| Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | #1 NBCU Finishes Upfront Selling | The broadcast, cable and digital media company says it has completed its upfront selling, taking in nearly $6.5 billion in ad commitments for the next television season, according to multiple reports. That is a cumulative volume increase of 8% over last year. Those figures did not include sales for the upcoming Super Bowl, Winter Olympics or 2018 World Cup. Ad price increases were said to be in the high single-digits across all dayparts at NBC broadcast network and NBC entertainment networks, which include USA and Syfy. Regular season NFL football ad volume for Thursday and Sunday night telecasts on NBC was up 5% and NBCU digital video ad sales were up 42%. | WHY THIS MATTERS: NBC was the last of the major English-language broadcast networks to complete its upfront selling and Variety estimates it took in about $2.73 billion in primetime ad commitments for next season, slightly above the $2.53 billion it took in last year. All of the broadcast networks ended their upfront selling negotiations on a positive note. Now they have to hope that the program ratings estimates on which they sold that advertising are equal to their guarantees. | Three Takes: B&C | Adweek | Variety
| | #2 Instagram Has Counterfeit Problem | At one point in time, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom used to vet every ad before it appeared on the social media platform. But times have changed and with Instagram now boasting over 1 million advertisers, Digiday reports that ads for fake shoes, clothes, electronics and even real estate are proliferating on the platform. Some of the ads, like one claiming to sell Adidas' Yeezy sneakers for $109, feature doctored brand logos. Ads like these usually send the users to sites that sell fabricated name brand merchandise at supposed discount prices. | WHY THIS MATTERS: Most consumers will assume the ads are legit because they are appearing on a reputable site like Instagram. If they learn that to be otherwise after buying products, it can severely damage the reputation of the social site. Digiday says Instagram does review millions of ads each week, but policing gets harder because more and more are being bought via the company's self-serve system. To be fair, Instagram is not the only social media platform where there are a multitude of fake ads. They also appear on Facebook, Twitter and most other social media platforms. | A Take: Digiday | | #3 Pandora Offers Offline Sales Data | The digital music site is partnering with Foursquare to offer advertisers data on whether their campaigns are driving consumers into their retail locations. According to reports in Adweek and MediaPost, sandwich chain Subway and Connecticut casino Mohegan Sun are among the advertisers testing the new data tool. Among the Foursquare data offered to advertisers are store visits by Pandora users, incremental foot traffic, return-on-advertising stats, campaign lift and reach numbers as they pertain to impressions and devices. The system also offers audience insights like location, age, gender and customer loyalty. | WHY THIS MATTERS: Advertisers love data about their campaigns supplied by the sites on which they appear. Pandora says advertisers using this Attribution by Foursquare service have the potential to drive as many as 7.5% incremental visits to store locations, according to the MediaPost report. Meanwhile, this is not the first location data partnership Pandora has entered into. It has been, for the past few years, teaming up with Placed and has also worked with other mobile stats firms. | A Take: Adweek | MediaPost
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| 47 | Percentage of time people using smartphones while watching TV have their eyes off the TV screen, according to a Facebook-sponsored survey. The social network conducted an in-home eye-tracking study to see how TV viewers use their smartphones to multi-task on multiple screens. It found some viewers stopped watching commercial breaks about 2.5 seconds into the first ad. And among those who stopped watching commercials, three-quarters started looking at their smartphones. | – Reported by Broadcasting & Cable | |
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| Big Numbers From Fox, NBC Give Both the Win | by Michael Malone Fox and NBC both put up a 2.2 rating in viewers 18-49, according to the Nielsen overnights, and a 9 share. That easily led the broadcast pack; next up was CBS at a way distant 0.6/2. Fox had the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, won by the American League (its fifth straight victory) in extra innings, with 8.63 million total viewers. Last year's game did a 2.0 in the key demo, with 7.94 million total viewers. NBC had America's Got Talent at 2.4 and then World of Dance at 1.7. The network aired a fireworks special last Tuesday. The week before that, AGT did a 2.4 and World of Dance a 1.9. CBS had repeats throughout prime. ABC was at 0.5/2. It aired repeated comedies from prime's start to its finish. The CW, at 0.2/1, too was in repeats. Among the Spanish-language entrants, both Telemundo and Univision scored a 0.5/2. | |
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| • CHRISTIAN FEDORCZUK was named president of West Coast operations at IPG media agency Initiative. He was most recently executive VP and managing director, West Coast, for Dentsu Aegis Network agency Vizeum. Before that he was a global managing partner at Dentsu media agency Carat, and has also worked at media buying agency OMD. Kris Magel continues as Initiative's East Coast president and Chris Actis as Midwest president. • ALEX LEA has joined Publicis Groupe as an executive creative director overseeing the Walmart account. An Agency Spy report says he will be based out of the Saatchi & Saatchi New York office and work closely with other agencies who are part of the Publicis dedicated Walmart unit DeptW. Lea was most recently a group creative director at Grey New York. • SCOTT HUDLER was named senior VP and chief marketing officer at Dick's Sporting Goods. He succeeds Lauren Hobart, who was promoted in May to president of the company. Hudler was previously chief digital officer at Dunkin Brands. • MATT POWELL has left his position as global chief technology officer at Kirshenbaum Bond + Senecal, where he spent 12 years in assorted roles. TED FLOREA is also joining KBS as global chief strategy officer. He succeeds Jonah Bloom who left the agency. He was most recently head of planning at Huge. • LOUIS JONES was appointed executive VP and head of the media & data practice at the American Association of Advertising Agencies. He succeeds Bill Tucker who left earlier this year to take an executive role at the Association of National Advertisers. Jones most recently has been a consultant, but prior to that was CEO, North America for GroupM media agency Maxus. • GEORGE GREENBERG has joined the mixed martial arts Professional Fighters League to oversee broadcast production, according to a report by Variety. Greenberg is a 23-year veteran of Fox Sports and Fox Broadcasting and was most recently executive VP of content integration and presentation for Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2 and production supervisor of Fox's UFC and Premier Boxing Championships telecasts. The PFL also named WILL BLAIR executive VP of sponsorships and revenue partnerships. He was previously senior VP of partnership development at WME/IMG. | |
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