| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Bud Benches Clydesdales for Super Bowl | | The beermaker's famous mascots will sit out the upcoming Super Bowl for the first time since 2001, with Budweiser choosing instead to air a 60-second in-game commercial touting its philanthropic water giveaway program during natural disasters. Instead, the brewer says it will feature the Clydesdales in a digital online video that will premiere during pre-Super Bowl week. The Clydesdales first made an appearance in a Super Bowl ad in 1975 and since then have appeared in more than 40 Super Bowl commercials. Most times they have been featured, but last year just made a cameo in one of the Bud ads. This is the first time in seven years that creative agency Anomaly has not done the Super Bowl ads for Budweiser. While the agency remains on its roster, this year's ad was done by David of Miami. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: The Clydesdales have always been extremely popular among the more than 100 million viewers who watch the Super Bowl telecast every year. And Budweiser runs the risk of alienating some viewers and potential beer buyers by excluding them from its Super Bowl ad lineup. However the company has seemingly shifted its strategy to focus more on telling stories about the company and its employees. This strategy, it believes, will resonate more among younger, beer drinking viewers. | Two Takes: Ad Age | WSJ
| | | | #2 NFL Regular Season Ad Revenue Dips | | TV ad revenue during the 2017 NFL regular season fell by 1.2% to $2.42 billion, according to data from research company Standard Media Index. The totals include NFL revenue during games aired on NBC, CBS, Fox and ESPN. "For the first time since we have been tracking the market, we saw a slight drop of in-game dollars," said SMI CEO James Fennessy. But he added, "Despite a fairly significant fall in ratings, CPM's were strong and demand continued to be high." SMI said the commercial loads in the NFL games were unchanged, but the networks aired more make-good spots to cover ratings shortfalls. Makegoods accounted for 23% of the spots run in games, up from 21% in 2016. The biggest spending category was automotive, followed by consumer electronics. However both those categories were down in spending. Categories showing increased spending were insurance, alcoholic beverages and QSRs. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Despite the slight dip in ad revenue, the NFL still draws the largest TV audiences of any type of programming on television and that enables the networks to charge high prices per spot. As SMI's Fennessy said, "The NFL remains the powerhouse of national TV ROI. Advertisers understand the exceptional return they get as a result of the large, engaged and guaranteed audiences enjoying a full screen experience in this unique environment." | Three Takes: B&C | Adweek | WSJ
| | | | #3 Google Expands Ban on Retargeting Ads | | The company already had a program in place to allow users to control ads retargeted to them on individual devices. But it has now expanded that to allow users to keep ads from following them across all devices, Ad Age reports. Users will now be able to block "reminder ads" from specific advertisers that follow them from site to site on the web. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Facebook offers a similar program and Ben Clarke, co-founder and president of digital agency The Shipyard believes it's a good idea. He says he believes Google and Facebook "want to be seen on the side of consumers, protecting them from ads they don't want to see, rather than being seen as a company that sells their data to the highest bidder." | A Take: Ad Age
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| | 73 | | Percentage of U.S. internet users, ages 18-34, who would say they would be willing to buy a financial product from a tech company, according to a survey by Bain & Company. The percentage of those who would declines as people get older. Some 61% of persons 35-54 said they would buy a financial product from a tech company, while only 42% of those ages 55 or older said they would. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | Drama Leads ABC to Thursday Night Ratings Win | by John Consoli
A strong performance by veteran drama Grey's Anatomy helped ABC win the Thursday night primetime ratings battle in the 18-49 demo, with the network scoring a 1.5 rating to edge out Fox which recorded a 1.2.
Grey's opened the night for ABC with a 2.2 rating in the demo, followed by Scandal which recorded a 1.3 and How to Get Away with Murder which produced a 1.0.
Fox's music competition series The Four: Battle for Stardom recorded a 1.2 demo rating from 8-10 p.m.
NBC recorded a 0.9 for the night, with sitcoms Superstore and The Good Place producing a 1.2 and 1.1, respectively, before a repeat Will & Grace did a 0.6 and a first-run Great News did a 0.5. At 10 p.m., Chicago Fire did a 1.1.
CBS was next with an overall 0.8 in the demos. A special MVP: Most Valuable Performer did a 0.7, a repeat of The Big Bang Theory produced a 1.3, while a Young Sheldon repeat did a 1.1. At 10 p.m. a S.W.A.T. repeat produced a 0.6.
The CW did an overall 0.5 in the demo with a first-run Supernatural doing a 0.6, following by a first-run Arrow, which did a 0.4.
Univision and Telemundo also each did a 0.5. | |
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| • KAREN COSTELLO was promoted to chief creative officer at The Martin Agency, filling the role previously held by Joe Alexander who left in December during an investigation into claims of sexual harassment. Costello is being elevated from executive creative director. Prior to joining Martin last fall, Costello spent some 20 years at Deutsch Los Angeles, rising to executive creative director.
• KENNY MITCHELL was named VP of brand content and engagement at McDonald's USA, while LIZETTE WILLIAMS was appointed head of cultural engagement. Mitchell was most recently head of consumer engagement at PepsiCo's Gatorade, while Williams was previously North America multicultural marketing leader at Kimberly-Clark.
• SEREENA ABBASSI has joined M&C Saatchi as head of culture and inclusion. She is founder of All Here, an organization that seeks to help agencies and brands with diversity strategies. She has also advised the UK Advertising & Media Industry's Diversity Task Force. • JENNIFER ROGERS DOYLE was promoted to senior VP, brand development and integrated planning at Disney Channels Worldwide. She's been with Disney Channels since 2004 and has worked in areas of franchise management and strategy planning.
• ROB NORMAN, most recently global chief digital officer at GroupM, has joined the advisory board of mobile data platform zeotap.
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| Technology Leadership Summit
February 28 – March 1, 2018 | Raleigh, NC
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