A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM WE tv
WE tv
WE bring the women who bring it home.
WE tv viewers are BREADWINNERS!
They are 60% more likely to be sole breadwinners
And 75% more likely to make more money than their spouses
Source: WE tv’s 2012 Viewer Engagement Study
Cynopsis Media presents: Demographics of Women
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Good morning. It’s still Wednesday, October 10, 2012, and this is a special edition on the Demographics of Women. This report explores the latest trends on women’s television, viewing habits and multiplatform use, as well as how marketers are reaching this demo.
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM WE tv
WE tv
WE bring the women who bring it home.
WE tv viewers are the primary decision makers in key categories
Nearly 60% are the primary decision makers on cell phones
55% are the primary decision makers on credit cards
Source: WE tv’s 2012 Viewer Engagement Study
Reaching women on television isn’t hard to do because women watch a lot of TV, and a lot of TV is programmed for women.
But what is complex for marketers is finding the right mix of broadcast and cable, prime-time and daytime, as well as the precision targeting that digital venues provide so that women are engaged with the advertising and the programming on TV.
“The biggest challenge is breaking through to [women],” said Stacey Stewart, Senior VP and Group Partner Integrated Investment at UM. “There is enormous pressure on women’s time these days from work, kids, family. We need to find ways to connect with them and realize that their time is precious. Our goal is to find programming or networks that women are most engaged with and as a result more likely to pay attention to.”
Networks too face similar hurdles in marketing their shows to female viewers. “Our female viewers run the gamut – they’re executives, they’re stay at home moms, they’re students, they’re activists and the list goes on,” said Marla Provencio, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer at ABC Entertainment Group. “The product or shows you’re marketing must have an instant connection or be relatable to the viewer you’re trying to engage.”
Viewing trends offer insight into when and what women like to watch, and how their tastes are shifting year over year, and within various age ranges.
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM WE tv
WE tv
WE bring the women who bring it home.
WE tv delivers a Breadwinner viewership, and Breadwinners on-air
The Breakout Braxton Sister
Tamar & Vince Thursdays 9pm | 8c
The Rock Icon
Cyndi Lauper: Still So Unusual Premieres January 2013
The Comedy Legend
Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? Returns February 2013
Viewership Rises
In the third quarter, women 25 to 54 spent about eight hours and seven minutes each week watching primetime in live+DVR viewing, up 11 minutes from a year ago, and up 31 minutes compared with men 25 to 54 during the same time period, according to overall TV viewing figures shared by A+E’s Lifetime. For the same time, women 18 to 49 boosted their primetime TV viewing each week to seven hours and ten minutes, up three minutes from the year ago, and 35 minutes more than the comparable male demo.
On the broadcast side, the top-performing shows year-to-date for women 18-plus include various telecasts of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, CBS’ NCIS, Fox’s American Idol, CBS’ The Mentalist and Criminal Minds, The Big Bang Theory, and ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, according to Nielsen ratings data provided by ABC. Of course, most of those shows are also the biggest drawing shows overall on TV, so they’re attracting big audiences and big audiences include women. Over on the cable side, the top shows for women 18 plus are TNT’s The Closer, Major Crimes, Rizzoli & Isles, Perception, with shows like MTV’s Jersey Shore, TNT Dallas, AMC’s The Walking Dead, Lifetime’s Army Wives, E!’s Kourt & Kim Take New York, and MTVs Teen Mom II rounding out the top ten, according to Nielsen figures shared by Lifetime.
Some shows lure women almost exclusively. In the month of August, programs such as Quints by Surrogacy and Embarrassing Bodies on Discovery Health, Strangers in Danger on Fuel, Daria on Logo, and Real Housewives of Beverly Hills on Bravo, drew almost exclusively 18 to 49 female audiences for some of their airings, according to Simulmedia, which operates the Simulmedia Audience Network, a data-driven audience network for television.
A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM WE tv
wetv.com
WE bring the women who bring it home,
across multiple platforms.
Viewers share their opinions through the
WE tv Sync dual-screen application, Facebook and Twitter.
WE enable the conversation and our most passionate viewers keep coming back for more.
For advertising opportunities on WE tv and wetv.com,
visit sales.wetv.com.
Women Buy
The sheer time women spend watching TV is alluring to advertisers because women are often in charge of buying products and services. WE tv conducted with Nielsen an online and in-home survey of more than 5,000 women in the last year that revealed that 75% to 85% of consumer purchases are driven by women and that women are the breadwinners in 45% of dual-income homes. In addition, the network learned that 87% of women are responsible for managing the household budget and 95% of women pay the bills, said Carole Smith, VP of research for WE tv.
“The female demo and moms, more importantly, plays a larger role in any purchase decision-making process than ever before,” echoed John Nitti, President of Activation at Zenith. TV has always delivered strong female numbers, but marketing to women has evolved away from a daytime-heavy strategy to a multiscreen experience, he said. Marketers can build reach quickly with shows like The Voice or X Factor, but will then often weave in other programs. “Any good plan has a good mix of your reach-building vehicles against the target demographic, and then there will be the more targeted portions with very specific cable shows, where the content of the ad is more contextual to the show,” he said.
Indeed, knowing the top draws are a useful starting point, but marketers also need to study the composition in a particular show. Some shows might reach a lot of women, but many men too, which makes it harder to minimize waste if a product or service is female-skewing. Those are factors that come into consideration when developing media plans, said Jackie Kulesza, Senior VP and Video Activation Director at Starcom. “For a planner and investor, we always balance cost, reach, environment, and what is the right combination of those to meet the client’s objectives,” she said. That mix may wind up including broadcast primetime, women-skewing networks, early morning TV, syndication, cable networks and online video that have a high composition of women, she said.
That could include broadcast networks that skew female such as ABC, as well as cable networks that target women such as Lifetime, WE tv and Oxygen, as well as cable networks that perform well with female viewers such as Bravo.
Given the amount of data available via set-top boxes, gaming consoles, mobile devices, as well as via online measurement, marketers can append broadcast buys with digital buys to reach the female consumer at different points in the purchase funnel, especially because women index high on multiplatform viewing, Nitti said. Overall, women spend 15 hours more than men watching TV each month and spend 35 more minutes per month watching on mobile phones, Provencio said. She added that women also comprise more of the online video audience and spend more time with iPad apps than men.
True TV marketing success will come in breaking down the demo to connect with women in a way that’s relevant to the product. “Are you looking to reach moms?” UM’s Stewart asked. “Is that a new mom or a boomer with college kids? Are you looking to reach women for a personal product specifically for them (anti-aging, fragrance, etc), a family product like a car or realtor? It is important to think of their mindset and not just their age.”
Changing Habits
But viewing preferences can change quickly, so networks closely track year-to-year variations. For 2012 to date, the top 25 ad-supported cable series for women 18 to 49 includes six dramas, eighteen unscripted shows, and one comedy, a shift from eight dramas, fifteen unscripted shows, and two comedies for the same time period in 2011, A+E Networks said. “Drama still represents a good chunk of popular programming, but unscripted is infiltrating the top tier,” said Don Robert, Senior VP, Programming and Marketing Research, for A+E Networks. That’s partly because more unscripted shows are being made, and partly because viewers are getting their comedy fix in some cases from unscripted shows, he said. “If you want to reach all women, you want to make sure you’re attracting all the different age groups because viewing could change over the next year,” he said.
Networks can also augment these shifts with different marketing and promotion. WE tv has found success with second-screen experiences that are synched to shows and have helped drive ratings for programs such as Braxton Family Values. Likewise, Oxygen has also woven in second screen experiences to shows; those apps have boosted live viewing.
“While it’s true that viewers today, particularly busy women, have many options about how, where and when to watch their favorite shows, research tells us that TV is still a primary platform for reaching these viewers. At WE tv, we respond to these trends by incorporating TV into a comprehensive media mix alongside online, print and social media,” said Rosie Pisani, WE tv’s Senior VP of Marketing.
Later — Daisy
Daisy Whitney for Cynopsis Media
10.10.12
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