Winning A Stake: Hallmark tweaked its first local ad sales campaign in 2006 to include an online component for one local ad sales affiliate, according to Nancy Caprino, Hallmark Channel’s senior director of affiliate ad sales, Customers could enter the sweepstakes online by going to the local cable ad sales client’s Web site. Pushing viewers to the client’s site to sign up for the “March of the Penguins” sweepstakes resulted in $250,000 in new business for the local client, Caprino said. “The local affiliate’s client wanted an online component to the campaign,” Caprino said. “So we created a Web site for them so they could take advantage of the sweepstakes; build awareness and business for the client; and help the affiliate grow its local ad sales business.”

 

Keeping Staff Happy: Brian Tracy, president of Brian Tracy University, shares his tips to avoid underperformance and disgruntlement among sales personnel. The first half of his list ran in the May 20, 2008, issue of Local Ad Sales Newsletter: Among his other observations: Role overlap leads to confusion, inefficiency and often resentment. Make sure each job is assigned to only one person who is completely responsible for its success or completion. Similarly, this can occur when an essential part of the job—such as following up on delivery or customer service—is not assigned to anyone in particular, but everyone is expected to be concerned about it. This can lead to finger-pointing and blame for failure to execute. Make sure every part of every job is assigned to a particular person who can then be held responsible. Salespeople are often asked to not only prospect and cultivate new clients, they are also expected to spend time filling out detailed customer and sales reports. There isn’t enough time in the day to do both effectively. The best way to solve this is to have a single person focus on the most important part of the job that he/she can do, then assign the rest to a separate person. As it grows, every successful company creates the position of sales assistant or sales secretary for this very reason.

The cable industry has an unprecedented opportunity to change the face of TV advertising — which has been one of one-way messages ever since commercial interruptions started flying over the airwaves — by serving up more relevant, interactive and measurable ads on a mass scale. Major advertisers and agencies are hungry for marketing techniques that reach would-be customers as precisely as the Internet, coupled with the power of the highly engaging and visual TV medium. Technology platforms to deliver and track advanced-format ads are already available, and in some cases have been deployed. Cable TV is banking on advanced advertising technology to not only play offense, but defense as well. But it won’t be easy, panelists speaking during the NCTA Show in New Orleans told attendees last month.
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In the course of this year, Cox Media will insert more than 130 million local ads on an average of 75 networks across its 23 markets nationwide. Similarly, Bresnan Communications, with 28 markets in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah, will swap in about 1 million local ads a month. That's a lot of ad inventory to keep track of, manage and bill for. Couple that with the complexities of inserting online, on-demand and addressable ads, and operators certainly have their hands full. The back-office functions of the local cable ad-sales office are more complex than those of television stations or broadcast networks, which only need to worry about inserting ads on one channel or outlet. Traffic and billing systems must be robust, scalable and flexible. The systems must be able to integrate with insertion gear as well as schedule, verify and bill clients for ads that have run on multiple channels — and often in multiple zones or geographic areas.
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Cable systems are overestimating the value of their ability to demographically segment its advertising, charging clients double or triple what the spots are worth, in the opinion of political strategist Brad Perseke. Perseke, a partner in GMMB, a political consultancy and advertising firm that handled John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004, warned ad salesmen at the NCTA Show last month that if they don’t keep prices in line with those charged by local broadcast, “you’ll lose.” “You’ve always overpriced by 200 to 300%,” he said. But cable ad executives countered that there is value in the medium’s options for drilling down into the viewing audience, delivering more than just eyeballs.
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NBC Universal’s agreement with Dish Network to enable ad-triggering capabilities for the satellite provider’s DVR customers, which follows a similar deal late last year with TiVo subscribers, is one more salvo in the ongoing battle to keep viewers engaged with commercial messages. The DVR—which is estimated by Nielsen to be in 20% of households and growing rapidly—is a bane for advertisers and programmers ever more desperate to connect with viewers in a rapidly fractionalizing media market. Interactive triggers let satellite customers with DVRs use their remote control to request more information or access special discounts from an advertisement. Viewers select an icon displayed during a commercial that takes them to a separate page. Once finished, they’re conveniently returned to their program at the exact place they exited. Put simply, it is the interactive Internet advertising model adapted for television.
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Hallmark Channel snagged the second cable-network buy in the upfront market via a $10 million-$15 million deal from media buyer Starcom USA. The buy covers Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movie Channel and Hallmark Channel HD. Although no clients were identified, Starcom buys media for Allstate Insurance, HanesBrands, Kellogg’s, Miller Beer and Nintendo. "The continuation of our longstanding relationship with Hallmark supports many important goals for Starcom, including the further pursuit of HD solutions and of options that account for increased engagement,” Starcom USA senior vice president and cable activation director Natalie Conway said in a statement. “We are confident that this will advance our agenda of customized solutions for our clients."
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