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August 5, 2008

In this Issue
Comcast Spotlight’s Perfect Storm	Online, Geographic and Political Ads

TOP STORY

• Comcast Spotlight’s Perfect Storm
  As the economy shrinks and gas prices soar, consumers are looking for ways to conserve and advertisers are looking for ways to cut back their marketing costs -- but not at the expense of connecting with customers. Comcast Spotlight Pittsburgh sees an opportunity for the cable company to gain new ad clients and help existing clients geographically target their customer base. more » » » 

GREAT IDEAS

• Online, Geographic and Political Ads
  A recent report from The Audit Bureau of Circulations found that while advertisers now consider digital media a core part of their media strategies, less than half of ad agency respondents and only one-third of advertisers said they were confident that their companies’ online impressions were measured and reported accurately. more » » » 

Q&A

• Q&A: Harris Broadband’s Bill Carleton
  Harris Broadband’s Bill Carleton recently spoke with Local Ad Sales about the state of advanced advertising and some of the challenges the services create for traffic and billing operations. more » » » 

BRIEFING ROOM

• Automakers Steer Hispanic-Targeted Content
  (Excerpted from the July 28 issue of Multichannel News)
  
  Automakers are putting the pedal to the metal with multiplatform, Hispanic-targeted branded initiatives aimed at boosting sales and raising brand awareness. Starting August 18, visitors to the YahooTelemundo Web site will be able to log onto a special page and help a soccer player win a contract with Miami FC, South Florida's only professional soccer team. An online reality series, Gol de Media Cancha (The Longshot) will feature twelve two-minute episodes that will run for six weeks, after which the team's coach will pick a final winner. more » » » 
  
  
• NBCU: Olympics Ads 90% Sold Out
  (Excerpted from the July 21 issue of Broadcasting & Cable)
  
  NBC Universal sold 90% of its advertising inventory for the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing and said it is on pace for a record haul. The programmer said it has a $1 billion revenue target. NBC Sports & Olympics senior vice president of sales Seth Winter thinks NBC’s primetime coverage of Olympic trials for swimming, gymnastics and track and field helped to prime the advertising pump. more » » » 
  
  
• Ad Spending Up 4% in 1Q: Nielsen Report
  (Excerpted from the July 21 issue of Multichannel News)
  
  Global advertising spending rose more than 4% in the first quarter of 2008 despite a variety of economic woes impacting economies from the U.S. to Europe, according to The Nielsen Co.’s latest Global AdView Pulse report. Globally, healthcare vendors retain the majority share of ad spending, with just over 10% of all advertising activity. With 9% of global consumers ranking their health as their biggest concern today, Nielsen expects this figure continue to rise. Television remains the highest-grossing medium for advertising spend, recording a 6.9% yearly growth rate globally and growth in every region, Nielsen said more » » » 
  
  
• Coen on Ad Climate: Things Could Be Worse
  (Excerpted from the July 28 issue of Broadcasting & Cable)
  
  Robert Coen, director of forecasting for Interpublic Group’s Magna Global sat down with Broadcasting & Cable to discuss the advertising arena and where it’s headed. He talked about the depressed ad market, forecasts for the broadcast networks and basic cable growth. more » » » 

Richard Greenfield of Pali Research believes that while he expects advertising growth to slow across the cable network industry during the third quarter, MTV Networks’s decision reversing a decade-long trend, could help growth in the back half of 2008. Both political camps are trying to reach MTV’s core demographics. Both MTV: Music Television and Comedy Central have accepted political ads for the first time this year. Tony Fox of Comedy Central said he didn’t know why the network hadn’t accepted the ads in the past, but noted it was just good business in an election year. According to The New York Times, the Obama ad will run on Comedy Central for a week and will also run in local avails in the Washington, D.C. area.

Of the top 15 rated cable shows for the week of July 21-27, seven were televised on USA Network. Two of the top rated shows were shown on TNT and another two were shown on ESPN. Disney Channel, Food Network, Nickelodeon and Lifetime all had one top-rated show for the week as well.

Presidential hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain have run over 100,000 ads on broadcast networks so far this year, according to data from the Advertising Project at the University of Wisconsin. During the same period four years ago presidential candidates Sen. John Kerry and President George Bush aired 77,000 ads on broadcast TV. The McCain campaign has spent just over $21 million on television advertising since June 3rd, while Obama has spent over $27 million. Interest groups have aired just over 4,000 ads, significantly fewer than at this point in 2004. In 2004, the two major parties had not aired any general election television advertising before July 26th, but this year just under $4 million has already been spent on ads by the parties since June 3rd. Between June 3 and July 26, the Obama campaign out-advertised the McCain campaign by nearly 9,000 ads: 55,312 ads for Obama to McCain’s 46,563 ads.

Jeff Bander has been named senior vice president of client sales at NeuroFocus. He had been executive vice president of sales for the Hollywood Media Corp.

Bill Morningstar, executive vice president of advertising for The CW, will jump ship to head up sales for the new Major League Baseball network.

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