| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Timberlake Puts Bai on Hold For Pepsi Halftime | | Pepsi has stolen away Justin Timberlake, at least temporarily, as the Bai beverage endorser, as a result of him being selected to headline the Pepsi-sponsored halftime show at the Super Bowl. As Ad Age reports, although Pepsi's halftime sponsorship deal is with the NFL, not with Timberlake, Pepsi gets to use the halftime performer as part of its marketing leading up to the game. So he clearly cannot promote a competitor. Timberlake has been appearing in TV spots touting Bai, a beverage containing no artificial sweeteners, that he was partial owner of until it was acquired by Dr Pepper Snapple earlier this year. He actually appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for Bai last February. Timberlake's Facebook page has already been updated with heavy Pepsi branding and as the Super Bowl draws closer Pepsi will be promoting Timberlake's involvement in the halftime show. Bai would not comment beyond saying that "Justin is still involved with Bai." | | WHY THIS MATTERS: This is clearly an unusual situation and it puts both brands in a bit of an awkward situation. Timberlake is on record as having touted Bai which is a competing soft drink of Pepsi. Now Pepsi will temporarily co-opt him away and he will have to say nice things about Pepsi. Meanwhile, Bai has not said whether it plans to run another Super Bowl ad during the upcoming 2018 game. But it cannot use Timberlake's name or likeness until after the Feb. 4 Super Bowl telecast. | A Take: Ad Age
| | | | #2 Agencies Downplay Competition from Consultancies | | While a handful of the heads of the major agency holding companies have expressed concern about competition from consultancies that are getting into the agency business, a bunch of in-the-trenches agency execs tell Digiday that concerns are overblown. At a Digiday Agency Summit on Monday, ad executives were asked about the prospective threat to agencies by consultancies. Susan Credle, global chief creative officer at FCB, says, "Consultancies don't understand the messiness of the [creative] process. Some days you may have a good creative idea in five seconds, while other days you may need a month." She wonders whether consultancies understand how to foster a creative environment. Sean Shelby, VP at Isobar U.S. says clients are not going to wait around for consultancies to learn the business or staff up with top people. Adam Cossman, chief digital officer at W20 Group says digital agencies already act like consultancies, while Tierney Wilson, director of digital strategy at January Digital says while consultancies have big money behind them, they fall short on implementation. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Much like their higher up agency bosses, the in-the-trenches agency execs are aware of the competition consultancies can bring to agencies. But in working everyday with clients on a hands-on basis, they seem more confident in their ability to produce quality work that will keep clients from defecting. | | A Take: Digiday | | | | #3 Facebook Faces Uphill Battle to Clean Up Political Ads | | The social media platform is making adjustments to how political advertisers buy ads across its system, but it will still be hard for the social media giant to identify all of the political ads running on a daily basis, Digiday reports. Regardless of adjustments, Facebook has two main ways to detect political ads – by looking at the creative of the ad itself or by looking at who it's targeted to. While Facebook can scan the creative to detect if political content is present, some political advertisers release hundreds of versions of the same ad within minutes. That allows them the opportunity to find the right combination of text and imagery that slips by Facebook filters. "Advertising platforms would have to make a considerable investment to catch all political ads," says Mark Jablonski, chief technology officer of DS Political, an ad-targeting firm. "And they almost certainly won't catch everything, no matter the spend." | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The intention to clean up political advertising is a desirable one, but with digital technology as advanced as it has become, it will be almost impossible to identify and stop abuses across the platform, not only for Facebook but for all social networks. It's similar to ad fraud. The entire ad industry is working to combat it, but those efforts are seemingly only making a small dent in stopping digital ad fraud that is costing advertisers and publishers billions each year. | | A Take: Digiday | |
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| | 55 | | Percentage of worldwide emails opened on mobile devices, according to research from Return Path. Some 28% are opened using webmail and 16% on desktop. That compares to five years ago when only 29% were opened on mobile devices, compared to 34% on desktop and 37% via webmail. The industries using email marketing most include healthcare and pharmaceuticals, along with travel, both at a 100% rate. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | NBC Wins With 'Voice' | by Michael Malone
NBC gathered the most ratings points Monday, the network posting a 1.8 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 6 share. The Voice fell 9% to 2.1 across two hours, before The Brave did a flat 1.0. ABC was next at 1.5/5. Dancing with the Stars slipped 13% to 1.3 from 8 to 10, then The Good Doctor was off 10% to 1.9. CBS did a 1.3/5. The Big Bang Theory grew 7% to 2.9 and 9JKL climbed 17% to 1.4. Kevin Can Wait went up 9% to 1.2 and Me, Myself and I scored a flat 0.9, before Scorpion did a level 0.8. Fox scored a 0.9/3, with Lucifer at a flat 0.8 and The Gifted down a tenth of a point at 1.0. Telemundo did a 0.7/2 and Univision a 0.5/2. The CW was at 0.4/1. Supergirl rated a 0.5 and Valor a 0.2, both shows flat with last week's performance.
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| • ALAN BURGIS has left his position as CEO of Havas San Francisco, after 10 years with the agency, Agency Spy reports. His position will not be filled, and the agency will instead be overseen by two managing directors – ERNIE LAGESON and MONETTE HAGOPIAN.
• FRAN SHEA was named executive VP, programming and marketing at GSN TV. In addition to her programming duties, Shea will work closely with the advertising sales and distribution teams to promote GSN to clients. Shea was most recently the operator of her own consultant firm of which GSN was a client. She is also founder of HBOlab in 2007, a content driven, creative experiment within HBO, and is former president of E! Entertainment Television from 1999 to 2001.
• KUMER GALHOTRA, president of Ford's Lincoln division, was given the additional title of chief marketing officer for Ford. He will assume the responsibilities of Stephen Odell, executive VP of global marketing, sales and service for Ford, who is stepping down. Galhotra has been with Ford since 1988, working his way up the corporate ladder. | |
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