If television is dying, why are people
• Watching and interacting with programs like American Idol?
• Buying large screen sets as though they were donuts?
• Paying triple digit cable subscription rates?
• Buying DVD’s of entire season episodes for top shows?
• Paying big bucks for rights to transmit TV shows the Internet and Mobile phones?
• Still having Super Bowl and Academy Award parties?
• DVR’ing shows so they don’t miss them?
• So interested in what the Donald, Rosie and Barbara Wawa have to say?
• Add your own thoughts:
January 11, 2007
Monetizing Media Audiences
How to Make Money from Advertising
Advertising is how we move customers and prospects along the purchase spectrum, from no awareness of our product or service to awareness, preference, intent to purchase, purchase and repurchase.
1. The key to media selling and buying is audience. Without it, advertising is the sound of one hand clapping.
Start your ad sales planning (and pitch) with audience. Who is your audience, how is it measured, what are their characteristics, where do they live, etc. The more you can tell advertisers and media buyers about your audience, in a documentable manner (i.e., measured by a trusted source such as Nielsen), the more likely you are to succeed in the monetization of that audience.
2. Next is the likelihood of the ad being seen and possibly acted upon. This can be measured and dimensioned by such ‘soft’ measures as ‘engagement’ (attentiveness, involvement) or hard measures such as recall.
Most advertising sales are of potential ‘impressions’ or ‘opportunities to see’ rather than proved actual exposures. The closer you can come to being able to ensure an actual and documentable ad exposure, the more valuable the media position.
One extreme in this consideration spectrum is a controlled circulation magazine that is sent free to an audience. This sort of publication must be able to prove real readership or risk being completely discounted by intelligent media buyers.
Another extreme is an ad feature is a live update in a sports event such as an auto race or football game that is highly likely to be viewed by the involved viewing enthusiast.
3. The price of the audience, usually dimensioned in cost per thousand or cost per target rating point, is the next key variable in media buying and selling. The right ad rate for a given media property is determined by a reasonably open marketplace in which media buyers and advertisers can weigh your media offerings vs. others they consider comparable.
All other things being equal, two NFL Football games or two highly rated primetime original TV programs telecast in the same time periods on different TV networks are likely to earn the same ad rates.
But ‘all other things’ are rarely equal in the real world. And many media offerings must compete for consideration with ad positions in completely different media; e.g., internet streaming video vs. network television. In this specific case, my point of view is that an intelligent media buyer and/or advertiser would equate these two offerings because they’re both television, just delivered by different distribution methods.
On the other hand, the buyer would weigh the relative audience size, likely to be higher for the network show; the relative attentiveness, likely to be higher for a TIVO-proof mid-roll in a net video of the same program. It would also be important to define the audiences clearly in terms of desirable characteristics such as age, gender, income, education, purchasing behavior, etc. Even the probable size of the screen would be a factor to consider.
The point is that when all things are not equal, tradeoffs are defined and given relative values in the media consideration process.
4. The program environment is, in my view, the last consideration since if we have an attentive audience that we want to reach and the ad position is well priced, we’ve got what we are aiming for, an effective platform for our ad. What the program environment can add to this is an association ‘rub-off’ for the advertiser and ad. This could be in the form of image, such as an ad in The Kennedy Center Honors or in the MTV Video Awards (depending on the advertiser) or relevance, as an ad in The Academy Awards for a movie or a cosmetic.
The bottom line of ad selling and buying, therefore, is composed of four elements:
1. The audience
2. The quality of the ad exposure
3. The price in terms of delivering audience/exposures for less than comparable media offerings
4. The ad environment as characterized by the programming around the ad and/or the media vehicle itself.
Advertising is how we move customers and prospects along the purchase spectrum, from no awareness of our product or service to awareness, preference, intent to purchase, purchase and repurchase.
1. The key to media selling and buying is audience. Without it, advertising is the sound of one hand clapping.
Start your ad sales planning (and pitch) with audience. Who is your audience, how is it measured, what are their characteristics, where do they live, etc. The more you can tell advertisers and media buyers about your audience, in a documentable manner (i.e., measured by a trusted source such as Nielsen), the more likely you are to succeed in the monetization of that audience.
2. Next is the likelihood of the ad being seen and possibly acted upon. This can be measured and dimensioned by such ‘soft’ measures as ‘engagement’ (attentiveness, involvement) or hard measures such as recall.
Most advertising sales are of potential ‘impressions’ or ‘opportunities to see’ rather than proved actual exposures. The closer you can come to being able to ensure an actual and documentable ad exposure, the more valuable the media position.
One extreme in this consideration spectrum is a controlled circulation magazine that is sent free to an audience. This sort of publication must be able to prove real readership or risk being completely discounted by intelligent media buyers.
Another extreme is an ad feature is a live update in a sports event such as an auto race or football game that is highly likely to be viewed by the involved viewing enthusiast.
3. The price of the audience, usually dimensioned in cost per thousand or cost per target rating point, is the next key variable in media buying and selling. The right ad rate for a given media property is determined by a reasonably open marketplace in which media buyers and advertisers can weigh your media offerings vs. others they consider comparable.
All other things being equal, two NFL Football games or two highly rated primetime original TV programs telecast in the same time periods on different TV networks are likely to earn the same ad rates.
But ‘all other things’ are rarely equal in the real world. And many media offerings must compete for consideration with ad positions in completely different media; e.g., internet streaming video vs. network television. In this specific case, my point of view is that an intelligent media buyer and/or advertiser would equate these two offerings because they’re both television, just delivered by different distribution methods.
On the other hand, the buyer would weigh the relative audience size, likely to be higher for the network show; the relative attentiveness, likely to be higher for a TIVO-proof mid-roll in a net video of the same program. It would also be important to define the audiences clearly in terms of desirable characteristics such as age, gender, income, education, purchasing behavior, etc. Even the probable size of the screen would be a factor to consider.
The point is that when all things are not equal, tradeoffs are defined and given relative values in the media consideration process.
4. The program environment is, in my view, the last consideration since if we have an attentive audience that we want to reach and the ad position is well priced, we’ve got what we are aiming for, an effective platform for our ad. What the program environment can add to this is an association ‘rub-off’ for the advertiser and ad. This could be in the form of image, such as an ad in The Kennedy Center Honors or in the MTV Video Awards (depending on the advertiser) or relevance, as an ad in The Academy Awards for a movie or a cosmetic.
The bottom line of ad selling and buying, therefore, is composed of four elements:
1. The audience
2. The quality of the ad exposure
3. The price in terms of delivering audience/exposures for less than comparable media offerings
4. The ad environment as characterized by the programming around the ad and/or the media vehicle itself.
January 8, 2007
My First Time
As an assistant media planner at Ogilvy & Mather in 1966, I was assigned to develop a media plan for Milky Way candy bars. First problem: I’d never written a media plan before. In my first fifteen months in the business, I’d trained in media research and bought Spot TV. Think outside the box; I didn’t even know there was a box.
But O&M at the time was a very friendly place (about $60 million in billings in one office at 49th Street & Fifth Avenue) so I wandered around and picked up some information:
1. Milky Way sales were trending down
2. Corner groceries were being replaced by the new supermarkets
3. Single bar sales at candy stores were declining while multi-packs at supermarkets were growing
4. Hardly anyone bought chocolate bars in the summer because they melted
5. Most candy advertising was directed at children
One other bit of information based on my own personal experience: frozen Milky Way bars were really good.
I put this all together and presented a plan to the account group that included:
1. A recommendation for a summer promotion based on packing six or so Milky Way bars in a free ice cube tray
2. Daytime television during the summer when we could reach kids and their Moms (and virtually no other candies were advertising)
Months later I saw a sales chart that showed a multiyear negative sales trend reversing slightly in the previous summer.
A little ignorance is a wonderful thing.
P.S. O&M gave me six weeks to do this media plan. This was a lot of time even if we did not have electronic calculators, copy machines, faxes, fedex or cellphones much less computers… What a great place to work.
But O&M at the time was a very friendly place (about $60 million in billings in one office at 49th Street & Fifth Avenue) so I wandered around and picked up some information:
1. Milky Way sales were trending down
2. Corner groceries were being replaced by the new supermarkets
3. Single bar sales at candy stores were declining while multi-packs at supermarkets were growing
4. Hardly anyone bought chocolate bars in the summer because they melted
5. Most candy advertising was directed at children
One other bit of information based on my own personal experience: frozen Milky Way bars were really good.
I put this all together and presented a plan to the account group that included:
1. A recommendation for a summer promotion based on packing six or so Milky Way bars in a free ice cube tray
2. Daytime television during the summer when we could reach kids and their Moms (and virtually no other candies were advertising)
Months later I saw a sales chart that showed a multiyear negative sales trend reversing slightly in the previous summer.
A little ignorance is a wonderful thing.
P.S. O&M gave me six weeks to do this media plan. This was a lot of time even if we did not have electronic calculators, copy machines, faxes, fedex or cellphones much less computers… What a great place to work.
December 27, 2006
The Future Look of Newspapers is not the Net, it’s the Tabloid
It’s not just the Internet that’s holding newspapers back; it’s the lack of experimentation and innovation, a kind of collective blindness to what is working with today’s consumers.
If newspapers are to survive as a viable medium, they need to adapt to a new media age in which even loyal newspaper readers face many challenges in dealing with an old form of information delivery.
One of the oft-cited positive attributes of print media in general is that they are portable, easily read on trains, planes and in bathrooms. However, it is hard to apply the word ‘easy’ to reading a broadsheet on the scale of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal even on one’s breakfast table (unless one dines alone). And all of those sections!
Consider, on the other hand, how easy it is to read tabloids such as New York’s own Post and Daily News. No folding and refolding just to view and inside page. No moving from section to section to follow an article. Just turn the page; it’s nearly as easy as clicking a mouse.
Moreover, the tabloid format has to be much more profitable because of reduced paper costs.
Ad pages smaller? Well, to the reader it has been my experience that a page is a page is a page; i.e., it fills the viewing ‘frame’.
Feature sections harder to find? Why not tab sections with little half moon cut-outs on the right edge to indicate key editorial offerings such as entertainment, business, sports, etc.?
No, I don’t have all the answers. But I think the newspaper industry can find them if they move more boldly to make themselves more user-friendly and accessible.
If newspapers are to survive as a viable medium, they need to adapt to a new media age in which even loyal newspaper readers face many challenges in dealing with an old form of information delivery.
One of the oft-cited positive attributes of print media in general is that they are portable, easily read on trains, planes and in bathrooms. However, it is hard to apply the word ‘easy’ to reading a broadsheet on the scale of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal even on one’s breakfast table (unless one dines alone). And all of those sections!
Consider, on the other hand, how easy it is to read tabloids such as New York’s own Post and Daily News. No folding and refolding just to view and inside page. No moving from section to section to follow an article. Just turn the page; it’s nearly as easy as clicking a mouse.
Moreover, the tabloid format has to be much more profitable because of reduced paper costs.
Ad pages smaller? Well, to the reader it has been my experience that a page is a page is a page; i.e., it fills the viewing ‘frame’.
Feature sections harder to find? Why not tab sections with little half moon cut-outs on the right edge to indicate key editorial offerings such as entertainment, business, sports, etc.?
No, I don’t have all the answers. But I think the newspaper industry can find them if they move more boldly to make themselves more user-friendly and accessible.
December 22, 2006
Nielsen's Top Ten Lists for 2006
Check this out. American Idol, The Super Bowl, Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter are just a few of the winners in Nielsen's annual top ten most popular media offerings: href="http://www.nielsenmedia.com/nc/portal/site/Public/menuitem.55dc65b4a7d5adff3f65936147a062a0/?vgnextoid=7c8e8ee7af0af010VgnVCM100000ac0a260aRCRD">this!
December 21, 2006
It's the Customer Stupid
David Ogilvy taught us junior O&M'ers years ago that all good advertising and marketing solutions began with a study of the consumer. I think it's fair to say that this still applies to virtually all aspects of marketing today, especially the business of media selection.
People today spend 1,555 hours annually watching Television, 190 hours surfing the Net. They spend 975 hours listening to Radio, 19 hours with Interactive TV and wireless content.
Perhaps that's why so much of what's called 'new' media today are simply new platforms for television, usually in a smaller and/or less convenient form: sports on mobile phones, anyone?
Begin media planning with a clear understanding of how your customers and prospects use the media today, and allocate your sales messages accordingly.
Note: Media usage data from the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. Census Bureau.
People today spend 1,555 hours annually watching Television, 190 hours surfing the Net. They spend 975 hours listening to Radio, 19 hours with Interactive TV and wireless content.
Perhaps that's why so much of what's called 'new' media today are simply new platforms for television, usually in a smaller and/or less convenient form: sports on mobile phones, anyone?
Begin media planning with a clear understanding of how your customers and prospects use the media today, and allocate your sales messages accordingly.
Note: Media usage data from the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. Census Bureau.
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