Posted by truecreek on March 29, 2010 under More Dam News, Research | 
From NNN:
Newspaper readership in the top 100 markets grew to 80.6 million, up from 78.7 million, a gain of 2.5%, based on the most recent Spring 2008 Mediamark Research & Intelligence (MRI) survey as compared to the prior year. MRI tracks daily newspaper readership in the top 100 markets for Newspaper National Network LP and reports the NNN 100 Daily Code.
While daily newspaper circulation in the top 100 markets has been in decline, there are several factors which can explain why readership has increased:
* Newspaper websites have shown consistent growth in unique visitors, and may be drawing in new or returning print readers.
* Publishers have cut marginal circulation, not core circulation. These copies went to less frequent readers.
* Secondary readership is up, as more newspaper readers are reading copies they did not purchase themselves.
* Free daily newspapers like Metro or am New York which are appealing to new newspaper readers.
This is the second survey in a row showing an increase in NNN 100 Daily newspaper readership, with the Fall 2007 survey up 1.8%. These are the first increases the measure has shown since it was created in Fall 2003. In addition, the median household income of newspaper readers grew 4.9%, to $64,861.
Posted by truecreek on March 24, 2010 under More Dam News, Research |
There are times when no amount of advertising and marketing can pull you up from the floor. The issues facing Toyota right now are monumental in their entirety and really do have the potential to damage the brand beyond recognition. We’re talking years here, I believe.
USA Today: Yet another survey points to bad news for Toyota: A pollster says findings show Toyota has crushed its quality reputation.
In two short years, Americans having a positive perception of Toyota’s commitment to building quality cars has plummeted to 21.8% from over 80%, according to the findings of the latest survey by Britt Beemer at the BeemerReport.com
Only 31.8% of Americans believe Toyota can rebuild its quality image, the verdict is still out about their ability to recover. Some 22.1% are undecided whether they can rebuild the quality image and 18% don’t think Toyota will be able to do it.
“While their reputation is on the line, Toyota’s problems don’t stop there because buyers are now wary of the Toyota brand,” says Beemer. “Toyota has some real selling to do just to convince current Toyota car owners to buy another one.”
But will current Toyota owners save the day?
Maybe, the survey finds. The survey revealed that consumers who have purchased Toyotas in the past are evenly divided about whether they will buy another one in the future or not. Of these potential buyers, 52.6% will no longer consider buying a Toyota car in the future.
American car manufacturers may ultimately be the benefactors of Toyota’s quality issues, according to Beemer. Due to Toyota’s quality issues, 69.1% of car buyers are more likely to purchase an American made automobile. That number is up from 38% two years ago.
The survey comes from 1,000 telephone interviews conducted Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 12, 13 and 14, 2010, at ARG headquarters in Charleston, SC. The error factor is plus or minus 3.8%.
Posted by truecreek on February 24, 2010 under More Dam News |
By Brendan I. Koerner.
Your random tweets about Android apps and last night’s Glee are stifling the economic recovery. At least, that’s the buzz among efficiency mavens, who seem to spend all their time adding up microblogging’s fiscal toll. Last year, Nucleus Research warned that Facebook shaves 1.5 percent off total office productivity; a Morse survey estimated that on-the-job social networking costs British companies $2.2 billion a year.
But for knowledge workers charged with transforming ideas into products — whether gadgets, code, or even Wired articles — goofing off isn’t the enemy. In fact, regularly stepping back from the project at hand can be essential to success. And social networks are particularly well suited to stoking the creative mind.
Studies that accuse social networks of reducing productivity assume that time spent microblogging is time strictly wasted. But that betrays an ignorance of the creative process. Humans weren’t designed to maintain a constant focus on assigned tasks. We need periodic breaks to relieve our conscious minds of the pressure to perform — pressure that can lock us into a single mode of thinking. Musing about something else for a while can clear away the mental detritus, letting us see an issue through fresh eyes, a process that creativity researchers call incubation. “People are more successful if we force them to move away from a problem or distract them temporarily,” observe the authors of Creativity and the Mind, a landmark text in the psychology and neuroscience of creativity. They found that regular breaks enhance problem-solving skills significantly, in part by making it easier for workers to sift through their memories in search of relevant clues.
That doesn’t mean that employees should feel free to play Minesweeper at will, however. According to Don Ambrose, a Rider University professor who studies creative intelligence, incubation is most effective when it involves exposing the mind to entirely novel information rather than just relieving mental pressure. This encourages creative association, the mashing together of seemingly unrelated concepts — a key step in the creative process.
More about How Twitter and Facebook Make Us More Productive here.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
By Patrick Lencioni.
New ads for Domino’s Pizza display unusual corporate vulnerability—and the surprising effectiveness of talking straight.
I recently saw a television commercial that made quite an impression on me, and I have a hunch that it might go down as one of the most effective advertisements of all time, assuming the company behind it is sincere. I’m talking about Domino’s Pizza (DPZ) and the recent ad in which the company concedes the shortcomings of its product and explains what has been done to improve it.
The spot opens with customers describing Domino’s pizza using words like ketchup and cardboard. Then, Domino’s President J. Patrick Doyle matter-of-factly explains the importance of acknowledging how customers see his pizza. Finally he outlines the company’s response: 40% more herbs in its sauce, better cheese, a special glaze on the crust. I have a hard time remembering the names of the U.S. Supreme Court justices and even what I had for breakfast. But I can remember all those details from the Domino’s ad, and that says a lot about its impact.
I’m willing to bet that Domino’s will sell a lot more pizzas in the months ahead. And the reason I believe that has less to do with the new ingredients than with Domino’s willingness to cross a line that most companies—and for that matter, most leaders—won’t even approach. Domino’s chose to make itself vulnerable.
Vulnerability isn’t a word that shows up on lists of ingredients for business success. Here’s why it should: Without the willingness and ability to be vulnerable, we simply can’t build deep and lasting relationships in business and, come to think of it, life.
Vulnerability is often seen as a weakness; it’s actually a sign of strength. People who are genuinely open and transparent prove that they have the confidence and self-esteem to allow others to see them as they really are, warts and all. There’s something undeniably magnetic about people who can do that.
When it comes to the workplace, vulnerability is critical in the building of teams. When teammates feel free to admit their mistakes, ask for help, and acknowledge their own weaknesses, they reduce divisive politics and build a bond of trust more valuable than almost any strategic advantage. Another great venue for vulnerability is the one I work in, the world of service. When consultants and advisers are willing to ask dumb questions, tell the unvarnished truth, or broach the painful, elephant-in-the-room topic, they engender loyalty and trust with clients.
More about The Power of Saying ‘We Blew It’ here.
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 20, 2010 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 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 December 7, 2009 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 December 4, 2009 under The Work |
“Keep on Truckin’” was a one-page comic by Robert Crumb, published in the first issue of Zap Comix in 1968. We thought we’d have a little fun with it.
Posted by truecreek on December 2, 2009 under More Dam News |
From Popsop:
Heinz is going to spend more money on its marketing campaigns over the next few months to attract new shoppers and please consumers loyal to its products. The giant food company’s profits rose to $2.67 billion (2.5%) in the last quarter, and the giant believes it’s high time to adopt new approaches for gaining more popularity among customers, looking for discounts and bargains.
The company is going to spend 25-30% more in the second half of the fiscal year, and in four years the expenditures set for these purposes will comprise $130 million. Over this period the marketing investments will be greatly increased particularly in North America and Europe.
“Even though the global recession appears to be abating, there’s no question that consumer and customers remain intensely focused on value which they are more often defining as price,” comments Bill Johnson, chairman/CEO of Heinz. The new approach is going to be based around the company’s Consumer Value Program scheme involving “selective price point adjustments that are more attractive to cost conscious consumers, targeted media, increased point of purchase, in store marketing and increased new product activity,” noted Johnson.
Posted by truecreek on November 30, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Meg James
There’s finally some new life in old media.
After pummeling traditional media companies for nearly two years, the advertising recession is showing signs of a recovery. TV networks — including Fox, CBS and ABC and such leading cable channels as TNT, TBS, USA, Bravo and Fox News Channel — have benefited the most as advertisers have been snapping up available commercial spots and agreeing to pay significantly higher prices than they did just five months ago.
“In challenging times, people go back to what they know, and what they know best is television,” said David Levy, president of sales for Turner Entertainment, which includes TNT and TBS. “It is a little too early to declare victory, but the market is definitely improving.”
The welcome news is the result of stronger-than-expected demand for TV advertising in the “scatter” market, in which advertisers frequently have to pay premiums for scarce available commercial time. It also represents something of a win for the networks, which gambled this summer that demand would pick up later in the year and held back a larger percentage of their inventory than in previous years, hoping to capitalize on the improved economy.
Fourth-quarter commercial sales have been propelled by retail chains hoping to ignite their holiday sales; technology giants Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., which have new products to promote; cellphone carriers such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, which are battling for customers; and even such financial firms as American Express, according to television executives and advertising buyers surveyed this week.
Such strong demand has made up for the weaker orders from other mainstay advertisers, including automakers, still reeling from weak sales, and Hollywood movie studios, which have fewer new movies to hype.
A fourth quarter described by one top network sales executive as “gangbusters” amazed even veterans who have lived through several economic cycles. Only five months ago, the industry was bracing for another dismal year as TV network sales teams were engaged in protracted negotiations with advertisers that were demanding that the networks roll back prices as much as 20%. Networks eventually agreed to trim rates about 5% to 8% to mollify advertisers and begin unloading their time.
But now, in some cases, advertisers have agreed to pay rates 10% to 35% higher than the prices established in June and July, when the networks sold the bulk of their time for the new TV season. In addition, advertisers that placed their orders in the summer are honoring their commitments. Network executives said that few advertisers have canceled their orders for commercial spots, in contrast with a year ago.
“We have all been surprised that the ad market has come back this soon,” said Gary Carr, executive director of national broadcast for the advertising firm TargetCast. The networks, he said, also face easier comparisons because last fall, with banks failing and the economy on the skids, companies were afraid to spend on advertising.
“A year ago, people thought the world was coming to an end, and the U.S. economy was falling apart,” Carr said. “But the world did not come to an end. Cars still have to be sold, and studios still need people to go see their movies. Advertisers have begun releasing the money that they have been holding onto all year.”
Even local TV stations — among the hardest hit by the slump in advertising spending — have received a lift, primarily fueled by stores that unleashed their holiday sales campaigns earlier in the season, according to television executives.
Not all media outlets have rebounded, however. Many small cable TV channels and Spanish-language television networks are still hurting, according to television executives. Newspapers, magazines and radio stations also continue to struggle.
“In many sectors, the news is still grim,” said Jon Swallen, senior vice president for research at TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks advertising spending. “And there is still a fairly large hole for these companies to dig out of before they get back to the levels they were a few years ago.”
Unexpectedly, online advertising also has taken it on the chin.
Many advertisers are no longer as eager to buy Internet display ads as they were two or three few years ago, when firms were steering millions of ad dollars to online sites.
“There is still a big push toward digital and online video, but the Internet display advertising market is challenged,” said Greg Kahn, senior vice president of strategic insights at advertising firm Optimedia. “There is so much clutter in the space, and advertisers have begun to question the effectiveness of those display ads.”
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 25, 2009 under More Dam News |
This is turning into quite the battle of the airwaves. The mere fact that the court declined to order Verizon to pull the ads means more to come, and quickly.
By Peter Svensson
NEW YORK (AP) – What would the holidays be without bickering between siblings? AT&T and Verizon are swamping TV with ads attacking facets of each other’s wireless networks. While the ads stick fairly close to the truth, there’s a lot they don’t say.
AT&T Inc. has been running ads with actor Luke Wilson checking off points in AT&T’s favor over Verizon Wireless. It’s the continuation of a spat that started a month ago, when Verizon started airing cheeky commercials that highlighted how its fast, third-generation (“3G”) network has wider coverage than AT&T’s 3G system.
Verizon’s ad used the slogan “There’s a map for that,” a play off Apple Inc.’s ads for the iPhone, which tout the diversity of third-party applications for the phone with the line “There’s an app for that.“
AT&T sued Verizon Wireless over the “map” ads, not because the maps were incorrect, but because AT&T felt there was a danger that viewers could get the impression that AT&T had no coverage at all where it doesn’t have 3G. Last week, a judge declined to force Verizon to pull the ads.
AT&T and Verizon, two offspring of Ma Bell, are getting more aggressive in their marketing, though it’s not clear how much they are spending. Verizon and AT&T are both pulling away from their smaller rivals, so instead of competing with Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA, they’re increasingly focused on each other. Verizon Wireless has more subscribers than AT&T – 89 million versus 81.6 million. But AT&T added more wireless subscribers in the latest quarter – 2 million versus 1.2 million at Verizon, which is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.
Posted by truecreek on November 24, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
From Consumer Reports:
Bell ringers, perfume sprayers and the steady drumbeat of holiday music may be annoying to some shoppers. But what really brings out their grinchier instincts are stores that fail to open all the checkout lanes and then use pushy retail tactics when shoppers finally make it to the cash register.
Customers don’t like being pressured to open store credit cards or being asked for personal information. And they really object to being hounded to buy extended warranties, according to a nationally representative survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.
The survey was conducted as part of Consumer Reports’ annual “Dear Shopper” campaign that highlights holiday gotchas and shopping traps. This year Consumer Reports had an assist from its sister Web site, Consumerist, which collected a list of annoyances from its readers.
When the list was taken to the public at large, those surveyed were in agreement. Here are the top gripes about retail practices:
* 72% Stores that don’t open all the checkout lanes;
* 68% Fake “sales”. If something is always 20% off, it’s not on sale;
* 67% Coupons that exclude almost everything in the store;
* 62% Being hounded with the extended warranty sales pitch;
* 58% Cashiers that ask for your phone number or other personal information;
* 56% In-store prices that do not match the same company’s on-line prices;
“Consumers have told us that they just want a hassle-free and convenient shopping experience,” said Jim Guest, president and CEO of Consumers Union. “We really hope this list of holiday annoyances is a wake-up call for the retail industry.”
When we asked shoppers about the number one non-retail practice that made them grumpy almost a third said the crowds (29%) followed by difficulty parking (28%), sales people spraying perfume (16%) and bell ringers outside stores (13%). Surprisingly, few folks are annoyed by that holiday music—only three percent said that was their top pet peeve. Fa-la-la-la-la indeed.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 19, 2009 under More Dam News |
We’re proud to announce the addition of a new client, Fortress Technologies. They design, develop and manufacture secure wireless networking products for a wide variety of government markets, civilian organizations and corporations.
Right now, on the media side, we’re working on the planning and placement for the first half of 2010, in conjunction with Timberlake Media Services in Chicago.
Creatively, we’re working on a new direction that will offer them the ability to communicate their message effectively, while standing out in a very crowded field.
We’re really looking forward to the opportunity and hope to be posting some great work in the coming weeks.
Posted by truecreek on November 3, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Cat Moriarty
Sure, your brand message is consistent across all channels. But you haven’t truly integrated your marketing efforts unless you’re putting those channels to work together.
Mixing media — especially print and digital — is not only a smart idea, but with a little creativity, it can be a highly profitable one.
If your company depends on offline purchases, for example, improve direct mail conversions by e-mailing your audience before a drop, like True North did during a campaign for a New York–based credit union. The print-digital combination quickly produced 5,543 new members — 122 percent above expectations.
And with personalized URLs (PURLs), you can use direct mail to help drive online purchases, too. It’s what office machinery and consumer electronics company Ricoh did (with some pretty impressive results) when promoting its new high-end production print equipment
Retailer W.L. Gore had similar success when it included PURLs in its “Take Me to Everest” campaign. Not only did PURLs strengthen the company’s direct mail–Web connection, they also helped build brand awareness and generate shoe sales during the coveted holiday season.
And as this holiday shopping season soon gets under way, don’t underestimate the power direct catalogs — and their hybrid cousins (magalogs and catazines) — can have over online sales. With so much online competition, sending catalogs and other direct pieces is helping brands like mark and Zappos.com motivate customers to visit their sites more often, stay longer and get to know them better.
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
In wake of recession, consumers look for value, focus on essentials.
By Allison Linn
The recession has dramatically changed many Americans’ shopaholic habits, at least temporarily and perhaps forever.
Now the question is whether the nation’s retailers have kept up.
“The answer is no,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with NPD Group.
He’s not alone in that assessment.
Although it’s still early days of the holiday shopping season, some analysts are already worried that too many merchants are taking a business-as-usual approach to an era that is anything but usual. Any miscalculation could be disastrous for retailers, who typically expect up to 20 percent of annual sales and a bigger share of annual profits during the critical holiday season.
“Retailers still don’t have a full grasp of reality,” said Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a consulting firm.
Flickinger thinks many of the nation’s retail executives don’t completely understand how severely the Great Recession has affected the millions of Americans who have lost jobs, had their wages cut or are living in fear of a job loss.
That, he noted, is on top of other financial concerns many Americans are facing, including a steep drop in home and investment values.
Retailers have good reason to fear such financial jitters, having only last year endured a disastrous season in which holiday retail sales fell 3.4 percent as Americans, rattled by the financial crisis, held onto their pocketbooks.
This year, Flickinger said, consumers are facing the reality of a sky-high unemployment rate and growing concerns about credit card debt.
“Shoppers are more scared going into this holiday season than any time in the last 50 years,” he said.
In the new era of tight budgets, consumers are looking for good value on the items they want and need. But instead, many analysts say retailers seem to be taking a different approach: offering ever-more extreme discounts on items they want to get rid of.
The super-low price method of offloading excess inventory has become so commonplace, even among higher-end retailers, that shoppers are coming to the conclusion that many products are just worth less, said brand analyst Robert Passikoff.
“It isn’t just that you learned that there will be sales — there will always be sales — but what it’s done is it ultimately affects the value perception of the product,” said Passikoff, president of the customer loyalty research firm Brand Keys.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on November 2, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Michael J. de la Merced and Andrew Ross Sorkin
General Electric and the cable giant Comcast have moved closer to a deal giving control of NBC Universal to Comcast, and a formal announcement could be made sometime next week, people briefed on the talks said Sunday.
After a series of meetings last week, the two companies reached a tentative agreement on Friday over the main points of a deal, these people said. Comcast would own about 51 percent of NBC Universal, contributing several billions of dollars in cash and its own stable of cable networks to the new venture. G.E., which currently owns 80 percent of the entertainment company, would retain the other 49 percent and would contribute about $12 billion in debt to the new entity, though it is expected eventually to sell its ownership interest over several years.
More here.
Posted by truecreek on October 14, 2009 under The Work |
Some new work for Comcast. Full pager for Encore Atlanta and the Fox Theater.
Posted by truecreek on October 9, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Katy Bachman
Following five years of double-digit growth, local online advertising will moderate next year, growing only 5 percent to $14.9 billion, according to a new forecast from Borrell Associates released Thursday (Oct. 8).
In contrast, this year local online advertising is expected to grow 12 percent to $14.2 billion, with most of the growth coming in the second half of the year.
Over the past five years, local online advertising grew at a compound annual growth rate of 46.5 percent. For the next five years, Borrell is expecting local online advertising to grow at a rate of 2.9 percent. Local online advertising will peak in 2013 at $16.4 billion.
“The local media advertising category is approaching what we believe is saturation,” the Borrell report said. “The game in 2010 will center more around stealing market share than growing the market.”
Next year’s market will be driven by demand for paid search and online directory advertising, while banner sales will decline 10 percent. Both streaming video and audio advertising and email will grow, but still make up a smaller segment of total adspend.
Posted by truecreek on October 8, 2009 under More Dam News |
An earlier post spoke to the great numbers being delivered by sports programming. Looks like it might just lead the way coming out of this thing….
By Brian Steinberg
CBS is close to selling out approximately 80% of its ad inventory for Super Bowl XLIV, according to a person familiar with the situation, a sign that the sports-advertising marketplace may be recovering more quickly than other TV venues.
CBS is still hesitant to force a price point into its discussions but has sought between $2.5 million and $3 million for a 30-second spot in the game, according to this person. As usual, the price hinges on the position of the ad within the telecast as well as whether advertisers want to get more involved with the event by buying up pre-game time or other CBS sports inventory. CBS is expected to broadcast the game from Miami on Feb. 7, 2010.
The pace of sales emphasizes marketer interest in big-audience sporting events. Already, sales for NFL and college-football games at many networks have garnered better-than-expected interest, particularly as cash-strapped consumers stay at home and rely more heavily on televised entertainment.
NBC’s first several “Sunday Night Football” broadcasts of the season, for example, have been ratings bonanzas, and CBS has seen substantial advertiser interest in its college football games. ESPN scored the highest-rated cable event in history for its “Monday Night Football” game between the Vikings and the Packers this week, thanks to widespread interest in the return of Brett Favre. Marketer interest in the events has also been fueled by the fact that viewers often watch them live, rather than fast-forwarding through content — and past ads — with digital video recorders.
Posted by truecreek on October 2, 2009 under The Work |
Very nice work from Glenn. Photography by Burgess Blevins.
Posted by truecreek on September 14, 2009 under More Dam News |
By eMarketer
While the differences between Webmail properties such as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail may seem subtle, their user bases do not behave alike. A study of success metrics for marketing e-mails sent through MailChimp’s distribution service showed that Gmail users were most likely to open and click on e-mails.
Open rates varied from a low of just over 20% for e-mail sent to AOL users to a high over nearly 31% among Gmail users. The click rate on e-mails sent to Gmail accounts was more than 7.4%, compared with rates between 4% and 5% for Yahoo!, AOL and Hotmail users. Messages sent to Gmail accounts also had the lowest hard bounce rate, though other data indicates Gmail’s spam protection may be so stringent that messages disappear without producing a bounce.
A 2009 Return Path study, for example, found a 23% nondelivery rate for marketing messages sent to Gmail. According to comScore, Gmail is the third-most-popular e-mail property among US Internet users, though it posted the highest growth rate between July 2008 and July 2009.
Unique visitors to the service rose 46% to nearly 37 million. Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail had significantly more visitors, at about 106 million and 47 million, respectively.
MailChimp suggests that demographic factors could be at work when it comes to the willingness of Gmail users to open and click on marketing e-mails, so the service’s continuing growth could bring its metrics closer to the average.
But for now, the user base may be particularly friendly to e-mail marketing.
Posted by truecreek on September 9, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
By Julia Boorstin
Buying a magazine at a newsstand is quite the impulse purchase. These days you can get most magazine content online, for free, or at least something pretty comparable. And if you really want to flip through those glossy pages every week, but you’re looking to save money, a subscription saves as much as 90 percent off newsstand prices.
Needless to say it’s no surprise that newsstand magazine sales dropped 12 percent in the first half of the year compared to the first half of 2008; over the previous six month period that drop was 11 percent. While subscriptions did increase slightly, not enough to compensate for the decline at newsstands, and total circulation was down 1 percent for the period.
The decline in newsstand magazine purchases may be an indicator of consumer confidence – people are watching their discretionary spending – but I’d argue that newsstand magazine revenues are unlikely to recover when consumer spending does.
There are too many free, online options and people are getting increasingly accustomed to consuming content on their mobile devices and laptops. As content companies figure out how to distribute more content to your iPhone or cell phone people may not need to shell out $5 as frequently for their glossy fill of celebrity gossip and photos.
That’s not to say that the magazine business will go away. People will still buy magazines, they may just get used to this reduced magazine spending level we’re at now.
Of course magazines’ struggles with circulation come on top of the advertising decline that’s hit the entire print journalism business. Take a look at the magazines at the newsstand or in your mailbox this month. September is supposed to be a big month for ad sales, but you’ll notice that the magazines will be remarkably skinny. If they don’t fatten up by the end of the year we’re sure to see more magazines shut down. Last month Time Inc. stopped publishing “Southern Accents” magazine, jut the latest magazine closure in the home decor space where ad revenue has fallen more than 20 percent.
It’s not just the commercial magazine business that’s suffering, business-to-business magazine ad pages fell 30.15 percent in the first half of the year, compared to the year-earlier period, according to Business Information Network data. And the trends didn’t improve over that 6-month period. In June ad pages were down nearly 33 percent from the year-earlier month.
Posted by truecreek on September 8, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
For years now, I have recommended to my clients that they invest in sports packages tied to their regional teams.
For example, if you have a medium-sized business in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and the like and you have not considered running thirty second television with some SEC package available at your local station, you might be missing a great opportunity. Of course, it’s not perfect for every business, but it will work well for many businesses.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the demos for football are all male. Just not true. You will reach a very large and diverse audience with your buy.
Don’t worry that the season has started. The stations will prorate any type of package and there are still a bunch of them out there. Stations are hungry.
Take advantage of some pricing weakness and negotiate a great deal for yourself. Or call us and we’ll help you put it together for you.
