Category: Media

Digital Media and Advertising

Five Media Technologies to Watch in 2013

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The digital media world will continue to change at a rapid pace, these are the technologies I am keeping my eyes on in 2013.

Multi Screen
The blending of paid, owned, and earned media will continue and intensify in 2013, spawning new technologies and necessitating new workflow systems and partnerships. As the lines continue to blur between what’s paid, owned, and earned in digital media and multi screen usage continues to shift the way we consume content this will be the trend that governs nearly all other major changes in the digital marketing and media landscape.

Native advertising
From banner blindness to the fact that display, search, and social advertising have largely moved toward programmatic buys that are much less profitable for publishers, we’re seeing a number of technologies and solutions emerge to facilitate native advertising, one of many terms for branded content integration. New Products and solutions in this area will continue to emerge, more publishers will accommodate, and we will see some interesting, large-scale media partnerships emerge as a result.

Real-Time Marketing
Real-time marketing demonstrably works — not just in social channels, but across the marketing spectrum. A recent GolinHarris study found that real-time not only positively impacts standard marketing goals (word-of-mouth, attention, preference, likelihood to try or buy), but it also turbocharges other marketing initiatives, including paid and owned media effectiveness. Event/news-driven marketing will become increasingly vital as brands work to become more relevant. This requires sophisticated listening and monitoring platforms. Teams require new tools and must also be permitted to work in an agile environment, free of the chain-of-approval strictures that are antithetical to real-time marketing.

Branded Content Marketing
As brands recognize the necessity of adding content to the marketing mix, they quickly realize something else. Few marketing organizations have a content division or strategy. In 2013, brands will begin to address this deficiency in earnest. They will hire, reorganize, and make room on the org chart for effective content marketing operations that work in concert with existing marketing functions from social to communications to brand, creative, and advertising.

Mobile Innovation
Mobile Phone and Tablet sales continue to outpace PC sales, but mobile ad technologies have failed to keep up with the needs of the mobile market. In 2013, mobile innovation will take center stage as marketers scramble to find new ways to engage this rapidly growing audience.

The above are my top five, but the single most interesting trend in 2013? Easy. It’s the one that hasn’t been created yet.

10 Things You Need to Know About the Global Advertising Market

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With Europe in recession and the U.S. facing a fiscal cliffhanger, ad forecasters this month trimmed their global-spending forecasts. But amid the uncertainty, there are bright spots and emerging opportunities. Here are 10 things to keep in mind about the global ad market.

1. Advertising is a $500 billion market. WPP’s Group M figures worldwide ad spending topped the half-trillion mark in 2012. Interpublic Group of Cos.’ Magna Global and Publicis Groupe’s ZenithOptimedia expect advertising to pass that milestone in 2013.

2. Consensus ad growth is 3.9% in 2012 — and 2013. The average of this month’s revised forecasts from Group M, Magna and ZenithOptimedia suggests the worldwide advertising market will grow 3.9% in both years.

3. Worldwide ad spending is at an all-time high. Spending in 2011 moved above the peak hit before the 2008-2009 global economic meltdown, according to ZenithOptimedia. Magna expects advertising to set new records each year through at least 2017 (as far as its December forecast extends).

4. Regional spending is a mixed picture. Advertising in Asia/Pacific and Latin America has rocketed past pre-recession levels, reflecting growth in emerging markets. ZenithOptimedia does not expect U.S. spending to pass its 2007 peak until 2015. Spending in Western Europe could see a meager gain in 2013, but it’s to be determined when spending will top its 2007 peak.

5. Emerging markets are set to pass the U.S. The world’s emerging markets in 2014 will account for one-third of ad spending, surpassing the U.S. share of advertising, according to Ad Age DataCenter‘s analysis of ZenithOptimedia forecasts. The media agency says developing markets will account for 61% of global ad spending growth between 2012 and 2015.

6. A giant BRIC. Brazil, Russia, India and China account for nearly half of emerging-market ad spending. By 2017, Magna expects the BRIC bloc to comprise four of the world’s 10 largest ad markets, with China No. 2 behind the U.S.

7. Digital captures one in five ad dollars. The internet in 2013 will pass newspapers to become the second-largest global ad medium, behind television, according to ZenithOptimedia. It says internet media will get 19.8% of the 2013 spending pie and expects internet advertising to account for 59% of growth in worldwide ad spending between 2012 and 2015.

8. TV’s share of global advertising peaked in 2012. TV’s portion of global ad spending this year reached its peak, according to Group M (43%) and ZenithOptimedia (40.2%). ZenithOptimedia expects TV’s share to hold steady at about 40% through 2015. Even with a flat share, TV is likely to score solid gains in revenue because the overall ad market is growing.

9. Number of billion-dollar advertisers: 46. That’s how many companies had 2011 worldwide measured-media spending above $1 billion, according to Ad Age DataCenter’s analysis. The group includes 43 Global 100 multinational, multi-region advertisers; and three big marketers (AT&T, Berkshire Hathaway, Verizon Communications) that don’t appear in the global ranking because their measured spending is virtually all in a single region (U.S.).

10. Personal care cleans up. It’s the world’s biggest advertising category, followed by automotive and food, and makes up one-fourth of 2011’s Global 100 spending. The three biggest global advertisers have the world in a lather: Procter & Gamble Co., Unilever and L’Oréal.

From Ad Age

 

Harley Davidson takes Branded Content for a Ride

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The Harley-Davidson Ridebook is a branded content series created by NY-based marketing agency Campfire for the popular motorcycle company. Each edition features stories and content from filmmakers, writers, musicians, photographers, and other personalities that highlight experiences featuring Harleys in some way. For example, in the most recent edition, called “Beyond the Hive,” singer-songwriter Butch Walker curated a video called “The Prohibition Tour,” which captured a ride with friends to Napa Valley where Walker and his buddies sampled some wine. There’s also “Ghost Towns, ” in which videographer Scott Toepfer takes a road trip to an abandoned town in California.

Other features include “Bike Anatomy,” an interactive guide to a Harley-Davidson curated by UrbanDaddy and a music playlist curated by TheFader.com. Even if you’re not a biker, this is compelling content, that will make you wish you had a Harley.

TV Advertising Surges while Traditional Ad Spending Declines

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Ad spending on network television surged last quarter while other traditional media and digital outlets were hit by year-end belt tightening, according to a study issued Monday, one of several this week that will dissect the health of the 2011 advertising market.

The figures may validate a cautious optimism by network execs so far this year even as the latest Q4 and full-year 2011 stats from ad tracking firm Kantar Media shows a fuzzy overall picture for total U.S. ad spending.

Network TV saw spending jump 7.7% in the last three months of the year. However, total U.S. ad spend dipped 1%, the first quarterly decline since the end of 2009. Overall growth has declined for five consecutive quarters since a post-recession peak in the third quarter of 2010 — notnot the kind of numbers showbizzers want to see as the summer upfront advertising selling season approaches.

Broadcast networks were helped by strong pricing for football, a World Series that went to seven games, and the launch of “The X Factor” on Fox, Kantar said.

Spanish language television was on fire — up 19% in the quarter and 8.3% for the year.

Cable growth slowed to 2.4% as higher demand from restaurants and retailers was offset by cuts in consumer packaged goods.

The figures were flipped for the full year when network TV fell 2% and cable rose 7.7%.

Spending on so-called mature digital media formats fell in the fourth quarter with paid search budgets down 6.4% year-on-year and display spending down 5.9%. It’s a move that “bears watching as 2012 unfolds,” said Jon Swallen, senior veep of research at Kantar North America. He questioned whether it was a one-off event or a sign of digital dollars moving toward emerging, unmeasured digital platforms.

Search was hit by lower financial, insurance and local service advertisers, and display was hampered by reduced coin from automakers, telecom providers and the travel biz. For the full year, paid search declined 2.8% and display rose 5.5%.

Syndication, benefitting from higher spending by department stores and health and beauty brands, saw spending soar 11% percent in the fourth quarter and 15.4% for the year.

Spending on local TV fell 8.7% in the fourth quarter despite easy comps in November and December against diminished post-election volume of a year ago. It was down 4.5% for the year.

Consumer magazines, flat year-on-year, took a hit in the fourth quarter, falling 5.2% on cuts in auto, food and pharmaceutical advertising.

Local newspaper ad spend fell about 3.9% for the quarter and the year.

Local radio was down 3.8% for the quarter. National spot radio plummeted 13.9% on reduced outlay from telecom, financial service and autos. Network radio spending was up 4.3% for the quarter and 2.7% for the year.

Procter & Gamble was the top advertiser for the ninth year running with spending of about $3 billion, down 5.4%. P&G’s 2011 budget saw share gains for magazines at the expense of TV, Kantar said.

AT&T, the second largest advertiser at $1.9 billion, spent nearly 12% less after an aborted takeover of T-Mobile.

Verizon Communications was also down about 12% for the year at $1.6 billion, although spending was up in the fourth quarter.

Of the top 10 advertisers, Chrysler’s spending rose 36% to $1.2 billion.

In contrast, General Motors spent 16% less for the year and 25% less for the quarter.

Among media advertisers, Comcast’s spending rose 11% to $1.6 billion; Time Warner was up 5.8% to $1.3 billion; News Corp. spending dropped 14% to $1,17 billion.