Archive for August 7th, 2007

NEW YORK Two of the fastest-growing media segments over the next five years will be branded entertainment and mobile services, according to a study conducted by private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

These findings were a part of a larger ad-spend study that focused on the decline of consumer media usage due to the shift towards alternative media strategies.

Total communications spending reached a record $885.2 billion, increasing by 6.8 percent in 2006, driven by alternative advertising and marketing as well as institutional spending.

Communications spending is forecast to be 6.4 percent in 2007, to $941.7 billion, posting a 6.7 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2006 to 2011.

Expectations are that communications spending will rise above $1 trillion by 2008 and reach $1.2 trillion in 2011.

“Clearly, this indicates healthy growth for the industry—it’s growing faster than the GNP. But there is a lot of change, depicted by the shift in where the money is going,” said Jim Rutherfurd, evp and managing director at VSS.

Ad spending on branded entertainment, in an effort to elevate brand images, reached $52.87 billion in 2006 with a CAGR of 13.7 percent between 2001 and 2006. By 2011, that figure will nearly double, projected to reach $101.4 billion, with a CAGR of 13.9 percent from 2006 to 2011, according to research by PQ Media cited in the report.

Ad spending on pure-play Internet and mobile services climbed to $31.8 billion with a CAGR of 10.3 percent from 2001 to 2006. Those figures are expected to double, forecasted at $63.2 billion in 2011, with a CAGR of 14.7 percent from 2006 to 2011.

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CHRYSLER IS STARTING ANEW TODAY under the aegis of New York-based Cerberus Capital Management. The new name, Chrysler, LLC, brings new leadership. Bob Nardelli, who has never worked in the automotive industry, will replace Tom LaSorda as chairman and CEO–quashing rumors that former Chrysler COO and current Cerberus advisor Wolfgang Bernhard would take the post.

Nardelli was most recently chairman, president and CEO of The Home Depot. Before The Home Depot, where he had been since 2000, Nardelli held senior executive positions at General Electric.

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They will not admit to paying for it, but Pharma is showing up more and more in television - both in product shots and brand mentions.

Reports are showing 462 mentions of prescription drugs on TV last year, more than double the number from just two years earlier.

The FDA, which monitors advertising for the pharmaceutical industry does not have an explicit position on product placement. In normal advertising, drug makers are prohibited from advertising the benefits of their drugs without mentioning possible risks.

As reported in USA Today, the Jan. 16 episode of ABC’s “Boston Legal,” seemed highly promotional. In the episode, a teacher got in trouble for failing to administer EpiPen, an injectible medication, to a child who ate peanut candy and died.

The boy’s father, testifying on the show, said: “Anaphylactic shock can come on suddenly, which is what happened here. The airways can become clogged in less than 30 seconds. If the EpiPen isn’t administered, it can be fatal.”

The product is manufactured by Dey, which is now part of Merck (NYSE:MRK).

One pharma company admitting to advertising via product placement is Organon Pharmaceuticals USA, part of Akzo Nobel(NASDAQ:AKZOY) who promoted their Nuva Ring contraceptive in the show Scrubs.

A logo for the contraceptive brand NuvaRing appeared 11 times, mostly on posters placed in the background.

The brand’s maker, Organon Pharmaceuticals USA of Roseland, N.J., told trade magazine Brandweek that it had done placement deals with several television shows, including CBS’ “King of Queens” and ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy.”

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