Ven-Views

Advertising 101: Grab the consumers attention! As a last minute Christmas shopper, I was walking around a particular store trying to decide what to purchase and contemplating which caught my eye first, the horrid 8.5″x11″ red signs everywhere, or the fact that everything was 40% off in the store. Everyone knows that the economy is falling off the side of a cliff but as a business you should attempt to ease the consumers mind instead of throwing it in their face. ( AKA we have cut our marketing budget and have resorted to color paper and a copy machine) During last minute shopping consumers are acting strictly on impulse spending. However as a business this is your time to create a loyal consumer. If a consumer is satisfied with their purchase and does not experience buyers remorse then the likelihood that they will return to your store after the holiday season is considerably higher. However, if your store looks like it is going out of business during the largest shopping season of the year, your creditability as a store is shot.

Now that we are aware that America has been in a recession, it has made many prices drop, one being media prices. This is a great benefit to all of the companies who know how important it is to keep their name and presence out there. Media prices for TV, radio and print will be considerably low for those who know how to negotiate plans and execute effective buys. However, for those of you who are not aware of how media negotiations are made, you may find prices to be higher than market rates.

This situation coupled with the advice of a seasoned media buying service or media buying professional can add even more to the end result by keen negotiating and knowing the media landscape. If this is you, then you need an expert who knows when time and space are available and the demand is low, because the prices are almost at a “name your price” budget within considerable reason. This might be considered like having an additional 10-25% discount coupon after all the markdowns by the seller are considered. So call the experts at Media Venue today to get your company name and presence out there to compete with other companies for minimal costs.

Nielsen reports is third-quarter results…everyone is watching TV. The report indicates that the average American household has the TV on over 8 hours each day. Nielsen, who began measuring results in the 1950’s, reports these results as a record high. They are also reporting the the average person in the US is watching 142 hours of TV each month! Now that’s a lot of commercials to see!

The most interesting part to me is that Internet usage is also up. So where are all these hours coming from? Estimates show that 30% of TV watchers are also on the Internet at the same time. Talk about multi-tasking!

This year, the 2009 Super Bowl will be sponsored by NBC. Last year the Super Bowl was aired on FOX. Even in times of an economic crisis many businesses are able to come up with the high dollar amounts to advertise in the biggest sports game of the year. Last year 97.4 million people viewed the game, which was the most viewed sports game. This year NBC is in better shape than FOX was last year at this time. FOX still had about 10% of commercial spots left to fill, whereas, this year NBC has sold all but 8 commercial spots with over two months to go. This is a much better turn out. Many companies were on the fence about spending so much money for one spot in a game, because they fear being looked down upon due to the financial crisis. However, they know that if they have a great spot in the game, it will be viewed by more people than in any other venue of advertising. Other companies were not positive that their wallets could afford it, yet some decided it would be worth the risk. A few companies, like General Motors, made a decision to bail out this year, while others, who are benefiting from the bail out have decided to give it another go. Last year, due to 10% of inventory being unsold, many spots were heavily discounted right before the big game. Even though this year, there may not be spots left before the game to be discounted, many companies may decide to buy local spots in the game, which could cut the cost in half or even more depending on how close to the time of game, the spots are purchased.

Chrisina Ryan
Media Venue

*Information from: The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday November 11, 2008 by Suzanne Vranica

As Americans, we have been surrounded by election coverage for two years or more. We started with more people than I can remember announcing their bid for the Nation’s top job, and now we are down to two big contenders. So what’s going to happen after the election that we thought would never end. We watch the news, debates, pundits, even Saturday Night Live; all about the election and who should be the next chief. Billions of dollars in advertising have be spent at the local and national levels. It gives us a chance to see what effective advertising does-commercials, online ads, social ads, print ads, bumper stickers and other swag, and news-worthy buzz. Maybe we can all take a little campaigning back to our businesses, and reach people in new ways.

And for those that love to exercise their right to vote, there’s always Dancing with the Stars…

Swedish Fish launched a print campaign using the tag line, “A Friend You Can Eat.” Is the candy positioning itself as a “friend with benefits”? Ads compare Swedish Fish to friends that you wouldn’t dare eat. A man’s head is topped with a salad in one ad with “nej,” the Swedish word for no, placed underneath. A Swedish Fish is next to the salad head with “ja,” Swedish for yes, nearby. The campaign can be found in issues of People, Rolling Stone, ESPN and Us Weekly. Other ads show a kitten in between two slices of bread and a teddy bear in a panini maker, complete with grill marks. See the ads here, here and here. JWT New York created the campaign.

Everyone knows that online advertising keeps growing and growing. But according to a report being released today, it’s growing so fast that in 2008 it is projected to surpass ad spending on TV, radio and movies combined for the first time ever.

To be sure, Outsell Inc., based in Burlingame, Calif., tallies the numbers a little differently. It counts the money companies spend on their own websites as part of their advertising budgets, because websites are ostensibly used for marketing. Its data indicates that companies are expected to spend $105.3 billion online in 2008, which beats the $98.5 billion they’re projected to spend on TV, radio and movies. But that isn’t quite as much as the $147 billion they’re likely to spend on print media, up 12% from the previous year.

Much of the report is pretty wonky, unless you’re interested in tracking cost per lead and conversion rates, whatever those are. But the overall picture is interesting. For instance: online advertising is expected to grow 12.3% in 2008, but much of that money will be spent on companies’ own websites, rather than on marketing agencies or search or display ads. That’s not good news for advertising agencies, said Chuck Richard, Outsell’s lead analyst.

“For more than decades, media companies have been the channels for advertisers to reach audiences,” he said. “Suddenly companies don’t rely completely on them.”

The 1,088 US-based companies surveyed will spend $61.5 billion, or 61.8% of their online advertising and marketing budgets, on their own sites, siphoning away money from other options, he said.

The report does predict that advertisers will still spend the most money on print media in 2008 – but it’s not a shining ray of hope for the newspaper industry. Companies will spend 35.5 percent of their budgets on print media in 2008, and will spend nearly a third of that on newspapers. That’s down 4 percent from the previous year.

–Alana Semuels

Semuels, a Times staff writer, covers marketing and the L.A. tech scene.