| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 IBM Launches Watson Advertising | | The information technology company is bringing several major components of The Weather Company's data capabilities under Watson (IBM's artificial intelligence service) with the launch of Watson Advertising this week, Adweek reports. The new division, which encompasses data, media and technology services, will offer a suite of AI products for everything from data analysis and media planning to content creation and audience targeting. Adweek says by integrating The Weather Company's signature WeatherFx and JourneyFx features along with all of the other data at IBM's disposal, the company is hoping to transform what is a legacy business into a cutting-edge ad powerhouse. "Weather impacts our mood and your emotions, and your emotions are a huge input into your decision-making modeality," says Cameron Clayton, former CEO of The Weather Channel, who is now general manager of IBM Watson's Content and IoT Platform. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: IBM believes Watson Advertising will kick start the era of cognitive advertising and this type of unit brings a different type of competition for clients to the traditional agencies. "The Watson Ad opportunity is an exciting first-to-market idea that advances our learning opportunities in the AI space," says Eunice Kim, a media planner for Toyota Motor North America, which has been working with IBM. Although instead of being a competitor to agencies, clients' agencies could work together with Watson Advertising to help their clients reach consumers in new and different ways. Fallon has previously worked with Watson to create a campaign for client H&R Block. | | A Take: Adweek | | | | #2 HP Agencies Move Towards More Diversity | | Last September Hewlett-Packard chief marketing and communications officer Antonio Lucio issued a challenge to his company's five agencies – BBDO Worldwide, Fred & Farid, gyro, PHD and Edelman. He wanted to see more women and minorities hired by them, particularly in senior and creative leadership roles. A year later the data is in. Some 61% of the roughly 900 total agency employees working on the HP account worldwide are women. That's up from 40%. And the percentage of women in leadership roles rose from 47% to 51%. The minority employee growth was not as good. Agency staffers working on the HP account rose to 25% from 20%. At BBDO about 61% of those working on the HP account in leadership positions are women, compared to just 7% a year ago. At media buying agency PHD, 61% of employees working on the HP account are women, compared to 54% a year ago. PHD increased the percentage of minorities working on the HP account from 21% to 40%. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Brands are selling their products to all races, genders and ethnicities, not just to white males. And they want their agencies to represent the consumers they are selling to. "Diversity is as much a business imperative as it is a values issue," Lucio says, adding that women buy 53% of personal computers and 48% of printers. He says while he is proud of the progress the agencies made with women, he is disappointed with their efforts to hire more minorities. "As good as I feel on the progress with women, the progress on minority-represented groups was not as systemic as we wanted," he says, adding that "the game is not over." | Three Takes: Ad Age | Adweek | WSJ
| | | | #3 Zambezi Unit Helps Brands Reach Women | | The California independent agency has started a new division headed up by a trio of senior-level female executives aimed at helping brands better understand female consumers, Adweek reports. The trio includes Dawn Thomas, who is also Zambezi's head of culture, strategy and content innovation; Kristin Jenkins, Zambezi chief strategy officer; and Jean Freeman, Zambezi CEO. The new unit aims to gather information by having conversations with women rather than by traditional survey methods of collecting data. "We won't use a clinical-based process because culture doesn't move like that, and authentic successful brands don't move like that either," Thomas says. She adds that 20th Century methods of gathering information don't help get to know 21st Century women. The new unit is called Zambezi X and Nike is its first client, working on some female-centric programs. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Zambezi has a client roster that includes Coca-Cola, The Honest Company, Foot Locker and Cox Automotive, and hopes to have Zambezi X work with them creatively, as well as recruit new clients who want to reach female consumers in an "unconventional" way. | | A Take: Adweek | |
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| | 92 | | Percentage of Association of National Advertiser members who say Facebook is the most preferred social media platform for activating sponsorships, according to an ANA conducted survey. Twitter received 87% preference, followed by Instagram (70%), YouTube (47%), LinkedIn (41%), Snapchat (27%) and Pinterest (13%). | – Reported by MediaPost
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| | Football Leads NBC to Win | by Michael Malone
NBC took a ratings-rich Sunday title, posting a 4.9 rating in viewers 18-49, and a 17 share. That topped CBS' 2.6/9. With much of the country discussing football, and President Trump's take on the players who don't stand for the national anthem, NBC's Football Night in America grew 45% to 3.2, while Sunday Night Football fell 17% to 5.3. On CBS, an NFL overrun did a 5.5 and 60 Minutes a 2.5, up 92%. The network had the Emmys the week before. The premiere of Star Trek: Discovery, starting at 8:48, did a 1.6. After last night's series premiere, episodes will now debut on CBS All Access. Repeats of NCIS: Los Angeles and Madame Secretary closed out prime. Fox did a 1.0/4. Repeated comedies led into Who Shot Biggie and Tupac? at 1.1. ABC was at 0.8/3. A repeat of America's Funniest Home Videos did a 0.7, then Celebrity Family Feud rated a 1.0. The finale of Steve Harvey's Funderdome went up 33% to 0.8 while the finale of $100,000 Pyramid grew 20% to 0.6. | |
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| • MIKE DENSMORE was named president of KBS New York. He succeeds Katie Klumper who left in August to become president of Heat New York. Densmore was most recently global chief growth officer at Bogle Bartle Hegarty. Prior to that he served as chief marketing officer at McKinney New York and as head of new business at Droga5.
• MARK FITZLOFF, former executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy has opened his own creative agency. It's called Opinionated and is located in Portland, Oregon. According to an Ad Age report, joining his staff are ROB PALMER as creative director; ROBIN LANAHAN as strategy director; SHARI EIESLAND as director of creative operations; and GINA KEOUGH as account director. Palmer has served in creative roles at Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Razorfish and TBWA, among other agencies. Lanahan has worked at Microsoft, CP+B and Nike. Keough and Eiesland previously worked at W+K.
• CRAIG ALLEN, most recently a group creative director at Wieden+Kennedy, is opening a new agency in Austin, Texas, called Callen, with two partners NIKLAS LINDSTROM and HOLLY PETITJEAN. The agency has the support of W+K, which is a minority shareholder, although Callen can operate autonomous. In exchange for W+F support, the agency cannot be sold to a W+F competitor. Allen spent 12-years at W+F. Lindstrom was previously with Droga5, while Petitjean was with Huge. | |
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