News You Can Use

Getting Media Right

• Posted: September 27, 2017

Kantar Millward Brown invites you to briefly shift your focus inward and take a deeper look at the aspirations, challenges and opportunities in the media and digital space. What keeps marketers up at night? Is it the same across buy-side and sell-side? Are buzzworthy topics really a top concern? Are you keeping pace with the industry when it comes to measurement?

With input from more than 330 leaders, representing advertisers, agencies and media companies across the world, Getting Media Right answers these questions and provides practical implications for getting your media right and creating breakthrough marketing in a connected world.

Top 5 Strategic Challenges Marketers Face:

1. Measuring/Proving ROI
2. Understanding omnichannel behavior
3. Optimizing media investment
4. Developing content for multiple channels
5. Managing shrinking budgets

Top 5 Tactical Challenges Marketers Face:

1. Viewability
2. Brand safety/ad adjacency
3. Targeting
4. Ad fraud
5. Ad blockers

To GetMediaRight marketers need to:
#Get Equipped (Build a network of trusted sources to make more confident decisions); #GetSynced (Integrate and align strategies, channels, and messages); #GetOptimised (Act on data in relative real time to maximize impact); #GetValidated (Measure ROI of all channels and prove results).

Click to visit Kantar Millward Brown, and fill out the form to receive a full copy of the report.

Advertisers to Upfronts: More Info on Content, Cross-Platform Data

• Posted: September 27, 2017

Advertiser Perceptions interviewed 373 advertisers – 54% media agencies, 46% advertisers – during May and June 2017, with 33 of the top 200 advertisers and 49% holding positions at VP level or above. On average, advertisers attended 12 events in person or via simulcast, according to the survey.

Advertisers want more from upfront/newfronts TV and media presentations. “Better ways for advertising effectiveness” and “cross-platform measurement” each earned 36% closely followed by digital viewability (31%); fraud, brand safety (30%); and audience reach, composition and engagement (29%).

This past upfront period saw declines in attendance at the Newfronts – due to the pullback by some digital media companies – as well as a few traditional TV network companies that abandoned glitzy upfront events. They opted for smaller meetings with media agencies and their ad clients.

Among digitally focused advertisers, the topic of cross-platform measurement topped the list (37%); most cited by TV-focused advertisers is “strategic partnerships” (52%).

Wayne Friedman, Advertisers To Upfronts: More Info On Content, Cross-Platform Data. MediaPost.

To read the complete article click to visit MediaPost.

ARF Great Mind Lifetime Achievement Award

• Posted: September 27, 2017

Dr. Julian Baim – a leading light of top-quality, innovative research on magazine audiences – received the ARF 2017 Great Mind Lifetime Achievement Award.

This award recognizes an individual who has made significant impact on and fundamental contributions to the research industry, and has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to advancing the art and science of market research. Criteria include contributions to the ARF, impact on MR, and inspiration to others in the field.

Dr. Baim has been a major force in the media research community for over a quarter century. For the past 27 years her served as EVP & chief research officer at GfK MRI.

He has been at the forefront of innovations in audience measurement. These include developing an issue-specific magazine audience estimate; overseeing the inclusion of a Starch ad-noting service; formulating new questions designed to capture digital print readership; and pioneering the development of a magazine audience-guarantee tool.

He also authored or co-authored 30 papers presented at the Print and Digital Research Forum (formerly the Worldwide Magazine Research Symposia), many of which were award nominees or winners.

To see the full list of the winners click to visit the ARF’s 2017 Great Mind Awards.

In the Era of ‘Peak TV’ Is the Fall Premiere Season Still Relevant?

• Posted: September 20, 2017

ARF CEO & President Scott McDonald, Ph.D.

The fall premiere season started losing some relevance with the rise of the cable networks 30 years ago. These then-upstarts found it was difficult to compete with the promotional firepower of the broadcast networks, so they used a counter-programming strategy, releasing their new series in the summer when the broadcasters were mostly showing reruns. This practice started nibbling away at the primacy of the fall premiere season. The rise of social media further eroded the centrality of the fall premiere season by accelerating the importance of word of mouth as a means of new program discovery.

Netflix started the practice of releasing its new internet-distributed shows by putting out all episodes at once.

So is the fall premiere season now just a relic of a bygone age? I would not say so. It still is the main way for the broadcast networks to unveil their new scripted shows to their still very substantial audiences. What’s more, the cable networks that once launched their new programs off-cycle have increasingly shifted toward direct competition with the broadcast networks for a share of the public’s attention during the season.

On the advertising side, both broadcast and cable networks continue to sell most of their premium ad inventories in the spring upfront markets. Conventional advertising sales in the 2017 upfront market were reported to be very strong. This is noteworthy because the 2017 upfront market included, for the first time, significant offerings of data-based targeted ad inventory that did not conform to the standard age/sex demo guarantees of the conventional upfront. This suggests that the new model (i.e. data-based targeted advertising inventory) is not yet cannibalizing the old model – that change to the upfront will come more slowly than some expect.

Bottom line: Even though we have more diverse models for releasing and supporting new TV shows, the fall premiere season remains an important event in the TV industry’s calendar and in the public’s efforts to discover, sample and talk about those new shows.

Scott McDonald, Ph.D. In the Era of ‘Peak TV’ Is the Fall Premiere Season Still Relevant? Forbes

To read the complete article visit Forbes.

P&G Pritchard Calls for ‘Next Generation of Digital Ads’

• Posted: September 20, 2017

Marc Pritchard, P&G Chief Brand Officer, sees digital media players making progress on transparency and brand-safety, but he has an even more fundamental problem: People really don’t want to watch ads, particularly in social media.

So he’s pressing the biggest players to help come up with “the next generation of digital ads.” Pritchard pointed to average digital ad viewing time of 1.7 seconds, with only 20% of ads viewed more than 2 seconds.

“Obviously we stopped wasting money on 30-second ads, and we’re designing ads to work in 2 seconds,” Pritchard said, according to an advance transcript. “Of course, we’re negotiating to pay only for the ads people actually see. But this raises a deeper question. Looking at it through the lens of the consumer, how valuable are these ads?

For example, people use social media to share things about their lives with each other. And let’s face it, ads are annoying in that context.”

“Bottom line, it is time for marketers and tech companies to solve the problem of annoying ads and make the ad experience better for consumers,” Pritchard said.

Pritchard said that next generation of ads is likely to revolve around utility and the concept of “mass one-to-one marketing.”

Using better data to customize targeting is also allowing P&G to concentrate ad exposures when they’re most likely to trigger sales, he says, part of a plan to reduce spending by 20% while quadrupling return on investment.

Jack Neff. Two Seconds Is Not Enough for P&G: Pritchard Calls for Next Generation of Digital Ads. AdAge

To read the complete article visit AdAge.

Gender Inequality Persists In the MR Industry

• Posted: September 20, 2017

Women in market research are still losing out to men in terms of jobs, pay and satisfaction, despite progress towards better gender equality.

That’s according to the findings of a new survey by Women in Research (WIRe), of nearly 1,000 female and male market research professionals. It followed up on a previous study conducted in 2012.

The study examines the impact of industry equality initiatives over the past five years, and while it highlights some areas of improvement, it confirms that gender disparity is alive and well. Key findings include:

• Women are climbing further up the corporate ladder, but men still take more of the top jobs, particularly in bigger organizations.
• The gender pay gap is shrinking at the top level, but among parents the gap remains wide – and has become wider.
• Men’s job and career satisfaction has risen, but for women it remains stagnant. This tallies with continued pessimism about promotions.
• Women still face more barriers to advancement than men: including parenting issues, lack of opportunities and company culture.
• While the industry has made progress on flexible hours, diversity in hiring and affirmative action, there is still plenty of room for improvement.

Robert Langkjaer-Bain. Gender Inequality Persists In the MR Industry, Survey Finds. ResearchLive.

To read the complete article visit ResearchLive.

NBC Research for Super Bowl Advertisers

• Posted: September 20, 2017

“Creative anxiety is the single biggest factor in keeping people from advertising in the Super Bowl,” says Dan Lovinger, EVP of advertising sales, NBC Sports Group.

NBC analyzed the ads in the last four Super Bowls (2014-2017) based on 575 variables like creative messaging and structural elements. It then looked at the effectiveness of each ad based on five performance metrics: creative appeal, ad cut through, creative engagement, brand social and brand search. NBC will use these results to help guide advertisers on their Super Bowl creative, Lovinger says.

NBC’s study found that just because an advertiser scored high on creative appeal (which is indicative of the USA Today Ad Meter), doesn’t mean they also received top marks on other metrics like search and social.

60-second spots, for example, significantly out-performed in most key metrics and a brand with multiple spots in the game saw a lift in all key metrics. (NBC worked with a third-party firm CognitiveScale on the study).

But there were some other revealing stats: celebrities have a slight negative or no material impact on ad performance, other than driving social conversation; visually dark scenes work better for auto and electronics advertisers, while lighter scenes yield better results for food and beverage and entertainment brands; animated characters are more effective in ads that are sales focused rather than brand focused; spots with kids and music outperformed those with just one or the other; and first-time Super Bowl advertisers have been just as successful airing pre-existing creative in the game as they have been airing new ads.

Jeanine Poggi. NBC to Super Bowl Advertisers: Use Kids or Puppies, But Not Both. AdAge.

To read the complete article visit AdAge.

TV Network Consortium Adds Members, Makes Gains in Advanced Audience Targeting

• Posted: September 20, 2017

An advanced advertising TV network consortium says it has made gains since its first meeting a year ago — all to define new audience targets. Over the course of the year, The Advanced Target Standards Group (ATSG) has grown from seven to 12 TV network owners, and is providing media agency representation via the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement’s (CIMM) Advanced TV Committee.

“With participation from a broad range of industry stakeholders, we are closer to achieving an easier path to transact at scale with advanced audience segments,” stated Pete Doe, CFO of clypd, which formed the ATSG in August 2016.

ATSG says other progress made during the year includes determining “110 predefined targets, based on Nielsen advanced data-sets,” with data coming from a number of suppliers, including GfK, MRI Fusion, comScore and Nielsen Catalina Solutions.

ATSG says this is category-specific rather than brand-specific.

In addition, the ATSG says it has offered methodology for buyers and sellers to calculate target sizes and impressions delivery, a research paper assessing the impact of classification “lag” in advanced target data-sets, and other guidelines for advanced target linear transactions.

Wayne Friedman. TV Network Consortium Adds Members, Makes Gains In Advanced Audience Targeting. MediaPost.

To read the complete article visit MediaPost.

NBC News/WSJ – Social Trends Survey (August 2017)

• Posted: September 13, 2017

The two companies release political polling data several times every year. For their latest survey they decided to add five questions about “trends happening for consumer in America.” For all five questions a sizable number (in some cases a majority) felt that the trend had been neither Good nor Bad but had a “Mixed” impact for the country.

To read the complete survey click to visit MSNBCMEDIA.

Micro-Moments Now: 3 new consumer behaviors playing out in Google search data

• Posted: September 13, 2017

Impatience, immediate action, instant gratification, even some impulsiveness—these are just a handful of descriptors for behavior today. We have all been empowered and emboldened by information. With our phones acting as supercomputers in our pockets, we can find, learn, do, and buy whenever the need arises—or the whim strikes.

People are making on-the-spot decisions. Search interest in “open now” has tripled in the past two years. At the same time, searches for “store hours” have dropped.

Mobile searches related to “same day shipping” have grown over 120% since 2015 as people people are no longer willing to wait even a few days for their order to arrive. We can also see that searches for “same-day shipping” peak first thing in the morning. Rather than running an errand on the way to work, people are turning to their devices with the expectation that they can find a business that can help them immediately.

Fast and frictionless is now table stakes, and the basics—like load time—can make or break you. In fact, 53% of visits are abandoned if a mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load.

Google’s VP of Marketing for the Americas Lisa Gevelber.

Lisa Gevelber. Micro-Moments Now: 3 new consumer behaviors playing out in Google search data. think with Google.

To read the complete survey click to visit think with Google.