MediaPost's TV Watch
Full Frontal Television
A media critique by Wayne Friedman, Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Who -- or what -- is driving the TV advertising market these days? TV networks, marketers -- or perhaps an individual day of the week? It's a complicated formula.
After a dismal year, automotive advertising is back with a flourish, resuming its leading category status. Financial companies and telecommunications continue to be hot, right behind the autos. And movie companies still change media plans as often as movie and media executives change their socks -- daily. All this activity helps stir the pot.
TV's scatter market continues its rocketing pace for the networks, with hefty double digit gains. Currently, TV stations are pacing 20% to 30% and more over the really pitiful 2009 recessionary season, which sank TV companies in the other direction -- 20% to 30%. down.
Looking at some key factors, Thursday night isn't what it used to be -- but what is?
Viewership on that night has drifted south. But the highest rates of viewership have been on Sunday and Monday for many years. Thursday night's claim to fame has been as a big revenue driver, with movie companies still spending on that night and pushing up prices to big premiums. In more recent years, Fox's "American Idol" has help shift dollars to earlier in the week.
TV is dead to some digital entrepreneurs. But then there's the news of the Super Bowl. It's October, and Fox has only two 30-second spots --at $3 million a piece -- left to sell in the big game that airs next February, according to recent report.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know it's only one big TV event; it isn't the entire industry. But on more of a regular basis, the NFL, during this current season, has been pulling the best prime-time ratings in more than a decade.
Many TV research metrics -- live-only, live plus same day viewing -- don't look so good, especially for broadcasters. But that's not the whole story. Right or wrong -- helpful for advertisers or not -- after seven days many big prime-time TV shows add 30% to 40% more viewers.
Someone thinks TV is worthwhile enough to still watch these shows a week after their initial airings. That says something.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Tick, Tick. . . Boom: Time-Management Tips for Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneur Magazine - November 2010
By Joe Robinson |
Time urgency is the enemy of good work and good health. No matter how out of control you feel, you can tame the beast
The race is on, and you and your business are losing, to a foe so ingrained in the way you work you'd never even suspect it. The culprit is the very warp-factor speed so many entrepreneurs think is essential to success--time pressure, an obsession with scarcity of time that researchers call time urgency. It spawns a chronic state of hurry-worry that locks you into a perpetual rush hour, even if there's no reason for it. Constant clock-checking, zero tolerance for waiting longer than a nanosecond, the need to do everything ASAP or it's apocalypse now--these are just some of the telltale behaviors that come with this condition and the chronic impatience it brings.
Time urgency kills attention spans, rational decision-making skills and, at its most acute, the body itself by contributing to factors that lead to heart disease. People who feel chronic time pressure are twice as likely to have high blood pressure--even those in their 30s, a Northwestern University study found. Stephen Cole of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School linked people with an insistent sense of time urgency and impatience with a "significant" increased risk of coronary heart disease.
Research has long linked time urgency to Type-A personalities, a breed that includes many entrepreneurs. Time urgency was studied in industrial psychology as early as 1913 but came under scrutiny as a critical factor in job stress when it was identified as a component of Type-A behavior in the 1970s. Investigators discovered that time urgency heightens anxiety and sets off an escalating chain reaction of emotions--impatience to irritability to anger. In addition, when every second is focused on getting as much accomplished in as little time as possible, bad behaviors develop--getting too little exercise, eating fast food, blowing off downtime and stress buffers such as hobbies or vacations--that also eat away at physical health.
Renee Wood, president of The Comfort Co., knows the symptoms too well. "The first thing is that my left arm starts to tingle and go numb," Wood says. "I feel this heavy heartbeat, like I'm being put in a bag." It feels something like a suffocation by clock, as the time ticks down on all the things she needs to do but doesn't have time for. Others feel a churning stomach, a tightness in the chest or neck, or a sense of being about to explode from all the adrenalized energy pouring through them.
Wood has struggled with time urgency for the eight years she's been running her Geneva, Ill., online business, which designs and sells sympathy gifts. The morning before our chat, she decided to keep track of how many times the wave swept over her. The tally: 15 episodes in four hours. "I'm thinking ‘I've got to answer that e-mail, fix that problem, send that order out,' " she says. "I feel like I'm at a stoplight, and I'm revving and revving. I've got to get somewhere."
Tech tools run amok and the instant gratification they train us to expect have amped up the time crunch, flooding us with more demands than we can possibly meet and making it seem as if they all need to be done instantaneously. It's a mechanical loop easy to get caught up in: Time urgency fuels stress, the panicky signals of the stress response create rushing, and that drives mistakes and further stress. The time urgency habit creates an illusion that busyness itself is the goal, and equates busyness with productivity--but it's actually keeping you running in place, stuck on mechanical momentum.
"Looking like you're doing something or doing something fast doesn't mean that you're actually doing it properly," says Srini Pillay, an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School and author of Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear. "Companies need to realize that it is velocity and not speed that matters. Being efficient matters. Velocity takes into consideration the direction of the work and not just frenzied, high-speed activity. Just moving fast in itself is not enough."
You need to be moving fast with the right direction," Pillay says.
Researchers at Missouri Western State University found that time urgency causes more mistakes and even makes you forget what you're supposed to be doing. Other findings, from Siegfried Streufert while a behaviorial sciences professor at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, have shown that complex decision-making and planning "distintegrated" with high levels of time urgency. The stress caused by time urgency constricts your brain, as all stress does, to the perceived crisis and doesn't let you focus clearly on much else.
"You lose sight of what you're really trying to accomplish," says Robert Trumble, management professor and director of Virginia Labor Studies Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. "There's a rush to judgment, in which the urgent is given priority over the important. These people are doers, but do they really know what they're doing?"
The baseline of time urgency is a need to control time, but time urgency winds up controlling you. You stress over the elevator that's taking forever or e-mails that don't have to be returned immediately, or you put life and limb at risk to get to FedEx before the last shipment of the day goes out. Rushing is, in fact, an altered state very similar to drunkenness. You do things in your rushing mind you never would do in your sane mind, like go ballistic at a 10-item-or-less checkout counter when someone goes over the quota.
That's anger, and anger is a well-documented link to heart disease. Men with higher "trait anger" have a 1.7 times greater chance of developing hypertension, with a 90 percent increased risk for coronary heart disease for pre-hypertensive men, according to a 2007 study at the University of South Carolina of 2,334 men and women.
In a review of 43 studies, researchers at University College in London found that anger and hostility increased the risk of coronary heart disease in healthy people by 19 percent.
Eduard Suarez, a behavioral sciences professor at Duke University, has shown that anger and hostility lead to the production of higher levels of coronary C-reactive protein (CRP), a substance that promotes and predicts cardiovascular disease in healthy people and is associated with inflammatory processes that lead to thickening of the arteries. He found that men who rated high in hostility and depression had two to three times the amount of CRP than mild-mannered men had. Hostility is such a red flag that a study by the Boston University School of Public Health in 2002 suggested that it's a better predictor of coronary disease than high cholesterol, smoking or drinking.
Time urgency is not a state that leads to sane business decisions. You are at the mercy of the raw, panicked emotions of the caveman brain--the amygdala--home of the stress response, which hijacks the rational parts of your mind in times of perceived danger.
The paradox is, as out of control as you might feel, the ability to control time urgency is completely in your hands. Watch for tip-offs that you are on the too-fast track--eating fast, talking fast, being in a general hurry and excessively aware of time, putting words in other people's mouths and feeling chronically impatient and irritable. And when you're racing, catch yourself. Take a deep breath. Ask, is it an emergency or is it a speed trap? You don't have to be in fifth gear every second of the day.
Kimberly Chiu, a Monterey Park, Calif., entrepreneur whose company, Papeterie, produces custom letterpress stationery, learned the hard way that she couldn't run a sustainable business if she let time urgency run her. She doesn't answer e-mail in five minutes anymore, nor does she do weekend and 2 a.m. e-mails, two things that gave customers the impression she was available every second. "It's very easy to want to please the customers," notes Chiu. "But we always try to underpromise and overdeliver."
The fastest runners in the world, from sprint legend Carl Lewis to Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix, have a habit of saying after winning races that they relaxed more than their competitors. They concentrated on their form, not the finish line of the clock, so they weren't tense or constricted, as we are when we're rushing. They didn't panic and stuck to their game plan. They focused on the content, not the clock. That's the ultimate answer to time urgency--full engagement in the moment. That's optimal performance.
By Joe Robinson |
Time urgency is the enemy of good work and good health. No matter how out of control you feel, you can tame the beast
The race is on, and you and your business are losing, to a foe so ingrained in the way you work you'd never even suspect it. The culprit is the very warp-factor speed so many entrepreneurs think is essential to success--time pressure, an obsession with scarcity of time that researchers call time urgency. It spawns a chronic state of hurry-worry that locks you into a perpetual rush hour, even if there's no reason for it. Constant clock-checking, zero tolerance for waiting longer than a nanosecond, the need to do everything ASAP or it's apocalypse now--these are just some of the telltale behaviors that come with this condition and the chronic impatience it brings.
Time urgency kills attention spans, rational decision-making skills and, at its most acute, the body itself by contributing to factors that lead to heart disease. People who feel chronic time pressure are twice as likely to have high blood pressure--even those in their 30s, a Northwestern University study found. Stephen Cole of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School linked people with an insistent sense of time urgency and impatience with a "significant" increased risk of coronary heart disease.
Research has long linked time urgency to Type-A personalities, a breed that includes many entrepreneurs. Time urgency was studied in industrial psychology as early as 1913 but came under scrutiny as a critical factor in job stress when it was identified as a component of Type-A behavior in the 1970s. Investigators discovered that time urgency heightens anxiety and sets off an escalating chain reaction of emotions--impatience to irritability to anger. In addition, when every second is focused on getting as much accomplished in as little time as possible, bad behaviors develop--getting too little exercise, eating fast food, blowing off downtime and stress buffers such as hobbies or vacations--that also eat away at physical health.
Renee Wood, president of The Comfort Co., knows the symptoms too well. "The first thing is that my left arm starts to tingle and go numb," Wood says. "I feel this heavy heartbeat, like I'm being put in a bag." It feels something like a suffocation by clock, as the time ticks down on all the things she needs to do but doesn't have time for. Others feel a churning stomach, a tightness in the chest or neck, or a sense of being about to explode from all the adrenalized energy pouring through them.
Wood has struggled with time urgency for the eight years she's been running her Geneva, Ill., online business, which designs and sells sympathy gifts. The morning before our chat, she decided to keep track of how many times the wave swept over her. The tally: 15 episodes in four hours. "I'm thinking ‘I've got to answer that e-mail, fix that problem, send that order out,' " she says. "I feel like I'm at a stoplight, and I'm revving and revving. I've got to get somewhere."
Tech tools run amok and the instant gratification they train us to expect have amped up the time crunch, flooding us with more demands than we can possibly meet and making it seem as if they all need to be done instantaneously. It's a mechanical loop easy to get caught up in: Time urgency fuels stress, the panicky signals of the stress response create rushing, and that drives mistakes and further stress. The time urgency habit creates an illusion that busyness itself is the goal, and equates busyness with productivity--but it's actually keeping you running in place, stuck on mechanical momentum.
"Looking like you're doing something or doing something fast doesn't mean that you're actually doing it properly," says Srini Pillay, an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School and author of Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear. "Companies need to realize that it is velocity and not speed that matters. Being efficient matters. Velocity takes into consideration the direction of the work and not just frenzied, high-speed activity. Just moving fast in itself is not enough."
You need to be moving fast with the right direction," Pillay says.
Researchers at Missouri Western State University found that time urgency causes more mistakes and even makes you forget what you're supposed to be doing. Other findings, from Siegfried Streufert while a behaviorial sciences professor at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, have shown that complex decision-making and planning "distintegrated" with high levels of time urgency. The stress caused by time urgency constricts your brain, as all stress does, to the perceived crisis and doesn't let you focus clearly on much else.
"You lose sight of what you're really trying to accomplish," says Robert Trumble, management professor and director of Virginia Labor Studies Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. "There's a rush to judgment, in which the urgent is given priority over the important. These people are doers, but do they really know what they're doing?"
The baseline of time urgency is a need to control time, but time urgency winds up controlling you. You stress over the elevator that's taking forever or e-mails that don't have to be returned immediately, or you put life and limb at risk to get to FedEx before the last shipment of the day goes out. Rushing is, in fact, an altered state very similar to drunkenness. You do things in your rushing mind you never would do in your sane mind, like go ballistic at a 10-item-or-less checkout counter when someone goes over the quota.
That's anger, and anger is a well-documented link to heart disease. Men with higher "trait anger" have a 1.7 times greater chance of developing hypertension, with a 90 percent increased risk for coronary heart disease for pre-hypertensive men, according to a 2007 study at the University of South Carolina of 2,334 men and women.
In a review of 43 studies, researchers at University College in London found that anger and hostility increased the risk of coronary heart disease in healthy people by 19 percent.
Eduard Suarez, a behavioral sciences professor at Duke University, has shown that anger and hostility lead to the production of higher levels of coronary C-reactive protein (CRP), a substance that promotes and predicts cardiovascular disease in healthy people and is associated with inflammatory processes that lead to thickening of the arteries. He found that men who rated high in hostility and depression had two to three times the amount of CRP than mild-mannered men had. Hostility is such a red flag that a study by the Boston University School of Public Health in 2002 suggested that it's a better predictor of coronary disease than high cholesterol, smoking or drinking.
Time urgency is not a state that leads to sane business decisions. You are at the mercy of the raw, panicked emotions of the caveman brain--the amygdala--home of the stress response, which hijacks the rational parts of your mind in times of perceived danger.
The paradox is, as out of control as you might feel, the ability to control time urgency is completely in your hands. Watch for tip-offs that you are on the too-fast track--eating fast, talking fast, being in a general hurry and excessively aware of time, putting words in other people's mouths and feeling chronically impatient and irritable. And when you're racing, catch yourself. Take a deep breath. Ask, is it an emergency or is it a speed trap? You don't have to be in fifth gear every second of the day.
Kimberly Chiu, a Monterey Park, Calif., entrepreneur whose company, Papeterie, produces custom letterpress stationery, learned the hard way that she couldn't run a sustainable business if she let time urgency run her. She doesn't answer e-mail in five minutes anymore, nor does she do weekend and 2 a.m. e-mails, two things that gave customers the impression she was available every second. "It's very easy to want to please the customers," notes Chiu. "But we always try to underpromise and overdeliver."
The fastest runners in the world, from sprint legend Carl Lewis to Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix, have a habit of saying after winning races that they relaxed more than their competitors. They concentrated on their form, not the finish line of the clock, so they weren't tense or constricted, as we are when we're rushing. They didn't panic and stuck to their game plan. They focused on the content, not the clock. That's the ultimate answer to time urgency--full engagement in the moment. That's optimal performance.
Playing Favorites: Identify Your Best Customers
Entrereueur/Business on the Main
By Randy Myers | October 25, 2010
Devote yourself to keeping your best customers happy and watch your business grow.
Let's face it. We all have our favorite customers -- the ones who pay promptly, handle problems respectfully and, most important, give us repeat business. So why waste our time on any other kind?
It's impossible, of course, to avoid every problem customer -- the habitually poor planner, the late payer, the perpetual complainer -- since it can take time for their worst traits to surface. And, at the end of the day, we need their business. Still, it's important to minimize the time we waste on these difficult customers and maximize the time we spend catering to the pleasant and profitable -- the ones who drive our success and satisfaction.
The first step is to identify your best customers (if you don't already know) -- and then devote yourself to keeping them utterly delighted with your goods or services. Over time, this will help grow your business
"This is hugely important," says Wendy Rogers, who with her husband, Hal Kunnen, owns the HouseMaster home and termite inspection franchise in Phoenix, Arizona. "You've already showcased your goods and services to your best customers. In a sense, they're already sold on you. You should work doubly hard to keep them happy because it's much more difficult to get new business than it is to keep old business."
Rogers walks the talk. She and Kunnen get much of their work through referrals from real estate agents, and they make a special effort to keep those who send the most business their way happy. The couple track their referrals in an electronic database and share the results with their marketing director, who travels around the state visiting 10 to 15 real estate offices each day. When he visits a repeat "customer," he'll leave the agent some educational literature and a personal, handwritten thank-you note. Rogers and Kunnen also go to extra lengths to accommodate these valued customers, whether that means responding quickly to last-minute inspection requests or helping one of their tech-challenged homeowner clients retrieve an electronic copy of a home-inspection report.
Thanks in part to efforts like these, Rogers and Kunnen generate about 75 percent of their company's revenue through repeat referrals.
They're certainly not alone in harnessing the power of identifying and catering to their best customers. Tony Ellison, who founded the online office supply store Shoplet.com in 1994, has parlayed knowledge about his customer base into rapid growth, too. He reports that from 2001 through 2006 his company's revenues grew at a triple-digit rate. And during the current recession, revenues have continued to grow at double-digit rates.
The way Shoplet.com manages its customers offers lessons for us all. The company uses a mix of commercial and internally developed customer-relationship management software to segment customers by size, industry and profitability. It also sorts them by their shopping characteristics -- impulse buyers, for example, repeat buyers and cherry pickers who purchase only select items that have been aggressively priced. Shoplet.com uses this information to offer special incentives and promotions to its best customers, including exclusive coupon codes, a rewards program with invitation-only membership and personalized account-management services.
"We have over 2.5 million customers and have isolated 10 percent that we actively pursue," Ellison says. "This approach has allowed us to develop a model that sustains far more favorable pricing for our best customers."
The next time you find yourself wasting precious time dealing with a problem client, go ahead and resolve the issue at hand if you can. But then consider whether it might make sense to find a way out of the relationship. The time you save will be time you can spend giving your best customers the service they deserve. Over time, your short-term loss should translate into long-term gain.
By Randy Myers | October 25, 2010
Devote yourself to keeping your best customers happy and watch your business grow.
Let's face it. We all have our favorite customers -- the ones who pay promptly, handle problems respectfully and, most important, give us repeat business. So why waste our time on any other kind?
It's impossible, of course, to avoid every problem customer -- the habitually poor planner, the late payer, the perpetual complainer -- since it can take time for their worst traits to surface. And, at the end of the day, we need their business. Still, it's important to minimize the time we waste on these difficult customers and maximize the time we spend catering to the pleasant and profitable -- the ones who drive our success and satisfaction.
The first step is to identify your best customers (if you don't already know) -- and then devote yourself to keeping them utterly delighted with your goods or services. Over time, this will help grow your business
"This is hugely important," says Wendy Rogers, who with her husband, Hal Kunnen, owns the HouseMaster home and termite inspection franchise in Phoenix, Arizona. "You've already showcased your goods and services to your best customers. In a sense, they're already sold on you. You should work doubly hard to keep them happy because it's much more difficult to get new business than it is to keep old business."
Rogers walks the talk. She and Kunnen get much of their work through referrals from real estate agents, and they make a special effort to keep those who send the most business their way happy. The couple track their referrals in an electronic database and share the results with their marketing director, who travels around the state visiting 10 to 15 real estate offices each day. When he visits a repeat "customer," he'll leave the agent some educational literature and a personal, handwritten thank-you note. Rogers and Kunnen also go to extra lengths to accommodate these valued customers, whether that means responding quickly to last-minute inspection requests or helping one of their tech-challenged homeowner clients retrieve an electronic copy of a home-inspection report.
Thanks in part to efforts like these, Rogers and Kunnen generate about 75 percent of their company's revenue through repeat referrals.
They're certainly not alone in harnessing the power of identifying and catering to their best customers. Tony Ellison, who founded the online office supply store Shoplet.com in 1994, has parlayed knowledge about his customer base into rapid growth, too. He reports that from 2001 through 2006 his company's revenues grew at a triple-digit rate. And during the current recession, revenues have continued to grow at double-digit rates.
The way Shoplet.com manages its customers offers lessons for us all. The company uses a mix of commercial and internally developed customer-relationship management software to segment customers by size, industry and profitability. It also sorts them by their shopping characteristics -- impulse buyers, for example, repeat buyers and cherry pickers who purchase only select items that have been aggressively priced. Shoplet.com uses this information to offer special incentives and promotions to its best customers, including exclusive coupon codes, a rewards program with invitation-only membership and personalized account-management services.
"We have over 2.5 million customers and have isolated 10 percent that we actively pursue," Ellison says. "This approach has allowed us to develop a model that sustains far more favorable pricing for our best customers."
The next time you find yourself wasting precious time dealing with a problem client, go ahead and resolve the issue at hand if you can. But then consider whether it might make sense to find a way out of the relationship. The time you save will be time you can spend giving your best customers the service they deserve. Over time, your short-term loss should translate into long-term gain.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
CEA: Holiday CE Sales to Rise 5%
Here are some highlights delivered at CEA's Industry Forum in San Francisco:
A look at what CE products consumers plan to buy this holiday season from Dealerscope
October 19, 2010 By Jeff O'Heir
This is from me. Now is a great time to make contact with local direct businesses in the consumer electronics biz in your DMA and help them get a piece of the action. Lots of good ups! Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D........
- In the top-ten wish list of gifts, adults chose a laptop, second behind peace/happiness; an iPad third; an eReader fifth, behind clothes; and a video game system ninth. Last year, a computer and video game system ranked second and third, with television coming in sixth and digital cameras in eighth, two products that didn't make it to this year's list.
This is the first year in which three CE products ranked in the top five, a sign of high consumer demand for innovative products, especially tablets. This bodes well for retailers, considering new products typically account for about 50% of CE products bought during the holidays, DuBravac said.
PS; Here is even more data to support making the call on your consumer electronics prospect/client..PJL:
Record US Holiday Spending on Gadgets: CEA
from Yahoo! News 10.19.2010
WASHINGTON (AFP) Americans will spend a record amount on consumer electronics this holiday season, devoting nearly a third of their gift budget to gadgets, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said Tuesday. "This holiday season, spending on consumer electronics gifts will reach historic highs, despite an overall decline in gift spending," the CEA said in its annual survey of holiday spending. "Overall, consumers will spend 750 dollars on holiday gifts, down two percent from last year," it said. "They will, however, spend more on consumer electronics gifts than ever before. "Consumers will spend 232 dollars on consumer electronics gifts
- The number of consumers who plan to spend money on holiday gifts is 73%, about the same as in 2007 and up from last year's 67%. About 75% of those consumers plan on gifting a CE product, the highest amount in the survey's history. There is also a significant increase in the amount of CE products people plan to give: 37% plan to give to a spouse, up from 27% in 2009; self-gifting hit 29%, up from 28%; and gifting to children rose to 48%, up from 43%.
"We continue to see more consumers allocate more (CE products)," DuBravac said. Steve Koenig, CEA's director of industry analysis, who joined DuBravac on the stage, added "We've seen a pretty good jump in gifting CE."
- About 85% of adults want a CE product this holiday season, up from 80% last year. In order of preference, the top-10 list of products is: iPad, eReader, iPod/iPod Touch, video game system, digital camera, big-screen TV, computer (unspecified), desktop PC.
- About 86% of teens, up from 77% last year and 84% in 2008, want a CE product as a gift. Their top ten are MP3/digital media player, iPod/iPod Touch, video game console, laptop, cell phone, iPad, tablet PC, smart phone, video games and iPhone.
A look at what CE products consumers plan to buy this holiday season from Dealerscope
October 19, 2010 By Jeff O'Heir
This is from me. Now is a great time to make contact with local direct businesses in the consumer electronics biz in your DMA and help them get a piece of the action. Lots of good ups! Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D........
- In the top-ten wish list of gifts, adults chose a laptop, second behind peace/happiness; an iPad third; an eReader fifth, behind clothes; and a video game system ninth. Last year, a computer and video game system ranked second and third, with television coming in sixth and digital cameras in eighth, two products that didn't make it to this year's list.
This is the first year in which three CE products ranked in the top five, a sign of high consumer demand for innovative products, especially tablets. This bodes well for retailers, considering new products typically account for about 50% of CE products bought during the holidays, DuBravac said.
PS; Here is even more data to support making the call on your consumer electronics prospect/client..PJL:
Record US Holiday Spending on Gadgets: CEA
from Yahoo! News 10.19.2010
WASHINGTON (AFP) Americans will spend a record amount on consumer electronics this holiday season, devoting nearly a third of their gift budget to gadgets, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said Tuesday. "This holiday season, spending on consumer electronics gifts will reach historic highs, despite an overall decline in gift spending," the CEA said in its annual survey of holiday spending. "Overall, consumers will spend 750 dollars on holiday gifts, down two percent from last year," it said. "They will, however, spend more on consumer electronics gifts than ever before. "Consumers will spend 232 dollars on consumer electronics gifts
- The number of consumers who plan to spend money on holiday gifts is 73%, about the same as in 2007 and up from last year's 67%. About 75% of those consumers plan on gifting a CE product, the highest amount in the survey's history. There is also a significant increase in the amount of CE products people plan to give: 37% plan to give to a spouse, up from 27% in 2009; self-gifting hit 29%, up from 28%; and gifting to children rose to 48%, up from 43%.
"We continue to see more consumers allocate more (CE products)," DuBravac said. Steve Koenig, CEA's director of industry analysis, who joined DuBravac on the stage, added "We've seen a pretty good jump in gifting CE."
- About 85% of adults want a CE product this holiday season, up from 80% last year. In order of preference, the top-10 list of products is: iPad, eReader, iPod/iPod Touch, video game system, digital camera, big-screen TV, computer (unspecified), desktop PC.
- About 86% of teens, up from 77% last year and 84% in 2008, want a CE product as a gift. Their top ten are MP3/digital media player, iPod/iPod Touch, video game console, laptop, cell phone, iPad, tablet PC, smart phone, video games and iPhone.
Monday, October 18, 2010
The Four Capacities Every Great Leader Needs
Fast Company FC Expert Blog Oct 15, 2010
by Tony Schwartz
When I was a very young journalist, full of bravado and barely concealed insecurity, Ed Kosner, editor of Newsweek, hired me to do a job I wasn't sure I was capable of doing. Thrown into deep water, I had no choice but to swim. But I also knew he wouldn't let me drown. His confidence buoyed me.
Some years later, I was hired away by Arthur Gelb, the managing editor of The New York Times. This time, I was seduced by Gelb's contagious exuberance about being part of a noble fraternity committed to putting out the world's greatest newspaper.
Over the last dozen years, I've worked with scores of CEOs and senior executives to help them build more engaged, high performance cultures by energizing their employees. Along the way, I've landed on four key capacities that show up, to one degree or another, in the most inspiring leaders I've met.
1. Great leaders recognize strengths in us that we don't always yet fully see in ourselves.
This is precisely what Kosner did with me. He provided belief where I didn't yet have it, and I trusted his judgment more than my own. It's the Pygmalion effect: expectations become self-fulfilling.
Both positive and negative emotions feed on themselves. In the absence of Kosner's confidence, I simply wouldn't have assumed I was ready to write at that level.
Because he seemed so sure I could--he saw better than I did how my ambition and relentlessness would eventually help me prevail--I wasted little energy in corrosive worry and doubt.
Instead, I simply invested myself in getting better, day by day, step by step. Because we can achieve excellent in almost anything we practice with sufficient focus and intention, I did get better, which fed my own confidence and satisfaction, and my willingness to keep pushing myself.
2. Rather than simply trying to get more out of us, great leaders seek to understand and meet our needs, above all a compelling mission beyond our immediate self-interest, or theirs.
Great leaders understand that how they make people feel, day in and day out, has a profound influence on how they perform.
We each have a range of core needs--physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Great leaders focus on helping their employees meet each of these needs, recognizing that it helps them to perform better and more sustainably.
Arthur Gelb helped my meet not just my emotional need to be valued, but also my spiritual need to be engaged in a mission bigger than my own success. Far too few leaders take the time to figure out what they truly stand for, beyond the bottom line, and why we should feel excited to work for them.
3. Great leaders take the time to clearly define what success looks like, and then empower and trust us to figure out the best way to achieve it.
One of our core needs is for self-expression. One of the most demoralizing and infantilizing experiences at work is to feel micromanaged.
The job of leaders is not to do the work of those they lead, but to serve as Chief Energy Officer -- to free and fuel us to bring the best of ourselves to work every day.
Part of that responsibility is defining, in the clearest possible way, what's expected of us--our concrete deliverables. This is a time-consuming and challenging process, and most leaders I've met do very little of it. When they do it effectively, the next step for leaders is to get out of the way.
That requires trusting that employees will figure out for themselves the best way to get their work done, and that even though they'll take wrong turns and make mistakes, they learn and grow stronger along the way.
4. The best of all leaders--a tiny fraction--have the capacity to embrace their own opposites, most notably vulnerability alongside strength, and confidence balanced by humility.
This capacity is uniquely powerful because all of us struggle, whether we're aware of it or not, with our self worth. We're each vulnerable to believing, at any given moment, that we're not good enough.
Great leaders don't feel the need to be right, or to be perfect, because they've learned to value themselves in spite of shortcomings they freely acknowledge. In turn, they bring this generous spirit to those they lead.
The more leaders make us feel valued, in spite of our imperfections, the less energy we will spend asserting, defending and restoring our value, and the more energy we have available to create value.
All four capacities are grounded in one overarching insight. Great leaders recognize that the best way to get the highest value is to give the highest value.
by Tony Schwartz
When I was a very young journalist, full of bravado and barely concealed insecurity, Ed Kosner, editor of Newsweek, hired me to do a job I wasn't sure I was capable of doing. Thrown into deep water, I had no choice but to swim. But I also knew he wouldn't let me drown. His confidence buoyed me.
Some years later, I was hired away by Arthur Gelb, the managing editor of The New York Times. This time, I was seduced by Gelb's contagious exuberance about being part of a noble fraternity committed to putting out the world's greatest newspaper.
Over the last dozen years, I've worked with scores of CEOs and senior executives to help them build more engaged, high performance cultures by energizing their employees. Along the way, I've landed on four key capacities that show up, to one degree or another, in the most inspiring leaders I've met.
1. Great leaders recognize strengths in us that we don't always yet fully see in ourselves.
This is precisely what Kosner did with me. He provided belief where I didn't yet have it, and I trusted his judgment more than my own. It's the Pygmalion effect: expectations become self-fulfilling.
Both positive and negative emotions feed on themselves. In the absence of Kosner's confidence, I simply wouldn't have assumed I was ready to write at that level.
Because he seemed so sure I could--he saw better than I did how my ambition and relentlessness would eventually help me prevail--I wasted little energy in corrosive worry and doubt.
Instead, I simply invested myself in getting better, day by day, step by step. Because we can achieve excellent in almost anything we practice with sufficient focus and intention, I did get better, which fed my own confidence and satisfaction, and my willingness to keep pushing myself.
2. Rather than simply trying to get more out of us, great leaders seek to understand and meet our needs, above all a compelling mission beyond our immediate self-interest, or theirs.
Great leaders understand that how they make people feel, day in and day out, has a profound influence on how they perform.
We each have a range of core needs--physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Great leaders focus on helping their employees meet each of these needs, recognizing that it helps them to perform better and more sustainably.
Arthur Gelb helped my meet not just my emotional need to be valued, but also my spiritual need to be engaged in a mission bigger than my own success. Far too few leaders take the time to figure out what they truly stand for, beyond the bottom line, and why we should feel excited to work for them.
3. Great leaders take the time to clearly define what success looks like, and then empower and trust us to figure out the best way to achieve it.
One of our core needs is for self-expression. One of the most demoralizing and infantilizing experiences at work is to feel micromanaged.
The job of leaders is not to do the work of those they lead, but to serve as Chief Energy Officer -- to free and fuel us to bring the best of ourselves to work every day.
Part of that responsibility is defining, in the clearest possible way, what's expected of us--our concrete deliverables. This is a time-consuming and challenging process, and most leaders I've met do very little of it. When they do it effectively, the next step for leaders is to get out of the way.
That requires trusting that employees will figure out for themselves the best way to get their work done, and that even though they'll take wrong turns and make mistakes, they learn and grow stronger along the way.
4. The best of all leaders--a tiny fraction--have the capacity to embrace their own opposites, most notably vulnerability alongside strength, and confidence balanced by humility.
This capacity is uniquely powerful because all of us struggle, whether we're aware of it or not, with our self worth. We're each vulnerable to believing, at any given moment, that we're not good enough.
Great leaders don't feel the need to be right, or to be perfect, because they've learned to value themselves in spite of shortcomings they freely acknowledge. In turn, they bring this generous spirit to those they lead.
The more leaders make us feel valued, in spite of our imperfections, the less energy we will spend asserting, defending and restoring our value, and the more energy we have available to create value.
All four capacities are grounded in one overarching insight. Great leaders recognize that the best way to get the highest value is to give the highest value.
The Five W's of Marketing
Bloomberg Business Week Oct 15, 2010
When developing a marketing program, it's not enough to know who, what, when, where, and why. You need to keep them in order, says Steve McKee author.
You've heard of the Five W's: who, what, when, where, and why. They're the elements of information needed to get the full story, whether it's a journalist uncovering a scandal, a detective investigating a crime, or a customer service representative trying to resolve a complaint. There's even an old PR formula that uses the Five W's as a template for how to write a news release.
Most of the time it doesn't matter in what order the information is gathered, as long as all five W's are ultimately addressed. The customer service rep's story may begin with who was offended, while the journalist may follow a lead based on what happened. The detective may start with where a crime was committed while details of who and what (not to mention when and why) are still sketchy.
The Five W's are helpful in marketing planning as well. But unlike in other professions, the development of an effective marketing program requires that they be answered in a specific order: why, who, what, where, and when. The reasons may not be obvious, but by following this pathway you can avoid a great deal of confusion, trial and error, and blind alleys, preserving your company's precious time and resources.
Many marketers instinctively begin with questions about what and where, as in "what" their advertising should say or "where" it should appear. That's what gets them into trouble. They may have some success putting their plans together by relying on intuition and experience, but both can be misleading in a rapidly changing marketing world. These days it's easy for anyone to become confused by (or fall prey to) the latest and greatest trends and tactics.
First, Why Marketing?
Smart companies begin by asking "why"—why are we expending our limited resources in marketing? Why do we believe they're better invested here than in other aspects of our business? These questions, properly considered, force company leaders to clearly define their business and marketing objectives and confront their (often unrealized) assumptions before they get too far down the road.
In some cases they may have unrealistic expectations of their marketing efforts. In others, they may be looking to advertising to solve a non-advertising problem. In still others they may be reflexively reacting to a competitor's moves, or to any one of a number of other marketplace or internal dynamics (see "Who's to Blame When Growth Stalls?"). Beginning with the "why" can be challenging, but starting here is critical to ensuring that your subsequent efforts are on target.
The second question is "who"—who is essential to our achieving our goals? To whom should we be directing our message? Whose hearts and minds must we win in order to succeed? The answers to these questions should be derived from the business objectives identified above so that the target audience(s) for your effort are clearly related to them.
For example, a marketing plan meant to generate significant new top-line revenue would likely focus on new customer attraction. An effort that's meant to enhance margins may concentrate on improving your brand's value equation among existing customers. And a plan to enhance your company's price/earnings ratio would focus on prospective investors and industry analysts as its primary target. The better any company defines its "who"—and the more it can know about their lifestyles, behaviors, attitudes, opinions, wants, and needs—the more effectively it can address the remaining three W's.
Branding Issues
Next comes "what," as in what it is you need to offer your target audiences in order to accomplish your objectives. This, of course, encompasses a host of business decisions, from product to pricing, policy to packaging, and everything in between. But it is also where key branding issues are addressed, including positioning, differentiation, and a determination of the personality dimensions that are appropriate for both the brand and the task (see "Building a Better Brand").
To be sure, as market conditions and customer needs change, the "what" of your offering will be a continually evolving proposition. But by having a solid understanding of the "who" and "why" of your efforts, you'll be more likely to get, and keep, the "what" right.
Finally, the last two W's can be addressed as you dive into the specifics of campaign planning. The questions now revolve around where and when the best places and times are to communicate your "what" to your "who" in service of your "why." At this stage you'll be required to make many tactical decisions, but if you've effectively addressed the first three W's you'll have the context and perspective you need to make the final two work as hard as possible on your behalf.
In some ways the principles of marketing are simple, but their simplicity can be deceptive. Beneath them often lie hidden complexities that you ignore at your peril. The common way of citing the Five W's—who, what, when, where, and why—rolls off the tongue and is a great mnemonic device. But if you want to optimize your marketing efforts, think why, who, what, where, and when. The order makes all the difference.
When developing a marketing program, it's not enough to know who, what, when, where, and why. You need to keep them in order, says Steve McKee author.
You've heard of the Five W's: who, what, when, where, and why. They're the elements of information needed to get the full story, whether it's a journalist uncovering a scandal, a detective investigating a crime, or a customer service representative trying to resolve a complaint. There's even an old PR formula that uses the Five W's as a template for how to write a news release.
Most of the time it doesn't matter in what order the information is gathered, as long as all five W's are ultimately addressed. The customer service rep's story may begin with who was offended, while the journalist may follow a lead based on what happened. The detective may start with where a crime was committed while details of who and what (not to mention when and why) are still sketchy.
The Five W's are helpful in marketing planning as well. But unlike in other professions, the development of an effective marketing program requires that they be answered in a specific order: why, who, what, where, and when. The reasons may not be obvious, but by following this pathway you can avoid a great deal of confusion, trial and error, and blind alleys, preserving your company's precious time and resources.
Many marketers instinctively begin with questions about what and where, as in "what" their advertising should say or "where" it should appear. That's what gets them into trouble. They may have some success putting their plans together by relying on intuition and experience, but both can be misleading in a rapidly changing marketing world. These days it's easy for anyone to become confused by (or fall prey to) the latest and greatest trends and tactics.
First, Why Marketing?
Smart companies begin by asking "why"—why are we expending our limited resources in marketing? Why do we believe they're better invested here than in other aspects of our business? These questions, properly considered, force company leaders to clearly define their business and marketing objectives and confront their (often unrealized) assumptions before they get too far down the road.
In some cases they may have unrealistic expectations of their marketing efforts. In others, they may be looking to advertising to solve a non-advertising problem. In still others they may be reflexively reacting to a competitor's moves, or to any one of a number of other marketplace or internal dynamics (see "Who's to Blame When Growth Stalls?"). Beginning with the "why" can be challenging, but starting here is critical to ensuring that your subsequent efforts are on target.
The second question is "who"—who is essential to our achieving our goals? To whom should we be directing our message? Whose hearts and minds must we win in order to succeed? The answers to these questions should be derived from the business objectives identified above so that the target audience(s) for your effort are clearly related to them.
For example, a marketing plan meant to generate significant new top-line revenue would likely focus on new customer attraction. An effort that's meant to enhance margins may concentrate on improving your brand's value equation among existing customers. And a plan to enhance your company's price/earnings ratio would focus on prospective investors and industry analysts as its primary target. The better any company defines its "who"—and the more it can know about their lifestyles, behaviors, attitudes, opinions, wants, and needs—the more effectively it can address the remaining three W's.
Branding Issues
Next comes "what," as in what it is you need to offer your target audiences in order to accomplish your objectives. This, of course, encompasses a host of business decisions, from product to pricing, policy to packaging, and everything in between. But it is also where key branding issues are addressed, including positioning, differentiation, and a determination of the personality dimensions that are appropriate for both the brand and the task (see "Building a Better Brand").
To be sure, as market conditions and customer needs change, the "what" of your offering will be a continually evolving proposition. But by having a solid understanding of the "who" and "why" of your efforts, you'll be more likely to get, and keep, the "what" right.
Finally, the last two W's can be addressed as you dive into the specifics of campaign planning. The questions now revolve around where and when the best places and times are to communicate your "what" to your "who" in service of your "why." At this stage you'll be required to make many tactical decisions, but if you've effectively addressed the first three W's you'll have the context and perspective you need to make the final two work as hard as possible on your behalf.
In some ways the principles of marketing are simple, but their simplicity can be deceptive. Beneath them often lie hidden complexities that you ignore at your peril. The common way of citing the Five W's—who, what, when, where, and why—rolls off the tongue and is a great mnemonic device. But if you want to optimize your marketing efforts, think why, who, what, where, and when. The order makes all the difference.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Holiday Advertising Outlook: Pretty Solid Outlook
Media Life/Media Economy
By Diego Vasquez
Oct 14, 2010
Retail sales are expected to be up 2.3 percent
The past two holiday seasons there's been a lot of modest gifts under people's trees if retail spending numbers are any indication. Two years ago, when the recession took hold in earnest, consumers slashed their holiday spending by 3.9 percent, and last year saw spending rise just 0.4 percent above the dismal 2008 level. But this year there could finally be some holiday cheer at the local mall. A new forecast from the National Retail Federation predicts that holiday spending will be up 2.3 percent over 2009 this year. The NRF is notoriously upbeat, but media buyers seem to agree: They think retail advertising will be up in fourth quarter, too, with advertisers anticipating more traffic to their stores. Those shoppers will still be looking for deals, so expect much of the advertising to relate to sales of some sort. Greg Clausen, executive vice president and chief media officer at Doner, talks to Media Life about mobile advertising, how political will affect retail spending, and what the hot categories will be.
The NRF says holiday spending will be up 2 percent this year over last. Will that encourage advertisers to spend more?
I think it will. I think there will be an increase in ad spending this year.
There are a lot of factors going into that, but based on fourth quarter media pricing we've seen, I think spending will be up more than that 2.3 percent, just because media pricing is so strong right now. A lot of advertisers, I think, are holding back spending until political is done, making for a narrower window.
Overall, do you think retail ad spending will be up this year over last?
I think it will be. I think fourth quarter will secure that because I think spending in fourth quarter will be up a pretty solid clip.
Do you think advertisers will be more wary or less wary of advertising during the holidays this year after the bad economic news over the summer?
I think there's two ways to think about it.
Advertisers have been wary for some time now. So any positive economic news will fuel them because they want to be optimistic. And I also think that they may want to take advantage of any post-election consumer optimism as well.
I think there will be a lot of activity and movement in the [political] offices that are being contested, and I think some residual optimism will come out of that. If advertisers see that, I think they'll try to capitalize on it.
Which retail categories do you expect to be the most active in terms of ad spending during the holiday season and why?
I think consumer electronics is probably going to lead. I think you'll see a lot of spending and interest in tablets like the iPad, and I think the iPhone will also fuel spending. Also, the e-readers have come into that set. And there are some innovations going on in gaming industry, such as with the PlayStation 3, so I think that will be a particularly strong category.
How will retail spending differ this year from last year -- do you see more of it going to the web, to spot television, etc?
I think it will remain heavy on TV. I think you'll probably see an increase on the web and I think there will be more mobile this year than you've seen in the past. Spending will be up by consumers, but I do think retailers are still going to have to offer value, so that's an opportunity to offer mobile messaging of special offers, etc.
There won't be unbridled optimism, so value will be very important.
Which media categories will benefit the most from holiday retail ad spending this year?
I think web and mobile. I also think TV will still benefit because at the end of the day if you're trying to drive awareness, having the visual element of television is still pretty critical. I think they'll do quite well in the fourth-quarter period.
Do you think the NRF is right, or do you see spending being up or down more or less than 2 percent?
I think spending will be up at higher rate than what the retail increases will be.
The NRF numbers seem a touch conservative, because we're not coming off a robust season last year.
How much of an impact does teen spending have on the holiday season, and do retail advertisers try to target them in any particular place?
Certainly teens have more disposable income today than they did five, 10 or 20 years ago, but it depends on the product category.
That's where I think consumer electronics comes into play, it's not just for the gift purchaser, but also for the gift requester. For the appropriate category it's certainly something that can be influential.
By Diego Vasquez
Oct 14, 2010
Retail sales are expected to be up 2.3 percent
The past two holiday seasons there's been a lot of modest gifts under people's trees if retail spending numbers are any indication. Two years ago, when the recession took hold in earnest, consumers slashed their holiday spending by 3.9 percent, and last year saw spending rise just 0.4 percent above the dismal 2008 level. But this year there could finally be some holiday cheer at the local mall. A new forecast from the National Retail Federation predicts that holiday spending will be up 2.3 percent over 2009 this year. The NRF is notoriously upbeat, but media buyers seem to agree: They think retail advertising will be up in fourth quarter, too, with advertisers anticipating more traffic to their stores. Those shoppers will still be looking for deals, so expect much of the advertising to relate to sales of some sort. Greg Clausen, executive vice president and chief media officer at Doner, talks to Media Life about mobile advertising, how political will affect retail spending, and what the hot categories will be.
The NRF says holiday spending will be up 2 percent this year over last. Will that encourage advertisers to spend more?
I think it will. I think there will be an increase in ad spending this year.
There are a lot of factors going into that, but based on fourth quarter media pricing we've seen, I think spending will be up more than that 2.3 percent, just because media pricing is so strong right now. A lot of advertisers, I think, are holding back spending until political is done, making for a narrower window.
Overall, do you think retail ad spending will be up this year over last?
I think it will be. I think fourth quarter will secure that because I think spending in fourth quarter will be up a pretty solid clip.
Do you think advertisers will be more wary or less wary of advertising during the holidays this year after the bad economic news over the summer?
I think there's two ways to think about it.
Advertisers have been wary for some time now. So any positive economic news will fuel them because they want to be optimistic. And I also think that they may want to take advantage of any post-election consumer optimism as well.
I think there will be a lot of activity and movement in the [political] offices that are being contested, and I think some residual optimism will come out of that. If advertisers see that, I think they'll try to capitalize on it.
Which retail categories do you expect to be the most active in terms of ad spending during the holiday season and why?
I think consumer electronics is probably going to lead. I think you'll see a lot of spending and interest in tablets like the iPad, and I think the iPhone will also fuel spending. Also, the e-readers have come into that set. And there are some innovations going on in gaming industry, such as with the PlayStation 3, so I think that will be a particularly strong category.
How will retail spending differ this year from last year -- do you see more of it going to the web, to spot television, etc?
I think it will remain heavy on TV. I think you'll probably see an increase on the web and I think there will be more mobile this year than you've seen in the past. Spending will be up by consumers, but I do think retailers are still going to have to offer value, so that's an opportunity to offer mobile messaging of special offers, etc.
There won't be unbridled optimism, so value will be very important.
Which media categories will benefit the most from holiday retail ad spending this year?
I think web and mobile. I also think TV will still benefit because at the end of the day if you're trying to drive awareness, having the visual element of television is still pretty critical. I think they'll do quite well in the fourth-quarter period.
Do you think the NRF is right, or do you see spending being up or down more or less than 2 percent?
I think spending will be up at higher rate than what the retail increases will be.
The NRF numbers seem a touch conservative, because we're not coming off a robust season last year.
How much of an impact does teen spending have on the holiday season, and do retail advertisers try to target them in any particular place?
Certainly teens have more disposable income today than they did five, 10 or 20 years ago, but it depends on the product category.
That's where I think consumer electronics comes into play, it's not just for the gift purchaser, but also for the gift requester. For the appropriate category it's certainly something that can be influential.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Marketing, Not Advertising
Marketing, Not Advertising By Mary Collins
TVNewsCheck, October 8, 2010 6:14 AM EDT
Do you remember the metaphor that contrasts dropping a frog in a pot of boiling water as opposed to placing it in lukewarm water and then gradually bringing it to a boil? While the frog will quickly jump out of the boiling water, the story goes, it will allow itself to cook to death if the water temperature increases by just a few degrees at a time.
I heard someone cite that scenario when I was in New York last month. It’s certainly a fitting allegory to describe what Magna Global’s Brian Weiser posed as one of the possible ways technology can impact the advertising products we now offer.
With the online world’s ability to cater to “name your own price” business models, traditional media’s supply-driven business models could seem like asking new media marketers to jump into a boiling cauldron. On the other hand, if traditional media outlets fail to assess the impact of conforming to new media’s pricing metrics, they could experience irreparable harm to the market value of their broad reach and high levels of audience engagement before realizing what happened.
However, Weiser’s description of the changes we are experiencing in the marketplace can be very helpful in making us more aware of their incremental impact. This should help us keep our cool and remain focused on growing our businesses no matter how torrid and turbulent it gets around us.
That process begins with understanding the shifts that are occurring as a result of technology’s impact on media consumption. Weiser points out that these shifts include the replacement of non-ad-supported activities that once occurred offline with online ad-supported activities that can grow advertising. Examples include the shift from board games to video games, which now feature online and dynamic advertising opportunities.
In addition, lower value ad-supported behavior that occurred offline, like phone directories, may be replaced with higher value, ad-supported behavior that’s available via online and mobile search engines. These instances of higher value ad-supported behavior online may in turn be replaced with lower value ad-supported behavior online, such as the shift from reaching customers via Yahoo to using Facebook.
As we see with the Yahoo versus Facebook comparison, these new technologies fragment audiences. Weiser reminds us that this fragmentation can reduce the value of a medium to large advertisers. However, the lower media price points for fragmented media allows for the use of a medium by smaller advertisers. Fragmented audiences technology can deliver a higher value per unit of media.This, in turn, allows advertisers to achieve their objectives through smaller ad budgets. And if we’re not careful, smaller ad budgets can result in turning up the heat.
Another change that can threaten traditional advertising models is the impact of advertising systems on ad revenues. At the organization design level, Weiser observes, an advertiser’s corporate structures can pre-define marketing choices. In this scenario, reach and frequency becomes a proxy for the organization’s marketing objectives. For advertisers that use the R&F paradigm, traditional media choices represent a rational decision.
Meanwhile, there are developments that Weiser describes as “universe changes” that affect the advertising marketplace. The advertiser universe itself is not fixed. The types of businesses operating in different countries change over time, affecting who is buying media and what they want their buys to accomplish.
Twenty-five years ago, cell phones were luxury products not sold with television or radio spots. The earliest national commercial I could find for Apple aired in 1984. Think about the last time you saw an ad for a long-distance telephone carrier and compare that to the last smart phone commercial you saw or heard. These new mass market categories are critical to the growth of total advertising and they demonstrate the shifts that have occurred among advertisers over the past decade.
Another change that has occurred among mature advertisers, according to Weiser, is that they are shifting the focus of their budgets away from buying media and more toward marketing. We are also experiencing the creation of “endemic ecosystems,” which he views as a key source of growth for the media business.
We must also be aware of the operational friction that is being created by ad systems. Contrary to the build-it-and-they-will-come approach, Weiser points out that the mere presence of a medium is insufficient to enable advertising. And, a medium offering limited distribution will be considered insufficient for advertisers that require reach. Weiser also reminds us that large advertisers have many operational requirements that are competing for a finite quantity of financial resources.
Taken in total, these changes illustrate the role of technology as a catalyst for potential. Rather than becoming distracted by the disruption it creates, we can focus on where we can incorporate these areas of potential into our business models. Reach still matters, as does frequency, especially as new businesses seek to achieve the recognition and interest that are precursors to engagement and relationship marketing.
What is the media outlook for 2011? As Brian Weiser reminds us, the answer depends only in part on what the market projections may be for a particular form of advertising, such as spot or online. The station or company that turns the potential created by these technology-driven opportunities into smart, 360 marketing campaigns with a predictable ROI for its advertisers will have the best outlook for 2011.
It’s also the best way to ensure we’re not like that frog who didn’t notice how the changes in his surroundings were leading to his demise.
TVNewsCheck, October 8, 2010 6:14 AM EDT
Do you remember the metaphor that contrasts dropping a frog in a pot of boiling water as opposed to placing it in lukewarm water and then gradually bringing it to a boil? While the frog will quickly jump out of the boiling water, the story goes, it will allow itself to cook to death if the water temperature increases by just a few degrees at a time.
I heard someone cite that scenario when I was in New York last month. It’s certainly a fitting allegory to describe what Magna Global’s Brian Weiser posed as one of the possible ways technology can impact the advertising products we now offer.
With the online world’s ability to cater to “name your own price” business models, traditional media’s supply-driven business models could seem like asking new media marketers to jump into a boiling cauldron. On the other hand, if traditional media outlets fail to assess the impact of conforming to new media’s pricing metrics, they could experience irreparable harm to the market value of their broad reach and high levels of audience engagement before realizing what happened.
However, Weiser’s description of the changes we are experiencing in the marketplace can be very helpful in making us more aware of their incremental impact. This should help us keep our cool and remain focused on growing our businesses no matter how torrid and turbulent it gets around us.
That process begins with understanding the shifts that are occurring as a result of technology’s impact on media consumption. Weiser points out that these shifts include the replacement of non-ad-supported activities that once occurred offline with online ad-supported activities that can grow advertising. Examples include the shift from board games to video games, which now feature online and dynamic advertising opportunities.
In addition, lower value ad-supported behavior that occurred offline, like phone directories, may be replaced with higher value, ad-supported behavior that’s available via online and mobile search engines. These instances of higher value ad-supported behavior online may in turn be replaced with lower value ad-supported behavior online, such as the shift from reaching customers via Yahoo to using Facebook.
As we see with the Yahoo versus Facebook comparison, these new technologies fragment audiences. Weiser reminds us that this fragmentation can reduce the value of a medium to large advertisers. However, the lower media price points for fragmented media allows for the use of a medium by smaller advertisers. Fragmented audiences technology can deliver a higher value per unit of media.This, in turn, allows advertisers to achieve their objectives through smaller ad budgets. And if we’re not careful, smaller ad budgets can result in turning up the heat.
Another change that can threaten traditional advertising models is the impact of advertising systems on ad revenues. At the organization design level, Weiser observes, an advertiser’s corporate structures can pre-define marketing choices. In this scenario, reach and frequency becomes a proxy for the organization’s marketing objectives. For advertisers that use the R&F paradigm, traditional media choices represent a rational decision.
Meanwhile, there are developments that Weiser describes as “universe changes” that affect the advertising marketplace. The advertiser universe itself is not fixed. The types of businesses operating in different countries change over time, affecting who is buying media and what they want their buys to accomplish.
Twenty-five years ago, cell phones were luxury products not sold with television or radio spots. The earliest national commercial I could find for Apple aired in 1984. Think about the last time you saw an ad for a long-distance telephone carrier and compare that to the last smart phone commercial you saw or heard. These new mass market categories are critical to the growth of total advertising and they demonstrate the shifts that have occurred among advertisers over the past decade.
Another change that has occurred among mature advertisers, according to Weiser, is that they are shifting the focus of their budgets away from buying media and more toward marketing. We are also experiencing the creation of “endemic ecosystems,” which he views as a key source of growth for the media business.
We must also be aware of the operational friction that is being created by ad systems. Contrary to the build-it-and-they-will-come approach, Weiser points out that the mere presence of a medium is insufficient to enable advertising. And, a medium offering limited distribution will be considered insufficient for advertisers that require reach. Weiser also reminds us that large advertisers have many operational requirements that are competing for a finite quantity of financial resources.
Taken in total, these changes illustrate the role of technology as a catalyst for potential. Rather than becoming distracted by the disruption it creates, we can focus on where we can incorporate these areas of potential into our business models. Reach still matters, as does frequency, especially as new businesses seek to achieve the recognition and interest that are precursors to engagement and relationship marketing.
What is the media outlook for 2011? As Brian Weiser reminds us, the answer depends only in part on what the market projections may be for a particular form of advertising, such as spot or online. The station or company that turns the potential created by these technology-driven opportunities into smart, 360 marketing campaigns with a predictable ROI for its advertisers will have the best outlook for 2011.
It’s also the best way to ensure we’re not like that frog who didn’t notice how the changes in his surroundings were leading to his demise.
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