Category: Business (Page 11 of 24)

New Ad Report – TV $ Down, Social Media $ Up

February 9, 2010 / Andy Boyer

You always have to take these kind of reports with a grain of salt, but Mediapost reports on a new Forrester Research/Association of National Advertisers survey, based on responses from 104 U.S. advertisers in 21 industries, including Cisco Systems, GlaxoSmithKline, ING, Kraft, Marriott, State Farm and Clorox. All told, they represent nearly $14 billion in media budgets.

Here are some highlights from the report, which kind of illustrates how many irrational people there are making marketing decisions:

TV marketers plan to spend 41% of their media budgets on television in 2010 — the same level as a year ago. (However, this is down from the 58% level of two years ago.)
BUT…62% percent of companies say TV ads have become less effective in the past two years due to increased advertising clutter.

So, even though 62% of the marketers admit TV ads are less effective than before, they are going to spend the same amount as last year. Read: “Buying TV is easy, and I like hanging out with ad agency folks on sound stages.”

More insight:

Virtually all advertisers believe the TV industry needs new audience metrics beyond reach and frequency; 82% of respondents would be interested in ratings for individual commercials.
BUT…While 78% are interested in targeting consumers more precisely, only 59% would be willing to pay a premium for it.

So, advertisers admit the TV spot is hard to measure. But no one wants to give up any of their media buy to improve targeting capabilities. Read: “Buying TV is easy, and I can blame the product guys if the ads aren’t working.”

80% of advertisers say future branded entertainment deals will grow. And in 2010, 38% say they will spend more on branded entertainment as an alternative to the 30-second commercial.
19% say the 30-second spot will be dead in 10 years, down from 28% a year ago.

So, advertisers want to move away from 30 second spots and into branded entertainment. But these same people think the 30 second spot will live forever.

Now the good stuff:

Social media, Web advertising and search are stealing budgets from TV and other media. Of those surveyed, 77% said they would be moving TV dollars to social media this year; 73% plan to shift money to online advertising, and 59% will be spending more on search-engine marketing and 46% on e-mail marketing. Other non-TV traditional media doesn’t seem to be part of this trend. Only 15% said they plan to increase spending in traditional media such as radio, outdoor, magazines or newspapers.

Advertisers want targeting (online advertising, email and SEM). They want stronger engagement (Social). And they don’t see much future potential in radio, outdoor, etc… The question is, do they expect lower CPM’s in these channels in comparison to TV? If they want to shift budgets to mediums where they can get a direct measurement of success, why don’t they want to force TV to do a better job of measuring?

There’s an obvious part of this survey that is missing, which illustrates how there’s still a knowledge chasm. No one asked how many of these companies are going to integrate their social and online campaigns with a TV buy. It’s obvious TV is still needed – at least for the largest 104 advertisers – to drive awareness and brand. But it’s not an either/or. These guys have the chance to use the 30 second spot to drive branded entertainment deals online, and capitalize on an engaged social audience. For me, how these 104 companies are going to integrate those campaigns is the really interesting question.

All We Are Saying, Is Give Pete a Chance

January 11, 2010 / Andy Boyer

Sure, the Seahawks screwed up back when they shoved Holmgren out the door and “supposedly” gave Jim Mora the keys to the castle. But give Seahawks senior leadership some credit for trying to right the ship.

Years ago, in the Ruskell vs Holmgren battle, they chose the wrong horse. Who knows what the real dynamics were between Holmgren and everyone else at Vulcan, but for some reason they chose Ruskell’s side. That decision is done. But then at some point they realized their gross miscalculation. So they did the right thing – they unwound all decisions that were based on Ruskell.

Unfortunately, that ended up screwing Jim Mora. But at the end of the day Mora hitched his wagon to Ruskell, so when he imploded, Mora had to go with him. Mora was Ruskell’s way to get rid of Holmgren. It’s a simple game of office politics. When the guy who makes you a star disappears, you better have a bulletproof resume that can stand on its own.

So what do the Seahawks and Tod Liewicke do? They go get one of their own guys. Remember, Tod’s brother is Tim Liewicke, named the 2nd most powerful Sports/Events figure in the country, and who helped build the luxurious Staples Center in Los Angeles and Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. As moguls in the LA sports scene, there’s no doubt that Liewicke and Carroll go back a few years.

Also, keep in mind, Tod Liewicke has a boss, and his name is Paul Allen. I’m guessing Allen doesn’t like having his name dragged around in the mud, and like any billionaire, is probably a little preturbed that his giant play toy is being laughed at by the other billionaires in the sandbox. Liewicke needs a fix – or at least a plan – from someone with a winning record, and Carroll fits that bill.

Now there is one thing that should make Seahawks fans cringe. The deal is supposedly 5 years, $35 million. Who cares about the $35MM, the number that is painful is the 5 years. That means the Seahawks are going to blow it all up, giving Carroll 2 years to completely undo the current damage and start over, and then expect him to have some modicum of increased success in Year 3. It’s going to be a couple of painful 3-13 seasons in 2010 and 2011…But look, winners stay winners. And if he learned how to build a dynasty at USC, maybe he can do it here.

A Few Notes About the Tiger Woods Debacle

December 11, 2009 / Andy Boyer

Yes, I’ve succumbed to the Tiger Woods scandal. I think there are a few items of this story that make it different than the ordinary tabloid affair.

1) The effect this will have on golf: Golfers didn’t become multi-millionaires for consistently finishing 13th until Tiger got to town. A huge percentage of golf fans are simply Tiger fans. Phil vs Tiger is completely different than Phil vs “That other guy.” Sponsors were paying big money for Tiger, which meant TV networks could charge more money to Golf advertisers, which more money was going into the Prize Pool of each tournament. Companies are already having to trim marketing costs. This is a great excuse for companies to pull money out of Golf. If you were the 45th ranked player in the world, you may have found this funny when the story broke, but your check for finishing 13th just got smaller.

2) Why the Tabloid Web sites are crushing the Sports sites: I can’t think of a better example of the power of search driving news consumption. For the reasons listed in Section 1, the sports sites like ESPN.com have been loathe to dig too deeply into the story. There’s a lot of hand waving and things like, “Yeah, Tiger’s in some controversy over there, but let us tell you all about the upcoming Alabama vs Texas game.” ESPN needs this to go away, so they can get back to the business of reporting on Golf and Tiger’s domination in the sport. To the sports sites, Tiger taking time out of competing in Golf is comparable to the New York Yankees deciding to sit out one season. Or having the the entire rosters of both 2009 NBA All-Star teams take a year off to travel the globe. But, ESPN’s decision to pretend it’s not a “big deal” is not fooling anyone. People are just going to their favorite search engine, typing in “Tiger Woods,” and getting the juicy stories from other sources, like TMZ. It’s another example of why in the news aggregation business, we really need to ensure all web sites get a level playing field to broadcast across. You can’t trust news sources if they are in the pockets of the people paying the bills.

3) Seeing the Inside Mechanics of Tiger’s Spin Machine: I don’t know about you, but I’ve been shocked at what seems to be near PR incompetence from Team Tiger. Now, it’s possible that his transgressions are so monumental that cutting them down to 2 porn stars, a pseudo-madame, a reality show wanna-be and a few other random floozies, is actually a big win because they’ve managed to keep the other 90 quiet. If that’s the case, then all of Team Tiger should be ashamed for not reigning him in earlier. It’s also possible that their whole strategy of keeping him away from cameras for the last 10 years was specifically designed because they knew he’s been an eventual PR nightmare ready to explode. But it does seem like all of the companies with money invested in Tiger should have been able to assemble a PR “Dream Team” to handle this better.

4) The Unfortunate Duck and Cover Strategy: With some regard to number 3 above, I think it’s incredibly sad that Team Tiger’s best exit plan is to throw Elin under the bus. According to some web sites, there’s a claim that Elin is demanding, “Your family or your golf.” This would be a convenient excuse for Tiger to disappear to Dubai for 12 months and avoid having to discuss this issue with anyone. The public perception would be that he “loves his family so much,” that he’s giving up golf to make it right by them. The reality would be that the wife would be placed in the position of “Bad Guy” to anyone who watches golf. Plus, sponsors, other golfers, advertisers and golf fans would all be cheated by having a year without the best player in the world. The great thing about team sports, is that no matter what mess you find yourself in, you have an obligation to the rest of your team. Alex Rodriguez couldn’t take a year off. He had to go out every day and get heckled by fans, because he was ONE of 25 New York Yankees. Kobe Bryant was ONE of 12 LA Lakers. Those guys had to stick their pride in their back pockets and still compete against the best athletes in the world. It would be sad if Tiger used the excuse of “My wife doesn’t want me to play” as a way to duck the criticism he deserves.

Those are the thoughts of the top of my head.

SonicsCentral.com Reviews Candidates

October 26, 2009 / Andy Boyer

SonicsCentral.com has done a good job of keeping us up to date on Seattle candidates’ views on the NBA returning to Seattle.

Props to David Nelson of the P-I for asking these questions:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/insidebelltown/archives/182579.asp

Joe Mallahan:

I think we have to work very hard to attract an NBA team back to Seattle. That particular proposal I haven’t examined closely. The NBA’s not coming back if we don’t provide an arena that’s at NBA standards, the NBA’s come a long way. We have to figure a way for private and public dollars to partner to make that happen but it has to be done in a way where it’s not on the backs of the taxpayer. I am committed to working fervently to get a team back. The NBA is a huge part of our culture.

…With the tax payers paying their fair share. That’s a complex formula that we’re going to have to work on and partner with the private interests that are interested in owning an NBA team. As a community we blew it and we have to recover, it’s a big part of our history and culture and I would be very proud if I could help bring a team back.

Mike McGinn:

I need to know more about the proposal before committing to supporting it. My key issue here is ensuring that we’re making a wise investment of public resources into the arena and not finding our self in a position where the city ends up on the hook, these are pretty serious budget times. I’m open to a renovation of Key Arena, but I have to see what the payoff is.

We have to be careful with taxpayers and we have to make sure we’re doing the right thing for the surrounding business district, the arena, and Seattle Center. But I’m certainly open to people making the case.

If I Ran the MLS

July 15, 2009 / Andy Boyer

This seems so easy, I still don’t get why they don’t do it. The day after the MLB All-Star Game is the only day during the calendar year in which there are no sports on TV.

This should be the MLS’ biggest TV spectacle of the year.

Every rivalry game should be being played today, all at the same time, all at the stadiums that will have the most fans. Joe Fan should tune into a pre-game show, then see 90+ minutes of high intensity soccer programming. With 8 games going on, at an average of 2 goals per game, there should be about 16 goals, or one every 6 minutes. You can pick one or two games to feature, and then cut in to the other games whenever a goal is scored. There would be so many highlights, you wouldn’t even have time to go to the fridge.

In fact, if you needed to, you should pay ESPN so you can be on both ESPN and ESPN2 at the same time with different programming, so there is an East Coast game and West Coast Game on live on each channel, so by switching between channels, you get access to 4 games, and highlights from the other 4.

Once that framework is set up, there is really no end to the fun you can have with it.

If I Ran the MLB All-Star Game

July 15, 2009 / Andy Boyer

I have 2 requests.

1) The broadcast crew would NOT be made up of the Fox National Crew. Fans, press, players or some combination of the three would vote on 3 local crews, each who would do 3 innings of the game. Or maybe it’s 2 crews that get voted in, and the host team crew. Or maybe one current crew, a crew of retired guys and the host crew. You can toy with the details. But get me a couple of innings of Vin Scully.

2) On each league roster, the longest tenured MLB player who has never mad an All-Star game makes the team. If you’ve been a backup catcher since 1996, or are a 43 year old left-handed middle relief curveball specialist, well you deserve one chance to see the big stage in your career.

That’s all I’m really asking for.

What Does Oprah on Twitter Mean for Social Media

April 18, 2009 / Andy Boyer

So this is a time sensitive topic, and I’m already a day late, so this quick stream of consciousness will probably not be very well thought out and hence cause people to vehemently comment about how wrong I am. Oh well.

So Oprah has joined the Twittierverse with the appropriately chosen moniker @oprah. She was basically dragged kicking and screaming into it by Ashton Kutcher on his race with CNN to One Million followers. (BTW, different topic, but you will never hear me say anything negative about Ashton Kutcher. He is very high on my list of business minded entertainers that I hope to meet someday, not for the star power or Hollywood “glow,” but for the business and marketing insights I could learn.)

Now the social media world has fallen into a few camps on this.

– Predictably, there is the camp who feels like their baby is being exploited now that Oprah has gotten involved. These are the same type of people who listened to Pearl Jam at a dive bar in downtown Seattle in 1990 and then got mad when they showed up on David Letterman and sold out Madison Square Garden.

– There’s a camp who thinks Oprah is late to Social Media, and shouldn’t be given any credit at all.

– There’s a group of people who have never heard of Twitter who are about to sign up for accounts just so they can follow Oprah.

– And finally, there’s a bunch of people in mainstream media who are going to be calling the “Social Media Expert” in their city to do a 90 second interview on this “blossoming company called Twitter.”

So here’s my synthesis:

Oprah never has and never will need Social Media. She has the most popular syndicated television program in the history of mankind. Combine all the impressions from the top 100 “social media superstars,” and I bet that number doesn’t even sniff the kind of eyeballs Oprah generates in TV and print. And let’s not even begin to joke about revenue. Take Harpo’s annual revenue in one hand. Start counting up all the revenue generated by Social Media Superstars in the other. And let me know when you get to an even balance.

I work in Social Media, so this may seem like blasphemy, but honestly, Social Media is what you do when you can”t get on Oprah. If I build the world’s first economical and reliable jet pack, and post videos on YouTube of me flying back and forth to work all day, guys like Michael Arrington and Guy Kawaskai are going to cover it. But if I get on Oprah, or even 60 Minutes, I better have an army of telephone operators ready to take orders. It’s a subtle but distinct difference.

Said more succinctly, Social Media is what we do to get NOTICED by Oprah’s producers. It’s not what Oprah needs to do to get noticed by us.

That being said, Oprah, as a teacher and educator, please use proper capitalization on your Twitter page. There’s no reason to join the Twitterverse and then show 50 million kids that the only reason to ever use the “Shift” key on their laptop is to create a smiley face.

So Oprah, welcome to our world here in Social Media-ville. This is what has been created by all of us with lots to say, but nowhere to previously say it. So come hang out for a while, and then remember us fondly when you are in front of your camera, in your studio, talking to 200 million people.

Category: Business (Page 11 of 24)

All We Are Saying, Is Give Pete a Chance

A Few Notes About the Tiger Woods Debacle

SonicsCentral.com Reviews Candidates

If I Ran the MLS

If I Ran the MLB All-Star Game

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