Big Three See Sales Slip in July & Is Radio Going To Get Short-Changed On Political?

                 

 

 

 

Radio’s most important category, automotive, saw a drop in sales in July that has some worried the industry is entering a sustained plateau. Automobiles have been selling at a record pace for six consecutive years. In July, GM, Ford and Toyota were all down. GM dropped nearly 2%, Ford was down 3% and Toyota was off 1.4%.

So far, what we’ve heard from radio executives on their earnings calls has been that this big political spending is expected to come in more toward the third-quarter. That doesn’t seem to be the case for television. Already you can see how the Democratic candidate for President, Hillary Clinton, has taken her message to TV viewers. So what did radio get from the candidates last week?

Media Monitors reported on Monday that there were no ads run by either candidate on the radio last week. And there were no spots run against either candidate either. A lot of radio companies were banking on a big political revenue push this year. In addition to the Presidential election, there are also House and Senate races along with ballot initiatives that should benefit radio as we continue to edge closer to election day.

BONUS:

How To Take Control Of Your Agency Business

(By Kevin Neathery)

 There are two kinds of ad agencies: real agencies and local agencies. Real agencies can serve local, regional, national, even global clients. They don’t need a ranker, because they subscribe. They send an avail and negotiate rates based on audience. Then, when in agreement, they send an order and a fully produced MP3 featuring out-of-market voice talent. Covet real agencies.

Local agencies are competitors, not customers. They poach your clients in your coverage area, expect lower than local direct rates, demand your station’s talent write, voice, and produce their clients’ commercials, pay 90-plus days, and expect you to pay them a commission for the privilege. And oh, yeah, before they can place the next buy, they need five up-front Paul McCartney tickets with backstage passes. I think we would all agree it’s downright shameful how often we in media kowtow to these talentless hacks. Stop kissing ass and start kicking ass!

Don’t recognize. Challenge the agency-client relationship. Imagine your radio competitor across town sent you a “station of record” letter dictating all client communications must go through them! You’d laugh, but agencies do it all the time, and we comply. Yet they show no loyalty in return. Treat these violators like any other competing media.

When any agency pushes too far and doing business no longer makes sense, refuse to recognize. Let them explain to their clients why they are not on your air! Never lose sight of the fact that agencies are voiceless without you, the media. They own no FCC licenses, printing presses, high-traffic digital properties, towers, or transmitters. They don’t employ legions of air, news, production, and retail sales talent. They need you more than you need them.

Protect your AEs. Over the years I’ve seen so many managers make closed-door deals with agencies that seriously undermine their local sales effort. And I’ve known many agencies that sell with the pitch “I can get you a lower rate and free production!” Never give an agency a lower rate than your AEs can offer every day on the street. For you, the sales manager, violation of this rule is a sin.

Don’t let AEs handle agencies. You, the sales manager, should handle or at least oversee agency negotiations. AEs, bless them, are just too nice. They’re so afraid they’ll lose a buy. They cave. The same skills that make them successful with local retailers work against them with agencies. Now, if an AE had influence on a buy, maybe with a store manager or franchisee, pay them commission as reward, but you do the deal.

Agencies make the rules. Make them play by them. Develop a dual rate structure, one for agencies and one for local direct. Agency rates should be based on audience. Local direct, on supply and demand. Agencies make you pay for that expensive ratings survey, so make them pay for your performance. I had a competitor once with great ratings make no such distinction for years, losing untold thousands, maybe millions. Make them play. Make them pay.

Educate clients. “You’ll pay more for less service.” When a local direct client hints or announces the decision to “go with a local agency,” make sure you remind him that he will pay a much higher agency rate, he’ll pay for copywriting and production, and that bright, caring AE servicing his account will no longer be stopping by.

Learn to say no. Once, a local business owner on our air for years passed away and his partner took over. Soon, there came an agency-of-record letter. Then a call from the buyer, demanding invoices and contracts. When I said “Uh, no,” her incredulous response convinced me no media had ever refused. Next day, the client was on the phone, and I explained our position. Soon, he was back on our air — local direct — and all was well again.

Eliminate the term “value added.” “Value added” is a term invented by agencies to conceal the true meaning: free stuff. If an agency for a fast food restaurant wants free stuff, negotiate for gift cards and a cumebuilding promotion. But never agree to or even speak the term value added.

Be polite, but stick to your guns. When an agency requests some ridiculous rate or stupid CPP, simply say, “I’d love to accommodate, but anything less just won’t clear. Avails are tight and rates firm.” Don’t get mad. Stick to your guns, and you’ll be delighted at how often you win!
Follow these tips and take control of your agency business.

 

Who'll Give Voice To TV's Next New Fragment

A media critique by Joe Mandese Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2016   When I started covering television, there was still only one form of it -- linear, and primarily over-the-air -- and only one trade association representing it, the Television Bureau of Advertising. Then Bob Alter created the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau in 1980, and the great hyper-fragmentation of the medium began. Alter, who died in 2006, didn’t create the cable TV industry, but he did give a unified voice to it at a time when only a few people on Madison Avenue were taking it seriously. Don’t get me wrong. The ad industry knew something was coming. Talk to any old-timer, and he'll tell you stories about Ted Turner making sales calls at one of several big ad agencies that no longer exist, jumping up on a desk and demonstrating why he was called the “Mouth of the South.” It wasn’t long before his “superstation,” TBS, and then CNN, were on the agency’s schedule. But it was Alter who brought a disciplined approach to lobbying Madison Avenue to take cable seriously, using numbers and logic -- especially the concept of “under-delivery” of important households and audience segments as cable’s penetration began to rise. And within a few short years, you had agencies like Ted Bates (since subsumed into Publicis’ Zenith unit) calling for a “5% solution” that earmarked a line item for budgeting cable into their massive TV advertising expenditures. The rest is history. But today’s TV Watch is about history repeating itself. In the years since Alter demonstrated how successful a powerful research-based lobbying group could be at fragmenting the way Madison Avenue thought about, planned and bought television, the medium has continued to hyperfragment -- in every which direction -- but no entity has emerged to organize it. Sure, one of Alter’s successors, Sean Cunningham, rebranded the CAB as the Video Advertising Bureau last year, and expanded its mandate to cover all things video. But even as he did that, the medium continued fragmenting from within, and all about. We have Barry Frey’s Digital Place-Based Advertising Association (DPAA) representing media outside the home and in some of what arguably are the most captive audience locations. We have the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) doing the same for online and mobile video. And just this week, the newly formed eSports Advertising Bureau announced it would begin representing the burgeoning marketplace of competitive video gaming, something that has been marginally on the fringe of Madison Avenue’s awareness, but which the EAB (or is it eSAB?) says is about to change, thanks to the legions of young people -- especially young men -- who are gravitating to those screens. Amid all this fragmentation, the TVB continues to do a powerful job lobbying the interests of local TV broadcasters. And, yes, all you have to do is look at Nielsen ratings to understand they are still very much a vital part of the video advertising marketplace. My point? TV, er, video, will continue to fragment ,and as it does it will need new organizing principles to unify our collective consciousness -- and wisdom -- around the most meaningful pockets of it. If you listen to the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, the “Social Media Video Advertising Bureau” may be the next one in line.

Top 4 Tips For Combining Native and Programmatic

Commentary

 

                 by Ed Chater, Op-Ed Contributor, Yesterday, 10:40 PM                                            

Native advertising has rapidly emerged as an exciting way for advertisers to engage with consumers, and offers an interesting new revenue stream for publishers. Native emerged out of a desire for publishers and platforms to deliver advertisements that fit with the feel of their site, and are consistent with viewers expectations over how a platform should behave.
1) Choose your feed carefully.  It’s important to ensure that any native programmatic ad fit well with the overall look and feel of the host page design.

There are many different types of feeds, each of which will give your ad different context. The Interactive Advertising Bureau defines content feeds as publisher sites and news aggregators such as CNN, Forbes and Yahoo. Product feeds are retail sites and app listings such as Amazon, Etsy and eBay, while social feeds are social networking and messaging apps such as Facebook, Instagram and Tango.

The feed that you choose will largely depend on the type of content you have. Story and video ads can be expected to perform better within content and social feeds, product ads would likely perform better surrounded by other product content, and native app install ads are a good fit for social. A native ad on a social feed could also be enriched with social data, such as friends that like a particular profile.

2) Choose your placement. Advertisers can choose to purchase ads that are “in-feed” as a single atomic unit (e.g., hosted on an article page or single image page), outside the core content (e.g., on a right rail), or as a recommendation widget.

Different types of ad placement will involve tradeoffs in terms of performance and inventory. For instance, right-rail ads are likely to have higher inventory but lower click-through rates, and in-feed ads will have the lowest available inventory but above-average click through.

The placement type will dictate the metadata you provide, too. Heavily visual ads are likely to underperform on the right rail for instance, as the thumbnail will be displayed as a smaller size than in an in-feed ad.

As with feeds, you should experiment with which placement types work well for you and continue to optimize as you receive results.

3) Adapt KPIs accordingly. Native programmatic will involve a sea change in traffic KPIs (key performance indicators) when contrasted to display. This change is twofold: There are areas where we can expect native ads to outperform display, and there are some new metrics that you will need to pay attention to if you want to make sure your native ads are performing well — measurements that matter less for display ads.

First, the areas where you should expect native to outperform traditional display are click-through and conversion rate. Native programmatic ads are closer to a publisher’s site in terms of look and feel than traditional display ads, so should drive higher levels of engagement.

Social shares provide great insight into the value of your native ad content. If a native ad was sufficiently good that a certain number of readers wanted to tell their followers about it, it’s easy to compare that with the average number of shares that a piece of social content on your site receives. You should expect programmatic native on the whole to outperform generic display and come closer to social metrics.

4) Understand your platform capabilities. The standards for native programmatic are still evolving. Some DSPs support all of the different feed types, while some choose to specialize in certain ad types or media formats, such as direct response or video storytelling. Some DSPs have been slow to integrate native formats altogether.

Bidding algorithms will also take time to learn and adapt to the new formats. It’s worth watching the results of your campaigns particularly closely with native programmatic, as some platforms do not distinguish according to media type. This can in turn lead to some campaigns not performing as you would expect. The capabilities of native programmatic tools are standardizing, but we’re not there yet.

Local Programmatic TV Buying to Grow Over Next Three Years

                 by Philip Rosenstein, Yesterday, 10:22 AM                                            
                                                

A report released by BIA/Kelsey assessing the promise of programmatic advertising in local television forecasts a gradual increase in local programmatic TV ad buying over the next three years, gaining momentum after that.

 

In 2016, the report expects only “one to two percent of the local spot television market (estimated by BIA/Kelsey to be worth $21.9 billion) to trade programmatically in 2016.”

As seen with the national TV market, that number is expected to grow relatively quickly after a few years, according to Rick Ducey, managing director at BIA/Kelsey.

 

“Local television has a number of complicating factors to sort out in order to accommodate widespread programmatic adoption, beginning with a lack of measurement reportage other than age and gender, and different workflow software. There needs to be integration of TV stations and platforms,” stated Ducey.

 

Millennials Are Not Cord-Cutting, They're Just Tuning In On Laptops

 

 by Sean Hargrave, Staff Writer, July 28, 2016, 9:03 AM     
                                      

It's always easy to say that the youth are rejecting television of old in favour of snacking on YouTube clips. Instead of turning on the big screen in the living room that displays programmes largely according to when the broadcaster pumps them out, the youth are clearly opting for a different approach of favouring the laptop. However, it's refreshing to see GfK remind the public that this means a lot less than it might appear to.

 

Its figures show that while the average adult watches nearly two-thirds (65%) of their video entertainment on a conventional set, 18- to-24-year-olds watch just over a third (35%). Thus, the laptop accounts for 40% of video consumption among 18- to-24-year-olds, roughly double the proportion of the average adult.

 

It's here that you might expect a digital marketing guru to extol the virtues of video-sharing sites, social TV and online video in general. However, it appears that these young Millennials are actually spending three-quarters of their time watching television shows and movies. In fact, this is higher than the average for the entire adult population of two-thirds of video consumption, whether on laptop or tv, being devoted to traditional television and movies. 

 

It's refreshing to get some research which shows that despite what digital gurus might say, the youth are not a separate "tribe" who have cut the cord and now watch tv on smart devices away from the living room. The point GfK is keen to make is that television ownership is lower for this age group, so the laptop is the most convenient choice. When you think about it, most people in this age group are either living at home, in student accommodation or renting their first flat with friends, and so are unlike to have full control of a television set in a living room. 

 

So it's not necessarily what they're watching but rather the device that separates the youth, and it's here that marketers should start to get excited. If you bear in mind that two thirds of youth video consumption will be on a laptop, tablet or smartphone, that has to bring with it better targeting opportunities, doesn't it? Not only is the person more likely to be watching on their own but they're undoubtedly signed in to a service which reveals their identity. It puts them in a digital marketer's dream spot of a viewer being primed for second screening and the implications for PPC or display kicking in as your television advert airs has to be huge, doesn't it?

 

The young aren't doing anything incredibly different -- just watching more video than the average adult and doing so on their laptop and other mobile devices. As they do this, though, marketers should start to get very excited about the targeted opportunities this provides to reach a demographic notorious for ad blocking.

Digital radio listening shows 10% annual growth

    

Published here 7/24/2016

 

Digital radio listening has grown by 10 per cent in the last year, according to Rajar Q4 2015 data released today to almost 42 per cent (41.7 per cent). This consolidates the strong position of digital radio ahead of the launch of new national digital stations next month (March 2016).
In the last year there has been a clear shift in the UK’s radio listening habits with digital listening’s share of total radio listening growing by 10 per cent to 41.7 per cent (from 37.9 per cent) while during the same period the AM/FM listening share has declined by almost 10 per cent to 50.6 per cent (from 56.4 per cent).

Over 30 million people or 56 per cent of adults listen on a digital platform every week, an increase of 2.2 million digital listeners in the last year.  Annual digital listening hours have grown by 9.8 per cent (to 423 million hours from 385 million in Q4 2014).

Digital listening has remained broadly flat quarter on quarter (Q4 2015 v Q3 2015) which suggests a modest quarterly correction after the exceptional rate of growth last quarter.
Listening on all digital platforms grew year on year with a 9 per cent increase in DAB listening (to 280 million hours from 257 million hours.

DAB listening share increased to a record level of 27.7 per cent and remains the most popular digital platform representing over 66 per cent of digital listening. DAB owner-ship grew by 10 per cent year on year to 54 per cent of the population (from 48.9 per cent.

There was 10 per cent increase in online listening (to 69 million hours from 62 million hours in Q4 2014) and online listening share increased to 6.8 per cent. Listening on digital TV grew by 6 per cent (to 50 million hours from 48 million hours and digital TV listening share remained flat at 5.0 per cent.

Radio listening in cars grew to a record level of almost 23 per cent (22.8 per cent) of all radio listening. Digital listening in cars grew by 45 per cent year on year (to 45 million hours from 31 million in Q4 2014) and now accounts for nearly 20 per cent of all in car listening (19.5 per cent from 13.9 per cent in Q4 2014), boosted by growth in new cars being fitted with digital radio as standard.
Over 50 per cent (50.7 per cent) of total listening hours to National BBC and commercial stations are now digital and there was strong growth in both BBC and commercial digital listening with their digital platform shares increasing to 42.5 per cent and 40.6 per cent respectively (from 38.3 per cent and 37.2 per cent in Q4 2014).

In the battle for the No.1 digital-only station, BBC 6 Music reclaimed the top spot overtaking sister station Radio 4 Extra.  BBC 6 Music increased listeners by 6 per cent to 2.2m listeners (from 2.08 million in Q4 2014) while BBC Radio 4 Extra increased by 23 per cent to 2.1 million listeners (from 1.7 million listeners in Q4 2014).

There was strong growth for commercial digital stations with Absolute 80s retaining its position as the No 1 commercial digital-only station growing by 12 per cent to 1.59m listeners (from 1.4 million in Q4 2014).  Kisstory grew year on year by 34 per cent to 1.4m listeners (from 1.0m in Q4 2014) ahead of its national expansion on the second national commercial digital radio multiplex in March 2016.

In its first Rajar period Global station Radio X recorded 1.2 million listeners an increase of 30 per cent over XFM listeners in Q4 2014. Digital listening to Radio X increased by 55 per cent versus XFM digital listening in Q4 2014 boosted by Radio X going onto the D1 DAB Network in September 2015.

Five major radio brands in dual transmission now have digital listening accounting for the majority of listening:  Absolute Radio Network – 78 per cent, Magic – 56 per cent, Kiss – 55 per cent, Gold – 54 per cent, BBC Radio 5 live (incl. Sports Extra) – 56 per cent, In Q4 2015 LBC digital listening increased by 17 per cent to nearly 50 per cent (49.8 per cent) from 44 per cent last year.

Ford Ennals, CEO of Digital Radio UK, said: “Digital listening continues to grow by 10 per cent per annum and is closing the gap on analogue listening. Digital listening to national stations is already over 50 per cent and we expect to see that accelerate with the biggest ever launch of national commercial stations this Spring. This is a massive moment for radio and listeners, and with this explosion of choice there has never been a better time to listen to digital radio at home or in the car.”

Innovid: 4 factors impacting advertisers as TV shifts to digital

Advanced Television
    

July 19, 2016

 

The transformation and fragmentation of TV over the last decade has caused more than a few headaches for the advertising industry. The same advertisers who were once in control of seemingly captive TV viewers are now at the whim of a viewing audience with far less patience and way more options. Advertisers that adapted quickly and diversified their media spend – and their overall approach to video ad content – are finding that what’s good for viewers is actually good for them, too. In fact, that’s precisely the name of the TV game.

Despite viewers and brands such as Channel 4 and Sky making a successful shift from traditional TV to digital, it isn’t as quick and seamless for advertisers, whose journey to digital is only the beginning. Factors like ad-free subscription models, content that’s limited to certain devices, ad retargeting, data, and decreased attention spans have not only created a need for a number of entirely new video ad formats, they’ve also introduced the need for video strategies that span several channels simultaneously – each with its own separate set of rules.

The result is an overall TV shakeup where anything with a screen is competing for ad spend traditionally allocated to TV advertising, and any content that entertains and engages is considered competitive to traditional TV programming.

With this in mind, Karen Eccles, Commercial Director UK, Innovid, outlines four factors that advertisers should consider as TV continues to shift to digital.

1. The subscription TV model is less reliant on ad revenue (and therefore, on ads)

TV cord-cutters have officially ushered in a new era of subscription-driven video content that is no longer driven by ad revenue. This means that they don’t expect (or want) to see traditional TV ads. In fact, part of what viewers are paying for with their subscriptions is the luxury of not having to watch ads at all. Advertisers need to find new, innovative ways to reach and engage these cord-cutters in non-intrusive ways and have access to viewability and performance metrics.

2. Advertisers will follow the viewers, not just the content they’re watching

Advertisers are intimately familiar with the idea of running ads during specific shows their target audience is watching. What they haven’t had to deal with, until recently, is having to buy ad space for shows that only run on specific devices. Apple, for instance, doesn’t create its own content, but as it delves deeper into the TV game, it’s entering deals to license exclusive content that will only be viewable through Apple TV. Advertisers follow viewers, so those who want ads in front of Amazon Prime viewers, for example, will need to take the extra step to ensure their ads are everywhere their viewers are.

3. Social media is giving TV a run for its money

Just recently, Facebook announced that video ads are coming to Instant Articles, allowing publishers to insert an additional ad unit at the bottom of every article. Snapchat has also proven to be an important player. With its reported 10 billion daily video views, Snapchat has become a “must buy” for reaching millennials.

Moving ad spend to social media isn’t just a matter of diversifying advertisers’ media buys; it introduces a number of new ad formats too; considering that each platform varies and has its own style of “micro-advertising”. Platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, and Pinterest each offer different features that allow advertisers to quickly catch users’ attention and account for vertical scrolling. The more interactive the ad format, the more likely the viewer is to notice, engage, and share the creative. Once the viewer opts in, interactive elements can expand the experience with additional content, thereby extending the amount of time the viewer spends with the brand.

4. TV ad retargeting is taking off (again)

Ad retargeting isn’t a new concept, but it’s finally hitting critical mass among video advertisers. Viewers are watching video content across connected devices and no longer want to see the same video as they move from device to device. Instead, they expect to see an evolving sequence of personally relevant video ads.
The good news is that advertisers can make use of behavioural, demographic, and collaborative data generated by online activity, and in turn, use this to filter audiences and target specific segments with relevant content. A car company, for example, might “learn” that a desktop user has been searching for a children’s highchair. Rather than deliver a video ad for a sports car, this new insight will trigger the car company to serve an ad for a car to better match the viewer’s lifestyle. Each new encounter and engagement (or lack thereof) can generate more valuable information for the advertiser.