| Today's Top Stories | | #1 | Higher Rates, Fewer Ads Help Facebook's Q4 Mobile Revenue Reach $2.5B
| | | The social media platform has increased its ad revenue for five consecutive quarters by selling fewer ads. In fourth quarter 2014, Facebook sold 65% fewer ads than a year earlier, but the average cost of those ads to advertisers was 335% higher, Ad Age reports. Some 84% of Facebook's daily audience visited on a smartphone or tablet, with 69% of its total $3.59 billion in ad revenue coming from mobile ads.
Why This Matters: Facebook's ad revenue gains are impressive and prove that many marketers are willing to pay more for a less-cluttered environment. While competing digital media companies including Google and Yahoo are trying to squeeze more ads onto their sites, Facebook cutting back on its ad offerings and it's paying off.
Three Takes: Ad Age | Ad Week | MediaPost
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| | #2 | Electronic Arts Players Engage With In-Game Messaging
| | | The gaming company during this NFL season quietly introduced EA Engagement Ads, which allows brands to weave their messages into console and mobile video games but avoid alienating gamers. During natural breaks in games, messages appear asking if players are running low on virtual game currency and want to receive more. Clicking on an ad will get them more. Among the advertisers testing these engagement ads in EA's Madden football game are GMC, McDonald's, Ford, Kellogg's and Paramount.
Why This Matters: Electronic Arts says video game players are fine with seeing ads in their games as long as brands are helping to improve the gaming experience, The Wall Street Journal reports. GMC's national promotions manager Chris Ayotte says: "Our research tells us that [video game players] are really engaging with the content and the branding messaging in these games."
A Take: WSJ
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| | #3 | McDonald's Gets New CEO As Sales Declines Continue
| | | The struggling fast-food chain, without a positive sales quarter since 2013, has been making executive changes on the marketing side to try to bring consumers back into its restaurants. Now CEO Don Thompson is out, effective March 1, to be replaced by McDonald's chief brand officer, Steve Easterbrook. Easterbrook becomes the chain's third CEO in the past decade.
Why This Matters: McDonald's sales have been declining steadily for two years in its core U.S. market, and management has not been able to stop the bleeding. Net income was down nearly 15% in 2014. Easterbrook has been vocal about the chain's need to make itself more attractive to millennials.
Two Takes: Ad Age | WSJ
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#4 Pepsi to Sell Katy Perry Merchandise Via Social Media, Mobile Apps During Super Bowl Halftime (B&C)
#5 Toyota's Super Bowl Strategy Includes 70 Unique Facebook Video Posts (WSJ)
#6 GM Has No Spots But Big Presence at Big Game (USA Today)
#7 Two-Tier Economy Is Negatively Impacting Many Marketers (WSJ)
#8 Jack in The Box Adds David & Goliath to Creative Roster (Ad Age)
#9 How Platforms Are Competing For Super Bowl Traffic (Digiday)
#10 Dish to Reverse AutoHop for Super Bowl, Allowing Fans to Skip Game and Watch Commercials (MCN)
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Percentage of major national marketers that plan to boost spending on native advertising formats over the next 12 months, according to an Association of National Advertisers' member survey.
– Reported by MediaPost
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| | MBPT Spotlight | GroupM's Scanzoni Predicts 100% Industry Move to C7 in Broadcast Primetime Within 2 Years
By John Consoli
With upfront ad negotiations fast approaching for the 2015-16 broadcast television season, GroupM chief investment officer Rino Scanzoni is projecting another large chunk of media agency ad buys will be done using C7 ratings as the metric.
Scanzoni led the way in last year's upfront when he did C7 deals with the five major English-language broadcast networks for every client represented by the Group M agencies, which include Mindshare, MediaCom, MEC and Maxus.
GroupM shops were not the only agencies that made C7 deals, but they were the only agencies that did them for all clients. "Every client under the GroupM umbrella agreed to let us buy their broadcast TV inventory using C7 as the metric," Scanzoni says. "The networks wanted to do it, and we were able to get favorable pricing, so it made sense for us and for our clients."
Scanzoni estimates 40% to 45% of the broadcast networks' primetime ad deals for the current season are based on C7 rather than the C3 metric, which had been the primary negotiating currency since 2007. He projects that the percentage of C7 deals will rise to about 70% during this year's upfront and that by the upfront for the 2016-17 season, 100% of broadcast network primetime program ratings guarantees will be based on C7.
Scanzoni is not as optimistic about the cable networks' transition to C7, because right now there is not much difference in the ratings for most networks between C3 and C7. "The average cable network only gets about 1% in additional audience between C3 and C7," he says. So it doesn't really benefit agencies to do C7 deals with such insignificant ratings boost. "We will be looking to do C7 deals with cable networks in this upfront, but there needs to be enough upside for our clients," Scanzoni says.
How are Group M's C7 deals made in last year's upfront playing out in terms of ratings? What has media agency Carat learned from research on its 2014-15 upfront C7 buys?
For more, click HERE
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| | Fates & Fortunes | • ROBERT HORLER was appointed to the newly created position of chief executive officer at Dentsu Aegis Network, USA. He was most recently CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network, Europe. Horler will relocate to New York and officially begin his new role in April. Horler is a Dentsu Aegis Network veteran, joining the company as managing partner of Carat Interactive in 2000. In 2002, he was promoted to managing director of Carat Interactive before going on to found Diffiniti, a stand-alone digital agency in the U.K. that was later integrated into Dentsu Aegis' iProspect and Data2Decision brands. He has also served as managing director of Carat U.K. and CEO of Aegis Media U.K. In other moves, THIERRY JADOT, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network France, will take on responsibility for oversight of Dentsu Aegis Network Netherlands, and TRACY de GROOSE, CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network U.K., will take on additional management responsibility of Dentsu Aegis Network Ireland.
• AMY HYLAND was named executive VP, Nickelodeon ad sales, New York, and JUSTIN NESCI was named senior VP, ad sales strategy and technology sales. Hyland will co-lead linear TV ad sales with Jeff Imberman, senior VP, ad sales, New York, and will also have oversight of digital and direct response/paid programming sales. Nesci will add oversight of the ad sales strategy team to his responsibilities as head of the technology sales group. Hyland was previously executive VP, ad sales strategy and planning. Nesci was previously senior VP of Nickelodeon digital sales.
• RANDY FALCO has had his contract as president and CEO of Univision Communications extended through January 2018. Falco joined Univision in January 2011 as executive VP and chief operating officer before being elevated to his current role in June 2011. Prior to Univision, Falco was chairman and CEO of AOL and before that spent more than 30 years at NBC, where he rose to become the network's president and COO.
• LINCOLN LOPEZ was named VP and general manager of social media at Univision Communications. He was previously VP of social and digital media for Turner Broadcasting networks TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies. Prior to that, he was VP of digital marketing and social media at MTV Networks.
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| | What They're Watching | BROADCAST RATINGS
'Empire' Up in Total Viewers
Fox's Empire stayed even with its last episode and gained 2% in total viewers. Empire has now grown its total audience in three consecutive weeks. American Idol was down 12% from last week. Fox was the night's top network, CBS finished second. CBS' The Mentalist was down 13% from last week, Criminal Minds was up 5% and Stalker was up 7%. ABC took third place airing reruns. The CW finished fourth, with Arrow staying even and The 100 up 20% from last week. NBC rounded out the night in fifth place with reruns.
For more, click HERE
CABLE RATINGS
Beverly Hills 'Housewives' Win on Tuesday
Bravo's Real Housewives of Beverly Hills led original cable Wednesday with a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49 (up from last week's 0.8) and 2.1 million viewers. History's Sons of Liberty finale, OWN's The Haves and the Have Nots and ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars all drew a 0.9 in the demo. TBS comedy Ground Floor, Discovery's Moonshiners and HGTV's Fixer Upper pulled a 0.7 rating.
For more, click HERE
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| Overnight Ratings: Wednesday, January 28
| | 8 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | | FOX | AMERICAN IDOL | 2.9 | 11.0 | | UNIVISION | MI CORAZÓN ES TUYO
| 1.5 | 3.6 | | CBS | THE MENTALIST | 1.3 | 9.0 | | ABC | THE MIDDLE (R) (8)
THE GOLDBERGS
(R) (8:30) | 1.3
1.3
| 5.6
4.7
| | CW | ARROW | 1.1 | 2.9 | | NBC | MYSTERIES OF LAURA (R) | 0.7 | 4.1 |
| | 9 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | | FOX | EMPIRE | 4.3 | 11.3 | | CBS | CRIMINAL MINDS | 2.1 | 10.6 | | ABC | MODERN FAMILY (R) (9)
BLACK-ISH (R) (9:30) | 1.5
1.2 | 5.3
3.9 | | UNIVISION | HASTA EL FIN DEL MUNDO
| 1.2 | 2.9 | | NBC | LAW & ORDER: SVU (R) | 0.7 | 3.6 | | CW | THE 100 | 0.6 | 1.6 |
| | 10 PM | | NET | SHOW | A18-49
Rating | TOTAL VIEWERS
(MILLIONS) | | CBS | STALKER | 1.6 | 8.4 | | ABC | BLACK-ISH (R) (10)
BLACK-ISH (R) (10:30) | 1.1
0.9 | 3.4
3.0 | | UNIVISION | QUE TE PERDONE DIOS
| 1.0 | 2.4 | | NBC | CHICAGO P.D. (R) | 0.6 | 4.1 |
| | TOMORROW'S BIG RATINGS STORIES TODAY | • Where There's a Will, There's a Weigh: 'Biggest Loser' Is Selected
The 16th season of NBC's weight-loss competition airs its finale (8 p.m.), as the three remaining contestants vie for the title. They include Tom Dobrosavljevic, who started at 336 pounds and is down to 199; Rob Guiry, who started at 483 and is down to 302; and Sonya Jones, who began at 283 and is down to 163. The upshot: NBC moved the series from Tuesday nights last season (when it averaged 6.5 million viewers and a 1.9 18-49 demo rating) to Thursday nights (where it has averaged 4.5 million viewers and a 1.2 in the demo). This final episode should improve on this season's numbers.
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| • Goldman's New Show Takes the Cake
Duff Goldman, who previously starred in the series Ace of Cakes on Food Network, returns with new cake competition Duff Till Dawn (10:30 p.m.). In each episode, two professional bakers and their assistants find out—from Goldman and a rotating list of judges—who can create and decorate the winning dessert. The upshot: Goldman has earned a following through his 10 seasons on Ace of Cakes. To promote Duff Till Dawn, Food Network aired a sneak peek this past Sunday.
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| • TV Reporters Star in truTV 'Docu-Soap'
The network's new eight-episode reality series, Breaking Greenville (10:30 p.m.), takes a close look at TV news staffers in Greenville, Miss., and their battle for ratings points. It specifically highlights the staffs of ABC affiliate WABG and CBS affiliate WXVT in the nation's 190th-largest market. Producer Adam Paul says Greenville will focus on professional competition inside and outside the newsroom. The upshot: This is not the first time a network has aired a reality series based on a newsroom. TV Guide Network, recently rebranded as Pop, aired one in 2007-08 following news staffs at small TV stations in Texas and Georgia.
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| Media Buyer & Planner Today
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Phone: 201-314-0424 | Send Email
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