| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 McDonald's Begins Global Media Review | | The fast-food giant has initiated a global media agency review and in a departure of its current situation, plans to split the assignment among several agencies rather than keeping a single agency. Incumbent media agency Omnicom's OMD, which has held the account for more than 10 years, will participate in the review. McDonald's spends a massive $2 billion annually on global advertising, according to The Wall Street Journal which first broke the story. Meanwhile a dedicated Omnicom unit called We Are Unlimited, headed by DDB, handles McDonald's creative. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The chain's decision to conduct a review of its media ad spending comes just months after it hired Bob Rupczynski as its new VP of global media and customer relationship management. "We are looking at ways to make our marketing dollars work harder, whether that be through more efficient media spending or finding more effective ways to connect with consumers," Rupczynski told the Journal. He added that the move to work with multiple agencies is not aimed at reducing agency fees, but to instead find "the most efficient way to reach the consumer" in different regions of the world. | Three Takes: WSJ | Ad Age | MediaPost
| | | | #2 Televisa CEO to Step Down | | Emilio Azcarraga Jean, CEO of the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the world, Televisa, will step down from that post at the end of this year, but will remain as chairman of the Mexican company his grandfather founded, The New York Times reports. The move is significant in the U.S. because of Televisa's relationship with U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, which has a longtime programming deal with the company. Televisa has been long known for its telenovelas, produced in Mexico but distributed to Spanish-language TV networks around the world. Televisa currently 10% stake in Univision and provides about 35% of its programming. And Televisa is looking to acquire a larger stake in Univision. Alfonso deAngoitia and Bernardo Gomez, two current Televisa execs, will be promoted to co-CEOs when Azcarraga steps down. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Televisa's traditional, old-school novella format was not upgraded over the years under Azcarraga, and that had a negative impact on Univision in its competition with Telemundo which began producing more novellas of cultural relevance to millennial Hispanics through its own studio. But recently Televisa and Univision have been collaborating on programming production. Carlos de Legarreta, a media analyst at GBM, a brokerage house in Mexico City, told the Times, the decision to replace Azcarraga as day-to-day overseer of the company is "an acknowledgment that radical change is needed, especially in the context of an industry that is changing very fast. To refuse to reinvent the company is not an option." | | A Take: NYT | | | | #3 Adobe's $55M Media Account Up for Review | | The software giant has begun its first U.S. agency review in more than a decade, seeking a new partner to handle its media planning and buying, Adweek reports. Goodby Silverstein & Partners has handled both creative agency duties and also oversees its $55 million annual media spending account. It was not immediately known if GS&P would participate in the media review, but the agency will continue handling creative. "While we're always seeking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our advertising programs and work with several agency partners to do this, GS&P remains our key and most award-wining partner for creative work," an Adobe spokesperson told Adweek. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: It is somewhat unusual for a creative agency to also handle media planning and buying, so in that regard, it is not unusual for Adobe to be seeking out a media agency to handle that specialty area. And with the ad tech field very competitive these days, it is vital that each company spend its ad dollars as efficiently and effectively as possible. | | A Take: Adweek | |
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| | 73.7 | | Percentage of U.S. millennials, ages 18-34, who say they communicate more digitally than in-person, according to a survey by LivePerson, a provider of cloud-based mobile and online business messaging solutions. That is the highest percentage in any of the six countries survey except for the U.K. where 74.4% of millennials said they communicate more digitally than face-to-face. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | 'Thursday Night Football' Down But CBS Still Wins | by Michael Malone
CBS won the ratings title for Thursday's prime, posting a 2.1 score in viewers 18-49, thanks to Thursday Night Football, and an 8 share. That topped ABC's 1.3/5. But it wasn't a great night for the NFL. Thursday Night Kickoff fell 21% to 1.5 on CBS, then the game, the Ravens crushing the Dolphins, also dropped 21%, to 2.2. ABC saw Grey's Anatomy slip 10% to 1.8 and Scandal at a flat 1.1, then How to Get Away With Murder at a level 0.9. NBC did a 1.2/5 with growth for several shows. Superstore ticked up 9% to 1.2 and The Good Place tallied a flat 1.1, then Will & Grace grew 6% to 1.8 and Great News climbed 25% to 1.0. Chicago Fire went up 9% to 1.2. Fox was at 1.0/4, with Gotham up 13% to 0.9 and The Orville up 20% to 1.2. Telemundo, with the Latin American Music Awards, did a 0.8/3. Univision rated a 0.5/2. The CW did a 0.5/2, with Supernatural at a flat 0.6 and Arrow off 17% at 0.5. | |
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| • DEBORAH WAHL, most recently senior VP and chief marketing officer at McDonald's USA, was elected to the ad software company Mediaocean board of directors.
• SCOTT MacLEOD was promoted to director of planning and DAN BAILIN was elevated to director of client strategy at Portland, Maine-based The Via Agency. MacLeod was most recently a group planning director at the agency, while Bailin was a group strategy director.
• TARA LAWALL, DEVON HONG, GABRIELLE SHIRDAN and CAIO LAZZURI were named creative directors at 72andSunny. Lawall was most recently a creative director at Droga5 and Hong was an associate creative director at Droga5. SHIRDAN was previously an associate creative director at SpikeDDB, while Lazzari was a creative director at Wieden+Kennedy. | |
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