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   <title>In Depth: Advertising</title>
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   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1</id>
   <updated>2009-11-12T17:22:25Z</updated>
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   <title>Creative Media Partnership Between History Channel and Boxing Title Match to Promote a TV Series </title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/11/creative_media_partnership_bet.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.38925</id>
   
   <published>2009-11-12T20:00:00Z</published>
   <updated>2009-11-12T17:22:25Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[As clients put more and more pressure on their media agencies to figure out how to break through an ever increasingly crowded media environment, it becomes imcumbent&nbsp;on those who work on the planning side to think out-of-the-box.That's almost a cliche these days, but it's far easier said than done.Here's a most recent example of out-of-the-box thinking that sounds&nbsp;smart.The set-up: The History Channel has this pretty cool show called &quot;Pawn Stars.&quot; For those&nbsp;who haven't seen it, think &quot;American Chopper&quot; meets &quot;Antiques Roadshow.&quot; It all about the goings on at the Gold and Silver pawn shop in Las Vegas.The show features three generations of the Harrisons: Granddad Richard, who started the pawn shop, his son Rick, and Rick's son Corey.As you may have guessed, the show skews male.The question then becomes: What's a good way to promote this show to its target demo.That was basically the challenge&nbsp;put to Horizon Media by Ann Marie Granite, History's Director of Consumer Media, and her boss, Chris Moseley, Senior Vice President of Marketing for History.Moseley, who has won just about every marketing award out there, is a long-time veteran of some great promo campaigns she did for the&nbsp;Hallmark Channel, and before that at Discovery Communications.As Granite and Moseley explained to me the other day, the idea is to present the History Channel as&nbsp;an entertainment brand that delivers substance and real information.So here's what Horizon came up with: &quot;Pawn Stars,&quot; which has new episodes starting Nov. 30th, has hooked up with Top Rank to sponsor the Nov. 14th world championship welterweight boxing match, in Vegas,&nbsp;between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.Horizon worked with The Leverage Agency, Top Rank's brand marketing and sales agency, to do the deal.According to the History announcement, &quot;Pawn Stars&quot; will sponsor the 'Tale of the Tape,' and will be prominent in the opening, closing and pre-main event portions&quot; of the fight, which will be televised, live, as an HBO pay-per-view event.Furthermore, the announcement says that &quot;the deal includes ring announcements and ringside seating&quot; for all three of the Harrisons. The venue will be filled with signage featuring the &quot;Pawn Stars&quot; logo, including on the mat.In addition, &quot;Pawn Stars&quot; will be integrated into the ads for the fight. You'll even get a &quot;Pawn Stars&quot; message if you watch the weigh in, which will be widely distributed by ESPN, DirecTV and Yahoo.com, among others.Moseley says that it's a hallmark History Channel campaign in that it'll have an &quot;organic&quot; feel. &quot;Half will be advertising, half will be the presence of the Harrisons themselves,&quot; she says. For example, plan to see the Harrisons, identified with &quot;Pawn Stars,&quot; on-camera during the National Anthem before the fight. And they'll be at the press conference as well--I.D'd with their show, of course.Furthermore,&nbsp;Moseley says this deal with Top Rank is in the tradition of History's out-of-the box promotions, which include several firsts, such as the first &quot;wrapping&quot; of an Acela Amtrak train and the first &quot;wrapping&quot; of a New York City subway car.According to Granite and Moseley, the smart media agencies--and the smart brands--should work to break through media clutter by coming up with integrated plans that put&nbsp;brands in places that at first might seem unexpected, but upon reflection are perfect fits.#]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Business" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="3791" label="boxing" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="7887" label="History Channel" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="138" label="Horizon Media" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="9829" label="Manny Pacquiao" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="9831" label="Miguel Cotto" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="9833" label="Top Rank" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[As clients put more and more pressure on their media agencies to figure out how to break through an ever increasingly crowded media environment, it becomes imcumbent&nbsp;on those who work on the planning side to think out-of-the-box.That's almost a cliche these days, but it's far easier said than done.Here's a most recent example of out-of-the-box thinking that sounds&nbsp;smart.The set-up: The History Channel has this pretty cool show called &quot;Pawn Stars.&quot; For those&nbsp;who haven't seen it, think &quot;American Chopper&quot; meets &quot;Antiques Roadshow.&quot; It all about the goings on at the Gold and Silver pawn shop in Las Vegas.The show features three generations of the Harrisons: Granddad Richard, who started the pawn shop, his son Rick, and Rick's son Corey.As you may have guessed, the show skews male.The question then becomes: What's a good way to promote this show to its target demo.That was basically the challenge&nbsp;put to Horizon Media by Ann Marie Granite, History's Director of Consumer Media, and her boss, Chris Moseley, Senior Vice President of Marketing for History.Moseley, who has won just about every marketing award out there, is a long-time veteran of some great promo campaigns she did for the&nbsp;Hallmark Channel, and before that at Discovery Communications.As Granite and Moseley explained to me the other day, the idea is to present the History Channel as&nbsp;an entertainment brand that delivers substance and real information.So here's what Horizon came up with: &quot;Pawn Stars,&quot; which has new episodes starting Nov. 30th, has hooked up with Top Rank to sponsor the Nov. 14th world championship welterweight boxing match, in Vegas,&nbsp;between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.Horizon worked with The Leverage Agency, Top Rank's brand marketing and sales agency, to do the deal.According to the History announcement, &quot;Pawn Stars&quot; will sponsor the 'Tale of the Tape,' and will be prominent in the opening, closing and pre-main event portions&quot; of the fight, which will be televised, live, as an HBO pay-per-view event.Furthermore, the announcement says that &quot;the deal includes ring announcements and ringside seating&quot; for all three of the Harrisons. The venue will be filled with signage featuring the &quot;Pawn Stars&quot; logo, including on the mat.In addition, &quot;Pawn Stars&quot; will be integrated into the ads for the fight. You'll even get a &quot;Pawn Stars&quot; message if you watch the weigh in, which will be widely distributed by ESPN, DirecTV and Yahoo.com, among others.Moseley says that it's a hallmark History Channel campaign in that it'll have an &quot;organic&quot; feel. &quot;Half will be advertising, half will be the presence of the Harrisons themselves,&quot; she says. For example, plan to see the Harrisons, identified with &quot;Pawn Stars,&quot; on-camera during the National Anthem before the fight. And they'll be at the press conference as well--I.D'd with their show, of course.Furthermore,&nbsp;Moseley says this deal with Top Rank is in the tradition of History's out-of-the box promotions, which include several firsts, such as the first &quot;wrapping&quot; of an Acela Amtrak train and the first &quot;wrapping&quot; of a New York City subway car.According to Granite and Moseley, the smart media agencies--and the smart brands--should work to break through media clutter by coming up with integrated plans that put&nbsp;brands in places that at first might seem unexpected, but upon reflection are perfect fits.#]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Jeff Bewkes, Chairman &amp; CEO, Time Warner, on Why The AOL Merger NEVER Made Sense, and the Lessons We should Learn from the Fiasco (from the TVWeek Innovation360 Conference in NY City, Oct. 13, 2009)</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/10/jeff_bewkes_chairman_ceo_time.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.38647</id>
   
   <published>2009-10-24T20:51:21Z</published>
   <updated>2009-10-24T21:03:43Z</updated>
   
   <summary />
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Business" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="399" label="AOL" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8927" label="bad idea" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="1045" label="CEO" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="1370" label="chairman" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8921" label="Chuck Ross" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="291" label="Comcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="4545" label="Jeff Bewkes" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8923" label="Jeffrey Bewkes" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8928" label="merger" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="55" label="NBC Universal" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="2358" label="Time Warner" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="8925" label="TVWeekNBCU" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
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</entry>

<entry>
   <title>What's Really Going on With the Latest Challenge to Nielsen?</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/09/whats_really_going_on_with_the_2.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37883</id>
   
   <published>2009-09-11T12:33:13Z</published>
   <updated>2009-09-11T18:57:07Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Chuck RossThis week saw the official announcement of a group of media buyers and sellers who could possibly challenge Nielsen&rsquo;s dominance in media measurement.First, some stats:Name: Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). At least that&rsquo;s what its logo says. Some news accounts&mdash;including the New York Times&mdash;say it&rsquo;s not Coalition, but Council. Whatever&mdash;not important.14 Charter Members: AT&amp;T, CBS, Discovery Communications, GroupM, Interpublic Group's Mediabrands, NBC Universal, News Corp., Omnicom Media Group, P&amp;G, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide, Time Warner, Unilever, Viacom and The Walt Disney Co.CIMM&rsquo;s self-described Mission Statement: To explore new worlds, to go where no&hellip;oops that&rsquo;s close but not quite it. It&rsquo;s mission is to &ldquo;Promote innovation and explore new, high quality ways to measure audiences across traditional and new media.&rdquo;How&rsquo;s it gonna do this? MediaPost&rsquo;s Joe Mandese, who is hands down the best reporter covering media measurement, wrote in his account of the CIMM announcement yesterday that someone had leaked to him a draft request for proposal (RFP) from CIMM. The draft carried the name of NBC Universal President of Research and Media Development, Alan Wurtzel. Wurtzel&rsquo;s been the driving force behind CIMM.According to Mandese&rsquo;s terrific piece, the RFP, prepared in February, was looking to fund two studies: &ldquo;One for a pilot study that would &lsquo;study producing real cross-platform data that reflects exposure of specific video sources on television, the Internet and mobile media;&rsquo; and a second for a digital set-top data project that would deliver &lsquo;three to six months of actual STB [set-top box] data, to be used for evaluation (not sales) purposes.&rsquo; &quot;Furthermore, Mandese writes, the RFP said, &quot;We are agnostic as to who will supply us with this data; the field is open, but we need these forward-looking metrics, adequate to the high standards of trading and post-evaluation, within the next 3-5 years.&quot;Finally, Mandese quotes from the RFP: &quot;As buyers and sellers of advertising-supported media, we are deeply concerned that, despite the efforts of some research suppliers, media measure is not keeping pace with urgent business needs.&quot;Hmm. &ldquo;Some research suppliers.&rdquo; Wonder who that could be.Back on August 13, the Financial Times, when it first broke this story, interviewed Sam Armando, SVP of audience analysis of Starcom, which is a member of CIMM.&ldquo;The most deficient thing is there&rsquo;s no single source measurement [for TV and digital video],&rdquo; Armando said. He added: It was not a case of &ldquo;let&rsquo;s go out to replace Nielsen&rdquo;, he said, but the consortium&rsquo;s plan did not require a &ldquo;leap of faith&rdquo;.Let&rsquo;s follow the money here. The major broadcast networks are probably paying Nielsen $40 million to $50 million annually. Media agencies pay a fraction of that, but $2 million to $4 million is still significant. And mostly gone are the days when they can pass along all of their Nielsen costs to their clients.&nbsp;Nielsen is a monopoly player. Its ratings are the currency of the business. Billions of dollars of ad revenue are based on Nielsen&rsquo;s rating measurements.So far CIMM is being funded by virtually peanuts. Sources have told TVWeek that CIMM members are ponying up $100,000 each. Claire Atkinson, B&amp;C&rsquo;s stellar ad reporter, also is reporting this number. So, in total, CIMM has less than $2 million with which to play.As has been reported everywhere, dissatisfaction with Nielsen is nothing new. And past efforts to fund a true challenger to Nielsen have failed.Is this time different? Maybe.&nbsp;First things first. There are myriad issues with set-top box data. First, it&rsquo;s interesting that the folks who have the data&mdash;the cable operators, satellite providers, and the telcos who provide video&mdash;are not members of the coalition. Secondly, there aren&rsquo;t any standards thus far for gathering data from the boxes. And what about the fact that the boxes are not in the homes of many minorities? There are issues of getting enough information on a national basis, issues about privacy, and issues about getting demographic data. So clearly, in its initial stages, CIMM is an attempt to stimulate research at the set top box level, to create a common platform for analyzing that kind of census level data and to find constructive ways to stimulate discussion.Moving forward, if the many challenges can be met, perhaps CIMM can develop a currency with which to base the buying of ad time across myriad platforms. And that&rsquo;s a prospect that should keep Nielsen executives up at night.#]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Business" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="6738" label="CIMM" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="6739" label="Coalition For Innovative Media Measurement" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="905" label="Nielsen" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Chuck RossThis week saw the official announcement of a group of media buyers and sellers who could possibly challenge Nielsen&rsquo;s dominance in media measurement.First, some stats:Name: Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). At least that&rsquo;s what its logo says. Some news accounts&mdash;including the New York Times&mdash;say it&rsquo;s not Coalition, but Council. Whatever&mdash;not important.14 Charter Members: AT&amp;T, CBS, Discovery Communications, GroupM, Interpublic Group's Mediabrands, NBC Universal, News Corp., Omnicom Media Group, P&amp;G, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide, Time Warner, Unilever, Viacom and The Walt Disney Co.CIMM&rsquo;s self-described Mission Statement: To explore new worlds, to go where no&hellip;oops that&rsquo;s close but not quite it. It&rsquo;s mission is to &ldquo;Promote innovation and explore new, high quality ways to measure audiences across traditional and new media.&rdquo;How&rsquo;s it gonna do this? MediaPost&rsquo;s Joe Mandese, who is hands down the best reporter covering media measurement, wrote in his account of the CIMM announcement yesterday that someone had leaked to him a draft request for proposal (RFP) from CIMM. The draft carried the name of NBC Universal President of Research and Media Development, Alan Wurtzel. Wurtzel&rsquo;s been the driving force behind CIMM.According to Mandese&rsquo;s terrific piece, the RFP, prepared in February, was looking to fund two studies: &ldquo;One for a pilot study that would &lsquo;study producing real cross-platform data that reflects exposure of specific video sources on television, the Internet and mobile media;&rsquo; and a second for a digital set-top data project that would deliver &lsquo;three to six months of actual STB [set-top box] data, to be used for evaluation (not sales) purposes.&rsquo; &quot;Furthermore, Mandese writes, the RFP said, &quot;We are agnostic as to who will supply us with this data; the field is open, but we need these forward-looking metrics, adequate to the high standards of trading and post-evaluation, within the next 3-5 years.&quot;Finally, Mandese quotes from the RFP: &quot;As buyers and sellers of advertising-supported media, we are deeply concerned that, despite the efforts of some research suppliers, media measure is not keeping pace with urgent business needs.&quot;Hmm. &ldquo;Some research suppliers.&rdquo; Wonder who that could be.Back on August 13, the Financial Times, when it first broke this story, interviewed Sam Armando, SVP of audience analysis of Starcom, which is a member of CIMM.&ldquo;The most deficient thing is there&rsquo;s no single source measurement [for TV and digital video],&rdquo; Armando said. He added: It was not a case of &ldquo;let&rsquo;s go out to replace Nielsen&rdquo;, he said, but the consortium&rsquo;s plan did not require a &ldquo;leap of faith&rdquo;.Let&rsquo;s follow the money here. The major broadcast networks are probably paying Nielsen $40 million to $50 million annually. Media agencies pay a fraction of that, but $2 million to $4 million is still significant. And mostly gone are the days when they can pass along all of their Nielsen costs to their clients.&nbsp;Nielsen is a monopoly player. Its ratings are the currency of the business. Billions of dollars of ad revenue are based on Nielsen&rsquo;s rating measurements.So far CIMM is being funded by virtually peanuts. Sources have told TVWeek that CIMM members are ponying up $100,000 each. Claire Atkinson, B&amp;C&rsquo;s stellar ad reporter, also is reporting this number. So, in total, CIMM has less than $2 million with which to play.As has been reported everywhere, dissatisfaction with Nielsen is nothing new. And past efforts to fund a true challenger to Nielsen have failed.Is this time different? Maybe.&nbsp;First things first. There are myriad issues with set-top box data. First, it&rsquo;s interesting that the folks who have the data&mdash;the cable operators, satellite providers, and the telcos who provide video&mdash;are not members of the coalition. Secondly, there aren&rsquo;t any standards thus far for gathering data from the boxes. And what about the fact that the boxes are not in the homes of many minorities? There are issues of getting enough information on a national basis, issues about privacy, and issues about getting demographic data. So clearly, in its initial stages, CIMM is an attempt to stimulate research at the set top box level, to create a common platform for analyzing that kind of census level data and to find constructive ways to stimulate discussion.Moving forward, if the many challenges can be met, perhaps CIMM can develop a currency with which to base the buying of ad time across myriad platforms. And that&rsquo;s a prospect that should keep Nielsen executives up at night.#]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>All About GM's New Auto Ad Campaign</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/09/all_about_gms_new_auto_ad_camp.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37890</id>
   
   <published>2009-09-11T12:30:00Z</published>
   <updated>2009-09-11T15:49:42Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Michael BushAdvertising AgeGeneral Motors Corp. marketing chief Bob Lutz swears the automaker's new TV spots featuring GM Chairman Ed Whitacre are nothing like the Lee Iacocca ads Chrysler ran back in the 1980s.Mr. Whitacre, a white-haired former telecom exec, is the perfect choice to help re-introduce a damaged brand to a country of skeptical consumers, Mr. Lutz said, batting back what he said were rumors that Mr. Whitacre demanded he be the next Lee Iacocca and featured in these ads.&quot;What we were looking for was a highly credible spokesperson who would be a new fresh face,&quot; Mr. Lutz said, noting that Mr. Whitacre &quot;is the new guy in town. He's tall, good looking, has impeccable white hair and has this nice soft Texas drawl and limps a little bit when he walks, which sort of gives him this old cowboy look.&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Whitacre is the public face only of the first phase of GM's &quot;May the Best Car Win&quot; campaign, which is an aggressive effort directly pitting its models against rivals. The multimillion-dollar campaign breaking next week also encompasses print, viral marketing and social media. Not only does it represent a significant increase in ad spending for GM, it also required some guts for a company that was begging for billions of dollars from Congress less than a year ago.&nbsp;The campaign will pit the Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands against competitors and includes a 60-day money-back guarantee for consumers not satisfied with their purchase. Mr. Lutz said GM is &quot;supremely confident&quot; that consumers will be satisfied with its new models.&nbsp;&quot;We can look anybody in the eye and say we are as good as or better than anyone else,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;In almost every respect our current lineup can compare with any volume producers' lineup from anywhere on the globe. We believe feature by feature we more than stand up to the competition.&quot; The ads will feature GM cars from its four product lines pitted against Japanese and German luxury brands. The print ads will show the two automobiles facing one another separated by a big V (for &quot;versus&quot;) and list details of both cars' features, performance, fuel economy and warranties.One ad will feature the 2010 Chevy Equinox vs. 2010 Honda CRV; another will have the 2010 Buick LaCrosse stacked up against the 2010 Lexus ES 350. Mr. Lutz said in the rare cases when both cars match each other feature for feature and warranty for warranty, the difference will be illustrated in sticker price. Mr. Lutz said that outside of the automotive media and the Midwest most consumers don't realize GM's cars match up well against foreign competitors and this campaign is &quot;big bet&quot; on the power of communications and advertising's ability to help remedy that.&quot;We have to close this monumental chasm between the reality of today's GM product line up and the public's perception of that line up,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;We have to somehow get the word out and in the past I have always said that it's going to take time or unfortunately it's not my responsibility. It is now my responsibility. So we are going to try and take a big chunk of that huge gap and we have to earn consumer confidence and demonstrate why buying one of our cars is a wise choice. The time to get the word out is now. We are not going to dribble this out of a watering can we are going to use a fire hose.&quot;&nbsp;And while he called this a corporate campaign, nowhere will the words &quot;General Motors&quot; or a GM logo appear in any of the creative. That decision was based on what Mr. Lutz called a large degree of hostility and negative feeling toward GM since the government bailout.&nbsp;&quot;The interesting thing is GM is disliked but the brands aren't hated,&quot; he said. &quot;It's like the parents went bankrupt but the kids had nothing to do with it. So we decided using the GM symbol and name as an umbrella for product or corporate advertising was not a good thing to do. We have to concentrate everything on standalone brands and come out from this corporate umbrella, which in the very best of times was neutral, but recently has not helped the brands and in fact tarnished them somewhat. We are emancipating the brands and trotting them out in the open.&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Whitacre will only appear in spots until Sept. 20; the remaining ads and creative scheduled to run through 2010 will be focused all on product. GM's choice to use the chairman had created some negative buzz in Detroit circles, a fact Mr. Lutz acknowledged -- and beat down.&nbsp;He said that the very day of GM's news conference to announce the ads a retired ad executive told him that using Mr. Whitacre was the dumbest thing GM had ever done.&quot;The guy didn't know what he was talking about,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;[He] doesn't realize the only thing we are doing is using the independent guy who is a very successful and respected businessman in another industry who was asked by the federal government to assume this responsibility and who is now initially with a little bit of reluctance and a great deal of doubt has immersed himself in GM.&quot; #]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
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      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="573" label="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
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   <category term="191" label="TV" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Michael BushAdvertising AgeGeneral Motors Corp. marketing chief Bob Lutz swears the automaker's new TV spots featuring GM Chairman Ed Whitacre are nothing like the Lee Iacocca ads Chrysler ran back in the 1980s.Mr. Whitacre, a white-haired former telecom exec, is the perfect choice to help re-introduce a damaged brand to a country of skeptical consumers, Mr. Lutz said, batting back what he said were rumors that Mr. Whitacre demanded he be the next Lee Iacocca and featured in these ads.&quot;What we were looking for was a highly credible spokesperson who would be a new fresh face,&quot; Mr. Lutz said, noting that Mr. Whitacre &quot;is the new guy in town. He's tall, good looking, has impeccable white hair and has this nice soft Texas drawl and limps a little bit when he walks, which sort of gives him this old cowboy look.&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Whitacre is the public face only of the first phase of GM's &quot;May the Best Car Win&quot; campaign, which is an aggressive effort directly pitting its models against rivals. The multimillion-dollar campaign breaking next week also encompasses print, viral marketing and social media. Not only does it represent a significant increase in ad spending for GM, it also required some guts for a company that was begging for billions of dollars from Congress less than a year ago.&nbsp;The campaign will pit the Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands against competitors and includes a 60-day money-back guarantee for consumers not satisfied with their purchase. Mr. Lutz said GM is &quot;supremely confident&quot; that consumers will be satisfied with its new models.&nbsp;&quot;We can look anybody in the eye and say we are as good as or better than anyone else,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;In almost every respect our current lineup can compare with any volume producers' lineup from anywhere on the globe. We believe feature by feature we more than stand up to the competition.&quot; The ads will feature GM cars from its four product lines pitted against Japanese and German luxury brands. The print ads will show the two automobiles facing one another separated by a big V (for &quot;versus&quot;) and list details of both cars' features, performance, fuel economy and warranties.One ad will feature the 2010 Chevy Equinox vs. 2010 Honda CRV; another will have the 2010 Buick LaCrosse stacked up against the 2010 Lexus ES 350. Mr. Lutz said in the rare cases when both cars match each other feature for feature and warranty for warranty, the difference will be illustrated in sticker price. Mr. Lutz said that outside of the automotive media and the Midwest most consumers don't realize GM's cars match up well against foreign competitors and this campaign is &quot;big bet&quot; on the power of communications and advertising's ability to help remedy that.&quot;We have to close this monumental chasm between the reality of today's GM product line up and the public's perception of that line up,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;We have to somehow get the word out and in the past I have always said that it's going to take time or unfortunately it's not my responsibility. It is now my responsibility. So we are going to try and take a big chunk of that huge gap and we have to earn consumer confidence and demonstrate why buying one of our cars is a wise choice. The time to get the word out is now. We are not going to dribble this out of a watering can we are going to use a fire hose.&quot;&nbsp;And while he called this a corporate campaign, nowhere will the words &quot;General Motors&quot; or a GM logo appear in any of the creative. That decision was based on what Mr. Lutz called a large degree of hostility and negative feeling toward GM since the government bailout.&nbsp;&quot;The interesting thing is GM is disliked but the brands aren't hated,&quot; he said. &quot;It's like the parents went bankrupt but the kids had nothing to do with it. So we decided using the GM symbol and name as an umbrella for product or corporate advertising was not a good thing to do. We have to concentrate everything on standalone brands and come out from this corporate umbrella, which in the very best of times was neutral, but recently has not helped the brands and in fact tarnished them somewhat. We are emancipating the brands and trotting them out in the open.&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Whitacre will only appear in spots until Sept. 20; the remaining ads and creative scheduled to run through 2010 will be focused all on product. GM's choice to use the chairman had created some negative buzz in Detroit circles, a fact Mr. Lutz acknowledged -- and beat down.&nbsp;He said that the very day of GM's news conference to announce the ads a retired ad executive told him that using Mr. Whitacre was the dumbest thing GM had ever done.&quot;The guy didn't know what he was talking about,&quot; Mr. Lutz said. &quot;[He] doesn't realize the only thing we are doing is using the independent guy who is a very successful and respected businessman in another industry who was asked by the federal government to assume this responsibility and who is now initially with a little bit of reluctance and a great deal of doubt has immersed himself in GM.&quot; #]]>
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</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Disney is Buying Marvel for $4 Billion: Hannah Montana and the Wizards of Waverly Place, Meet Your New Cousins That All the Boys Love—Spider-Man, Iron Man and the X-Men</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/08/hannah_montana_and_the_wizards.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37690</id>
   
   <published>2009-08-31T16:47:48Z</published>
   <updated>2009-08-31T17:14:19Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[The Walt Disney Co. announced today that it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion--to be paid for with 60% in cash and 40% in stock .With a stable that includes Spider-Man, the X-Men and Iron Man, among many others, the acquisition fills a gap for Disney--popular characters that appeal to boys.All of the current deals that Marvel has with other studios--Twentieth Century Fox has the &quot;x-Men&quot; franchise, for example --will stay in place at least until they expire.Disney also hopes to exploit the characters with rides and such at its theme park, and in various other consumer products.Another popular group of comic-book characters--DC, which includes Batman and Superman--has long been part rival media conglomerate Time Warner.For the New York Times' news report of the deal, click here.--Chuck Ross]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Business" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="5264" label="acquisition" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="1730" label="Disney" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="6092" label="Marvel" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="6094" label="Marvel Entertainment" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="6096" label="Walt Disney Company" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[The Walt Disney Co. announced today that it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion--to be paid for with 60% in cash and 40% in stock .With a stable that includes Spider-Man, the X-Men and Iron Man, among many others, the acquisition fills a gap for Disney--popular characters that appeal to boys.All of the current deals that Marvel has with other studios--Twentieth Century Fox has the &quot;x-Men&quot; franchise, for example --will stay in place at least until they expire.Disney also hopes to exploit the characters with rides and such at its theme park, and in various other consumer products.Another popular group of comic-book characters--DC, which includes Batman and Superman--has long been part rival media conglomerate Time Warner.For the New York Times' news report of the deal, click here.--Chuck Ross]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>In an Extraordinarily Tough Year for Ad Sales, The NFL Scores a Touchdown; Plus the NFL Network's Way to Engage Those Working at Media Agencies</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/08/by_john_consolispecial_to_tvwe.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37667</id>
   
   <published>2009-08-28T21:01:12Z</published>
   <updated>2009-08-28T21:19:52Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By John ConsoliSpecial to TVWeekWith two weeks to go until the regular season opening weekend, ESPN has already sold out its September and October inventory for Monday Night Football, and the other networks are actively writing business.&ldquo;The television football marketplace in general, both pro and college, is very vibrant,&rdquo; said Ed Erhardt, president, ESPN Customer Marketing &amp; Sales.While Erhardt would not discuss pricing, sources familiar with negotiations between the networks and the media agencies said NFL commercial inventory was selling on average at cost per thousand rates just a percentage point below last year for most of the networks.And college inventory was actually getting better CPMs: low-to-mid single digit increases over last year.Fears that the sagging economy and its negative impact on the auto business was going to put a dent in NFL sales have not materialized.&ldquo;Our auto sales for NFL have held up well,&rdquo; Erhardt said, echoing what other networks carrying the NFL said. &ldquo;We have done business with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, and most of the foreign automakers are also in, including BMW, not a traditional football advertiser.&rdquo;Erhardt said while the financial category has been &ldquo;dicey,&rdquo; EPSN has seen ad growth for its football telecasts in categories like fast food restaurants, casual dining restaurants, insurance and men&rsquo;s grooming. He said Gillette will be advertising six brands, several in men&rsquo;s grooming.&ldquo;The NFL marketplace moved later this year, but right now it is very active and we have closed some major deals with big media agencies,&rdquo; said John Bogusz, CBS executive vp for sports sales and marketing.While Bogusz would not identify the agencies, sources said they include GroupM and OMD, the latter which also reportedly finalized its Super Bowl XLIV buys with CBS.OMD has traditional had a sizable number of clients in the Super Bowl each year.While no Super Bowl advertisers were named, OMD represents traditional Super Bowl clients like Pepsi, Fed Ex and Visa, among others. Neither agency returned requests for comment.Bogusz said CBS is also in active negotiations with several other major media agencies for both regular season and the Super Bowl.Tony Taranto, senior vp of NFL sales for CBS, said the network has sold out all six of its advertiser entitlements for Super Bowl pre-game coverage. The entitlements are presenting sponsorships of each half hour or hour blocks of coverage.&ldquo;Everyone wants to focus on just the in-game spots but we look at the entire Super Bowl day&rsquo;s coverage, not just the game,&rdquo; Taranto said. &ldquo;Some of these ancillary audiences for our pre-game coverage are huge. Between 5 p.m. and the start of the game, ratings can be in the 16 range.&rdquo;While ESPN is sold out for the first two months of the NFL season, the network does have the least inventory to sell, although Erhardt says that&rsquo;s what makes it more valuable to advertisers.Under its TV rights agreement with the NFL, ESPN has 43 in game ad units to sell, compared to 63 for NBC&rsquo;s Sunday Night Football, and between 90-120 for Fox and CBS, which air one national game each Sunday, along with regional telecasts. So the available supply of units for each network is different.Fox sales execs were not available for comment, but sources familiar with Fox&rsquo;s negotiations said that between multi-year deals already in place for its NFL telecasts, and some early deals the network did prior to the start of the upfront, Fox began its NFL upfront more than 30 percent sold.Strong categories for Fox&rsquo;s NFL telecasts for the upcoming season, according to sources, are fast food, wireless, and retail, among others.NFL Network, another player in the NFL TV marketplace, has also been busy the past few weeks, although its first televised game is not until Nov. 12. NFL network will televise eight national games this year, most of them on Thursday nights.Dave Pattillo, national sales manager for NFL Network, said Sears will be back as the network&rsquo;s pre-game show sponsor, and Lexus has been signed up as pre-kick show sponsor, which will air from 8-8:15 p.m. He said he expects Sprint to be back as the halftime show sponsor, and the network is talking to Kay&rsquo;s and Jared Jewelers as possible post-game show sponsors, replacing Home Depot.Unlike the other networks, NFL Network doesn&rsquo;t have as much rush to sell its inventory since its first game is not until Week 10 of the NFL season. And because it too has limited in-game inventory, Pattillo said he is trying to package in-game units with other NFL programming inventory.&ldquo;We consider our live games our crown jewel,&rdquo; Pattillo said, &ldquo;so we are very careful in how we sell that inventory.&rdquo;The NFL Network also courts the media agencies a bit differently than its bigger rivals. Four years ago, the network began a Fantasy Football league for media agencies. Last year, 16 agencies participated with the prize being a flag football game between the winning agency and a team comprised of NFL Network sales people and current and ex-NFL players.On Aug. 27 in New York City, NFL Network held is annual Fantasy Football draft for the media agencies. According to Pattillo, about 175 media buyers and planners attended the event, at which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, for the first time, attended and announced the first five draft picks.While NFL sales activity has been active, each of the networks said they are planning to hold back a sizable amount of inventory for scatter rather than underselling it price wise during the upfront.Erhardt said many advertisers are only buying with 60 day windows, so holding onto inventory for November and December should not be a problem. And Pattillo said he is holding back inventory in hopes that retailers and movie companies that want to reach consumers between Thanksgiving and Christmas, will find NFL games on Thursday nights in prime time attractive.Ditto for NBC. While it will feature the New York Giants visiting the Dallas Cowboys in the first regular season game played in the Cowboys&rsquo; new stadium, its Sunday Night Football schedule has the Giants, Cowboys, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers all playing at the tail end of the season.And NBC has the ability under its TV deal to flex schedule, meaning it can replace existing games on its schedule with more attractive games. So the network also feels comfortable holding back its later season NFL SNF inventory.ESPN&rsquo;s Erhardt said advertisers will be watching the entertainment television prime time ratings, and if they start to falter, he believes NFL telecasts will become an attractive alternative for many advertisers.#]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Tom Gilbert</name>
      <uri>http://www.tvweek.com/</uri>
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="5980" label="ad sales" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="410" label="advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By John ConsoliSpecial to TVWeekWith two weeks to go until the regular season opening weekend, ESPN has already sold out its September and October inventory for Monday Night Football, and the other networks are actively writing business.&ldquo;The television football marketplace in general, both pro and college, is very vibrant,&rdquo; said Ed Erhardt, president, ESPN Customer Marketing &amp; Sales.While Erhardt would not discuss pricing, sources familiar with negotiations between the networks and the media agencies said NFL commercial inventory was selling on average at cost per thousand rates just a percentage point below last year for most of the networks.And college inventory was actually getting better CPMs: low-to-mid single digit increases over last year.Fears that the sagging economy and its negative impact on the auto business was going to put a dent in NFL sales have not materialized.&ldquo;Our auto sales for NFL have held up well,&rdquo; Erhardt said, echoing what other networks carrying the NFL said. &ldquo;We have done business with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, and most of the foreign automakers are also in, including BMW, not a traditional football advertiser.&rdquo;Erhardt said while the financial category has been &ldquo;dicey,&rdquo; EPSN has seen ad growth for its football telecasts in categories like fast food restaurants, casual dining restaurants, insurance and men&rsquo;s grooming. He said Gillette will be advertising six brands, several in men&rsquo;s grooming.&ldquo;The NFL marketplace moved later this year, but right now it is very active and we have closed some major deals with big media agencies,&rdquo; said John Bogusz, CBS executive vp for sports sales and marketing.While Bogusz would not identify the agencies, sources said they include GroupM and OMD, the latter which also reportedly finalized its Super Bowl XLIV buys with CBS.OMD has traditional had a sizable number of clients in the Super Bowl each year.While no Super Bowl advertisers were named, OMD represents traditional Super Bowl clients like Pepsi, Fed Ex and Visa, among others. Neither agency returned requests for comment.Bogusz said CBS is also in active negotiations with several other major media agencies for both regular season and the Super Bowl.Tony Taranto, senior vp of NFL sales for CBS, said the network has sold out all six of its advertiser entitlements for Super Bowl pre-game coverage. The entitlements are presenting sponsorships of each half hour or hour blocks of coverage.&ldquo;Everyone wants to focus on just the in-game spots but we look at the entire Super Bowl day&rsquo;s coverage, not just the game,&rdquo; Taranto said. &ldquo;Some of these ancillary audiences for our pre-game coverage are huge. Between 5 p.m. and the start of the game, ratings can be in the 16 range.&rdquo;While ESPN is sold out for the first two months of the NFL season, the network does have the least inventory to sell, although Erhardt says that&rsquo;s what makes it more valuable to advertisers.Under its TV rights agreement with the NFL, ESPN has 43 in game ad units to sell, compared to 63 for NBC&rsquo;s Sunday Night Football, and between 90-120 for Fox and CBS, which air one national game each Sunday, along with regional telecasts. So the available supply of units for each network is different.Fox sales execs were not available for comment, but sources familiar with Fox&rsquo;s negotiations said that between multi-year deals already in place for its NFL telecasts, and some early deals the network did prior to the start of the upfront, Fox began its NFL upfront more than 30 percent sold.Strong categories for Fox&rsquo;s NFL telecasts for the upcoming season, according to sources, are fast food, wireless, and retail, among others.NFL Network, another player in the NFL TV marketplace, has also been busy the past few weeks, although its first televised game is not until Nov. 12. NFL network will televise eight national games this year, most of them on Thursday nights.Dave Pattillo, national sales manager for NFL Network, said Sears will be back as the network&rsquo;s pre-game show sponsor, and Lexus has been signed up as pre-kick show sponsor, which will air from 8-8:15 p.m. He said he expects Sprint to be back as the halftime show sponsor, and the network is talking to Kay&rsquo;s and Jared Jewelers as possible post-game show sponsors, replacing Home Depot.Unlike the other networks, NFL Network doesn&rsquo;t have as much rush to sell its inventory since its first game is not until Week 10 of the NFL season. And because it too has limited in-game inventory, Pattillo said he is trying to package in-game units with other NFL programming inventory.&ldquo;We consider our live games our crown jewel,&rdquo; Pattillo said, &ldquo;so we are very careful in how we sell that inventory.&rdquo;The NFL Network also courts the media agencies a bit differently than its bigger rivals. Four years ago, the network began a Fantasy Football league for media agencies. Last year, 16 agencies participated with the prize being a flag football game between the winning agency and a team comprised of NFL Network sales people and current and ex-NFL players.On Aug. 27 in New York City, NFL Network held is annual Fantasy Football draft for the media agencies. According to Pattillo, about 175 media buyers and planners attended the event, at which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, for the first time, attended and announced the first five draft picks.While NFL sales activity has been active, each of the networks said they are planning to hold back a sizable amount of inventory for scatter rather than underselling it price wise during the upfront.Erhardt said many advertisers are only buying with 60 day windows, so holding onto inventory for November and December should not be a problem. And Pattillo said he is holding back inventory in hopes that retailers and movie companies that want to reach consumers between Thanksgiving and Christmas, will find NFL games on Thursday nights in prime time attractive.Ditto for NBC. While it will feature the New York Giants visiting the Dallas Cowboys in the first regular season game played in the Cowboys&rsquo; new stadium, its Sunday Night Football schedule has the Giants, Cowboys, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers all playing at the tail end of the season.And NBC has the ability under its TV deal to flex schedule, meaning it can replace existing games on its schedule with more attractive games. So the network also feels comfortable holding back its later season NFL SNF inventory.ESPN&rsquo;s Erhardt said advertisers will be watching the entertainment television prime time ratings, and if they start to falter, he believes NFL telecasts will become an attractive alternative for many advertisers.#]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Okay Planners, You're Being Bombarded by Clients Wanting Product Placement in TV Shows. Time to Think a Little Out of Your Comfort Zone, as This Article Attests</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/08/okay_planners_youre_being_bomb.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37619</id>
   
   <published>2009-08-26T19:44:36Z</published>
   <updated>2009-08-26T20:00:14Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Brian SteinbergAdvertising AgeSpanish-language network Univision is making an &quot;American Idol&quot; play by launching musical talent contest &quot;&iexcl;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o!&quot; (Live the Dream!&quot;). The show will pit 14 contestants against each other to determine which of them will have an opportunity be the next Latin-music superstar. And just like &quot;Idol,&quot; the show will integrate its lead advertisers -- in this case, AT&amp;T, InBev Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light, Coca-Cola, State Farm and Target -- into the program itself.&nbsp;Univision has done plenty of product placement in its past -- marketers including Kraft Foods, Unilever, Ford and Maybelline have strutted their wares in such programs as &quot;Nuestra Belleza Latina&quot; (&quot;Our Latin Beauty&quot;) and &quot;Sabado Gigante&quot; (&quot;Giant Saturday&quot;) -- but executives at the network believe &quot;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o&quot; represents some of its deepest work to date. Many of the marketers will appear in ways that emphasize their products and brand attributes. &quot;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o&quot; will run for 13 weeks and debuts August 30 at 8 p.m. on Univision. Univision hopes the program will show the network bringing product integration to &quot;the next level, where the integration is truly organic and built into the show,&quot; said David Lawenda, president-advertising sales and marketing, Univision Communications. He said Univision has sold about 80% of its ad inventory for the program. In each episode, for instance, the last three contestants will face &quot;El Momento Clave de Bud Light&quot; (&quot;Bud Light's Key Moment&quot;), during which viewers will get ready to find out which musicians get immunity and will be given another chance to sing for the show's live audience. The last person left in the spotlight gets eliminated from the show. In another example, State Farm is able to &quot;insure&quot; one contestant each week when judges select someone to be given coaching in a State Farm-sponsored segment called &quot;Apoyo y Guia (Support and Guidance) that helps them become a better competitor and prepare for the following week. In the past, Univision, which can boast of having the biggest Spanish-speaking audience in the U.S., had lagged behind other Hispanic TV and cable networks in developing branded entertainment. The network made a breakthrough in 2008 with its launch of &quot;El Juego Supremo&quot; (&quot;The Supreme Game&quot;), which brought the &quot;American Idol&quot; method to a soccer competition between two groups of rookies from Mexico and South America. Nissan and Sprint had products featured during the series. Sponsors of &quot;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o&quot; like the show for the same reason they like &quot;American Idol&quot;: They expect the program to give them an opportunity to reach a broader audience that shares an interest in music. &quot;Obviously, music is a huge part of the Hispanic culture,&quot; said Mark D. Gibson, assistant VP-advertising at State Farm. &quot;It cuts across age, country of origin -- so many different swatches of this community that it's a huge opportunity.&quot; &quot;We definitely think that the audience is going to skew a little bit younger, but the opportunity is not only to get to the younger audience but the families,&quot; said Adaliz Vicens, senior marketing manager, AT&amp;T, who oversees marketing to Hispanic consumers. As it does with &quot;Idol,&quot; AT&amp;T will be able to drive a promotional message home to viewers. &quot;We're going to be the exclusive wireless text-to-vote [sponsor],&quot; Ms. Vicens said. &quot;We'll be able to measure the success [of the effort] through the amount of text messages that we receive through the platform and, also, we'll be able to measure the success of the other products we are able to upsell through it -- ringtones, and then the side services.&quot; Unlike &quot;American Idol,&quot; the contestants on &quot;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o,&quot; who come from the U.S., Latin America and Spain, have professional experience. Some may even have gained fame in their countries of origin. The program will follow them as they go through rehearsals, prepare for each week's show, and perform Latin music hits. All will compete for $200,000 in cash and prizes in addition to the opportunity to make it big in the music business. #]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="1790" label="American Idol" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="5831" label="Live the Dream" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="5833" label="Product Placement" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="2782" label="Univision" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="5835" label="Viva el Sueno" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Brian SteinbergAdvertising AgeSpanish-language network Univision is making an &quot;American Idol&quot; play by launching musical talent contest &quot;&iexcl;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o!&quot; (Live the Dream!&quot;). The show will pit 14 contestants against each other to determine which of them will have an opportunity be the next Latin-music superstar. And just like &quot;Idol,&quot; the show will integrate its lead advertisers -- in this case, AT&amp;T, InBev Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light, Coca-Cola, State Farm and Target -- into the program itself.&nbsp;Univision has done plenty of product placement in its past -- marketers including Kraft Foods, Unilever, Ford and Maybelline have strutted their wares in such programs as &quot;Nuestra Belleza Latina&quot; (&quot;Our Latin Beauty&quot;) and &quot;Sabado Gigante&quot; (&quot;Giant Saturday&quot;) -- but executives at the network believe &quot;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o&quot; represents some of its deepest work to date. Many of the marketers will appear in ways that emphasize their products and brand attributes. &quot;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o&quot; will run for 13 weeks and debuts August 30 at 8 p.m. on Univision. Univision hopes the program will show the network bringing product integration to &quot;the next level, where the integration is truly organic and built into the show,&quot; said David Lawenda, president-advertising sales and marketing, Univision Communications. He said Univision has sold about 80% of its ad inventory for the program. In each episode, for instance, the last three contestants will face &quot;El Momento Clave de Bud Light&quot; (&quot;Bud Light's Key Moment&quot;), during which viewers will get ready to find out which musicians get immunity and will be given another chance to sing for the show's live audience. The last person left in the spotlight gets eliminated from the show. In another example, State Farm is able to &quot;insure&quot; one contestant each week when judges select someone to be given coaching in a State Farm-sponsored segment called &quot;Apoyo y Guia (Support and Guidance) that helps them become a better competitor and prepare for the following week. In the past, Univision, which can boast of having the biggest Spanish-speaking audience in the U.S., had lagged behind other Hispanic TV and cable networks in developing branded entertainment. The network made a breakthrough in 2008 with its launch of &quot;El Juego Supremo&quot; (&quot;The Supreme Game&quot;), which brought the &quot;American Idol&quot; method to a soccer competition between two groups of rookies from Mexico and South America. Nissan and Sprint had products featured during the series. Sponsors of &quot;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o&quot; like the show for the same reason they like &quot;American Idol&quot;: They expect the program to give them an opportunity to reach a broader audience that shares an interest in music. &quot;Obviously, music is a huge part of the Hispanic culture,&quot; said Mark D. Gibson, assistant VP-advertising at State Farm. &quot;It cuts across age, country of origin -- so many different swatches of this community that it's a huge opportunity.&quot; &quot;We definitely think that the audience is going to skew a little bit younger, but the opportunity is not only to get to the younger audience but the families,&quot; said Adaliz Vicens, senior marketing manager, AT&amp;T, who oversees marketing to Hispanic consumers. As it does with &quot;Idol,&quot; AT&amp;T will be able to drive a promotional message home to viewers. &quot;We're going to be the exclusive wireless text-to-vote [sponsor],&quot; Ms. Vicens said. &quot;We'll be able to measure the success [of the effort] through the amount of text messages that we receive through the platform and, also, we'll be able to measure the success of the other products we are able to upsell through it -- ringtones, and then the side services.&quot; Unlike &quot;American Idol,&quot; the contestants on &quot;Viva el Sue&ntilde;o,&quot; who come from the U.S., Latin America and Spain, have professional experience. Some may even have gained fame in their countries of origin. The program will follow them as they go through rehearsals, prepare for each week's show, and perform Latin music hits. All will compete for $200,000 in cash and prizes in addition to the opportunity to make it big in the music business. #]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Video: Ed Reimers, Who Told Us We Were in Good Hands With Allstate From 1957 to 1979, Dead at 96</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/08/video_ed_reimers_who_told_us_w.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37431</id>
   
   <published>2009-08-17T19:49:01Z</published>
   <updated>2009-08-17T22:07:25Z</updated>
   
   <summary />
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="5248" label="Allstate" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="5250" label="Ed Reimers" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>In Today's World of Increasing Ad Clutter, One Cable Network Learns The Art of Getting Viewers to Pay Attention to Ads</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/08/in_todays_world_of_incrasing_a.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37294</id>
   
   <published>2009-08-09T20:26:31Z</published>
   <updated>2009-08-10T20:37:55Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Brian SteinbergAdvertising AgeIn October 2007, the executive team at the National Geographic Channel huddled together to figure out how their cable outlet was faring under a new ratings metric that measured how many people watched the commercials, not the programs they ran against. They were far from happy with what they saw.After a series of contentious discussions in 2006 and 2007, advertisers and TV networks agreed to commercial ratings as the trading currency, shortened to C3 because they include up to three days of viewing through digital video recorders. Adoption of the measure marked a radical departure from business as usual, and National Geographic Channel was dismayed by its performance at the time.&quot;We sat down and we took a look at where we were relative to our competitors in the 'non-fiction' [programming] space. We were dead last,&quot; recalled Steve Schiffman, exec VP-general manager of the cable channel, which is jointly owned by National Geographic Ventures and News Corp.'s Fox Cable Networks. &quot;Not only were we dead last, we were dead last by a wide margin. We were just beside ourselves.&quot;Since that time, National Geographic Channel has experimented with nearly every element of its on-screen product, said Kiera Hynninen, exec VP-marketing and media strategy at the cable outlet. The only thing executives knew for sure is that they couldn't use one method across the channel's entire programming schedule. Different shows called for different techniques, she recalled. &quot;We really do look at it as a not-one-size-fits-all approach,&quot; she said. Boosting C3 ratings &quot;varies by type of show, by genre, by daypart,&quot; she added. &quot;It's very much an art.&quot;If that's the case, it's one that more TV executives would like to master. When viewership for ad breaks is the currency upon which ad revenue is based, the networks are forced to stop running ads in the same way they have for decades and to start tailoring ad appearances so that viewers don't act on their first impulse when they see an ad pod beginning: change the channel, grab a snack, hop online -- anything but watch the very pieces of promotion that pay for the entertainment they are watching.During &quot;Dog Whisperer,&quot; executives tried such things as tucking a &quot;how to&quot; video in ad breaks that took viewers behind the scenes of how a promo for the show might get made. Of course, Cesar Millan, the dog-behavior expert featured in the program, made an appearance. Likewise, a piece of ad-break content appearing during &quot;Dangerous Encounters&quot; made use of host Dr. Brady Barr explaining the behavior of geckos (not coincidentally, the vignettes were sponsored by insurance company Geico, which uses a gecko character in its ad campaigns). Executives examined everything from background music to whether certain cues from the shows might prompt viewers to depart.For National Geographic, solving the problem was crucial. &quot;This is a big issue&quot; for all TV networks, particularly cable outlets, said John Spiropoulos, senior VP-director of marketplace analytics at Publicis Groupe's MediaVest, as they tend to run more commercials and longer ad breaks.To generate better ratings, the networks could simply run fewer ads so that viewers wouldn't have much time to turn away from the screen. But that would hurt revenue. Instead, he said, &quot;they have to add shorter pods or get rid of things and migrate them to some sort of product placement or branded entertainment, whatever it is. That's why a lot of them are looking at placing content in commercial breaks, he said, because &quot;they can just move advertising to that and try to sell it&quot; at a premium.Already, a bevy of top networks have been playing with various methods. ABC, CBS and NBC have restructured the ebb and flow of programs such as &quot;Jimmy Kimmel Live,&quot; &quot;The Late Show With David Letterman&quot; and &quot;The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien&quot; so that more national commercials air earlier in the show -- before some portion of the audience turns off the TV and goes to bed.Time Warner's Turner cable channels have offered advertisers the chance to insert commercials that are relevant to the action going on in the specific program running at the time of air; the idea is that ads that seem more relevant to the action on-screen command more viewer attention. Walt Disney's ABC has been running ads along with weather information during &quot;Good Morning America&quot; in the hope that viewers who need information about temperature and rain will refrain from changing channels.At National Geographic, figuring out exactly what to do required the efforts of all hands: research, marketing, ad sales and programming. Advertisers were enlisted to take part in some of the research, said Richard Goldfarb, senior VP- media sales. And a team directed by Brad Dancer, National Geographic Channel senior VP-research and digital media, began to sift through not only traditional measures, but also second-by-second viewership patterns. The channel even enlisted a Boston firm, Innerscope, which specializes in looking at the physical reaction viewers have to various elements displayed on screen.According to the channel's research, its efforts were able to boost its measure of &quot;C3&quot; success -- a ratio of commercial viewing to program viewing -- by as little as 1% in some cases (for the program &quot;Dog Whisperer,&quot; which moved to a 98 in the channel's 2009 fiscal year from 97 in fiscal 2008). In other instances, National Geographic was able to secure a 7% improvement for &quot;Taboo,&quot; a program that explores unorthodox rituals from around the world, and a 12% uptick for &quot;Locked Up Abroad,&quot; a show that examines incarceration in different locales.As media choices continue to increase and traditional viewership numbers gradually erode, efforts such as National Geographic's are bound to intensify. The easier way to increase commercial ratings &quot;is to improve your ratings in general,&quot; said MediaVest's Mr. Spiropoulos. That goal, however, may no longer be as simple to attain.#&nbsp;Five Ways to Fix C3 Ratings1) Make your ad breaks &quot;sticky&quot; By inserting relevant snippets of content -- a vignette related to the program being interrupted or a video featuring a blend of your channel's programming and an ad message from a willing client -- you might get some viewers to stick around or ease up on the fast-forward button.2) Rid your shows of commercial 'cues'Don't tell viewers a show is set to break for commercials. Instead, offer them some reason to stick around despite the ads -- some networks have tried trivia questions or movie previews.3) Talk to your producersYou may want to rearrange the structure of when programs break for ads. Do you have more viewers in the first half of a 60-minute program? How about one long ad break after a 10-minute program segment? Work with your creative folks to devise a &quot;break architecture&quot; that makes sure ads reach the highest concentration of viewers.&nbsp;4) Be flexibleJust because one idea boosts commercial ratings in late-night doesn't mean it will do so in the morning. And placing an ad-break vignette featuring the star of one show might mean little to the viewers of an entirely different program. Every situation is different.5) Be old-fashioned -- get better program ratingsThe shows with the best commercial ratings are often the ones with the best audience ratings overall.#]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="573" label="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="4825" label="Clutter" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="4826" label="Engagement" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="996" label="National Geographic Channel" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Brian SteinbergAdvertising AgeIn October 2007, the executive team at the National Geographic Channel huddled together to figure out how their cable outlet was faring under a new ratings metric that measured how many people watched the commercials, not the programs they ran against. They were far from happy with what they saw.After a series of contentious discussions in 2006 and 2007, advertisers and TV networks agreed to commercial ratings as the trading currency, shortened to C3 because they include up to three days of viewing through digital video recorders. Adoption of the measure marked a radical departure from business as usual, and National Geographic Channel was dismayed by its performance at the time.&quot;We sat down and we took a look at where we were relative to our competitors in the 'non-fiction' [programming] space. We were dead last,&quot; recalled Steve Schiffman, exec VP-general manager of the cable channel, which is jointly owned by National Geographic Ventures and News Corp.'s Fox Cable Networks. &quot;Not only were we dead last, we were dead last by a wide margin. We were just beside ourselves.&quot;Since that time, National Geographic Channel has experimented with nearly every element of its on-screen product, said Kiera Hynninen, exec VP-marketing and media strategy at the cable outlet. The only thing executives knew for sure is that they couldn't use one method across the channel's entire programming schedule. Different shows called for different techniques, she recalled. &quot;We really do look at it as a not-one-size-fits-all approach,&quot; she said. Boosting C3 ratings &quot;varies by type of show, by genre, by daypart,&quot; she added. &quot;It's very much an art.&quot;If that's the case, it's one that more TV executives would like to master. When viewership for ad breaks is the currency upon which ad revenue is based, the networks are forced to stop running ads in the same way they have for decades and to start tailoring ad appearances so that viewers don't act on their first impulse when they see an ad pod beginning: change the channel, grab a snack, hop online -- anything but watch the very pieces of promotion that pay for the entertainment they are watching.During &quot;Dog Whisperer,&quot; executives tried such things as tucking a &quot;how to&quot; video in ad breaks that took viewers behind the scenes of how a promo for the show might get made. Of course, Cesar Millan, the dog-behavior expert featured in the program, made an appearance. Likewise, a piece of ad-break content appearing during &quot;Dangerous Encounters&quot; made use of host Dr. Brady Barr explaining the behavior of geckos (not coincidentally, the vignettes were sponsored by insurance company Geico, which uses a gecko character in its ad campaigns). Executives examined everything from background music to whether certain cues from the shows might prompt viewers to depart.For National Geographic, solving the problem was crucial. &quot;This is a big issue&quot; for all TV networks, particularly cable outlets, said John Spiropoulos, senior VP-director of marketplace analytics at Publicis Groupe's MediaVest, as they tend to run more commercials and longer ad breaks.To generate better ratings, the networks could simply run fewer ads so that viewers wouldn't have much time to turn away from the screen. But that would hurt revenue. Instead, he said, &quot;they have to add shorter pods or get rid of things and migrate them to some sort of product placement or branded entertainment, whatever it is. That's why a lot of them are looking at placing content in commercial breaks, he said, because &quot;they can just move advertising to that and try to sell it&quot; at a premium.Already, a bevy of top networks have been playing with various methods. ABC, CBS and NBC have restructured the ebb and flow of programs such as &quot;Jimmy Kimmel Live,&quot; &quot;The Late Show With David Letterman&quot; and &quot;The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien&quot; so that more national commercials air earlier in the show -- before some portion of the audience turns off the TV and goes to bed.Time Warner's Turner cable channels have offered advertisers the chance to insert commercials that are relevant to the action going on in the specific program running at the time of air; the idea is that ads that seem more relevant to the action on-screen command more viewer attention. Walt Disney's ABC has been running ads along with weather information during &quot;Good Morning America&quot; in the hope that viewers who need information about temperature and rain will refrain from changing channels.At National Geographic, figuring out exactly what to do required the efforts of all hands: research, marketing, ad sales and programming. Advertisers were enlisted to take part in some of the research, said Richard Goldfarb, senior VP- media sales. And a team directed by Brad Dancer, National Geographic Channel senior VP-research and digital media, began to sift through not only traditional measures, but also second-by-second viewership patterns. The channel even enlisted a Boston firm, Innerscope, which specializes in looking at the physical reaction viewers have to various elements displayed on screen.According to the channel's research, its efforts were able to boost its measure of &quot;C3&quot; success -- a ratio of commercial viewing to program viewing -- by as little as 1% in some cases (for the program &quot;Dog Whisperer,&quot; which moved to a 98 in the channel's 2009 fiscal year from 97 in fiscal 2008). In other instances, National Geographic was able to secure a 7% improvement for &quot;Taboo,&quot; a program that explores unorthodox rituals from around the world, and a 12% uptick for &quot;Locked Up Abroad,&quot; a show that examines incarceration in different locales.As media choices continue to increase and traditional viewership numbers gradually erode, efforts such as National Geographic's are bound to intensify. The easier way to increase commercial ratings &quot;is to improve your ratings in general,&quot; said MediaVest's Mr. Spiropoulos. That goal, however, may no longer be as simple to attain.#&nbsp;Five Ways to Fix C3 Ratings1) Make your ad breaks &quot;sticky&quot; By inserting relevant snippets of content -- a vignette related to the program being interrupted or a video featuring a blend of your channel's programming and an ad message from a willing client -- you might get some viewers to stick around or ease up on the fast-forward button.2) Rid your shows of commercial 'cues'Don't tell viewers a show is set to break for commercials. Instead, offer them some reason to stick around despite the ads -- some networks have tried trivia questions or movie previews.3) Talk to your producersYou may want to rearrange the structure of when programs break for ads. Do you have more viewers in the first half of a 60-minute program? How about one long ad break after a 10-minute program segment? Work with your creative folks to devise a &quot;break architecture&quot; that makes sure ads reach the highest concentration of viewers.&nbsp;4) Be flexibleJust because one idea boosts commercial ratings in late-night doesn't mean it will do so in the morning. And placing an ad-break vignette featuring the star of one show might mean little to the viewers of an entirely different program. Every situation is different.5) Be old-fashioned -- get better program ratingsThe shows with the best commercial ratings are often the ones with the best audience ratings overall.#]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Analysis: Ben Silverman--What Went Wrong at NBC, What He Hopes Will Go Right With Barry Diller</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/07/analysis_ben_silverman--what_w.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.37005</id>
   
   <published>2009-07-27T20:56:47Z</published>
   <updated>2009-07-27T21:02:01Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[By Michael Learmonth&nbsp;AdAge.comBen Silverman is out after a two-year stint as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, where he attempted to revive the fourth-place network with a mix of reality shows and nostalgia, like a failed remake of &quot;Knight Rider.&quot;The former William Morris agent, who came to NBC in 2007 as the producing wunderkind behind &quot;The Office&quot; and &quot;Biggest Loser,&quot; is going back into business with Barry Diller, the InterActiveCorp CEO and former Fox network chairman who invested in Mr. Silverman's production company, Reveille.&nbsp;The two will set up a new production company that will more overtly seek the kinds of marketing deals Mr. Silverman pushed at NBC while producing content for TV, the web and other platforms. Mr. Silverman called the unnamed venture &quot;Reveille meets BBDO.&quot;Mr. Silverman came to NBC as a producer who found foreign TV formats and successfully brought them to the U.S., creating shows that were some of few bright spots for NBC, which has struggled in the network ratings.&nbsp;But Mr. Silverman wasn't able to convert much of that pre-NBC success into hits as co-chairman of the network. He was hampered severely by a writer's strike, which crippled a year's worth of TV production, but he also admits that life inside a bureaucracy wasn't the best fit.&nbsp;&quot;I was a manager, I was no longer a picker, a chooser of shows; I would do HR meetings and finance meetings and retreats,&quot; Mr. Silverman told Advertising Age.&nbsp;Mr. Silverman will be replaced by the chairman of NBC Universal's stable of cable networks, Jeff Gaspin, who will become chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment. In addition to cable and the network, Mr. Gaspin oversees NBC Universal's own studio, Universal Media Networks.&nbsp;&quot;This new structure helps us align all of our TV entertainment assets under one veteran executive at a time when continued innovation is essential,&quot; NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker said in a statement. Talk of Mr. Silverman leaving NBC has been rampant this year, and both sides seem to grow increasingly uncomfortable with one another. Just last week, Mr. Silverman was quoted at a Los Angeles conference talking about sales in the &quot;upfront&quot; TV advertising market, and suggested NBC and WPP's Group M had completed negotiations. But NBC executives were quick to suggest that he had misspoken.&nbsp;But some of his ideas have gained traction, especially the idea of bringing marketers into a show's production process early enough so that the integration is smooth. He also brought ideas about new models for sharing the costs of TV production, such as when NBC entered into an unusual agreement with DirecTV to help keep &quot;Friday Night Lights&quot; on the air. And people will be watching the return of &quot;Chuck&quot; in 2010 to see if a promotional agreement NBC has struck with Subway will keep the program on the air.&nbsp;Mr. Silverman, though, pined to get out of the network and return to his more entrepreneurial roots. He had sold Reveille to Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Limited in 2008.&nbsp;&quot;Having run a talent agency and then being inside a media company it was becoming clear to me that the businesses are siloed and those need to be broken down,&quot; he said. &quot;This is something the media companies are going to have to do more and more but it is going to take them longer to do it because they have to support the entrenched system as well.&quot;&nbsp;As an example, Mr. Silverman held up the marketing barrage for Microsoft's search engine Bing.com, which included integrations across NBC, from standard 30-second spots and custom content on &quot;The Philanthropist&quot; to jaunty mentions on air by stars such as Jimmy Fallon. He said he'll be better able to put those kinds of deals together outside the network, as well as create content that will work with different economics than network TV, where a single episode can cost $1 million to produce.&nbsp;IAC has been attempting to build its content business on a micro-scale for several years through production arms such as College Humor, which recently launched its own production company. All the while, though, Mr. Diller has been steadfast that none of IAC's content initiatives signal a move back into TV. Now that's changed.Mr. Silverman's departure from NBC resolves what some construe as a distraction, where his work style and social schedule rankled NBC's more buttoned-up network execs and provided regular fodder for the blogs.&nbsp;Despite the failed shows and little ratings progress, Mr. Silverman said he should be judged by the performance of NBC's fall season, the first he's been able to develop and market without the distraction of a strike. This includes the move of Jay Leno to 10 p.m., a significant shift to the network TV landscape.&nbsp;He'll be staying on at NBC through the beginning of the fall season. His co-chairman at NBC Entertainment, Marc Graboff, will now report to Mr. Gaspin.&nbsp;With all of NBC's TV businesses reporting to one executive, Mr. Gaspin said the company will be better able to select shows that they can make money from over time, on the network, cable, and in syndication. But profitable isn't enough; he said NBC will win again in the ratings.&nbsp;&quot;Even though the [network] model is challenged it is still the best way to get the biggest audience sampled quickly,&quot; he told Ad Age. &quot;We are going to have a better hit ratio than we had before.&quot;]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="3415" label="Barry Diller" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="2360" label="Ben Silverman" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="3820" label="IAG" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="3822" label="Notion" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[By Michael Learmonth&nbsp;AdAge.comBen Silverman is out after a two-year stint as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, where he attempted to revive the fourth-place network with a mix of reality shows and nostalgia, like a failed remake of &quot;Knight Rider.&quot;The former William Morris agent, who came to NBC in 2007 as the producing wunderkind behind &quot;The Office&quot; and &quot;Biggest Loser,&quot; is going back into business with Barry Diller, the InterActiveCorp CEO and former Fox network chairman who invested in Mr. Silverman's production company, Reveille.&nbsp;The two will set up a new production company that will more overtly seek the kinds of marketing deals Mr. Silverman pushed at NBC while producing content for TV, the web and other platforms. Mr. Silverman called the unnamed venture &quot;Reveille meets BBDO.&quot;Mr. Silverman came to NBC as a producer who found foreign TV formats and successfully brought them to the U.S., creating shows that were some of few bright spots for NBC, which has struggled in the network ratings.&nbsp;But Mr. Silverman wasn't able to convert much of that pre-NBC success into hits as co-chairman of the network. He was hampered severely by a writer's strike, which crippled a year's worth of TV production, but he also admits that life inside a bureaucracy wasn't the best fit.&nbsp;&quot;I was a manager, I was no longer a picker, a chooser of shows; I would do HR meetings and finance meetings and retreats,&quot; Mr. Silverman told Advertising Age.&nbsp;Mr. Silverman will be replaced by the chairman of NBC Universal's stable of cable networks, Jeff Gaspin, who will become chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment. In addition to cable and the network, Mr. Gaspin oversees NBC Universal's own studio, Universal Media Networks.&nbsp;&quot;This new structure helps us align all of our TV entertainment assets under one veteran executive at a time when continued innovation is essential,&quot; NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker said in a statement. Talk of Mr. Silverman leaving NBC has been rampant this year, and both sides seem to grow increasingly uncomfortable with one another. Just last week, Mr. Silverman was quoted at a Los Angeles conference talking about sales in the &quot;upfront&quot; TV advertising market, and suggested NBC and WPP's Group M had completed negotiations. But NBC executives were quick to suggest that he had misspoken.&nbsp;But some of his ideas have gained traction, especially the idea of bringing marketers into a show's production process early enough so that the integration is smooth. He also brought ideas about new models for sharing the costs of TV production, such as when NBC entered into an unusual agreement with DirecTV to help keep &quot;Friday Night Lights&quot; on the air. And people will be watching the return of &quot;Chuck&quot; in 2010 to see if a promotional agreement NBC has struck with Subway will keep the program on the air.&nbsp;Mr. Silverman, though, pined to get out of the network and return to his more entrepreneurial roots. He had sold Reveille to Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Limited in 2008.&nbsp;&quot;Having run a talent agency and then being inside a media company it was becoming clear to me that the businesses are siloed and those need to be broken down,&quot; he said. &quot;This is something the media companies are going to have to do more and more but it is going to take them longer to do it because they have to support the entrenched system as well.&quot;&nbsp;As an example, Mr. Silverman held up the marketing barrage for Microsoft's search engine Bing.com, which included integrations across NBC, from standard 30-second spots and custom content on &quot;The Philanthropist&quot; to jaunty mentions on air by stars such as Jimmy Fallon. He said he'll be better able to put those kinds of deals together outside the network, as well as create content that will work with different economics than network TV, where a single episode can cost $1 million to produce.&nbsp;IAC has been attempting to build its content business on a micro-scale for several years through production arms such as College Humor, which recently launched its own production company. All the while, though, Mr. Diller has been steadfast that none of IAC's content initiatives signal a move back into TV. Now that's changed.Mr. Silverman's departure from NBC resolves what some construe as a distraction, where his work style and social schedule rankled NBC's more buttoned-up network execs and provided regular fodder for the blogs.&nbsp;Despite the failed shows and little ratings progress, Mr. Silverman said he should be judged by the performance of NBC's fall season, the first he's been able to develop and market without the distraction of a strike. This includes the move of Jay Leno to 10 p.m., a significant shift to the network TV landscape.&nbsp;He'll be staying on at NBC through the beginning of the fall season. His co-chairman at NBC Entertainment, Marc Graboff, will now report to Mr. Gaspin.&nbsp;With all of NBC's TV businesses reporting to one executive, Mr. Gaspin said the company will be better able to select shows that they can make money from over time, on the network, cable, and in syndication. But profitable isn't enough; he said NBC will win again in the ratings.&nbsp;&quot;Even though the [network] model is challenged it is still the best way to get the biggest audience sampled quickly,&quot; he told Ad Age. &quot;We are going to have a better hit ratio than we had before.&quot;]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>What is REALLY Going on With the Upfront and Why One of Our Most Esteemed U.S. Presidents was Wrong</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/07/whats_really_going_on_with_the_1.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.36934</id>
   
   <published>2009-07-22T18:53:49Z</published>
   <updated>2009-07-23T01:35:03Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[This is based on a number of conversations I never had with some of the very top executives on both the buying and selling sides of the table, if you catch my drift.What&rsquo;s controlling the slow-as-molasses-Upfront Marketplace is pure, unadulterated FEAR. Fear at the client level, fear at the media agency level, fear at the networks.And Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of our most esteemed presidents, was wrong when he said that the &ldquo;Only thing we have to fear is fear itself.&rdquo;No, the fear is real. It&rsquo;s fear all these players have of losing their jobs.It starts at the client level. One major media agency executive I never spoke to tells this story, or so I hear:&ldquo;The meetings at the client used to be with the heads of media and maybe the CMOs. Now it&rsquo;s just as likely to be with the CEOs and the CFOs and the heads of procurement.&ldquo;And the meetings go something like this. The CFO says he&rsquo;s heard that P&amp;G tore up all its media agreements and are now getting much better deals. The networks are running scared. For instance, we should be getting maybe negative 9 or 10 percent at CBS.&ldquo;I say no, what you&rsquo;ve heard about P&amp;G isn&rsquo;t true. And the networks aren&rsquo;t running scared. In fact, in scatter they are doing pretty well now. Third quarter scatter is doing quite well for them, in fact. And CBS is never going to give you negative 9 or 10 percent.&ldquo;The CFO then looks at me hard and says that I don&rsquo;t understand the marketplace and this meeting is over.&rdquo;This person is clearly one of the gutsier media agency executives who's been around a long time and whose kids are probably out of college, so he or she isn't in the grip of the fear as much as some others might be.Clearly the economy has everyone spooked. The pressure on the clients&rsquo; bottom lines has never been greater. For the value they got for every dollar spent in the past they want double that value.And the buyer is right. Scatter for the third quarter IS strong. If Jo Ann Ross at CBS approved an upfront deal at negative 9 or 10 percent she&rsquo;d probably be fired.And if it came out publicly that a media agency did business at CBS for up or flat or even negative 1%, they&rsquo;d probably be fired by the client.And if the CFO at the client approved a deal with CBS for up or flat or negative 1% they&rsquo;d probably get fired by the CEO.And so it would go. Or so everyone thinks. Perception, as they say, is reality.So the giant game of Chicken; this giant stare-off with billions of dollars at stake, goes on.But here&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s true. The sellers do indeed have something the buyers need. Advertising on television, as study after study has shown, DOES work.Some deals are, quietly, getting done.Buyers are finding that as time has progressed since May, clients are calling them, saying let&rsquo;s add maybe 20 more gross ratings points to our plan, or let&rsquo;s extend that campaign we want to do by a week. So, slowly, the budgets are coming back.As the money builds, that might be an incentive to get an upfront deal done sooner than later.But then the fear sets in again. The client thinks, well, I&rsquo;m not really getting penalized too much by waiting and buying in scatter. Usually there&rsquo;s been no premium, and I&rsquo;m only paying one percent or two percent over upfront prices.Accompanying fear&mdash;and partly causing it&mdash;is that other business bugaboo, uncertainty.When the uncertainty about the economy starts to subside, the fear will start to subside and there will be a return to more normalcy.This normal might be somewhat different than the old normal, but it&rsquo;ll be better than what we&rsquo;re going through now.Meanwhile, let&rsquo;s look forward to the upfront becoming more robust as we approach August. I hear it&rsquo;s the new June.#]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="991" label="upfront" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[This is based on a number of conversations I never had with some of the very top executives on both the buying and selling sides of the table, if you catch my drift.What&rsquo;s controlling the slow-as-molasses-Upfront Marketplace is pure, unadulterated FEAR. Fear at the client level, fear at the media agency level, fear at the networks.And Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of our most esteemed presidents, was wrong when he said that the &ldquo;Only thing we have to fear is fear itself.&rdquo;No, the fear is real. It&rsquo;s fear all these players have of losing their jobs.It starts at the client level. One major media agency executive I never spoke to tells this story, or so I hear:&ldquo;The meetings at the client used to be with the heads of media and maybe the CMOs. Now it&rsquo;s just as likely to be with the CEOs and the CFOs and the heads of procurement.&ldquo;And the meetings go something like this. The CFO says he&rsquo;s heard that P&amp;G tore up all its media agreements and are now getting much better deals. The networks are running scared. For instance, we should be getting maybe negative 9 or 10 percent at CBS.&ldquo;I say no, what you&rsquo;ve heard about P&amp;G isn&rsquo;t true. And the networks aren&rsquo;t running scared. In fact, in scatter they are doing pretty well now. Third quarter scatter is doing quite well for them, in fact. And CBS is never going to give you negative 9 or 10 percent.&ldquo;The CFO then looks at me hard and says that I don&rsquo;t understand the marketplace and this meeting is over.&rdquo;This person is clearly one of the gutsier media agency executives who's been around a long time and whose kids are probably out of college, so he or she isn't in the grip of the fear as much as some others might be.Clearly the economy has everyone spooked. The pressure on the clients&rsquo; bottom lines has never been greater. For the value they got for every dollar spent in the past they want double that value.And the buyer is right. Scatter for the third quarter IS strong. If Jo Ann Ross at CBS approved an upfront deal at negative 9 or 10 percent she&rsquo;d probably be fired.And if it came out publicly that a media agency did business at CBS for up or flat or even negative 1%, they&rsquo;d probably be fired by the client.And if the CFO at the client approved a deal with CBS for up or flat or negative 1% they&rsquo;d probably get fired by the CEO.And so it would go. Or so everyone thinks. Perception, as they say, is reality.So the giant game of Chicken; this giant stare-off with billions of dollars at stake, goes on.But here&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s true. The sellers do indeed have something the buyers need. Advertising on television, as study after study has shown, DOES work.Some deals are, quietly, getting done.Buyers are finding that as time has progressed since May, clients are calling them, saying let&rsquo;s add maybe 20 more gross ratings points to our plan, or let&rsquo;s extend that campaign we want to do by a week. So, slowly, the budgets are coming back.As the money builds, that might be an incentive to get an upfront deal done sooner than later.But then the fear sets in again. The client thinks, well, I&rsquo;m not really getting penalized too much by waiting and buying in scatter. Usually there&rsquo;s been no premium, and I&rsquo;m only paying one percent or two percent over upfront prices.Accompanying fear&mdash;and partly causing it&mdash;is that other business bugaboo, uncertainty.When the uncertainty about the economy starts to subside, the fear will start to subside and there will be a return to more normalcy.This normal might be somewhat different than the old normal, but it&rsquo;ll be better than what we&rsquo;re going through now.Meanwhile, let&rsquo;s look forward to the upfront becoming more robust as we approach August. I hear it&rsquo;s the new June.#]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>The Top 5 Questions Media Planners Need to Ask</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/07/the_top_5_questions_media_plan.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.36851</id>
   
   <published>2009-07-20T18:45:00Z</published>
   <updated>2009-07-20T18:56:37Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[[Editor's Note: It's been a long-slow summer so far waiting out the Upfront, as the interview below with OMD's Alan Cohen, courtesy Ad Age, attests. But before you get to that, we offer a most important article first. As planners, you&nbsp;need to keep your eyes on the prize. Meaning that what's of foremost importance, is, as Roger Baron, Media Research Director of DRAFTFCB Chicago says, &quot;developing a plan that will most effectively deliver and communicate the advertising message.&quot; So here are &quot;The Top 5 Questions Media Planners Need to Ask.&quot; Mr. Baron wrote this for us several years ago, but, as he notes, these are indeed time-tested questions.]These days, planners have at their fingertips an enormous amount of information on virtually every advertising medium. They can find out how many people are exposed, how often, at what time, for how many minutes, with what demographic composition, with what reach and frequency, and so forth, ad infinitum.Getting facts about a medium is easy. The challenge is to develop a plan that will most effectively deliver and communicate the advertising message. This involves intensely practical decisions that depend on inherently unknowable thoughts in the minds of the target audience. The challenge appears in the form of perennial questions to which there is no simple answer.Some time ago we asked a group of senior media research professionals for their informal list of the five most commonly asked media questions. I have found that these questions stand the test of time and continue to be highly relevant-they are truly &quot;perennial&quot; questions.1. How Much Is Enough?This is the most common and the most difficult question. It takes many forms. What is the least I can spend and still have a successful introduction? If I have this many points against women 25 to 54, am I delivering enough weight against men? How many times does a person need to see an ad to be effectively communicated to? And the related question, what percent of my target do I need to reach that many times?Typical considerations include reach/frequency objectives, a brand's share of voice compared with its share of market, the product category's historic advertising/sales ratio, experience with comparable products and brand profitability requirements. With luck, these various methods will point to similar spending and media weight levels.2. Most Effective Medium?We first have to ask, Effective at doing what? Different media have different strengths. Planners try to match the medium to the marketing objectives, but that doesn't help if they are conflicting or unprioritized. Also, effectiveness is highly dependent on the creative. Many people think TV is the most effective medium for generating brand awareness, but this question comes up when TV is not appropriate or affordable. Finally, there are virtually no independent cross-media effectiveness studies.3. The Best Environment?This question assumes there is some prestige rub-off from the medium to the message. Many advertisers think the popularity of high-rated programs will transfer to the advertised products. But this is not proven. We do know they attract light viewers (that's part of the reason they are high rated in the first place), but the top-rated shows carry such a heavy CPM premium that advertisers are forced to cut back on the number of units they can afford. We also know that the first position in a break has a larger audience than mid-positions, but pod position is typically beyond a buyer's control.4. Flighting or Continuity?In past few years this age-old question has gotten new attention with the concept of &quot;recency.&quot; New scanner-based research suggests that the first exposure to a campaign generates the highest proportion of sales. Erwin Ephron uses this finding to support his &quot;shelf-space model of media planning.&quot; Each week people are shopping and buying, and so should be exposed to a brand's message. Therefore, media plans should be evaluated in terms of cumulative weekly reach points. The familiar diminishing returns curve shows that reach builds rapidly at first, but beyond a certain point additional GRPs yield mostly (wasted) frequency. As a result, continuous low-level support (yielding proportionally higher reach each week) is preferable to concentrating weight in flights.Taken to the extreme, planners would simply divide the available budget by 52 weeks, but this conflicts with the long-standing belief that there is a threshold below which advertising is ineffective. Most brands schedule a minimum of 50 to 70 target GRPs per week, but relatively few can afford to run for a year at this level. Planners must also take into account the effect of competitive weight, the need for consumer and trade promotion synergy, product seasonality and other factors.5. Is an Ad Too Old?This is a tough one. It's hard enough to know what a commercial &quot;does&quot; when it is fresh, no less when it is worn-out. Wear-out is another variation of the first question, How much is enough? Many planners use the apocryphal rule of thumb that a commercial is worn-out when the heaviest 20 percent of viewers have seen it 26 times. Although this provides a benchmark against which to judge a given situation, many questions remain. Should the 26 times rule be applied to each execution? To the entire campaign with similar but different executions? Over how many months? What about long hiatus periods? One researcher observed, &quot;With wear-out there is always a hidden agenda-the agency wants to make a new spot and the client doesn't, or vice versa. The math is just a smoke screen.&quot;To Sum Up ...Unlike simple facts about a medium, these perennial questions deal with the effect of advertising-how it is perceived in the mind of each person who is exposed. There is a wealth of information that can provide guidance, but in the end, the planner must use judgment to apply these general findings from the past to specific plans for the future. #And now, as promised, the interview with OMD CEO Alan Cohen on the slowness of the upfront market, among other key issues:By Michael Bush Advertising AgeSince taking the job as U.S. CEO of Omnicom Group's OMD a little over a year ago, Alan Cohen has seen the agency rack up an impressive number of wins -- 16 to be exact, including Callaway, Henkel Dial, Levi's Dockers and CBS Showtime.Not only have the wins added to the agency's bottom line but they have helped to shed that knock that OMD is merely a media department for Omnicom's creative shops.Mr. Cohen will in no way take all the credit for the agency's new business activity, but instead credits that success to the internal changes and shifts in mindset that the agency has made over the past 15 months.&nbsp;&quot;The place was working well before I got there,&quot; he said. &quot;But we have a new corporate structure in the U.S. and we live by these four pillars of strategy, digital, innovation and savings. And in each of these areas we have populated a new team that leads each of these business units.&quot;Mr. Cohen spoke with Ad Age about the conversations the motionless upfront market has sparked between OMD and its clients, the commoditization or lack thereof of media agencies and his thoughts on whether this year's Super Bowl will still be a must buy for marketers.Ad Age: OMD is usually a very active upfront player, so how are you viewing this year's stalemate?Mr. Cohen: This can't go on forever because people have to be on the air. With the economy being what it is, it's not surprising that clients and agencies are hesitant to move because we really don't see the recognition of the current economic state at the networks, and the demand is off.Ad Age: Has it caused you to alter your strategy?Mr. Cohen: I wouldn't say we are switching strategy away from broadcast. The main thing we are doing is being proactive and talking to clients about alternatives to drive efficiencies. This situation has made us look at some alternatives that will give clients the ability to reach broad audiences in a different way. We are doing that much like we did with our Economic Recovery Act at the end of 2008, where we went to our clients and talked about ways to re-invent current media plans to have more impact.Ad Age: Do you see any signs anywhere that the marketplace is improving?Mr. Cohen: I don't know if things are getting better but they don't seem to be getting worse at the moment. We know demand is way down in general for advertising and there are certainly plenty of alternatives for TV. We are working with all marketers and advertisers to figure out what we can do. But the demand is off, so there hasn't been any pressure for anybody to move.Ad Age: Any thoughts on when we'll see that first deal?Mr. Cohen: This is an interesting marketplace in that it's not advantageous to move because there is no benefit to being first. We talk to our clients everyday and there's simply a disconnect between what our clients and we think the marketplace is compared to what all of our [media] suppliers think it is. This is nothing endemic to OMD, it's just the industry waiting for something to happen. When our clients want to move, we will move.Obviously, clients are still launching products and doing things and we are very active in all those spaces. But it's just one of those things where nobody wants to be the first to move in a market that doesn't seem to be recognizing the economic situation we are in.Ad Age: Do you feel media agencies are becoming commoditized?Mr. Cohen: I don't think that's the case here. But because everyone is so big and companies spend a lot of money, there's a portion of business that really relies on the analytics and tools to be able to deliver efficiencies, savings and ROI. Is there more of that? In a tough economy, there's probably more of a push for that and that leads us to looking at different things that may happen down the road.But at the same time, we see as much or more of a yearning from clients that want the thinking, strategy and intelligence. And if at the end of the day we are managing these gigantic budgets for clients, you have to have smart people that you trust to be your marketing money managers. So we want to have the smartest analytics and killer creativity and the combination of the two is what helps us use media to power our clients' marketing.Every client works with lots of different agencies, probably too many, in a lot of different spaces. We're saying somebody has to step up and become your lead agency and chief strategic agency, and we're working toward that goal of being not only the chief strategic agency but also the central intelligence agency. We are coming to clients with new opportunities, whether in emerging media or pop culture or in media savings. This whole space has become more dynamic. And it's an exciting opportunity to be able to start maximizing the value and importance of what we deliver in that whole advertising relationship.Ad Age: Do you see any media sellers doing anything really original?Mr. Cohen: We approach it a little differently than just having sellers call on us to talk about what they offer. We're doing a lot of the proactive nurturing of talking to our vendor partners. There's not a cookie-cutter thing that these sellers could come to us anymore and say: &quot;Look what we are doing.&quot;A lot of it is so custom-tailored to the work we are doing that the pressure point is really on our strategy and planning teams, because what we do is sit down with our clients and say, &quot;How can we successfully launch or re-launch brands and drive traffic to stores?&quot; And often, we are really going to the suppliers and saying here's what we would like to do. And there's a genuine openness, and not because they are hungry for money. Because while the commodity part of the business exists, the way we make a difference in our clients' marketing is using media as a technique to break through the clutter and do new things.Ad Age: OMD has always been a big buyer of Super Bowl spots. Are you looking at the event differently this year? And do marketers still feel they need to be there?Mr. Cohen: It's not just my TV background talking here, but I still believe there's a lot of power in TV and big events on TV. So you're still going to see the Super Bowl be an event in which marketers realize they can talk to a lot of people at one time.As much as the business is about the super-sliverized segmented consumers, you really have to go and create something that is going to capture their attention. You can't just advertise. You have to create word of mouth, get people talking about it and let the consumers be your marketers. And in that regard, we see a lot of work being done on the mass side as well as the micro-segmenting side and everywhere in between. But it's the formation of the overall media and marketing plans that allow clients to break through the clutter and get new products sold, and certainly I would never think that TV is not important anymore.Ad Age: What are some of the changes you have made in process, structure and people?Mr. Cohen: We have this constant pursuit of savings and it's powered by our brand of this business intelligence, which uses analytics and dashboards but really makes us more like consultants for our clients. So I can't say we have remade the entire company in a year, but we rebuilt about 10 of our accounts, re-staffed them for this new model of the new OMD that's more focused on how we can help you launch and re-launch products and brands.We have had a lot of new business wins but a lot of the work we have done has been with our existing clients and showing them how media is the place where you need to have smart marketing money managers. The conversation on media is happening at the highest levels of all these companies now because it's that important.#]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="3279" label="Alan Cohen" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="3281" label="Media Planner" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="3283" label="OMD" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[[Editor's Note: It's been a long-slow summer so far waiting out the Upfront, as the interview below with OMD's Alan Cohen, courtesy Ad Age, attests. But before you get to that, we offer a most important article first. As planners, you&nbsp;need to keep your eyes on the prize. Meaning that what's of foremost importance, is, as Roger Baron, Media Research Director of DRAFTFCB Chicago says, &quot;developing a plan that will most effectively deliver and communicate the advertising message.&quot; So here are &quot;The Top 5 Questions Media Planners Need to Ask.&quot; Mr. Baron wrote this for us several years ago, but, as he notes, these are indeed time-tested questions.]These days, planners have at their fingertips an enormous amount of information on virtually every advertising medium. They can find out how many people are exposed, how often, at what time, for how many minutes, with what demographic composition, with what reach and frequency, and so forth, ad infinitum.Getting facts about a medium is easy. The challenge is to develop a plan that will most effectively deliver and communicate the advertising message. This involves intensely practical decisions that depend on inherently unknowable thoughts in the minds of the target audience. The challenge appears in the form of perennial questions to which there is no simple answer.Some time ago we asked a group of senior media research professionals for their informal list of the five most commonly asked media questions. I have found that these questions stand the test of time and continue to be highly relevant-they are truly &quot;perennial&quot; questions.1. How Much Is Enough?This is the most common and the most difficult question. It takes many forms. What is the least I can spend and still have a successful introduction? If I have this many points against women 25 to 54, am I delivering enough weight against men? How many times does a person need to see an ad to be effectively communicated to? And the related question, what percent of my target do I need to reach that many times?Typical considerations include reach/frequency objectives, a brand's share of voice compared with its share of market, the product category's historic advertising/sales ratio, experience with comparable products and brand profitability requirements. With luck, these various methods will point to similar spending and media weight levels.2. Most Effective Medium?We first have to ask, Effective at doing what? Different media have different strengths. Planners try to match the medium to the marketing objectives, but that doesn't help if they are conflicting or unprioritized. Also, effectiveness is highly dependent on the creative. Many people think TV is the most effective medium for generating brand awareness, but this question comes up when TV is not appropriate or affordable. Finally, there are virtually no independent cross-media effectiveness studies.3. The Best Environment?This question assumes there is some prestige rub-off from the medium to the message. Many advertisers think the popularity of high-rated programs will transfer to the advertised products. But this is not proven. We do know they attract light viewers (that's part of the reason they are high rated in the first place), but the top-rated shows carry such a heavy CPM premium that advertisers are forced to cut back on the number of units they can afford. We also know that the first position in a break has a larger audience than mid-positions, but pod position is typically beyond a buyer's control.4. Flighting or Continuity?In past few years this age-old question has gotten new attention with the concept of &quot;recency.&quot; New scanner-based research suggests that the first exposure to a campaign generates the highest proportion of sales. Erwin Ephron uses this finding to support his &quot;shelf-space model of media planning.&quot; Each week people are shopping and buying, and so should be exposed to a brand's message. Therefore, media plans should be evaluated in terms of cumulative weekly reach points. The familiar diminishing returns curve shows that reach builds rapidly at first, but beyond a certain point additional GRPs yield mostly (wasted) frequency. As a result, continuous low-level support (yielding proportionally higher reach each week) is preferable to concentrating weight in flights.Taken to the extreme, planners would simply divide the available budget by 52 weeks, but this conflicts with the long-standing belief that there is a threshold below which advertising is ineffective. Most brands schedule a minimum of 50 to 70 target GRPs per week, but relatively few can afford to run for a year at this level. Planners must also take into account the effect of competitive weight, the need for consumer and trade promotion synergy, product seasonality and other factors.5. Is an Ad Too Old?This is a tough one. It's hard enough to know what a commercial &quot;does&quot; when it is fresh, no less when it is worn-out. Wear-out is another variation of the first question, How much is enough? Many planners use the apocryphal rule of thumb that a commercial is worn-out when the heaviest 20 percent of viewers have seen it 26 times. Although this provides a benchmark against which to judge a given situation, many questions remain. Should the 26 times rule be applied to each execution? To the entire campaign with similar but different executions? Over how many months? What about long hiatus periods? One researcher observed, &quot;With wear-out there is always a hidden agenda-the agency wants to make a new spot and the client doesn't, or vice versa. The math is just a smoke screen.&quot;To Sum Up ...Unlike simple facts about a medium, these perennial questions deal with the effect of advertising-how it is perceived in the mind of each person who is exposed. There is a wealth of information that can provide guidance, but in the end, the planner must use judgment to apply these general findings from the past to specific plans for the future. #And now, as promised, the interview with OMD CEO Alan Cohen on the slowness of the upfront market, among other key issues:By Michael Bush Advertising AgeSince taking the job as U.S. CEO of Omnicom Group's OMD a little over a year ago, Alan Cohen has seen the agency rack up an impressive number of wins -- 16 to be exact, including Callaway, Henkel Dial, Levi's Dockers and CBS Showtime.Not only have the wins added to the agency's bottom line but they have helped to shed that knock that OMD is merely a media department for Omnicom's creative shops.Mr. Cohen will in no way take all the credit for the agency's new business activity, but instead credits that success to the internal changes and shifts in mindset that the agency has made over the past 15 months.&nbsp;&quot;The place was working well before I got there,&quot; he said. &quot;But we have a new corporate structure in the U.S. and we live by these four pillars of strategy, digital, innovation and savings. And in each of these areas we have populated a new team that leads each of these business units.&quot;Mr. Cohen spoke with Ad Age about the conversations the motionless upfront market has sparked between OMD and its clients, the commoditization or lack thereof of media agencies and his thoughts on whether this year's Super Bowl will still be a must buy for marketers.Ad Age: OMD is usually a very active upfront player, so how are you viewing this year's stalemate?Mr. Cohen: This can't go on forever because people have to be on the air. With the economy being what it is, it's not surprising that clients and agencies are hesitant to move because we really don't see the recognition of the current economic state at the networks, and the demand is off.Ad Age: Has it caused you to alter your strategy?Mr. Cohen: I wouldn't say we are switching strategy away from broadcast. The main thing we are doing is being proactive and talking to clients about alternatives to drive efficiencies. This situation has made us look at some alternatives that will give clients the ability to reach broad audiences in a different way. We are doing that much like we did with our Economic Recovery Act at the end of 2008, where we went to our clients and talked about ways to re-invent current media plans to have more impact.Ad Age: Do you see any signs anywhere that the marketplace is improving?Mr. Cohen: I don't know if things are getting better but they don't seem to be getting worse at the moment. We know demand is way down in general for advertising and there are certainly plenty of alternatives for TV. We are working with all marketers and advertisers to figure out what we can do. But the demand is off, so there hasn't been any pressure for anybody to move.Ad Age: Any thoughts on when we'll see that first deal?Mr. Cohen: This is an interesting marketplace in that it's not advantageous to move because there is no benefit to being first. We talk to our clients everyday and there's simply a disconnect between what our clients and we think the marketplace is compared to what all of our [media] suppliers think it is. This is nothing endemic to OMD, it's just the industry waiting for something to happen. When our clients want to move, we will move.Obviously, clients are still launching products and doing things and we are very active in all those spaces. But it's just one of those things where nobody wants to be the first to move in a market that doesn't seem to be recognizing the economic situation we are in.Ad Age: Do you feel media agencies are becoming commoditized?Mr. Cohen: I don't think that's the case here. But because everyone is so big and companies spend a lot of money, there's a portion of business that really relies on the analytics and tools to be able to deliver efficiencies, savings and ROI. Is there more of that? In a tough economy, there's probably more of a push for that and that leads us to looking at different things that may happen down the road.But at the same time, we see as much or more of a yearning from clients that want the thinking, strategy and intelligence. And if at the end of the day we are managing these gigantic budgets for clients, you have to have smart people that you trust to be your marketing money managers. So we want to have the smartest analytics and killer creativity and the combination of the two is what helps us use media to power our clients' marketing.Every client works with lots of different agencies, probably too many, in a lot of different spaces. We're saying somebody has to step up and become your lead agency and chief strategic agency, and we're working toward that goal of being not only the chief strategic agency but also the central intelligence agency. We are coming to clients with new opportunities, whether in emerging media or pop culture or in media savings. This whole space has become more dynamic. And it's an exciting opportunity to be able to start maximizing the value and importance of what we deliver in that whole advertising relationship.Ad Age: Do you see any media sellers doing anything really original?Mr. Cohen: We approach it a little differently than just having sellers call on us to talk about what they offer. We're doing a lot of the proactive nurturing of talking to our vendor partners. There's not a cookie-cutter thing that these sellers could come to us anymore and say: &quot;Look what we are doing.&quot;A lot of it is so custom-tailored to the work we are doing that the pressure point is really on our strategy and planning teams, because what we do is sit down with our clients and say, &quot;How can we successfully launch or re-launch brands and drive traffic to stores?&quot; And often, we are really going to the suppliers and saying here's what we would like to do. And there's a genuine openness, and not because they are hungry for money. Because while the commodity part of the business exists, the way we make a difference in our clients' marketing is using media as a technique to break through the clutter and do new things.Ad Age: OMD has always been a big buyer of Super Bowl spots. Are you looking at the event differently this year? And do marketers still feel they need to be there?Mr. Cohen: It's not just my TV background talking here, but I still believe there's a lot of power in TV and big events on TV. So you're still going to see the Super Bowl be an event in which marketers realize they can talk to a lot of people at one time.As much as the business is about the super-sliverized segmented consumers, you really have to go and create something that is going to capture their attention. You can't just advertise. You have to create word of mouth, get people talking about it and let the consumers be your marketers. And in that regard, we see a lot of work being done on the mass side as well as the micro-segmenting side and everywhere in between. But it's the formation of the overall media and marketing plans that allow clients to break through the clutter and get new products sold, and certainly I would never think that TV is not important anymore.Ad Age: What are some of the changes you have made in process, structure and people?Mr. Cohen: We have this constant pursuit of savings and it's powered by our brand of this business intelligence, which uses analytics and dashboards but really makes us more like consultants for our clients. So I can't say we have remade the entire company in a year, but we rebuilt about 10 of our accounts, re-staffed them for this new model of the new OMD that's more focused on how we can help you launch and re-launch products and brands.We have had a lot of new business wins but a lot of the work we have done has been with our existing clients and showing them how media is the place where you need to have smart marketing money managers. The conversation on media is happening at the highest levels of all these companies now because it's that important.#]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Raging Controversy: Time For Sports Programming to Move to C3 Ratings? At Stake: Fate of an $8 Billion Market</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/07/raging_controversy_time_for_sp.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.36772</id>
   
   <published>2009-07-13T22:03:23Z</published>
   <updated>2009-07-13T22:11:52Z</updated>
   
   <summary>With a letter that went out to clients last week from Nielsen Media Research to its clients, there's a raging debate whether or not the $8 billion-plus live sports marketplace should move from live ratings to C3 ratings. The veteran TV reproter Steve McClellan reports for AdWeek.--Chuck Ross</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="3032" label="C3" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="905" label="Nielsen" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="42" label="ratings" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="2655" label="Sports" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      With a letter that went out to clients last week from Nielsen Media Research to its clients, there's a raging debate whether or not the $8 billion-plus live sports marketplace should move from live ratings to C3 ratings. The veteran TV reproter Steve McClellan reports for AdWeek.--Chuck Ross
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>Here's a First: Live Commercials in a Scripted Show</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/07/heres_a_first.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.36771</id>
   
   <published>2009-07-13T21:31:53Z</published>
   <updated>2009-07-13T21:59:30Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[In what is believed to be a first for a scripted series, &quot;Michael &amp; Michael Have Issues&quot; will feature live commercials during six of its seven episodes.The shows stars, Miichael Ian Black and Michael Showalter humorously wax poetic about the virtues of products including Unilever's Klondike, Dunkin' Donuts, Mike's Hard Lemonade and Palm Pre. Klondike will be featured in the premiere episode&mdash;July 15 at 10:30, ET&mdash;and the brand will also sponsor a web micro-series featuring the Michaels riffing on the ice-cream bar's classic tagline, &quot;What would you do for a Klondike bar?&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Showalter said the sketch show's reality-based format provided the actors their first opportunity to put their brand of self-referential meta-humor to work for sponsors. &quot;I think we felt like with this show in particular, since we were playing ourselves making a TV show, we could do something where we're basically doing promotions for advertisers as ourselves and it wouldn't necessarily pull you out of the show we're making,&quot; he said. &quot;We see it as the old-timey ad, the kind you hear on the radio all the time, where we just stand there and talk right to the camera, 'This is the product, and this is why it's great.' &quot;Jeff Lucas, Comedy Central's exec VP-ad sales, said Messrs. Showalter and Black have been more proactive than most talent when it comes to openness to product integration. &quot;Michael and Michael are very forward-thinking. They've been doing this a long time, and they also know the economic realities of television, so they know want to play ball,&quot; Mr. Lucas said. &quot;This helps them, it helps us and, most importantly, it helps our advertisers get their message across in a new and innovative way.&quot; And because Mr. Black has a separate endorsement deal with Klondike, Mr. Showalter expects that deal will lend itself to even more art-imitating-life humor for the live spots. &quot;The premise of our show is that it's reality, so I think that's something that lends itself to us being a little more transparent,&quot; he said. &quot;We couldn't do something like this on 'Stella,' because the environment was so fictionalized that to have product placement on that show would have been really distracting.&quot; None of the brands will be featured within the show itself, as Mr. Showalter is keenly aware of the flak that can come from inviting sponsors into a scripted comedy. He cited NBC's &quot;30 Rock&quot; as an example of a show that cleverly integrates brands while still breaking down the fourth wall of shameless product placement to its viewers. &quot;In this new world we live in, it's not enough just to be funny or talented, but you also have to understand the business side of it,&quot; he said. &quot;I'm all for Comedy Central making tons of money off of advertisers doing our show. I want to make it as easy for them as I can. But if it ever seems weird on our show, that we're holding product X in our right arm and it takes you out of the show, that makes it not good.&quot;# ]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="354" label="Comedy Central" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="3028" label="Commercials" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="3030" label="Michael &amp; Michael Have Issues" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[In what is believed to be a first for a scripted series, &quot;Michael &amp; Michael Have Issues&quot; will feature live commercials during six of its seven episodes.The shows stars, Miichael Ian Black and Michael Showalter humorously wax poetic about the virtues of products including Unilever's Klondike, Dunkin' Donuts, Mike's Hard Lemonade and Palm Pre. Klondike will be featured in the premiere episode&mdash;July 15 at 10:30, ET&mdash;and the brand will also sponsor a web micro-series featuring the Michaels riffing on the ice-cream bar's classic tagline, &quot;What would you do for a Klondike bar?&quot;&nbsp;Mr. Showalter said the sketch show's reality-based format provided the actors their first opportunity to put their brand of self-referential meta-humor to work for sponsors. &quot;I think we felt like with this show in particular, since we were playing ourselves making a TV show, we could do something where we're basically doing promotions for advertisers as ourselves and it wouldn't necessarily pull you out of the show we're making,&quot; he said. &quot;We see it as the old-timey ad, the kind you hear on the radio all the time, where we just stand there and talk right to the camera, 'This is the product, and this is why it's great.' &quot;Jeff Lucas, Comedy Central's exec VP-ad sales, said Messrs. Showalter and Black have been more proactive than most talent when it comes to openness to product integration. &quot;Michael and Michael are very forward-thinking. They've been doing this a long time, and they also know the economic realities of television, so they know want to play ball,&quot; Mr. Lucas said. &quot;This helps them, it helps us and, most importantly, it helps our advertisers get their message across in a new and innovative way.&quot; And because Mr. Black has a separate endorsement deal with Klondike, Mr. Showalter expects that deal will lend itself to even more art-imitating-life humor for the live spots. &quot;The premise of our show is that it's reality, so I think that's something that lends itself to us being a little more transparent,&quot; he said. &quot;We couldn't do something like this on 'Stella,' because the environment was so fictionalized that to have product placement on that show would have been really distracting.&quot; None of the brands will be featured within the show itself, as Mr. Showalter is keenly aware of the flak that can come from inviting sponsors into a scripted comedy. He cited NBC's &quot;30 Rock&quot; as an example of a show that cleverly integrates brands while still breaking down the fourth wall of shameless product placement to its viewers. &quot;In this new world we live in, it's not enough just to be funny or talented, but you also have to understand the business side of it,&quot; he said. &quot;I'm all for Comedy Central making tons of money off of advertisers doing our show. I want to make it as easy for them as I can. But if it ever seems weird on our show, that we're holding product X in our right arm and it takes you out of the show, that makes it not good.&quot;# ]]>
   </content>
</entry>

<entry>
   <title>GM to Sell Cars on eBay</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/07/gm_to_sell_cars_on_ebay.php" />
   <id>tag:www.tvweek.com,2009:/news//1.36768</id>
   
   <published>2009-07-13T21:21:43Z</published>
   <updated>2009-07-13T21:27:29Z</updated>
   
   <summary><![CDATA[General Motors is in discussions with eBay to let consumers in California buy cars online, the Associated Press reports.&quot;GM CEO Fritz Henderson said the company is working on an 'innovative new partnership' with eBay Inc. to let consumers in California bid on vehicles as they would in a normal eBay auction, or choose a &quot;Buy it Now&quot; option to purchase the car at a set price,&quot; AP reports.Dealers would still distribute the cars.--Chuck Ross]]></summary>
   <author>
      <name>Chuck Ross</name>
      
   </author>
   
      <category term="Advertising" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Broadcast" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Cable" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Digital" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
      <category term="Syndication" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category" />
   
   <category term="3025" label="ebay" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="249" label="General Motors" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   <category term="247" label="GM" scheme="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag" />
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.tvweek.com/news/">
      <![CDATA[General Motors is in discussions with eBay to let consumers in California buy cars online, the Associated Press reports.&quot;GM CEO Fritz Henderson said the company is working on an 'innovative new partnership' with eBay Inc. to let consumers in California bid on vehicles as they would in a normal eBay auction, or choose a &quot;Buy it Now&quot; option to purchase the car at a set price,&quot; AP reports.Dealers would still distribute the cars.--Chuck Ross]]>
   </content>
</entry>

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