Adbiz

There's a new No. 1 at the top of the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Cable report. But, there's no change of what the top advertiser category is for spot cable. The auto insurance category remains hot, and it's just a matter of what brand is outdelivering its competitor with respect to weekly spot play count.

What do you do when your sales reps fail to meet their quotas or fail to meet your expectations? Uncovering the root cause and applying the right solution is critical, expert sales trainer Barrett Riddleberger notes in his latest Media Information Bureau column. His advice could spark your sales team's performance just in time for the busy holiday season.

Your eyes are not deceiving you. Television ads are getting shorter in length, and that's just been verified by a new trend report that analyzes TV ad trends from MediaRadar. The study examined hundreds of brands purchasing national TV ads from Q1 2017 to Q1 2018.

As many broadcast television executives will note, interactive TV is more common than ever. As such, individual consumers have more input than ever when it comes to the things they enjoy watching — and highly dislike. That said, advertisers have rushed to respond to this personalization trend, and noted media ecologist Jack Myers warns "the days when mass reach is king are rapidly coming to a close." What does this mean for you?

Starting Jan. 1, 2019, Skyview Networks will become the exclusive network sales partner for Local Radio Networks' 24/7 music formats. Concurrently, ABC Radio Networks is set to expand its selection of programming to LRN and its affiliate stations.

There are few advertisers like The Home Depot. Their commercials seem to be everywhere -- and that's an accurate assessment of this home improvement retailer's media buying habits. It's an active user of all sorts of media, and radio is no exception.

Don't think for a minute that car buyers have slowed down their desire to replace their current vehicle. While several automotive brands cut back on the number of TV spots immediately after the big June 30 make-or-break sales day, Toyota took a different approach. As such it stands out from the pack.

Home improvement stores certainly remain one of the biggest categories for spot cable. But, the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Cable report shows that auto insurers are back at it -- and in a significant way.

The organization whose standards work has supported a century of advances in entertainment technology has rolled out published standards for binding Ad-IDs to commercials and Entertainment ID Registry (EIDR) codes to programming content. The new SMPTE standards specify use of Kantar Media's audio watermarking technology, an open solution available for licensing.

"Keeping in stride with the accelerated pace of today's business climate," Nielsen says its launch of Friday morning data delivery "will provide the earliest read into the retail and consumer goods marketplace, enabling companies to identify and move on market trends, sooner." Here are the details.

On Thursday RBR+TVBR offered commentary from Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson on how the biggest problem with TV and radio spots may be content-related. Today, Jeffrey Hedquist offers his thoughts on how to make an audio commercial bring greater ROI for the advertiser. "If your commercials sound like commercials," he says, "listeners will probably ignore them."

Among the news stories that caught Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson's attention on Thursday morning was a report out of the U.K. involving Channel 4, a major commercial broadcaster. It held a "summer upfront" on the Fourth of July, and the channel is trying out "a new linear ad format," The Wall Street Journal reports. Marketers may be salivating, but our editor argues that there's nothing wrong with the :30 or :60 — except the content.

Auto dealers were brisk with buyers and browsers on Saturday, as the end of the first half of 2018 brought out the customers ready to drive off with a new set of wheels. Helping lure traffic to car and truck vendors were TV spots. But, auto dealer associations were not alone with their big use of television going into July 1. A health and beauty brand and a big chicken vendor were also present.

Yum! With kids out of school for the summer, what better way for QSRs to help boost sales than via a spot cable effort? Someone in the front office must have thought this way, as two big Yum! Brands quick-service restaurant chains are in the latest Media Monitors Spot Ten Cable report.

A rapidly growing clothier? We bet you thought "mall stores" were a dying breed. A brand first known for its "you saw it in that airline magazine" outreach is growing fast, with retail locations from Santa Monica to South Florida popping up. This hot chain is now using radio to help bring in the customers.