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The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. We are a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and marketing skills. Check out thousands of cutting edge examples at our web site. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Graeme Newell
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In This Issue
Promo of the Day
In Fox We Trust, Poll Shows
NBC Picks Up Conan Pilot
NBC to Lose $250M on Olympics
NBC Universal's 4Q Profit Plunges 30%
CBS Urged to Abort Advocacy Ad
Discovery Brands OWN with Oprah
Oprah Reigns in TV Personality Poll
Court Ruling to Deliver $300M Boost to Media
$61 Million Raised for Haiti - and Counting
Facebook Develops Conversion Tracking Tool
Web Users to be Notified of Targeted Ads
Jobs Unveils 'iPad'
Science Channel Refuses To Dumb Down Science Any Further
Quotes
"Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory."
- Richard Whately, British prelate, writer (1787-1863)
"We never stop investigating. We are never satisfied that we know enough to get by. Every question we answer leads on to another question. This has become the greatest survival trick of our species."
- Desmond Morris, British anthropologist
"Curiosity is the key to creativity."
- Akio Morita, Japanese businessman, CEO of Sony Corporation
Promo of the Day
5 commercials that use a viewer's curiosity as a creative vehicle. Typically, they start out with you scratching your head, but them come back in the end and make a point that ties it all together.
602communications.com/VideoExamples
Have a video clip to share? Email it to
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Flash (.flv) or QuickTime (.mov) files, size 320 x 240, are preferred, but WindowsMedia (.wmv) files will also be accepted. Large files may be sent via http://www.yousendit.com. You can also mail your clip on VHS or DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.
In Fox We Trust, Poll Shows
Americans do not trust the major tv news operations in the country- except for Fox News. Our newest survey looking at perceptions of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News finds Fox as the only one that more people say they trust than distrust. 49% say they trust it to 37% who do not. CNN does next best at a 39/41 spread, followed by NBC at 35/44, CBS at 32/46, and ABC at 31/46. Predictably there is a lot of political polarization in which outlets people trust. 74% of Republicans trust Fox News, but no more than 23% trust any of the other four sources. We already knew that conservatives don't trust the mainstream media but this data is a good prism into just how deep that distrust runs. For Democrats the numbers are a complete opposite- a majority trust all of ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC while only 30% have faith in Fox News. Continuing the trend in our polling over the last few months that independents hate everything, a plurality of them distrust all five outlets we looked at. NBC is the most popular choice among Democrats at a 62/17 spread. Although 'NBC News' was the entity named in the question it's possible respondents could have been lumping MSNBC in with it given the good numbers on the left. At a 17/69 spread CBS was the least popular with Republicans, perhaps indicating residual unhappiness from the Dan Rather days. CNN finished second among Democrats, Republicans, and independents suggesting that it may be the least polarizing of the major tv news operations. These numbers suggest quite a shift in what Americans want from their news. A generation ago Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country because of his neutrality. Now people trust Fox the most precisely because of its lack of neutrality. It says a lot about where journalism is headed.
Public Policy Polling
NBC Picks Up Conan Pilot
NBC has picked up a pilot from Conan O'Brien's production company, Conaco. Less than a week after O'Brien agreed to leave the network (and not too long after a network executive trashed him to the New York Times), Conaco's untitled project known as "Justice" has been picked up by the struggling network. The hourlong pilot features a former Supreme Court justice who launches his own legal firm, and is written by John Eisendrath. O'Brien is executive producer along with Eisendrath. In 2008, Conaco's "Operating Instructions," about a female trauma surgeon returning from Iraq to take a job at a military hopital, was picked up by NBC Universal's USA network. Nikki Finke reports that the pick-up came as a complete surprise to Team Conan. The New York Post reported Tuesday that Fox is ready to swoop in on O'Brien for a late-night show to rival NBC's "Tonight Show."
Huffington Post
NBC to Lose $250M on Olympics
Despite increasing demand from advertisers, NBC expects to lose a quarter of a billion dollars with its presentation of the 2010 Winter Olympics. General Electric vice chairman and chief financial officer Keith Sherin on Friday told investors that NBC anticipates “a loss of somewhere around $250 million on the Olympics,” revising downward the $200 million hit GE chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt predicted in mid-December. Ad dollars have begun pouring in over the last few weeks, Sherin said. “We are seeing pretty good demand for the Olympics. The advertising market is picking up,” Sherin said. While a late flurry of activity has NBC anticipating national ad sales to add up to between $650 million and $700 million, Sherin cautioned that the recent boost in sponsor commitments will not be enough to offset the $820 million rights fee and the costs associated with producing the two-week event. While NBC acknowledged that it will take a loss on the Games, the network believes that ratings will have nothing to do with the shortfall. Media buyers said the network has set a 14.0 prime-time ratings guarantee for Vancouver, which kicks off on Friday, Feb. 12. The Peacock averaged a 12.2 rating during the 2006 Torino Games, per Nielsen.
MediaWeek
NBC Universal's 4Q Profit Plunges 30%
NBC Universal's fourth-quarter profit dropped 30%, General Electric Co. said Friday, on a sharp decline in DVD sales at Universal Studios, along with costs related to NFL rights and increased costs to develop programming for the NBC Television Network. Segment profit at NBC Universal was $602 million, down from earnings of $865 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. Revenue fell 4% to $4.27 billion. Universal Pictures had a dismal 2009, marred by flops such as "Land of the Lost" starring Will Ferrell, a remake of the 1970s television show for youngsters, as well as "Funny People" starring Adam Sandler. "Land Of the Lost" took in just $49.2 million domestically, while "Funny People" scraped up $51.9 million. Cable was again a positive note for NBC Universal in the fourth quarter, showing an 8% increase in operating profit, with solid growth at USA, Syfy, Bravo and Oxygen.
MarketWatch
CBS Urged to Abort Advocacy Ad
A national coalition of women's groups called on CBS on Monday to scrap its plan to broadcast an ad during the Super Bowl featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, which critics say is likely to convey an anti-abortion message. "An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year — an event designed to bring Americans together," said Jehmu Greene, president of the New York-based Women's Media Center. The center was coordinating the protest with backing from the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and other groups. CBS said it has approved the script for the 30-second ad and has given no indication that the protest would have an impact. A network spokesman, Dana McClintock, said CBS would ensure that any issue-oriented ad was "appropriate for air." All the national networks, including CBS, have policies that rule out the broadcast of certain types of contentious advocacy ads. In 2004, CBS cited such a policy in rejecting an ad by the liberal-leaning United Church of Christ highlighting the UCC's welcoming stance toward gays and others who might feel shunned by more conservative churches. CBS was criticized for rejecting that ad — and perhaps might have worried about comparable criticism from conservatives if it had rejected an ad featuring such a charismatic and well-known figure as Tebow. CBS noted that it had run some advocacy ads in recent months, including spots taking conflicting sides in the debate of a national health care overhaul. Terry O'Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women, said she had respect for the private choices made by women such as Pam Tebow but condemned the planned ad as "extraordinarily offensive and demeaning." "That's not being respectful of other people's lives," O'Neill said. "It is offensive to hold one way out as being a superior way over everybody else's." A national columnist for CBSSports.com, Gregg Doyel, also objected to the CBS decision to show the ad, specifically because it would air on Super Sunday. "If you're a sports fan, and I am, that's the holiest day of the year," he wrote. "It's not a day to discuss abortion. For it, against it, I don't care what you are. On Super Sunday, I don't care what I am. Feb. 7 is simply not the day to have that discussion." Thirty-second commercials during the Super Bowl are selling for $2.5 million to $2.8 million. Gary Schneeberger, a spokesman for Focus on the Family, said funds for the Tebow ad were donated by a few "very generous friends" and did not come from the group's general fund.
Yahoo News
Discovery Brands OWN with Oprah
Discovery Chief David Zaslav wouldn't reveal much about OWN's programming plans, the new cable network Discovery is creating with Oprah Winfrey, but a new promo reel gave NATPE's Monday morning keynote audience a good feel for what the new network will be all about. The new net's tagline is the Oprah-inspired, "it's your life ... own it." "This network is not called Oprah, it's called OWN - it's about owning your challenges, your relationships, and moving forward in a positive way," said Zaslav. "There is nobody that's in this Oprah space, the ‘Live Your Best Life tools for your life' space. Oprah is not just a great brand, but she's a great creative, she's incredible at finding talent, and she's a great talent for this mission, which is really her mission in life." As Discovery has previously said, more details about OWN's programming plans will be forthcoming at this spring's upfronts. Discovery also is focused on new growth areas, specifically social media and international markets. The company's stars and producers are encouraged to be out on Twitter and Facebook, engaging viewers in their content. Online, the company is focused on short-form video and social networking. "We have been very aggressive about saying you can build your market share on all those platforms," says Zaslav. "We don't think the answer on most of those platforms is long-form. "If it is, we need to get paid for it." "International is key to growth," said Zaslav. "As I look at our company, three years ago we made about $100 million in outstanding cash flow outside the U.S. This year, we'll make more than four times that. As we all know, the domestic market is slowing. We're not getting 10-15% growth in subs and viewership every year. Much of the world is like the U.S. ten years ago, and we all know that this was a great business in the U.S. ten years ago.
Broadcasting & Cable
Oprah Reigns in TV Personality Poll
Oprah Winfrey regained her throne as America's favorite TV personality in 2009, but conservative TV and radio talk show host Glenn Beck made his debut on the annual Harris Poll, coming in second place. Beck, 45, who hosts a Fox News channel political TV show as well as the nationally-syndicated talk radio program "The Glenn Beck Program", fared well with Republicans, Independents and those over 64 years-old in the annual Harris Poll of favorite television personalities, released on Monday. It was the first entry for Beck on the poll that Harris has conducted since 1993. Beck, a self-described libertarian who disputes evidence suggesting human activity is the main cause of global warming, was joined on the list by another influential Fox News conservative, Bill O'Reilly, who was placed 10th. Seven of the top 10 were talk show hosts. NBC's Jay Leno dropped from first place a year ago to third in 2009 poll, which was conducted in December before the recent late-night talk show wars that saw NBC drop "The Jay Leno Show" and reinstate him as host of "The Tonight Show" from March 1. The influential Winfrey moved up from No.4 last year to reclaim the top slot. Harris said her climb very likely was due to her announcement last November that she would be ending her popular "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in 2011 after 25 years. Winfrey did best among women over 33 years-old, Democrats and moderates, while Leno was the top choice overall for men. The only other woman on the top 10 list was Ellen DeGeneres, who tied in 4th place with "House" actor Hugh Laurie. DeGeneres has her own weekday chat show and will make her debut as the new judge on top-rated TV program "American Idol" in February.
The Top 10 list of favorite TV personalities among Americans in 2009 was:
1. Oprah Winfrey
2. Glenn Beck
3. Jay Leno
4. Ellen DeGeneres/Hugh Laurie
6. Jon Stewart
7. Charlie Sheen
8. Mark Harmon
9. David Letterman
10. Bill O'Reilly
Rueters
Court Ruling to Deliver $300M Boost to Media
President Barack Obama may have condemned last week's Supreme Court decision as bad for democracy, but one thing is almost certain: It will be good for the media business. In the wake of the high court's 5-4 decision overturning campaign finance laws, media companies and agencies were digesting the impacts -- more direct spending by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals, as well as more issue-oriented money pouring into the system. And much of that additional money -- $300 million, according to a Needham & Co. estimate, on top of the predicted $2.8 billion -- will flow to local TV stations. Couple the Supreme Court's decision with the Scott Brown Senate win in Massachusetts, which has "Republicans smelling blood in the water" and we'll see 10% more political ad dollars, said Laura Martin, a Needham analyst. "These two factors work together to create an arms race between corporations and unions, and the only weapons dealers are the local TV stations," she said. "The local stations are salivating over this," said Jennifer Hungerbuhler, VP of local TV at Carat, a unit of Aegis. "I expect political spending to be way up, so we want to get into the market early and lock in the lowest rates possible." Fitch estimates that TV stations take in 70% to 85% of political spending, but much of that is concentrated in battleground states like California and Pennsylvania. "Hearst's television division, which has a meaningful presence in early primary states and swing states, [is] likely to attract a disproportionate share of any increases," said Mike Simonton, senior director-media and entertainment at Fitch Ratings. Another media company set to benefit is CBS, the largest owner of local stations in the U.S., covering 40% of the country. In the last mid-term election, CBS stations brought in $160 million in political advertising; Needham's Ms. Martin estimates it will add another $50 million in 2010 as a result of the ruling, as well as the Senate win for Mr. Brown, which will accelerate spending on both sides of the aisle. News Corp., Disney and NBCU will also benefit, as well as station groups like Gannett, Scripps, Belo, Meredith, Gray Television and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Typically, for stations with leading news operations, political revenue accounts for about 10% of advertising during congressional election years, second only to automotive.
AdAge
$61 Million Raised for Haiti - and Counting
The tally from the cross-network Haitian relief telethon continues to grow. Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief has now raised some $61 million in donations from the general public to date. That total, up from $57 million on a preliminary count, represents the most ever in donations via a public forum, according to MTVN officials. From a Nielsen perspective, the Jan. 22 special averaged some 24.1 million viewers across the 33 participating networks. According to Nielsen data, more than 83 million viewers watched at least one minute of the telecast on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, AMC, CNBC, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, MSNBC, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, Centric, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, Epix, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino, Logo, MTV2, MTV Tr3s, MTV Hits, VH1 Classic and VH1 Soul. Across the Web and mobile, Hope for Haiti Now attracted 1.9 million video streams during the live broadcast. Between the live broadcast and replays of the performances available on MTV.com and other sites, Hope for Haiti Now attracted 5.8 million total streams throughout the weekend, including more than 150,000 mobile streams. The Hope for Haiti Now iPhone app, which allowed for live streaming of the broadcast, has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. The benefit was also the most Tweeted topic of the weekend, according to social media monitoring firm Collective Intellect. The "Hope for Haiti Now" Twitter Tracker, built by Stamen Design for MTV.com and hopeforhaitinow.org, recorded more than 1 million Tweets around the event on Friday evening alone. The donation organization will continue accepting donations for six months via online: www.hopeforhaitinow.org ; phone: 877-99-HAITI; Text: Text "GIVE" to 50555; and mail: Hope For Haiti Now Fund, Entertainment Industry Foundation, 1201 West 5th Street, Suite T-700, Los Angeles, CA 90017
MultiChannel
Facebook Develops Conversion Tracking Tool
Facebook plans to add a conversion tracking tool to its suite of advertising products based on demand from the marketplace. The platform will allow marketers to track clicks through conversion, Brian Boland, manager of direct response solutions for Facebook, told OMMA Social attendees in San Francisco on Tuesday. The conversion tracking tool being tested by a "handful" of Facebook advertisers doesn't have a launch date, but Boland believes it should become available sometime before the end of March. A JavaScript snippet will go into the Web page. Marketers will have an option to set up multiple tags to track numerous conversions. Reports will provide a list of tracked conversions and the impressions and the clicks that led to each. The feature will help marketers build out messages as the campaign expands into a variety of pieces. Conversion tracking aims to complement Facebook Connect, a tool that allows advertisers to target fans of brands, as well as friends of the connected fans. The Facebook Connect tool reports back on everything from demographics to interests listed in Facebook profiles. Ads connecting to Facebook Connect tie in social context, such as the person's name. Boland also served up advice on how to calculate a cost-per-fan metric to determine the campaigns return on investment (ROI). Not only the cost to acquire a fan, but the fan's worth. "Some businesses have looked at it as the depth in which they have the community engaged and look at the downstream effects," he says, pointing to Starbucks and Threadless as two examples. Steve Kerho, senior vice president of analytics at Organic, would like to see agencies apply the same analytics, discipline and rigor to social media metrics that they have for display, and natural and paid search. As more dollars are pushed into social media, advertisers and marketers will feel increased pressure to demonstrate ROI. Social media shouldn't become exempt from the same analytics approach that other online tools require, Kerho says.
MediaPost
Web Users to be Notified of Targeted Ads
As expected, a coalition of ad industry groups have agreed on a uniform online icon aimed at letting Web users know when they are seeing ads based on Web-surfing activity. The move, announced Wednesday, is part of the industry's attempts to stave off new privacy regulations by improving the way companies inform consumers about online ad targeting. In the past, many companies that engaged in behavioral advertising -- or sending people ads based on sites they had visited -- notified users in lengthy and complex privacy policies. Those legalese-filled documents were criticized by many observers, including Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz, who said that not even the savviest Web users were likely to decipher such privacy policies. The new icon, a small 'i' in a circle, will also carry text like, "Why did I get this ad," "Interest Based Ad," or "Ad Choice." (Online auction site eBay pioneered the use of "AdChoice.") Users who click through will be taken to a page that explains online ad targeting. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, American Association of Advertising Agencies, Association of National Advertisers, Direct Marketing Association and the Council for Better Business Bureaus (BBB) said Wednesday that companies' use of the icon and link will indicate their adherence to self-regulatory principles.
MediaPost
Jobs Unveils 'iPad'
It's alive! As scheduled, Apple debuted its highly anticipated tablet device on Wednesday -- for many, representing the dawn of a new age in media consumption. Christened the "iPad," the device is expected to be available in March for a (surprisingly low) minimum price of $499 (Wi-Fi enabled, with a 3G version to follow a month later). With it, users can browse the Web, read and send email, view photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, and read e-books. "iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices," said Apple head Steve Jobs, who unveiled the product at a private event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The iPad is half an inch thin, weighs 1.5 pounds, and touts a 9.7-inch IPS display. Like an iPhone, the iPad has a multi-touch screen, which is "super responsive, super precise," according to Jobs. The iPad will come in two versions: one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. "The iPad is priced lower than expected because it is less revolutionary than expected," says Forrester analyst James McQuivey. " Apple has taken the safe route of offering its existing customers an option that goes beyond today's iPod Touch in size and capability, but it has not offered a new category of devices that tackles the 5-6 hours of media we each consume every day." Apple has an opportunity to create a new kind of media experience -- but it's not there yet, says McQuivey. And it may not be alone: "As it stands, a quick, well-structured response from Amazon in the next version of Kindle could easily be a contender here."
MediaPost
Science Channel Refuses To Dumb Down Science Any Further
Frustrated by continued demands from viewers for more awesome and extreme programming, Science Channel president Clark Bunting told reporters Tuesday that his cable network was "completely incapable" of watering down science any further than it already had.
"Look, we've tried, we really have, but it's simply not possible to set the bar any lower," said a visibly exhausted Bunting, adding that he "could not in good conscience" make science any more mindless or insultingly juvenile. "We already have a show called Really Big Things, which is just ridiculous if you think about it, and one called Heavy Metal Taskforce, which I guess deals with science on some distant level, though I don't know what it is. Plus, there's Punkin Chunkin."
"Punkin Chunkin, for Christ's sake," added Bunting, referring to the popular program in which contestants launch oversized pumpkins into the air using catapults. "What more do you people want?"
Along with Bunting's remarks, the Science Channel issued a statement claiming that it currently airs more than 150 programming hours that are tangentially, and often laughably, related to science, and that staff members are unable to bring themselves to make those hours even more asinine.
Debbie Myers, general manager of the Science Channel, said the cable station has maintained a balance of 5 percent science content and 95 percent mind-numbing drivel over the past few years, and that this was as far as they were willing to go.
"At this point, having the word 'how' in a show's title is about as close to scientific investigation as we get," Myers said. "In fact, I don't even know how we can justify airing a show like Mantracker at all. A cowboy hunts contestants down using his trailing skills? I guess you could say it makes the audience use 'observation' by watching what happens on screen."
"Observation is a part of science, right?" Myers added. "Jesus Christ."
A survey of the network's current schedule confirmed Monday that on-air demonstrations of such basic scientific principles as "inertia" and "momentum" are mostly relegated to pushing a blindfolded participant strapped to an office chair down a steep hill, while other concepts, such as "sublimation," are regularly demonstrated by strapping dynamite to a large fiberglass Big Boy statue and then watching it explode.
As evidence of their refusal to further water down programming, network sources pointed to a number of proposed shows they've abandoned in recent weeks, including an animal-based bungee-jumping program called Extreme Gravity, and Atom Smashers, a series that was roundly rejected by focus groups as being "too technical" and "not awesome enough."
"People liked that the particle accelerators were really huge, but apparently the show didn't have enough smashing to hold their interest," said a former employee who wished to remain anonymous. "In the end, it was either add a huge monster truck for no reason whatsoever or pull the plug on the entire project. Honestly, I don't think I'd be able to face my wife and children had we gone through with it."
While they won't be dumbing down their already crude lineup of shows, Science Channel officials assured viewers that the network will continue to cater to the lowest common denominator and will keep airing embarrassingly base content completely stripped of all intellectual integrity. Officials also noted that the cable channel greatly values the 18- to 45-year-old demographic of louts, clods, and empty-headed dumb fucks.
"I don't like it when the science people talk about things no one can even understand," said Rich Parker, an Ohio resident. "It's like, just quit your yapping and dip the chain saw into the liquid nitrogen already."
David Zaslav, CEO of the network's parent company, Discovery Communications, said he has not ruled out rebranding the Science Channel as the Stuff Channel.
The Onion ------------------------------------ The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. We are a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and marketing skills. Check out thousands of cutting edge examples at our web site. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Sent via TVSpy's email servers. Visit TV Spy's Marketing Matters.
Graeme Newell
602 Communications
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(919) 217-4438
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