Group items tagged

As the US digital radio landscape matures, several trends are taking hold, including: Strong demand for two dominant listening modes: personal stations that serve songs based on users’ preferences, existing digital music collections and prior listening activity, and digital extensions of over-the-air stations A shift toward nondesktop devices, such as smartphones, tablets, in-car systems and other consumer electronics embedded with digital radio apps A mix of monetization models that ranges from free access on an ad-supported basis to premium tiers that cost up to $10 per month for ad-free, unlimited listening

Many companies that are marketing through digital radio use 15-second audio spots, some tailored to specific services. Advertisers are also creating branded playlists and sponsoring launch events, contests and festivals.

The full report, “Digital Radio: Usage Grows, but Lack of Scale Remains a Challenge,” also answers these key questions: How many people are using digital radio services, and how are they using them? What is the outlook for digital radio advertising? How are marketers using digital radio to promote their brands? How is competition affecting the digital radio landscape and potential marketing opportunities connected with it?

Inside a giant tent at New York’s Lincoln Center in May, Phil Robertson strolls onstage. He’s wearing camouflage pants, wraparound sunglasses, and a solid-black long-sleeve shirt that accentuates his signature beard, which is off-white, unruly, and of ZZ Top proportions. Before him are a multitude of linen-draped tables, where media buyers from advertising companies sip wine, nibble on plantain chips, and listen to yet another pitch on how they should spend their clients’ budgets. This is advertising “upfront” season in New York, and Robertson, a cast member on A+E Networks’ runaway blockbuster reality program Duck Dynasty, is one of the stars of tonight’s show.

The final episode of the show’s third season, which aired on the A&E channel on April 24, was watched by 9.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen (NLSN), beating everything on both cable and broadcast television that night in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, including the NBA playoffs and Fox’s American Idol.

Upfront season is a festive, testy time of year when every TV network (and, these days, a handful of businesses with large, online video operations such as YouTube (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO)) throws a lavish self-congratulatory party, rolls out its programming lineup for the coming season, and tries to sell ad space in advance. This past season, the proliferation of choices for consumers took a major toll on the traditional broadcast networks, which collectively lost a sizable portion of their viewing audience. “The math says that broadcast erosion is throwing over a billion dollars up for grabs in this year’s upfront,” Berning tells the ad buyers. “If you’re tired of paying a failure tax, we have lots of successful programs for you to invest in.”

Name these companies: 1) The computer for the rest of us 2) Networking networks  3) The world's information in one click 4) Personal video broadcasting network These are not tag-lines. The companies who expressed these words successfully positioned the value proposition and differentiation within a simple ‘one-liner’. Founders and executives delivered these one-liners to everyone who would listen and whom they needed to fold into the cause – investors, landlords, lawyers, recruits, customers, and partners.

Information today flows every which way.  The "shape" of the brand in the minds of customers may be more varied now. Some percent of the variation is not good, but some may very well be. Over-constraining the ‘position’ with too much specificity would not reduce variation (provide management control) anyway. Therefore craft a simple, succinct statement that does a better job of absorbing or exploiting complexity (variation) rather than avoiding it.

That's the question for the search engine as it struggles to gain a foothold in the fast-growing and here-to-stay social web. That web isn't marked by speed and elegance but rather by pit stops and side roads that allow people to pull over, meet new or old friends, play a game and buy souvenirs. In short, have fun.

Universal Pictures' "Despicable Me" campaign Agency: Varied/mobile app created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky About the campaign: Promotion surrounding Universal Pictures' animated film "Despicable Me" combines classic marketing channels (TV, print, radio, outdoor, etc.) with an innovative approach toward online, mobile, and branded partnerships. The film's interactive trailer and mobile application meshes nicely with the campaign's other messaging to create an innovative and unified experience. Why it's great: Big movie campaigns are famous for marketing across as many channels as possible, but there is a thin line between informing and intoxicating your audience. Like many films, "Despicable Me" made the most of classic media channels, but its online efforts and branded partnerships are what separate this campaign from the rest of the pack.

Some 35% of U.S. adults have software applications or “apps” on their phones, yet only 24% of adults use those apps. Many adults who have apps on their phones, particularly older adults, do not use them, and 11% of cell owners are not sure if their phone is equipped with apps.

Among cell phone owners, 29% have downloaded apps to their phone and 13% have paid to download apps.

“An apps culture is clearly emerging among some cell phone users, particularly men and young adults,” said Kristen Purcell, Associate Director for Research at the Pew Internet Project

To help decide which celebrity is the best choice for a film role or product endorsement, entertainment and marketing executives can tap into a host of numbers to gauge public figures' star power. So many, in fact, that the numbers leave a dizzying portrait of who's hot and who's not. At least four companies regularly track opinion on public figures in entertainment and sports. The venerable Q Score, in its fifth decade, surveys consumers once or twice a year by mail. Three newer competitors rely on the Web, enlisting panel participants to weigh in more regularly. The numbers are marketed to advertisers and casting directors to help them identify celebrities for product pitches or starring roles. But the various ratings sometimes show sharply different results.

Last July, 65% of respondents to an E-Poll Market Research poll who were aware of Mr. Woods said they liked him, or liked him a lot. That proportion dropped to 26% in their latest rating, earlier this month. Some 31% found the golfer insincere, while only 2% found him trustworthy (compared with 1% and 28%, respectively, for Tom Hanks in the most recent poll, last April).

Davie Brown Entertainment, a unit of Omnicom Group, began polling in 2006, after talking to marketers and ad agencies about the attributes most important to them in celebrity endorsers. The company settled on seven attributes, including appeal, influence and trust. Respondents who recognize the celebrity are asked to rate him or her on each of those attributes on a six-point scale. Then their scores are averaged, and that attribute average is combined with awareness, which is weighted more heavily, to produce the Davie Brown Index. Assigning so much weight to name recognition can yield perplexing results. Mr. Woods's index dropped only modestly, to 80.9 just before his apology from 89.2 a year earlier, in part because slightly more people were aware of him. This helped overcome a plummet in trust, to 43.7 from 68.8. "The overall DBI number is very, very important, but we look at everything," says Jeff Chown, president of Davie Brown Entertainment's talent division. The newest entrant on the scene, Millward Brown, rates celebrities and brands on the same scale, to identify the best marketing fit. Like the Davie Brown Index, Millward Brown's Cebra scores also emphasize familiarity, which is averaged with likability and "buzz," or media attention. Mr. Woods's Cebra score dropped only slightly, to 67 this month from 70 last September. A crash in likability, to 46 from 69, was mitigated by a surge in buzz, to 85 from 74; and a small bump in familiarity, to 70.

Preparation tactic 1: Keep your eyes on the prize

Count the votes

Have a POV