| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Pepsi Exec Leaves to Start Consultancy | | Brad Jakeman, president of PepsiCo's global beverage group and overseer of the company's in-house content creation unit, Creators League Studio, is leaving after seven years to start his own consulting agency, Ad Age first reported. PepsiCo will be his first client but Jakeman says he wants to advise many other companies "on building brands in our hyper-connected world." Ad Age reports that Jakeman has long been an advocate for diversity and outside of PepsiCo, involved with efforts such as the Ad Council's award-winning anti-discrimination "Love Has No Labels" campaign. Under Jakeman's oversight, Creators League Studio produced assorted projects aimed at highlighting the PepsiCo brands, although one taint was the controversial TV commercial featuring Kendall Jenner that was quickly pulled. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Jakeman has made numerous contacts in the ad industry during his time at PepsiCo and now wants to seek out working with clients independently who he can push the envelope with. So he becomes another creative competitor for traditional agencies. "I've had the opportunity to meet and work with entrepreneurs all over the world who are disrupting industries, creating new economies and building a better society," he says. "Now, I have chosen to step down from my current role at PepsiCo in order to follow my passion in these areas." | A Take: Ad Age
| | | | #2 Fox Networks Selling Addressable VOD Ads | | The networks, including Fox Broadcasting, FX, National Geographic and Fox Sports have begun selling advertising on their video-on-demand content that is addressable on an individual household basis through Comcast Cable set-top boxes and streaming via Hulu, Broadcasting & Cable reports. Comcast Cable has done addressable ad campaigns using dynamic ad insertion technology with its corporate sibling NBCUniversal. Working with Fox is part of a trial program to see how the distributor can work with programmers on addressable advertising. Comcast is also conducting addressable trials with another, unannounced network group. Both Fox and Comcast use Freewheel, a division of Comcast, to handle ad insertions. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: TV networks are looking for ways to create innovations in advertising that can increase its value in an increasingly digital age. Fox has already been selling precision audience targeted ads on its linear network with its AIM solution. And Fox is also a partner in OpenAP, which is attempting to standardize selling ads based on specific audience targets rather than traditional broad age and sex based demographic groups. Fox's addressable effort is unique because in addition to working with Comcast's subscribers, it can also offer viewers streaming on-demand programming from all of the Fox Networks. | | A Take: B&C | | | | #3 Lawmakers to Introduce 'Honest Ads Act' | | A bipartisan bill aimed at improving the transparency for online political ads is expected to be filed Thursday in the U.S. Senate. The bill, known as the "Honest Ads Act," was drafted by Democratic Senators Mark Warner of Virginia and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, but Republican Senator John McCain has joined them in introducing the bill. Generally, the bill will require Facebook, Google and other internet companies to publicly disclose who is purchasing online political advertising, The New York Times reports. In a joint statement, Warner and Klobuchar said the bill would "prevent foreign actors from influencing our elections by ensuring that political ads sold online are covered by the same rules as ads sold on TV, radio and satellite." | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The bill is in response to revelations that Russian-linked operatives bought deceptive ads in the run-up to the 2016 election with no disclosure required. Klobuchar and Warner say the content and purchasers of the Russia-linked ads that ran on Facebook and Google in 2016 "are a mystery to the public because of outdated laws that have failed to keep up with evolving technology." | Three Takes: NYT | Adweek | WSJ
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| | 30 | | Percentage of U.S. internet users who either "support" or "somewhat support" Twitter increasing its tweet character limit to 280 from 140, according to a survey by Morning Consult. Another 13% either "strongly oppose" or "somewhat oppose" it, while 58% have no opinion. Strongest support comes from persons ages 18-29 (41%), followed by persons 30-44 (39%) and persons 25-54 (31%). Among persons 65-plus, 15% support the move, 13% oppose it, while 73% have no opinion. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | Fox Wins Despite Modest 'Empire' Drop | by Michael Malone
Fox won the Wednesday ratings derby, posting a 1.5 score in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 6 share. That topped the 1.3/5 put up by CBS. Fox did a 1.7/6 the week before. Empire dropped 5% to 1.8, then Star fell 13% to 1.3. On CBS, Survivor grew 6% to 1.7 before SEAL Team fell 17% to 1.0 and Criminal Minds was a flat 1.1. ABC had a 1.2/5, with The Goldbergs at a flat 1.4 and Speechless also flat at 1.1. Modern Family slipped 6% to 1.7 and American Housewife did a level 1.4. Designated Survivor was down 11% at 0.8. NBC was at 1.1/4. The Blacklist rated a flat 0.9 and Law & Order: SVU a level 1.2. Chicago P.D. fell 8% to 1.1. Telemundo scored a 0.6/2 and Univision a 0.5/2.
The CW was at 0.5/2 as well, with Riverdale losing 25% of its premiere audience at 0.6 and Dynasty also down 25% at 0.3.
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| • LAUREN LaFRANZ was named to the newly created position of managing director, global creative operations, at marketing agency VML. She was most recently global chief creative content officer at JWT New York, where she spent more than 12 years.
• LAURENT EZEKIEL was promoted to the role of president, North America and International at DigitasLBi, while JODI ROBINSON was elevated to president, North America, according to Adweek, which first reported the moves. They will share presidential duties. Ezekiel, will continue overseeing the New York, Atlanta and Nashville offices and will add international responsibilities. Robinson will continue her oversight of the Boston and Detroit offices, and add Chicago and San Francisco to her responsibilities. Ezekiel has been with DigitasLBi for 14 years, while Robinson has been with the agency for 18 years. The moves were made following the departure of Doug Ryan who served as president, North America and oversaw the Chicago and San Francisco offices. | |
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