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"Exhibit
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CABLE LEADS US PRIMETIME VIEWING RACE / #1 CBS
REPLAYS RECORD LABEL
LOS ANGELES: Media giant CBS is reviving its once proud CBS
Records music label with a view to the digital future. It plans
to release music and promote new artists via shows on its TV networks
and fledgling digital platforms. It will also market and sell music via digital downloads, such
as the iTunes store and its own website. Comments ceo Leslie Moonves: "With more consumers choosing
the online download model as the preferred way to purchase their
favorite songs, we have an opportunity to use our unique and broad
collection of media platforms to create a new music label paradigm
for a small price of admission." Over the years CBS Records has been home to legendary artists,
including Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen. In 1988
the label was sold to Sony, which later folded it into one of its
recorded music divisions. Data sourced from New York Times; additional content by WARC
staff, 18 December 2006 Luxury Retailers Thrived During Holidays / But Season Was Disappointing
for Industry as a Whole / #2 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Retailers catering to the wealthy
were the biggest holiday winners this year, while discounters --
especially Wal-Mart -- were hit hard by decreased spending by low-income
consumers and unseasonably warm weather. "Lower-income households were under strain, far more than
upper-income households, where the job gains and income growths
remains," said Frank Badillo, a senior economist at Columbus,
Ohio-based research firm Retail Forward. The flood of December sales results show that same-store sales
overall were up just 3.2%, below the 3.6% registered in 2005, according
to Retail Forward. Nordstrom jumps 9% The department-store resurgence wasn't shared by chains catering
to the less affluent. Federated Department Stores, in its first
season with a national advertising campaign behind its Macy's banner,
came in below forecasts with same-store sales of 4.4%, not the 5%
to 8% expected by analysts. Overall sales fell 8.5% to $5 billion.
At Kohl's, same-store sales came in at 3%. At J.C. Penney, same-store
sales were 2.6%. For Gap Inc., same-store sales declined 8% in December across
the company's brands and 3,184 stores. The only positive same-store
gain came from its Banana Republic division, up 2% compared to a
5% drop in 2005. Wallowing Wal-Mart Despite the disappointing results overall, some industry analysts
remain optimistic a surge in gift-card redemptions and a bout of
cold weather could save some retailers. "The holiday season
doesn't end in December anymore," said Phil Rist, a retail
analyst at Big Research, a Columbus-based retail-research firm,
which has projected $24.8 billion in gift cards were sold this year,
compared to just $18.5 billion in 2005. "There's potentially a silver lining here," said
Pat Conroy, vice chairman of Deloitte's retail consulting business,
who added that online sales in addition to gift-card redemptions
may lift fourth-quarter results. "It could be a pretty happy
January for a lot of retailers if the weather turns cold and gets
people in that winter buying mode." 'Some wiggle room' Retailers "have to hunker down and keep inventory levels
very lean," said James Hurley, a research analyst at the Telsey
Advisory Group, a retail-research firm based in New York. The final
verdict on the season won't be handed down until Jan. 12, when the
U.S. Department of Commerce releases its numbers. The National Retail
Federation will reconcile its forecast with those results then.
The trade group had forecast a 5% gain in overall holiday sales
for November and December. "We do have some wiggle room there for December to come
in at the low end, somewhere between 3% and 5%," said Ellen
Davis, a senior director at the industry trade group. Burnett's Stumble Continues as Altoids Slips Away / Wrigley
Moves $16.3 Million Account to Publicis & Hal Riney / #3 NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Saying goodbye to the U.S. Army and
Cadillac made 2006 a rough year for Leo Burnett, and 2007 isn't
starting out a whole lot better. Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. today reassigned creative duties for Altoids,
its most-awarded account, to Publicis & Hal Riney, Chicago.
The company did not say whether it had spoken to any other agency,
but two people familiar with the matter said Wrigley recently offered
Altoids to Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Miami, which passed on
the business. A Crispin spokesman declined to comment. Lost No. 1 spot As Burnett's client list goes, Altoids, which spent $16.3 million
in 2005, is a blip compared to Kellogg, Procter & Gamble and
Philip Morris. But in the 13 years Burnett has handled the account,
its profile has greatly exceeded its billings. In 2006 alone, Burnett's work on Altoids won it two Kelly Awards,
two One Show prizes, three Clios and a New York Festivals Grand
Prix, far more than any other Burnett account. "The 'Curiously
Strong' campaign is arguably one of the most awarded and successful
campaigns of the last 12 years and we are proud to have created
it," the agency said in a statement following the loss. The critical acclaim made Altoids a useful showpiece in new-business
pitches. "It's the most impressive work they've got,"
said one former Burnett account executive. Concerns about other biggies The Chicago Sun-Times last week reported that McGarry Bowen,
New York, has been increasingly winning Disney theme-park assignments
away from Burnett. McGarry Bowen surfaced on the account -- dominated
by Burnett since the mid-1990s -- earlier this year. "We use a roster approach with our advertising work,"
said Michael Mendenhall, exec VP-global marketing Disney Destinations.
"Burnett remains one of the agencies in that roster."
Ms. Berman, a controversial figure who sometimes clashed with
other executives during her 32-year run at Burnett, is credited
with maintaining crucial relationships with Hallmark. Attempts to
reach Ms. Berman were not successful and Hallmark did not return
a call for comment. But one executive said, "You cannot overstate
how important Cheryl was to that relationship." Lovemarks: New-Business Development Tool Masquerading as a
Book / Interview With Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts Inside JC Penney's $430 Million Move to Saatchi & Saatchi
/ How the Retailer's CEO Was Wooed and Wowed by 'Lovemarks' Author
/ #4 NEW
YORK (AdAge.com) -- "Lovemarks," which for nearly three
years has been presented to the world as a book by Saatchi &
Saatchi Worldwide CEO Kevin Roberts, is actually
In an eight-minute interview with Ad Age editor Jonah Bloom,
Saatchi & Satchi CEO Kevin Roberts reveals the real story behind
'Lovemarks.'a carefully crafted new-business development tool and
the first phase of a 10-year plan to remake the internal working
philosophy and exterior image of the Publicis Groupe agency, Mr.
Roberts said. In a frank and animated video interview with Advertising Age
editor Jonah Bloom, the British-born executive detailed how the
agency -- rather than he -- owns both the book and the Lovemarks
brand. The occasion for the interview was the release of a second
Roberts/Saatchi book, "The Lovemarks Effect: Winning the Consumer
Revolution." During the interview, Mr. Roberts explained that the second
book was the next step in an expanding franchise specifically designed
to transform Saatchi & Saatchi "from an ad agency to an
ideas company to become the Lovemarks company." The 2004 original, "Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands,"
was a 225-page book with wild and eclectic graphic designs on nearly
every page along with multicolored text studded with headlines such
as "If you believe in mystery, clap your hands"; "The
reign of the poetical has started"; and "Six truths about
love." On the rear book cover was a quote from Roberts: "The
idealism of Love is the new realism of business. By building Respect
and inspiring Love, business can move the world." Initially, the first book, its accompanying website, Lovemarks.com,
and Mr. Robert's frequent public pontifications on the theme were
the butt of derision throughout much of the marketing services community.
But that all changed dramatically in September when JC Penney awarded
the agency its $430 million advertising account and publicly indicated
that decision had been significantly influenced by Mr. Roberts'
Lovemarks book and philosophy. This video interview was conducted in Mr. Roberts' 16th floor
office, which commands a spectacular glass-walled vista of lower
Manhattan and the Hudson River. DriverTV Switches to Cost-per-Click Model / Adds BMW,
Porsche, Suzuki and Volvo as Clients / #5 DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- Video-on-demand channel DriverTV is
moving to a cost-per-view model. DriverTV is an automotive video-on-demand and advertising platform
that recently made its debut on Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox,
featuring high-definition videos of the latest vehicles from General
Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group. Had guaranteed views "We realize the car companies can't pay endlessly"
for cost per views, so DriverTV works with them along with their
media and interactive agencies on details of the deals, he added.
Mr. Renner said he had planned to move to a cost-per-view model
from the start, but realized carmakers needed to see how well DriverTV
reached digital cable subscribers first. "We're hoping we can
charge more each year, but not until car companies are able to see
the value in it." Rates for 2007 have risen only modestly, partly because they
now include the website, drivertv.com, which went live late last
year, he said.
DriverTV creates the three-minute videos for automakers that
run on all of its outlets, which include more than 20 million digital-cable
TV subscribers of Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox and Insight, as
well as in-room viewers on Liberty Media's On Command Hotel Network
and DriverTV's first broadband website, driverTV.com. Thinking mobile DriverTV has signed four new carmakers as clients: BMW, Porsche,
Volvo and Suzuki. They join a roster of 30-plus auto brands, including
all eight from General Motors Corp.'s stable and all three of Chrysler
Group's, as well as Toyota, Volkswagen and Audi. Sprint Puts Creative Ad Account Up for Grabs / No. 3 Telecom
Has $1.6 Billion Marketing Budget, Seeks 'Fresh Thinking' SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) -- Citing a need for "fresh
thinking," Sprint, the nation's No. 3 telecom provider, which
spends $1.6 billion in marketing, has placed the creative portion
of its advertising account into review. 'Open to any options' After Sprint acquired Nextel in the summer of 2005, the merged
company kept both incumbent shops and divided duties between them.
Hal Riney response TBWA did not return calls for comment. In the fall, the agency
developed ads featuring actor Ron Livingston discussing the Sprint
network in a straightfoward, plain-talking manner as part of a "Power
Up" branding strategy. Ms. Westbrook said the wireless service provider is looking
for a "differentiated message" as "one element of
many when we look at regaining our momentum in the marketplace."
Ms. Westbrook would not discuss whether both incumbents would
be invited to participate or if they have agreed to participate
in the process. She said the company would release a shortlist within
a few weeks. The goal is to have an agency by the end of the first
quarter, possibly in March or April. Media stays at MindShare The move comes as AT&T fires up its marketing to announce
the re-branding of No. 1 carrier Cingular into AT&T, with an
effort that is expected to exceed $1 billion. New Tool Helps Starcom Figure an Ad's Worth / Better
Estimates of ROI Could Change Where Online Dollars Go / #6 NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- One of the biggest myths of online
advertising is that it offers a clear-cut, simple formula for figuring
return on investment. After all, when someone clicks on your online
ad you know it worked, right? But what about all the online ad impressions
that led up to that click? How does one assign credit to those?
It's not as simple as it sounds -- and figuring it out has flummoxed
advertisers skilled in what's long been considered the most accountable
of media: the internet. Monitoring the combo The problem? In online advertising, the ad servers only assign
a favorable action -- a click or a purchase -- to the most recent
ad to which a consumer was exposed. In other words, while many impressions
can ultimately lead to a sale, the only ad that gets credit for
the sale is the most recent one viewed. A rich-media home-page takeover
can be assigned less value than a simple button farther down a cluttered
page, despite the fact the rich-media takeover is a much more expensive,
often more effective, ad unit. Sussing out the mix Starcom has dubbed its solution "multiple-attribution
protocol" and hopes it will determine the right combination
of ads to increase sales. More simply, it's a system that can in
real time monitor the mix of search and display ads responsible
for a conversion. "You've got to remove the search, display and web-site
reporting silos," said Mike Zeman, VP-media director at Starcom.
"And you've got to throw out the myopic most-recent-exposure
reporting approach." The Starcom tool is created using technology from a couple
vendors, Blackfoot and Theorem Analytics, to see what creates the
optimal returns. The deal isn't exclusive. Right now it optimizes
between multiple types of online advertising but it's not unrealistic,
said Mr. Marshall, to envision a system that some day integrates
offline media as well -- IPTV or digital cable could be added to
the mix once its available in a usable form. Mobile Marketing Has Potential (to Be Really Annoying) / Forrester Study Finds Consumers Embrace
Data but Are Wary of Ads / #7 NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The good news for mobile marketing
is that advertisers can target by location, demographic and create
actionable responses. The bad news? More than three-quarters of
Americans are annoyed just thinking about it. Latest finding Christine Spivey Overby, a Forrester analyst who co-authored
the study, said she was surprised by those numbers until she started
to think about what consumers were responding to. "We've grown up with this view of the TV commercial interrupting
our favorite program," she said. "There's this ad-equals-interruption
mind-set that we have, and when you think about something as personal
as the mobile phone that you hold in your hand and carry in your
pocket, the idea of a marketer interrupting you while you have the
phone, that's an idea that consumers hate. " Public disdain Sprint this fall became the first major carrier to announce
it would offer ads on its "deck," the landing page for
mobile consumers as they access information on the mobile web. (Ads
have long appeared on "off-deck" websites, those sites
accessed from outside a carrier's portal. Those sites typically
are more difficult to access than a carrier's portal and carry far
less traffic than a carrier's decks.) Last week, Verizon Wireless became the second major carrier
said it will place banner ads on its deck starting this year. Cingular
Wireless, about to be renamed AT&T pending final government
approval, has kept mum on its advertising policy. Mobile marketing
spending has increased from $45 million in 2005 to an anticipated
$150 million in 2006, and is expected to grow to nearly $1.3 billion
by 2009, according to research firm Ovum. All about value "When you get into these intimate media like a mobile
phone you have to change the way you think about marketing,"
Ms. Spivey Overby said. "You have to change the rules. It's
a new mobile mindset-replacing the view of interruption with value."
The report outlines three ways marketers can use the medium:
text messaging, such as offering coupons and short codes; advertising
with banner ads on a mobile browser; or creating ad-supported applications
and content. But there are pros and cons to each. While text messaging
is the most ubiquitous with the highest consumer adoption rate,
it's far less immersive and interactive than ad-sponsored games,
for example. And carriers are still reticent to allow advertisers
to support free content on their service because it cannibalizes
what has become a big business of selling ringtones, wallpaper and
games. Right ads for the medium While it might be difficult for marketers to adjust their thinking,
Ms. Spivey Overby said she sees some good early signs, such as what
Toyota is doing with its Yaris brand by sponsoring Fox's mobisodes,
a term for short videos for mobile. Fox is "using shorter, punchier commercials," she
said. "But many advertisers who aren't familiar in the space
need to turn to their agency or a partner that understands the space
to build for this medium." Early success "Marketers can't dismiss mobile," said Ms. Spivey
Overby. "2007 is an exploratory year for most mainstream advertisers
and we need to keep this in perspective because it's still a very
new market."
Survey: More Media Mergers and Buys Expected in '07 / But Execs
Worry About Quantity -- and Quality -- of Properties up for Grabs
/ #8 NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Media mergers and acquisitions are
expected to outperform last year's levels, according to the latest
annual survey from AdMedia Partners, the investment banking and
advisory firm that focuses on the publishing, advertising and interactive
businesses.
Fewer things out there "Most acquirable property has been sold or bought. There
are literally fewer things out there," said Mark Edmiston,
managing director for AdMedia Partners. Respondents to the survey,
he said, were also concerned about the quality, not just the quantity,
of what's coming into the market. Last November Ripplewood Holdings acquired the Reader's Digest
Association for $2.4 billion. , On a much smaller scale, Hartle
Media and the McEvoy Group acquired Spin magazine in February for
less than $5 million. Currently on the table are 18 titles from Time Inc., which
include the Parenting Group and most of the Time4 Media titles,
such as Field & Stream and Popular Science. Second-round bids
on the magazines are due in several weeks. Cross-media deals "What you're starting to see is not so much cross-media
but all media, with companies looking at as many platforms that
make sense to help advertising," Mr. Edmiston said. AdMedia sent out 17,000 surveys to senior executives at media
companies and had a more than 10% response rate. The Scariest Issues Confronting Marketing in 2007 / #9 NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Why will ad agencies be forced to further
trim their staffs or media companies of all New Pressure to Reduce the Cost of Producing TV Commercials
/ How the YouTube Effect is Impacting Small Agency Clients Looking forward into 2007 I predict that agencies will come
under new kinds of pressure to lower the costs of producing television
commercials. I've been hearing from more and more clients about
this issue in recent months and much of what they are talking about
is related to the way consumer-created content has been rapidly
raising its profile and successfully drawing surprisingly large
audiences. Agency clients are catching on to this. Call it the YouTube effect. Millions of consumers watch amateur videos posted on YouTube.com,
more than watch most network spots. And the cost of producing these
videos is insignificant even as they generate remarkable levels
of buzz. Is it any wonder that client are balking at spending $250,000
or more to produce a :30 spot? Like anything else, however, I feel you get what you pay for.
Poorly produced spots affect brand image. For the most part, a good
idea, cheaply produced, reflects well on the clients' budget, but
not so well on the agency that produced it. Even more important,
consumers can see the product or service in a different light. If
the spot looks cheesy, the product will be perceived as such. I said "for the most part." That's because there
are still plenty of ways to produce spots for a fraction of what
they used to cost. Video equipment is more affordable, and a lot
of small-to-midsize agencies have their own, and can shoot and edit
spots in-house. Plus, there are a lot of ideas that don't warrant
costly production, or actually benefit from the look of a smaller
production budget. If this low-cost production trend continues, one day there
won't even be a catering budget on the set. That will be a dark
day indeed Posted by Marc Brownstein on 01.03.07 @ 06:41 AM | 6 comments
Understanding the 1% Who Influence the Rest of Us / Why Small
Agencies Need to Embrace Social Media / #9
Another blogger, Sean Moffitt, chimed in on McConnell and Huba's
blog with the thought that the one percent rule uses facts and figures
that we marketers are probably more familiar with and yet still
tend to ignore when devising marketing plans. If you follow the logic flow of these facts and figures it's
apparent that word-of-mouth has more power to effectively communicate
a brand's story than ever before. This shouldn't worry marketers
or agencies it should excite us because we give people the words.
But are small agencies keeping the pace in this ongoing communications
revolution? Many times the nimbleness of being a small agency allows
us to be innovators, but I admit that our agency has not been utilizing
the power of the individual as much as we could have. We are making
strides in the right direction and our clients are pleased with
our efforts, but I wish we were farther along in our experience.
We are still exploring how to use the tools and culture that
the Internet has created. That's why it's an exciting time to be
in this business. To embrace this latest evolutionary jump means
being a part of a new day in advertising. We have been given the
opportunity to invent new ways of connecting brands with consumers.
According to www.creatingcustomerevangelists.com - A few reasons why social media is important to marketers are
these:
Posted by Bart Cleveland on 12.31.06 @ 12:50 PM | 5 comments
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