"Follow The Money! Ad Strategies In The Digital World"
Agency heavyweights explored the confluence of content and technology in a humor-packed session at NATPE in Las Vegas. What models going forward will offer the best opportunities and value for their clients? What are their biggest concerns? What trends are hitting their radar screens? Panelists included Peggy Green, President, Broadcast, Zenith Media; Jon Mandel, Chairman, MediaCom U.S.; Debbie Myers, Vice President, Media Services, Taco Bell; Charlie Rutman, President, Carat USA; and Rino Scanzoni, CIO, Mediaedge: CIA.
There is plenty of data available to agencies and advertisers, but properly measuring that data and evaluating it with respect to consumer behavior criteria and ROI is a big challenge. One big concern for the industry, according to Green, is the loss of 150 million pharma dollars from the recent pulling of ads from Vioxx and Celebrex. Mandel noted auto makers are pulling money from television and moving it into on-site, experiential marketing. Rutman noted agencies are getting much more consumer-centric in the way they approach business, media and strategy. They're looking at patterns of how consumers spend their day, how do they consume media, how do they engage with various media types. Fragmentation, of course, has driven much of the need for doing so. Many of the new technologies are viable for the consumer but are not necessarily viable for advertisers cautioned a few of the panelists.
"When you look at VOD, if somebody says they want a particular program, you need to figure out what kinds of products they buy to see if, in theory, they are interested in your advertising so you can target them. Yet, there's only one cable company doing VOD that's willing to share the data of who's buying," complained Mandel. "Now, me being the cynical buyer, my first reaction is because nobody is actually buying VOD, but I know that can't possibly be the case...but the cable companies have decided they'd rather get the three bucks a month from the consumer to have a TiVo-like device on their set-top box than sell advertising."
One technology that's most recently getting the agencies' attention is the video cell phones, from providers like Smart Video that can stream video content from Fox Sports, MSNBC, etc...Most agreed consumers would be most entertained by highlights, snippets and previews of programs, rather than the whole program.
Mandel stressed that now is the time to advertise on such a medium before the users get used to seeing the content without ad mentions.
Says Rutman: "I personally feel that is the next big thing in wireless...right now, I think the cell phone is considered the 'third screen,' to the TV and computer screen. And I wouldn't be surprised if it became the second screen in the next 36 months."
Radio got some attention as well. In comparing radio to other media, Mandel said, "Radio does a higher average rating on just about any target audience than any cable network does in primetime on households...it has more reach in the average home...why is everybody buying cable, considered the reach medium, and radio is considered the frequency medium?"
Adds Rutman: "I'll tell you what I think the challenge is to radio. We've been measuring radio pretty much the same way for 100 years. Drive time radio is considered primetime in the medium. And the way it came about is you had a captive listening audience. I would argue now that the listening environment in the car is the most crowded environment you can possibly have. You have satellite radio, cell phones, carpooling, etc. And yet we're still buying radio based on sets in use ratings."
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