| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Vizeum Wins A-B InBev U.S. Account | | The Dentsu agency beat out five other agencies, each from a different holding company, to win the $700 million U.S. Anheuser-Busch InBev media planning and buying account. Out is incumbent MediaCom, the WPP agency that handled A-B InBev U.S. media since 2014. MediaCom did retain the A-B InBev Canada media account and picked up parts of Central America. Dentsu was also awarded Europe and Africa business. Omnicom was awarded Australia, Vietnam and India. While Publicis agency Starcom will now handle China, Japan and South Korea, along with some South America countries. Transitions will begin immediately with the plan being to have all the new agencies in place and working on the account by Jan. 1, 2018. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: While U.S. incumbent MediaCom held the A-B InBev U.S. media account since 2014, the beermaker was also a founding client of Vizeum's global network three years ago in Europe, according to Thomas Le Thierry, global president of Vizeum. That relationship clearly grew the stature of the agency in the eyes of A-B InBev. "We've built credibility in their organization by delivering our commitment year after year," Le Thierry said. "We are a young network with a vision for how to accelerate A-B InBev's business growth through media." | | Three Takes: Adweek | MediaPost | Ad Age | | | | #2 Broadcast Nets Get Tobacco Ad Windfall | | The major TV networks – ABC, CBS and NBC will receive millions of dollars in advertising from the cigarette makers Altria Group and British American Tobacco PLC for primetime commercials mandated by the federal courts, The Wall Street Journal reports. Some 45 newspapers will also get weekend ads for four months. The TV ads will display text in black on a white screen with a voice narration that lists the dangers that can arise from smoking cigarettes. It's the result of a settlement in a case brought against the cigarette makers by the U.S. Justice Department. All the cigarette companies named in the Justice Department's 1999 lawsuit are now owned either by Altria or British American Tobacco PLC. The TV spots will be between 30- and 45-seconds long and will run in primetime five days a week for 52 weeks. One ad will mention the tobacco companies by name and will say they "intentionally designed cigarettes to make them more addictive." Another will say, "More people die every day from smoking than from murder, AIDs, suicide, drugs, car crashed and alcohol combined." | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The ads on TV and in newspapers, along with pamphlets that will be included inside cigarette pack wrappers with similar language, are expected to cost the cigarette companies tens of millions of dollars. Marlboro maker Altria, which owns Phillip Morris USA, estimates that it will spend about $31 million. However, John Boiler, co-founder of 72andSunny, whose agency does work for the anti-tobacco nonprofit organization Truth Campaign, says the cigarette companies are getting off easy. "The good news for the tobacco companies is they'll avoid a lot of their younger audience," he says, since the mandate does not include running the ads on social media sites like Facebook. | | A Take: WSJ | | | | #3 CMOs Have Become Politicians | | The average brand chief marketing officer is no longer just trying to win internal approval of how to spend money on campaigns from their immediate bosses. As Digiday reports, today's CMOs, particularly at companies with assorted brands, must also get the blessing from the executives at those individual brands. And that, in turn, makes the job of the ad agencies he is working with harder. "There are a lot of points of view and a lot of constituents you have to please," says JWT president Lynn Power. "The complexity and confusion and the issues have made it harder for CMOs and have forced them to be diplomatic and objective at the same time." And Cathy Butler, CEO at the Barbarian Group, says successful CMOs must "build the trust of everyone [internally] but still be laser-focused on building customer relationships." The marketing function at large companies has become more complex with more and more specialists involved. "Strong CMOs do have a clear vision of where they want to go," says JWT's Power. But "they need to bring people along, whether it's convincing the digital person that we need to tie their work into a brand purpose. Or convincing a research person to make research real time." | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The above scenario is why there is so much turnover among CMOs today. Liz Miller, senior VP of the CMO Council, says as the digital supply chain gets murkier, CMOs have to "rebrand the role of marketing across functions." The ones who do that will survive and thrive. The ones who don't will be told to move on. | | A Take: Digiday | |
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| | 39 | | Percentage of U.S. male internet users who have a "very favorable" (16%) or "somewhat favorable" (23%) attitude toward facial recognition software in personal devices, according to data from Morning Consult. Among women, 30% have either a "very favorable" (11%) or "somewhat favorable" (19%) attitude. Hispanics and Blacks have a more favorable opinion of facial recognition than Whites, as do persons with income over $100,000. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | NBC Holds Off ABC For the Win | by Michael Malone
NBC won a narrow victory in ratings Monday, posting a 2.0 in viewers 18-49, and a 7 share. ABC was a close runner-up at 1.9/7. NBC had The Voice from 8-10 at 2.5, down a tenth of a point from last week, then The Brave fell 14% to 1.2. ABC had Dancing with the Stars across two hours at 1.6, down a tenth of a point, then The Good Doctor at an ample 2.4, same as last week. Freddie Highmore plays a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome on The Good Doctor. CBS did a 1.5/5. The Big Bang Theory lost 23% for a 3.0, then the series premiere of comedy 9JKL scored a 1.6. Kevin Can Wait slipped 39% to a 1.4 and Me, Myself and I fell 41% from its premiere for a 1.0. Scorpion dropped 18% from its season opener to a 0.9. Fox scored a 1.3/5, as Lucifer premiered at 1.1, up from its 0.9 spring finale, and The Gifted debuted at a decent 1.5. Telemundo rated a 0.7/2 and Univision a 0.5/2. | |
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| • GEOFF LESTER was named senior VP and AARON LILLY was appointed VP of global solutions for advertising sales at Fox Networks Group. The duo will work to leverage the global programming and product portfolios of FNG and 21st Century Fox by engaging with brands to develop strategic platforms. Lester will be based in Los Angeles and Lilly in New York. Lester was previously head of partnerships & business development at StubHub. He also served as director of new media at NASCAR. Lilly was most recently VP, client strategy in NBCUniversal's client partnership group. He also worked at Microsoft.
• TAL WAGMAN has joined independent agency Zambezi as an associate creative director. He previously held the same position at Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles. | |
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