| Today's Top Stories | | #1 | Facebook Reduces Its Available Ads, Raises Rates
| | | Advertising on the social network will get a bit more expensive with tighter inventory but Facebook execs are telling marketers it will make their ads easier to see with less clutter, according to a MediaPost report. The new initiative was disclosed by Drew Huening, associate director-social channel at Publicis unit Vivaki. Huening said based on proprietary Vivaki data, Facebook has reduced its ad inventory exposed to users by one-third, and CPM pricing has risen two to four times what it was previously.
Why This Matters: The Facebook scenario is similar to one instituted by AOL in 2011. Huening said Facebook's click-through rates for ads have improved but did not comment on whether the cost increase made it worthwhile.
A Take: MediaPost
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| | #2 | Horizon Media Signs Up For Rentrak's VOD Measurement Service
| | | The media agency will use Rentrak's Multiscreen Essentials, which includes measurement of video-on-demand TV viewing. Rentrak gathers data from over 110 million TVs in the U.S. and Canada, including VOD programming data.
Why This Matters: Up until now, the industry has been blind to the true value and potential of VOD targeting due to insufficient data," says Eric Blankfein, who oversees Horizon Media's Where Group. "Our partnership with Rentrak will shine a new light on the value of targeting opportunities."
A Take: MediaPost
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| | #3 | Geico Spent $935 Million On Ads In 2013 And Passed Allstate In Revenue
| | | Geico's ad spending was almost three times the average for the rest of the Top 10 largest insurance companies, Businessweek reports. The large ad expenditure enabled Geico for the first time to move into second place behind State Farm and ahead of Allstate in the amount of auto insurance sold with $18.57 billion in sales. Allstate spent $665 million on advertising, State Farm spent $608 million and Progressive $604 million.
Why This Matters: While the next three largest ad spenders all increased their auto insurance revenue by between 3.5% and 6.5%, Geico boosted its take by 11.2%. At least in this instance, the larger outlay of ad dollars brought in more sales.
A Take: Businessweek
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#4 Advertisers Want More Transparency From Agency Trading Desks (WSJ)
#5 DDB Wins Royal Canin Pet Food Creative Account (Adweek)
#6 Why Exposed Ad Fraud Schemes Never Completely Die (Ad Age)
#7 Cisco Names MRM//McCann Its Global Demand Generation Agency Of Record (MediaPost)
#8 Starbucks Mobile App Transactions Brought In 15% Of Chain's Q3 Revenue (Adweek)
#9 Surveys: Reader Attitudes Mixed On Sponsored Content (Digiday)
#10 New Round Of Hard-To-Watch Anti-Smoking Ads Make It Easier to Quit (NYT)
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Millions of U.S. homes that will have a smart TV by the end of this year, according to Strategy Analytics and BI Intelligence estimates. That number will grow to 35.9 million by 2015 and 40.2 million by 2016.
– Reported by MediaPost
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| | MBPT Spotlight | What's In A (Domain) Name? In New System, Plenty For Marketers
By John Consoli
NetNames, an online brand protection firm, recently released a broad-ranging study looking at trends that are currently reshaping the Web. Titled "Internet 2020: An Analysis of How New gTLDs Will Transform the Internet," the study reflects the strategies of 400 business leaders and the opinions of some 6,000 Internet users in four countries—the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany—and looks at how the coming Web world of gTLDs (generic Top Level Domains) will factor into equations going forward.
There are currently over 271 million domain names registered worldwide. The majority of them are .com domains, which make up 114 million or 42% of the total. These .com Web addresses have been the main driver for the exponential growth of the Internet in the last 20 years, with other domains, such as .net, coming in a distant second (.net has just over 15 million registered users).
With so many domain names already registered, the Internet was running out of usable space and valuable domain names that are short, meaningful and relevant to website content has been shrinking rapidly over the past few years.
At the start of 2014, a new domain system was devised to fuel the Internet's next phase of growth by providing additional choice and relevance to the expanding Internet user community of 2.6 billion people worldwide. Since then, a thousand or so new domain name suffixes—those gTLDs—have been applied for, and more than 600 of those applications have been for .Brands or suffix names such as .americanexpress, .chase, .allstate, .marriott, or .lamborgini.
How might the new domain names revolutionize the Web in the coming years? And what are some of the issues that are already worrying marketers and brands?
For more, click HERE
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| | Fates & Fortunes | • MARTA MARTINEZ was named head of global video ad sales at AOL. She joined AOL in 2013 and has been serving as head of sales strategy and operations. Prior to that she was chief marketing officer at MediaMath. She succeeds Charles Gabriel who recently left the company.
• BETH GREGG was named head of sales at mobile ad platform xAd. She was most recently senior VP sales and North America general manager at DataXu. Prior to that she's held executive posts at Time Inc., BusinessWeek and Electronic Arts
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| | What They're Watching | BROADCAST RATINGS
'Big Brother,' CBS Win Thursday Night
CBS' Big Brother was down one tenth from last week, but the net finished on top for the night. On Fox, the finale of Hell's Kitchen was even with last week's episode, but down 29% from last season's July 2013 finale. Gang Related was down one tenth. All the NBC shows—Hollywood Game Night, Welcome to Sweden, Working the Engels and Last Comic Standing—drew even ratings with last week's episodes. ABC's two-hour finale of Black Box was up one tenth from last week. NY Med was even with last week. The CW aired reruns.
For more, click HERE
CABLE RATINGS
'Family Guy' Continues to Lead
Adult Swim's Family Guy hour led cable on Wednesday night. The 11 p.m. episode drew a 1.5 rating with adults 18-49 and 2.9 million total viewers. The 11:30 p.m. airing also had 2.9 million viewers, but a 1.4 rating in the demo. Teen Mom II followed behind as the top original cable show of the night, pulling a 1.3 rating and 2.1 million viewers.
For more, click HERE
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| Overnight Ratings: Thursday, July 24
| | 8 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | | FOX | HELL'S KITCHEN | 1.7 | 5.0 | | CBS | THE BIG BANG THEORY
(R) (8)
THE MILLERS (R) (8:30) | 1.8
1.3
| 7.1
5.4 | | UNIVISION | MI CORAZÓN ES TUYO
| 1.2 | 3.1 | | NBC | HOLLYWOOD GAME NIGHT | 1.1 | 4.0 | | ABC | BLACK BOX | 0.7 | 3.8 | | CW | THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (R) | 0.1 | 0.5 |
| | 9 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | | CBS | BIG BROTHER | 2.1 | 6.4 | | UNIVISION | LO QUE LA VIDA ME ROBÓ
| 1.4 | 3.6 | | FOX | GANG RELATED | 0.8 | 2.6 | | ABC | BLACK BOX | 0.7 | 3.8 | | NBC | WELCOME TO
SWEDEN (9)
WORKING THE ENGLES (9:30) | 0.8
0.6
| 2.9
2.2
| | CW | THE ORIGINAL (R) | 0.1 | 0.5 |
| | 10 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | | NBC | LAST COMIC STANDING | 1.1 | 3.4 | | UNIVISION | QUÉ POBRES TAN RICOS
| 1.1 | 2.7 | | ABC | NY MED | 0.9 | 4.9 | | CBS | ELEMENTARY | 0.7 | 3.7 |
| | THIS WEEKEND'S BIG RATINGS STORIES TODAY | • 'The Last Ship' + 'Falling Skies' = Hit Sunday For TNT
TNT's first-season drama series The Last Ship on Sunday night at 9 p.m. and its fourth-season drama Falling Skies at 10 are proving to be quite a viewership draw on the night for the cable network. Since premiering on June 22 with 5.3 million viewers, The Last Ship has averaged 4.5 million viewers and a 1.1 18-49 demo rating. Falling Skies, which also returned that night, drew 3.7 million viewers for its premiere and has been averaging 2.9 million and a 0.8 18-49 demo rating. The Last Ship takes place on a U.S. Navy destroyer that is sent on a mission to the Artic just before a deadly virus spreads around the world. Falling Skies focuses on a college professor who becomes the leader of the resistance against an invasion by an alien race. The upshot: TNT execs had high hopes for The Last Ship, executive produced by Michael Bay (Armageddon, Transformers). While it's not doing the kind of numbers Under the Dome averaged for CBS last summer, 4.5 million viewers is clearly going to make everyone happy.
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| • Alaska 'Natives' Come Down From the Cold On TLC
The new TLC reality series Escaping Alaska premieres on Sunday night at 9 and follows a group of five young Eskimos as they leave their villages for the first time and secretly head for the warmer climes of San Diego. In order to "escape" each of the five has to come up with a cover story for their families—essentially saying they are going on cultural and religious missions—or face the wrath of friends and family for betraying their heritage. The series is only six episodes and is the first one produced by Discovery Networks International to debut in the U.S. before it premieres abroad. The upshot: The series comes from the same creators as TLC's Breaking Amish. That was a hit for TLC, averaging 3.2 million viewers and a 1.3 18-49 demo rating in its first season and 2 million viewers and a 1.0 18-49 rating in its second/final season. TLC execs are hoping Escaping Alaska can be just as successful.
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| • 'Monsters' Mash On Destination America Season Finale
This Destination America reality series that follows a team of expert hunters and trappers as they defend their mountain neighbors from mysterious "monsters" that have spawned countless sighting in the Appalachian wilderness over the years, concludes its second season on Friday night at 9 p.m. with a special two-hour episode. In the season finale, West Virginia's Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings group looks to track down an Ohio "Grassman," a nine-foot tall, 1,000-pound creature that's a member of the Bigfoot family. The upshot: Mountain Monsters is one of Destination America's most watched series. It premiered in season two with 672,000 viewers in first run, and has already been renewed for season three.
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