NBC Move Just the Beginning
As management changes come fast and furious at NBC Universal Television, the shift from ad sales veteran Keith Turner to GE executive Mike Pilot represents a dramatic and radical move that could be the first of many such moves at major media companies. Turner, who had become less visible in the ad community in the past few years,
was considered expendable and had been protected by Falco even after NBC's extreme descent in ad revenues in the past two Upfront markets. GE's move to an executive who brings well-honed business skills rather than traditional relationships to the table could prove to be inspired, as traditional ad buying and selling models become increasingly outdated. One of Pilot's greatest challenges will be to avoid being compared to Jack Donaghy, the 30 Rock character played brilliantly by Alec Baldwin.
Falco & AOL Explained
At Time Warner, the hiring of NBC COO Randy Falco to head the AOL unit is the first clear signal that CEO Dick Parsons intends to step down in the next 24-months and turn the reigns over to his designated #2 Jeffrey Bewkes. Falco's
greatest weakness is his lack of new media experience, which a successful turn at AOL will solve, making him an obvious successor to Bewkes when he moves up to the CEO position. While former AOL president Jonathan Miller managed to turn around the AOL tanker and dredge the sludge from its hold, he lacked the Wall Street gravitas Parsons required.
Nielsen Budgets Under Scrutiny
Also expect the huge investments currently being made in Nielsen Media Research services to come under scrutiny at leading TV companies. While agency planners and buyers depend on Nielsen data, media sellers will be looking to new qualitative metrics to value
their inventory and define their programming strategies, rather than outdated measures of mass reach. While the commercial ratings debate heats up, the more detailed data adds little incremental knowledge to the network TV value equation. Nielsen represents the second largest external investment for television networks after programming costs and cost-focused executives are beginning to question how those dollars can be more effectively invested from an ROI perspective. Within the next 24-months, expect at least one major network company to dramatically scale back its Nielsen commitments to test industry reaction and receptivity to alternative business models.
Ad Execs Question eBay Cable Auction Value
With Julie Roehm out at Wal-mart, the online ad auction she spear-headed while at Chrysler may also be under attack by the ad community. Only 12.5 percent of advertisers believe the planned cable network inventory reverse auction being developed by eBay has "very good" or "excellent" potential for success and expansion,
according to a special survey of advertiser and media agency executives conducted last month by Jack Myers Media Business Report. The auction model is being developed with the support of the Association of National Advertisers and several media agencies. An estimated $50 million in cable network budget is expected to be at play in the first quarter test. While an additional 28 percent of advertisers say the auction has "some" potential, only a total of 30 percent believe the auction offers any potential value for meeting their own media buying needs.
Network television media buyers are especially negative about the prospects for the auction model, according to the Myers study (conducted among 410 client and agency executives). Only 26
percent of this group, who are responsible for implementing the day-to-day logistics of the auction, believe it has any potential for success and expansion and even fewer, 18 percent, say the auction model offers potential value for their own media buying needs.
Only eighteen percent of media agency senior management, who ultimately must give the green light on further development, say the auction model offers potential value for their companies' media buying needs.
ESPN To Fill Open Upfront Week Slot
Filling the slot traditionally occupied by The WB until it merged last year with UPN to create The CW Network, ESPN Customer Sales and Marketing is scheduled to hold its annual Upfront presentation on the morning of Tuesday, May 15. Fox' MyNetworkTV is also scheduled to present Tuesday morning. Although Upfront week has no organizing body and no official structure, networks have been following the same pattern of presentations
with NBC taking the lead on Monday afternoon and Fox closing the week's broadcast network presentations on Thursday evening. Telemundo, Univision and several lesser networks have added their presentations during the week. Cable networks have traditionally opted to avoid Upfront Week, but Ed Erhardt, President of ESPN Customer Sales and Marketing says "ESPN will showcase the ESPN brand across all platforms including ESPN on ABC as further evidence that ESPN is playing at the highest level of the media sales game."
Newhouse School Launches Awards for Media Industry Reporting
The S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University has established the Mirror Awards to recognize excellence in media industry reporting. The awards honor reporters, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry
for the public's benefit. Honorees will be recognized for news judgment and command of craft in reporting, analysis and commentary on developments in the media industry and its role in the economy, culture and democracy. The Mirror Awards applications are available at http://mirrorawards.syr.edu.
Holiday Gift Ideas Part 1
With PS3 and Wii owning the holiday gift media blitz, it's easy to overlook some of 2006's more stealth offerings.
Hello Kitty Wired
Some attendees at Wired's NextFest earlier this Fall met and fell in love with Actroid, a comely android receptionist who is "fluent" in some 1,000 Japanese words and can simulate a sense of humor better than Michael Richards: Asked if she's a robot, Actroid replies in monotone, spasmodically jerking her, uh, extremities. Actroid's limbs, torso, and facial expressions are controlled by a system of "actuators" that are powered by
pneumatic pressure. In a certain light she's more realistic than Nancy Pelosi after a pumping party. The owner is Kokoro, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanrio, Hello Kitty's minder. When you look at the universe of Hello Kitty offerings, from a branded Fender guitar ($300) to a diamond watch from the Kimora Lee Simmons HK collection ($3,250), this brand extension is less and less shocking. For a cool $3,700 Actroid DER2 can be rented out for the business week. While that's hardly cheaper than a temp, she won't embarrass you at the Holiday Office Party. (Jerry Weinstein)
From Plastic Blocks To Robots
What could be more low-tech than Lego building blocks, you say? Since 1998 the Denmark concern has been selling MINDSTORMS, a build your own robot kit for $200, selling 40,000 units since inception. When Lego decided to reinvent the wheel for its 3.0 upgrade, it decided that crowd-sourcing was the way to go. Culling what it deemed to be the four best developers from online user groups it created a MINDSTORMS User
Panel, or MUP, and invited these hardcore fans to contribute very early in the process. Its goals were hardly modest: "We will do for robotics what iPod did for music." Blessed with the infrastructure of such annual meet-ups as Brickfest, as the prototyping moved along the production chain, Lego opened up the MUP to more than 100 citizen developers. The result? For the first time, Lego has released its firmware for the NXT microprocessor as Open Source. Toys 'R' Us included the kit among its "Fabulous 15" for the holiday season. The bottom line looks good as well; Lego expects to move an aggregate of 1 million units and has engendered more brand loyalty than ever before. (Jerry Weinstein)
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