Cold Calling: Cold calling is part of an AE’s everyday job even if it’s difficult to convince them of that, said Kelly Enright, Bresnan Communications regional VP of advertising services. It’s even more important as the economy slackens and traditionally strong ad segments such as auto and home furnishing lag. “We expect them to conduct cold calls,” he said. “But we have launched a new incentive to lure new advertisers. We’re asking them to work harder and we’re putting money on the table to say we’re willing to reward that extra work.” Bresnan’s AEs can win prizes and extra money on top of their commissions every time they successfully book a new client.

 

Management Skills: According to results from a study from Centennial, Colo.-based ConceptReserve, 86% of managers at 149 Fortune 1000 companies are not fully engaged in their role as managers. Indeed, most are still operating primarily as individual contributors or are stuck in transition to the manager role, according to the study. “Our proprietary research reveals that this leadership crisis among managers is more than 10 times worse than the 1970s and at least four times worse than the 1990s,” said John Davis, ConceptReserve’s CEO, said in a prepared statement. “The hard reality is that if managers do not make a timely transition to the manager role once they become managers, they will not make the kind of contribution their organization requires.” The individual contributor mindset must be changed for the individual manager to be truly successful. It can happen with the right help, Davis said. But that doesn’t mean necessarily honing so-called management skills, he noted. “While important at the appropriate time, developing such skills will do little to facilitate the transition if emphasized too early in the process,” Davis said. “In fact, overemphasis on a manager’s skill development, without addressing the required psychological shift, is often fatal to the transition,” said Davis.

 

Voicemail Incentives: If a salesman is having trouble getting a potential client to return a phone call, Sales Alliance Inc. suggests putting benefits into voicemail messages. Short details may entice the client to return the call. “Most people hate voicemail,” Sales Alliance states on its Web site. “Salespeople often spend more of their telephone time in contact with voicemail rather than customers. However, when used properly, voicemail can be an effective part of your sales approach.” The sales training company suggests using voicemail as a backup rather than as a primary sales strategy.

Affiliates in about 20 markets will get promotional spots featuring local Olympians designed to boost local ad sales during the network’s coverage of the XXIX Olympiad in China, NBCU officials said. It’s just one of the components of a multi-tiered promotional strategy planned by NBC Universal to promote viewership of the Olympics in Beijing beginning Aug. 8, according to Brian Hunt, senior vice president of marketing and sales strategy, TV networks distribution, NBC Universal. The locally tied spots will appear in markets including Seattle, Los Angeles, and Cleveland featuring local athletes. Other markets will get generic spots, designed for tagging by local advertisers, Hunt said. Promotional materials will include free video-on-demand content in advance, such as event previews and athlete interviews; during the games the best contests of the day will be excerpted.
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Sonic and State Farm have partnered with TBS to provide marketing and promotional support for the second season of The Bill Engvall Show. State Farm will have a contextual role in an episode of TBS’ The Bill Engvall Show. The episode is dedicated to practicing teenage safe driving. Meanwhile, fast-food provider Sonic will be included in storylines throughout the season, according to network officials. Both companies will be included in marketing outreach and promotions for the series. Which will debut on June 12.
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Hispanic TV broadcasters and cable network executives showcased their programming linup at the first annual Texas Hispanic Upfront on June 5 in San Antonio. The one-day event was organized by SAVisión, the Hispanic marketing arm of San Antonio’s American Marketing Association. The goal, organizers said, is to give the local advertising community a taste of what the networks presented during upfront week in New York City.
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As the upfront season nears its conclusion, the push for advanced audience metrics, especially given depressed market factors, has become even more of an imperative. Measurement developments are being driven not only by technology, but by TV's desire to unseat the advantages of the Web, to one-up Internet click-throughs and user interaction with content. NBC Television signed on for Nielsen's Fusion service, which marries data about purchasing behavior with TV viewing giving advertisers a way to look at media throught the prism of their target demo beyond the traditional methods of age and sex, said Howard Shimmel, senior VP of client insights for NielsenConnections.
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