Adbiz

On Dec. 10, 2019, global data, insights and consulting company Kantar revealed that its CEO, Eric Salama would step down "during the course of 2020." Who knew that he wouldn't last past the first quarter.

Hiring the wrong sales rep is painful. In fact, expert sales trainer Barrett Riddleberger is convinced you or someone at your stations may have hired a "pinball" sales rep, and then had to let them go. What is a pinball sales rep? Find out by reading this column, and learn how to avoid ever hiring one again.

It's hardly a secret that the Mike Bloomberg for President campaign is spending some hefty dollars at broadcast TV. In terms of spot count, the Democratic presidential hopeful's dominance over well-established brands is simply impressive, based on the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten TV report.

The latest Spot Ten Cable report from iHeartMedia-owned Media Monitors shows a big gap between the two top auto insurance brands electing to use spot cable as part of their advertising outreach to build consumer awareness and its customer logs. GEICO is again No. 1, and it has a huge lead over its in-category competitor, at No. 2. 

There's a challenger to a big auto insurance brand for spot supremacy at broadcast radio, the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Radio report indicates. It doesn't involve GEICO, and the challenger is one of the nation's biggest advertisers.

Most of the world’s top marketers focus on age and gender when they plan and buy media, notes Group M's Brian Wieser. "This is especially true for campaigns designed to build brands and even more true for those which rely on video." To meet this focus, "demographically-based audience guarantees were established as a standard transaction term, and they persist as a means for helping marketers prioritize which inventory they want."

A next-generation TV measurement and audience analytics tool for national TV networks, advertisers and agencies that allows customers "to move beyond the existing limitations in measurement to analyze all time-shifted viewership across live, DVR and set-top-box video on demand has been launched by 605. The news came hours before the start of a CIMM cross-platform measurement summit in New York.

Want to hire great salespeople? Expert sales trainer Barrett Riddleberger recommends you answer these questions before you recruit your next sales candidate. "Defining your sales role first is critical to the hiring process," he urges in this freshly penned column.

Has MoffettNathanson Senior Analyst Michael Nathanson picked up the torch that former Pivotal Research Group analyst Senior Research Analyst for Advertising Brian Wieser held when it came to the dismal Wall Street view for linear television? An update to a January 15th "gloomy 2020 outlook note" suggests yes, as things "have been even more worrying than we first considered."

The multi-year agreement with Skyview Networks becomes effective with the upcoming start of the 2020 Major League Baseball season, in March. It gives full control to the Minnesota Twins' broadcast team and front office.

Total advertising revenue for what is now being defined as "linear television" dipped 1% in calendar year 2019, compared to 2018. That's according to a fresh calculation of data by Standard Media Index, which released the information on Monday.

Despite being knee-deep in the digital age, marketers have not turned their backs on offline media. So says a Winterberry Group report that finds that the 2020 presidential election and the Summer Olympics will result in $5 billion year-over-year growth in media spend. There's just one problem: Radio won't reap big benefits from the increase.

The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) has successfully secured advertising for African American-targeted radio stations from a federal agency of great importance in 2020, and from one of the world's largest automotive brands. The latter win is tied to Black History Month celebrations, coming just after the observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The audio advertising network of Hispanic-focused multimedia company Entravision has joined the total market-targeted publishers on the new self-serve audio ad buying service from AdsWizz.

"Never let the inmates run the asylum," warns expert sales trainer Barrett Riddleberger in this latest Media Information Bureau installment. In this column, Riddleberger provides details on how sales managers and those in the C-Suite can learn how to effectively hold their sales reps accountable.