium are taking it upon themselves to kickstart series and services owned, managed and overseen by women, people of color and people out to be unstoppable in the face of physical challenges and disabling circumstances.  More new talent of color-cultivating ventures are in business, from We For She and The Alice Institute to Women in Film's joint venture with The Black List, Made in NY Writers' Room and the Half Initiative formed by prolific programming creator Ryan Murphy.  Viola Davis, Kerry Washington, America Ferrera, Gina Rodriguez, Regina King and other actresses of color have become production company entrepreneurs, getting new content commitments.  (Davis' venture put together XQ Super School Live, the entertainment special that will be simulcast on ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC this Friday night.)

Other notable people of color find themselves this fall with big program development deals that can further expand inclusion -- Tyler Perry's multi-network Viacom association (starting in 2019), Ava DuVernay's expanded relationship with Oprah Winfrey and her Harpo Films unit, Will Packer's joint venture with Discovery Communications and Shonda Rhimes' decision last month to end her series-creating relationship with ABC and go all in with Netflix.  Meantime, a number of people are developing series that follow DuVernay's precedent-shattering initiative with Queen Sugar, her Oprah Winfrey Network drama.  That is, have every episode directed by women, and most by women of color.  The CW, in fact, is developing a weekly anthology of horror tales for next season applying that principle.

Third, we're living in an era of smart TV sets and TV-connected devices that expand how people watch and use TV.  More than 60 percent of all U.S. households now have a smart set, device (Roku/Apple TV/Chromecast/Amazon Fire TV/Shield from Nvidia, etc.) or both.  People with them are spending two or three hours a day, 20 days a month, watching or using them, according to the latest estimates from Nielsen and various research sources.  These sets and devices pushed Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon Studios, Crackle and other programming ventures originating over the Internet into mass marketplace acceptance and triggered the phenomenon of binge viewing.  Do you believe Apple, Facebook and YouTube would be in the content-producing business without them?  No way.

What's more, a growing number of these sets and devices have artificial intelligence-powered voice features like Siri and Alexa built in.  With those features available 24/7, viewers can call out what they want to see -- or order -- and get results in seconds.  Right now, Amazon Prime customers with Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV-embedded sets or devices can order any Amazon merchandise they want in this manner.  Imagine if Amazon followed up its recent takeover of Whole Foods with the ability to order Whole Foods merchandise through the TV, complete with home delivery.  Don't believe for a nanosecond that didn't cross Jeff Bezos' mind when exploring that deal.

Further, these smart TV sets and devices are getting more affordable by the month and largely run on software that can be upgraded at any time.  The recent introduction of Siri, Alexa and other AI voice options is one example.  Others that can impact in the near-term are virtual reality/augmented reality/360-degree content and services, connectivity with lights, appliances and home security services, and interactive programming with a choice of plot direction at natural moments inside the program. Passage of ATSC 3.0, the new technical standard under review at the Federal Communications Commission, also could have important consequences here, especially for broadcast station owners who don't want to be shut out of new revenue streams this era may generate.

It's clear that all three eras will not flame out in the next year or so.  There's too much momentum behind them.  What there is right now is too little public discussion about them, and where they can take this medium, at TV and consumer electronics industry events and in journalism at all levels, from local radio and TV stations to such Web destinations as TechCrunch, News.com and Recode.  It's time for this wave of inattention to end.  It's also time for smart TV set and device makers to provoke more coverage by participating in industry events and exhibiting their latest features beyond Silicon Valley.

One more thing:  Tomorrow Will Be Televised, the Internet-distributed radio program covering the TV scene that I produce and host, began its second decade on the air last month.  When I started this show at 3 p.m. ET on the first Monday of August, 2007, I hadn’t a clue who would listen, who would participate as guests beyond day one, or how long we would last.  I trusted an audience would be out there, excited to hear about the medium's current state and future possibilities.
Well, I'm still on this journey ten years later and even more excited about what's ahead.  To the public that tunes in, and all the guests who have joined me to this point, thank you for your trust, your feedback, and as I say near the end of every episode, your listening.  Thank you for the opportunity to be at your service.

And to everyone else, it's the perfect time to join the journey.

Until the next time, stay well and stay tuned!

Is There Value In 6-Second TV Spots?

Commentary

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, September 1, 2017

Can broadcasters make money with six-second TV commercials? At a reported $75,000 per ad, it seems to make sense for any TV network. But don’t expect this to become a widespread practice for all big U.S. broadcast network programs.

Fox Sports said it would institute some six-second commercial units for live sports programming, including the NFL. It positions those units as commercials with premium value -- real-time consumption of messaging.

Fox first offered six-second commercials with the “Teen Choice Awards” last month.
That awards show isn’t up to the level of NFL programming -- in terms of overall ratings or live viewing. But it did offer less time-shifted viewing than other regular prime-time programming.
Many of Fox’s efforts focused on short-term-attention viewers, especially millennials. The bigger issue is whether all this will move to broader TV usage.

Decades ago, 60-second commercials were the dominant form of TV messaging, before transitioning to more 30-second commercials, and then to 15-second commercials. The latter is believed be two-thirds as effective as 30-second spots.

But is a six-second spot a good deal?

It’s one thing to sell a $75,000 six-second spot, especially when an NFL 30-second unit price can be anywhere from $250,000 (for Sunday afternoon NFL games) to $600,000 (for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” games).

Regular prime-time programming would offer a different comparison. The broadcast TV networks' 30-second unit in prime-time ranges from $80,000 to $120,000 for the major channels.
How then, would TV networks price commercials that are 60% shorter in length than 15-second commercial?

Digital media has been a big factor in pushing the six-second spot.

And in that regard, all this might be boosting big digital video platforms -- like YouTube, from which Fox has picked up the six-second approach. It would also help TV advertisers streamline commercial production costs.

Perhaps traditional TV networks and their associated digital TV media platforms will finally get the upper hand -- as their promotion for “premium” TV-video continues on YouTube, Hulu, and other media platforms.

Media Data Breaches May Impact Direct-To-Consumer Transactions

Commentary

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 11 hours ago

Trusting your cable provider can be an increasingly tough thing. Forget about high prices forcing many to cut the cord. Now, some of those companies can’t even keep your consumer data safe.


If you have been one of an estimated 4 million Time Warner Cable customers in the last seven years -- and possibly used the MyTWC app -- it looks like someone you shouldn’t trust has your data.
Charter Communications -- owners of Time Warner Cable -- acknowledged this after investigators examined an unrelated breach at World Wrestling Entertainment. Charter completed a deal for Time Warner Cable 16 months ago and renamed that business Spectrum.

Data in jeopardy includes names, addresses, account numbers and other billing information.
It would be hard to put the blame just on pay TV providers or TV networks or other TV intermediaries when it comes to direct-to-consumer transactions. As a consumer-oriented business, Time Warner Cable isn’t alone. Many such businesses have seen massive breaches of data in recent years -- including Yahoo, Target, AOL, Home Depot, Anthem Blue Cross and JP Morgan Chase.

But it seems to have an effect on millennials and other consumers who are leery about long-term, big-pay TV media -- a business that is undergoing major transitions.

Cord-cutting and cord-shaving make many executives nervous. Tangential collateral damage has been felt by TV network groups, like Disney-ABC Television, which have been slowly cutting costs -- in particular, the number of employees.

While cost-cutting goes on even in the best of times, TV groups have been responding to the ongoing erosion of pay TV subscribers -- currently around 3%. And more is on the way.

TV producers took data hits before, but mostly in intellectual property. The biggest was Sony Pictures Entertainment in November 2014. More recently, some Netflix and HBO show information was hacked. For HBO, this was a key concern for the premium cabler's “Game of Thrones” episodes.

So what area of the media comes next?

Bouvard Defends Radio From Miller

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August 31, 2017

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It was only a matter of time before one of radio’s loudest cheerleaders came to the defense of the industry after the release of the Larry Miller report (shouldn’t more radio executives do the same?). In a new blog called “Surprise: A Slam Piece On AM/FM Radio Gets It Wrong,” Cumulus/Westwood One Chief Insights Officer Pierre Bouvard says Miller’s report incorrectly asserts the demise of AM/FM radio among younger Americans.

To make his point Bouvard was very detailed with accompanying charts where he states that:

1. AM/FM radio reach is rock steady among kids 6-11, teens, and 18-24s. From May 2011 to May 2017 the number of listeners in the three demographics is virtually unchanged.
2. The older you are, the more you listen. As consumers age, they have more available time to spend with media. Time spent with AM/FM radio progressively grows from kids 6-11, teens, 18-24, and 25-34. A similar pattern occurred in 2011. AM/FM radio is the soundtrack of the American worker. As consumers enter the workforce, AM/FM radio time spent grows.
3. Each week, AM/FM radio reaches 90% of younger Americans.
4. AM/FM radio remains the number one source of music discovery.
5. For advertisers targeting 18-34 Millennials, AM/FM radio is America’s number one mass reach media. Nielsen recently issued a massive analysis of 500 return-on-investment studies of ad campaigns. Campaign reach was the number one media factor that creates sales lift. To drive sales, an ad campaign has to reach a lot of people. According to Nielsen’s Comparable Metrics Report, AM/FM radio is number one in 18-34 Millennial reach, beating TV, social media, smartphone video, and audio streaming.

Bouvard says the moral of the story is “don’t always believe everything you read, especially from streaming music royalty organizations.”