Archive for December 3rd, 2007

LONDON- The Middle East has officially landed. The past week saw a clutch of high-profile deals between financial execs from the region and entertainment biz players from around the world.First up was Dubai Intl. Capital’s acquisition of between 2%-3% of Sony Corp. DIC, an investment company owned by Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed Al Maktoum, reputedly paid up to $1.5 billion for its Sony stake, which though undisclosed, is said to be “substantial,” according to a DIC statement.

Egyptian brokerage firm Borak Holding soon followed that acquisition by investing $550 million in the U.S. shingle the Insomnia Media Group. The Borak deal will see Insomnia, founded in 1994 by Bret Saxon and Jeff Bowler, retain majority ownership and use the new coin to finance future film-related activities, including production and acquisitions of film libraries as well as talent and management firms.

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Parade is moving into branded entertainment with the appointment of Debra J. Menin as vice president for that discipline. Menin’s appointment, announced this past Friday, promises more product integration and sponsored content opportunities in the nation’s largest newspaper-insert magazine. Previously Parade’s vice president and national entertainment director, Menin joined the publication in 2003 as an 18-year advertising veteran of daily and weekly Variety, Premiere and Rolling Stone. Most recently, before joining Parade, she worked at Viacom/MTV Networks, focusing on VH1 and CMT.

Few details were available on what shape branded entertainment will take in the pub, but common tactics included paid “advertorials,” or purchased editorial space touting a product. More subtle tactics include paid integration of products into the publication’s original content where appropriate.

Currently, branded entertainment is still dominated almost entirely by paid integration of products and brands in television, film and radio, with print media a distant fourth. However, marketers and publishers have shown increasing interest in bringing the practice to print–especially newspapers, where it could help turn around long-term revenue declines. As with television and film, branded entertainment is viewed skeptically by many editors, who fear the practice will undermine the perceived integrity of their editorial product.

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STRIKING TV WRITERS NOW HAVE some other numbers to crunch — and no, it’s not the billion or so they say each of the networks currently make from the Internet.

It’s a better estimate of just how much advertising money they make from the streaming of network shows on the Internet. Starcom USA says the four networks will pull in around $120 million this year from advertising dollars from the Internet streaming of TV shows.

What this comes to, on a per episode basis per year, is roughly $55,000.  Now go and figure out the proper split between networks, producers, talent, and writers.

In their latest offer, the studios say a writer’s share comes to $250 a year — which wouldn’t even buy a cup of Starbucks coffee every day. At the estimated $55,000/show level, the $250 would amount to 0.5%.

Perhaps a better way to decide what writers deserve is to see what syndication brings to the table — because, after all, shows airing on the Internet are really just reruns. We don’t have those exact numbers, but for a network rerun, according to The New York Times, writers can get $20,000.  Read the rest of this entry »

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The WGA will respond to studio reps’ latest contract proposal on new-media pay by advancing its own new proposals.

That’s the word from a source close to the guild negotiating team, which caucused on negotiating issues during the weekend before reconvening Tuesday with studio reps.

It might prompt limited optimism that actual horse-trading seems finally in progress in the difficult contract talks between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. But anybody still inclined to forecast chances of an imminent deal between Hollywood writers and studio reps would be well advised to cool it for a while.

The simple fact is that nobody knows where this roller-coaster ride of collective bargaining will end.

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BEIJING, Dec. 3 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ — Baidu.com, Inc. , the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, today announced its plan to launch a new advertising product, “Brand-Link,” which will generate a wide range of brand-specific content when Internet users search for the brand names that subscribe to this new product. A number of leading brand names are currently participating in a pilot for the model.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041011/BAIDULOGO )

A Baidu search for a brand name that subscribes to Baidu’s Brand-Link will generate a wide range of brand-related specific content, including news reports, promotional announcements, product information and marketing campaigns. Baidu expects this product to generate increasing traffic and enhance brand recognition for its online marketing customers.

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Movie and TV studio executives are due to resume talks with writers Tuesday, with little hope being expressed in trade publications that they’ll yield positive results soon. Today’s (Monday) Daily Variety commented, “Optimism for a quick resolution as negotiations resume Tuesday has faded to nearly nonexistent.” One benefit of a lengthy strike, so far as viewers are concerned, may be that there’ll be fewer reruns during the summer, according to TV Week. When production does resume — assuming it does — networks, it noted, will be faced with the question of when to air the remaining episodes. TV Week indicated that executives whom it talked to “indicated a willingness to punch through the spring boundary.” It quoted ABC scheduling exec Jeff Bader as saying, “The season is only a Nielsen construct. … We sell 52 weeks a year.” But his counterpart at NBC, Vince Manze, suggested that although “it would be terrific to start breaking these cycles,” viewing levels drop as the Fourth of July approaches. “I’m thinking one or two [new] shows” during the summer, he said. CBS programmer Kelly Kahl told the trade publication that much will depend on whether a show is serialized. If so, she said, “it may run longer. If it’s self-contained, maybe we wouldn’t.” Full Story

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WHEN IT COMES TO CREATIVE, steep agency fees have no place online, where scale still comes before quality. That’s according to Matt Wasserlauf, CEO of online video ad network Broadband Enterprises.

As such, Wasserlauf has partnered with consumer-generated media network XLNTads.com to furnish advertisers with cheaper spots, as well as develop new original programming for Broad Enterprises.

“We’re prepared to put higher-quality ads online, but the costs are out of line with market demand at the moment,” Wasserlauf explained.

Lower-cost digital production and distribution through YouTube and other platforms has led to a surge in consumer-generated media. A number of top brands, from Doritos to Heinz, have embraced CGM largely in an effort in to engage consumers.

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NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — One of the most closely watched forecasters of advertising spending today lowered his projection for U.S. growth for 2007 to an abysmal 0.7%, down considerably from his estimate of 4.8% 12 months ago.

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EIJING–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Companies seeking to capture the attention of the increasingly brand-savvy Chinese consumer need to tailor their marketing strategies in response to the preferences and attitudes of three distinct customer segments in China that are most open to buying foreign brands, according to a global study released by Accenture (NYSE:ACN). The study, based on an online survey of more than 1,000 consumers in urban and suburban areas in China, identified six distinct customer segments in China, including three that have a stronger preference for foreign brands and the brand characteristics they value most.

According to the findings, the consumer segment most likely to purchase foreign brands is the “Young Royals,” which consists of young college-educated adults, mostly women, who are more affluent, free-spending and keenly interested in foreign brands. This segment was twice as likely as any other segment to buy newly introduced brands (28 percent vs. 14 percent or less for other segments) and the most likely to say they want to be the first to test new brands (43 percent vs. 32 percent or less in other segments).

Two other segments likely to purchase foreign brands are: the “Aspirationals” — young male and female consumers who, like the “Young Royals,” are highly brand-conscious and aspire to have the “latest and greatest,” but whose low income makes them unable to buy what they want; and the “Established Money” segment – higher-income men and women who, like the “Young Royals,” want the latest in technology and high-end, exclusive products. However, those in the “Established Money” segment value brands that are well recognized in the market.

The study also identified two consumer segments in China that are predisposed toward the purchase of domestic brands: “Patriots,” defined as overwhelmingly male (82 percent) consumers with average incomes who buy Chinese brands out of a sense of loyalty to their country; and “Value Buyers,” heads of households who favor practicality over flash and value over exclusivity. The sixth consumer segment, “Brand Apathetics,” tended to be rural or suburban students with little or no income who exhibited little discernable interest in brands.

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It’s a good thing working in the media business is fun, because the forthcoming ad-spending forecast from ZenithOptimedia offers many reminders that it’s also plenty difficult. Marketers will pour $195 billion into North American advertising channels next year, 4.1% more than in 2007, according to the ZenithOptimedia forecast, scheduled for release Dec. 3. Ad spending worldwide will near $486 billion in 2008 for a 6.7% gain.

That all sounds great except for the broader forces, rising costs and economic uncertainty, that accompany it. ZenithOptimedia’s new report pegs U.S. ad-spending growth this year at just 2.5%, well short of the 3.7% expansion it foresaw as recently as last summer. That 2.5% is also way under inflation, which ran at an annual rate of 3.6% for the first 10 months of this year.

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