| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Brand Footprints Smaller At SXSW | | Microsoft pulled out of the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) technology conference taking place in Austin this week and other major brands like Capital One and Spotify are scaling back on their spending and involvement, Digiday reports. Agencies are cutting back too. Digital agency Huge has sent less executives to the conference this year and Havas has sent junior talent to bring back takeaways for the office. Team One has also cut back on execs it is sending. Accenture Interactive is skipping the conference this year. Capital One is hosting an event at only one venue instead of multiple locations. "Our footprint at SXSW may be smaller," says Amy Heidersbach, vp of marketing for Capital One, but having one venue . . .will allow us to offer more intimate and immersive experiences." Justin Malone, operating partner for the Waller Ballroom and Waller Creek Pub House where events are held, believes the SXSW bubble "has burst." He adds, "In the past, corporations spent lots of money on SXSW but when they looked at the bottom line they didn't see return on investment. I think it's hard to quantify how much they get from a conference." | | WHY THIS MATTERS: SXSW was a hot conference for a while and will still draw a massive crowd. But more marketers are choosing to spend their dollars on more defined marketing goals and cutting back on sponsoring events which are harder to justify for return on investment purposes. There are also more events and conferences being held than ever before so brands have to be more finite when choosing which ones to spend their marketing dollars on. | | A Take: Digiday | | | | #2 Chatbots Face Brand Backlash | | Many brands are dropping their digital chatbots, saying they haven't done what they were supposed to, Digiday reports. One of the complaints is that bots don't have personalization levels people expect, and that email is still a better alternative. "Bots that we are proposing for clients and customers are based on making sure we're identifying a true need," says Pam Schiedeler, chief digital officer at Deutsch Los Angeles. One successful bot her team built was for Taco Bell. However, bots are opt-in experiences and for customers and for them to do so it requires learning a new behavior. As a result they want the payoff to be big. Right now, most bots are not able to provide human-like assistance and personalization. Bots that take orders are more acceptable than bots that become chatbots. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Like any new technology, brands tend to jump in an experiment before finding out that the technology does not always yield the positive engagement of consumers and the return on investment they had hoped for. Chatbots are still in relative infancy, so expect some time to pass before a definitive place for them is found in brand marketing. | | A Take: Digiday | | | | #3 YouTube TV Not Reinventing Ad Model | | Google has great hopes for its YouTube TV, promising that it will provide its TV network partners ad opportunities. However as Ad Age reports, the initial YouTube TV rollout is not going to reinvent the live TV ad model right from the start. And contrary to initial speculation by analysts, YouTube TV will not get to sell the two minutes of commercial time per hour that is sold by traditional cable networks and satellite carriers. The TV network partners will instead retain that conventional commercial time to sell along with the rest of the ad time in their programs. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Despite giving Google a foot in the traditional TV ad door down the road, it is going to be a slow process that does not make quick inroads. "I don't think we are going to see any kind of massive transformation to the core [TV] model," says Dave Morgan, CEO of Simulmedia, the TV ad targeting company. "This is about digital conforming to TV versus changing TV. There will be incremental changes, but not revolutionary." | A Take: Ad Age
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| | 47 | | Percentage of U.S. internet users who are aware of virtual reality technology, according to data from YuMe. However, only 16% say they use virtual reality devices. 360-degree video is less popular, with 31% of internet users familiar with it, but only 13% having experienced it. Augmented reality is known to 25% of internet users, but only 9% have experienced it. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | ABC's 'The Catch' Modest in Return | by Luke McCord
ABC and CBS tied for the top spot among broadcasters Thursday with 1.4 ratings/5 shares among adults 18-49, according to Nielsen overnight numbers.
ABC's Grey's Anatomy slipped a tenth to a 1.9, while Scandal dropped two tenths to a 1.4. The Catch returned for its second season with a 0.8
CBS' The Big Bang Theory was even at 2.8. The Great Indoors fell a tenth to a 1.4. Mom rose 7% to a 1.5, while Life in Pieces jumped 8% to a 1.3. Training Day dropped a tenth to a 0.7.
NBC and Fox followed with 0.9/3s. Fox's MasterChef Junior matched last week's 1.1, while Kicking & Screaming premiered to a 0.7.
NBC's Powerless spiked 14% to a 0.8. Without the benefit of The Voice from last week, The Blacklist: Redemption dropped two tenths to a 0.8, and Chicago Med fell five tenths to a 1.2.
The CW scored a 0.4/2. Supernatural was down a tenth to a 0.5, and Riverdale was steady at 0.4. | |
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| | • DONNA MURPHY was named global CEO of Havas Health & You, a new unit that will include a consolidation of all Havas health-care related agencies around the world. Murphy was most recently CEO of Havas Health and is a 30-year veteran of Havas, joining in 1987. Prior to that she was a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. The new unit joins Havas Health with Havas consumer health practices that were previously agencies that were part of Havas Creative Group, which was merged into Havas Media Group. At the same time, DOMINIQUE DELPORT was appointed to the newly created role of global manager director and chief client officer for Havas Group. In another Havas move, NICOLE CORDERO was named VP, U.S. Hispanic Media at Havas Edge. She was previously director of Hispanic strategy and planning at Mercury Media. | |
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