Cynopsis: DIGITAL
03/02/12

Good morning. It’s Friday, March 2, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. If you would like to read this or any other Cynopsis editions online, click here.

Smartphone owners in the U.S. now outnumber their fellow Americans that own a mobile phone that isn’t a smartphone, according to new data from Pew Research. 46% of Americans own a smartphone as of February 2012, marking an 11% jump from the 35% who reported owning such a device in May 2011; meanwhile, only 41% of Americans own a mobile phone that is not a smartphone. This uptick is represented across nearly every major demographic group, including men and women, young and middle-aged adults, urban and rural residents and the wealthy and the less well-off. Overall adoption rates are at 60% for groups such as college graduates, 18-35 year olds and those living in households with an annual income above $75K. Seniors are the only ones lagging behind, with Pew Research finding only 13% of this demographic owning smartphones. With this rise in smartphone ownership, Pew Research also finds a corresponding shift in the types of phones owned by Americans. Specifically, 20% of cellphone owners in the U.S. use Android devices, up from 15% in May 2011; 19% use iPhones, up from 10% in May 2011; and 6% own BlackBerry device, down from 10% since last May.

The Smithsonian Channel has launched a free iPad app, offering over hundreds of videos, including short-form content and a selection of full-length episodes and specials. Smithsonian Channel programming focuses on educational and insightful content covering American history, heritage and tradition. The highlight of the app is the Story Space feature, which allows users to create personalized video playlists, based on their favorite stories and topics, out of all the content available on the app. Other features include auto-play model; social sharing capabilities for Facebook, Twitter and email; integration and support for Apple’s AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring so users can watch the content on their Apple TV; notifications alerting users to new and featured content; and an on-air schedule.

In anticipation of the U.S. premiere of FROZEN PLANET, Discovery Channel has partnered with SeaWorld to launch Penguin Cam, a 24/7 live feed of SeaWorld San Diego’s Penguin Encounter attraction featuring over 300 penguins representing five different species, all of which are featured in the Discovery series. The live feed is available on the FROZEN PLANET fansite, on SeaWorld’s website and on USTREAM from March 1 to April 30, 2012. It’s part of a multifaceted digital campaign surrounding the seven-part new series. Behind-the-scenes videos, interviews and moments from the show will be available on its fansite. And next week, Discovery will be launching Criminal Penguins, an online game inspired by the pillaging behavior of penguins caught by the show’s cameras.

Zynga has launched its own social gaming platform at Zynga.com. The site will be open to third-party developers who want to build their own social games for the company. Developers will also have access to the company’s Active Social Network, which will offer them a variety of user engagement and measurement metrics. This does not mean Zynga’s cutting off ties with Facebook. To access the site, users will have to log in with their Facebook accounts; to make purchases, Facebook Credits will be required. The site is launching with five initial games: CastleVille, CityVille, Words With Friends, Hidden Chronicles and Zynga Poker.

Netflix offered captions or subtitles for over 80% of the hours streamed in the U.S. in December 2011. It was up from 40% in June and 60% in September of last year. The company also said users shouldn’t expect the remaining 20% to be captioned less quickly, since it includes a large number of rarely watched content. For access to a full list of captioned and English-subtitled content, type “subtitles” in the search box on Netflix.

YuMe has unveiled the YuMe Placement Quality Index (PQI), a proprietary algorithm designed to monitor and identify the optimal placement of video ads on digital properties. The PQI algorithm is built with several vital performance metrics in mind, including interaction rate, video completion rate, video player size, on-page location of the video player, among others that will be based on the campaign’s objectives. YuMe says a baseline PQI is calculated continuously for its Connected Audience Network, so that new campaigns can be evaluated in real-time against the average performance of the entire network. In addition, as the campaign progresses, YuMe will be able to adjust placements in order to further optimize overall performance. To demonstrate the impact of PQI on video ad campaign performance, YuMe put 10 campaigns using the PQI algorithm against 10 that weren’t, both of which had identical campaign sets and audience targets, and were placed on the same digital publisher properties. YuMe found PQI-optimized campaigns yielded a 215% lift in interaction rates and a 90% lift in video completion rates when compared to campaigns that were not.

Mobile video advertising is experiencing “explosive” growth according to Rhythm NewMedia’s Insights Report for the fourth quarter of 2011, which found that 93% of advertising campaigns with Rhythm in Q4 included some form of video advertising. The report also noticed a trend that consumers seem to respond better to ads during the holiday season; Video ads featuring seasonal creative had a 92.1% completion rate, while engagement with full-page ads and banners jumped 33% and 10%, respectively, over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Among the other data in the report, Rhythm found that in-stream mobile video ads saw an 89.1% completion rate, outperforming its online counterpart, with completion rates being high for 15-second (89.2%) and 30-second ads (88.3%) within premium content. Taking a look at in-stream advertising within the two preeminent mobile operating systems, the completion rate for Android (92%) was slightly above that of iOS (87%).

Yahoo!’s 2012 awards season coverage and programming, which included over 100 pieces of original content, other exclusive content, expert analysis from critics and a partnership with ABC.com, witnessed great growth in terms of audience reach (unique visitors) and time spent over its 2011 coverage. Yahoo!’s content surrounding the Golden Globes saw a 60-90% growth in audience reach, and a 60% growth in audience time spent over last year. During the week of the 2012 Grammy Awards, the audience reach jumped up 97% and time spent went up 95% over 2012. In addition, Yahoo!’s live broadcast of Whitney Houston’s funeral ended up being one of the top ten most-trafficked live news events for Yahoo! in the past 10 years. For this year’s Academy Awards, Yahoo!’s coverage achieved a 23% growth in time spent. In fact, for the week of the ceremony, reach increased 31% and time spent increased 38% when compared to last year.

In light of the major Facebook announcements this week that collectively are aiming to boost brands’ and advertisers’ engagement efforts on the social platform, December 2011 data from consulting firm A.T. Kearney finds that top global brands may not be interacting with their consumers as much as they should, per eMarketer. In December 2011, 94% of the top 50 brands’ Facebook pages sent users to a one-way communication page, where users were not able to start a conversation (up from 91% in the same month of 2010). 56% of those brands did not even respond to a single comment on the page (it was also 56% in 2010). Furthermore, the report found that 69% of consumer activity on those brands’ Facebook pages was interactions with a non-promotional, personal post from the brand. Unfortunately, only 13% of posts from brands were of the personal variety. Flipping it over, 61% of posts from brands were promotional in some way, which received only 11% of all consumer interactions, according to A.T. Kearny.

As part of a new partnership with VH1 and VH1 Save the Music Foundation, Foursquare has released the limited VH1 “Save the Music” badge, which can be earned by the first 35K users who check-in to any music venue around the country. For each badge that is unlocked, VH1 will donate $1 to the VH1 Save the Music Foundation. The Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in U.S. public schools, as well as raising the awareness of the importance of musical education as part of a complete education.

Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker has joined social film start-up JuntoBox Films as Co-Chairman. JuntoBox Films is a collaborative film studio and social media platform for filmmakers and fans to get together and share ideas to create films, and then actually create them. The company uses social gaming technology to connect filmmakers with fans on its platform. Members rate and vote on the projects to be greenlit. After a project has been created, filmmakers have to go through what JuntoBox says are “five levels of development by building their film’s profile through fan participation and completion of various tasks.” The company plans on green-lighting five films this year, with a total of $2.5 million in financing. JuntoBox, says Whitaker, will play an active role in selecting, producing and marketing the chosen films with the aid of his own production company, Significant Productions.

Jim Candor has been promoted byAccuWeather to the role of Executive Vice President & Chief Business Officer, Digital Media. In his expanded role, Jim will be in charge of the Digital Media Strategic Business Unit, overseeing sales, business development and product development. In addition, Jim is a member of AccuWeather’s Board of Directors. He will split time between AccuWeather’s ad sales headquarters in New York City and corporate headquarters in State College, PA.

In other executive news from AccuWeather, Marie Svet has been promoted by AccuWeather to the role of Senior Vice President, Ad Sales Revenue. In her expanded role, Marie will be in charge of leading ad sales monetization strategy and overall budget for the company’s Digital Media Division, as well as overseeing the Ad Operations and Yield Management departments. She will continue to be based out of AccuWeather’s ad sales headquarters in New York City.

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A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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With yesterday’s news of it now also being available for Android tablets, here is: OnLive Desktop. The service, previously only available for iPad users, brings a copy of the Windows 7 desktop interface to a user’s tablet through the cloud. It offers several apps accessible within the tablet app, including Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. A free version brings with it 2GB of storage and access to all of the apps. A premium version for $4.99 per month also offers access to other cloud-based storage services, as well as a fast web browser. Versions for the PC, Mac and TV are coming soon. Not bad for when you find yourself on a train, having to edit a document, graph or presentation (I can attest).

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Reporter for Cynopsis Digital
03.02.12

Cynopsis Ad Sales:
Mike Farina – VP/Sales and Marketing – 203-218-6480 / [email protected]
Classifieds – Trish Pihonak- 203-381-9096 / [email protected]

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Cynopsis CLASSIFIEDS – For More classifieds, visit the Cynopsis.com classifieds page here .

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JOB OPENING: DIR, INNOVATIONS/Initiative Media/LA: idea catalyst, present to existing, new clients dig media, tradit’l media & branded ent. 5+ yrs adv, media, dig, or related mktg/start-up knwlg a must. Apply: [email protected] (3/9)

JOB OPENING: SR DIGITAL PRODUCER/NYC: Deep interactive/video focus on mobile, web, webcast/satellite video, 3D/2D hybrid video. Team building & client-facing exp. Reports to Dir Digi Prod. Resume and cover to: [email protected] (3/9)

JOB OPENING: DIGITAL SALES COORD/tvguide.com/NY: 1-2 yrs digital exp. support team w/campaign & creative mgmnt. Liaison btwn agncy & Ad Ops, process invoices/billing discrepancies, assist planners day2day [email protected] (3/9)

JOB OPENING: NEWS EDITOR/Bravotv.com/NYC: Grow editorial around ntwrk stars/shows. Mng daily story assgnmnts/contributors. Strong kwldg Bravo brand. 4+ yrs exp pref’d. Freelance position. Resumes: [email protected] (3/9)

JOB OPENING: SR. PUBLICITY MGR-DIGITAL ENT & GAMES/BBC AMERICA/LA: Devlop/implment comms stratgy to raise profile of division. 4+ yrs proven track record gaming/dig ent comms. Knwldge of currnt/futre gaming trnds [email protected] (3/8)

JOB OPENING: JR. ANALYST, RESEARCH/Music Choice/NYC: Sales, mktg & prog research across multiple platforms. BA/BS, plus 1 yr relevant linear/VOD media research exp required, preferably with NPower/Rentrak [email protected] (3/8)

JOB OPENING: CP/NFL/LA: Oversee new morning show. Periodically work overnight shifts. Knwldg of NFL or news prod and 5 yrs working in live sports/news TV and line producing studio shows required. Please apply www.nfl.apply2jobs.com (3/8)

JOB OPENING: MGR, SCHED & ACQ/History/NY: Manage all aspects of sched for all non-prime dayparts on History & History digital platforms.3+ yrs exp inschedin a tv/cable environment. To apply: www.aenetworks.com/careers.html (3/8)

JOB OPENING: SR. RESEARCH ANALYST/OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network/LA: 2-3 yrs exp in TV Research, detailed oriented, knowledge of Star & NPower required. Apply at: http://careers.own.tv/ (3/8)

JOB OPENING: PRODUCTION COORD/NYC: 3 mo. Proj. Apr-June; 7 day/wk show centered on hockey-passion/knowledge for sport required.Coordinate footage, personnel, etc. Prior experience, references req. Rez to [email protected] (3/8)

JOB OPENING: LINE PRODUCER/NYC: Full-time, exp in prod commercial shoots, docs and other long/short form content.Travel required. Rez to [email protected] (3/8)

JOB OPENING: RESEARCH ANALYST SPORTS/Univision NY: Research support for Univision Deportes. 1+ years Nielsen exp. Resume to [email protected] (3/7)

JOB OPENING: SR. RESEARCH ANALYST SPORTS/Univision NY: Research support for Univision Deportes. Nielsen exp a must, advanced systems (NPower). Resume to [email protected] (3/7)

JOB OPENING: DIR SPORTS RESEARCH/Univision NY: Manage research support of Univision Deportes. Nielsen exp a must. Report/analyze ratings, experience with estimates preferred. Resume to [email protected] (3/7)

JOB OPENING: MGR, DIGITAL MKT & BIZ DEV/Qubo/NY: Develop and Support Digital Business Activities, including online, social media & internet. Exp in Kids media, a plus. Apply [email protected] EOE (3/7)

JOB OPENING: TRAFFIC COORD/CurrentTV/SF: Resp for assigning comml instr, editing bdcst logs & ensuring ad sales concerns are addressed during live prog. Min 1-3 yrs traffic exp. Knowledge of Orion preferred. [email protected] (3/7)

JOB OPENING: SALES OPS ASST TEMP/TV ONE/NY: Copy & order entry, data validation entry; crspond w/clnts. Attn detail MS Suite min 2 yrs office exp req’d. Brdway Sys; Ad Sales/Sales exp a+; Sal $22 per hr. Visit www.tvone.tv (3/7)

JOB OPENING: MARKETING ASST/TEMP/CABLEVISION MEDIA SALES/NYC: Min 2 yrs office exp. Microsoft office, Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, Adobe Suite. Assist dept in presentations. More info/apply at www.cablevision.jobs req id 16912BR (3/7)

JOB OPENING: DIGITAL AE’S/NY & CHICAGO: 3+ years industry ad sales exp in digital, agency & client contacts req, established properties, not a start up, trl and ent required, good benefits send resume to [email protected] (3/6)

JOB OPENING: VP, RESEARCH & MKTG SVCS/NYC: Lead qualitative & quantitative research/analysis; Sr-Level position; Proactive; 10+ yrs exp w/ primary research, test+control data & applied research; Resumes: www.lodgenet.com/careers (3/6)

JOB OPENING: SSE/SALES PLANNER/Current TV/LA: Seeking exp planner to oversee TV and digital sales plan creation for sales team. Target new biz, create presentations and manage developmental account list. [email protected] (3/6)

JOB OPENING: SENIOR ANALYST, OXYGEN NETWORKS, SALES RESEARCH/NBC Universal: Experience with Nielsen NetRatings and ComScore Media Metrics. Please apply at www.nbcunicareers.com Job#4413 (3/6)

JOB OPENING: VP MARKETING, DAILY CANDY/NBCU/NYC: 10+ yrs Mrktg exp. w/in Media/Direct/CRM, Strng Knwlg of DC brand, trends & digital marketplace, Strng Email Mrktg skills, Database Knwlge Apply: www.nbcunicareers.com Job# 4525BR (3/3)

INTERNSHIPS – These positions are for credit only – nobody gets paid here. These ads are always posted for free, and students work for school credit only. For more information on the specs for posting an Internship ad, email Trish at [email protected].

SITUATION WANTED ADS, POSTED BY THOSE LOOKING TO BE HIRED … There is no charge for placing your Situation Wanted ad … for more information contact Trish Pihonak at [email protected].

SITUATION WANTED: NEED A BUDGET DONE?? LINE PROD/EIC: 15+ yrs. exp- budgets done in all formats TV & Features- Accurate, Reasonable fast turn around. Email: [email protected] (3/9)

SITUATION WANTED: Jeanne Intile Burns, VOICE-OVER ARTIST/VOICE COACH, Cell: 845-721-9681, E-Mail: [email protected], Web Links: www.castingnetworks.com/jburns, http://jburns.voices.com, www.allegro-music.com (“American Biographies”) (3/7)

SITUATION WANTED: MULTI CAMERA REMOTE CAMERA OPERATOR: Experience with, Basketball, Football, Racing, Sports etc… I can Travel to VA, MD, DC, NC, DE, KY, NJ, NY, TN, WV, Contact [email protected] (3/7)

SITUATION WANTED: DEVELOPMENT PRODUCER/LA BASED: Reality/Ent/Docs. Specializes in talent, tape, paper and packaging, agency and network savvy, runs on Batteries. [email protected] (3/6)

SITUATION WANTED: Dedicated & Experienced ADV. SALES PLANNER/NYC: Sales proposals, resolving client discrepancies, quarterly post analysis, special sales service projects, expert computer skills. Contact- [email protected] (3/6)

SITUATION WANTED: EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT: position film/TV (NY) 10 years experience: Interned for a President, Executive Assistant to SVP/VP/film director/celebrity [email protected] (3/3)

SITUATION WANTED: SALES ASSISTANT (CHI): Interned at Comcast SportsNet in Ad Sales, Works as Sales Assistant at NBCUniversal. Has B.A. from DePaul in PR/Advertising. Resume upon request. Contact [email protected] (3/3)

E-mail [email protected] or call Trish Pihonak at 203.381.9096 for rates and specs for Job Openings.

Are you looking for a job? Post your Situation Wanted Ad here — Email [email protected] for specs.

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