| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Most Brands Shun Virtual Reality | | A Forrester Research study says 42% of U.S. online adults have never heard about virtual reality headsets and that another 46% say they don't see a use for VR in their lives, Ad Age reports. In another study by research company Channel, only 8% of marketers say they are currently using VR in their advertising campaigns. Another 35% say they either have no intentions or have reservations about using VR. And the other 57% say VR has no applications that apply to them. "There is much more hype than substance when it comes to using VR specifically for marketing," says Samantha Merlivat, an analyst at Forrester. "A lot of brands have tried VR in the last year, and in many cases, it left marketers and consumers rather underwhelmed." | | WHY THIS MATTERS: VR companies have been marketing the technology heavily and promoting it with TV campaigns to try to interest consumers. But brands are not convinced that making a three-minute VR video to promote their products is better than quick blasts via social media. But Forrester's Merlivat does warn that brands at the forefront of VR technology for marketing purposes will be much more prepared when VR finally reaches scale in the years to come. | A Take: Ad Age
| | | | #2 Pinterest Launches Visual Search Tool | | The social platform introduced a visual search tool called Lens which allows users to search by using their mobile phone's camera, Ad Age reports. A user can take a picture of an item in a category they are interested in and Pinterest will then show them pictures of various similar items in that category. Pinterest is hopeful the tool will be able to distinguish it a bit from Google as a search engine. Tim Kendall, Pinterest president, explains to Digiday why the tool is important. He said people searching for sneakers on Pinterest haven't decided which brand they are going to buy. So they can get pictures of all brands available. That, he said, is "the holy grail" for marketers. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Pinterest made a slow entry into advertising but has been gearing up. Last week it rolled out search ads and then on Wednesday it announced more search tools including Lens that could broaden its e-commerce capabilities. | Two Takes: Ad Age | Digiday
| | | | #3 Vizio Settlement Hurts Programmatic Credibility | | Smart TV maker Vizio's settlement of a lawsuit alleging it tracked and collected customers' TV-viewing habits and sold the data to third parties without their permission hurts the credibility of programmatic TV advertising, a Digiday report says. Susan Noonan, executive director of media and analytics at Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners, says while she isn't cautioning clients to avoid programmatic TV, it does bring into consideration another layer of discussions. "This will definitely make advertisers more wary about going into the space until the consumer clarity has been provided," she says. "The last thing I want is to have one of my brands inadvertently get tangled in the mess." | | WHY THIS MATTERS: While Vizio was the first smart TV maker that the FTC went after, it is not the only brand that is collecting consumer viewing data. So the problem could continue. Says John Barker, president of New York agency Barker, "Vizio is hardly the only brand out there that is illegally or unethically collecting consumer data. They just happen to be the one that got caught." | | A Take: Digiday | |
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| | 7 | | Percentage of U.S. internet users who say they use a digital wallet daily, according to a survey by Finder.com. That compares to 57% who say they have never used a digital wallet to make a mobile payment at a retail store. As for age demographics, two-thirds of millennials have used a digital wallet, compared with less than 20% of those ages 55 and older. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | ABC Wins With Fresh Comedies | by Luke McCord
ABC won the primetime ratings race Wednesday with a 1.5 rating/5 share among adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnight numbers. The Goldbergs fell 15% from its last original episode to a 1.7, while Speechless was flat at 1.6. Modern Family dropped 4% to a 2.2, and Black-ish rose 14% to a 1.6. Match Game was even at 1.0.
NBC and Fox tied for second place with 1.3/5s. Blindspot matched its last airing at 0.9. In its 400th episode, Law & Order: SVU spiked 14% to a 1.6. Chicago P.D. fell 13% to a 1.3.
Fox's Lethal Weapon slid 7% to a 1.3, while Star was flat at a 1.3.
CBS came in fourth with a 1.1/4. Hunted was down a tenth to a 1.2, as was Criminal Minds. In its season finale, Code Black dropped 18% to a 0.9.
The CW earned a 0.5/2. Both Arrow and The 100 were flat with a 0.6 and 0.4, respectively.
On the Spanish-language broadcasting front, Univision grabbed a 0.7, and Telemundo scored a 0.5. | |
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| • MIKE TIRICO will succeed Bob Costas as primetime host of NBC's Olympic coverage beginning with the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Costas had served as primetime host of every NBC Olympics since 1992, a total of 11. Costas will continue to play a role in NBC Sports and NBC News programs. Tirico joined NBC Sports Group in July 2016 after a 25-year career at ESPN which began in 1991. There he was play-by-play announcer on ESPN's Monday Night Football from 2006-2015 and also did coverage of college football, basketball and professional golf. Since joining NBC Sports last summer, Tirico has been the host of the network's Thursday Night Football studio show and has also been play-by-play announcer for six Sunday Night Football games.
• SUZANNE MICHAELS was named executive VP of creative innovation at Leo Burnett Chicago. She was most recently executive creative director at The Abundancy. Prior to that she was senior VP, ECD at Energy BBDO, and also served as senior VP, ECD at Critical Mass, senior VP, creative at DigitasLBi and creative director at Tribal DDB.
• BRET HAVEY was promoted to senior VP, brand creative director for TBS and TNT. He will oversee all on-air promotions and creative initiatives for the two Turner cable networks. He joined Turner in 2005 and was most recently VP, creative director for TBS. Prior to joining Turner, Havey was VP, creative director at ABC Family. • MATT BRITTON was named CEO of marketing tech company Crowdtap. He was most recently CEO at digital and social media marketing services agency MRY, where he spent 15 years. Britton is a co-founder of Crowdtap and had served as its board chairman for seven years.
• NANCY KANTAR was promoted to the newly expanded role of executive VP, content and creative strategy, Disney Channels Worldwide. She will continue in her role as general manager and head of original programming at Disney Junior Worldwide. Kantar's responsibilities will be broadened to include the content creation strategy for live-action and animated programming for kids ages 6-14 on Disney Channel and Disney XD, in addition to all creative content for kids 2-7 on Disney Junior. Kantar joined Disney Channel in 2001. Prior to that she was president of Bluecow.com, a kid's entertainment site. She also worked as an executive producer for Sesame Workshop | |
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| | Senior Manager, Engineering & IT, WRC | WRC - NBCUniversal – Washington DC, Dist. Columbia, United States
| | | | Director of Engineering | Sinclair Broadcast Group – West Palm Beach, FL, United States
| | | | Station Engineer | ION Media Networks – Salt Lake City, UT, United States
| | | | Director | | WBNS 10TV – Columbus, OH, United States | | | | more jobs » | |
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