| Today's Top Stories | | #1 | Social-Listening Firm Finds Best Buy's Holiday Campaign May Have Backfired
| | | An ongoing TV campaign launched in October by the electronics retail chain featuring actors Will Arnett, Maya Rudolph, Jason Schwartzman and LL Cool J encouraging consumers to come in, look around, compare prices and buy, might not have brought in optimal sales, according to a study by social media analysts Crimson Hexagon, which looked at 1.5 million discussions about the retailer. Ad Age reports that many consumers may have instead "showroomed," i.e. visited Best Buy stores to compare before buying online via Amazon.
Why This Matters: "[Consumers are] telling us that Best Buy is where they go to look at merchandise and then buy it online later," said Jehan Hamedi of Crimson Hexagon, adding Best Buy needs to do better at selling once the ads draw consumers into the store.
A Take: Ad Age
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| | #2 | After Last-Minute Online Buy Surge, Retailers Are Late For a Very Important Date
| | | Promotions by many retail chains including Walmart and Kohl's and online companies like Amazon promised consumers delivery of merchandise by Christmas but many failed to deliver, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Now the chains are trying to soothe customer anger by offering $25 gift certificates along with the late-delivered merchandise.
Why This Matters: The worst thing a retailer can do to create ill will is to promote a promise in its marketing campaign and not deliver. One Walmart customer who did not get a TV for his daughter delivered by Christmas Eve went out to Best Buy to get a TV at the last minute. "It's more expensive, but I'm not going to let Walmart ruin my daughter's Christmas," the dad said.
A Take: WSJ
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| | #3 | Consultant Offers Advice To Brands Hoping To Dethrone Category Leaders
| | | Andy Pierce, U.S. president of strategic marketing consultancy Prophet writes in Ad Age that it's not as hard as brands might think to overtake their competitors and he offers suggestions. Among them: pay attention to what customers want and think; aggressively de-position the other brand; focus on the experience a brand provides; find a niche within the category; be innovative; create emotional relevance; borrow tactics from successful companies and avoid unprofitable growth.
Why This Matters: Pierce believes today's marketplace consumers are happy to ditch brands when something better comes along. A challenger brand just needs to be willing to "joust" with the market leader.
A Take: Ad Age
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#4 Study Finds Customer Experience Grows In Importance Among Brands (MediaPost)
#5 Equinox To Roll Out New $6 Million Marketing Campaign (NYT)
#6 Hispanic Kids Over-Index On Reading, TV Watching (MediaPost)
#7 Live Nation Now A Major Data Insights Player (Ad Age)
#8 Pinot's Palette In Exclusive Tie-In With TBS' 'Cougar Town' (MediaPost)
#9 eMarketer Forecast's 2013 U.S. Ad Spend Rising 3.8% to $171.3 Billion (eMarketer)
#10 VML Named Creative Agency For Napa Auto Parts (MediaPost)
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|  | • 127
Minutes per day that children of U.S. Hispanic families watch television, compared to 98 minutes per day for non-Hispanic children, according to a study by Northwestern University and the National Center for Families Learning.
– Reported by MediaPost
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| | MBPT Spotlight | EY Explores the Future Of Television And Its Impact On Viewers And Marketers
By John Consoli
If media and entertainment companies want to continue to be valuable assets to marketers, they need to stay ahead of today's viewership trends rather than simply react to them, advises professional services firm EY (formerly Ernst & Young) in a new report titled "The Future of Television." "If the television story were to be splashed across the front pages of tomorrow's newspapers, the head may read: 'Consumers are in Control,'" the report says, adding, "The story beneath it may then go on to talk about how an ever-expanding array of channels, platforms, devices, experiences and choice is positioning consumers to dictate the of television for the foreseeable future." The EY report identifies six emerging trends that it sees as potentially having the biggest impact on the future of the medium: • Storytelling will evolve to make better use of an omniplatform environment.
• Ubiquitous screens will demand greater content mobility.
• Social dynamics and synergistic experiences will drive more event-based viewing.
• Innovation in program discovery will drive new techniques to cut through the clutter.
• Bingeing will drive more innovation in measurement and personalization.
• New entrants demanding unique content will drive innovation beyond the traditional studio system. Some of the reports' thoughts and hypotheticals may seem to require a bit more evolving in the industry, but could well become mainstream down the road. As the increase in viewing on devices other than television continues to grow, the report says, "there is a tremendous opportunity for a visionary producer to better use second, third and fourth screens as part of the narrative. Perhaps each character appears on a different screen and the screens talk to each other to give a surround-picture experience, similar to surround sound." How might viewers control story arcs thanks to coming developments? And how can manufacturers work to make TVs more intuitive?
For more, click HERE
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| | Fates & Fortunes | • ANDY CARRIGAN and JOHN ZAST have joined JWT New York to handle creative duties on the agency's Macy's account, as well as other yet-to-be-named brands. They were most recently global group creative directors at Anomaly, a unit of MDC Partners, where they managed worldwide creative duties for Captain Morgan, Budweiser and NBC Sports Network, according to a report in MediaPost. Prior to Anomaly, both were with Wieden + Kennedy. In their new roles at JWT New York they will report to Jeff Benjamin, chief creative officer of JWT North America.
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| | What They're Watching | BROADCAST RATINGS
ABC Wins Christmas Night
ABC led the networks on Christmas night, featuring repeats of its regular Wednesday lineup. The entire night was filled with repeats of nets' regular rosters and holiday specials, with NBC in second, CBS in third, Fox in fourth and The CW rounding out the night in fifth. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision topped all the English-language networks except for ABC.
For more, click HERE
CABLE RATINGS
ESPN Nets Highest-Rated NBA Christmas Tripleheader
ESPN netted its best ratings (according to overnight numbers from Nielsen) for its three-game Christmas Day slate with a 2.3 (up 10% vs. last year), driven by its best performance in primetime. ESPN's primetime doubleheader at 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. was led by the Houston Rockets-San Antonio Spurs matchup in the early window, which earned a best-ever 2.4 rating, up 41% from the 8 p.m. game last year. At 10:30 p.m., the Los Angeles Clippers-Golden State Warriors game rose 15% over last year to a 2.3. The 12 p.m. ET matchup between the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets drew a 2.3 rating, down 15% from that window last year. Over on ABC, which aired a doubleheader at 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m., ratings dipped 17% from last year's doubleheader (which aired at 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.) with an overall 4.9 rating. The early game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and New York Knicks drew a 3.7, down 37% from last year's early window. The late game between the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers fell 18% to a 4.9.
For more, click HERE
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| Overnight Ratings: Wednesday, December 25
| | 8 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | ABC
| THE MIDDLE (R) (8:00)
TROPHY WIFE (R) (8:30)
| 1.3
0.9
| 3.8
2.6
| NBC
| KELLY CLARKSON'S CAUTIONARY CHRISTMAS MUSIC TALE (R)
| 0.7
| 3.5
| CBS
| I LOVE LUCY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (R)
| 0.6
| 3.6
| UNIVISION
| POR SIEMPRE MI AMOR
| 0.6
| 1.9
| FOX
| ICE AGE: A MAMMOTH CHRISTMAS (R) (8:00)
DREAMWORKS DRAGONS: GIFT OF THE NIGHT FURY (R) (8:30)
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0.5
0.4
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2.0
1.6
| CW
| KUNG FU PANDA HOLIDAY SPECIAL (R) (8:00)
MERRY MADAGASCAR (R) (8:30)
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0.3
0.3
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1.0
1.1
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| | 9 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | ABC
| MODERN FAMILY (R) (9:00)
SUPER FUN NIGHT (R) (9:30)
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1.3
0.8
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3.8
2.4
| UNIVISION
| LO QUE LA VIDA ME ROBÓ
| 0.8
| 2.2
| CBS
| HAWAII FIVE-0 (R)
| 0.7
| 4.7
| NBC
| MICHAEL BUBLÉ'S THIRD ANNUAL CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (R)
| 0.7
| 3.4
| FOX
| RAISING HOPE (R) (9:00)
RAISING HOPE (R) (9:30)
| 0.2
0.4
| 1.0
1.1
| CW
| ONE DIRECTION IHEARTRADIO ALBUM RELEASE PARTY (R)
| 0.2
| 0.8
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| | 10 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | UNIVISION
| LO QUE LA VIDA ME ROBÓ
| 0.8
| 2.3
| CBS
| BLUE BLOODS (R)
| 0.6
| 5.4
| NBC
| HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT (R)
| 0.6
| 2.1
| ABC
| NASHVILLE (R)
| 0.5
| 1.8
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| | TOMORROW'S BIG RATINGS STORIES TODAY | • 'Pawn' To Be Wild All Day On History
The network will air repeat half-hour episodes of its hit reality series, which is in the midst of a solid season eight, beginning at 10 a.m. Thursday and right up until 10 p.m. when it will run two new back-to-back episodes. Pawn Stars has been averaging about 3.3 million viewers and a 1.0 18-49 demo rating this season. Last week, however, the series drew 4.1 million and a 1.2 demo rating for its 10 p.m. Christmas episode. The upshot: Excluding the marathon airings, History televises this series a lot, and even in repeats it still draws an average of close to 2 million viewers per episode. Expect the two fresh episodes on Thursday night to pull in close to 3.5 million viewers and be close to the top of the most watched cable shows of the night.
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| • The NBA Double Teams TNT On Thursdays
TNT has the NBA rights to televise exclusive doubleheader games each Thursday night with the first game beginning around 8 and the second game beginning around 10:30. This week's second game matchup features the Portland Trailblazers, who at 23-5 own one of the best records in the league, hosting another top team, the Los Angeles Clippers, who are 20-10. The Trailblazers feature power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, while the Clippers are led by All-Star point guard (and State Farm TV commercial star) Chris Paul. In the first game, the 19-11 Houston Rockets, led by guard James Harden, meet a struggling Memphis Grizzlies team, which has a record of 12-15. The upshot: This season, NBA doubleheaders have drawn a solid audience of men each Thursday night and its viewership has gone up slightly since NFL Network's Thursday Night Football telecasts ended their season. So far the early games on TNT are averaging about 2 million viewers and a 0.8 18-49 rating, while the late games are averaging about 1.8 million and a 0.8.
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| • Turning Back the Clock On 'Glee'
Fox will televise a holiday-themed episode from 2012 of its musical dramedy Glee on Thursday night at 9. The episode is a tribute to the holiday film Love Actually and is titled Glee, Actually. The episode features a bunch of guest stars and also will give fans a chance to see the late Cory Monteith, who died this summer of an accidental drug overdose, perform. The upshot: Glee has been struggling in the ratings this season and is going to be on a season five hiatus until Feb. 25 when it will return on a new night—Tuesdays at 8—with fresh episodes. The network is hoping that its new time period will help improve viewership, which is averaging only 4.4 million this season along with a 1.6 18-49 demo rating.
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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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