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Cablevision: About 3 million households can be targeted. DirecTV: About 12 million households can be targeted. Dish Network: About 8 million households can be targeted.

THE CHALLENGES No standardization: It's complicated and time consuming to run an addressable campaign across multiple operators because the technology can vary by company. Cablevision uses Visible World technology, for example, while Comcast uses BlackArrow. Marketers need to collect potential reach from each operator, determine the optimum frequency and then combine it all. DirecTV and Dish Networks are working to simplify the process by combining their sales efforts for addressable TV advertising for political campaigns. Rollout: Cable operators need to deploy technology on a market-by-market basis to enable addressability. Satellite operators and Cablevision can change the technology at one master facility. Inventory: Adding more addressable-enabled inventory requires networks to work with operators to slice up inventory. For example, NBC Universal and Comcast are partnering to make NBC-controlled inventory addressable-enabled on Comcast VOD.

IS IT RIGHT FOR MY BRAND? For brands selling products used by a broad audience, like toilet paper, there's still value in mass marketing. But if you're targeting a very specific consumer, addressable may be a good option. Ask yourself: Are there enough addressable-enabled households that match your target to make it worthwhile? Are there other options that can more efficiently deliver? In general, addressable is most exciting for marketers that don't normally advertise on TV due to budget constraints or because there's no efficient way to reach their niche audience,

Work for by Venables includes a few films for Intel's global "Look Inside" campaign featuring blind mountaineer Erik Weihenmayer, 16-year-old medical pioneer Jack Andraka, and more recently, Mick Ebeling, founder of The Ebeling Group and Not Impossible Labs.

By Max Willens. Published on October 04, 2014

Multicultural Marketing Team Effort from Total Toyota Group Themed 'One Bold Choice Leads to Another'

CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" is the most expensive entertainment program on broadcast, averaging $344,827. It's consistently the highest-rated comedy, with the one-hour season premiere this week watched by an average of 17.2 million people.

But the priciest scripted series is actually on cable, with AMC's "Walking Dead" costing advertisers upwards of $400,000 for a package of spots.

There are several cable programs that challenge broadcast as the most expensive in which to buy commercial time, including ESPN's "Monday Night Football," which costs about $400,000. But it's difficult to compare many cable ad packages to those of broadcast because cable often includes multiple airings and repeats of a show.

Ad Age's survey is compiled using data from as many as seven media-buying agencies. (See our 2013 TV ad pricing chart here.) The resulting prices should be viewed as directional indicators and are not the actual price that every advertiser pays for a 30-second spot. The numbers are based on a range of agency estimates that can vary depending on the amount of inventory purchased from a network, the inclusion of any nontraditional advertising such as product placements, and the relationship an advertiser and media-buying agency has with a network. Most TV advertising is typically purchased as part of larger negotiations, not on a one-off basis.

Another newcomer is ABC's "Scandal" at No. 9 for broadcast with an average of $217,546. Of those returning shows, 21 have seen the cost for ad time decrease, while another 20 have seen increases and 14 have remained relatively steady.

ABC's "Modern Family" saw a meaningful decline in pricing, down 15% to $239,650 from last season and dropping one spot to No. 7 from No. 6 last year.

The idea behind "The Bark Side" was to create an ad to promote an ad. "We were among a few brands last year who pre-released our Super Bowl ad, and the feeling was we were ahead of the pack," said Mark Hunter, chief creative officer for Deutsch, apparently with no pun intended. "So this year, it's what can we do to continue to set media trends."

One of the biggest challenges was the balancing act of using unaltered dog barks and digitally enhanced ones. The final mix featured a combination of both. "The human ear is discerning enough that even a lay person can tell when something is synthetic," said Mr. Elmassian. "You want a certain amount of barks to not be effected. Your ear will anchor onto enough of those and start to forgive some of the sounds that do border more on the effected side."

The proliferation of digital interfaces when we interact with brands offers a perfect metaphor for how the industry should be thinking about brands. Agencies of all stripes need to think about how they can integrate big-thinking experience designers into their creative and strategy offerings. Inspirations include startups such as Uber, whose brilliantly designed mobile app and fleet of friendly drivers, is taking the pain out of ordering and paying for car service in urban environments.

Experience Design practice uses nontraditional, interdisciplinary teams whose shape depend on the brand in question. "This hyper-bundled approach helps us disseminate experience design and other thinking throughout all kinds of projects."

A recent Association of National Advertisers study delivered a grim finding on how agencies get paid: "New methods of compensation like value-based remuneration that rewards performance have not taken hold globally. Only 4% [of respondents] reported utilizing them." That's a depressing stat. Now here's a ridiculous one from a 4A's study: Agencies bill mobile developers at a rate less than half what account-services directors receive. The compensation crisis has been on the industry's radar screen for years. The decline of the cushy, reliable 15% commission, coupled with the rise of procurement, has led to downward pressure on agency margins and widespread complaints about agencies losing their status as partners to become lowly vendors. Assuming we're not going to ditch the very flawed charging-for-time model, the fix is clear: a shift to performance-based compensation agreements that reward effectiveness and not time sheet completion. Underwear purveyor Jockey International and its ag

ency, TPN, offer an excellent model based on, as Jockey CMO-exec VP Dustin Cohn described it, "earned profits and payment on work output." Agency and client work together to determine the scope of work and metrics that determine the entire profit markup. Said Mr. Cohn: "Putting all of their profits on the line validates that the agency really believes in the client-brand and what they can do to move it forward." Steve Blamer, former big agency CEO and compensation consultant, said it's up to agencies to become honest about profit margins and income levels. "I'm astonished at how reluctant agencies are to provide transparency around their costs." At the same time, client marketers need to be willing to pony up for deserving work. And some are not.

Second, YouTube views and blog posts allow an ad to succeed or fail outside traditional media structures. VW's "The Force" has been viewed more than 90 million times since Super Bowl 2011.

"It better be something that rings some bells or gets measured on the USA Today Richter Scale," said TBWA/MediaArts Chairman Lee Clow. But the creator of "1984" also believes it means fewer ads like that one have been made. "It's a big challenge to spend $3 million on the time and then a million on the spot. It's kinda difficult to then come in 19th on the USA Today 'How'd you like our spot?' scale."

Even so, the poll's influence is waning. Today, most marketers combine immediate feedback with sophisticated research from Nielsen, GFK, Zeta Interactive, Kantar or Ace Metrix to understand the long-term impact of spots. Now that the real-time web has gone mass in the form of Facebook and Twitter, marketers and agencies have dozens of new services and dashboards to monitor, as well as the means to influence the discussion as it happens, not to mention giving the commentariat something else to write about.

With so much at stake, to please the clients and bolster their own resumes, directors started creating ads for the panel -- the media equivalent of teaching for the test. How do you get people to have an immediate, positive reaction to something they're seeing? Certainly don't show them a narrative. Make them laugh.

"If you go back 10 years, it was the only thing," said CMO Scott Keogh. "You didn't have social, YouTube views, you didn't have the blogs and all the running commentary. Basically, the press would report on the Ad Meter.

Even USA Today has lost faith in the ability of the panel alone to pick a winner. This year, in addition to selecting two panels of 150 in cities that USA Today won't reveal, the paper is opening up the voting to the public on Facebook. As a result, for the first time since 1989, USA Today won't declare a "winner" in Monday morning's paper. The true winner won't be declared until after the polls close Wednesday.

Why not dump the panel entirely? In social media, consumers will rate only the ads they love and hate, a spokesperson said. The panel is the only way USA Today sees to be sure every ad gets a vote.

"I'll have four screens going during the game in front of me, showing me charts and graphs," Mr. Ewanick said. "We have five or six other groups monitoring, then we'll have next-day research, copy testing, focus groups. There's a lot of money involved here. You have to really understand your ROI to make sure you learn from this, so you can apply that the next year."

When will we once again get more Super Bowl ads like "1984"? When creatives stop making spots to incite an instant reaction, sort of like Chrysler's two-minute "Imported From Detroit," a high-concept, big-idea spot that put Detroit before the car and even before the celebrity (Eminem). It was great creative, by most measures, and probably the closest thing to "1984" in its ambition since, well, "1984."

Predictably, "Imported From Detroit" bombed on the Ad Meter, coming in at No. 43.

The VW crisis falls into the general PR crisis category of scandals and shenanigans that entail often-shocking revelations about a company. They often implicate specific corporate executives or managers. They can involve any type of aberrant behavior including accounting mischief, safety practices, and sexual activities.

Other types of crisis include: Accidents and disasters. These cover terrorist activities, plant fires and explosions, vehicle crashes, disease outbreaks, and other man-made catastrophes or natural disasters. Corporate crises in this category can be “no fault” for the company or the organization may bear full responsibility. The BP oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico is an example. Product, service or staff snafus.  These are negative customer experiences caused by employees, usually reported on social media or captured by citizen journalists. The category also involves product defects. Antagonistic attacks. These involve online or offline actions initiated by customers, competitors, activists or regulators who have a bone to pick with your business.

While the standard PR crisis playbook can apply to most crises, the Volkswagen emissions scandal is far from typical. It involves intentional government rule breaking, rather than straightforward mistakes involved in other recalls. The wrongdoing almost certainly involves many VW engineers and decision-makers, not just a few people as in many other PR crises.

The emissions test fraud was one of the most egregious examples of corporate misconduct in recent times, perhaps exceeded only by Enron’s financial fraud in the previous decade. Unlike most other examples of corporate maleficence, the emissions test rigging impacts most everyone in the world by causing more pollution. 

The PR Crisis Management Playbook The standard PR crisis playbook calls for corporations to: Follow a previously prepared crisis management plan that defines the decision-making process, spokespersons, outlets to contact, communications channels, and which stakeholders to update. Act quickly. Quickly disseminating information and responding to media inquiries is essential in crisis communication. The first 48 hours are critical. Silence enables speculation and reflects badly on the brand, as media outlets will publish stories and the public will reach conclusions whether the company comments or not. Be open and transparent. Release all the information you have in an open dialogue with the press and the public, using both traditional and social media channels, including the organization’s website and other owned media. Apologize. Delivering an appropriate, timely and sincere apology is a vital part of responding to a crisis. PR and business executives can learn from previous corporate apologies. Quickly cut ties with company employees, employees of affiliated firms or celebrity spokespeople accused of wrongdoing. Make amends. Provide help for any victims and their families. Demonstrate that the company is taking steps to protect the public. Actions speak louder than words in these situations. Monitor the situation. Employ a media monitoring service to obtain up-to-the-minute reports, identify media mentions that call for responses and gauge the effectiveness of  corporate communications.