Posted by truecreek on January 25, 2010 under More Dam News | 
By Brian Stelter
Among those closely watching the Supreme Court ruling last week that loosened restrictions on corporate campaign spending were local television stations, which now hope for a windfall.
Media of all kinds may benefit from the decision, which promises to let more political advertising money be poured into the system. Most of that money finds its way to television, and in particular, local stations in battleground states.
“It’s a big opportunity” for stations, said Steve Lanzano, the president of the Television Bureau of Advertising.
Under the Supreme Court decision, corporations and unions will be free to spend money on attack ads in ways that were previously banned. “This takes an already bulked-up, well-funded election and puts it on steroids,” said Evan Tracey, the chief operating officer of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, a division of TNS Media Intelligence.
In the supply-and-demand marketplace of advertising, “it’s going to drive up rates” for local stations, he said. “There’s going to be a lot of people fighting over the same inventory.”
In part for that reason, he expects more money will flow to radio and local cable operators.
Election advertising is especially critical this year, given the beating that local stations have taken in the downturn. Exacerbating the economic pressures, the lack of political ad dollars last year meant that many stations experienced 30 percent declines in ad revenue, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising.
More about Court Ruling Invites a Boom in Political Ads here.
Posted by truecreek on under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
By Olga Kharif
Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest U.S. radio broadcaster, said it may be interested in signing shock jock Howard Stern, whose five-year contract at Sirius XM Radio Inc. expires at the end of 2010.
The company’s interest hinges on whether Stern would be willing to work “within the limitations” of free over-the-air radio, said John Hogan, chief executive officer of the radio division of San Antonio-based Clear Channel.
“We clearly have both the willingness and the financial wherewithal to consider high-profile talent,” Hogan said in an e-mailed statement. “We would be the most logical company for him to optimize his exposure and financial return.”
Sirius XM, which averted bankruptcy last year after John Malone’s Liberty Media Corp. bought a 40 percent stake in exchange for $530 million in loans, may not be able to afford to renew the radio talk-show host’s existing contract, worth $500 million, said Tuna Amobi, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s.
Hogan’s remarks represent one of the first public expressions of interest after Stern, 56, said on air yesterday that he’s fielding calls from companies that want to hire him.
“Even if (a new contract) were half of what it was before, it would still be a major financial burden for Sirius,” Amobi said. “It’s a totally different game.”
Posted by truecreek on January 22, 2010 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
Great article by Henry Blodget.
A few years ago, when Google announced its decision to agree to censor its China site, it was savaged for selling out.
The company had violated its own “don’t be evil” motto, critics yelled, and it was tacitly supporting the Chinese government’s outrageous censorship policy.
The critics were wrong.
Google made the right decision to build a business in China a few years ago. And it’s making the right decision now, by threatening to pull out of the country if China doesn’t relax its censorship demands.
Google’s decision to make a big public threat now, when it controls 15% to 20% of China’s search market and is known to most Chinese internet users, will put far more pressure on the Chinese government to relax its policies than a boycott of the country five years ago would have.
Google matters in China now. The announcement that Google was threatening to pull out spawned public support for the company in China. It got Secretary of State Hillary Clinton into the act. It forced the Chinese government to respond with a statement. It has grabbed the attention of investors, as well as the hundreds of other companies that do business in China and are forced to play by Chinese rules. It will focus more public attention on the reality of China’s censorship policies than any boycott ever could have.
In short, by playing ball with China until it had some real leverage, Google has a much better chance of actually forcing the government to change.
More about Google Has Played the China Situation Brilliantly here.
Posted by truecreek on January 20, 2010 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
By Darren Rovell
Every time a company buys naming rights to a stadium, their executives get challenged. Is this really a good deal? Why does it seem like companies who have put their name on stadiums face greater economic trouble than those who pass on the idea?
I think the latter might be more perception than reality –- that the percentage of companies that sign naming rights deals and then file for bankruptcy are somehow much greater than those that don’t sign deals and don’t file for bankruptcy.
Answering whether naming rights deals are good deals depend on two things: price and activation.
In order to sell these rights, teams show companies what the “impression value” of the stadium is. That is, how many times will the company’s name be mentioned in the media.
The numbers being shown to these companies — ranging from millions of impressions to hundreds of millions of impressions a year –- are real. But there’s a big difference between having a 30-second ad and having your company’s name mentioned 30 times. I’m just throwing it out there, but I think that tens of thousands of impressions can equal what one 30-second ad can do as far as driving business to a company.
We just had on Wes Thompson, CEO of Sun Life Financial, whose company reportedly paid an average of $4 million over five years to put its name on the stadium where the Miami Dolphins play.
Because this is the seventh name change the stadium has had, the impression value has already been severely compromised. Simply put, fewer people are willing to call it by its official name because they’ve been put through the ringer. So Sun Life’s first job is to find out exactly how much it has been devalued — even with the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl coming up.
But the next job is to convince fans why they should have their insurance through Sun Life. That is the essential leap that makes naming rights worth it or not.
Thompson mentioned that this was an opportunity to increase brand awareness and that the stadium was a great destination, but Thompson didn’t mention exactly what Sun Life was going to do with the rights.
Perhaps Thompson needs some time, but that’s not a great start. Because it’s an insurance product, it requires more of an effort than say a beer brand like Land Shark, which previously had the name to the stadium.
Is Sun Life going to offer some sort of deal where the longer you had Dolphins season tickets, the lower they are willing to go on your insurance as compared to the product offered by their competition?
We know Sun Life employees will be in their luxury box entertaining corporations, but how many Sun Life employees will be walking throughout the stadium talking to fans?
Perhaps I didn’t pry enough on specifics, but I’m skeptical of what Sun Life is going to do because I’ve found that most naming rights deals are ego buys with very little activation. Most naming rights deals aren’t worth it because the company itself doesn’t make it worth it.
Because of this deal, I now know the name Sun Life Financial. That’s the first step. Getting me to actually put my money with the product or service the company offers is the second step. And, at least for me, it’s a step that not a single company that has ever landed naming rights has ever accomplished.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
By AP MILWAUKEE
It’s a flap over a cap.
An ad industry watchdog wants MillerCoors to modify its claims about flagship Miller Lite because it hasn’t made changes as the ads imply.
It’s a basic marketing tactic to tout a product attribute, especially if it’s new, to increase shoppers’ interest.
In this case, MillerCoors started advertising flagship Miller Lite’s “Taste Protector” caps and lids last summer. But MillerCoors acknowledges the tops don’t use new technology so its ads can’t imply they do, the National Advertising Division Council of Better Business Bureaus said Wednesday.
The industry body, known as NAD, looked into the matter after beer-making rival Anheuser-Busch Inc. complained. Many of its inquiries start with complaints by rivals.
MillerCoors has been saying the new golden tops and lids on Miller Lite, which has been in a sales slump, have a special seal that “locks out air and locks in that Great Pilsner Taste.”
NAD said in its nonbinding decision that MillerCoors should stop referring to a “special seal” and not imply the product has changed.
“While advertisers can change marketing strategies to promote the different features of their product, they must do so truthfully to avoid any potential overstatement or consumer confusion,” the board said.
In highlighting aspects of their products, companies can’t mislead, said Doug Stayman, associate dean of MBA programs at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management.
“There’s a tremendous amount of pressure on them to come out with something new and different,” he said. “And there’s a fine line. But this seems to be over it.”
MillerCoors said it will take the ruling into consideration for future advertisements. It was pleased NAD agreed it could use “Taste Protector” statements but disagreed with objections to the word “special” — although it’s been removed from packaging.
More about In Cap Flap, Miller Lite Told to Change Beer Ads here.
Posted by truecreek on January 19, 2010 under More Dam News |
This post is all about the Gator in me. My hope is that Tim Tebow goes high in the NFL draft and makes all of the pundits look stupid.
He has the potential to turn the Jacksonville franchise around, should they draft him.
By Darren Rovell
University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow reportedly will be appearing in a pro-life TV commercial with his mother on Super Bowl Sunday. That along with the talk of how far Tebow might fall in the NFL Draft got us thinking: Just how marketable is Tim Tebow right now?
We called our friends at the Davie-Brown Index to compare Tim Tebow’s endorsement attributes to current NFL quarterbacks.
According to the DBI, Tebow is:
* More known than Aaron Rodgers (Packers).
* More appealing than Brett Favre (Vikings), Tony Romo (Cowboys) and Tom Brady (Patriots).
* More of a trendsetter than Ben Roethlisberger (Steelers), Eli Manning (Giants) and Drew Brees (Saints)
Because of his remarkable college career, it looks like Tebow should expect to cash in on plenty of deals for Florida-based companies, with more deals coming if by chance he gets picked by the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Posted by truecreek on January 13, 2010 under More Dam News |
Aiming to please too many different types of customers can be a fatal flaw. Focus on your core audience and don’t waste money on the rest.
By Steve McKee
Do a quick exercise: Take a minute and jot down three types of customers your company doesn’t want. Oh, and this is important: You can’t choose people like shoplifters or “sale-hoppers”—the kind of customers that no business wants.
If you’re like most business leaders, identifying customers you don’t want isn’t easy, especially in times like these. But it can be helpful to consider which of your customers are least important, if for no other reason than to help you focus on the most important ones.
We’re all familiar with the old saying, “you can’t be all things to all people.” Yet in business, too often that’s what we end up trying to be. General Motors is a prime example (and look where it got them). There was a time when each GM nameplate was narrowly targeted toward a certain demographic, leaving other company brands to serve their own slice of customers. But over the past several decades, as each GM brand expanded its lineup to serve as many different customers as possible—sports cars for the sporty, minivans for young families, trucks for working people—they ended up stepping on each other’s toes.
Consider one of those famous brands now slated for the scrap heap: Pontiac. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, Pontiac was defined by drool-inducing muscle cars such as the GTO, Firebird, and TransAm. The Pontiac brand meant power, styling and cool. Its appeal wasn’t for everyone, but it was powerful for some. Since that time, however, Pontiac has introduced a host of new models like the Trans Sport (a minivan), Sunfire (a compact car), Aztek (an SUV crossover), and Vibe (a hatchback). It’s unclear who, exactly, Pontiac has not been trying to serve, which is another way of saying it’s been aiming to please too many masters. And soon Pontiac will be gone, as will several other once-proud brands in the GM stable.
It could be that Wal-Mart (WMT) will learn from the GM example. The company has been attracting a lot more upscale customers of late, for obvious reasons. In the first quarter of 2009, 17% of Wal-Mart’s retail visits were from new customers, and they spent 40% more in the store than the average shopper. Will the company accept their business? You bet—branding is about whose business you’ll seek, not whose you’ll take. But if Wal-Mart begins catering more to those customers’ needs at the expense of its core target of “people who live paycheck to paycheck,” it will be making a mistake.
More about Customers Your Company Doesn’t Want here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News, Research |
By Anthony Crupi
ESPN is once again atop the advertising world’s wish list, as a new Beta Research report suggests that nearly half of media buyers and clients surveyed will dedicate more dollars to the sports net in 2010.
According to the results of the latest Beta study, 45 percent of industry pros said they would increase their ad spend with ESPN over the next 12 months. Discovery Channel came in a close second, as 40 percent of respondents indicated they planned to invest more dollars on that network.
Those results reversed the findings of last year’s Beta survey, which had Discovery edging ESPN by a slight margin (45 percent to 44 percent).
Other nets that should enjoy a lift in ad sales revenue this year are: TNT, which was given the thumbs up by 36 percent of those quizzed by Beta; TBS (36 percent); Food Network (35 percent); top-rated USA Network (34 percent); ESPN2 (33 percent), HGTV (32 percent), Comedy Central (31 percent) and Bravo (29 percent).
More about ESPN Tops Beta Research Survey here.
Posted by truecreek on January 11, 2010 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
By Sarah McBride.
Last year was the first since 2002 that U.S. consumers spent more money buying movie tickets than buying movies to watch at home, underscoring the changing economics of Hollywood.
According to new data from Adams Media Research, Americans spent $9.87 billion at the box office in 2009, 10% more than in 2008, according to a report Adams plans to release Tuesday. At the same time, sales in the U.S. of feature films on DVD, long a cornerstone of movie studios’ business models, plunged 13% to $8.73 billion, including Blu-ray high-definition discs. (Other companies that track box-office receipts include Canada in their North American figures, adding about 7% to the total and pushing the year’s gross above $10 billion.)
The figures indicate that studios will likely have to continue looking for ways to survive in a marketplace where they can’t count on hefty home-entertainment revenue to offset giant production costs. Those costs often more than eat up the studios’ half of the box-office receipts, which are split with theaters.
The ongoing decline in home-entertainment revenue has already fundamentally altered the way studios do business, forcing them to place big financial bets on hoped-for mass-market blockbusters at the expense of features that cost less to make but that also have smaller earnings potential.
Hit titles such as “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” and “Up” were among those that lured large numbers of Americans to the cinema last year.
“Consumers are still in love with movies,” said Tom Adams, president of Adams Media. “In this environment, however, they’re seeking the biggest bang for their bucks.”
For studios, which count on income from home entertainment to underwrite growing production costs, the trend represents a giant headache. In the early 2000s, studios began counting on the cash bonanza generated by consumers’ building up libraries of DVDs. Now, they will have to alter budgets to reflect the shrinking DVD income stream.
More about how Cinema Surpassed DVD Sales in 2009 here.
Posted by truecreek on January 8, 2010 under More Dam News |
You just have to appreciate great B&W photographic essays. Alfred Wertheimer was offered the opportunity of a lifetime and he definitely made the most of it. Today, using B&W imagery in your print advertising is often an outstanding way to separate your message from the crowd.
By Chris Murray
In 1956, a twenty-one-year-old Elvis Presley was at the beginning of his remarkable and unparalleled career. Photojournalist Alfred Wertheimer was asked by Presley’s new label, RCA Victor, to photograph the rising star for a one-day assignment that quickly developed into an odyssey. With unimpeded access to the young performer, Wertheimer was able to capture the unguarded and everyday moments in Elvis’ life during March and July of that year, the pivotal year that made Elvis’ career—taking him from virtual obscurity to the verge of international stardom and his crowning as “The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
Wertheimer’s unobtrusive photographs of Elvis in performance, with his fans, in the recording studio, and at home with his family present a unique look at one of the world’s most famous cultural figures. These images represent the first and the last unguarded look at Elvis, and are an extraordinary portrait of a charismatic young man who would go on to become a legend.
Much more about Elvis 1956 here.
Posted by truecreek on January 5, 2010 under The Work |
I love headlines. We just completed a campaign for Comcast touting their new 50/10 Internet product. The campaign is to run in the Atlanta Journal Constitution for 11 consecutive weeks, starting next week.
You have to appreciate just how impactful these ads will be with their big and bold copy running across the bottom of the page. Simple and clean look, with essentially nothing but a great headline to drag you in.
To me, a print ad should entice and entertain, not educate. There will be more than enough time to do that later after I call you or hit your site.
Check ‘em out.
Posted by truecreek on January 4, 2010 under The Work |
The start of a new campaign for Fortress Technologies. Nice, clean look mated with a very strong visual. Definitely a bit more earthy in tone than what has been the norm, but I think it works well. Many other great headlines to work with in the future.
Posted by truecreek on December 30, 2009 under More Dam News |
By John Eggerton
For more than 60 years, TV stations have broadcast news, sports and entertainment for free and made their money by showing commercials. That might not work much longer.
The business model is unraveling at ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and the local stations that carry the networks’ programming. Cable TV and the Web have fractured the audience for free TV and siphoned its ad dollars. The recession has squeezed advertising further, forcing broadcasters to accelerate their push for new revenue to pay for programming.
That will play out in living rooms across the country. The changes could mean higher cable or satellite TV bills, as the networks and local stations squeeze more fees from pay-TV providers such as Comcast and DirecTV for the right to show broadcast TV channels in their lineups.
The networks might even ditch free broadcast signals in the next few years. Instead, they could operate as cable channels — a move that could spell the end of free TV as Americans have known it since the 1940s.
“Good programming is expensive,” Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns Fox, told a shareholder meeting this fall. “It can no longer be supported solely by advertising revenues.”
More of ‘Business Model Unraveling for TV Networks’ here.
Posted by truecreek on December 24, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
The Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Project and Internet Project combined forces to write an in-depth look at Internet penetration across racial and ethnic categories in the U.S.
A summary of the major findings:
From 2006 to 2008, Internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points, from 54% to 64%. In comparison, the rates for whites rose four percentage points, and the rates for blacks rose only two percentage points during that time period. Though Latinos continue to lag behind whites, the gap in Internet use has shrunk considerably.
For Latinos, the increase in Internet use has been fueled in large part by increases in Internet use among groups that have typically had very low rates of Internet use.
· While U.S.-born Latinos experienced a two percentage point increase in Internet use from 75% in 2006 to 77% in 2008, foreign-born Latinos experienced a 12 percentage point increase during the same period, from 40% to 52%.
· In 2006, 31% of Latinos lacking a high school degree reported ever going online; in 2008, this number was 41%. In comparison, Latinos with higher levels of education experienced three to four percentage point increases in Internet use.
· Internet use among Latinos residing in households with annual incomes less than $30,000 increased 17 percentage points from 2006 to 2008. For Latinos in households earning $30,000 to $49,999 annually, Internet use increased two percentage points, and for Latinos in households earning $50,000 or more annually, there was no change in Internet use.
Read the entire survey, Internet Use Grows Fast Among Latinos, here.
Posted by truecreek on December 21, 2009 under More Dam News |
Looks like buying Walt Disney Co.’s ABC Radio stations in 2006 was an unfortunate business decision for Citadel.
By Mike Spector and Sarah McBride
Citadel Broadcasting Corp., the third-largest radio broadcaster in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy over the weekend, the latest victim of the travails facing media companies.
Citadel, which owns and operates 224 stations across the country, listed assets of about $1.4 billion and more than $2.4 billion in debt.
The company, like many print and broadcast media outfits, faces stiff competition, shifts in consumer habits and a harsh advertising climate.
More on Citadel Files for Bankruptcy here.
Posted by truecreek on December 17, 2009 under The Work |
Posted by truecreek on December 16, 2009 under More Dam News |
This article brings up a good point that the increased usage of DVRs creates a huge problem for any advertiser whose television spot is time constrained .
By Brian Steinberg, AdAge
The ability to delay viewing of TV shows by using a digital video recorder is giving rise to noticeably different habits, according to new research from Horizon Media.
Through November 2009, 11 fall season programs were regularly “time-shifted,” or watched as many as seven days after the date of original air, by more than 3 million viewers, said Brad Adgate, the independent media-buying firm’s senior VP-research. Last year at this time, only three programs — ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” Fox’s “House” and CBS’s “CSI” — fit that bill.
The trend is cause for scrutiny among TV outlets and advertisers, because the more people who watch TV programs longer after they air, the more difficult it is to reach them with a timely ad pitch.
While futurists project one day advertisers may well be able to insert more relevant advertising into recorded programming, these days marketers remain concerned that ads for particular events — Friday-night movie openings and weekend sales at retail outlets — amount to naught when consumers watch them five or six days after they were intended to run.
Entire article, “The Most Time-Shifted Shows of the Fall Season” here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News, Research |
By David Lieberman, Associated Press
The Internet and tech toys get the headlines. But the vast majority of Americans still turn to their familiar televisions, radios, and CDs when they want to be informed and entertained, according a consumer tracking survey released Tuesday by the NPD Group.
“There’s a perception that families spending time in front of a glowing TV hearth has been replaced by glowing laptop or iPod displays,” NPD analyst Russ Cupnick says in a release. While true for some, “TV remains the top entertainment choice by far in the United States.”
More than 80% of the country watches an average of 10 hours a week of non-movie TV programming, according to the online survey of 10,281 people in August, weighted to reflect the general population.
After that:
* 78% said that they listened to music on a traditional AM/FM radio sometime during the prior week.
* 70% sent an instant message or e-mail.
* 60% listened to music on a CD.
* And 58% watched a movie on TV, not including pay-per-view or video-on-demand.
But the survey found that online is becoming an increasingly important part of the mix. Some 47% of the respondants visited a social networking site the prior week.
Read the entire survey, entitled “TV More Popular Than Internet for Entertainment” here.
Posted by truecreek on December 14, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Emily Bryson York, AdAge
Not everyone wants a value meal. And not everyone is unemployed. These insights informed an impressive year at Panera Bread Co., in which the chain outperformed much of the fast-casual category. To do so, the chain focused on quality, innovation and marketing.
“A bunch of folks have been cutting quality to cut price to go after the marginal customer,” said Exec VP-Chief Operating Officer Rick Vanzura, who added that Panera donates about $100 million in bread each year. “We said a better strategy that addresses a bigger group of people is providing better value.”
More about Panera: an America’s Hottest Brands Case Study here.
Posted by truecreek on December 10, 2009 under More Dam News |
If this software works well, it could really improve the creative process for digital media.
From Creativity.
Burt, a software development company that sprang from Crispin Porter + Bogusky Europe, has released its digital media analytics product, Rich.
Rich is aimed squarely at agency creatives and is designed as a streamlined, accessible – and free- tool for measuring the success of online campaigns.
Burt was co-founded by Gustav von Sydow and Gustav Martner of Daddy, which was acquired by CP+B this year. von Sydow was a planner at Daddy and is now working at Burt full-time; Martner is still ECD of CP+B Europe. As agency types, they say they have a greater understanding of the specific needs of creatives when it comes to these sort of tools.
Burt is making Rich available to agencies for free and, starting in January, will offer premium services like media quality audits and pre-testing for a fee.
Read more about Burt Unit Launches Analytics Tool for Creatives here.
Posted by truecreek on December 7, 2009 under More Dam News |
Gotta love Seth. We’ve been using the concept of LTPV (Lifetime Present Value) for years to help our clients determine just how much a new customer is worth. Not to mention how much you can lose when one goes out the back door.
By Seth Godin.
If you walk into a company-owned cell phone store to sign up for a contract, what are you worth?
Given the huge gross margins at AT&T and Verizon and the standard two-year contract, I think it’s easy to figure on more than $2000 in lifetime value.
If you ran a business where a customer represented an additional $2,000 in profit, how would you staff? How long would you make someone wait? If staff costs $25 an hour, how long would that extra person take to pay off?
Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth. Add to this the additional profit you get from a delighted customer spreading the word–it can easily double or triple the lifetime value.
So, a chiropractor might see a new patient being worth $2,500, easily. And yet… how much is she spending on courting, catering to and seducing that new customer? My guess is that $50 feels like a lot to the doc. Instead of comparing what you invest to the benefit you receive from the first bill, the first visit, the first transaction, it’s important to not only recognize but embrace the true lifetime value of one more customer.
Write it down. Post it on the wall. What would happen if you spent 100% of that amount on each of your next ten new customers? That’s more money than you have to spend right now, I know that, but what would happen? Imagine how fast you would grow, how quickly the word would spread.
Here’s how you’ll know when you’ve really embraced this–a good customer at your podiatry practice (or supermarket or tax firm) walks out the door in a huff and you turn to your partner and say, “There goes $74,000.”
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
Real moms still have unmet needs—as women and mothers. Boston Consulting Group estimates that women control $4.3 trillion of the $5.9 trillion in U.S. consumer spending, or 73% of household spending.
To reach this demographic, marketers need not just to communicate that the goods and services they offer are practical and convenient; they also need to make real moms feel confident and in charge.
Marketers should empower these female consumers to delegate to others (spouses, children,brands) so they can have more time to be who they want to be—at home, at work and on their own.
And marketers have to use new ways to reach a population that rarely has time to sit down to read or watch or enjoy something without simultaneously doing something else.
Read the entire report about marketing to moms here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
Not my cup of tea, but a whole bunch of people tuned in to see the final episode of USA’s “Monk.”
By Nellie Andreeva
“Monk” ended its eight-season run with a bang, becoming the most-watched hour-long series on basic cable.
The Friday series finale of the USA Network dramedy drew about 9.4 million viewers.
It is the largest audience and demo turnout to date, not only for the show and for a USA scripted series but also for a drama series on basic cable, eclipsing the 9.2 million mark for TNT’s “The Closer.” (“Monk’s” final tally is expected to grow further once Live+7 numbers are factored in).
It is a fitting farewell for a series that defined USA’s brand of quirky dramedies and kicked off the network’s ascension to cable-ratings supremacy.
The second part of “Monk’s” two-part closer, which saw Tony Shalhoub’s OCD-plagued detective solve the biggest case of his career — his wife’s murder — beat the series’ previous high in total viewers by 37%.
It also towered over all programs on the broadcast networks Friday night.
Boosted by “Monk,” the fall finale of USA’s freshman series “White Collar” also hit series highs, averaging 5.55 million viewers, the cable network’s best performance at 10 p.m. Friday in more than three years, since the series premiere of “Psych.”
“Collar” also posted its best numbers in adults 18-49: 2.1 million.
“What a perfect way for ‘Monk’, our first tentpole success, to finish its run — going out even stronger than it came in, and helping to launch another great show, ‘White Collar’,” said USA’s president of original programming Jeff Wachtel.
Read all about the final episode of Monk here.
Posted by truecreek on December 4, 2009 under More Dam News |
From Popsop
SABMiller Plc. have re-launched Pilsner Urquell, the original pilsner from Plzen, with new secondary packaging and can graphics by Lewis Moberly.
LM were appointed in 2008 as part of a global re-positioning of the brand. The new design reflects the high quality of the product and reasserts the rich and authentic heritage of the brand with a contemporary edge.
The new split color secondary packaging and can graphics are now a harmonious balance of a premium gold and dark green. The gold is a reminder of the wonderful golden color of the beer while green reflects the familiar green glass bottle. Secondary packaging features a water-marked, cropped graphic version of the Plzen town coat of arms highlighting the unique relationship between the brand and the city. The brewery gates feature as a graphic device on the base of the can.
Other Pilsner Urquell designs here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News, Research |
We’ve recommended Cinema advertising to our clients for years now. Executed well, it’s an effective tactic.
By Breeanna Hare, CNN
There’s an old Hollywood tale, and it goes like this: Open a female-led movie around Valentine’s Day. Watch women go in droves and drive up box office numbers.
Then let Hollywood executives call it a fluke, since everyone knows that women don’t go to movies.
Over the past few weeks, that tale has been told with a twist.
Two female-led movies have earned astronomically high box office numbers — like “third best opening weekend” high — on fall weekends typically dominated by blockbuster movies aimed at men. “New Moon,” the second film in the “Twilight” vampire series, has grossed more than $230 million since its opening, while “The Blind Side,” about a white family that takes in a homeless African-American boy, is already past the $100 million mark.
For both “Blind Side” and “New Moon,” women have made up more than half the audience. And by the time these films complete their runs, they could gross nearly $500 million each, said Gitesh Pandya, the editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com, because of a largely female audience packing theaters.
Read more about women going to the movies here.
