| | Media Buyer & Planner Today | | | | | | | | | #1 Amazon Aggressively Courting Ad Buyers | | The e-commerce giant is contacting agency media buyers at least twice as often as it did last year as it tries to lure more advertising dollars to its site from marketers, Digiday reports. And Amazon is now creating teams to service specific brands. According to media buyers, Amazon is also running a series of attribution tests to see how its ads stack up against those on rivals Facebook and Google. It is also testing an application programming interface for its Amazon Advertising Platform with a small group of agencies that will let marketers manage more of their programmatic campaigns on their own, enabling Amazon advertising to scale. To do all of this, Amazon has significantly grown its agency development group into hundreds of staffers. In addition to the U.S., Amazon is also expanding its ad staffing to other countries such as the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan and Canada. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Amazon's annual ad revenue is already estimated to be about $2.8 billion annually, according to J.P. Morgan estimates. And the company is looking to make further inroads into an internet ad marketplace currently dominated by Facebook and Google. An Amazon spokesperson tells Digiday, "Agency relationships are extremely important to us, and we'll continue to expand our efforts, working back from their needs." | | A Take: Digiday | | | | #2 Why Facebook's Video Platform Is Struggling | | After two previously failed examples of trying to initiate video products – Facebook Live and Suggested Videos – the social network is now committed to spending $1 billion in 2018 to get is latest video priority, Facebook Watch, off the ground. But Facebook continues to face obstacles – the biggest one seeming to be that people don't go Facebook to watch videos. And that is going to be a major obstacle to overcome. Even among users who are viewing Facebook Watch videos, which contain mid-roll video ad breaks that deliver ad revenue back to media partners supplying Facebook with video, few are watching long enough to hit the mid-roll ad break, Digiday reports. Facebook is also looking to carry video series that drive conversations and keep viewers on the site beyond just the video watching. That's also easier said than done. And if Facebook tries to add longer TV-type dramas, it puts itself in competition with more established sites like Hulu and Netflix. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: If Facebook can't monetize its video content it is not going to continue in the video business on a long-term basis. Content providers need a return on investment, and if they are paid upfront, then Facebook needs to find a way to cover those costs itself. With mid-roll breaks in Watch not working, Digiday says Facebook has started testing pre-roll ad units within Watch. But pre-roll ads can have a tendency to turn off viewers before they even begin watching. Still, Facebook is a giant platform with lots of money to spend, so don't count out its video success just yet. | | A Take: Digiday | | | | #3 Broadcast Nets Fighting Losing Ratings Battle | | It's misleading to look at NBC's primetime ratings success this season-to-date and read too much into it. As Ad Age reports, if you remove live sports (Super Bowl and Olympics) and high impact live awards shows, NBC's 18-49 primetime live-plus-same-day demo rating is a 1.2, same as CBS. ABC is next with a 1.1. Even adding in DVR live-plus-seven-day ratings, the Big Four networks' combined 18-49 ratings this season are down 25% from three years ago. And the broadcast network audiences continue to get older. Median age of a CBS viewer is 61, for NBC it's 57, for ABC it's 55, for Fox it's 51, and even teen friendly CW is approaching a median age of 50. | | WHY THIS MATTERS: Time changes everything and nothing stays the same forever. And the broadcast networks are coping best they can, trying to expand audience to younger viewers by streaming programming on digital platforms. But the declining ratings is one thing media buyers will not hear about in the upcoming upfront ad sales presentations for the next season. Instead, as Ad Age reports, buyers will hear things like, "We're the top-rated network on Saturday nights from 8:10 p.m. to 8:20 p.m. among the highly sought after Shut-Influencers demo!" | | A Take: Ad Age | |
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| | 60.6 | | Percentage of all internet social media users of any age who visit Facebook at least once per month, according to eMarketer data. Next most popular social media site is Instagram, visited by 37.4% of internet users, followed by Snapchat, visited by 30.9% of internet users. Other social sites visited at least once per month include Pinterest, by 26.1% of users, Twitter, by 20.1% of users, and Tumblr, by 7.6%. | – Reported by eMarketer
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| | Fox Wins With '9-1-1' | by Michael Malone
Fox won the Wednesday ratings race, riding drama 9-1-1 to a 1.2 in viewers 18-49, per the Nielsen overnights, and a 5 share. That topped the 1.1 that CBS and NBC posted.
CBS, Fox and NBC won last week with a 1.2/5.
On Fox, The X-Files was down 11% to 0.8, while 9-1-1 did a flat 1.6.
NBC rated a 1.1/5, with The Blacklist down 10% at 0.9, before Law & Order: SVU was a flat 1.3, and Chicago P.D. at a level 1.2.
CBS was at 1.1/4, with Survivor posting a flat 1.7, followed a repeat of NCIS. Criminal Minds finished out prime at a flat 0.9.
ABC did a 0.9/4. A double run of comedy Speechless was off 25% at 0.9, and was followed by a Modern Family repeat. A new American Housewife was down 9% for a 1.0. Drama Designated Survivor was up a tenth of a point at 0.7.
Univision did a 0.5/2 and Telemundo a 0.4/2.
The CW rated a 0.3/1, as drama Riverdale scored a level 0.4 and Life Sentence was down a tenth of a point from its premiere at 0.2. | |
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| • KEVIN MAYER was promoted to chairman of Walt Disney Co.'s new direct-to-consumer and international business unit. He was elevated from Disney's chief strategy officer. In his new role, Mayer will oversee Disney's new OTT platforms and services. In addition, all Disney advertising platforms will report to Mayer, including Rito Ferro, president of advertising sales for Disney/ABC Television Group, and Ed Erhardt, president, global sales & marketing, ESPN. The goal of the reorganization will be to allow advertisers an easier way to buy across all Disney platforms.
• MARK CRUMPACKER is leaving his position as chief marketing and strategy officer at Chipolte Mexican Grill. His resignation comes a little more than a week after Chipolte hired former Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol as its new chief executive. Crumpacker has been Chipolte CMO since 2009.
• KINGSLEY TAYLOR was named managing director of Digitas San Francisco. He previously held the same position at Organic San Francisco. Also, MIKE FREASE was promoted to executive VP and executive creative director at Digitas Chicago, and MORGAN CARROLL was elevated to managing director and executive creative chair. Frease was previously senior VP and group director, while Carroll was executive creative director. | | | | | |
| 20th Annual Multichannel News Wonder Women Luncheon
March 22, 2018 | New York, NY
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Advanced Advertising Summit – Spring Edition
March 26, 2018 | New York, NY
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Multicultural Television Summit
April 3, 2018 | New York, NY
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Technology Leadership Awards at NAB
April 9, 2018 | Las Vegas, NV
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Digital Media Tech Leadership Summit
June 5-6, 2018 | Tampa, FL
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The Programmatic Summit
June 7, 2018 | New York, NY
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