Posted on 05/15/2006 4:33:23 AM PDT by abb
Big Advertiser's Decision Demonstrates Power Shift In Media-Buying Deals
The annual network "upfront" ad-selling season officially kicks off today, but one of the country's biggest advertisers won't be buying -- at least not now.
Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick, N.J., health-care products maker, has informed the major TV networks that it is planning to sit out the annual selling bazaar, the time of year when TV networks secure ad commitments for about 80% of the coming fall season's primetime ad inventory. J&J spent almost $500 million on network-TV ads last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, although not all of that is necessarily committed in the upfront market.
J&J's decision is a sign of how the balance of power in the TV industry has shifted to advertisers, who are less dependent on network television nowadays, partly because of the growing list of media options like Internet and even cellphone advertising.
The company, whose well-known brands include Tylenol and Neutrogena, has told network executives that they want to do deals on their own timetable. J&J says it wants to begin its buying process in late August because it wants to bring the media-buying process in line with the business-planning process.
"What we found is, if we can synchronize our business-planning cycle [with buying media time] it will benefit the brand and that is what this is all about," says Kim Kadlec, Johnson & Johnson's chief media officer.
J&J may not be the only marketer sitting out the upfront market. Coca-Cola, which spent $191 million on network-TV ads in 2005, according to TNS, is considering not participating in the upfront process this year, according to a person close to the company. A spokeswoman for the Atlanta beverage concern declined to comment.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Ping
I know commercials pay for "free TV", but I think the trend of inserting more and more commercials is in the end going to kill the goose.
I am old enough to remember when commercials were 60 second long, and there may have been two during a "commercial break".
The big change was when they started first with the 30 seconds commercial, then the 15 second commercial. Then they extended the break to 3 to 4 minutes, it is now possible to have 16 15 second commercials in a four minute break. Add to that the station's promo that technically do not count as commercials, you have a lot of clutter between what a viewer actually tuned in to watch.
It is also annoying to have a program come on and only go for a few minutes before they start the commercial breaks.
When I think about it, maybe this is a good thing. It has forced me to give up on most television programs. I have just a few I will look for during the week, and others that I will watch if I have nothing else better to do. It is not difficult for me to turn on the TV and do something else.
So with that in mind, I vote for the 5 second commercial, with a 10 minute commercial break every 5 minutes. That should pretty much kill any lingering desire to watch anything on TV other then DVDs.
If I had to choose between television and the internet, I would keep the internet...
. . . and yet the broadcasters neeed some justification of the exclusive licenses which their business requires.The only actionable information that you get from the news broadcasts is the traffic and weather reports, (and, ironically, the commercials) but current law wrongly states that the broadcasting of news is in the public interest. It is not. The primary effect of journalism generally, and of broadcast journalilsm in particular, is to criticize the people and institutions upon which we all depend.
I don't think I turned on my TV yesterday.
I didn't until 6 p.m. or so. Not feeling well at all, and was on the PC getting some things in order.
The only network TV the wife & I watch are the various Law & Order series. Otherwise its stuff on Discovery, A & E, etc. I like old Westerns & have The Westerns Channel for that. We just bought a new TV in the past couple months, and the lack of decent programming is the most significant reason for not paying the price for HD. I don't care to watch high definition crap.
There just isn't anything to hold our interest (and not insult us) on netwrok television.
I have long respected J&J's advertising methods. Having a good idea of what appeals to their consumers leads to having products that are popular. This decision adds weight to my choice to own their stock.
I got hooked on 24 which is anything but PC.
On Saturday, I turned the TV on fairly late and ended up watching some priest on the Catholic Network. Not good for the advertisers :-)
I came to 24 only recently, mostly because of people here mentioning it. I've found it somewhat difficult to follow and so haven't become avid. For some reason, I no longer can get interested in serial TV. Law & Order is mainly the wife's interest. Give me a good movie, a book, or the PC. Then I'm happy.
And one of the things I like about it is posting on FR while it is on.
Without FR, I don't know if I would be watching it.
"As money tightens, look for more pressure on the Nets' news divisions. The news divisions have always been loss leaders and never made any money. They're living on borrowed time..."
There is no real need or demand for the evening bilge spewing posing as news on ABCNNBCBS. They could have a 1 minute up date every hour or so with trailers of real news events.
Also, this insane pre lock in of advertising has been for the benefit of the MSM not their advertisers. By not locking in, the companies paying for the advertising, can cue into regional opportunities for their ads.
Allergy seasons vary by state/region. The charcoal/barbeque season in California doesn't end on Labor Day, it goes on until about Christmas. In many places in California we have our summer in the Indian Summer after labor day. With the schools being on different schedules, there is no regular back to school time, our grandkids are off in Mid June to until late July, and any back to school ads in August are too late.
Regional and local store managers are demanding that they have a budget to spend on local advertising based on regional opportunities, not a pre conceived schedule planned by ABCNNBCBS for their convenience. Local Cables and satellite tv can or these local ad opportunities, and they are slicing and dicing the biggies with true seasonal ads and better prices.
agree
So true! I don't even watch the news on Fox anymore either! Regular channels and the majority of cable shows STINK of nothing but trashy crap! The History Channel is ok, not great, but ok. Radio and the net has become my entertainment lately. I pray and pray hard the liberal networks and their crony rags burn quickly and go to hell! I loathe them along with the HELLywood crowd!! They have single handedly perverted and poisoned our youth's minds and are hell bent on destroying our nation!
My Coca-Cola shares flatlined years ago. IMHO consumer companies such as J&J and Coca-Cola got addicted to a monolithic MSM that enabled about a dozen media companies to reach 80%+ of Americans. Hard for me to imagine how companies can successfully pitch a consumer product like Budweiser to today's segmented audiences.
When I was travelling in the South Pacific, I saw J&J baby products advertised with beautiful Fijian families in Fijian newspapers (both Indian and island families) and the same type of personal touch in other countries. I was impressed then and still believe that they think about reaching their customers more than most, eg Coca-Cola.
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