| Today's Top Stories | | #1 | 'Food & Wine' Magazine Launches Digital FWx Site Targeting Millennials
| | | The Time Inc. publication wants to reach 25-35-year-olds, who are not reading the print publication, with online content that speaks more in tune with their food and drink preferences. The site, launched Thursday, will have no long-form articles, but briefer posts and 15-second videos and will allow users to share content via their social networks. Launch advertisers include Coach, Renaissance and Stella Artois, according to a report in Adweek.
Why This Matters: "We feel like it's a totally untapped market for lifestyle content," said Alex Vallis, FWx editor, who adds that their target audience is "just obsessed with eating and drinking and going out." It is also another way for marketers to target this on-the-go audience.
A Take: Adweek
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| | #2 | WPP CEO Again Throws Water on Publicis/Omnicom Merger
| | | Martin Sorrell says he is getting lots of information about debates over the merger going on inside the two competing holding companies from employees who are leaving them to join his agencies, Ad Age reports. He claims three employees from Publicis/Omnicom are moving to WPP for every one who moves there from WPP. Sorrell still sees potential approval obstacles, and if the merger is approved, he believes it will take three years for the two companies to operate smoothly, giving WPP opportunities to lure away clients and staff.
Why This Matters: Sorrell has said he is not concerned about the merger of his two rivals, but he keeps publicly addressing the situation, which could mean deep down he does have some concerns and wants to put on a positive public face.
A Take: Ad Age
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| | #3 | Tax Reform Bill Would Cut Ad Tax Deduction By 50% in First Year
| | | Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) has unveiled a tax reform package that would cut back the allowed deduction for advertising to 50% the first year and amortize the remainder of the cut over 10 years. But to help small businesses and local advertisers, the bill would allow companies to expense the first $1 million of advertising.
Why This Matters: "We're not against tax reform, but this provision would make the effort to sell more expensive," says Dan Jaffe of the Association of National Advertisers. Dick O'Brien of the 4As calls it a negative precedent for the ad industry. "Every time the government needs money, they will say, 'Why don't we look at advertising?'"
Two Takes: Adweek | Ad Age
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| #4 BMW to Sponsor 'Inside Look' Videos for History's 'Vikings' Series (B&C)
#5 Senators Introduce Bill to Limit E-Cigarette Marketing Aimed at Kids, Teens (Adweek)
#6 Digital Ad Views in Long-Form Video Up 86% (B&C)
#7 El Rey Network Announces Integration Deal With Heineken at Upfront (NYT)
#8 Wunderman Folds Digital Agency Designkitchen Into Blast Radius (Ad Age)
#9 The House Replaces Saatchi as Lenovo's Creative Agency in EMEA (Adweek)
#10 WPP Acquires Stake in Social Marketing Company Percolate (MediaPost) |
|  | • 37.4
Percentage of U.S. Twitter users ages 18-24 who will access their account via any device at least once per month in 2014, according to an eMarketer survey.
– Reported by eMarketer
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| | MBPT Spotlight | Survey Finds Majority of Marketers Can't Link ROI Levels to Social Media Efforts
By John Consoli
A majority of marketers see a big disconnect when it comes to knowing what kind of return on investment their social media efforts are delivering, according to a report by marketing research company Demand Metric, sponsored by social intelligence company NetBase.
A survey of 125 top executives found that while almost 75% of executives use social media insights and intelligence to influence their decision-making, 70% don't know what kind of ROI their social media efforts are delivering. The fault, it seems, lies both with the marketers who use social media measuring technology, and with the competing vendors who use different terminology to promote similar solutions, causing confusion in the marketplace.
The result, Demand Metric research director Danny Brown says, is that marketers "simply aren't experienced enough to filter automated findings into human behaviors and what that means for a brand's marketing message."
The report found that companies of all sizes are using social media analytics. Among small companies (with annual revenues of $25 million or less), 60% are using some type of analytics. Among medium-size companies ($26 million to $500 million) it rises to 73%, while at large companies (with revenue over $500 million), it's 57%.
According to the survey, what was found to be "far and away" the leading source of insights from social media analytics? And how much did the respondents say social media influenced their companies' revenue?
For more, click HERE
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| | Fates & Fortunes | • EILEEN O'NEILL, most recently group president for Discovery Channel and TLC, will now be group president of Discovery Channel, Science Channel and Velocity. The change is part of a reorganization of executive duties announced by Discovery Communications president and CEO David Zaslav. MARJORIE KAPLAN, previously group president of Animal Planet, Science Channel and Velocity, will now be group president of TLC and continue to oversee Animal Planet. Debbie Myers will continue to lead Science Channel in her role as general manager, while Bob Scanlon will continue in his role as general manager of Velocity. TLC general manager Nancy Daniels will now report to Kaplan. HENRY SCHLEIFF, who is group president for Investigation Discovery, Destination America and the American Heroes Channel (formerly the Military Channel), will add oversight of Discovery Fit & Health to his portfolio.
• TRACIE MANNA CHINETTI was named associate broadcast director at Boston agency Fuseideas. She recently held the same position at employee-owned Waltham, Mass.-based agency Blitz Media, which, according to several media reports, has closed.
• MARY CARILLO has signed a three-year contract extension with Tennis Channel that will expand her role with the network. In addition to her current French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open assignments, she will also cover the Sony Open Tennis tournament in Miami in March, one of the sport's largest events, along with other tournaments throughout the year. Carillo, who recently worked for NBC Sports Group covering the Winter Olympics, joined Tennis Channel in 2011.
• COLLEEN DOMINGUEZ has joined Fox Sports as a reporter and feature contributor for all of its sports channels. That will include appearances on Fox Sports 1's Fox Sports Live nightly news, highlights and opinion show. She will be based in Los Angeles. Dominguez was most recently at ESPN where she spent 12 years in assorted reporting capacities, including doing investigative reports and features, as well as breaking news. She covered the NFL, NBA and MLB. Prior to ESPN, she was a correspondent with NBC News, reporting for Today, NBC Nightly News and for programming on MSNBC.
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| | What They're Watching | BROADCAST RATINGS
'Mixology' Debuts Below 'Super Fun Night'
ABC premiered new comedy Mixology Wednesday night, which rated far below what Super Fun Night earned in its premiere on Oct. 2 in the same time slot. Modern Family fell to a season low. Also on ABC, The Middle was down 18% from its last new episode Feb. 5 and Suburgatory declined 12%. Nashville dropped one tenth from three weeks ago to tie a series low. ABC tied NBC for third on the night. CBS premiered its new cycle of Survivor, which was up a tenth from last year's midseason premiere. Criminal Minds fell 8% from last week. CBS finished in second place overall. Fox won the night as American Idol stayed even with last Wednesday's episode. NBC's Chicago P.D. delivered its highest rating yet, besting its Jan. 8 premiere by two tenths and climbing 29% from its last original episode on Feb. 5. Revolution tied its series low. Law & Order: SVU rose 11% from its most recent original episode on Feb. 5. The CW's Arrow lost one tenth and The Tomorrow People stayed flat, both compared to their last original episodes three weeks ago.
For more, click HERE
CABLE RATINGS
'Being Mary Jane' Tops 'Teen Mom 2' on Tuesday
BET's Being Mary Jane was Tuesday's top cable original with a 1.6 adults 18-49 rating, up 23% from last week. Teen Mom 2 on MTV came in second with a 1.3, down a tenth from last week.
For more, click HERE
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| Overnight Ratings: Wednesday, February 26
| | 8 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | FOX
| AMERICAN IDOL
| 2.7
| 10.6
| CBS
| SURVIVOR
| 2.5
| 9.9
| ABC
| THE MIDDLE (8)
SUBURGATORY (8:30)
| 1.8
1.5
| 7.1
5.3
| NBC
| REVOLUTION
| 1.3
| 4.6
| UNIVISION
| POR SIEMPRE MI AMOR
| 0.9
| 2.7
| CW
| ARROW
| 0.9
| 2.5
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| | 9 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | FOX
| AMERICAN IDOL
| 2.6
| 10.7
| CBS
| SURVIVOR
| 2.5
| 9.6
| ABC
| MODERN FAMILY (9)
MIXOLOGY (9:30)
| 3.1
1.8
| 8.6
5.2
| NBC
| LAW & ORDER: SVU
| 2.0
| 7.7
| UNIVISION
| LO QUE LA VIDA ME ROBÓ
| 1.4
| 3.7
| CW
| THE TOMORROW PEOPLE
| 0.5
| 1.5
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| | 10 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | CBS
| CRIMINAL MINDS
| 2.3
| 9.5
| NBC
| CHICAGO P.D.
| 2.2
| 8.0
| ABC
| NASHVILLE
| 1.2
| 4.7
| UNIVISION
| QUÉ POBRES TAN RICOS
| 0.9
| 2.3
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| | TOMORROW'S BIG RATINGS STORIES TODAY | • More 'Scandal' Brewing on ABC
Shonda Rhimes' ABC drama starring Kerry Washington as a D.C.-based crisis communications consultant returns for the second half of its season with fresh episodes on Thursday at 10 p.m. Also returning on Thursday night and leading into Scandal is another Rhimes series, the veteran drama Grey's Anatomy at 9 p.m. Scandal in fourth quarter before going on hiatus averaged 9.1 million viewers and a 3.1 18-49 demo rating, while Grey's averaged 8.7 million and a 2.8 in the demo. The upshot: Both series were among the top four highest-rated primetime dramas in the demo in fourth quarter and make up ABC's best drama programming block of the week. Now, if the network could only find a compatible drama series at 8 p.m. This week, it will run an Oscar preview special, hosted by Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott.
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| • 'Vikings' Sail Back Into History Primetime
Season two of the History drama series returns on Thursday at 10 p.m. with the first of 10 new episodes. Vikings follows the lives of a clan of Norse warriors in what the network describes as "a tale of brutality, passion, alliances and infidelities." The series centers on young warrior Ragnar who becomes an Earl and ally of the King, but he wants to continue to sail and conquer new lands. Meanwhile, his indiscretions threaten his marriage and his relationship with his son. Vikings averaged about 4.3 million viewers in season one. The upshot: History premiered this show last season out of its acclaimed miniseries The Bible and in the weeks it aired out of that series, it averaged 5 million viewers and a 1.9 18-49 demo. However, after The Bible ended, Vikings slipped a bit, averaging 3.5 million viewers and a 1.6 demo rating—still solid numbers for a cable series. Even without its Bible lead-in, expect Vikings to draw in the 4 million viewers range for its premiere on Thursday night.
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| • New Sundance Short-Run Series Takes Its Act on the 'Road'
The cable network premieres The Red Road Thursday at 9 p.m. The original scripted six-episode series concerns a local sheriff who must police both the small suburban town where he grew up and a neighboring mountain community that's home to a federally unrecognized Native-American tribe. He tries to keep his family together and keep tensions between the communities at bay, which doesn't promise to be an easy task. The upshot: This is Sundance's second wholly-owned original scripted series following the critically acclaimed Rectify, which will return for a second season later this year. Red Road involves the same Native-American community that felt it was unfairly portrayed in the recent movie Out of the Furnace, but this series had one of the community's members serve as a consultant during filming.
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| Media Buyer & Planner Today
Editorial Team
John Consoli, Contributing Editor
Phone: 201-314-0424 | Send Email
Jon Lafayette, Business Editor, Broadcasting & Cable
Phone: 917-281-4735 | Send Email
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Phone: 917-281-4708 | Send Email
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