| Cyn Wkndr 12/13/07 |
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Cynopsis:
Weekender 12/13/07 Good morning. It's Thursday, December 13, 2007, and this is Cynopsis: Weekender. Below are a handful of industry stories - with which you may agree or disagree. If you'd like to be heard - put together your own 350 word submission! Details below. Googlephobia By Louis Chunovic An existential specter is haunting Madison Avenue's executive suites. Its name is Google. Agencies and marketers alike fear "disintermediation" by the search giant. That's a buzzword that means simply "removing the middleman or intermediary." In other words, ad agencies and media marketers worry that the giant search engine with the cosmic ambitions means to displace them, going after their clients, too, and effectively turning them into outdated ghosts in the media and marketing machinery of the digital future. Sir Martin Sorrell, head of London-based WPP Group, the massive media and advertising holding company that includes such storied names as Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam, has been in the vanguard of those sounding the alarm. He has famously called Google a "frienemy" and a "fro," to emphasize that it is both a competitor and a resource. In fact, speaking at last week's UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in Manhattan, he noted that WPP is Google's single biggest customer. WPP companies spent $450 million with Google last year and will spend approximately $600 million this year, according to Sorrell, who projected that WPP's ad spend at Google will be more than at $800 million in 2008. In its early years, according to Sorrell, Google picked up advertising dollars from companies that were, in effect, Yellow Pages advertisers who didn't do TV or other expensive advertising campaigns, and often were beneath the notice of the big ad agencies. Now, it and companies like eBay, Amazon and Yahoo! go after bigger game. "They are threats and we have to respond to them," Sorrell said, noting that an unnamed WPP technology client is moving fully half of its ad budget into digital. That's an indication of things to come worldwide, he said, where the comparable figure for digital ad spend now stands at just 8%. Another impetus in the migration to digital, according to Sorrell: "The cost of television [advertising] continues to escalate faster than general price inflation." And that means that clients tend either to use less TV or go into digital alternatives. Sorrell's bottom-line assessment: Google is a "short-term friend, longer-term enemy." Based upon Google's own public statements, it's very difficult to know "whether they are trying to disintermediate us or not," he added. "Everyone dances away from this question." Don't Forget About Local Online! It's Growing Too By Daisy Whitney We've all seen the reports on the growth of online video. We all know it's a heady, red-hot medium and ad dollars are flooding into it. But guess what? Local online advertising is growing too. That's the conclusion of a new report by Borrell Associates, which found that local online ad spending will grow 48% in 2008 to $12.6 billion, driven by a healthy influx of search and local online video dollars. In 2008, local search advertising will more than double to $5 billion while local online video ads will triple to $1.3 billion. Borrell says most of that video growth will be driven by long-form pieces for home, automotive and health care, rather than the pre-roll spots that have dominated online video to date. The long-form videos will be mostly advertorial, and directed to targeted audiences in search, directories and classifieds. Such spots are typically 60 seconds and run in some sort of directory, like an auto directory, with the advertiser buying from the media company. But here's the challenge for traditional media companies: the pure-play Internet companies will make the most gains locally, not newspapers, broadcasters or local radio as Google, business.com and local.com tap into local search dollars. "Local TV stations as a whole are actually growing share of internet dollars, but that's because they're in a come-from-behind situation," said Gordon Borrell, President/Borrell Associates. "They're operating off a fairly small base of, say, hundreds of thousands of dollars for the typical TV station Web site, while the newspaper companies are generating millions. So high double-digit growth is fairly easy." The big opportunity for local broadcasters is to use the Internet to deliver new and different content and not simply as a platform to repurpose existing news, weather and sports, he said. "If I were a GM, I think I'd be investing heavily in my Web operation to go after the cable advertisers and print classified business," Borrell added. The good news is many TV companies beefed up their Web staffs this year, he said. And if the new hires are able to devote their attention to the Internet, then the best broadcasters may be able to report online revenue growth of 40% to 60% next year. The rest will probably see 15-25% growth, at best, Borrell said. Divide and Content: American Eagle Outfitters Sponsors Digital Series By Karen Woodward One of television's original business models - single brand sponsorship - is making a comeback, with internet content providers dusting off the advertising concepts of yore to fund and distribute the online entertainment of today. "It's another way to release projects," says actor/director/producer Milo Ventimiglia, whose Divide Pictures is among the many digital content providers who have embraced single brand sponsorship, producing two original web series for American Eagle Outfitters. "American Eagle acted as a distribution company." Divide's first AE-sponsored series, It's a Mall World, consisted of thirteen 4-minute scripted vignettes about kids who work at a mall, and aired once a week on ae.com. The series also played in over 900 American Eagle stores across the country, attracted thousands of viewers on You Tube and over 20 million on MTV (which aired "mini-sodes" of the shorts). So successful was their initial foray that Divide and American Eagle are teaming up again for AE Winter Tales, a series of five irreverent holiday-themed stories, narrated by popular actors and musicians such as Kristen Bell and Pete Wentz. "It was a true partnership," says Ventimiglia, who agreed to work with American Eagle because he was impressed with their commitment to creativity. "We're not shooting commercials, but we're always keeping in mind the brand of the company." Divide's AE shorts keep the American Eagle brand prominent, but in check. It's a Mall World features a character who works at American Eagle Outfitters, and all the characters wear the brand - even the Winter Tales' claymation characters appear to be wearing AE - but the characters don't talk about their clothes, or even mention American Eagle. Single sponsorship works well for the internet, and may herald the return to single-sponsored television shows, but don't expect this model to eliminate the networks as we know them. "I think everyone is going to find the opportunity to work outside of the system," says Ventimiglia."[But] as ever changing as Hollywood is, the networks and studios are staples. I don't think we'll see a trend towards only watching online. I still come home and watch TV." It's a Mall World and AE Winter Tales at www.ae.com/web/77e. Constantino Voulgaris, GolTV, What Are You Thinking? Interview by Ariana Rawls Constantino Voulgaris has been with GolTV since its early days, seeing it increase in his time from 6 to over 120 employees. As VP/Programming and Business Development, he is in charge of the programming lineup and acquisitions. We asked this Uruguay-born proud father of a 9-month old to freely respond to several key phrases to get a glimpse of what he's thinking and how he thinks. CHALLENGES The first thing that comes to everyone's minds … what will be the technology and how it will affect things, where we are going, where we are coming from, how fast, and how exponentially things are changing. But the true challenge is to coordinate or harmonize that with the present and day-to-day things … In my role in new media, I am bombarded with the new technology … It is very easy to lose track and focus with the present. We need to think about how the present things are working. On a personal note, I need to think of the present with my 9-month old. How will the world be in 10 years for him? These are really two different things but one affects the other. YOUTH When I think about when my baby will be 10 or 15 years old, will I be able to be on the same page? And that comes again to the network…soccer is very popular with the youth. Here it is becoming more popular, especially with soccer moms. We always bring that into our conversations or business plans. What can we do that is attractive to youth? INTERNATIONAL TO NATIONAL FOCUS The U.S. is a population mix. You have everyone here. Being such a diverse country, sometimes it's a bit surprising how closed it can be. Internationally, soccer is the most popular. But here soccer is growing. I think that GolTV is a catalyst. When we were pitching 5 years ago, people told us that it wouldn't work and that others had tried it. After 6 months, they said you can have the distribution and you are doing well but it still won't work. After 2 years, some competition started to appear. And we were told again congratulations but it was not going to work. Three or four years after that, they said you were so right when you started that. What we were doing was bringing an international thing to a national level. It was the passion of soccer. The network has soccer in its DNA. Its owners are ex-soccer players that are internationally very famous. Trying to put that in the national perspective, it was hard at first. … With all the new communications and technology … it is truly affecting the difference between international and national. That difference is being narrowed … the lines are being blurred. It is interesting how the genesis of soccer happens here. Everywhere else in the world, it is a working class sport. Here it grew from a medium to high class thing from soccer mom types. In Uruguay, our upper class kids would play hockey and rugby. Here there is so much business that can be done. At the same time, you have all the inflow of immigrants who are bringing in their passion for soccer.
* WEEK'S RECAP *
Friday, December 7, 2007
SUBMISSIONS / AD SALES/ SUBSCRIBE & UNSUBSCRIBE Cynopsis Ad Sales - Mark Bohn - 203-583-1224 / Article submissions for Cynopsis: Weekender are welcome, provided they are no longer than a maximum of 350 words. News articles used are paid at the rate of $1/word. Not all submissions are used. Editorials (also 350 word max) may be submitted but are not paid, and not all are used. Send submissions to Cynopsis at . The Weekender edition is published every Thursday and includes a few items to ponder over the weekend, as well as the highlights from the week. It is delivered to the entire Cynopsis subscriber list, unless you specifically request to be unsubscribed. To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your email subscription, go to the Cynopsis website, www.cynopsis.com and click on the subscribe tab. Emails to the Editor: subject E-Mails to the Editor Copyright Cynthia Turner 2006 Later -- Cyn 12/13/07 What's On This Weekend: Saturday: 8-11p, December 15, 2007 ABC: Movie: Surviving Christmas, Women's Murder Club [r] CBS: 48 Hours Mystery [r], Movie: The Notebook FOX: Cops [r], Cops, America's Most Wanted ION: Movie: Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 [7p], Larry McMurty's Dead Man's Walk MNT: Movie: Landslide NBC: SNL Christmas [r], SNL: The Best of Chris Farley [r] PBS: Austin City Limits [9p] TELE: Cine de Impacto [7p], Cine de Impacto UNIV: Sabado Gigante Sunday: 7-11p, December 16, 2007 ABC: AFV, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Desperate Housewives [r], Brothers & Sisters [r] CBS: 60 Minutes, Survivor: China [f], Survivor: China (Reunion) CW: CW Now, Aliens in America [r], America's Next Top Model [r], Crowned [r] FOX: King of the Hill [r], King of the Hill [r], The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy [r], American Dad ION: Movie: Flood NBC: Football Night in America, Sunday Night Football: Washington at New York PBS: Nature [r] [8p], Masterpiece Theatre [r] TELE: Cine en Casa, Cine Millonario/Estreno UNIV: La Hora Pico, Bailando Por Un Sueno Campeonato Internacional de Baile |
