Adbiz

Whether its a new appliance or replacing that ol' rusty bolt, The Home Depot is sure that it will be bringing in the customers who can't wait for the snow to melt, or for the temperatures to start their steady climb toward swimming season. What media is the retailer using to drive traffic to its stores? Good ol' radio.

Standard Media Index (SMI) on Monday released its year-over-year figures for national ad spend for various media. In particular, SMI examined the top advertiser categories across National TV. Here's what they found.

Excluding the Winter Olympic Games from South Korea, the total U.S. national ad market soared by 8% in February 2018. This growth was driven by "strong gains" in National Television, Digital and Radio, just-released Standard Media Index data indicate.

A few weeks ago, RBR+TVBR offered readers a scholarly Media Information Bureau report on U.S. digital TV proliferation and its implications for advertisers. The author was Head of Television for Cambridge Analytica — the data firm that's at the center of a furor over its cozy relationship with Facebook and controversy tied to the election team of President Trump. Questions about brand safety on Facebook have again been raised by those questioning the digital media giant. Why hasn't the radio industry shouted, "We're Safe! Come to us, CMOs"?

According to a just-released forecast from the ad industry research arm of IPG Mediabrands, digital and out-of-home advertising — including the ads cinema-goers see before the previews start — are the only media types forecast to grow ad sales in 2018. What could this mean for radio and TV broadcasters across the U.S. in an election year that also included the Winter Olympics? Additionally, what did MAGNA have to say about iHeartMedia and Cumulus impacting ad dollar growth?

Hiring great sales reps means weeding out bad ones — especially those who interview well and come highly recommended by others, expert sales coach Barrett Riddleberger often notes in his Media Information Bureau columns. Now, Riddleberger gets behind the camera in this video podcast to share an expereince he had with a client who was considering a top sales candidate.

A global leader in digital audio ad technology has just been gobbled up by an audio streaming giant in need of a revenue jolt. The deal is designed to allow Pandora to "upgrade its ad tech capabilities, provide its advertisers with greater audience reach, and expand the company’s revenue opportunities."

Despite what your weathermen might be telling you, the spring equinox is nearing and automotive brands are eagerly anticipating a surge in buyer interest. This results in the placement of dealer associations in four of the top 5 spots in the latest Spot Ten TV report from Media Monitors.

Whether it's getting rid of fallen leaves or treating your hair with the utmost care, brands are taking to radio to get their message across to consumers — and their sales revving in the right direction.

It's a well-established fact that one auto insurance brand is a leader with respect to its advertising across both TV and radio. That brand, GEICO, continues to be a stand-out player at spot cable, Media Monitors data show.

Marketers have always shied away from the "silver" crowd, but doing so could reduce the amount of gold they can strike by actively targeting an ever-active group of 60+ Americans. Based on new data from Pew Research Center, ignoring elder Americans in the coming years would be very bad business: Older adults are projected to outnumber kids for the first time in U.S. history.

What are local advertisers buying? How is that changing, thanks to the rise of local digital media solutions? Do broadcast media and print media hold the same value with local businesses as they did a year ago, or a decade ago? Answers to these questions will come on Tuesday in a MFM Distance Learning Webinar.

Here's some competitive data for radio that's ripe for discussion in the sales office and corporate C-Suite. Equally, TV broadcasting companies may wish to take notes on a new competitor that could be encroaching on its bread and butter: local TV spots. A majority of small businesses had produced a video in the last 12 months. Said video didn't appear on TV or a radio station's social media page.

If you're in the smallest of Nielsen Audio-rated markets, or in a city where there are no ratings, attracting listeners — and advertising — has its challenges. But, what if you're serving a unique audience you can "own"? Spanish-language radio stations have emerged in that role, and in the first of a regular series of podcasts designed to educate and inform the media industry on the power of Hispanic radio, RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson takes seven minutes to learn how Tomás Martinez, owner and CEO of Solmart Media, has developed a cluster of stations in a rural portion of Southwest Florida by targeting Latinos with no other local media choices.

If you have a sales rep (or sales team) that is not hitting their quota, this Media Information Bureau column from regular contributor Barrett Riddleberger is just for you. Anytime you have an underperforming sales rep, there is always a reason. The goal of the C-Suite? Find the source of the problem and remedy it, even if it involves the top executives.