Message from Michael -- May 12, 2008

IT’S A TELEVISION WORLD AFTER ALL

AN INTERNET WORLD OF HOPE AND FEAR

THE NEWS WORLD

THE WEBBY WORLD

DIGITAL VERSUS TRADITIONAL

NIKO BELLIC VERSUS INDIANA JONES

DIGITAL GUINEA PIGS

AN OBJECT LESSON QUOTE

COCKTAIL CHATTER


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IT’S A TELEVISION WORLD AFTER ALL: A recently released study says television is the most influential… authoritative… exciting… persuasive medium and the one people are most likely to use for news, weather and traffic information as well as the one where people are most likely to learn about products or brands. Says who? Well, the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB), that’s who. Before you dismiss the study for that reason, consider that another study affirmed some of those same key points – that TV advertising is by far the most effective in impacting consumers’ product awareness, product familiarity and intent to purchase and is the best at either launching a brand or maintaining a brand. You want to know who says so this time? Okay, well, it’s Fox which commissioned a review by research firm Marketing Evolution of 40 previous “return on marketing objectives” studies it did for advertisers. Still, there is some cross-affirmation and validation that can’t be dismissed.

The Fox network did the review as part of its effort to counter the swelling migration of advertising from the TV world to the digital world. And that is where you find some interesting data from the TVB study – when you compare the Internet to TV, newspapers, radio and magazines.

AN INTERNET WORLD OF HOPE AND FEAR: The report does indeed show television’s dominance in so many ways, but that dominance is clearly weaker in the younger age groups. For example, nine out of ten adults (90.2%) over the age of 18 reported spending time with TV “yesterday” compared to two-thirds (65.6%) who said they had spent time with the Internet “yesterday.” Radio actually came in second (73.4%) with newspapers (63.8%) slightly behind the Internet but ahead of magazines (50.1%). The margin changes significantly when the study focuses on the 18-34 age group with television dropping slightly (87.3%) while the Internet increases (72.5%). Women spend more time with TV (253.7 Minutes) than men (218.7) but men spend more time with the Internet (114 minutes) than women (83.7). The average adult, 18-plus, spends 236.6 minutes a day with TV. The Internet and Radio are basically tied, with an average 98 minutes, compared to newspapers (26.7 minutes) and magazines (16.7). But when you look at the 18-34 group, again the margin changes significantly with the average time spent with TV dropping (206 minutes) while the average time spent with the Internet increases (145.4).

THE NEWS WORLD: When it comes to choosing their ‘primary news source,’ broadcast television (39.1%) scores double what cable television scores (19.9%) and triple what the Internet scores (11.5%), according to the TVB figures. But again those numbers change significantly when the focus is on the 18-34 crowd. Broadcast TV pretty well retains its dominance (38.7%) but the Internet jumps significantly (21.8%), actually beating out cable television (14.6%) and way ahead of radio (11.1%) and newspapers (8.4%). When it comes to local weather, traffic and sports, broadcast television is the hands down winner (51.2%), beating out the second place Internet by a wide margin (18.2%) while cable television comes in an even more distant third (11.3%), followed by radio (7.4%), and public television (6.1%) which actually beat newspapers (5.7%). Again, in the 18-34 group, the margins change significantly with broadcast television dropping (46.8%) while the Internet increases (25.7%). Only public television shows an increase in this age group (7.7%) while cable television drops (9%) along with radio (6.5%) and newspapers (4.4%). Lastly in the area of breaking news which one might assume cable news would show significant numbers, broadcast television still wins (52%), doubling cable (26.2%) and nearly five times the Internet (10.8%) – at least in the overall Adults 18-plus. Again, though, when the numbers are shown for the 18-34 age group, broadcast television still retains its lead (48.9%) while cable television drops significantly (21.9%) and the Internet increases significantly (18.6%).

THE WEBBY WORLD: The winners of this increasingly prestigious award ceremony were announced with The New York Times (8 awards), The Onion News Network (7 awards) coming out on top, followed by Apple, National Geographic and PostSecret, a ‘user-confession’ site each garnering four awards each. Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert won recognition as “Webby Person of the Year” for his viral campaign – Greatest Living American. The Webbyawards.com site has a cool interactive design to show you the winners which provides an interesting insight into the Internet, but ironically I couldn’t get the static list of Webby award winners to come up.

DIGITAL VERSUS TRADITIONAL: Another wrinkle in the on-going digital debate is a survey of ad executives by consulting firm Accenture which shows that half of them believe digital ads will replace traditional advertising within five years. Social media and user-generated content are considered ‘high-growth opportunities’ but the largest group (38%) cited short-form video as the genre with the most potential, followed by online portal/publishing (23%) and video games (18%). Nearly two thirds (62%) see advertising-supported business models as the leading business model in five years, compared with a quarter (25%) who cited subscription-based services and a tenth (11%) who cited pay-per-play services.

NIKO BELLIC VERSUS INDIANA JONES: That was the headline on a New York Times article about video games. And if you don’t know who Niko Bellic is… well, don’t feel bad. He is one of the characters in the video game Grand Theft Auto, the latest version of which is expected to gross $1 Billion worldwide, $600 Million of that in the U.S. and Canada. An article in The New York Times says that would put it ahead of all but 16 of the biggest box office films, including Raiders of the Lost Ark. Meanwhile the Federal Trade Commission conducted its own undercover operation to see if tweens (ages 13 – 16) could buy such violent video games along with R-rated movie tickets and DVD’s. The operation found undercover kids were turned down more than ever with only a fifth (20%) able to buy what is called ‘mature-rated video games’ – a big improvement over two years ago when two out of five (42%) of the kids were able to buy such games.

RELATED FACTOIDS: From last week’s MfM on the Morgan Stanley report on Internet use: Since Facebook opened its platform to third-party developers, more than 20,000 applications have been added, representing 859 Million installations and 34 Million usages PER DAY – which the report calls “an unprecedented ramp.” Most popular ap’s are Rock You’s Super Wall, Likeness and Hug Me and Slide’s Top Friends, FunWall and SuperPoke.

DIGITAL GUINEA PIGS: Broadcasters in the Wilmington, North Carolina, market have agreed to be the digital guinea pigs for the rest of the broadcast industry. On September 8th, five months before the official switch-over date, the stations will switch off their analog signals and switch on their digital signals. The test concocted by the Federal Communications Commission will, in the words of one commissioner, give the FCC ‘real-world experience.’ Meanwhile, eleven stations in the Orlando/ Central Florida market are running their own version of an early warning system – a series of one-minute tests starting on June 25th in which they will turn off their analog signal to, in the words of one writer, “flush out viewers who are not technologically prepared” for the switch-over. (A sort of disclaimer: WECT-TV in Wilmington is a client.)

AN OBJECT LESSON QUOTE: Buried in a story in The New York Times about a meeting between London mayor Boris Johnson and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg is a quote which says volumes (disclaimer: in my opinion) about journalism and media manipulation. Bloomberg advises Johnson on how to handle the press: “You don’t have to match your answers to their questions. If you don’t give the right answers to their questions, they asked the wrong questions.”

COCKTAIL CHATTER: Just one this time, but it’s an interesting one -- two out of every three women aged 50-64 says today’s mothers are doing a worse job as parents than mothers did 20 or 30 years ago, according to a survey by the Pew Research Group. Younger women (under 30) were less critical with less than half (41%) echoing those sentiments while more than half (56%) of the women 30-49 were critical but less than half (48%) of women 65 and older believed that.

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