| Today's Top Stories | | #1 | Analysts Expect Sprint, T-Mobile to Boost Ad Spending
| | | The third- and fourth-ranked wireless companies are projected to hike ad spending to promote their unlimited data offerings to new customers in order to grab a larger market share from Verizon and AT&T, which do not offer new customers unlimited data plans. AT&T and Verizon execs tell Ad Age, however, that in the coming year speed will be more important to customers than data or pricing.
Why This Matters: Spending more on advertising doesn't always translate into more mobile plan sales. According to Kantar Media, AT&T spent $1.3 billion on U.S. measured media in 2012, down from 2011, but its share of market sales increased. Verizon spent $1.2 billion, less than the prior year, but its market share was flat. T-Mobile spent $887 million, up from the prior year, but lost market share. Sprint spent $810 million, less than the prior year, and sales were flat.
A Take: Ad Age
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| | #2 | Nickelodeon, Birds Eye Partner in Cross-Media Campaign to Tout Vegetables
| | | Birds Eye will use one of the kids network's stars, Jennette McCurdy, as its spokesperson in a campaign running from July 15 through Sept. 21 titled "Play With Your Food," Adweek reports. The network will run four different 30-second commercials featuring the actress on both its TV programming and on its website. Birds Eye will also bring gaming elements to Nick.com highlighting the brand's vegetable products.
Why This Matters: Nickelodeon has been under siege by kids' nutritional groups to stop selling commercial time to marketers of overly sweet snacks, so this move could be a response from the network to show it also promotes nutritious foods. To be fair, however, Nick has a history of promoting vegetables to kids within its animated programming in shows like SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer.
A Take: Adweek
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| | #3 | BMW Plans to Expand Use of 'Ad Within an Ad' TV Commercial Concept
| | | The German automaker initially aired a commercial during the U.S. Open golf coverage on NBC and the Golf Channel in June that touted the BMW Series 7 model, but at the end segued into an integration of TaylorMade's R1 driver hitting a golf ball off a tee. BMW and TaylorMade are now planning similar spots for telecasts of the automaker's BMW Championship golf tournament in September, Ad Age reports. BMW also wants to run these "ad within an ad" spots during NFL and college football games this fall.
Why This Matters: More marketers are beginning to partner with other, non-competing brands, in commercials that for the time being tend to capture viewers' attention and also enable the marketers to split the cost of the ad buy. Movie companies and fast food restaurants partnering in commercials are the latest craze, but they have a limited window. Auto and sporting goods brands don't.
A Take: Ad Age
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| #4 Oscar Mayer Rolls Out Summer Wienermobiles With Increased Social Media Interaction (NYT)
#5 More Brands in Crisis Using Twitter to Reach Consumers (Digiday)
#6 Horizon Media Study Identifies Four Millennial Groups With Different Viewing Habits (MediaPost)
#7 Magazines Expected to Get Ad Boost From New Newport Cigarettes (Ad Age)
#8 Survey: Tablet Users to Make More Purchases Than Smartphone Users in 2013 (eMarketer)
#9 Wendy's Signs Up Nick Lachey to Sing Tweets Praising New Pretzel Cheeseburger (Ad Age)
#10 Campbell's Offering 'Digital Fitness Kits' to Employees (Digiday) |
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Millions of tablet owners who will make purchases via their device this year compared to 53 million buyers using smartphones, according to eMarketer estimates.
—Reported by eMarketer
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| | MBPT Spotlight | 'Flanker' Brands Score Big—Investment in emerging channels pays dividends for bigger siblings
By Jon Lafayette
There's more Cooking on cable. More History too. Cable programmers are pouring more resources into emerging—which often serve up variations on the same fare offered by the flagship brands—as a way to protect their mature networks from rivals and grow revenue.
Take the Cooking Channel, started by Food Network owner Scripps Networks Interactive a little more than three years ago. Michael Smith, general manager of Cooking Channel, says Scripps' recipe was part offensive and part defensive. "We saw demand for food programming growing dramatically," Smith says. At the same time competitors' appetites were being whetted because Fox and Bravo were showing that cooking shows could draw viewers for them as well. "By creating a second channel of our own we could blunt that activity."
The proof is in the pudding. In its first year, Cooking Channel's ratings doubled Fine Living's. Last year, revenues were up 34% to $89 million in 2012. Scripps has pursued a similar blueprint when it launched the DIY Network to buttress HGTV. Both new networks programmed how-to programming as the more mature networks went for more entertainment value.
Scripps isn't alone pursuing this strategy. Last year, A+E Networks rebranded its History International channel as H2. Ratings in the 25-to-54 year old demo were up 38% last year and are pacing up 34% so far this year. A+E also recently hired BBC executive Jana Bennett as president of its emerging Bio and LMN networks to strengthen A&E and Lifetime. Given their position relative to the "quarterbacks" on the field, some call these new ventures "flankers."
"The real growth opportunity from an affiliate and a revenue standpoint is definitely from these emerging networks," said Dirk Hoogstra, executive VP and general manager for History and H2.
How do the various networks distinguish themselves? And what are the advertising opportunities created by having flanker networks?
For more, click HERE
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| | Fates & Fortunes | • JENNIFER DORIAN was promoted to chief strategy officer for Turner Entertainment Networks, which includes TBS, TNT, truTV and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). She was most recently senior VP of strategic development. Prior to that, she was VP of branding for TNT. In 2004, she oversaw the creation and implementation of the "TBS Very Funny" brand. She also worked on the branding of truTV as it transitioned from Court TV. Prior to joining Turner in 2000, Dorian was director of strategic services for sports and leisure marketing at Coca-Cola.
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| | What They're Watching | BROADCAST RATINGS
Fox, CBS Split a Slow Sunday
Fox's repeats tied with CBS for first on a slow Sunday, though CBS had more overall viewers. For CBS, Big Brother improved from last Sunday. ABC and NBC also tied. ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap fell to a series low while Whodunnit? remained flat. NBC's Crossing Lines was even with last week.
For more, click HERE
CABLE RATINGS
Repeat Marathons Top Cable on Fourth of July
Almost no original programming on the Fourth of July meant that the many marathons of popular shows topped the list of most-watched cable on Thursday, led by NCIS on USA Network and The Walking Dead on AMC.
For more, click HERE
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| Overnight Ratings: Sunday, July 7
| | 8 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLION) | CBS
| BIG BROTHER
| 2.1
| 6.2
| FOX
| THE SIMPSONS (R) (8)
BOB'S BURGERS (R) (8:30)
| 1.4
1.3
| 3.1
2.7
| NBC
| AMERICA'S GOT TALENT (R)
| 1.3
| 5.0
| UNIVISION
| COPA ORO 2013
| 1.1
| 2.5
| ABC
| CELEBRITY WIFE SWAP
| 0.9
| 2.9
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| | 9 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | FOX
| FAMILY GUY (R) (9)
AMERICAN DAD (R) (9:30)
| 1.7
1.5
| 3.5
3.0
| UNIVISION
| COPA ORO 2013
| 1.3
| 2.9
| ABC
| WHODUNNIT?
| 1.0
| 3.0
| CBS
| UNDER THE DOME (R)
| 0.9
| 4.1
| NBC
| LAW & ORDER: SVU (R)
| 0.8
| 3.6
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| | 10 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | UNVISION
| COPA ORO 2013/PARODIANDO (10)
PARODIANDO (10:30)
| 1.1
1.0
| 2.4
2.6
| CBS
| THE MENTALIST (R)
| 0.7
| 3.8
| ABC
| CASTLE (R)
| 0.6
| 3.0
| NBC
| CROSSING LINES
| 0.6
| 2.8
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| | TOMORROW'S BIG RATINGS STORIES TODAY | • NBC Gets Out Alive With Bear Grylls
Survivalist Bear Grylls, known for cable series like Man vs. Wild and Born Survivor, joins NBC's summer lineup on Monday at 9 p.m. with survival competition series Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls. The series begins with 10 teams of two who are taken each week on a special mission in the woods of New Zealand's South Island. The goal is to survive the wild and avoid elimination. Much like the format of most reality competition series, one team will be sent home each week. The winning team receives a grand prize of $500,000. The upshot: NBC is trying to establish another summer hit reality series to go along with America's Got Talent, and this goes beyond singing and game show competition. Grylls, a former British Special Forces soldier, is a world renowned survivalist who became one of the youngest climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
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| • 'Kentucky Bidders' Join the 'Lizard Lick' Team
TruTV's latest original series, Kentucky Bidders, joins the primetime lineup on Monday at 10:30 p.m., leading out of the midseason return of Lizard Lick Towing. Kentucky Bidders follows the happenings in at Sammie's Auction in Corbin, Ky., a family-owned business that buys rare and outrageous items—think wedding dresses, live animals, motorcycles, and even condominiums—during the week and sells them on weekends. Kentucky Bidders will get a huge lead-in from Lizard Lick Towing, which premiered its third season in January to 2.9 million viewers, its biggest audience ever. Before it went on hiatus, it was averaging over 2.5 million viewers per episode. Lizard Lick Towing follows Ron and Amy Shirley's Wendell, N.C., towing and repo company. The upshot: Lizard Lick successfully launched another truTV series, Swamp Hunters, in January. So expect Kentucky Bidders to get off to a solid start. It will not draw the same size audience as Lizard Lick, but it could see close to two million viewers stick around for its premiere.
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| • 'Under the Dome' Taking Summer by Storm
After its first two episodes, this CBS 10 p.m. Monday sci-fi series has supplanted NBC's summer hit America's Got Talent as the most-watched series on broadcast television. Based on a novel by Stephen King, Under the Dome tells the story of residents in the town of Chester's Mill who suddenly find themselves cut off from the rest of the world by a mysterious, impenetrable barrier that surrounds the town. Under the Dome drew 13.5 million viewers and a 3.3 adults 18-49 rating for its June 24 premiere and 11.8 million and a 2.5 demo rating for its second telecast on July 1. The 12% drop in viewers and 24% drop in demo rating are within the traditional ranges between premieres and second week episodes. The upshot: The size of Monday night's third week audience will give a better indication of how this series will fare in the long run. Sci-fi series, particularly on broadcast networks, tend to lose audience steadily following their premieres. But Under the Dome's appeal so far has been impressive, especially during the lower viewing summer months.
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| Media Buyer & Planner Today
Editorial Team
John Consoli, Contributing Editor
Phone: 201-314-0424 | Send Email
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Phone: 917-281-4735 | Send Email
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Phone: 917-281-4708 | Send Email
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