Tuesday, July 21, 2015
MRC To Test Voltair Impact.
INSIDERADIO
July 21, 2015
The Media Rating Council (MRC) is performing its own tests of the Voltair unit, independent of Nielsen-conducted trials set to be revealed to clients today, Inside Radio has learned. Unlike the Nielsen tests, which were largely confined to a laboratory and thus limited in their real-world conclusions, the MRC tests are being done with radio stations that are using the controversial audio processor. "Voltair is relevant to MRC, despite not having been introduced by Nielsen, because of its specific design to impact encoding processes," George Ivie, executive director of the ratings watchdog, told Inside Radio. While Nielsen’s attempts to gain the cooperation of broadcasters using the box were largely unsuccessful, some radio groups shared information with the MRC about their experiences with Voltair on a confidential basis. "We are using this information to facilitate our own testing, but by agreement this station information cannot be shared with Nielsen or anyone else," Ivie said. The tests, which will continue through August, are being performed by CPAs commissioned by the MRC. Once they’re complete, the MRC and its CPAs plan to review ratings data for stations before and after installation of Voltair and to evaluate the audio processor’s impact on the editing rules that Nielsen uses in the PPM system to ensure stations receive proper listening credit. MRC says it will report the finding to its Radio Committee, which is made up of broadcasters, agencies and advertisers. The MRC’s CPA firm is also "walking through" the Nielsen test results and plans to summarize them to the MRC and its Radio Committee. But Ivie stopped short of calling that process a "validation" of the Nielsen tests. However, once the MRC completes its own lab and field testing, Ivie says it will "have the ability to corroborate Nielsen’s testing in many areas, which would be a form of validation."
Radio Swings For Hyper-Local Fences. Radio, with its thousands of local stations, has long had an understandable rep for targeting prowess. Now geo-fencing technology is helping it hyper-target to even narrower areas and tap into the ad budgets of local businesses that typically aren’t big radio spenders. Digity and Delmarva Broadcasting, among others, have added geo-targeted mobile display ads to their client offerings. The growing practice involves drawing a virtual circle of 100 meters or more around a client’s location and serving mobile ads to anyone that enters that fenced area with a GPS-enabled mobile device. The goal is to drive foot traffic into the store with special offers. Delmarva, which owns about a dozen stations in the mid-Atlantic region, has executed dozens of geo-targeted campaigns during the last year. The company now attributes 13% of its total digital revenue to location-based advertising. In West Palm Beach, where Digity operates seven radio stations, digital sales manager Marco Mottola says they’ve experienced a 90% retention rate among clients using the service, many of whom are local advertisers that weren’t previously big radio users. Location-based advertising makes up roughly 20% of the station’s digital revenue. Mottola says the campaigns produce average click rates from 0.3-0.5% compared to 0.1%, which is considered the national average. But results are measured beyond the click. A veterinarian in West Palm Beach nearly tripled the number of new customers compared to that of a typical month, according to Mottola. Both companies, along with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Cumulus Media, Beasley Media, Radio One and Saga Communications are using a product developed by ad management provider Marketron, which works with online ad networks to place the ads.
Hyper-Target Tech Scores Client Bulls-eye. Car dealers are seen by broadcasters as the obvious first line of clients when it comes to selling geo-fenced digital campaigns. The typical MO is to serve ads to potential buyers while they’re on the lot or in the showroom of a competitor and lure them across the street with a better offer. Dealerships like location-based ads, broadcasters say, because they often see an immediate impact on leads. But clients using location-based campaigns run the gamut from insurance companies to veterinarians to hurricane windows retailers to recruitment advertisers. The trend is expected to grow with U.S. mobile advertising forecasted at $28.7B in 2015 and on track to more than triple over the next 5 years. Mark Weidel, general manager at Delmarva’s DBC Interactive, says the geo-fenced ads are getting three to six times higher click rates than those usually seen in online display advertising and that one client, a trucking company looking to recruit drivers, received a 16% click rate. Those ads were sent to a geo-fence around a medical facility that specializes in physicals for truck drivers. "It’s really important to make sure the fences are unique to the client and where their prospects are going to be and that the message has a strong call to action," Weidel says. Delmarva has used fencing to help clients attract booth traffic at trade shows and to reach attendees at the Firefly Festival at Dover International Speedway in June. "Events have become something that we increasingly look at," Weidel says.
July 21, 2015
Radio Swings For Hyper-Local Fences. Radio, with its thousands of local stations, has long had an understandable rep for targeting prowess. Now geo-fencing technology is helping it hyper-target to even narrower areas and tap into the ad budgets of local businesses that typically aren’t big radio spenders. Digity and Delmarva Broadcasting, among others, have added geo-targeted mobile display ads to their client offerings. The growing practice involves drawing a virtual circle of 100 meters or more around a client’s location and serving mobile ads to anyone that enters that fenced area with a GPS-enabled mobile device. The goal is to drive foot traffic into the store with special offers. Delmarva, which owns about a dozen stations in the mid-Atlantic region, has executed dozens of geo-targeted campaigns during the last year. The company now attributes 13% of its total digital revenue to location-based advertising. In West Palm Beach, where Digity operates seven radio stations, digital sales manager Marco Mottola says they’ve experienced a 90% retention rate among clients using the service, many of whom are local advertisers that weren’t previously big radio users. Location-based advertising makes up roughly 20% of the station’s digital revenue. Mottola says the campaigns produce average click rates from 0.3-0.5% compared to 0.1%, which is considered the national average. But results are measured beyond the click. A veterinarian in West Palm Beach nearly tripled the number of new customers compared to that of a typical month, according to Mottola. Both companies, along with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Cumulus Media, Beasley Media, Radio One and Saga Communications are using a product developed by ad management provider Marketron, which works with online ad networks to place the ads.
Hyper-Target Tech Scores Client Bulls-eye. Car dealers are seen by broadcasters as the obvious first line of clients when it comes to selling geo-fenced digital campaigns. The typical MO is to serve ads to potential buyers while they’re on the lot or in the showroom of a competitor and lure them across the street with a better offer. Dealerships like location-based ads, broadcasters say, because they often see an immediate impact on leads. But clients using location-based campaigns run the gamut from insurance companies to veterinarians to hurricane windows retailers to recruitment advertisers. The trend is expected to grow with U.S. mobile advertising forecasted at $28.7B in 2015 and on track to more than triple over the next 5 years. Mark Weidel, general manager at Delmarva’s DBC Interactive, says the geo-fenced ads are getting three to six times higher click rates than those usually seen in online display advertising and that one client, a trucking company looking to recruit drivers, received a 16% click rate. Those ads were sent to a geo-fence around a medical facility that specializes in physicals for truck drivers. "It’s really important to make sure the fences are unique to the client and where their prospects are going to be and that the message has a strong call to action," Weidel says. Delmarva has used fencing to help clients attract booth traffic at trade shows and to reach attendees at the Firefly Festival at Dover International Speedway in June. "Events have become something that we increasingly look at," Weidel says.
Radio Has Its Eyes On the Future—In Video.
INSIDERADIO
July 20, 2015
The latest programming trend in radio is about looking, not listening.
Vision Quest—Video Ads Are On the Rise. Online and mobile video consumption is exploding, and stations and advertisers want in. Four billion videos are viewed daily on Facebook and 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, notes Lori Lewis, VP of social media for Cumulus Media. "Video offers us the ability to share moments in an even more real-time way," she says. And there are great possibilities for monetizing video. For now, most stations are selling video as part of multiplatform deals, but advertiser demand is growing. Borrell Associates estimates advertisers will spend $7.7 billion on video advertising in local markets this year, while BIA/Kelsey forecasts video ads will grow more than 20% annually over the next four years. Those forecasts include ads in pre-roll video, cobranded video and placed video ads, and all of those can mesh with a station’s original video content. Gayle Troberman, EVP and chief marketing officer of iHeartMedia, says some clients want to collaborate "from the ground up" on ideas that fit their brand and target audience, such as a recent comprehensive program with Chevy for its "Best Day Ever" campaign, which included branded video. In other cases, she notes, video ideas bubble up and then iHeart recruits sponsors. That’s the task for an upcoming series, "On the Fly with Paul Costabile," featuring iHeart personality Costabile’s antics with artists and celebrities, including getting Chris Martin to ad-lib a ballet about an old shoe, and beatboxing with Ed Sheeran. Costabile started out as a Web producer for CHR WKTU, New York (103.5) creating his own funny videos, and execs took notice. "It helped us understand how we could thoughtfully extend how we do [video]," Owen Grover, iHeartRadio’s SVP/GM said.
Nielsen Set To Break Its Voltair Silence. When it comes to Voltair, Nielsen has been almost as quiet as the inaudible tones its PPM encoders insert in broadcast signals. But a break in the silence is expected tomorrow when the measurement giant hosts a clients-only webinar to address the controversial audio processor that has been the talk of the industry for the better part of 2015. In addition to long-awaited Voltair test results, Nielsen says it will provide an update on "planned enhancements to the PPM." Broadcasters are hopeful that will entail more than window dressing. The participation of chief engineer Arun Ramaswamy on the webinar is seen optimistically by some as a possible signal that the company will make significant improvements to its encoders, which many believe are causing audiences to be undercounted. Seen as a skillful scientist, Ramaswamy has developed some 75 patents and handles engineering and technologies for the company’s TV ratings, digital ratings and watermarking. The other two hosts on the webinar are SVP product leadership Jennifer Huston, and EVP of local media client solutions Matt O’Grady, who has been the top radio industry-facing executive at the company since it acquired Arbitron in 2013. While broadcasters say they’re anxious for Nielsen to improve its PPM encoders, they’re also concerned that it will make changes without adequate testing or customer input. Nielsen said it began lab-testing the Voltair earlier this year. Voltair monitors the strength of Nielsen’s inaudible watermarks and tweaks the station’s audio to increase the likelihood of those codes being picked up by ratings meters. But efforts to conduct real-world tests were hampered, broadcasters say, by a reluctance among stations and companies to collaborate with the company. Most have kept their use of the processor a secret and Nielsen has said it has no way of knowing who’s using it and for how long.
July 20, 2015
Across radio, stations are experimenting with original video—shooting on location, at events and in studio—to deepen audience connections and build their brand. With video, users get to see more of what they love on-air: A view into their favorite DJs’ lives, hilarious stunts, access to musicians and a behind-the-velvet-rope look at concerts. And it offers stations new revenue possibilities, with clients hungry for video advertising. So video isn’t killing the radio star; it’s radio’s latest tool. And it’s a logical extension, according to BIA/Kelsey’s SVP and senior economist Mark Fratrik. "They have a brand name, they can cross-promote on the air, and, most importantly, they have feet on the street," Fratrik says. One in four U.S. adults watches original digital video programming at least once a month, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Some stations’ video is slick and well-produced, packaged with advertisers and promoted on-air. More spontaneous offerings, shot on an iPhone or GoPro, get posted quickly to social media. Either way, video fits squarely into radio’s multiplatform strategy, feeding websites, apps and social media channels. Users share them, or click through to a station’s website, giving broadcasters exposure and metrics to sell, and new inventory for clients. The more views and shares, the better, execs say. Some videos go viral, such as iHeartMedia-New York classic rocker "Q104.3" WAXQ’s mash-up of Kayne West and late-Queen frontman Freddie Mercury (viewed 39 million times), interspersing West’s panned performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody" with Mercury’s version, and shots of West looking forlorn. It’s part of iHeart’s aggressive video strategy. "We’re curating the most in-the-moment content and sharing it on every available platform," says iHeartRadio’s Gayle Troberman, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer.
Vision Quest—Video Ads Are On the Rise. Online and mobile video consumption is exploding, and stations and advertisers want in. Four billion videos are viewed daily on Facebook and 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, notes Lori Lewis, VP of social media for Cumulus Media. "Video offers us the ability to share moments in an even more real-time way," she says. And there are great possibilities for monetizing video. For now, most stations are selling video as part of multiplatform deals, but advertiser demand is growing. Borrell Associates estimates advertisers will spend $7.7 billion on video advertising in local markets this year, while BIA/Kelsey forecasts video ads will grow more than 20% annually over the next four years. Those forecasts include ads in pre-roll video, cobranded video and placed video ads, and all of those can mesh with a station’s original video content. Gayle Troberman, EVP and chief marketing officer of iHeartMedia, says some clients want to collaborate "from the ground up" on ideas that fit their brand and target audience, such as a recent comprehensive program with Chevy for its "Best Day Ever" campaign, which included branded video. In other cases, she notes, video ideas bubble up and then iHeart recruits sponsors. That’s the task for an upcoming series, "On the Fly with Paul Costabile," featuring iHeart personality Costabile’s antics with artists and celebrities, including getting Chris Martin to ad-lib a ballet about an old shoe, and beatboxing with Ed Sheeran. Costabile started out as a Web producer for CHR WKTU, New York (103.5) creating his own funny videos, and execs took notice. "It helped us understand how we could thoughtfully extend how we do [video]," Owen Grover, iHeartRadio’s SVP/GM said.
Nielsen Set To Break Its Voltair Silence. When it comes to Voltair, Nielsen has been almost as quiet as the inaudible tones its PPM encoders insert in broadcast signals. But a break in the silence is expected tomorrow when the measurement giant hosts a clients-only webinar to address the controversial audio processor that has been the talk of the industry for the better part of 2015. In addition to long-awaited Voltair test results, Nielsen says it will provide an update on "planned enhancements to the PPM." Broadcasters are hopeful that will entail more than window dressing. The participation of chief engineer Arun Ramaswamy on the webinar is seen optimistically by some as a possible signal that the company will make significant improvements to its encoders, which many believe are causing audiences to be undercounted. Seen as a skillful scientist, Ramaswamy has developed some 75 patents and handles engineering and technologies for the company’s TV ratings, digital ratings and watermarking. The other two hosts on the webinar are SVP product leadership Jennifer Huston, and EVP of local media client solutions Matt O’Grady, who has been the top radio industry-facing executive at the company since it acquired Arbitron in 2013. While broadcasters say they’re anxious for Nielsen to improve its PPM encoders, they’re also concerned that it will make changes without adequate testing or customer input. Nielsen said it began lab-testing the Voltair earlier this year. Voltair monitors the strength of Nielsen’s inaudible watermarks and tweaks the station’s audio to increase the likelihood of those codes being picked up by ratings meters. But efforts to conduct real-world tests were hampered, broadcasters say, by a reluctance among stations and companies to collaborate with the company. Most have kept their use of the processor a secret and Nielsen has said it has no way of knowing who’s using it and for how long.
Best-Performing TV Shows? Look To Ad Revs, Not Ratings
More News Consumption On All Platforms?
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A media critique by Wayne Friedman Thursday, July 16, 2015
Whatever you might think about where Twitter and Facebook are headed, they’re definitely gaining in news content consumption.
A 2015 study from Pew Research Center says 63% of those surveyed use Twitter to get news (separate, of course, from content about family and friends). That’s 11 percentage points up from the 52% who did so two years ago.
Facebook’s rise as a source of news is even more impressive, with 63% of those surveyed saying they use Facebook to get news, versus 47% two years ago.
Even better are the results for “real-time” news consumption. Fifty-nine percent keep up with news on Twitter “as it was happening.” That number is 31% on Facebook.
Meanwhile, traditional TV news sources on three commercial broadcast networks saw good results in 2014. Evening newscast viewership grew slightly for the second year in a row, while morning newscasts saw a 2% growth in average. This followed a 7% increase in 2013.
Early evening network TV news viewership averaged 23.7 million viewers in 2014. Over the past eight years, early evening TV viewership has remain steady, averaging 22.7 million viewers. In 2008, it posted 22.9 million viewers.
In 2014, ABC and CBS had increases, but NBC saw declines. And then there is this year. We haven’t accounted yet for the upsets networks have seen due to Brian Williams' departure from “NBC Nightly News.”
While broadcast news was slightly up, cable TV news was down. Total full day median viewership for Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC combined dropped 7% in 2014 to 1.8 million viewers, according to Pew Research from Nielsen data.
What does this mean? It’s a complex picture. On the one hand, it’s another sign of fractionalized media content. But on the other, it may signal that digitally savvy consumers are perhaps carving out more time for news.
But are they better educated by having more platforms on which to watch news? That's another story.
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Ouch: TV takes quite a hit in June
Media economy
Broadcast tumbles 16 percent. Blame the lack of World Cup.
July 21, 2015
The slowdown in TV advertising that began early this year is showing no signs of abating.In fact, it appears to be getting worse.
Dr. Philip LeNoble of Executive Decision Systems, Inc. of Littleton, CO says local-direct revenue is not touched and should lead the way into fourth quarter.
Broadcast ad spending fell by 16 percent during June compared to last year at the same time, closing out a second quarter in which revenue was off 10 percent.
That’s according to a new report from Standard Media Index, which tracks ad spending on the part of 80 percent of U.S. agencies.
Part of June’s big slowdown came from tough comparisons to last year, when the World Cup aired on Univision and ABC.
Univision was hit particularly hard last month, notes James Fennessy, chief commercial officer at SMI, with ad spending plummeting more than 50 percent from last year.
But part of that decline also reflects advertiser uncertainty about TV generally and broadcast in particular.
One major issue is the movement away from watching TV shows on television and toward viewing them on second screens, such as smartphones and tablets, which are not included in the Nielsen measurements buyers use to purchase ad time.
“Current measurement systems are not doing an effective job of measuring audiences who are consuming programs on mobile devices or watching outside traditional ratings times,” Fennessy tells Media Life.
“These issues have been around for some time but are gaining increased scrutiny with the acceleration of audiences consuming on digital devices, as well as the significant percentage of programming being viewed well after it has first aired.”
Even without Univision, which had by far the biggest bump from the World Cup, the Big Four networks were still off 9 percent in ad spending in June.
“Everyone knows that broadcast ratings are soft right now, and ad dollars follow these ratings results pretty closely,” Fennessy says.
In addition to TV, radio, magazines and newspapers also saw year-to-year drops in June.
But not every traditional media suffered.
Out of home surged 16 percent last month, recording its best month this year. With the warmer weather, advertisers are eager to reach people outside through billboards and other outdoor media.
Digital continued to soar, up 14 percent in June.
That included a big 43 percent jump for digital video, including Hulu and YouTube, underscoring advertisers’ interest in this medium as TV ratings slide.
Denver ABC's Channel 7 hits pause on first-ever marijuana broadcast TV ads
Ahhh Colorado....! A place where dreams are made...Philip Jay LeNoble, Ph.D. CA
Denver Post
Denver Post
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Why The Biggest Debate In Advertising Is Irrelevant
- by Tom Goodwin, July 17, 2015, 3:51 PM
For the last five years, advertising has hosted an ever-louder and more-vicious fight: TV versus digital spend. We’ve seen the weekly declarations that TV is dead and the counter arguments. I’d say this is an argument that shows a distinct lack of imagination about the near future. The digitization of media has unbundled the content from the distribution mechanism. In the new world, all content becomes digital and the Internet becomes the distribution mechanism for everything — one that moves increasingly into the background. The battle between TV and digital is a false argument, between a distribution mechanism that can’t be stopped, and TV content, which will always be loved. Both sides will win.
This unbundling is inevitable. It’s happened already in many media.
News
The first form of media to unbundle content from distribution was news. Previously, newspapers would own newsprint factories to make the paper, commission their own journalists, hire their own editors to curate content, and then print vast numbers of newspapers that they’d often distribute. What newspapers represented was ownership of the vertical. We chose a newspaper for its style of curation, its quality of journalism, the interests it covered. Our relationship was with the newsmast.
It no longer works like this. Now the atomic unit has shifted from a newspaper to an article, curation is largely done by individuals, distribution often by social networks or newsletters or sites like Flipboard, We care more now about the subjects covered, or the journalist. We view content by deep links. The newspaper’s homepage fades into the background. Yet we read more news than ever, as the new news homepage becomes Twitter or Facebook.
Music
We once owned physical items — the record or cassette — bought in record stores, made by record labels, curated by A&R people. Artists released albums, the standard unit of music.
Napster, iTunes and then Spotify changed all that. Now music is digital, ownership gives way to access, discovery is often from friends’ playlists or recommendation algorithms, and the atomic unit of music moved to the streamed song. We now care little about the record label and arguably less about the singer or band. Our relationship is with the single tracks we like. We listen to more music than ever, but the new gateway is a social network or an app. The model is now distribution mechanisms, not content owners.
TV
So whether it’s SnapChat, Facebook, YouTube, Hulu, Smart TV’s, fast LTE, Netflix, tablets, Apple TV or a thousand other companies, our relationship with TV is moving the same way. We once saw TV stations, TV channels, TV shows, and TV set-top boxes as being the vertical ecosystem of TV. Now it’s merely content we love that we consume more than ever, and new, faster mechanisms for discovery and distribution.
The shift won’t happen overnight. What TV companies have learned from music and news is that new distribution can lead to far more content consumption, but far lower profits. But as skinny bundles, TV stations as apps, and flexible screens grow, it’s hard to imagine a future where the backbone of all TV content isn’t the Internet.
I see a future with the set-top box and remote control replaced by the tablet or smartphone, with images thrown onto the smart TV. I see Amazon Echo, Siri and other voice controls being our primary content navigation. I see ads inserted locally in-stream and bought programmatically.
This future will be different — yet superb — for all involved.
TV companies will get their quality content consumed by more people in more places and at more times than ever, and more profitably.
Advertising agencies will get to create more interesting ads, which can be interactive, personalized, served in real time, and at a user level.
Brands can target people more accurately. Adverts can flow across device, building rich stories, new calls to action like phoning or saving, or sharing or getting directions can be developed.
The new world of TV advertising is a wonderful place for all. It offers far more creativity in ad creation and ad buying. We may be buying new moments in time, or particular archetypes, not just against content.
And in this new world, devices like mobile, tablets and TVs shift from being devices to consume content, to new contexts where users can consume the exact same content. Perhaps channel planning will shift to context planning, to owning the moment of shopping or moment of search, regardless of screen.
We’re about to see a great change in the industry. It won’t happen overnight, but it’s the greatest chance ever for agencies that understand media, creative, people and technology to create meaningful connections between brands and people. TV vs digital is a battle in which everyone wins
This unbundling is inevitable. It’s happened already in many media.
News
The first form of media to unbundle content from distribution was news. Previously, newspapers would own newsprint factories to make the paper, commission their own journalists, hire their own editors to curate content, and then print vast numbers of newspapers that they’d often distribute. What newspapers represented was ownership of the vertical. We chose a newspaper for its style of curation, its quality of journalism, the interests it covered. Our relationship was with the newsmast.
It no longer works like this. Now the atomic unit has shifted from a newspaper to an article, curation is largely done by individuals, distribution often by social networks or newsletters or sites like Flipboard, We care more now about the subjects covered, or the journalist. We view content by deep links. The newspaper’s homepage fades into the background. Yet we read more news than ever, as the new news homepage becomes Twitter or Facebook.
Music
We once owned physical items — the record or cassette — bought in record stores, made by record labels, curated by A&R people. Artists released albums, the standard unit of music.
Napster, iTunes and then Spotify changed all that. Now music is digital, ownership gives way to access, discovery is often from friends’ playlists or recommendation algorithms, and the atomic unit of music moved to the streamed song. We now care little about the record label and arguably less about the singer or band. Our relationship is with the single tracks we like. We listen to more music than ever, but the new gateway is a social network or an app. The model is now distribution mechanisms, not content owners.
TV
So whether it’s SnapChat, Facebook, YouTube, Hulu, Smart TV’s, fast LTE, Netflix, tablets, Apple TV or a thousand other companies, our relationship with TV is moving the same way. We once saw TV stations, TV channels, TV shows, and TV set-top boxes as being the vertical ecosystem of TV. Now it’s merely content we love that we consume more than ever, and new, faster mechanisms for discovery and distribution.
The shift won’t happen overnight. What TV companies have learned from music and news is that new distribution can lead to far more content consumption, but far lower profits. But as skinny bundles, TV stations as apps, and flexible screens grow, it’s hard to imagine a future where the backbone of all TV content isn’t the Internet.
I see a future with the set-top box and remote control replaced by the tablet or smartphone, with images thrown onto the smart TV. I see Amazon Echo, Siri and other voice controls being our primary content navigation. I see ads inserted locally in-stream and bought programmatically.
This future will be different — yet superb — for all involved.
TV companies will get their quality content consumed by more people in more places and at more times than ever, and more profitably.
Advertising agencies will get to create more interesting ads, which can be interactive, personalized, served in real time, and at a user level.
Brands can target people more accurately. Adverts can flow across device, building rich stories, new calls to action like phoning or saving, or sharing or getting directions can be developed.
The new world of TV advertising is a wonderful place for all. It offers far more creativity in ad creation and ad buying. We may be buying new moments in time, or particular archetypes, not just against content.
And in this new world, devices like mobile, tablets and TVs shift from being devices to consume content, to new contexts where users can consume the exact same content. Perhaps channel planning will shift to context planning, to owning the moment of shopping or moment of search, regardless of screen.
We’re about to see a great change in the industry. It won’t happen overnight, but it’s the greatest chance ever for agencies that understand media, creative, people and technology to create meaningful connections between brands and people. TV vs digital is a battle in which everyone wins
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Five Reasons Programmatic TV Is Set To Skyrocket
by Andreas Schroeter, June 30, 2015, 12:04 PM
TV advertising is far from dead; it’s just ready for a massive change. Programmatic TV, the automation and optimization of the TV ad buy, is the sea change bound to transform the industry. Goodbye fax orders, goodbye one-time planning with fixed campaigns, goodbye GRPs. Why?
1. TV is by far still the most convincing advertising medium. You simply can’t put 30 seconds of stunning visuals accompanied by mesmerizing audio into a small screen video ad or an even smaller 300x50 static banner. While TV is battling for eyeballs, 70 inches still trumps five-inch mobile or 14-inch laptop screens.
2. With the automation of TV ad buying, handling costs will massively decrease, allowing for smaller initial budget sizes. This will open up TV advertising to a vast new client base, creating more demand and a more robust marketplace.
3. While TV is always identified with its massive reach, programmatic TV will allow exactly the opposite: granularity. As programmatic TV adds more data, such as detailed audience data from Rentrak to each TV slot, automation will allow for more finely detailed planning with just one mouse click.
4. Probably the most exciting part of programmatic TV is that it opens the door to define entirely new success metrics. While the current buying process focuses on targeting audiences based on Nielsen’s TV panel, this will soon be a hypothetical concept of the past. Why shouldn’t an advertiser book TV inventory that generates the most social buzz on Twitter and Facebook? Why shouldn’t an advertiser purchase airtime that results in the most website visits — or even offline store purchases? Today’s technology allows for combining data in a smart way beyond the traditional 16,000 household panel. The optimization algorithm will then automatically and continually allocate budgets to the best-performing TV inventory slots, allowing the advertiser to get the maximum out of a campaign.
5. While programmatic TV initially seems to be a threat to incumbents, it actually is a tremendous opportunity. Agencies and broadcasters won't lose; the focus will just change. More technologically driven capabilities means more complexity, and agencies need to help advertisers set up and run programmatic TV campaigns. The move to programmatic online advertising did not lead to the demise of agencies. Instead, an entirely new set of capabilities emerged in the form of in-house trading desks. More liquidity in the market means more revenue for broadcasters. More targeting capabilities due to added data means more potential for price differentiation, again resulting in increased revenue.
Industry experts estimate programmatic TV advertising to be 3% to 5% of the TV ad market this year, already translating into hundreds of millions of ad dollars spent. Right now programmatic TV is still in its infancy, still working on the technology, building the first big case studies, establishing trust in the market, educating the players. This will all happen by year’s end, with 2016 being the breakthrough year for programmatic TV.
7 Things Marketers Can Learn About Boomers From 'Grace And Frankie'
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If you’ve already binge-watched the entire first season of “Grace and Frankie,” don’t despair. The Netflix–original show has been renewed for season two.
The show’s premise: Two longtime couples divorce when the husbands confess a 20-year affair — with each other. The award-winning cast includes Jane Fonda as buttoned-up beauty exec Grace, Lily Tomlin as hippy art teacher Frankie, and Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston as their attorney exes, Robert and Sal. The characters are at the forefront of the Boomer generation. (The oldest Boomers are now 70, the same age as Fonda’s character.) “Grace and Frankie” provides insights into the experience of growing older in an age-obsessed society. Boomers are binge-watching one of the few shows that understands the way they think, feel and act. Here are seven things real-life Boomers have in common with the characters on “Grace and Frankie”: 1. They log on. Grace navigates the online dating world with ease. Frankie struggles with technology, yet uses her smartphone and laptop with a little help from her friends in tech support. Their real-life counterparts are frequently online, too: Boomers make 200% more online purchases than any other generation. 2. They’re not ready for a retirement home. In the episode in which Frankie gets mistaken for a potential nursing home resident, she runs for the door. Boomers are right there with her: Only one in five sees a retirement community in his or her future. 3. They get divorced. The Boomer divorce rate is higher than that of any other generation. And, dovetailing with the show’s theme, many couples are splitting later in life. Divorce rates in the over-50 demographic have doubled in the last 20 years. 4. They want to stay in the workforce. Grace is planning to return to the cosmetic firm from which she retired; Frankie’s looking for a job as an art teacher, and Robert and Sal work as lawyers. Like them, three-quarters of Boomers plan to work past traditional retirement age. 5. They have active love lives. “Grace and Frankie” characters date, fall in love and have sex. So do many of their generation. Studies have shown that the number of people who are sexually active over 50 has steadily risen since the ’70s. 6. They’re free spirits. Frankie lights up, and quite a few Boomers would approve. According to a 2015 Pew Research study, 50% of Boomers favor legalizing marijuana. 7. They feel younger than their age. Like high-energy Grace and Frankie, 79% of older adults feel younger than their actual age, yet they often experience age discrimination and feel “invisible” — an experience that Grace and Frankie have in an episode in which they are ignored by a store clerk. “Grace and Frankie” has proven that Boomers will flock to a show that “gets them.” People of all ages are just people — and they want to be treated that way. |
TV Nets Rally, Fail To Reach Consensus On Controversial Nielsen Expansion Plan
by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, 8 hours ago 
As Nielsen prepares to make the biggest changes to its national TV ratings methods since it introduced the people meter in 1987, some of its biggest customers -- broadcast and cable networks -- held a vote to determine whether they should put pressure on Nielsen to delay the move past this fall when it is scheduled to start.
The vote, which was organized by the newly anointed Video Advertising Bureau (VAB, formerly the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau), failed to reach a consensus and the bureau resolved to take no official stance, but to continue monitoring the situation as the new ratings begin to impact the marketplace.
The methods, which are part of Nielsen's "NPX," or National Panel Expansion plan, include a particularly controversial one that would expand part of its ratings sample by mathematically modeling viewing behavior to represent the viewing of people not participating in the sample.
Regardless of the soundness of the methods, which Nielsen executives have maintained are necessary given the rapid fragmentation of TV -- and ultimately “video” -- viewing, their impact could be profound, causing some networks to increase or lose share based on the mathematical shifts. Since advertising budgets generally correlate to audience shares, those shifts could create substantial disruption in advertising budgets and so-called “makegoods” -- commercial time given as compensation to advertisers for failing to meet their audience guarantees.
The vote, which the VAB characterized as having “little consistency and no-near consensus,” included four possible recommendation to Nielsen: 1) Do nothing and leave the sample expansion launch in place for this September, 2) delay it until January 2016, 3) delay it to September 2016, 4) or scrap the sample expansion plan altogether. By not reaching a consensus, the group effectively voted for option No. 1, because as one VAB member explained: “Nielsen plans to move forward come hell or high water.”
While the VAB vote would have largely been symbolic, a more important vote is set to take place at some undetermined time in the future, which could have more material impact: The national television committee of industry self-regulatory ratings watchdog, the Media Rating Council. Many of the executives participating in the VAB vote are also members of the MRC committee, which has been in the process of evaluating Nielsen’s sample expansion methods, including one or several audits by independent auditors, to decide whether or not to accredit Nielsen’s national TV ratings.
While it has no regulatory weight, MRC accreditation is recognized as an important stamp of industry approval on the soundness of doing business based on ratings methods audited by the council.
It’s also unclear when the MRC will actually complete its audit of Nielsen’s new methods, but executives familiar with the process say it now seems unlikely it will be completed in time for the launch of the new fall TV season, which would technically mean this would be the first TV season ever to begin with unaccredited ratings since the MRC was created in the 1960s following Congressional hearings on TV ratings and a U.S. Department of Justice review that led to a consent decree that formed the MRC.Industry execs see positive Q3 signs for Radio.
July 1, 2015
As the radio industry heads into the crucial third-quarter sales season, some broadcasters are ready to tout visible signs of improvement after an uneven first half of 2015. After a down fiscal quarter ending May 31, Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan says June was "dramatically better" and July and August appear to be "marginally better," adding that it’s still early to assess. "Certainly we’re in positive territory which is very encouraging," Smulyan tells Inside Radio. Hubbard Radio president & COO Drew Horowitz agreed with that last assessment, saying the trend has been positive for the company, which recently expanded its geographic footprint into growing markets such as Phoenix and Seattle. "I’m optimistic that as the back half of the year gets more momentum, we’re going to be more positive," Horowitz says. Both execs, and others, remain understandably cautious in their optimism in light of an uncertain U.S. economy, advertisers and agencies trying to do more with less money and an increasingly competitive ad market. "It continues to be challenging," Horowitz says. "Overall as I look at the industry, it’s more of the same right now." That’s a sentiment echoed by small market broadcaster Joe Schwartz, president & CEO of Cherry Creek Radio, who says he hasn’t seen much difference in business conditions from the first quarter to the second to the third. "Radio works better than it ever has, nothing has changed in that regard," Schwartz contends. Yet despite innovations in programming, digital platforms and live events, Schwartz says the medium doesn’t get the dollars it deserves in light of its long reach and ability to deliver results. In terms of digital initiatives, while they haven’t brought a significant return for Cherry Creek, others are seeing a payoff. Hubbard’s 2060 Digital agency, which services local clients, is producing "some nice growth" for the company, Horowitz says, since rolling out market-by-market in January.
Spending said to be strong in top categories. How is automotive, radio’s top spending ad category, pacing for the third quarter? The answer depends on whom you ask. Hubbard Radio’s Drew Horowitz says the category is "certainly healthier" and showing a "nice recovery trajectory," due in large part to strong expenditures by local dealerships. Cherry Creek Radio’s Joe Schwartz says the category has been erratic. "Auto dealers are told one quarter they have to spend X percent on digital and the next quarter that they can do whatever they want," Schwartz says. Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan describes auto spend as "a little softer than we’d like," adding that he feels "better about auto as the year goes on." Healthcare continues to be strong, these broadcasters say, though not quite as robust as it was. Restaurant spending is growing and retail is up, especially in the home improvement category as the housing market shows greater signs of life. Telecom spending remains strong, though not to the degree it was when AT&T and Verizon were engaged in a fierce marketing battle to siphon one another’s customers. "The telecoms are still spending but it’s not as robust as it was last year," Horowitz says. With consumer media habits continuing to change and the number of advertising options multiplying, local businesses are looking for a more consultative approach from their media partners, broadcasters say. "Most advertisers are in the same boat we’re in," Schwartz says. "They’re trying to figure out what to do to move the needle."
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