It’s never a good time for a crisis. Even so, the financial predicament that we’re facing couldn’t happen at a worse time. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), Christmas shopping represents a half a trillion dollar challenge to retailers and the companies that provide their goods to them. Winter holiday shopping represents more than 78% of annual holiday purchases. If shopping were measured by the Richter scale, the magnitude of a company’s holiday performance is so pronounced that shockwaves could be felt all year long. For example, holiday shopping is nearly ten times larger than Back to School and thirty times larger than Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or Easter.
Make no mistake about it; we were looking at projections of marginal sales declines before the implosion of Fannie/Freddie, Lehman Bros. and Wachovia. As we meander through the initial aftermath of this situation, research studies indicate that consumers will spend differently this holiday season in absolute volume and products purchased.
With this in mind, I would like to suggest 10 ways your media decisions can add incremental value to your marketing plans.
1. Focus on December. The preponderance of holiday shopping occurs in December. This has been true for years and shopping volume seems to be getting later each season. A 2008 Mediamark (MRI) Omnibus survey estimates that nearly two-thirds of all adult consumers will begin their holiday shopping after Thanksgiving.
2. Invest In TV. An article in Adweek this spring cited that television provided 70% of the impact on consumer purchase decisions. This is not surprising as the influence, magnitude and immediacy of this medium stands far above other alternatives. It’s fair to state that this year will be about performance while longer-term initiatives will be postponed.
3. Be Specific. It would be great for retailers if December was a sweeps period; unfortunately for them, it is not. Repeats accounted for nearly half of all primetime programming in December 2007. That’s right, at 46% of primetime programming, repeats in December accounted for more than a 46% decline in ratings vs. first run programming (1.7 A18-49 rtg. vs. 2.5). Throughout the month, syndication’s major programs outperformed repeat-heavy prime with first-run programming and America’s favorite off-network sitcoms and dramas.
4. Apply “Cost Per” Metrics. Increasing exposure to the right customers builds business. Understanding your competition and who the customers that you’re battling for can be the key to having a better winter holiday sales period. Syndicated research, such as MRI, SMRB and Scarborough, can help marketers better qualify their target. Not all programs have equal delivery of your customers and applying these analytics can deliver more of them.
Lastly, look at the relative cost of media delivery. TNS research shows that syndication provides great value from a cost perspective (CPM) vs. network primetime, whose cost remains exceptionally high despite the increased number of repeats in December.
5. Look at The Time. Key days drive every winter holiday season. Paydays are an important factor and everyone dreads joining the weekend mall crowd frenzy. Delivering your message at the right time is an increasingly complex task in an expanding DVR world. Marketers need to factor delayed viewership into their scheduling tactics to ensure that their message is delivered when they need it. According to Nielsen, A18-49 DVR penetration has increased to 33% this year and with 40% of network primetime viewership being delayed, not all commercials are viewed when you want them, if at all. Using Nielsen People Meter data, we see that syndication delivers 95% of its programming audience to your commercials on a same day basis. It takes three days for network primetime to achieve the same levels and an amazing 55% of primetime drama and sitcom audiences skip commercials during playback.
6. Context Counts. Viewers come to programming with expectations and they differ by programming. In this financial environment, trust and influence matter even more. The E-Score survey, from independent E-Poll Market Research, measures syndicated television stars across 46 different attributes. It’s doesn’t matter who you trust; it’s more important who your consumers trust.
Why does Oprah’s early endorsement of Barak Obama matter so much? Perhaps it’s because 6 in 10 Americans (A18-49) say that they are influenced by what Oprah says. Want to see more scores, check out the engagement section on snta.com.
7. Think Young. I have nothing against older demographic segments; I’m in one of them myself and have aspirations to join even older groups! Nielsen research shows that the median age for most network primetime genres is above the age of 50. An analysis of your primetime buy might show that you’re actually delivering an astounding 60% of your media impressions to people over the age of 50. That’s great if you’re targeting grandparents for a toy purchase. However, if you’re looking to reach people who want the newest mobile phone or flat screen television, syndication’s sitcoms deliver leadership national ratings with a median age of 38.
8. Navigate through the clutter. You’re not the only one who needs store traffic. Anyone who watches television knows that there are times when the breaks are so long that you can walk the dog or take a shower. We see this in the minute by minute ratings as well. While marketers buy “average commercial ratings,” the average is driven by the higher audience in the first commercial minute. Wish that you could buy just that first minute? Syndication can get you pretty close. The 2008-09 SNTA study of pod positions in daily strip programming shows that 86% of syndication’s spots run in the first commercial minute. Want to get higher recall, attention, engagement and likeability? Run in our exclusive national pods that average under 90 seconds in length. We even have 15 programs that, like Fringe, have a commercial pod that is only 60 seconds long. Of course, we offer this pod every day and we don’t charge a premium for the commercial time.
9. Reach for the stars. We all know that primetime ratings are declining. What we should be considering is how reach changes as well. We need to reach a lot of the right people (see point # 5) on the right day to drive traffic to your store. There’s been so much written about Must See TV Thursday and the battle for ratings leadership. What may be more surprising is that the individual nightly reach of any of the Big 4 Networks is only 15%. Syndication’s Prime lineup (e.g. Entertainment News, Top Off-Net Sitcoms, Evening Game Shows, Leading Talk) delivers twice that level on Thursday and every day of the week as well.
10. Operationally in Tune. With syndication, you can buy specific days, specific programs and make traffic changes in line with other national television options.
There’s no doubt that we are entering a challenging winter holiday shopping season with environmental issues that we haven’t faced in a very long time. The solutions that we’ve outlined are meant to help marketers accomplish more with less and increase their chance of success this year and in the years to come.
— By Mitch Burg, President, Syndicated Network Television Association. [email protected]
