Attention! Updated Spot Radio and TV Cost-Per-Point estimates are now available in SRDS.com.

Most broadcast media buyers understand that an indispensable method for measuring cost-efficiencies is by cost-per-point. CPP is the cost, per 1% of an indicated audience, of buying ad space in a given media vehicle. This data provides buyers with what a CPP should be in the upcoming quarter, by market, by daypart.

As a reminder, Radio and TV/Cable database subscribers can find the SQAD information as follows:

SQAD Spot Radio Cost-Per-Point Estimates

This data can be found under the Radio Search.

TV Household Cost-per-Point Levels

This data can be found under the TV & Cable Search.

Log in now to view the data or if you don’t currently have access to these databases, let us know.

As we’ve shared before, our team always reads industry sites and newsletters to find the latest media trends, news and tips. Here are a few of the online advertising stories that caught our eyes this week. Enjoy!

What Marketers Should Know About Ad Servers – Ad servers are the tools that place advertisements on websites. Sounds simple, but the truth is that without them, the unique capabilities and precision of digital advertising might not exist. So then why do so few marketers understand how ad servers function? Over at iMedia Connection, Eric Picard, CEO of Rare Crowds, shares the basics of the all-important ad server, arguing that better decisions can be made once a marketer has a handle on how this tool works. This is a piece you’ll want to re-read and then bookmark.

Enforcer of the Online Ad Opt-Out - Genie Barton, VP and director of the Council of Better Business Bureaus' online behavioral advertising and mobile marketing initiatives, is the enforcer of the bureaus' Digital Advertising Alliance’s AdChoices program, which requires brands to place a small, triangular blue icon on their ads. When consumers click on the icon, they are sent to a page where they can choose to opt out of targeted ads. In a Q&A with Adweek, Barton discusses online privacy and ad targeting. You’ll want to read what she has to say.

Are Your Online Ads Viewable? - Ad management company DG just released its Global Benchmark Report for 2012, which pushes to make viewability the chief metric for online ads – not clicks. In order for an ad to be counted as viewable, half of its pixels have to be in view for at least one second. Their argument makes a lot of sense and is very convincing. Click here to read more and download the report.

Digital Now Makes Up Bigger Chunk of Agency Budgets - U.S. ad spending grew 4% during the first two months of 2013 vs. that same period in 2012, with digital accounting for the second-largest share of media spending. Digital made up 22% of ad agency buys, according to data from four of the six agency holding companies compiled by the Standard Media Index. Digital media buys also rose 16% during the January and February, with a 23% increase in ad networks and 12% increase in premium display.

What online advertising stories made you click this week?

When you need to know the types of ads a website accepts, look no further than SRDS.com.  We’ve just started adding ad sizes and formats to our digital listings so you’ll have a more complete view of the countless online advertising opportunities on the Web.

Organized by IAB standard or Non-IAB standard, this section reports the ad sizes (ex: skyscraper) and formats (ex: Flash) that were served on that website within the most recent three months. We’ve added this information to nearly 15,000 digital media listings so far and are reporting on 73 different ad sizes and 3 formats.

We will also provide users with a link to current IAB standards and guidelines. We hope that this data and the IAB references provide you with all the information you need on creative standards/practices and simplify the process of buying, planning and creating digital ads.

From SRDS.com search results, click through to the listing detail and then hit the Ad Sizes & Opportunities tab to see what this looks like:

If you don’t currently have access to the digital database and need to incorporate Web sites into your plans, let us know. We have detailed advertising information on almost 23,000 national consumer, b-to-b and local websites, as well as audience metrics, site images and now ad sizes and formats.

If you have other ideas for enhancements to SRDS.com, drop us a note. User requests and feedback are critical as we decide to make upgrades and changes to the site.  

Broadcast media buyers and planners use SQAD data for media cost forecasting, specifically to find out what a CPP should be in the upcoming quarter, by market, by daypart.

Cost per Rating Point (CPP) is a metric used to determine the cost of buying ad space to reach 1% of their target audience. It allows media buyers and planners to compare the costs of advertising on different media outlets to determine the most efficient and cost-effective placements.

Here’s where broadcast planners can find this updated information in Kantar Media SRDS:

SQAD Spot Radio Cost-Per-Point Estimates by MSA

Go to the Radio Media database and on the welcome page, click on the SQAD Spot Radio Cost-per-Point Estimates link.  It will pull up a list of PDFs with SQAD data by metro market. The radio CPP data is only available to subscribers of the Radio database.

TV Households Cost-Per-Point Levels by DMA

Go to the TV & Cable Media database and on the welcome page, click on the DMA Maps and Profiles link. It will pull up a list of PDFs with SQAD data by DMA. This data is only available to subscribers of the TV & Cable database.

If you’re interested in accessing the Radio or TV/Cable databases, let us know.

This week, I had the opportunity to host another Media Mixology event in NYC, bringing together the SRDS community of media buyers and sellers. We networked, enjoyed some hospitality and heard a few insights from industry professionals, Mary Poscik of G2, Kevin Moeller of Media Behavior Institute and Ki Mae Heussner of GigaOm.

This event was actually a make-good because we had to postpone it from November in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. But despite the rescheduling, more than 100 professionals showed.

The discussion centered on the challenges agencies face when integrating emerging media into our clients’ plans, and how agency professionals can be better partners for their clients.

In prepping for the discussion, I was struck by the number of big headlines that have occurred in our industry in the last three months since we postponed. It made me appreciate even more the challenge agencies and marketers face as they try to stay ahead of the consumer’s ever-changing habits.

Across the media research, advertising and technology landscape there have been a number of big headlines:

• In Media Research: Consolidation of audience media measurement firms continues, as Nielsen announced its plans to buy Arbitron and the industry weighs the benefits of single source providers.
• In Technology: The mobile wars continued to escalate with Apple introducing a new iPhone and a mini tablet, Microsoft releasing Surface Pro, Samsung gaining traction with Galaxy, and now RIM is seriously pursuing a comeback with its latest (and strongly reviewed) Blackberry.
• In Digital Media: Facebook has introduced a whole new media: social search. Now there is speculation that they will acquire Atlas ad server technology from Microsoft to help super-size their display ad business.
• And in TV: This time of year, the entire ad industry is watching new campaigns break on the big screen for major events like Golden Globes, the Super Bowl, the Grammys and the Oscars. But how many of us have already seen these ads on the smaller screen? That’s why we also have to watch social media, especially the Twitterverse for analysis and ROI insights. And so not surprisingly, Twitter announces the acquisition of Social TV researcher Blue Fin Labs.

And that’s just the big stuff.

Through all of this, marketers don’t just expect their agency partners to stay on top of news coverage and understand the changing players as well as their new line-up of offerings. No, what marketers really need is help in understanding how their audiences are adopting and using these new technologies and how their behavior is being measured. They are anxiously relying on us to advise them how to participate in this new environment, while still doing our day jobs.

It’s a major opportunity and a reason why we love being part of our dynamic media industry. It’s how each of us keeps learning – and pushing our clients to try new things. And it’s why we all want to come together at these events, share ideas on what’s working, or not, and blow off a little steam.

Thanks to our speakers, Mary, Kevin and Ki Mae. Thanks to our sponsors for making the event possible. Thanks for spending some time talking with me and the SRDS team about your new challenges. Thanks for giving me a reason to stop and reflect on what’s happening so quickly. It’s why we love media.

Thanks to everyone who made this week’s Media Mixology event such a success. More than 100 media planning and buying professionals came out on Fat Tuesday to socialize with representatives from our media company sponsors. They shared ideas, snacked and sipped cocktails in a cool NY lounge.

Our purpose for these after-work gatherings is to bring together the entire SRDS community – the buyers and sellers of advertising – in a relaxed yet chic setting. It’s another way for you to mix fun and networking with media insights and information. At each event, we invite a few thought leaders to share their insights on an important topic.

This week, Mary Pocsik of G2 and Kevin Moeller of Media Behavior Institute, with industry reporter Ki Mae Huessner of GigaOm moderating, shared how they make decisions about integrating new media into client media plans, what media they have found effective and how they measure success. Mary and Kevin also presented to a Chicago Mixology crowd last fall, and your Chicago colleagues found different takeaways to use with clients.

It was a fun evening, with small conversations dominating. In fact it had such a great flow that a fair number of the group stayed to socialize an extra hour.

We’re getting all the photos ready, and will put up audio from the Chicago event, Mary and Kevin’s presentations and links to a few of Ki Mae’s articles. We’ll keep you posted.

Thanks to our sponsors who make these events possible:

• SaleSpider Media
• American Classifieds / Thrifty Nickel
• Architectural Record
• Bloomberg Businessweek
• The Purple Network
• IEEE Spectrum
• Marketing Profs
• PaidContent / GigaOm

Interested in Kantar Media SRDS hosting a Media Mixology event in your city? Let us know – we’re looking for places we can assemble a good group from both sides of the buy.

For years, many businesses focused their marketing and advertising efforts at a national level. But with the rise of social media, search and mobile, the game has changed. It’s clear that the key to cost-effectively reaching your best prospects is to laser-target campaigns and go local. In fact, an updated BIA/Kelsey forecast expects advertising revenue for all local media to reach $147.1 billion by 2016, at a 2.1% annual growth rate.

On the surface it may seem difficult to adapt a national marketing plan for a local market, but the creative itself doesn't necessarily need to change too much. It's all about determining how to best make it resonate for that audience and more importantly, where to place it so it reaches your target audience. Many marketers use SRDS.com to get the data they need to make informed decisions about local advertising opportunities. Here's why:

1. Any Media Type: Access detailed information on every available media property that accepts advertising, including websites, newspapers, radio stations, TV & cable stations, magazines and out-of-home opportunities.
2. Every Market: Conduct a DMA drilldown with comprehensive local media data for all 210 DMAs across the U.S.
3. Background Check: Research new markets with consumer demographic data.
4. Due Diligence: Even if you work with an outside agency, guarantee that they are selecting the right ad opportunities for your brand in markets you may be unfamiliar with.
5. Actionable Data: Listings include all the data points you need to compile a plan, including rates, contact info, audience metrics and much more.
6. Smart Spending: Small businesses, retailers and restaurants all use SRDS.com to find innovative and affordable ad placements that go beyond the budget-breaking TV buy.
7. Ask Around: Don’t miss out on this unique service. Marketers from Kohls, Dr Pepper, Crate & Barrel, Shoe Carnival and possibly your direct competitors already rely on SRDS.

See SRDS in action and let us know how we can help with your local marketing needs.

While I wouldn’t say that any of this year’s Super Bowl commercials topped the action-packed game and larger-than-life performers, but there were four memorable ads.

Perhaps not as memorable as the black-out though. You can bet that had advertisers worried, but interestingly, many of them capitalized on the strange event with comic social media posts, like these:

But here are the top commercials from this year’s big game:

1. Budweiser: Brotherhood – Most commercials are all about silliness or clever quips, but Budweiser did a fantastic job with this moving take on their classic Clydesdales. It’s beautiful story-telling, without any words.
2. Doritos: Goat 4 sale – I have relatives in Greece that have pet goats, so for me, this ad really hit home. Doritos consistently comes out with funny Super Bowl ads and this one does not disappoint. And most of us can appreciate that these are consumer-created ads, with a prize. Even though it’s not a consistent campaign, ‘funny and offbeat’ comes out loud and clear as the brand message.
3. M&Ms: Love Ballad – This spot came early, and for a while, it was one of the best. Poor old red M&M just wants some lovin’, but he quickly realizes there are certain things that even he won’t do for some TLC.
4. Best Buy: Asking Amy – Just because it’s Amy Poehler, this one makes my list. The actress is a bit over-zealous in her question asking, but this Best Buy salesperson is ready for anything.

What was your favorite spot from this year’s Super Bowl?

Usually, we visit a webpage for either content or utility. Sometimes when we’re lucky, we get both. So it’s no wonder that in the past few years we’ve  seen the rise of content marketing in an attempt to combine the best of both worlds. 

When I visit a site intending to buy something transactional, utility is the table stake to get me there. I also want to find out as much as I can before I buy anything; give me reviews, industry news and a way to see what other folks like me are buying. It’s a huge advantage if I can do all of these things without ever leaving your website. Bonus for me because I get everything I want in one stop and bonus for you because not only do I stay on your site, I come back again and I tell my friends about my great experience.

How do we find the sites we visit? If we know where we want to head, we type in the URL and off we go. If we aren’t sure, we typically visit a search engine, throw in a search term and see what it cranks out.  If we’re lucky, we have a recommendation from a friend (perhaps through social media) and find exactly what we want.  For most of us, I would guess this last approach is the preferred method for finding most things online. After all, a friend’s opinion generally carries more weight than a site’s SEO.

Consumers aren’t the only ones to notice this preference. Erik Qualman has been telling us for the several years in his video “Social Media Revolution” that “we will no longer search for products and services…they will find us via social media.” How will the products and services find us? They will find us via the continuing explosion of social media usage and referrals. 

In his October 2012 article in the Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal points out that across the same sites, social sources were responsible for 18% of referral traffic and search sources were responsible for 22%. 

How is it possible that social referrals will surpass search in the coming years? Social referrals will continue to rise as our activity increases on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, where we share things that we love with others. Instantly we can electronically share information with thousands of people whereas in the past we probably would have had ten to twenty face-to-face conversations. This idea of products and services finding consumers is accelerating as we continue to use social media as a way to share what we like, love, need, are looking for and don’t like.

Facebook has just stomped on the gas pedal. By introducing “Graph” search across its massive hold of user preference data, you can group your Facebook search into a specific subset, such as "my friends who like hockey," or more precisely "my friends who like hockey and live in Chicago." You can also filter for things like music or movies my friends like.

For advertisers, by becoming more well-liked on Facebook, they are more likely to be found by folks who are actively looking for their products and services as well as the products that are similar to them. If you haven’t heard of the term contextual search, get ready because that’s how we’ll refer to this new Facebook search capability. And certainly others will be looking for ways to replicate this contextual search functionality. 

Similarly, Google introduced its social network Google+, which is unlike other social networks in that it’s not accessed through a single website. Google has described Google+ as a "social layer" consisting of not just a single site, but rather an overarching "layer" which covers many of its online properties. The company clearly recognizes that social referrals will continue to rise in number and in importance and this is a way for it to maintain market share.

All of this brings me to a central question: how will this affect our search behaviors and the ways marketers optimize their pages to be found? As Greg Levitt pointed out in his MediaPost  entry from Jan. 9, this changing of the search guard will force marketers to optimize social media content distribution versus tweaking their interaction with search engine algorithms. 

Marketers and advertisers must optimize their media plans beyond just SEO. Social recommendations and sharing may end up being much more important. It isn’t just about someone typing in a search term and happening upon your site.

Can users share information about your product on Twitter? Can they send your product as gifts on Facebook? How many users are sharing information about your service on Facebook graph? Are there images of your products on Pinterest and Instagram? These questions will become the norm in the coming years and social media usage and the phenomenon of social referrals continue to rise.

Marketers/Advertisers: How will this affect your channel planning and optimization schemes?

If you're a media planner/buyer and you'll be near New York City on February 12, you won't want to miss our next Media Mixology event. Originally we planned to have the event in November, but postponed due to Hurricane Sandy.

We hope you can make it. Not only will we have free food and drinks, but Kevin Moeller (from Media Behavior Institute) and Mary Pocsik (from G2) will discuss how you can integrate emerging media into plans to leverage changing media habits. The evening will be moderated by Ernie Sander, Executive Editor of GigaOM.

Curious about what you’ll learn? Check out this fun video from the Media Behavior Institute on the sort of research they present and a fascinating paper on the "new math for new media" by Ms. Pocsik.

The details:

Integrating Emerging Media into Plans to Leverage Changing Media Habits
Tuesday, February 12 from
5:30 - 9pm
48 Lounge

RSVP today to reserve your spot, and be sure to tell your media planning and buying friends on the East Coast to come too! There will be a surprise gift for the first 50 attendees at 48 Lounge that night!

See coverage of our September Chicago event here.

And here’s a taste of what attendees said about that event:

"Really interesting discussion."

"Great party."

"It's nice to network with other agencies."

"Keep me on the list for other events."

We hope you can make it!

Per Ad Age, 30-second spots in this year’s Super Bowl sold for around $3.7 million - yep, they're already sold out. For any marketer buying one of these spots, this is likely the largest single advertising investment all year. Recouping this kind of investment takes a massive lift in sales and/or customer acquisition activity—a lift most companies won't see. This is why, for most advertisers, it’s an easy decision to stay away from the big game. How then, does any advertiser decide it’s a good idea to spend this kind of money?

It starts with the understanding that any marketer buying a spot in the Super Bowl won’t see a direct equal return on the money spent—not right away anyway. Buying a spot in the Super Bowl is more about being culturally relevant. There are still no other events where an advertiser can present a brand message to an American audience upwards of 100 million people all at one time. 

And boy, do we like those brand messages. We tweet, like, share, vote on, upload, blog and discuss in person what we’ve seen. The Super Bowl is also one of the few events where there’s analysis of the game and the advertising in the newspapers the day after.  You don’t see columns in the Chicago Tribune about who won and lost the advertising race on the last episode of Grey’s Anatomy. 

Astute marketers can take their participation in the game and use social media as a force multiplier to generate buzz and excitement around their message both before and after the game. Creating contests, leaking additional video content and tweeting out questions around the ads are just some of the ways advertisers create this buzz.

Sometimes the marketers don’t have to do anything. Just this week I went looking for classic Super Bowl ads via branded channels on YouTube. These ad views will register with the marketers long after the ads have run in real time. 

Advertisers/Marketers: Do you think advertising in the Super Bowl is worth the cost?

For years, mega-sized advertising agencies beat out their smaller counterparts 9 times out of 10 because they could access large-scale media buys for a better price. But Matt Murphy, Founder and Executive Director of fusion92, believes that this trend may be slowing, as hyper-local advertising allows “mid-sized and smaller firms with broad regional knowledge and full-service advertising capabilities that include digital expertise” to gain a clear advantage.

Hyper-local advertising targets individuals at the neighborhood or ZIP code level and delivers timely, relevant ads that often have a local component in the creative or messaging. Consumers are inundated daily with ads on every media channel, with most being ignored because they don’t have any relevance to the user. But hyper-local advertisers can create smarter, more targeted approaches that vary by location.

Agencies already use SRDS.com to reach targeted markets by DMA. They have access to media planning data for local websites, print magazines, newspapers, radio, TV and out of home.

But just because these agencies are tailoring their campaigns for local markets doesn’t mean they are ditching large national campaigns. On the contrary, it’s more about using data and technology to customize a large campaign so that it is better matches the targeted audience.

It makes sense that a message incorporating something about your neighborhood (a free appetizer at the Chili’s down your street, for example) has a greater chance of resonating. And not just for you, for everyone in your ZIP code. For users in Chicago, Chicago Bulls imagery or a sound clip from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra might make strike a personal (and memorable) note.

Another reason agencies should consider hyper-local advertising is that it’s cost-effective. Digital technology such as Foursquare encourages users to share location information, making it easy for advertisers to reach their target markets, both through traditional methods and digital channels. According to Murphy:

“Advertisers can segment target audiences to ZIP-code levels, build customizable creative for local components of national campaigns and use digital and traditional advertising channels to distribute hyper-local ads and generate market share gains across multiple regions.”

The ad industry is only going to get more competitive, but if smaller agencies can take the bull by the horns and become more agile, then they have a big opportunity. Plus, the technology and data is already there, so why not use it? 

It hasn’t been an easy year for ad agency professionals, but that doesn’t mean they’re pessimistic about 2013.

According to a survey from RSW/US, the majority of ad agencies surveyed (62%) believe that new business opportunities will increase next year compared to 2012. The survey polled 168 agency executives and more than 100 marketing professionals.

About 45% of agencies surveyed believe that opportunities to pick up new business in 2012 exceeded those in 2011. While that may not seem like a huge percentage, it more than doubles the 21% who believe that new business opportunities decreased. About 34% said that the opportunities were about the same. According to the RSW report:

“We suspect that as the economy continues to move ever so slightly forward, and as the elections finally come to a close, we'll experience a higher degree of certainty in the market, which should give marketers more confidence in how and where they spend their dollars.”

Similarly, data from our October Kantar Media SRDS Consumer Magazine Media Planner/Buyer Research showed promising signs from an ad spend perspective.

We surveyed 114 professionals from advertising and marketing agencies, media planning and buying companies and in-house agencies. They estimate 5% growth in what they will spend on consumer magazine media in the next twelve months. Their average budget in the last twelve months was $3.9 million and they expect it to be $4.1 million in the next twelve months.

More than half of the respondents (59%) said their ad spend will be the same, while 27% said they would increase spending and 14% said decrease.

One more piece of insight from? the RSW/US survey: Agencies believe digital (76%) and social (53%) to be the two biggest business drivers relative to other marketing/media platforms.

While we don’t know what the next year will bring, it’s good to know that there’s a positive feel coming from agency folks and that many of them will increase their spending as a result.

What do you think? Will 2013 will be a better year for the advertising industry?

Do you think TV commercials are more effective than online advertisements?

Marketers and consumers don’t completely agree on the answer, according to the recent survey conducted by Adobe. The survey said that U.S. marketers rated online ads as more effective than TV ads, but only slightly (51%). On the consumer side, two-thirds of (marketers? Consumers?) believe that TV commercials are more effective.

Moreover, respondents considered traditional media (newspapers/TV) the best buy for marketing and advertising, but indicated that might be true just because consumers are accustomed to it. It’s hard to say.

Respondents said they would rather see an ad in their favorite print magazine (45%) or while watching their favorite TV show (23%) versus on social media (3%) or in an app (0%).

Again, that might just be because we’ve been conditioned into thinking traditional media automatically comes with advertising. Digital is newer and it didn’t always come with pop-ups, banner ads and “enter your email address to see this page.”

Both consumers and marketers feel online advertising is effective, but the majority of consumers (68%) responding did not have positive perceptions of it. They frequently used words like “annoying,” “distracting” and “all over the place.”  

While respondents consider advertising created by professionals to be the most effective form of advertising, a little more than a fourth of marketers (as well as consumers) believe that user-generated content is the best form of online advertising.

So what do consumers want to see in advertising? They want the ad to “tell a unique story, not just try to sell” and the majority prefers videos and user product reviews.

 Ann Lewnes, Adobe chief marketing officer, says:

“This study is a wakeup call for marketers. We know there’s a tremendous opportunity – online, on mobile, in social – in terms of where consumers are spending their time and money. But as marketers we’ve yet to really break through. Serving customers relevant content, delivering experiences that are engaging instead of intrusive and, just as importantly, measuring what’s working and what isn’t so that we can improve our marketing are all critical. When marketers begin to master these things we’ll turn the corner – consumers will start to notice and we’ll start to capitalize.”

Do you think TV or online ads are more effective, or do you recommend integrated campaigns?

(image source)

Last week, NextMedia Group announced the sale of NextMedia Outdoor, its outdoor advertising business, to Lamar Advertising Co. for $145 million.

Baton Rouge-based Lamar is the nation's largest outdoor advertising company, offering ads on bulletins, posters, digital billboards, buses, benches, transit shelters and highway logo signs.

The deal will allow NextMedia to focus solely on its radio operations, said NextMedia CEO Jim Donahoe. The company currently operates 33 stations across eight markets in the U.S. The sale also eliminated NextMedia’s debt.

SRDS covers changes like this in the Out-of-Home market continually. Our users rely on the SRDS database to find traditional outdoor options as well as targeted space like sampling, in-flight, in-store, in all 210 DMAs. The SRDS out-of-home database will reflect these changes after it uploads at the end of the week.

What’s the most interesting out-of-home placement you’ve bought?

One question that I regularly receive from SRDS.com users is, "How can I get exactly what I’m looking for in my search results?"

More often than not, the answer lies in forgetting to use the very powerful filtering options.

Here’s an analogy. Think of SRDS.com as you would a typical consumer retail website, like BestBuy.com.

If you’re looking to purchase a new TV from Best Buy, for example, your first step will probably be to visit Best Buy’s website. Once you’re there, you’ll have to make a decision. Do you already know what sort of TV you’re looking for or are you starting from scratch? If you have a few ideas, then probably wouldn’t want to just search “television” or click to look at all 200 TVs.  

No, to make sure you’re using your time wisely and getting the right results, you would want to filter!

Maybe you want a 72-inch or a Sony, for instance. On Best Buy’s website you can filter by a variety of options for TVs, such as size, brand, price, etc. Once you’ve determined the filters you’d like to put in place, then you’d look at the handful of TVs that fit your criteria.

Think of SRDS.com in that same way.

If you have an idea of what you’re looking for, you probably wouldn’t just do an open search for “beauty.” That would give you pages and pages of relevant, but ultimately not useful, results.  

Instead, I would recommend that you go to the left side of the page to the filter section. From there, you can filter by media, by market, by class, or the other filters that apply to that specific media.

Whether you do an open search or a database search, the filters are going to not only narrow your results so that they more closely meet your criteria, but they can also be used to broaden your results so you can see what else is out there.

So when in doubt: filter, filter, filter!

In a recent blog post on iMediaConnection, Penry Price advocates that the rise of programmatic buying shouldn’t kill media planner creativity. I’ll take it a step further. Programmatic buying should actually enhance creativity.

When I had my first media planning job, the Internet was just starting to become an advertising medium. Back then a “roadblock” on the MSN homepage was a really big deal, and no one had ever heard of optimizing the plan, never mind doing it in real time. 

But that’s what programmatic buying now offers; the ability to reach consumers based on changing data in real time. As a former media planner, that’s exciting to me and it should be to you too.

I know what you’re thinking, how can I be creative when I’m staring at campaign dashboards all day? Price says it best:

“You can be more creative and serve your clients better (and be a hero at work) if you work to align your efforts to truly understand the journeys of your client’s potential customers.”  

Look at the matrix of web traffic data on the dashboard as a person and not as a slice of a customer segment.  For example, think of it as a person desperately searching for the season’s hottest Christmas toy and appreciate their journey as your own. Then recognize that programmatic buying platforms give you the ability to make that toy appear right before that person’s eyes.   

So what’s next? Look around for more interesting ways to connect your clients to people and their journeys. Everything is a potential entry point to the journey, from the ways people interact with products to their media consumption habits throughout the day. You can be the expert in the room; all it takes is some creativity. There, I said it.

Newspapers, radio stations and magazines are still adapting and rethinking their business models in response to the digital revolution of the last decade. For most, there still isn’t a clear-cut answer as to how to fit into this new digital world, satisfy their audience and make money.

But digital audio is really making things work, according to Rockie Thomas. Thomas penned an opinion column over at iMedia Connection last month. She discusses digital audio advertising and says that we’re “finally seeing the perfect ad storm forming.”

Yes!

If you listen to Pandora or any digital radio, then you know that you’re not just listening to music, you’re also listening to ads.  According to the article:

 “Research from comScore finds 27% of mobile subscribers have listened to music on their mobile devices.  We no longer need to clutter up the mobile screen with companion banners, pure digital audio advertising is clean and effective. Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman summed up the synergy on audio and mobile best when he said, ‘There’s probably no product category that fits mobile on a content basis better than radio because the screen’s very little, it goes dark as soon as you turn your head, but it continues to give me audio so I think we’re tailor made for it.’”

Here are 6 perks of buying digital audio ads:

1. Digital audio is very popular. According to the post, “Recent research from Alan Burns and Associates show 25% of those surveyed stream music on a smartphone daily; weekly usage grows to almost 40%.”
2. People constantly consume it. Think about all the things you do in your day while listening to music. “This ‘constant’ consumption helps increase ad effectiveness.  Recent research from TargetSpot and Parks Associates show both ad recall and response have increased 11% since 2011 to 58% with digital audio advertising,” says Thomas.
3. There are now ways to track audio ads, so you have the metrics your executives crave.
4. People use digital audio on their phones and tablets, but the ads don’t need to be on the screen. Audio ads are effective enough.
5. Some people already use digital audio in their car and in the next couple years more and more cars will have smartphone integration, which is a plus for mainstream advertisers.  
6. Thomas says that digital audio buys are similar to video and graphic in that they are CPM-based with listen-through rates metrics and post engagement tracking. Adding digital audio ads won’t require learning a new language.

SRDS.com includes over a dozen online radio and streaming music sites that accept advertising. You can find them either in the music classification of the Consumer Media database, or in our Radio Digital database in the national section.

Have you had any experience with digital audio advertising?

As more publishers and media companies create tablet editions of their magazines and newspapers, they must start thinking about innovative ways to monetize this strategy. Selling ads is one strategy.

The SRDS Tablet Media Library includes more than 600 apps that accept advertising, including apps for iOS, Android, Zinio and Nook. Clearly there are companies already making money off of tablet ads, but e-commerce is a fresh way for them to obtain some much-needed returns.

eMedia Vitals editor Rob O'Regan touts online shopping opportunities within tablet publications in his article, “Can tablet commerce help publishers break free of the magazine paradigm?”

"The promising future of 'couch commerce,' driven by the tablet’s rising status as an at-home, lean-back leisure device, should grab the attention of media companies looking to expand their digital business models."

It makes sense. Increasingly, people want to sit back, relax and do as much as they can from their La-Z-Boys. We can deposit checks, purchase a new pair of jeans and order a movie all from the comfort of our homes.

So, publishers need to get creative too and develop multichannel e-commerce offerings to satisfy their consumers, but perhaps even more importantly, drive revenue.  

O’Regan uses the following stat to support his point and it’s quite telling.

"comScore says 39% of tablet owners purchased items in the past month, compared with 18% of smartphone owners. Tablet owners appear more engaged as well: 43% have researched items and 42% have compared product prices in the past month, compared to 21% and 22%, respectively, for smartphones."

While there isn’t a golden strategy as to how to make tablet commerce work, it’s apparent that media companies and publishers would likely have to mix editorial and advertising in a way that they may not have been comfortable with 20 years ago.

Sure, it’s a slippery slope, but print publications have been hit hard in the last decade, so if they can create a way for their readers to purchase the products or services in their articles, they might be able to successfully walk this tightrope, make money and enhance reader engagement.

For example, Facebook is one social platform that added e-commerce to its offerings this year. Through Facebook Real Gifts, users can buy real-world presents for friends, such as cupcakes, toys and digital gift cards. This is another fantastic way for Facebook to make money, appease investors and offer a valuable service to users.  Plus, Real Gifts is mobile optimized so users don’t have to be at a computer to buy gifts.

It’ll be interesting in the coming months to see if media companies and publishers begin to offer something similar.

(Image Source)

Happy Election Day!

If you’re a media buyer who has decided to postpone your advertising decisions until after the presidential election, you’re not the only one.

According to a survey from Strata Marketing, a media buying and selling software company, almost half (47%) of non-political ad buyers are waiting until election season ends to buy ads for their clients. Why? They want to avoid competing with political ads.

“STRATA suggests this means that media buyers are becoming increasingly concerned about costs, yet lack of available inventory is another challenge.”

Other insights from the survey include stats on agency expectations for this year and next:

• Only 35% of agencies participating in the survey believe their business will be better in the second half of 2012, while 19% expect it to be worse.
• That’s a big difference as compared to Strata’s survey during the second quarter which found only 7% believing that the second half of the year to worse. 
• Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they believe 2013 will be much better. Almost one-third of agencies don’t expect their businesses to return to a strong growth period until after 2013.

You may remember we tackled the subject of integrating local media plans with congested political environments in our April 2012 Media Mixology event (slides and audio here).

If you’ve been putting off your media buying until after the election, now’s the time to get back into SRDS.com and get back to business. Let us know if there’s anything we can do to help and, whatever you do, get out there and vote!