Traditional Media: Remixed

Within our ever changing media world it is a challenge sometimes to keep up with the latest advertising platforms. It seems as if every week there is a new app, digital medium etc. to research, digest and see if it would best fit your client. This is an exciting time for buyers, slowly going are the days of traditional mediums across all buys. However, our traditional mediums are still relevant, successful and used in my day to day buying. With the amount of traditional buying that is still done we have to think of different ways to” beef up”, for example, a radio buy and really think about our audiences’ behaviors and how they are changing and consuming advertisements.

I recently read an article called, Why Marketers Need To Rethink Radio Audiences Now. The article really spoke more to the tasks I do daily for our clients. I still spend most of my time carefully creating TV, Radio and Print buys. However, we are constantly looking for ways to connect not only with our audience through a :60 radio spot but adding elements to “beef up” that spot and make it become more interactive since we live in a world where people are constantly moving and interacting.

In this article the author references how successful Dunkin’ Donuts was with a recent campaign that wanted to promote ticket giveaways for its “Caught Cold” concert series. They wanted to use radio and knew from research who, how and when they wanted to target them. However, it was not just: 60 radio spots but included a call to action from their DJ’s to utitlize DD’s website, play a game and enter to win tickets to one of the five concerts. Pre-roll promotional video, announcements via social media and call-to-action banner ads helped with the promotion. At the concert, there were many other assets that promoted the “Caught Cold” product.

With all of these elements that gave “legs” to their radio spot the campaign was an enormous success. The point is, in order to truly engage your radio audiences today we need to use those loyal listeners to then move between media — posting on Facebook, checking email, uploading photos to Instagram or Pinterest, and utilizing their cell phones. In conclusion clients that want to reach and engage their particular audience need to be all of these places.

Too Soon for Holiday Ads?

With 96 days ‘til Christmas, most consumers are just coming out of the Back to School shopping season, and contemplating which costume to wear for Halloween. The thought of Thanksgiving turkey might be lingering in the back of our minds, but is anyone really thinking about Christmas yet?

K-Mart is banking on it. In fact, they rolled out their first Holiday ad on Sept. 8^th promoting their lay-away program with a “Don’t let the Holidays sneak up on you” message: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDSz7APFmAk

So when is it too early to advertise for the Holidays? Is it when the National Media picks up the story and weighs in, a la Today host Hoda Kotb? Is it when Facebook fans post negative comments:

Kmart isn’t the only one launching a Holiday campaign when temperatures are still in the 90’s. Walmart started promoting its layaway program a few days later. And, Target is expected to hit the market with its Holiday spots in early October.

Retailers believe getting a jump on the Holiday season will increase sales. And, with so many uncertainties with the economy, they’re willing to take the risk.

So, what do you think?

Is it too early to see Holiday advertising?

Download the Voto app to weigh in:

Cutting the Cord – The Next Big Thing!! (or the End of TV as We Know It)

Do you have a contentious relationship with your cable company?  Has your cable bill doubled in the past ten years?  Are you finding yourself or your family members watching TV over the internet more frequently?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you might be ready to “Cut the Cord!!”  This is a fairly recent phenomenon and signals the biggest change in how media is consumed since the internet began killing the print version of newspaper a decade ago.

Consumers now have alternatives to dealing with their dreaded cable providers – these include Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.  Nearly 1 million households have “cut their cords” during the last 12 months – and while this represents a fraction of the estimated 100 million cable households in the United States, this is no longer being viewed as an “urban myth” but rather a growing trend.  It is estimated that by 2016 nine million households will eliminate their cable subscriptions entirely.  The number one reason given by consumers for cutting their cord (83%) is that the subscription has gotten too expensive.

Think about the generation that has realized they no longer need a land line and opted to use their mobile devices as their only phone. These are the people who will most likely opt out of the cable universe.  According to Forrester Research 32 million consumers are already getting video over their televisions using Internet devices such as Xbox, Blu-ray players and smart TV’s.

All of this change creates new opportunities for content creators of which there is no shortage of!! The real winners may end up being the technology companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon as they have the ability to operate across the divide of selling content as well as designing the devices on which the content is viewed.

I believe the other winner in this game may ultimately be the consumer who will have more choices and by virtue of the marketplace may will pay less for these choices!!  Cord cut away!!

The NEW MYSPACE: Top 5 Things To Look Out For

Since I heard about the company’s comeback, I’ve been curious to see what’s different this time from the MySpace we all once knew. I did a little research and found some of the answers I was looking for.  Here are the Top 5 things to look out for with the launch of the new MySpace.

1. DESIGN

Unlike Facebook’s plain and congested advertising layout, MySpace looks more aesthetic and trendy. It offers high-resolution images, a built in music player, options to add music and videos by clicking or dragging, a search page for fans and artists to be connected with each other at all times and a horizontal activity bar where instead of scrolling up and down, you scroll side to side. Not everything is new; they kept some of their old popular features like streaming profile songs and a section for top 8 friends.

2. A PLACE FOR CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS, MUSIC AND FANS

As we all know, music has always been a part of MySpace. But this time, the company plans to take it to the next level. Besides music, they are also going to focus on gearing the website towards the creative community as well; the songwriters, photographers, music video directors, etc. The new MySpace wants to help all types of artists become known by their peers and potential fans as well as to flourish in their industry and establish stronger connections between artists and their fans. The user can stream live their favorite band in concert and personalize their radio stations to listen to specific artists and genres.

1. JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

Right now, the 32 year old is well known as one of the most innovating artists in the music industry.  His partners, the Vanderhook brothers say that “he provides the strategic vision for the company and was the person behind the idea of focusing on the creative community”.  With Timberlake’s strong point of view and experience in the business, I’m sure he will be an important factor in bringing MySpace back from the dead.

1. MARKETING STRATEGIES

In January of this year, an early version of the new MySpace was released to the public but it wasn’t until June 12 that they launched their $20 million ad campaign across cable, broadcast, radio and digital media. At the same time, the company also released an iPhone app for radio play. The campaign is seeking to engage individuals between the ages of 18 and 34 years and its commercials show hipsters dancing, singing, playing then smashing instruments and having a good time with each other.  They are trying to change the public perception from the old MySpace to a cool place for music fans and creative individuals.

During the first two weeks, the new MySpace tracked 31 million visitors, however the negative reviews about the ad campaign keep on coming. In my personal opinion, the TV commercial is poor in content and is not clear about the message it is trying to convey.  They need to improve their marketing strategy in order to appropriately promote the new experience.

TV Commercial

1. MEDIA PLATFORM INSTEAD OF SOCIAL NETWORK.

The site is being promoted as a media platform where it’s all about the creative talent and the music, not social networking. Song writers or photographers can use MySpace to track where their fans are and what they are listening to. You can show your attraction to things by connecting with them, but you won’t interact on a personal level.

The new owners believe the News Corp Group made a big mistake when they tried to compete with emerging forces like Facebook, turning the company into a social networking site.

Top 101 TV Shows Of All Time

Earlier this month, the Writers Guild of America announced its list of the top 101 written television shows ever.  The list was compiled by votes cast from the East and West Coast Writers Guild members. Given the endless hours of programming the past 70 years includes this seems almost impossible and of course can spark endless hours of debate over which shows belong on the list and at what rank.

HBO’s The Sopranos was number one followed by a diverse set of classic shows. The top fifteen in order include Seinfeld, The Twilight Zone, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mad Men, Cheers, The Wire, The West Wing, The Simpsons, I Love Lucy, Breaking Bad, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Hill Street Blues.

There are many shows from recent decades in the top 101, several on the air now and nods to classics from years past many of us may have never seen and have only heard of. Alas, no reality shows made the cut.

Apparently 100 shows wasn’t enough, and even though the list is for the top 101 shows  there are there are several ties so more than 101 shows are represented.  For example, Downton Abbey, Law & Order and ThirtySomething all ranked at #43.

Given the recent passing of James Gandolfini, otherwise known as televisions legendary mob boss Tony Soprano, having The Sopranos place at number one is a timely and fitting tribute to the actor and to Jean Stapleton, AKA Edith Bunker from All in the Family, who also passed away right after the release of the list.

Given the passion many feel about “their” shows, check out the list and see if you agree, disagree and what shows should have made the list that didn’t.  The full list is available on the WGA site: http://www.wga.org/uploadedfiles/news_and_events/101_TV_Series/TV-101-List-web.pdf

Social Media: Down To A Science

Ever wonder what shows and commercials are talked about the most on social media networks? What is really, really trending? Rentrak Corporation, a leader in multi-screen media measurement serving the advertising, television and entertainment industries, has measurement tools to see what shows are engaging the most viewers and what shows and commercials are “chatted” about most on social media. These two metrics, the “stickiness index” and the “social media index,” give us a unique outlook into the world of media and advertising, from the eyes, ears, and words of the viewer.

These metrics reflect what series are most popular each week based on viewer engagement (Stickiness Index) and commentary on social media networks (Social Media Index). As defined by Rentrak, the stickiness index is “calculated for the top 500 series based on rating according to Rentrak TV Essentials… of the top-20 primetime ad-supported series based on level of viewer engagement as determined by how much the average percentage viewed of the series varies from an average of all series of the same duration during Monday-Saturday primetime (8pm-11pm)” (Source: Rentrak Corporation).

The social media index, which combines Rentrak’s leading TV Essential system with Bluefin Labs social response analytics, “shows how television programing triggers reactions through social media which can affect audience visibility and engagement” (Source: Rentrak Corporation).

Founded in 2008, Bluefin Labs uses their research in cognitive science and machine learning at the MIT Media Lab to calculate this metric. There really is science behind the Bluefin social response analytics—they call it “mapping the TV genome,” which they define as “essentially a huge dataset that quantifies and organizes all social media conversations about TV” (Source: https://www.bluefinlabs.com/thesciencebehindit/).

So, what were top ten shows people were posting about during the week of February 11th-17th? Based on Rentrak Corporation here are the top ten based on social media index:

1. 2013 NBA All-Star Game, TNT- 383,235
2. NBA Basketball- 2013 NBA All-Star Saturday Night, TNT- 186,907
3. State of the Union 2013- State of the Union (12 Networks), Special Event- 168,956
4. NBA Basketball- Miami Heat at Oklahoma City Thunder, TNT- 74,133
5. The Walking Dead– Home, AMC- 71,559
6. Pretty Little Liars– What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted?, ABC Family- 58,766
7. NBA Basketball- Los Angeles Clippers at Los Angeles Lakers, TNT- 35,328
8. The Bachelor, ABC- 34,296
9. College Basketball- multiple games, ESPN- 28,835
10. NBA Basketball-All-Star Celebrity Game, ESPN- 27,726

This further shows us how TV viewing landscape has changed drastically and is no longer always a linear viewing. People are often looking at multiple screens with divided attention, giving us even more insight into how to target to our desired audience.

Source: Rentrak Corporation 2013

How Advertisers Capitalize on Your New Year’s Resolutions

It’s that time of the year again – New Year…New You. January is a month for change and renovation. Companies and advertisers seize this opportunity to target customers looking for inspiration and motivation by offering deals and promotions to help accomplish their resolutions.  In order to capture the attention of the consumer and keep them coming back for more, advertisers need to be up-to-date on current social and media trends creating campaigns where they can interact with the customer and tweaking them continuously to keep capturing the client’s attention. Here are some interesting statistics about resolutions:

–          Half of New Year’s resolutions made are out the window by Independence Day (Forbes)

–          Only about 10% of people who made resolutions maintained their resolve by the following New Year’s (Forbes)

In order for agencies to help consumers commit to New Year’s resolutions, they should remain flexible while strategizing for new campaigns and more importantly, focus messaging on the changing media landscape. What used to work for advertisers in the past may not be the best option now.

Here are some current campaigns that successfully focus on New Year’s resolutions:

The Weight Watcher’s 360 program is one of the New Year’s campaigns where singer/clothing designer Jessica Simpson talks about the benefits of the program and how it helped her improve her health by losing over 50 pounds. They also offer the Weight Watchers mobile app where users can keep track of their food, weight and activity to stay on plan. Click here to view the latest TV spot: http://www.popisms.com/TelevisionCommercial/67406/Weight-Watchers-Commercial-for-Weight-Watcher.aspx

 

The Planet Fitness New Year’s campaign, called by The New York Times “A Gym for People Who Don’t Like Gyms”, offers members a “Judgment Free Zone” where you won’t experience any “Gymtimidation”

 

This Applebee’s January campaign promotes their new menu, featuring meals for under 550 calories. Click here to view their latest ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAQTjQaVW8Y&feature=player_profilepage

 

With the new season of “The Biggest Loser” kicking off this week, Subway is once again partnering with the show to promote a healthier lifestyle by eating fresh/healthy meals and exercising. With this register-to-win offer, lucky viewers can win a trip to the Season Finale in March.

Tell us what your New Year’s Resolution is, and if you’ve been influenced by any advertising lately?

 

 

Fall TV Wrap-Up: An Eclectic Mix of Mid-Season Finales

As we get ready for the upcoming holidays and the New Year, hopefully everyone had a break to watch this year’s exciting mid-season finales. Whether you’re interested in the happenings of a post-apocalyptic world, 1920s Atlantic City gangsters during the Prohibition era, or the trials and tribulations of competing country stars, there was something for you to watch this December.

‘Boardwalk Empire’ Sunday 9pm, HBO

Boardwalk Empire, in its third season on HBO, is set in Atlantic City, New Jersey in the 1920’s and stars well-known actor Steve Buscemi as Enoch ‘Nucky’ Thompson. Nucky is the city’s treasurer during a time of change and turmoil, especially with the beginning of the prohibition and the ensuing gang wars.

The episode highlights Nucky’s change in temperament from peddler to calculating gangster, a plot point that has been mounting throughout the season. For the mid-season finale, Boardwalk Empire had 2.7 million viewers, a decrease from the 3 million who viewed the season 2 finale last December.

 ‘The Walking Dead’ Sunday 9pm, AMC 

Currently in its third season on AMC, the show is based on zombie drama in a post-apocalyptic world. In this action-packed episode, the human world and zombie world finally collide, ending in thrilling battle and warfare.

Most likely the best-performing mid-season finale, The Walking Dead had 10.5 million viewers for its episode on Sunday, making it Sunday’s top cable show. The ratings are up 58% from the season two mid-season finale. The majority of viewers were in the key 18-49 demographic. We are looking forward to the show’s return in February to catch up with all the zombie adventures.

‘Nashville’ Wednesday 10pm, ABC

Nashville, which premiered in October on ABC and is set in Nashville, Tennessee, stars Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) and Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) as dueling country singers. Britton plays older, fading country star Rayna Jaymes, while Panettiere plays her rival Juliette Barnes, the new, young country sensation.

In the mid-season finale, Rayna and Juliette decide it is mutually beneficial for them to team up and combine their musical talents co-headlining a tour together. Love lives also take center stage as Juliette unexpectedly proposes to her new boyfriend, Sean, while Rayna and husband Teddy (Eric Close) are burdened by his political scandals.

Although the show has received much critical acclaim and had 8.9 million viewers for their October debut, the ratings decreased to 6 million by week five.

In good news, Boardwalk Empire has already been renewed for a fourth season, and season four of The Walking Dead seems to be “unofficially” renewed by AMC. We hope Nashville can emphasize the actresses Panettiere and Britton to regain viewers and live up to their praise by critics. Media Works is looking forward to seeing the 2013 Spring premieres!

Getting Creative with Smart Spot Placement

Advertisers are getting more and more creative with ways to break through the clutter of traditional advertising. If you watched ”New Girl” this week, you couldn’t miss the overt product placement for the new 2013 Ford Fusion. It was overtly woven into the storyline and Ford even ran a spot in the adjacent break, just in case you missed it during the episode.

Even our own clients are getting creative when it comes to aligning their brands with popular TV programming. AMC’s much-anticipated Season 3 of the Walking Dead premiered on Sun. 10/14. The network also ran a 2-day Walking Dead marathon leading up to the premiere, and when one of our auto dealers in Houston realized this, they got creative too.

Joe Myers Mazda Kia is a mid-sized Imports dealership in Houston, well-recognized for their TV creative which changes monthly. Their ads feature the dealership’s GM, his son and a cast of characters with an often entertaining, themed and in-your-face message. In October, they focused on a Halloween themed spot centered around zombies, and what better place to run their spots than in the Walking Dead?

Media Works worked with the Joe Myers Imports’ marketing team, and the local cable provider to place their TV spot in the Walking Dead marathon in targeted Cable zones surrounding the dealership. Spots were also placed in the premiere and in new episodes each Sunday after the premiere.

Moms & Media: Top 5 Shows To Enjoy As A Family

The kids are back in school (YEA!) and it’s getting dark outside earlier (BOO!) While the kids aren’t able to play outside until bedtime anymore, this is the perfect time for families to watch TV together while winding down for the evening.

Gone are the days of T.G.I.F. – ABC’s way of promoting family friendly programming on Friday nights – a night that typically struggles in viewership. With so many options available on TV and through online distributors like Hulu, it’s becoming much easier to find those special shows for the family to enjoy. While we’ve recently begun advertising on sites like Hulu because of the steady increase in audience, this article will be focused on strictly broadcast TV shows.

As media professionals, we’re ALWAYS talking about what TV shows were on last night or new programming that’s coming up.  So, we know what all the adults are watching after the kids go to bed, but I thought it would interesting to see what shows families watch on TV together, as a family.

I took an informal poll here at the office to see what shows families watch together.  The ages of children in our office varies so greatly, that programming watched varied as well!

1)       American Idol/American’s Got Talent – Any of the talent shows are a hit among families of all age children.  No worries for inappropriate behavior or dialogue and there always seems to be at least 1 or more of them on in any given month!

2)       Modern Family – seems to be an all around winner with all age groups of children – definitely more people with older children watch this together, but all agree that this is a light comedy that can be enjoyed by all.  (The younger kids will not get some of the adult humor!)

3)       America’s Funniest Videos – an oldie but a goodie!  One of my families absolute favorites any day of the week.  The great news, you can catch it on a multitude of networks as well!

4)       Amazing Race – How great is it to get to travel around the world with your family without leaving the privacy of your own family room?  I know my kids have started their list of countries they want to travel to based on watching this family favorite!

5)       Last but not least, just about any show on the Disney Channel!  From classics like Drake and Josh, to Phineas and Ferb (I LOVE Candice!), A.N.T. Farm, Jessie and Shake it Up – you can’t go wrong with Disney programming.