Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Regular-Season College Basketball Sees 7% Increase In Viewing, TV Spend Up 22%

 

Regular-Season College Basketball Sees 7% Increase In Viewing, TV Spend Up 22%

Leading into next month’s high-profile NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known as “March Madness,” regular-season college basketball continues to see steady viewership -- up 7% over a year ago.

National TV spend is sharply higher -- 22% more across virtually all TV networks airing , according to iSpot.tv.

From November 10-February 20, total national TV viewing came in at 16 billion impressions, amounting to $99.8 million in advertising revenue.

A year ago over the same period, impressions totaled 14.9 billion, while national TV ad revenue amounted to $81.7 million.

TV commercials airing during the game have averaged a 97 “attention” index, according to iSpot. The attention scale is 0 to 200, with 100 the average. A year ago, TV commercials averaged a 108 index, iSpot said.

“Attention” measures viewer attention based on a viewer's tendency to interrupt an advertisement on TV. That can include viewer actions that interrupt a TV ad such as changing the channel, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV, which decrease the creative's attention score.

Typically, the three-week March Madness event is college basketball's overwhelming revenue driver. It roughly generates just over $1 billion in national TV advertising revenue for the three-week period across CBS and Turner TV networks, which air the games.

Sports TV advertising remains a stable media buy for major brand campaigns.

For the regular-season college games so far, the top five paid TV advertising brands in terms of impressions for viewers 18 years and up are Sonic Drive-In (437.3 million) followed by Lexus (426.0 million); Progressive Insurance (413.4 million); Capital One (305.4 million) and Geico (269.0 million).

In terms of top TV networks airing college basketball this season, ESPN has totaled 6.3 billion impressions ($24.3 million in estimated TV spend), followed by ESPN2 with 3.3 billion impressions ($14.1 million); CBS with 2.2 billion impressions ($6.2 million); Fox Sports 1 with 2.1 billion impressions ($7.3 million); Fox with 1.7 billion impressions ($5.3 million); and ESPNU with 1.3 billion impressions ($5.8 million).

Contextual Advertising and Today’s Flexible Workspaces are the Perfect Pairing

 

Knowledge Exchange logo

Commentary from MediaVillage

Contextual Advertising and Today’s Flexible Workspaces are the Perfect Pairing

Contextual Advertising and Today’s Flexible Workspaces are the Perfect Pairing

Publish date

February 22, 2023 (ET)


Just a few years ago, only a handful of forward-thinking companies supported remote work. But then, in a surprising twist, the whole world was forced into remote and hybrid work as a way of navigating lockdowns. Since then, employees and many employers have embraced the flexibility that hybrid work offers.

To continue reading scroll down or view this article on MediaVillage.com

Read

Similarly, some companies feel that the traditional, long-term lease may no longer fit their work model and real estate needs. They found new freedoms in exploring a hybrid experience, extending flexibility to their employees and increasing their ability to adapt to the needs of their business. Many turned to a growing number of coworking spaces. In fact, the number of co-working spaces, also known as flexible workspaces, in the U.S. rose from 4,000 in 2017 to 6,200 in 2022, an increase of more than 50%.

Companies are now recognizing the importance of offering flexible work arrangements in order to attract and retain top talent. In today's fast-paced and constantly evolving business landscape, a competitive salary and benefits package alone is no longer enough. Providing the option for employees to work from various locations and during preferred hours has become one way that companies increase job and workplace satisfaction.

For that reason, today’s businesses are increasingly turning to flexible workspaces, like those offered by WeWork, to provide employees with fully-furnished and customizable alternatives to the traditional office. These spaces have all the amenities of the traditional office — plus more — but do not require long-term lease agreements, utility costs, maintenance costs, and stagnant size arrangements, allowing easy scalability in a time when businesses are in flux. And now, WeWork offers bonus amenities like digital screens to keep workers informed, entertained, and engaged during their work day.

The New Frontier for High-Value Professionals

High-value professionals, especially, are in high demand and sought after by companies for their contributions to the success of the organization. In this new era of hybrid and remote work, these prospects are looking for a dynamic, modern, and inspiring work environment with benefits, perks, networking, and amenities that make the company they invest time in worth their commitment.

They are typically affluent consumers and influential business decision makers — the hard-to-reach consumer whom most brands would love to engage. But how can your brands get inside the walls of this new world to meet these consumers in the most available moments of their day? The answer lies in the perfect pairing of curated content on digital screens and these upscale, modern co-working spaces.

Engaging the Audience

Much like the workplace, the digital advertising realm is changing. Privacy issues are forcing major browsers to disallow third-party tracking, and cookie-based advertising is no longer at the forefront of great advertising strategies. In 2020, just as remote work was ramping up, nearly half of digital media professionals responding to one survey said that the loss of third-party tracking was their biggest digital media challenge.

And that doesn't even account for the increased use of ad-blockers and general numbness to internet ads. According to one Hubspot article, there are nearly 200 million ad block users around the world, and over half of the users who see banner ads don't trust them enough to click on them.

This makes it harder than ever for brands to reach the type of high-value professional who drives the decision-making process — the same type of professional who is now spending the bulk of their days in inviting workspaces that encourage networking and a work-life balance, all in, as a Gensler survey puts it, “an effort make the office feel like a destination rather than an obligation.”

This is where digital screens and curated content come into play. Today’s digital screens, placed in these upscale locations, offer a constant stream of real-time, relevant content that appeals to viewers and draws both their eyes and their attention.

The right digital network provides a continuous feed of desirable content, such as national and local news, sports scores, stock updates, uplifting stories, transit information, and more. When placed in areas where a highly coveted demographic like those working at popular WeWork locations gather, this engaging experience is a prized amenity — and the perfect place to include contextually relevant ads right alongside the relevant content the audience loves.

The Benefits of Reaching Your Audience in a Modern, Inspiring Space

Ad agencies today have a prime opportunity to help their brands make inroads into this new frontier. The best digital screens provide workers in the space something to do when they have downtime and a way to bond with fellow workers. Ads on digital screens offer brands the ability to target specific audiences by demographic, industry, company size, job title and more. This ensures ads resonate and influence the audience to intentionally return to their desk just to research, explore, and purchase.

By placing relevant ads alongside content that workers in a co-working space are actively engaged with, advertisers create a win-win situation. Targeted, desirable ads reaching these workers at multiple times throughout their day lead to influence that drives both personal and professional purchasing decisions. Ads that are relevant to the type of work employees are already doing and the lifestyles they have in common give workers a conversation starter and help encourage a sense of community in these spaces.

Today’s Successful Brands Start Here

Members of coworking spaces like those at WeWork are early adopters of technology and influential decision-makers in both their professional and personal lives. It only makes sense that Captivate, with one of the largest digital screen footprints in North America, would partner with WeWork to offer these upscale, hard-to-reach professionals the best amenities and value-rich content possible.

To that end, Captivate delivers WeWork's highly impressive audience to advertisers. With advanced ad targeting, curated, relevant content and programming, and advanced measurement and attribution solutions, it’s a marketing strategy that brands won’t want to ignore. Visit us today to see how Captivate’s turnkey communication solution can help your brands thrive among today’s leading, hard-to-reach audiences

Readers Put More Trust in Local News Products Than National, Study Says

 

Readers Put More Trust in Local News Products Than National, Study Says

Americans have a dismal view of the national news media.  

Only 26% have a favorable opinion, and 53% have an unfavorable one, according to American Views 2022: Part 2, a Gallup/Knight Foundation study released last week.  

And while 72% say national news organizations have the resources to report accurately, only 35% believe they are delivering information readers need. 

Perhaps worse, while 35% feel national news providers care about the impact of their reporting on American society, only 23% believe they have the best interests of their audience at heart.  

Local news providers fare better: 44% have high trust in them, while 31% have moderate trust and 18% have low trust. And 8% have no opinion.  

What’s more, 53% agree that local news providers care about how their reporting affects the community, and 52% believe these outlets deliver the information they need. 

In contrast, 21% have high trust in national news organizations, while 33% have moderate trust, 41% have low trust and 5% have no opinion.  

Why this lack of trust? For one thing, 44% of readers see a great deal of political bias in news coverage, up from 45% in 2019-2020 and 45% in 2017. And, 34% see a fair amount of bias, the new survey found. 

Perhaps most alarmingly, 62% of political independents see a great deal of bias -- a 12% leap from 2019-2020. Meanwhile, 33% of Democrats see a great deal of bias versus 27% in 2019-2020 and 26% in 2017.  

Of those who get most of their news online, 47% have low emotional trust in national news organizations, versus 15% who have high trust.  

The results are based on a Gallup survey of 5,593 Americans conducted between May 31 and July 21, 2022. 

NextGen TV To Reach 75% Of U.S. This Year, NAB Pushing FCC To Fast-Track It

 

NextGen TV To Reach 75% Of U.S. This Year, NAB Pushing FCC To Fast-Track It

NextGen TV digital broadcasting capabilities are expected to be available, at least in a technical sense, to 75% of U.S. households by the end of this year, according to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB).

Upgraded digital-standard ATSC 3.0 signals are now broadcasting in 60 U.S. television markets. Dallas-Fort Worth is the largest market. Recent expansions have included four stations in Miami and six in Boston.

However, infrastructure and other challenges have slowed implementation of 3.0 by broadcasters. That, along with growing competition from virtual multichannel streaming video providers, could derail NextGen’s progress, NAB warned in a late-January filing with the Federal Communications Commission.

NAB asked FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel to establish an ATSC 3.0 task force focused on making the transition as rapid as possible, ensuring that viewers have access to free, local television signals at all stages of the transition. Earlier this month, NAB met with Rosenworcel to offer a suggested timetable for task force initiatives.

NAB and its members maintain that NextGen is crucial to broadcasters’ ability to compete and continue to provide consumers with “free, local, trusted” service.

In a letter to Rosenworcel in mid February, NAB Deputy General Counsel Patrick McFadden said that while broadcasters have made impressive progress in a short time under challenging conditions — including a lack of additional spectrum — failure to push forward via a task force could result in NextGen devolving into a “second-class, eventually uncompetitive service.” The FCC should “make this transition the top priority — rather than merely one issue among many — for a dedicated team of FCC staff,” he argued.

The task force proposal calls for setting deadlines of between six and 12 months for various key initiatives, including establishing a mandatory cutoff period for broadcasters to move to ATSC 3.0, authorizing use of ATSC 3.0 compression standards to allow broadcasters to use freed-up radio spectrum for other purposes, and encouraging development and sales of consumer TVs and devices that include ATSC 3.0 tuners.

The federal government required television stations to switch from analog signals to digital signals a decade ago, but stations have not been required to upgrade from ATSC 1.0 to ATSC 3.0.

Large television-owning media companies including Nexstar, Hearst, TEGNA and Sinclair have invested in the necessary equipment and even cooperated with one another, with long-term paybacks in mind including the audience-building benefits of being able to transmit ultra-high definition (UHD/4K) video signals capable of providing high-quality video and theater-caliber sound, interactive programming and mobile reception. NextGen-equipped smart TVs and other connected devices could also be used for targeted advertising, encrypted pay-TV signals and hyper-local community emergency alerts.

While ATSC 3.0 can technically be transmitted now to TV viewers who currently receive their local network stations via antenna, broadcasters aren’t currently transmitting in 4K. Most are simulcasting their current high-definition signals to a few stations in key markets, as they await levels of ownership of NextGen-enabled TV sets (or perhaps upgraded set-top boxes) to reach levels sufficient to justify rolling out the more advanced capabilities.

Last year, Sinclair President and Chief Revenue Officer Rob Weisbard estimated that it would likely take another five years for NextGen-enabled TVs to reach sufficient saturation in the consumer marketplace.

WTF is 'Nielsen One Ads?'

 

WTF is 'Nielsen One Ads?'

Just to be clear, Nielsen One is already here. So is something called "Nielsen One Ads," although Nielsen doesn't actually explain what that is in a new promo I received this morning.

To be perfectly clear, when I clicked through to learn more about it, all I got was some standard brochureware about how Nielsen One works, a sizzle reel hyping it, and lots of new-and-improved, this is not your father's Nielsen ratings rhetoric.

So it's ironic that Nielsen is positioning "One" as part of “a new era of clarity,” and claims to be providing “one clear view” without explaining what the "Ads" part of Nielsen One Ads actually is.

The rest of the promo is basically just a description of how Nielsen One works, combining “Big Data” with “people-based panels” and “device recognition” into an integrated system that is capable of “ad de-duplication” across four screens: connected TVs, computers, mobile and out-of-home ones.

The pitch also emphasizes Nielsen One’s “proprietary identity system” enabling “third-party identity data and direct publisher integrations to give you an accurate understanding of true persons-level campaign impressions,” which following last week’s Cross-Media Measurement initiative update at the Association of National Advertisers’ media conference, makes me think Nielsen isn’t just competing with iSpot, VideoAmp and whomever the sell-side certifies next, but also its own advertising clients.

According to the ANA CIMM task force, the new system has its own virtual ID -- or VMD -- developed by none other than the Media Rating Council (MRC), which has been working as a strategic advisor to the initiative.

The ANA group said the system -- including a calibration panel that would enable anyone on the buy or sell sides to integrate any audience “currency” data (presumably also including Nielsen One data) into it to effectively duplicate audiences -- sounds like it would do what Nielsen One claims to be doing, but across the entire ecosystem, including Nielsen One, or anything else an advertiser wants to “input” into it to output their deduplicated audience reach.

But two main things struck me as I read Nielsen’s new One pitch, including a nifty sizzle reel.

One is -- why are they “unveiling” it now? Just as the ad industry is deciding which currencies to use in preparation for this year’s upfront deals: the “legacy” currency -- you know, the old panel-based rating system Nielsen will be retiring in September 2024; or the new currencies certified by companies like NBCUniversal (iSpot and Videoamp) or the other ones the sell-side “JIC” plans to certify?

And while we don’t know whether Nielsen OG, or Nielsen One, will be among those, we do know that Nielsen still has not been re-accredited by the MRC for its current national TV ratings, although CEO David Kenny told investors it was months away from doing so -- 17 months ago.

In other words, I’d take everything Nielsen says these days with a grain of salt.

Thursday, February 9, 2023

COMMENTARY Peacock Abandons 'Broadcast' Model - Free Streaming Will Never Be The Same

 

COMMENTARY

Peacock Abandons 'Broadcast' Model - Free Streaming Will Never Be The Same

Well, so much for the “broadcast” model for the likes of NBCUniversal’s Peacock. That “free” TV ad-supported service is no longer available for new customers.

Back in 2019, Steve Burke, then CEO of NBCU, referred to Peacock as “the equivalent of a 21st-century broadcast business.”

Thus, NBC's effort to build its direct-to-consumer business based only on advertising support -- which at the time was not the intended or preferred model for streaming platforms.

Peacock put great emphasis on the broadcasting model where TV has been essentially free and ad-supported.  

It turns out that Burke was right. And wrong.

With regard to the latter, financial considerations -- involving steep losses in building new streaming services --- are weighing heavy on the business now. So drop the free stuff.

Give NBCU credit, then -- particularly in light of all the growth of advertising-supported streaming otherwise known at FAST channels (Free Ad-Supported Television) -- especially coming with still free streaming video-on-demand platforms like Tubi and Pluto TV. 

The difference between the others and Peacock is that they are built largely on library content. Those services are not of the level of the premium individual streaming apps from major studios. 

Big, high-profile streaming platforms spend billions of dollars a year on original streaming programming -- anywhere from $5 billion to $10 billion on average.

Collectively,  Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, HBO Max, and Disney+ and others are estimated to spend around $50 billion on content.

And of course, that's the rub for NBC's change. Recently the NBC said that in Q4 2022, it posted a net loss of $978 million in its direct-to-consumer business. 

Why, then, couldn't Peacock just raise prices for its other subscription options? 

Peacock, while growing, is still way behind other big services: Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and of course, Netflix. Raising prices for essentially still a startup would be tough to do in a marketplace that, for all intents and purposes, is contracting.

What remains for Peacock are two services. 

Peacock Premium offers much more than the departed free Peacock, which had restrictions on the number of TV episodes available.

Peacock Premium is a $4.99 plan -- full on-demand library, live sports, and NBC programming. Peacock Premium+ goes for $9.99 a month with no-ads.

The bottom line is that Peacock’s dropped free option may have been a significant piece of the business.  

Back in October 2022, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said Peacock had 15 million paid subscribers and 30 million monthly active accounts.

The definition of "monthly active accounts" can be a combination of paid and non-paying Peacock subscribers, which would include the free Peacock plan the company just eliminated.

So the main question now is: Can NBC convert those “monthly active accounts” -- and new customers -- into paying subscribers.

As many columnists and bloggers might say: Stay tuned. But.. wait. This isn't broadcasting anymore.

Monday, February 6, 2023

Are you able to influence people?

Great article for all managers! Philip Jay LeNoble, PhD, C.A.

 SmartBrief

Are you able to influence people? 

influence people
(Image credit: Olivier Le Moal/Getty Images)

You don’t always have formal authority or positional power to compel people to do what you want done. In those situations, you have to influence people to embrace and support your ideas.     

Having influence starts with you.

Learn what it takes to make a positive first impression and establish a reputation that gives you credibility, respect and trust. If you lack any of these traits, the likelihood of you influencing others decreases.   

Imagine the person you are trying to influence as being inside the circle.

Your first job is to get inside the circle with them. Find out what’s going on in their world.  

  • What they are thinking. What are their goals and priorities? What’s working well for them? What are their problems and frustrations?
  • What are they feeling? What is their strongest positive emotion? Are they upbeat, confident, excited, etc.? What is their biggest frustration and fear? 

The more you know about the people you’re trying to influence, the better able you are to connect with them and address their situation.  

Craft your message so it appeals to their goals and needs.

Help people understand how your ideas will specifically help them.  Appeal to people’s heads, hearts and hands.

  • The Head — Appeal to their intellect. Present the hard-hitting facts and indisputable logic.   
  • The Heart — Appeal to their emotions. Connect to people’s feelings for status, order, security, friendship and purpose.   
  • The Hands — Persuade people through experience. If possible, give people an opportunity to try out your idea. Take the car for a test drive. Or visit a company to see your idea in operation.  

Help people reach their own conclusions.

Ask questions such as:

  • What do these facts mean to you?
  • How do you feel about…?
  • What impact did this experience have on you?

Fred Kelly, a veteran sales leader in the medical field said, “Customers need to convince themselves their making the correct decision.” The same principle applies to employees. They need to decide your idea is a winner and will improve the situation.    

Plant seeds.

In some cases, you will not convince people on your first attempt. So, begin by “planting seeds.” Ask people to consider how your ideas could benefit them. Find out what concerns people have with what you’re proposing. What changes are needed to gain their support?

Ask for the sale.

Every sales person knows the importance of this cardinal rule. No sale is made until the buyer says “yes.” Close the deal by asking for your colleagues’ commitment. Will you support my proposal in today’s meeting? Will you sponsor my project?

Move on.

Don’t keep selling once the person says, “yes.” Thank them and review next steps. “Great, I’m glad you agree. Here is the next step to make this happen.” 

If you can’t influence others, you can’t lead!  Always put yourself in the shoes of the people you are trying to influence. Understand their world so you can convince them how your ideas will help them succeed.