360⁰ MEDIA GUIDE

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION OF ADVERTISING AGE

Because media brands now connect with consumers via many different outlets—from TV, radio and print to online, wireless and local events—they can offer advertisers the ability to reach out at different

times during the day. “Brands want to create connection points with consumers in as many points in the day as possible,” says Alan Cohen, chief marketing officer at TV Guide, where options now include online, print, a TV channel and an electronic video-on-demand guide. “Not every consumer will want to utilize your brand the same way,” he says, noting that marketers, by advertising on different outlets, can reach different groups of consumers.

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It’s not surprising that media brands are helping marketers with creative, says Chris Guilfoyle, publisher of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. “After all,” she says, “who knows our readers better than we do?”

The bottom line for advertisers in all this is insight into their customers and how they use media, says Mel Berning, exec VP-advertising sales at A&E Television Networks. “It’s no longer acceptable to just put up an ad,” he says. “Instead, you have to understand your consumer’s lifestyle so you can begin to reach them at different places and at different times when they are looking for information.”

Media companies are spending significantly more on research than they used to in order to help advertisers understand their target audiences and how well they are engaged in the content at hand, Mr. Berning says.

Understanding the different ways that consumers interact with a media brand is critically important, says Linda Schupack, senior VP-marketing at AMC. “Those experiences can be discrete and play off of one another,” she says.

CLIENT-CENTERED SALES

This all-embracing approach, in which media companies help marketers plot not only what outlets to use but also how the message will be crafted, came about as part of a more intense focus on the client, says MaryAnn Bekkedahl, exec VP-group publisher at Rodale. “We’ve really prioritized our integrated sales effort so that the publishers and sales staff are focused on identifying what the marketer is looking for,” Ms. Bekkedahl says. “We want to understand their challenges and what they are trying to do.”

Similar sounds are emanating from CNN, where the integrated sales team is built around people with creative, brand management and design backgrounds. “We’re not acting as the ad agency, but we want to understand how an agency operates so we can come up with better ideas for our clients,” says Greg D’Alba, chief operating officer of CNN Advertising Sales and Marketing.

Ditto at Disney ABC Unlimited, where a team of executives specializes in giving advertisers and their agencies one-stop access to the company’s vast stable of media networks, consumer products, theatrical films, and parks and resorts. “We can deliv-

er 100% of your media objectives with our lineup of assets,” says Bill Bund, senior VP-integrated sales.

MULTIPLE CONNECTION POINTS

Because media brands now connect with consumers via many different outlets—from TV, radio and print to online, wireless and local events—they can offer advertisers the ability to reach out at different times during the day. “Brands want to create connection points with consumers in as many points in the day as possible,” says Alan Cohen, chief marketing officer at TV Guide, where options now include online, print, a TV channel and an electronic video-on-demand guide. “Not every consumer will want to utilize your brand the same way,” he says, noting that marketers, by advertising on different outlets, can reach different groups of consumers.

One thing advertisers and media executives are learning through all this exploration is the extraordinary benefit of combining online with other media, adds Steve Gigliotti, exec VP-advertising sales at Scripps Networks. If done right, such combinations add the sought-after advantage of a one-to-one connection with consumers.

A recent sweepstakes Food Network created for General Electric Co., for example, targeted people redesigning their kitchens and netted 1 million entries, with 30% of them saying they’d be interested in more information from GE. “Whenever we ran a 20-second promo for the sweepstakes on one of our TV channels, unique visitors would skyrocket on the sweepstakes microsite,” Mr. Gigliotti says.

The kitchen redesign sweepstakes is a good example of the kind of idea-driven campaign many advertisers are trying to achieve in a 360° media world, says John O’Hara, senior VP-general manager of ad sales and marketing for Cartoon Network. “Advertisers don’t just want to buy from a menu,” he says. “They are really interested in an idea that threads through each one of the media outlets.”

For Sony Playstation, this meant sponsoring “Class of 3000,” a new Cartoon Network series that will be launched this month, right around the time Playstation 3 hits store shelves. As part of the campaign, Playstation created Thrillville, an online game housed on a mini-Web site connected to CartoonNetwork.com. It will also sponsor a sneak peak at the new series on

CartoonNetwork.com’s broadband video player.

NEW MEDIA GATEWAY

Often the task at hand includes helping marketers experiment with newer media. Alloy Media+Marketing, which specializes in reaching the under-29-year-old set through nontraditional media, consults marketers and also offers advertising opportunities on an array of outlets. “Young people don’t know a world without total media control,” says Samantha Skee, senior VP-strategic marketing at Alloy. “That’s a new type of consumer for many advertisers.”

Traditional media companies also find themselves helping marketers try newer media. Along with distributing syndicated fare such as “Seinfeld,” and “Judge Hatchett,” Sony Pictures Television operates digital platforms like InHD, AXN and the Funny Bone Channel, as well as Grouper, a user-generated-video site. “As our content migrates into a 360° environment, we’re finding solutions that allow our advertisers to come along,” says Amy Carney, exec VP-sales and operations.

At Comcast Spotlight, much of the focus these days lies in helping clients experiment with video-on-demand. BMW, Home Depot, Panasonic, Wal-Mart Stores, Lexus, Toyota Motor Sales USA, Reebok and a long list of other advertisers have tested Comcast’s VOD platform, while early adopters, such as General Motors Corp., are significantly expanding their presence.

“It’s a testament to GM’s success in the medium that they are doing it on a much grander scale, in many more markets and with many more nameplates,” says Vicki Lins, VP-marketing and communications at Comcast Spotlight.

The drive to test such new solutions has often come from marketers “They want to find new ways to engage their consumers,” Sony’s Ms. Carney says.

What’s interesting about 360° media, she adds, is the flexibility it gives content companies to respond to marketers’ needs. “The marketplace is changing,” she says, “and we want to be able to change with it.”

Every Day with Rachael Ray’s Ms. Guilfoyle agrees. “If you get 360° right, it allows you to build upon it. It enhances the relationship you have with an advertiser, and the advertiser with the consumer.” o

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NOVEMBER 6, 2006