| Today's Top Stories | | #1 | MillerCoors Readies Male-Targeted Campaign for New Hard Cider
| | | The launch campaign for new Smith & Forge hard cider will include commercials featuring blacksmiths, guys with lots of facial hair, arm wrestling and a tough-guy character from AMC's Breaking Bad, according to an Ad Age report. The campaign was created by WPP's Cavalry and TV spots begin on March 31. Olson is handling PR. The brand name is a reference to the era when blacksmiths "forged" relationships over some hard cider.
Why This Matters: Hard cider is a hot and growing segment of the alcohol business and MillerCoors believes many of the competing brands target women. Much like beer rival Anheuser-Busch InBev, MillerCoors is a late-comer to the cider market and both are trying to make greater inroads.
A Take: Ad Age
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| | #2 | MediaCom Staffers Learning How to Market By Watching Hollywood
| | | So far, 24 strategic planners, account directors and other department heads at the media agency have completed a program in which they were taught to think more like storytellers and make their presentations more compelling, according to an article by Adweek. Recently, a group spent two days dissecting the movie Argo with independent producer/director Diana Santi and the agency's director of visual experience Giuseppe De Angelis.
Why This Matters: With the competition to win client business as intense as ever, anything that can give an agency an edge is helpful. This approach is certainly different, however; consultant Ken Robinson says the takeaway is not to use more showmanship but to make presentations that are concise, interesting and compelling and leave clients inspired.
A Take: Adweek
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| | #3 | AOL Starts Selling TV Ads Through Adap.tv But Doesn't ID Network Partners
| | | Magna Global was its test partner and is now on board, but in announcing the launch of its programmatic TV buying platform, AOL did not name the other agencies that will use the service or which of the 100 networks it says clients can buy, Ad Age reports. "We are not publicly providing TV content partner names right now due to ongoing negotiations with these companies," a company spokesman said.
Why This Matters: Digital platforms are all looking to get linear TV ad dollars, so programmatic buying is popular among digital sites. But Ad Age says, "AOL's vague description of its partners…raises questions about the initiative."
2 Takes: Ad Age | MediaPost
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| #4 Twitter Cashes In With Oscar Night Promoted Tweets (Adweek) #5 H&R Block's Latest Campaign Targets 'Hipster' Millennials (NYT)
#6 Yahoo Testing App Install Ads to Boost Mobile Ad Business (Ad Age) #7 'Cookie Guy' Returns in Latest Mondelez Chips Ahoy! Marketing Campaign (NYT) #8 Native Content Ad Unit of 'Washington Post' Cozies Up to Editorial Side (Adweek) #9 VivaKi Partners With Ifeelgoods to Offer Real-Time Marketing Rewards (MediaPost)
#10 Brands and Agencies Starting to Experiment With Google Glass (Adweek) |
|  | • 40.2
Percentage of U.S. female social media users who say they interact with brands by tweeting during major TV cultural events such as the Oscars and Grammys, according to a study by Influenster.
– Reported by eMarketer
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| | MBPT Spotlight | Advertisers' Appetite for Live Sports Keeps Growing—More NFL on CBS Thursday night means more money
By Jon Lafayette
As the upfront advertising market approaches, live sports is TV's most muscular genre. And the NFL is so strong that its commercial inventory is likely to be snapped up by marketers, even while adding a primetime game on CBS, the highest-rated broadcast network.
CBS acquiring Thursday Night Football to crown its top-rated lineup as a simulcast with the NFL Network is the most important audible going into next TV season. "I don't think there can be too much NFL on the market," says Dan Cohn, client director, investment, at media agency Initiative. "Thursday Night Football is a great spot leading into the weekend for advertisers. It's great for movie studios, it's great for automotive, it's great for home improvement. It's great for retail."
Buyers say the CBS games may draw some ad dollars from other primetime programming, but the NFL's other TV partners are likely to find additional advertisers to pony up. Still working out details with the NFL, CBS declined to comment.
Other networks expect their NFL business to continue to grow. "While the money's going to come from somewhere I don't see it affecting us on Sunday," says Neil Mulcahy, executive VP, Fox Sports Media Group. "More advertisers are planning more dollars into the NFL overall."
What are Fox's expectations—and plans—for FoxSports1? And how is ESPN playing to its advantage?
For more, click HERE (sub required)
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| | Fates & Fortunes | • DANIEL RYBACK AND RICH SCHNEIDER have joined Starcom USA in executive positions related to the agency's Novartis account. Ryback was named VP and director, overseeing the Novartis over-the-counter businesses, while Schneider was named VP and director, managing the Alcon division business. Both will be based in New York and report to senior VP and director Lily Chakrabarty. Ryback joins Starcom from Zenith Media, where he managed the Caesars Entertainment account. Prior to that he was an account director at Initiative and before that was at MEC. Schneider was most recently with the Novo Nordisk Diabetes franchise where he oversaw strategic planning and the national advertising launch of Victoza. Prior to that, he led media planning at MediaCom for Bayer Consumer Healthcare brands. He also worked at Mindshare and at MediaVest.
• MICHELLE BEADLE has returned to ESPN to cohost ESPN2's SportsNation with current cohosts Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley. Beadle had previously cohosted SportsNation with Colin Cowherd before leaving ESPN in 2012 for NBCUniversal, where she was a correspondent for Access Hollywood and hosted her own NBC Sports Network show The Crossover. That show was canceled and Beadle left NBCU earlier this year. She has also worked as a reporter at YES network covering the-then New Jersey Nets.
• HAROLD REYNOLDS and TOM VERDUCCI will join Joe Buck in the Fox broadcast booth for its Major League Baseball telecasts this season. The duo of Reynolds and Verducci succeed longtime Fox MLB analyst Tim McCarver, who has retired. Reynolds had a 12-year MLB career and was a two-time All-Star. He will continue his role with MLB Network where he serves as a studio analyst. Verducci is a writer for Sports Illustrated and prior to that wrote for Newsday in Long Island, N.Y. He made some appearances last season in the Fox MLB broadcast booth as a commentator and worked as an analyst on MLB Network and as a field reporter on TBS' coverage of MLB games. Buck has been the lead play-by-play announcer on Fox Sports MLB telecasts since 1996.
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| | What They're Watching | BROADCAST RATINGS
Oscars Hit 10-Year High With 43 Million Viewers
Ellen DeGeneres' second time hosting the Oscars brought in the show's biggest audience in 10 years, with 43 million viewers tuning into Sunday's 86th Annual Academy Awards on ABC from 8:30-11:41 p.m. ET, up 7% from last year. Among adults 18-49 however, Sunday's Oscars dipped a tenth from last year. The show was up among a few younger demographics, rising 1% with adults 18-34 and 8% among persons 12-17. The Oscars Red Carpet Special from 7-8:30 p.m. ET improved a tenth from last year. ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live: After the Oscars also saw its best ratings in its nine-year run, up 22%. The post-Oscar special also improved 20% among adults 18-49. ABC easily won the night. CBS was the only other network to schedule original programming against the Oscars. 60 Minutes rose 8% from last week while The Amazing Race matched last week's series low.
For more, click HERE
CABLE RATINGS
'Vikings' Season Two Bows Below Series Premiere
History's Vikings drew 3.6 million total viewers for its season two premiere Thursday night. That number is down 42% from last year's series premiere, which followed a lead-in of 13.1 million viewers from the premiere of limited series The Bible, and was even with the season one finale.
For more, click HERE
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| Overnight Ratings: Sunday, March 2
| | 8 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | ABC
| OSCARS RED CARPET LIVE (8)
THE OSCARS (8:30)
| 9.1
13.6
| 33.3
45.3
| CBS
| THE AMAZING RACE
| 1.5
| 6.0
| UNIVISION
| NUESTRA BELLEZA LATINA
| 1.2
| 3.4
| FOX
| THE SIMPSONS (R) (8)
BOB'S BURGERS (R) (8:30)
| 1.1
1.1
| 2.6
2.3
| NBC
| DATELINE NBC (R)
| 0.9
| 4.6
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| | 9 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | ABC
| THE OSCARS
| 11.7
| 40.1
| UNIVISION
| NUESTRA BELLEZA LATINA
| 1.3
| 3.6
| FOX
| FAMILY GUY (R) (9)
AMERICAN DAD (R) (9:30)
| 1.3
1.1
| 2.7
2.4
| NBC
| THE VOICE (R)
| 0.9
| 3.3
| CBS
| THE MENTALIST (R)
| 0.5
| 3.5
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| | 10 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | ABC
| THE OSCARS
| 11.1
| 37.7
| UNIVISION
| NUESTRA BELLEZA LATINA (10)
SAL Y PIMIENTA (10:30)
| 1.4
1.0
| 3.3
2.3
| NBC
| THE VOICE (R)
| 1.1
| 3.4
| CBS
| THE GOOD WIFE (R)
| 0.4
| 2.9
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| | TOMORROW'S BIG RATINGS STORIES TODAY | • Killer Dramas on A&E
Season two of the A&E drama series Bates Motel premieres on Monday at 9 p.m., leading into a new scripted drama at 10, Those Who Kill. Bates Motel, which depicts the life of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho character Norman Bates in this prequel to the movie, averaged about 2.6 million viewers and a 1.2 18-49 demo rating in its first season. In season two of the series, which stars Freddie Highmore as Norman and Vera Farmiga as his mother Norma, according to A&E, the producers "dig deeper into the twisted world of the Bates family." Those Who Kill stars Chloe Sevigny as a recently promoted homicide detective who enlists the help of a forensic psychologist to track down serial killers, while seeking the truth behind the disappearance of her brother. At 11 p.m. A&E will air special live half-hour event Bates Motel: After Hours, during which the series' stars and creators will appear. The upshot: Bates Motel heads into season two with lots of buzz and solid reviews and it gives Those Who Kill a solid lead-in. A&E is mostly known for its reality series, but these two series could give it a much-watched scripted night.
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| • 'Rods N' Wheels' Slows Toward Its Season-One Finish
Discovery Channel's newest car-centric reality series concludes its first season on Monday at 9 p.m. Rods N' Wheels follows friends Billy Derian and Steve Reck, who own the Southern California garage Da Rod Shop, where they fix up and restore vintage cars and hot rods. The series premiered in late January with 1.8 million viewers and a 0.7 18-49 demo rating, but the past few episodes have pulled in only about 1.2 million viewers with a 0.4 18-49 rating. The upshot: Discovery has two other popular car shop reality series—Fast N' Loud and Street Outlaws. They are good for advertisers wishing to target a primarily male audience, but the third series in the genre might have pushed things a bit. Still, men are hard to reach, so this show should be back for another season for marketers who want to invest in the trio.
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| • CW's 'Star-Crossed' Still Hoping to Shine
This CW sci-fi drama about a human teen and an alien teen that fall in love premiered two weeks ago on Monday at 8 p.m. with 1.2 million viewers and a 0.4 18-49 demo rating. Last week, it dipped to 1.1 million viewers and a 0.3 rating, not much of a decline but off a small base. This Monday's episode of Star-Crossed will shed some light on where the series is headed. Either viewership will level off or keep on slipping. The upshot: The CW has been adding more sci-fi series over the past few years, but none of the new ones has been as successful as Arrow, which is based on the DC Comics' character Green Arrow and has averaged 2.5 million viewers this season with a 0.9 18-49 demo rating. While sci-fi shows may have perked up the CW's ratings initially, one has to wonder whether it is now oversaturating its schedule with the genre. This episode's rating will offer some evidence either way.
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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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