Marketing Maestros
Rentrak: Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings Solution Provider
By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA
Posted: May 20, 2013 12:00am ET
The new ANA white paper, “Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings–Benefits and Solution Providers,” highlights solutions from eight companies for brand-specific commercial ratings. This blog provides a recap of Rentrak’s offerings.
Rentrak is a media measurement and research company providing multiscreen reporting and analytics with services positioned in two categories: movies everywhere and TV everywhere. Rentrak measures television viewing via a national footprint of over 8.7 million homes and more than 22 million set-top boxes.
TV Essentials is the Rentrak product that helps television buyers and sellers make smarter transactions by giving them a deeper understanding of the true value of their viewing audience. This is done via census-like viewership information, which, according to the company, provides a level of granularity and stability absent from traditional television measurement services, and goes beyond C3 to provide an advertiser’s Exact Commercial Ratings — not an average of all ads in a telecast.
The Exact Commercial Ratings data metric allows ad agencies and advertisers to determine how specific national commercials perform within an ad pod, advancing the national TV industry standard from measuring an average of a commercial rating performance of a telecast (or C3) to providing individual ad metrics for each specific commercial. Exact Commercial Ratings tell network advertisers exactly how many viewers were exposed to their specific commercials in a campaign, allowing them to maximize the results of their television spend. There is strategic value (beyond currency) from Rentrak’s Exact Commercial Ratings:
- Measure value delivered: What did we get? How do my Exact Commercial Ratings compare to the rating of the telecast?
- Determine relative value: Could we have done better in this specific case? How do my Exact Commercial Ratings compare to other commercials in the telecast and in the pod?
- Improve scheduling and commercial production: Can we make better ads? When does my commercial wear out? Which commercial duration is most impactful?
- Buy placement: What can we do better in the future? Which networks, dayparts, or series work best: by quarter, month, daypart, pod position, position within pod, competitive set, and/or specific creative?
- Branded entertainment: Where is additional value?
Note that previous blogs in this series have featured Kantar Media and TRA.
Kantar Media: Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings Solution Provider
By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA
Posted: May 15, 2013 12:00am ET
The new ANA white paper,“Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings–Benefits and Solution Providers,” highlights solutions from eight companies for brand-specific commercial ratings. This blog provides a recap of Kantar Media’s offerings.
Kantar Media believes media measurement is evolving. It is going beyond broadcast and established networks, emerging channels, advanced advertising, and TV everywhere. It is also enabling advertisers to track commercial ratings, ad avoidance, promo evaluation, and behavior segmentation.
Kantar Media has pioneered the collection and processing of return path data (RPD), which measures television audience viewing behavior by collecting second-by-second tuning activity from TV set-top boxes. Kantar’s second-by-second tuning data enables companies to evaluate television campaigns across 10 measurable influences: specific program, program genre, channel, daypart, commercial duration, pod, position in pod, product category, time shifting, and frequency. With this data, advertisers can identify the actual audience for their commercials, determine which commercials are most effective and engaging, and monitor whether specific commercials are retaining audiences or experiencing wearout over time.
Kantar Case Study: Viewer Retention for High Definition Commercials
Using return path data, Kantar Media analyzed viewer retention for commercials shown in HD (High Definition) versus SD (Standard Definition). Their analysis found that HD commercials hold audiences better than SD, as measured by the share of viewers that tuned away from the commercials. For example, as seen in the chart below, 30 percent fewer viewers tuned away from auto commercials shown in HD as compared to SD.
TRA: Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings Solution Provider
By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA
Posted: May 9, 2013 12:00am ET
The new ANA white paper,“Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings–Benefits and Solution Providers,”highlights solutions from eight companies for brand-specific commercial ratings. This blog provides a recap of TRA’s offerings.
TRA is a media measurement software, research, and analytics company whose products help advertisers, agencies, and television networks improve advertising targeting, accountability, and return on media investment. The company was founded in 2007 and acquired by TiVo in 2012.
TRA has been delivering brand-specific commercial audience metrics for six years. TRA collects immense banks of data, including second-by-second tuning data from set-top boxes in 4.2 million households, and matches that with household purchase and demographic data. Benefits include:
- Media agencies learn how variables such as networks, dayparts, program types, specific programs, time slots, and pod positions affect their ROI, and also how much time to spend on branded entertainment and what form that should take.
- Creative agencies can learn which creative works best. That knowledge can markedly improve the success rate of an agency’s creative product. When a commercial is “wearing out,” the agency can identify its decline in effectiveness by observing a drop in retention. Based on which target groups are responding to the brand and the messaging with their wallets, insights can be used to drive future creative. The graphic below tracks “switchaway” from a brand’s commercials over time as a measure of wearout, so it’s clear when to replace a commercial.
What I learned at the ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference
By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA
Posted: May 9, 2013 12:00am ET
I am just back from the ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference, where I learned a ton, including:
- It’s not just about TV any more. Advertising today is about ideas that can be leveraged via paid, owned, and earned media. (Andy England, MillerCoors)
- Relevance is the one thing that cuts through the clutter. Relevance requires data. The cost of being irrelevant is enormous. (Sandra Zoratti, Ricoh)
- Procurement must work on its brand. In selling procurement, relationships matter (to build trust and respect). They really, really matter! (Sopan Shah, Nestlé)
- What makes a good client? (1) A client that really understands what they are looking for; (2) Trust; (3) Views agency as part of the management team; and (4) Clearly defines the financial parameters of the engagement. (Miles Nadal, MDC Partners)
- In analytics 2.0, finance and procurement must make sure questions are big and worthwhile while not letting resources get fractured over dozens of ad hoc initiatives. (Pat LaPointe, MarketShare Partners)
- Procurement should be an enabler. (Kevin Nash, USAA)
- An in-house agency could cost 20-40% less than an external agency. (Kellie Krug, Wells Fargo)
- At least half the challenge with marketing efficiency is due to internal issues at the client. (Jeff Jacobs, McKinsey)
- Traditional breakdowns of working versus non-working spending are no longer relevant and should be replaced with channel agnostic ROI metrics. (Bryan Weiner, 360i)
- In agency compensation, the use of performance incentives is up dramatically. (Dave Beals, R3:JLB)
- In decoupling production, the initial change management process is the biggest hurdle. (Crystal Ryu, Mattel)
The 2014 ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference will be May 4-7 in Naples, Fla.
Highlights from ANA Television Upfront Survey
By Marni Gordon, Vice President, ANA
Posted: May 8, 2013 12:00am ET
ANA has just released the results of our 2013-14 National Television Upfront Survey. The objective is to better understand this year’s National Television Upfront marketplace from the client-side marketer perspective. This survey was fielded to a select group of ANA Committee Members and those who have direct oversight of media negotiations were encouraged to complete this survey.
Key highlights:
- The majority of respondents project an increase in overall media spending for 2013 (41%) and plan to participate in the 2013 National Television Upfront (65%).
- 26% of total respondents plan to increase overall media spend by +5%
- Survey results indicate a significant shift of total media dollars from Network TV to other media when compared to last year.
- The majority of respondents projected Network TV to decrease vs. last year (45%) with other Television (Syndication, Spot TV, DRTV) and traditional media (Print, Radio, etc.) at flat spend.
- Results reveal significant projected spend increases in online video (+91%), digital/online display (+61%), search (+65%), social (+76%), mobile (+82%) and programmatic buying (+49).
Social Media Marketing Tips for B2B Companies
By Yasmin Melendez, director of committees and conferences, ANA
Posted: May 6, 2013 12:00am ET
Many B2B companies find it challenging to engage in social media because they don’t know how it ties back to the organization or how to sustain it in the long-term. On May 1, the ANA Business-to-Business committee welcomed Lauren McCadney, senior manager, social media at CDW who shared some tips to leveraging loyal customers that goes beyond ratings and reviews.
Here are eight ways CDW sustains its social engine:
- Celebrate those that are delivering great service – Cheers! CDW’s peer-to-peer recognition program, uses customer reviews to celebrate account managers who are “delivering service worth talking about.” This encourages account managers to go the extra mile.
- Training insights – If an account manager receives multiple Cheers!, CDW will benchmark what they are doing in order to incorporate those best practices in training of other account managers.
- Drive business insights – Analyze customer reviews to discover business insights that can help account managers better serve customers.
- Don’t be afraid of a bad review- CDW finds that most people are polite, but if there is an unsatisfied customer it’s an opportunity to win them over. Lauren advises always acknowledging a “bad review” on social media channels and then taking the conversation offline to see how best to resolve it.
- Collaborate with other departments – The social media department interacts closely with the customer care and brand team to ensure that the social editorial calendar links to the solution and brand messaging.
- Meet with your social counterparts – CDW holds quarterly social summits to evaluate what worked; what didn’t and brainstorm content ideas and ways to leverage content from other parts of the organization.
- There’s no place like home - Find your community. CDW found Spiceworks, an IT community they engage with to build thought leadership and socialize with millions of potential customers.
- Identify your influencers- CDW identified three types of influencers which they bucketed into C-suite types, Bloggers and Super Fans. They work with these influential brand enthusiasts to develop content that resonates with their base.
New ANA White Paper on Brand-Specific Commercial Rating
By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA
Posted: May 3, 2013 12:00am ET
ANA has just released the new white paper,“Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings–Benefits and Solution Providers.”
Earlier this year ANA convened the Commercial Ratings Summit, and then a follow-up webinar, to discuss solutions that could help facilitate the availability of brand-specific commercial ratings for television. Those events featured presentations from eight industry suppliers who may offer solutions for brand-specific commercial ratings: comScore, INVIDI Technologies, Kantar Media, Nielsen, PrecisionDemand, Rentrak, Simulmedia, and TRA. The new white paper highlights solutions from these respective companies for brand-specific commercial ratings, including case studies, and helps continue the industry dialogue on this issue.
ANA member interest in brand-specific commercial ratings is high. In a 2011 survey, 82 percent of members surveyed expressed interest in having ratings available for individual commercials.
ANA members and other industry experts have identified numerous benefits for brand-specific commercial ratings.
Better Knowledge/Increased Accountability
- Commercial ratings would provide more granular data to better inform the decision-making process.
- Marketing mix models could be input with brand-specific commercial metrics rather than averages (which may or may not reflect the delivery for that specific brand) to provide increased accountability.
Better Creative Decisions
- An in-market copy testing tool to identify the stronger and weaker executions within a commercial pool, enabling marketers to pull (or fix) weaker spots and heavy-up on stronger ones, therefore optimizing the creative rotation.
- A real-time barometer of commercial wear-out.
- An indication of a brand’s commercial performance vs competitors, other ads in the program, and other ads in the pod.
Better Media Decisions
- To indicate which networks, dayparts, or programs work best for a brand.
- To optimize the mix of :30s and :15s and help determine the impact of commercial duration.
- To understand the delivery of :15s — because :15s don’t get fair rotations of “A” positions in pods, it’s likely that the delivery of a schedule that is heavy with :15s doesn’t meet the overall C3 delivery.
Branded Entertainment
- To determine the value and ROI of branded entertainment, including in-game features during sports programming.
ANA expects this new white paper to be a resource for members. And will continue to advocate on the issue of brand-specific commercial ratings and keep our members and the overall industry informed of progress.
Innovation Day at MillerCoors
By Marni Gordon, Vice President, ANA
Posted: Apr 25, 2013 12:00am ET
I really enjoyed hosting our fourth annual ANA Innovation Day at MillerCoors in Chicago this week! The event was held in the MillerCoors company bar and the day included great sessions from MillerCoors, Kellogg’s, Rite Aid, Killerspin, plus the social media success behind A&E’s Duck Dynasty! The conference ended with a complimentary “beertails” happy hour where ANA members had the opportunity to sample MillerCoors products! Here are a few key highlights from the event:
- MillerCoors: Scott Meek and Andrew Zrike, who work within the Innovations Group, stressed that innovation is a discipline and not a process. We also learned about the new product launch strategies behind Third Shift and Redd’s Apple Ale which were developed and launched within only 14 months! ANA members also had an opportunity to sample both brands at the “beertails” happy hour at the end of the day.
- Kellogg’s: Aaron Fetters, director of the Insights and Analytics Solutions Center shared how his company innovates within “big data” and stressed that it’s not just enough to measure, but we need to turn measurement into action. It is important to use the right data (not just big data) and some of the ways Kellogg’s maximizes the right data are through targeting, viewable advertising, cross-media effectiveness, and spend optimization. Building the right team to manage data is critical for success and we also learned how Kellogg’s leverages programmatic buying (“the stock market in digital media”).
- A&E’s Duck Dynasty: Lori Peterzell, vice president of marketing and brand strategy at A&E
talked about how A&E leveraged social media to help Duck Dynasty become the #1 nonfiction series on cable. A&E created a social response lab which is a war room filled with writers, designers, and producers that create real-time content and respond to fans. - Rite Aid: John Learish, senior vice pesident of marketing at Rite Aid and Tony Bucci, chairman at their agency MARC USA spoke about how Rite Aid has created inroads in “individual wellness” which resulted in the highest profit in 6 years. Rite Aid took an in-depth look at their best customers and developed a successful loyalty program to reach them.
- Story-Led Marketing: Dave Rosner, executive vice president and director of innovations at Initiative US and Scott Donaton, president and CEO/Founder at Ensemble shared 10 rules to leverage story-led marketing and discussed great marketing examples to illustrate each rule. Some of the rules mentioned included “Insights Drive Ideas”, “Be Authentic and Transparent”, and “Don’t Post and Pray”.
- Killerspin: Robert Blackwell, chief executive officer talked about how his company was founded to combat “technology induced stress” - especially for millennials who are the most stressed generation. Killerspin uses an innovation lens for new product development which is a list of questions they run through to determine if an effort is “innovation worthy”.
Top fun facts and quotes shared during the day:
- “Don’t just win – change the game”
- “Over 95% of decision making is emotional and mostly unconscious”
- “Every consumer is their own media network”
- Biba, the first table tennis personality in the world, was at ANA Innovation Day! Biba’s JET 200 is a top selling table tennis racket on Amazon.
- “I’ll have another Coors Light please!”
There is No Better Channel for a Brand Than its Employees
By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA
Posted: Apr 22, 2013 12:00am ET
A recurring theme at ANA’s recent Brand Masters Conference was the critical role employees play in brand building. 
- Seth Farbman, global chief marketing officer at Gap: “Employees matter! There is no better channel for a brand than its employees.”
- John Marshall, senior partner, global director of strategy at Lippincott: “There has been an evolution from trust in institutions to trust in individuals. Brands are built via people connecting with people.”
- Larry Light, chief brands officer at InterContinental Hotels: “Sharing is the new essential. The entire organization shares responsibility for building brands, not just the marketing department.”
- Jamie DePeau, chief marketing officer at Lincoln Financial Group: “Employees are the most important element of your brand. Brand building is the domain of HR and not just sales and marketing.”
- Cynthia Galbincea, executive director, marketing communications at Cleveland Clinic: “Employees here are called care givers and taught the importance of empathy to better under their customers.”
My colleague, Marni Gordon, has posted a blog on key takeaways from the conference.
Highlights from ANA Brand Masters Conference
By Marni Gordon, Vice President, ANA
Posted: Apr 22, 2013 12:00am ET
ANA is well known for its fall “Masters of Marketing” Conference, which features terrific content and prominent speakers, including many leading CMOs and other marketing thought leaders. This year we held our first annual ANA Brand Masters Conference which was a very special intimate springtime companion to the Masters of Marketing. This first-time event was SOLD OUT and more than 320 people were in attendance.
Key takeaways from the conference were:
- InterContinental Hotels Group: The mission should be to build strong brands tied to a measureable objective. Brand building is a business accountability NOT a marketing accountability.
- Denny’s: Embrace your brand DNA. Drive through to every touch point.
- Gap: Big heart matters. Values can drive business.
- Heineken: Keys to Facebook engagement: Keep it short and funny with a visual. Tighten your strategy then adjust, adjust, adjust.
- Procter & Gamble: You can teach almost anything. The thing you can’t teach is desire. Desire comes from within.
- USAA: Passionate member advocacy as a competitive differentiator. Focus on your lifetime value to members/customers.
- ADT: Tight strategy for use of content across channels. Brand fit, subject matter themes, brand movement, and enhanced activation drive funding.
- Lippincott: Step up and fill a role that is (a) most important and (b) often the most overlooked...inspiring and enabling the employees who deliver the story.
- Lincoln Financial Group: Focus on employees to build the brand.
- Effective Brands: Winning at global marketing is the what and how.
- Campbell Soup Company: Important to organize for success:
- Brand Management
- Global Cues
- Global Brand Linkage
- Global Strategy
- Global Marketing Capabilities & Excellence
- Agency Management
- Cleveland Clinic:
- Empathy as a core brand promise.
- Emotional messaging is an appropriate way to build awareness, especially in social/earned channels.
- Honest Tea: Brands become powerful when they find ways to authentically connect with issues and causes consumers care about.
