| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Lumber Company Buys 90-Second Super Bowl Spot | | Privately-held and family-run construction supply company 84 Lumber, based in Pennsylvania, has bought a 90-second spot in the Super Bowl. It's the first-ever big game buy for the 61-year-old company and will target men, ages 20-to-29 as it kicks off a year-long recruitment and hiring campaign. While not a widely-known brand name, 84 Lumber has 250 stores in about 30 states and is planning to add an additional 20 stores in 2017. Local agency Brunner, based in Pittsburgh, is creating the Super Bowl spot and also handles media buying, social media and digital for the chain. Cole Webley, who has directed ads for Lexus, Samsung and Delta, among others, has been brought in to direct the 84 Lumber ad, Adweek reports. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: This is a sizable expenditure for a company that spends only about $775,000 annually on advertising. The 90 second buy on Fox is expected to cost about $15 million. 84 Lumber joins GNC, Febreeze and Mr. Clean as first time Super Bowl advertisers. | | Two Takes: Ad Age | Adweek | | | | #2 RPA Awarded $600M American Honda Media Business | | After losing the media account nearly four years ago to MediaVest, California-based independent agency RPA has won back the account for which the automaker spends about $600 million annually on advertising. The account covers both Honda and Acura brands. RPA, which was founded in 1986 as Rubin Postaer & Associates, also handles Honda creative which was not part of this review. Honda is working on this year's Super Bowl ad spot for Honda. Mullen handles creative for Acura. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The loss is another blow for MediaVest which last year lost the Walmart media account, among others, although it has picked up media planning for USAA insurance and Viacom's MTV. As for RPA, the account win is a boon. The agency is expected to increase its staff by 100 people to work on the Honda account. | | Three Takes: Media Post | L.A. Times | Adweek | | | | #3 Facebook Mid-Roll Ads Have Pros and Cons | | Recode first reported on Monday that Facebook will begin showing ads in the middle of video and will give publishers 55% of those ad sales. Initial publisher reaction was positive as the new type of ads are seen as a new revenue stream, Digiday reports. However there are some who are concerned that this type of advertising will be disruptive and reduce viewer engagement. The new ads will be limited to 15 seconds and can only pop up after people have watch a content video for at least 20 seconds. Ads can only be inserted in videos that are 90 seconds or longer. The restrictions will put pressure on publishers to perhaps produce longer Facebook videos but to also be sure they are interesting enough that viewers won't tune out when the ad pops up. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Facebook continues to try to find ways to boost its ad revenue and to motivate publishers and advertisers to partner with it. Facebook already offers marketer "branded videos" but has so far avoided pre-roll ads that run before content videos. Publishers did not respond so well to Facebook's "Suggested Videos" which offered a scrollable collection of videos with ads interspersed. But the new mid-roll pop up ads seem to hold more promise for publishers and marketers. | Three Takes: Digiday | Recode | WSJ
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| | 25 | | Percentage of consumers who say they have tried a virtual reality product, according to a January 2017 survey by ReportLinker. That's up from 5% from a similar survey conducted in just before holiday shopping began in Sept. 2016. The recent survey also found that 83% of consumers have a positive attitude toward VR and 31% say they are very familiar with VR, up from 16% last September. | – Reported by Media Post
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| | 'Celebrity Apprentice' Falls Again | by Michael Malone
Paced by The Bachelor, ABC was tops among broadcasters on a soft night, finishing with a 1.7 in adults 18-49, per Nielsen's overnights, and a 5 share. The Bachelor rated a 2.1, level with last week's premiere, while the game show Big Fan premiered at a 1.0 and then 0.7.
CBS and NBC both rated a 1.0/3, then Fox at 0.7/2 and The CW at 0.3/1.
The networks were up against the college football championship, between Clemson and Alabama, on ESPN.
CBS aired repeats, except for a new Odd Couple at a flat 1.0.
NBC's Celebrity Apprentice rated a 1.1, down 15% from last week's low premiere, before a repeat of gamer The Wall.
Fox and The CW threw up repeats across prime. | |
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| • ALAN COHEN was named president and CEO of independent performance agency Quigley-Simpson. Cohen is co-founder in 2013 of Giant Spoon, which he recently left. Prior to that he was CEO of Omnicom media agency OMD's U.S. operations. He also served as west coast president of IPG media agency Initiative, and before that held executive marketing positions at Fox, ABC and NBC.
• CATHERINE LOCKER was appointed to the newly created position of North America chief of staff at DDB. She spent 10 years at Coca-Cola, where she was most recently global brand director and project director, global sparkling brand center. At Coca-Cola she worked with Wendy Clark, who became North America president and CEO of DDB in November 2015. Locker has also worked at L'Oréal Paris and at Burt's Bees.
• SHERRI CHAMBERS was named chief marketing officer at JWT New York. She was most recently consulting, but prior to that was head of account management at The Barbarian Group. Before that she spent a year at JWT New York as a global business account director. She's also held positions at 72andSunny and StrawberryFrog. • ABBIE WALKER has joined Momentum as senior VP, director of strategy, North America. She was previously senior VP, head of strategy at Jack Morton New York. Prior to that she was a strategic account director at Momentum North America.
• MARISSA MAYER will step down as Yahoo CEO and a member of its board of directors once the sale of Yahoo to Verizon is concluded, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Also resigning from the board will be Yahoo co-founder David Filo; Eddy Hartenstein, Richard Hill and Jane Shaw. The Yahoo name will be changed to Altaba Inc. Remaining on the board will be Tor Braham, Eric Brandt, Catherine Friedman, Thomas McInerney and Jeffrey Smith. • KEVIN ROBERTS was named chairman of U.K. public relations and marketing agency Beattie Communications. He was previously chairman and CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis Groupe head coach before resigning last August following controversial remarks he made about workplace diversity during and interview. | |
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