Monday, July 28, 2014

Madison Avenue Puts Brakes On Ad Spending, Contracts 1% In Q2

Looks like radio is still a viable investment for local as well as national advertisers! Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.

MediaDailyNews
by Joe Mandese, July 24, 2014, 10:23 PM

Data from what is the best composite view yet of Madison Avenue’s media-buying behavior reveals that a slowdown in demand during the second quarter may be stalling the expansion of the U.S. advertising economy. The data, released this week by Standard Media Index, is based on actual media buys made by five of the six agency holding companies, and is estimated to represent about 75% of Madison Avenue’s buying power.

Total spending declined 1% during the second quarter, after surging 12% in the first quarter, thanks in part to a boost in spending related to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games. On balance, the two quarters combined for a 6% expansion on Madison Avenue or the first half of 2014, but the trend line is softening.

“A lot of advertisers bought spend forward to participate in the very successful Winter Olympics,” says James Fennessy, chief commercial officer of SMI, adding that incremental spending on NBC’s coverage during the first quarter may have influenced ad budgets for the second quarter.

“This has definitely impacted [spending] across the board in the second quarter, but we are also seeing a general softening in the market that is impacting all media,” he explained, adding: “We are seeing automotive, CPG and financial services all reduce spend considerably in the second quarter and this has impacted the overall results for most sections of the market.”

Among the major media, only digital and cable TV continued to expand in the second quarter, but their rates of expansion slowed dramatically from the first quarter.

Digital, which grew 23% in the first quarter, expanded only 10% in the second. Cable TV, which rose 9% in the first quarter, dropped to an expansion rate of 4% in the second quarter.

The most marked slowdown was or broadcast TV, which suffered from tough quarterly comparisons due to the presence of the Olympics in the first quarter. Broadcast network spending grew 19% in the first quarter, but fell 7% in the second. Spot broadcast TV rose 23% in the first quarter, but declined 5% in the second quarter.

No medium seems immune from the slowdown -- even high-growth digital sectors such as social, mobile and exchange-based buys.

Social’s expansion rate went from 71% in the first quarter to only 12% in the second, while mobile ebbed from a 41% expansion in the first quarter to only 8% in the second.

Exchange-based buys, which were were expanding at a rate of 10% in the first quarter, actually declined at a rate of 5% during the second -- which also happens to coincide with a period when a major holding company not part of the SMI pool, WPP’s GroupM, said it is pulling out of open exchange-based buys.

Not all companies within these sectors are suffering from the slowdown. Madison Avenue boosted its spending on Twitter a whopping 115% during the first half of the year.

“Twitter has come off a relatively small base so the number does look impressive,” acknowledged SMI’s Fennessy. “While we are still seeing solid growth in social we believe some of the heat is coming out of this part of the market and growth rates are starting to slow as advertisers now have more experience with the medium and are starting to look for a return before committing a greater percentage of their budgets.”

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

How Planning Problems Are Hindering Cross-Channel Campaigns

by Richard Jalichandra, Wednesday, July 23, 2014

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A Different View Of The Customer Lifecycle

Last week Cory wrote "Programmatic + Immersive TV Experiences."Mike Einstein commented, "The TV guys will continue to dominate because they know that the commercial media business model is not (and never has been) one of ad-supported content, but rather one of content-supported advertising -- evidenced by their good sense to cede total control of their identities and signals to paying advertisers one at a time.
While the digerati spend their time rationalizing what constitutes viewability, the TV guys are ready with an answer that has them laughing all the way to the bank."

Wednesday, July 23, 2014
by Cory Treffiletti

The customer lifecycle is almost as hot a buzzword as “big data” -- but what exactly is a customer lifecycle? Is it really a circular journey? Is it linear?

Most marketers build their strategy around two distinct objectives: customer acquisition and customer retention. I tend to think of these two challenges as two sides of the same coin.

It’s about trying to bring prospects into the fold and convert them to customers, and once they’re customers, keeping them happy, buying and generating revenue.

In "olden” days we called this as a customer funnel. More recently, the consensus is we’re talking about a circular journey that encompasses stages like information gathering, multichannel interaction, conversion, and advocacy, with some brands relying on upselling to maintain customer value, while others simply rely on repeat purchase.

I would ask you to consider a Venn diagram, where one circle refers to the acquisition journey and the other refers to the retention and monetization journey. You can also picture the infinity loop if that image is clearer.

The acquisition journey is about initial conversations that lead to consideration and purchase, with a refinement of messaging on an ongoing basis that relies on audience-based targeting and message optimization.

Your strategy begins with a target audience, and that audience is revised based on further information you gain through analysis. You discover attributes of expanded audiences, using lookalike modeling and third-party-based prospecting, which enable you to go deeper and generate more reach for potential customers.

Your analytics will yield customers who convert at different stages. Some prospects require more information than others, but eventually they either convert or are whittled out of the mix.

This optimization creates ongoing efficiency, while your tolerance for risk dictates how much additional budget and how many new attributes are dropped into the mix to try and drive additional conversions.

The second circle represents the retention and monetization journey, where a customer can be placed at any time during the acquisition process. Some customers convert quickly, while others take more time and consideration. Once you have them, you have to determine the right track for maintaining a relationship and increasing their value. Some customers will want to be spoken to often, while others are less interested.

Most important, you have to remember that a customer simply needs to be recognized. Recognize them when you see them with any of your ads or messaging, and treat them as a valued customer by not showing them acquisition messages. This simple act of recognition goes a long way. As I tell my five-year-old, if you ask me for something and I say “yes,” there’s no need to keep asking. If I’m already your customer, treat me as a customer and build that relationship.

The overlap of the two circles in this diagram represents two unique stages of pass-back. These are the customers who you may be losing through attrition, or they may be customers who need new messaging to be upsold because their needs have changed.

Think about auto manufacturers: they sell a young, 20-something an economical, yet sporty car. When that person gets married, gets a little older and her needs change, she should be getting messages about SUVs and family-friendly cars. This simple recognition translates to an understanding that she should not be continuously messaged the same products, but that they will need to be resold on the new products.

This is more than just CRM -- it’s a full-scale approach to reselling her as a customer. I have been getting Jeep ads for the last 15 years because I once owned a Jeep, but my lifestage does not warrant that message, and I’d think the manufacturer could recognize that at this point.

Acquisition and retention are very different animals and they each require a different set of tactics. Data can be used, and audience-based analysis can be leveraged, to ensure maximum efficiency for both of these areas, but more recognition should be given to how these two strategies either do or do not intersect. They need to be set up properly before being automated, with input from a human mind as well to better determine how they can work more effectively.
Don’t you agree?

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Wait! Cable's Upfront Is Also Down This Year?

A media critique by Wayne Friedman Monday, July 21, 2014

Virtually all pre-upfront TV advertising market estimates pointed to lower advertising dollars for the broadcast networks. That was almost a given.

But now The Wall Street Journal is reporting what no had one predicted: cable networks’ total upfront ad dollars might drop as well, partly due to pullbacks from Procter & Gamble and General Motors.

Estimates had been that cable networks’ upfront ad revenue would surely rise -- some 2%-4%, or perhaps more. But the Journal says they will decline, and not by a fraction of a percent or even a tiny 1% percentage -- but by as much as 4%-5% from last year’s nearly $9.9 billion.

If that occurs, analysts believe it will be only the second time ever for such a drop. The upfront for both cable and broadcast sank some 12-14% in 2009 in the midst of the financial crisis.

But hand me that salt shaker, because the cable upfront market is still going on. It’s several weeks after the conclusion of the broadcast upfront, which analysts say dropped 5%-10% from last year’s $9.3 billion estimate.
Perhaps even murkier is where those missing dollars might be going. While digital video and overall Internet advertising looks to grow, many are skeptical that big companies who used most of their ad spend for TV will make a drastic shift to digital. That’s because digital video metrics are still getting their feet wet, and there’s even less surety over mobile and tablet viewing.
Here’s the current math: Total annual TV advertising comes to some $70 billion, with digital video advertising looking to get $5 billion or so this year. TV advertising is growing slowly, 3% or so; digital will be up by somewhat-crazy double-digit percentages.

In recent years, cable networks have seen audience erosion of 5% year-over-year among key demographic groups.
Media buyers have been concerned for years that cable networks’ virtually unlimited commercial inventory could hold down pricing. Many digital video sites have had similar issues.
Sales executives at cable networks and digital video platforms say that, while lots of inventory can be available, top video programs and content come at premium pricing.

And of course this is just the upfront -- the futures national TV ad market. We are unsure if actual business will “close” in mid-September, or what the scatter markets -- in the fourth, first, second, and third quarters -- will bring. Care to make some bets now? Your provisional revenue estimates are always welcome.

Radio Choices Correlate To What You Drive

MarketingDaily

by Karl Greenberg, Yesterday, 12:01 PM

People who drive a Porsche Boxster in Chicago listen to different radio content than do people who drive a Boxster in Los Angeles.

That’s according to a new study from Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) that examines correlations between what kind of station a consumer listens to on the radio, what kind of car they drive and where they drive it. For example, buyers of roadsters (e.g., Mazda Miata, Audi TT, or Nissan Z) listen to news, talk and information. At least they do in Los Angeles and Chicago, according to the data.

Basic luxury automobile buyers in Los Angeles listen to news, talk and information as well, but also to contemporary Christian and country radio formats. In New York, premium vehicle buyers listen to sports. They also listen to world ethnic content.

Nielsen says it got these results by linking its Nielsen local market insights to radio listening data from its portable people-meter results and tied its demographic data to R.L. Polk's own research results on who buys what kind of car in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago -- the three largest radio markets.

The study also cuts the other way, looking at which owners of different vehicle types listen to a given category of music. In New York, sports radio scored the best among high-end vehicle buyers, particularly those in the prestige sporty and prestige luxury categories (e.g., the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Lexus LS or BMW 7 series). Among all vehicle types, sports radio enthusiasts are most likely to have purchased prestige sporty, prestige luxury, mid-sport or mid-luxury vehicles in the past year, per the study.

Farshad Family, SVP, local product media leadership at Nielsen, tells Marketing Daily that the company this year started linking audio data with consumer data through third parties to tell a story that moves beyond age and gender. "That was the overarching theme," Family says.

The auto study doesn't concern itself with satellite radio or app-based digital radio, but in fact those are the growing segments for advertising buys. According to the Radio Advertising Bureau's first-quarter ad revenue report, the first three months this year constituted the fifth flat quarter in a row for radio overall. What increases there were happened in digital and off-air, each up 16%.

The top 10 of radio spenders for the quarter: AT&T, MetroPCS, Verizon, Comcast Xfinity, McDonald's, T-Mobile, Geico, Toyota Dealers, Safeway and Fox TV.

In the auto category, the segment was dominated, not surprisingly, by dealer groups advertising in spot radio led by the Toyota Dealer Association. The study says that in spite of weather in Q1 that kept consumers at home, auto advertisers’ spot spending kept pace with last year.

Even though the Toyota Dealer Association spent 3% less in Q1 versus last year, it committed nearly twice as much as second-ranked Honda Dealer Association, which declined 29%. Nissan Dealer Association’s 80% increase put them at third place, ahead of the Ford Dealer Association and Chevrolet Dealer Association.

After those dealer groups came the companies themselves: Chrysler LLC was number six, while Toyota Motor Corporation was seven. AutoNation USA was in eighth place followed by Nissan Motor and Dodge Motor Corporation rounding out the top 10.

“We know local radio remains a major part of a consumer’s day, with the average consumer listening to over 2 hours of radio per day," says Family. "Auto dealers are looking to make a connection to potential customers in their local communities and they know that radio is an important part of how to make that connection.”

MARKETRON OPENS NEW REVENUE DOOR FOR RADIO

Radio Ink

July 22, 2014

This year Gartner estimates mobile ad revenue will hit $18 Billion, a 37% increase over the $13.1 Billion spent in 2013. By 2017 Gartner estimates that number will reach $42 Billion. As a Manager with the responsibility of increasing revenue every month of every year, how much of that huge mobile advertising revenue figure is coming through your door, helping you achieve those increases? Digital revenue is growing for radio, however it still represents a small percentage of radio's overall revenue with over-the-air spot revenue still dominating, although that number has been experiencing relatively flat growth. Mobile revenue is exploding. Marketron executives say at least one radio group is bringing in over $100,000 every month using its brand new location-based advertising product that becomes available to everyone today.

Leadership Caffeine—In Praise of Mistakes Made for the Right Reasons

Management Excellence

JULY 20, 2014 BY ART PETTY

image of a foam coffee cup with brown outer sleeve

The Leadership Caffeine series is over 200 installments strong and is dedicated to every aspiring or experienced leader and manager seeking ideas, insights or just a jolt of energy to keep pushing forward. Thanks for being along for the journey!

–

The true test of your leadership character isn’t measured by the absence of mistakes, but rather by the mistakes made in pursuit of growth and learning AND how you conduct yourself once you’ve made a mistake.

Show me a mistake-free leader, and I’ll show you someone hiding from the real issues confronting the business: people and strategy.

People:

People are complicated. In spite of the myriad of assessment tools at our disposal, selection is still a judgement call with all of the inherent risks and biases of human decision-making. And the challenge of aligning skills and experiences with tasks while searching for that spark that stimulates people to work at their creative best is truly much more art than science.

You will make mistakes on people. Make them for the right reasons. Taking a chance on good people for the right reasons is worth the risk every day.

Remember, character always gets a positive vote. After a certain age, character is formed and nothing you can do will alter someone’s core character. You cannot change someone. Assess character carefully. Look for behavioral examples around values, and if the view is dissonant, it’s a non-starter.

Passion and desire are powerful reasons to take a chance on someone, even if others around you suggest this person isn’t right for a role. I like betting on the underdog if I’ve done my homework on the individual. Taking chances on people who show that extra spark is part of the essence of leadership. Much like character, you cannot teach passion, you can only help it emerge.

The greatest rewards I’ve enjoyed as a leader come from those people I selected against popular wisdom because I saw something. Of course, “something” is hard to codify and I’ve been wrong here as well. It doesn’t mean I will stop taking chances.

Strategy:

Much like the challenge of selecting and inspiring people to apply their talents, strategy is filled with ambiguity and uncertainty. Choosing what to do and importantly, what not to do is a core management task, yet human judgement in all its brilliance and all of its flaws is once again at the center of strategic decision-making.

Even in our data-driven world, selecting and then executing a strategy is like walking through a minefield on a fresh lava-flow blindfolded. There’s a high probability that somewhere between choice of path and the journey down that path, you will misstep with painful results. Assuming the essence of the strategy is sound, often, you can recover, adapt and proceed from execution missteps. These non-fatal errors are powerful learning experiences, teaching you and everyone around you how to spot gaps, fill in blind-spots and redouble efforts to get execution right.

While many view strategy as an event, with an outcome that is carved in granite and the granite set in concrete, in reality, it is effectively a testable hypothesis backed by a series of experiments. In a military metaphor, you engage in a series of skirmishes designed to test defenses and learn terrain, and then you push to conquer the ground. These skirmishes are the teaching experiences and your mistakes here are part of the process of figuring out how to get it right. The only mistake is not to decide to take action.

The best leaders I’ve worked around understand the need for the missteps. No one actively seeks them out, but they are an inevitable part of the pursuit of success.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

The least interesting professionals to me are those who cannot articulate a litany of mistakes on their way to their successes. The absence of mistakes…or, the unwillingness to admit prior mistakes is a character flaw and as mentioned above, there are no compromises when it comes to character. There’s no guarantee that some of your own mistakes won’t have painful consequences. Nonetheless, the mistakes made for the right reasons…in favor of great people and in pursuit of business success, are simply tickets to admission. Pay the price, take your lumps, learn and keep moving.

Upfront Blues: Broadcast, Cable TV Ad Rev Forecast To Sink 6%

MediaDailyNews

by Wayne Friedman, 10 hours ago

Television's upfront market will take a turn backwards this season.

A new estimate says that with most of the deal-making completed, total television upfront prime-time advertising revenue for broadcast and cable networks will sink 6% to $18.1 billion from the $19.3 billion tally in 2013, per Media Dynamics.

Broadcast upfront revenues are estimated to drop 7.7% to $8.45 billion from the $9.15 billion level in 2013. Cable TV upfront revenues look to retreat 4.7% to $9.68 billion from $10.16 billion.

While broadcast networks have seen steady declines for the last two upfront selling periods, this season will be the first decline for cable since it dropped to $6.92 billion in the 2009 upfront period (for the 2009-2010 season) from its $7.6 billion level in 2008 (the 2008-2009 period).

In 2009, the TV ad revenue declines were part of the overall U.S. economic collapse that hit all businesses during the Great Recession in 2009. In the midst of the recessionary period in 2009, total TV upfront revenues were down sharply -- off 14% -- with the cost per thousand viewers down 4%.

Some of that upfront market was also affected to a major degree by TV networks withholding much more inventory that year for sale in the following scatter markets -- in the hopes the economy would improve.

Dr Philip Jay LeNoble, of Executive Decision Systems, Inc. indicates local-direct revenue can be a boon from those stations frozen out of political due to their market size. For those markets who will reap the benefits of a large political season come fall. it will be important not to pre-empt local clients who are depending on the holiday season to make their year as they will be more difficult to to regain. While some managers say their local clients understand...they are being fooled as local direct clients may find other new media more attractive which as a result may further impact core revenue for the year and the beginning of 2015.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Nielsen Exec: Don't Expect to Be Impressed by Impact of Mobile TV Ratings

ADWEEK

It all starts tracking viewing on devices By T.L. Stanley

July 9, 2014, 12:51 PM EDT
Television

Photo: Getty Images

Nielsen has declared itself "open for business" in terms of tracking TV viewing on smartphones, tablets and other electronic gadgets. But don’t expect those numbers, which will be available for the first time with the new fall broadcast season, to be impressive, statistically speaking.

"It will start small and build gradually," Cheryl Idell, Nielsen’s evp of U.S. media, said at the semi-annual Television Critics Association conference kickoff in Beverly Hills. “We won’t see dramatic changes in ratings with this data added in.”

That may not be the big splash the advertising community has been hoping for.

Claire Browne, vp, director of media research at ad agency RPA in Los Angeles, describedNielsen as "behind the curve" and "playing catch-up" on measuring mobile viewing, a project that’s been in the works for years. "They have to do this to remain relevant," she said. "Consumer behavior is running so far ahead of the research."

Nielsen first announced the long-gestating service last fall, promising TV networks a better cross-platform gauge of total viewers so they can set their ad rates accordingly. Advertisers are also clamoring for the data so they can strike the best media buying deals and keep up with the on-the-go consumer who’s increasingly turning to mobile devices for entertainment.

The mobile data will come via software meters that have been embedded into media companies’ "watch anywhere" apps, Internet browsers and mobile devices themselves, Idell said.

Those meters will identify pieces of content—an episode of Scandal or American Idol, for instance—and report back on when and how those were watched, whether through a smartphone, iPad video app or other device. Privacy encryption will reveal demographic but not personal tidbits about the viewer, who may opt out of the research.

Nielsen will add the mobile viewing data to a TV show’s overall ratings to give a more accurate picture of how many people across the U.S. watched an episode of The Walking Dead or a season of CSI. That applies only to mobile viewers, though, who watched the same version that aired on TV, the so-called linear version of the show that contained the same embedded advertising. That’s the same criteria that Nielsen uses for counting time-shifted viewing three or seven days after initial airing. (Ad-free streaming services like Netflix will not be included nor will platforms like Hulu where ads are different than on TV).

It’s a start, RPA’s Browne said, because "usage numbers are critical," but she wishes Nielsen, either alone or in collaboration with other services, would step it up. "We all want credible data, and it’ll be disappointing if this doesn’t turn out to be it," she said.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Surge In 2016 Online Political Ad Spend Seen

NETNEWSCHECK

BORRELL ASSOCIATES REPORTe

2016

Online

Political

Spend

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Total online political ad spending is projected to soar to almost a billion dollars in 2016 U.S. political races that are expected to generate more than $12 billion for all contests — almost $51 for every qualified voter — according to a report released today by Borrell Associates. Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D. of Littleton, CO says that TV and radio station management should endeavor to keep local clients happy during business spike periods and not depend on political revenue to supersede local business as it may imperil future local direct revenue streams.

By Michael Depp

June 30, 2014 6:34 AM EDT

Total online political ad spending is projected to soar to almost a billion dollars in 2016 U.S. political races that are expected to generate more than $12 billion for all contests — almost $51 for every qualified voter — according to a report released today by Borrell Associates.
The expected dramatic growth of online ad spending — almost 500% from 2012 — is tracked and explained in Political Advertising Outlook: 2014 and Beyond.

Digital media still would account for less than 8% of all political advertising, the report says, but the way political advertising money is spent will change dramatically in 2016, affecting every level of spending – from very local to presidential runs.Kip Cassino, Borrell EVP and author of the report, says that “if you look at previous years, [political online ad spending] has jumped levels of magnitude through every cycle.
“The reason is because people are growing more used to the capabilities of online in the campaign,” Cassino says. “Until now, only a few campaigns have made any real inventive use of online in their marketing, and one of them was the Obama campaign.”
The Obama campaign’s efficacy is “beginning to rub off,” he notes.

Cable and online are the only media choices projected to gain share in political ad spending this year, the report says, with two factors underpinning the cable growth:

Price as local and state-centric campaigns try to get more for their money by using cheaper cable alternatives to broadcast, aided by the rise in cable viewership, especially during prime time
Cable’s ability to target specific demographic population segments through its variety of programming is enormous

“This is an alarm bell ringing,” Cassino says of what the report finds with respect to broadcast TV.
Most of the digital activity at this point in the election cycle now, the report says, is expected to continue to be done by the digital marketing managers working within the campaigns, managing social media and email communications directly with the electorate.

But, drilling down into how the dollars will be spent in online advertising, the report says, “This year, political ads on social media will capture as much as half of what’s spent, according to Michael Bassik, one of the nation’s foremost experts on digital political advertising and president of global digital operations for MDC Partners in New York City.”

Cassino says advertising is now moving beyond search.
“Now we’re getting into actually targeting people by their affinities, using social and targeted display,” he said. “The other catalyst that is really driving this is the availability of mobile devices and the ability to get to votes through that device.”

Cassino sees more than half of the dollars going to mobile.
Who will be the winners?
“Facebook has been very aggressive about hiring staff that know how to talk to the politicians and use Facebook in campaign efforts,” Cassino notes. “Certainly for video, you have to look at YouTube.”
And, what should local media glean from this report?

“They had better be able to offer online and specifically mobile and video alternatives to what they’ve been offering. It’s not just going to be TV and posters anymore,” he says.

Forecast: This is the year mobile ads explode

Medialife

Spending will soar by 83 percent, to $17.73 billion

By Bill Cromwell

July 8, 2014

Call 2014 the year of mobile advertising.

It’s set to take off in a major way over the coming months, and by year’s end it will be the No. 3 form of advertising, surpassing print, radio and out of home.

That’s pretty impressive for a format that did not even exist a few years ago.

That prediction comes from eMarketer, the online advertising tracking firm, which predicts that mobile ad spending in the U.S. will shoot up by 83 percent this year, to $17.73 billion.

“By the end of this year, mobile will represent nearly 10 percent of all media ad spending, surpassing newspapers, magazines and radio for the first time to become the third-largest individual advertising venue, only trailing TV and desktops/laptops,” says the report.

Smartphones and tablets are reaching a critical mass, and the amount of time spent surfing the web on mobile devices is beginning to outpace desktop time.

This will lead to a huge shift in ad dollars over the next few years, notes the report.

Spending on mobile will soar another 50 percent next year, to $26.59 billion, compared to $32.01 billion for desktop advertising.

By 2016, mobile will be well ahead of desktop, with $37.49 billion to desktop’s $29 billion.

And by 2018, spending on mobile will be $58.33 billion, up from just $4.36 billion last year. At that point, nearly three-quarters of all digital spending will be mobile.

The spike in mobile advertising will spark a very healthy 2014 for the media economy. In fact, 2014 will see the biggest year-to-year spending jump in a decade.

EMarketer predicts ad spending will increase by 5.3 percent, the best growth since 2004, when spending bumped up 6.7 percent. It’s also the first time in a decade that spending growth has bettered 5 percent. Total spending will hit $180.12 billion.

In addition to mobile, gains will be driven by television, which is getting a boost from the Winter Olympics and political spending.

TV ad dollars will be up 3.3 percent, representing a $2.19 billion increase.

EMarketer remains fairly bullish on ad spending going forward, too. It predicts an increase of 5.1 percent next year, despite the absence of political and Olympic spending, and growth of 5.6 percent in 2016, when the next presidential election will take place, as well as the next Summer Games.

Nielsen Exec: Don't Expect to Be Impressed by Impact of Mobile TV Ratings

ADWEEK

Starts tracking viewing on devices By T.L. Stanley

July 9, 2014, 12:51 PM EDT
Television

That may not be the big splash the advertising community has been hoping for.

The mobile data will come via software meters that have been embedded into media companies’ "watch anywhere" apps, Internet browsers and mobile devices themselves, Idell said.

High Impact Premium Ads Becoming Key To Moving Male Audiences' Decisions

By Bryan Robb Thursday, July 10, 2014

Men these days spend more time than their Dads ever did helping out at home and watching the kids, according to numerous studies. But that doesn’t mean that their interest in shiny new toys and flashy gadgets is on the wane. Quite the contrary!

Interest in typically male-dominated areas such as power tools, motor vehicles and gadgets is alive and well. And as it turns out, the way to a man’s heart starts with flashy digital ads, which have proven to be extremely impactful and effective for advertisers trying to reach this often overlooked decision-maker.

I see it every day here at work. We help marketers of aftermarket products reach male decision makers about these “want-to-have” items that make a vehicle go faster, look better or make it safer. Many of our smaller advertisers compete for attention with Fortune 100 brands on most pages where their ads run, which can make things very difficult for them. But we’re seeing that high impact, custom premium ads (i.e., large, eye-grabbing page takeovers, skins, peels, videos, IAB Rising Starts, etc.) really stand out with men, who sometimes just need a little help to envision what these products can do for them.

According to a recent study by interactive TV advertising company Brightline, men are especially receptive to interactive ads that include contests or components like simple games, or ads featuring video content. Almost half of men are willing to stay on a website longer if product videos are made available to them, for example, and 35% of young males like ads that allow them to play some sort of game.

One of the major energy drink companies put us to the test. We ran targeted rich-media expandable ads alongside side skins that also featured an embedded video. Historically, this could only be done manually as one-offs. The side skins received eight times the interaction from users versus the expandable rich media ads.
As you can see, a little “wow factor” goes a long way when it comes to reaching male audiences. Now high impact, custom premium ads can even be delivered programmatically in real-time, regardless of the publisher channel, aligning perfectly with how brand marketers are already advertising within other digital channels. Using audience data and insights in real-time to effectively target ads that will engage men helps to achieve a higher level of interest in smaller advertisers’ content, putting them on par with the look and feel of what larger brands are doing without having to break the bank.

While targeting men will always play second fiddle to the feeding frenzy you see with brands trying to reach moms, there is no reason why brands of all shapes and sizes that need to convert male audiences should ever fall short in offering them content that will catch their eye. By keeping close tabs on the type of high impact, custom premium ads that engage and convert male purchasers at a high rate, male-focused marketers of all sizes can keep them engaged.

Thought it would be helpful to add an essay on creative as it is what helps drive traffic. Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Generational Social Media Behaviors

Research Brief

Monday June 30, 2014

by Jack Loechner, Yesterday, 10:25 AM

According to a new report from Fizziology, prepared by BaM, Handley and Jennette, marketers are still struggling with how to communicate with their audiences in social media in a way that they don’t with more traditional media. The numbers prove that each generation is represented in social media in mass. Now it’s about understanding how they use social, what their habits are and how to speak to them in a way that is meaningful, inspires action, and authentic.

The report outlines social media behaviors, tone and triggers of Millennials, Generation X and Baby Boomers, so marketers can understand how to effectively engage with target audiences. As social media matures as an element of a marketing campaign, so should the sophistication of targeting and message, says the report.

The social media behaviors of Millennials vs. GenX and Boomers: Born after 1981, most ethnically diverse generation ever; digital natives; politically and socially liberal; not very religious; educated but burdened with college debt; slow to marry and have children; optimistic about the future…

Millennials express complaints (primarily about school, relationships and general pet peeves) almost 2x more than Gen X and 3x more than Boomers
Millennials are also more likely to interact with celebrities and talk about dating/relationships, music and sports
Although the youngest, Millennials are most likely to be nostalgic on social media, they religiously post photos, talk about childhood TV shows and movies they grew up watching, and often reminisce about old fashion trends
Millennials tweet an average of 8x a day, which is slightly more than Gen X and significantly less than Boomers
Millennials talk about music significantly more than the other generations. Hip-hop dominates their music conversation, but they also often talk about musicians that rose to prominence in the 90s and early 2000s
Millennials don’t often share news articles from traditional media outlets, but instead share BuzzFeed lists and quiz results. In fact, 21% of all articles shared by Millennials came from Buzzfeed
Sports-loving Millennials hashtag vote in promotions like the Face of MLB. They live-tweet during NBA games and the Chicago Bulls are popular among this group. They use the appropriate hashtags to tweet during shows like Scandal, Teen Wolf, The Walking Dead and True Detective
Millennials were interested in blockbusters like Gravity and Captain America, but they also spoke nostalgically about movies they watched in childhood like Land Before Time and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
While Millennials talk a lot about celebrities, music and sports, they don’t’ name-drop brands as much as Gen X and Boomers do

The social media behaviors of GenX, born 1965-1980, shows that they are a health-conscious group more likely to talk about nutrition and fitness than Millennials and Boomers. They are 75% more likely to talk about tech news and products/apps than Millennials and Boomers, and often share inspirational, positive messages and are advocates for brands that share the same outlook.

Gen Xers tweet an average of 6x a day, which is slightly less than Millennials and significantly less than Boomers. They are children of the Reagan Revolution and the divorce Revolution; Distrustful of institutions and government; Economically conservative and Socially Liberal
Gen Xers use hashtags in political conversation (#WhySheRan), as well as to keep up with unfolding news stories (#MH370). They also enjoying watching TV socially, often using TV Tag to customize their social feeds during their favorite shows, which include dramas like House of Cards, Nashville and True Detective
Gen Xers post more photos (22% of conversation) than Millennials and Boomers – including “Food porn,” photos of beer and liquor, snapshots taken while traveling, pics at concerts/events with friends
This group is most likely to consume and share tech news. They enjoy using apps like Untappd, a social check-in network for beer aficionados. They also use apps like Uber, Spotify and Foursquare and follow the news around Bitcoin
This generation grew up as fans of Morrissey, The Smiths and David Bowie and they continue to listen to those artists today. They also enjoy the folk sounds of artists like Milk Carton Kids, Norah Jones, Avett Brothers and Beck. Gen X parents took their kids to see The Lego Movie and Frozen.
This segment will engage with their favorite brands on social. They appreciate brands with positive messaging and a strong social presence. They consume and share the most media (news clips, tech reviews, op-ed pieces, long reads, etc.) via their social networks. They are followers of outlets like NPR, Slate, Mashable and AV Club.

The social media behaviors of Boomers, born 1946-1964, shows that they are 3x more likely to talk about shopping than Gen X and Millennials, and also talk about family more than the other segments. They are significantly more likely to use social media to engage in brand promotions and giveaways than Gen X and Millennials.

Boomers frequently engage in lengthy Twitter chats, united by a corresponding hashtag, and “tweetups,” or in-person meetups planned via Twitter. They tweet an average of 15x a day, more than Millennials and Gen X combined.

Born during fertility spike post-WWII, ntil birth control pill came to market. Half or more have grown conservative with age despite participating in counterculture movements in the 60s. 10,000 boomers a day will turn 65 until 2030

Boomers were active tweeters during both the Oscars and NASCAR’s Daytona 500. They followed news updates regarding Duke Energy’s coal ash spill using a hashtag and expressed political opinions with hashtags (#P2). They use hashtags to jump into conversations, as well as to engage in brand promotions and giveaways (#DisneySide, #iPadGames, #Win)

Boomers post less photos than Millennials and Gen X, but photos still make up 16% of their conversation
TV Baby Boomers are hooked on reality series like the Real Housewives franchise and juicy dramas like Scandal. They are also likely to be fans of NASCAR, and were highly engaged during the Daytona 500
They have wide-ranging musical tastes, but rock is the most popular genre. They enjoy everything from The Smiths to indie rock group, Pavement. They are also fans of country musicians like George Strait and Rodney Atkins
Baby Boomers are partial to brands like Michael’s, Kraft and Frito-Lay that have a strong social media presence, feature DIY and recipe ideas and frequently engage their fans in giveaways and contests.

Summarizing, the report says that Boomers are considerably more talkative on social media than Millennials and Gen X. They frequently engage in long conversations and Twitter chats. Meanwhile, Gen X is the quietest of the three segments. Millennial and Gen X conversation peaked, while Boomer conversation rose sharply, on March 2^nd coinciding with the 86th Academy Awards.

Popular Social Topic Comparison
	*Frequency in Conversion*
*Segment*	*Millennials*	*GenX*	*Boomers*
Celebrities	15%	10%	8%
Complaint	9%	5%	3%
Dating	4%	1%	2%
Drinking	5%	5%	1%
Family	1%	4%	6%
Food	6%	9%	8%
Health	2%	5%	3%
Humor	20%	18%	14%
Inspirational	2%	7%	5%
Movies	5%	4%	6%
Music	14%	8%	4%
News	7%	9%	9%
Photos	19%	22%	16%
Politics	2%	7%	8%
Promotions	0%	1%	11%
Shopping	2%	2%	6%
Sports	13%	6%	6%
Tech	8%	14%	8%
Travel	4%	5%	1%
TV	13%	10%	12%
Video	3%	4%	2%
Source: Fizziology, June 2014

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