Archive for May 5th, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — If you’re fretting that Google’s TV Ads system will somehow commoditize the $64.4 billion the TV industry takes in ad revenue, don’t. Google has a more radical notion than that.As it does with its AdWords search system, Google plans to sell spots based not only on price but on how well an ad performs. Better-quality advertising — advertising the audience deems most relevant — will be rewarded, as marketers will pay less for the same spot. Lower-quality advertising — the ads deemed less relevant by consumers — will acquire higher media bills. Simply put, Google’s TV Ads could go a long way toward answering who is responsible for bringing viewers in and who is responsible for retaining viewers, the network or the advertiser?

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NEW YORK For the past couple of years, media companies have been pitching the idea that digital platform extensions to their on-air TV shows are the game changers that can keep viewers engaged with the medium and advertisers. But they haven’t had the data to back it up. That could be about to change for one network.

The study was conducted for MTVN in January by Harris Interactive and MauroNewMedia. The online survey of 600 consumers examined in detail their involvement with MTV’s hit prime-time show The Hills and also looked at perceptions of Pepsi, a key cross-platform sponsor. Network executives said the study will help them make their case in the upfront that MTVN is the place to target 12- to 34-year-olds, especially in light of declines in that demo among broadcast networks this season. Collectively, in prime time, the nets are down about 14 percent in that demo compared to a gain of 14 percent for MTV, according to Nielsen Media Research (which, like Adweek, is a unit of the Nielsen Co.).

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As ABC aims to land more digital advertising dollars, the network plans to unveil new features and more short-form programming for its video player during upfront conversations with advertisers.

ABC said the changes should make the video player, which is carried on ABC.com and by ABC’s syndication partners like AOL Video, more user-friendly. The network declined to provide specifics. The network won an Interactive Emmy for its player in 2006.

The network’s decision to add more functionality to its Web video offerings, timed to the upfront, is the latest sign that the online video business is growing more competitive. To snag their share of the $1.4 billion that should flow into online video this year, TV networks need to make a splash with marketers.

Though digital dollars are still small compared to the $70 billion total TV ad spend, networks are increasingly leaning on their online offerings as on-air ratings dwindle.

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Philadelphia-based Baby Mama grows beyond the borders of The Forbidden Kingdom this week at the US box office. This comedy labors to highlight the extremes of the food and beverage market. Addicted to the kind of food your dietician warned you about, surrogate mother Angie is shown several times surrounded by Dr. Pepper and Red Bull cans and canisters of Pringles chips and gorging on locally-made Tastykakes. While Angie’s junk food addiction is hinted at in the film’s poster featuring her clutching a clutching a 7-Eleven Big Gulp, the intended mother, Kate, tries to switch her to a more natural diet. As an executive for a natural and organic food retailer, Kate promotes Clif Bars and Terra Chips. Her love interest owns an independent smoothie and juice bar and rallies against Jamba Juice, which he calls the Wal-Mart of his industry. Although food brands seem to dominate branded cameos, Boo Boo Busters, a babyproofing service, sneaks a bite out of their screen time. Tapped to make Kate’s apartment safe for her unborn child, this service also unintentionally “Angieproofs” her apartment leading to some questions about the maturity level of Kate’s surrogate mother.

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I thoroughly, but guiltily, enjoyed Iron Man, partly because of its kick-ass tech action, partly because you’ve got to love Robert Downey Jr, and partly because its machine-tooled components are basically held together with blu-tack. When I started discussing it with a friend after the screening, the whole plot basically fell to pieces in our hands.

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NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The CW, the fledging network stitched together from the remains of UPN and the WB, is testing some new methods aimed at getting younger viewers to think of the boob tube — not the computer screen — as the place to go to see first-run fare.

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Television viewers who forget to set their VCRs or DVRs to record their favorite programs may still get to see what they missed, thanks to many broadcast and cable networks now streaming full episodes.

That’s true even for pay cable’s HBO, whose new psychiatry drama “In Treatment” is available free of charge. It’s obviously a sampling ploy to drive $10 monthly subscriptions.

Advertiser-supported broadcasters especially lament the long-lost days when captive couch potatoes had relatively few entertainment choices. But online TV is creating new opportunities for marketers.

“We think it’s a very effective way to communicate with the younger segment of the target,” says Marcie Kazdin, senior vice president, group media director for Zenith Media, which buys time for Mariel and its Frontline brand of pet products. “What we’ve also found is that awareness numbers are higher for those who view the ads online.”

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Luke and Noah first kissed on 17 August 2007. They made history. The first ever gay- male kiss on daytime US television. As it happens, it was barely a kiss, more of a peck. Last week, though, they were at it again – mouths open, this time. And they’ve sent the world’s biggest advertiser into a real spin.

Luke and Noah are stars of America’s second longest-running daytime soap, As The World Turns. And it’s a soap in the real, beginning-of-TV-advertising sense of the word. It’s a television programme produced by an advertiser: Procter & Gamble.

It is hard to imagine the fuss that has ensued from Luke and Noah’s lip-locking. After last summer’s smacker, Procter & Gamble Productions held off allowing any further fumblings for fear of an outcry. Except that is exactly what they got: a barrage of criticism for prudery and discrimination. After all, heterosexual couples are seen smooching all the time.

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Amid confusing signals to a worried town, the Screen Actors Guild and the majors launch their fourth week of feature-primetime talks today.The session — the 17th since negotiations began April 15 — comes in the wake of SAG’s first significant concession Friday morning to drop its demand for a doubling of DVD residuals. Talks had been scheduled to conclude later that day but the two sides agreed to extend negotiations through Tuesday afternoon.

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