“NBC Universal is taking the unusual step of giving advertisers cash back for primetime ratings shortfalls from last season. The move is a departure for NBC, which like other broadcast networks typically gives advertisers additional TV spots, called make goods, when ratings fall short of expectations. The unusual move shows the network’s particular vulnerability both to the Hollywood writers’ strike and to a new commercial ratings system being used this year for the first time.”
Reuters called PaidContent to clarify that this share of the ad revenues does not replace their subscription fees: “While the collaboration is a new type of deal for Reuters, our news agency subscription model still very much stands with clients around the world, including the IHT. This type of new strategic editorial collaboration is in addition to the subscription model, not a replacement.”
The more interesting aspect to me is that IHT is sharing ad revenues with a content supplier. Viacom announced a deal in August to share revenue with South Park’s creators. As the major media companies lose their distribution monopolies, talent seems to be gaining leverage.
In my earlier piece on leading paid-content publishers investing in free, ad-supported content, I left out the most successful ad-free publisher of them all: Consumer Reports.
To be clear, there are no plans to change course over there. According to the NY Times, it has 3 million online subscribers at $26 a year, the same rate it charges print subscribers. Annual revenues are $208 million (including a few smaller publications too) with an operating margin of $28 million — not bad, especially considering it’s a non-profit.
Forget about who you know in this fabulous video. Today I had lunch with the dude who sings the bass line in it. Tom Shields of the Woodside Fund and now Yieldex. Tom, you’re my hero.
Scoble talks with Mike Moran, IBM distinguished engineer, about the concept of iterative marketing. His upcoming book, Do It Wrong Quickly, he talks about a new approach to marketing that isn’t based on huge-investment 30-second spot. Not because ratings are down and viewers are skipping commercials, but because the broadcast advertising model doesn’t allow for marketers to try, learn and improve campaigns along the way.
As part of their “What Do You Have To Say?” brand campaign, HP is sponsoring Facebook’s Graffiti Wall. In addition to banner units, HP helped Graffiti add comments and the ability to print Graffitis. Within 3 hours of the launch of comments functionality, Graffiti users had posted 1000 comments. (Artist on the below: Crystal Hughes.)
Ugh. Does it get lower? From Ad Age, McDonalds is running ads on elementary-school report cards in Florida.
“The Golden Arches picked up the $1,600 cost of printing report-card jackets for the 2007-2008 school year in Seminole County, Fla., in exchange for a Happy Meal coupon on the card’s cover. With 27,000 elementary school kids taking their report-card jackets home to be signed three or four times a year, that’s less than 2 cents per impression.”
Meanwhile,
“Last summer, McDonald’s joined the Better Business Bureau’s Children’s Food and Advertising Initiative. Participants, including Kraft Foods, General Mills and Burger King, have agreed to limit advertising to children under 12 and focus on better-for-you options. The reductions were to have been apparent by January 2008. The McDonald’s sponsorship will carry through the end of this school year.”
Here’s “sponsored printing” that I support, a Dutch service called StudyPrint (from Springwise).
“Like much else in the digital world, Google stands at the center of this shift, Horan said. The ability to use search engines to find information means a more meritocratic media world, where a smaller advertiser or publisher can compete with larger companies on the basis of relevance. A car shopper, for instance, uses search to find information and considers a variety of sources rather than turn to a single trusted brand, he said. Intent-driven media also means a blurrier distinction among content, commerce and community, he said. As an example, Horan pointed to Nike+, the running system and social network that blend product, branding and service.”
Today appears to be Racy Content Day at ChasNote. Here’s a fun image from the contextual-advertising-gone-wrong file, Circuit City ads running above the “Theyre All Whores” headline on the What Would Tyler Durden Do? site:
Adult content and the Wall Street Journal have been the two of the few places in online publishing that turn a profit from subscription sales. To see WSJ talk about going free and Playboy investing in content outside the paid garden suggests significant optimism about the growth of online display advertising. While paid subscriptions and ecommerce are still the #1 and #2 online revenue streams for Playboy, PaidContent reports digital ad sales are up 50% this year.
