By Patricia Wilson, founder of BrandCottage

The Super Bowl has long been thought of as the incubator for advertising and marketing innovation. For Super Bowl XLVI, this is more true than ever.


For the past couple of years, marketers and advertisers have filled Twitter and social media channels with Super Bowl conversations — about the ads as much as about the game. On February 5, when the game airs, Super Bowl advertisers will be working overtime to see that the general public tweets about their favorite commercials as well.

Shazam! Super Bowl Marketing Gets Social

“Super Bowl XLVI marks a tipping point for the anticipated explosive growth of interactive TV and will be a glimpse of what’s to come with emerging technology in this space,” said my friend, Susan Borst, a social media consultant. “Notable this year is the first live streaming of the big game by the NFL and Verizon (NFL Mobile), with an estimated one-third of ads being Shazam-able on smart phones. With more than 60 percent of fans watching the game tied to a second screen, this truly will be the most social Super Bowl ever.”


This year, advertisers are going all out to connect their brands to social media channels. The potential, based on last year’s social media results, is tremendous:

• Super Bowl XLV was the topic of more than 4.5 million tweets (Semiocast).
• During the final moments of the 2011 game, fans sent 4,064 tweets per second (The Huffington Post).

“Having spent record-breaking sums to secure the most valuable television slots in advertising, global brands from Coca-Cola to Volkswagen are looking to leverage social media to extend the buzz and reach of their ads,” writes Yinka Adegoke for Rueters.

Super Bowl 2012: Social Media Highlights

More than 150 million people will watch the game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. This year, it is estimated that the average 30-second spot will cost about $3.5 million, up from last year’s average of $3 million. (All this in a down economy, I might add.)


Some of his year’s reported social media highlights:


Century 21: Behind-the-scenes advertising footage via its app.


Coca-Cola: Along with the TV commercial featuring the Arctic polar bears, the bears will also be active on social media channels, including their own #GameDayPolarBears hashtag on Twitter. “The computer-animated bears will appear in a video stream running throughout the game at CokePolarBowl.com, a site hosted within Facebook,” reports USA TODAY.


Mars M&M’s: Touting a new candy, Ms. Brown, with an @mmsbrown Twitter handle.


Pepsi: Featuring X Factor USA winner Melanie Amaro performing the song, Respect. Fans can download a free video on their smart phones using a Shazam app.


Volkswagen’s Audi: Highlighting young vampires who are stunned by the Audi S7′s LED headlights (a spoof on the Twilight series), with continued conversation on Twitter: #SoLongVampires.

Super Bowl Ads: Not Just for TV

“Super Bowl ads aren’t just for TV anymore,” writes Carolyn Said at SFGate.


Said notes that many companies already have and others will share clips on YouTube. Companies are also extending their messages offline. Kia Motors, for example, is running teaser ads in movie theaters.


The trend in social media with the Super Bowl has been building over the past two or three years,” says Tim Calkins, a Northwestern University marketing professor, in a msnbc.com story. “This year, we’re really seeing it go to a totally new level where marketers are making social networking a core part of their Super Bowl efforts.”


Patricia Wilson is the founder of BrandCottage, a media marketing company with offices in New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

By Patricia Wilson, founder of BrandCottage

Advertising is dead. Long live advertising!


Or so the chant continues as advertising spending continues its march from economic doldrums and adjusts to changes due to technological innovations and shifting consumer media habits.

Interpublic Group’s Magna Global recently lowered its 2012 worldwide ad revenue projections, but still predicts total ad revenues to be up 3.7 percent — nearly $153 billion — in the United States. Similarly, ZenithOptimedia forecasts a 3.6 percent growth expenditure for the United States in 2012, pointing to continued newspaper declines and flat magazine advertising,  but increased market share for Internet advertising.


Biggest gainers: digital and mobile ads aimed at driving new revenue from a growing appetite for tablet computers that come in all shapes and sizes, from the innovation-leading Apple iPad to the low-cost Amazon Kindle Fire (see PCMag’s tablet review). However, even within the television and digital ad spaces, changing priorities in ad spending look like the norm for 2012.


(See related BrandCottage blogs: Advertising’s Recovery: Not all Media Created Equal and Advertising Spending Looks Up in 2010.)

TV Advertising Maintains Market Share

Holding its own in the battle for advertising dollars: television.


Cable “cord cutting” is expected to continue in the U.S. at an annual rate of 500,000 subscribers for the next few years,” said Vincent Letang,the executive vice president and director of global forecasting at Interpublic Group’s Magna Global (reported by MediaDailyNews). But dollars won’t be lost as much as they are redirected to other video channels and platforms.

Print Down But Not Out

A poor performance in the second half of last year resulted in an 3.1 percent decline in magazine ad pages for 2011 compared with 2010, according to a report recently issued by the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB). Category declines included food and food products, home furnishings and supplies, public transportation, hotels and resorts and direct response companies.


There are, however, some “pockets of strength” in the apparel, cosmetics and financial sectors. In fact, according to Mediafinder.com, 239 new magazines launched in 2011, up 24 percent from 193 new launches in 2010 (see MediaDailyNews). Business-to-business magazines almost doubled, from 34 new titles in 2010 to 62 last year.

Innovation Drives Advertising Disruption

Three emerging trends are the direct result of disruptive technologies, according to a 2012 market survey conducted by AdMedia Partners:

• The distribution of content across trans-media channels.
• The demand for real-time, more personalized content across multiple devices.
• Exponential growth in the ability to collect, manage, analyze and execute on marketing data.

“As a consequence, digital media and marketing services are experiencing more rapid growth than both the overall economy and marketing spending as a whole,” according to the AdMedia report.


The Internet is and will continue to be the fastest-growing medium, according to ZenithOptimedia. Major Internet advertising trends, worldwide:

• Display is growing the fastest, at 18.9 percent a year, and is driven mainly by online video and social media.
• Paid search is growing more than 15 percent a year, but growth is “slightly restrained by the shift in search behavior from desktop to mobile devices, where costs are currently lower.”
• Google increased its global share of the Internet market from 34.9 percent in 2006 to 44.1 percent in 2010.
• Facebook has overtaken AOL with a market share of 3.1 percent in 2010.

Digital advertising has quickly advanced from a fringe buy to an imperative part of companies’ media mix,” notes Jenna Levy in the Marketing Conversation blog.


Even more amazing, Forrester Research predicts that U.S. advertisers will spend $77 billion on interactive marketing in 2016 (thanks DailyDOOH).


That’s the amount spent on television today!

Patricia Wilson is the founder of BrandCottage, a media marketing company with offices in New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

By Patricia Wilson


Where have all the news junkies gone or, more appropriately, where are they going? And what does the migration from print to digital — if its exists — mean for marketers and the advertising agencies that want to reach news consumers?


Consider these transformational changes in news consumption:

• Print newspaper circulation continues to decline. The Audit Bureau of Circulations, in October, found that 379 daily newspapers reported an average 10.6 percent drop in circulation (see The New York Times story).
• Purchases of U.S. magazines at news stands and other retail outlets, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, fell 9 percent in the second half of 2009, while subscriptions fell 1.1 percent in the years second half (see msnbc.com story).
• 28 percent of newspaper executives responding to a recent survey by the Associated Press Managing Editors, a group of newspaper executives, said their publications are considering online fees (see USATODAY.com story).
• According to a survey by Editor and Publisher (itself, a magazine that is shutting down), 55 percent of readers said they would be very or extremely unlikely to pay for online newspaper or magazine content (see News Consumer story).
• At the same time, 81.5 percent of the online paid subscribers of The Wall Street Journal and Consumer Reports consider them to be good, very good or excellent value, according to the Editor and Publisher study.
• To really complicate matters, 26 percent of Americans get news on their mobile phones, according to a new Pew Research Center study, Understanding the Participatory News Consumer.

For advertisers and marketers who are wondering where to find their target consumers in this jungle of media usage patterns, it’s time to remember:

1. All good marketing starts with clear objectives.
2. Every media can accomplish something….and most often not the same objectives.

Online news is fast, it’s searchable and it saves valuable time. But online news is also highly fragmented. Print, on the other hand, is surprisingly engaging and encourages readers to take deeper dives. They both have their place and, as media strategists, we have to make the right choices for our brands.


For example, I can’t imagine the brand launch of a new car design or Prada jeans without thoughtful print campaigns. Or products for babies without being in Parent magazine, where new moms and dads seek information-rich articles, photos and sidebars. For the same reasons, radio is intrinsically a good bet for fast-food restaurants, just as digital advertising is fabulous for reaching highly targeted segments at places in their lives where they are close to a purchase decision such as taking a trip to Europe, for example.


It’s more important than ever for marketers to get back to understanding what each media type can and can’t do. New media, without a doubt, is growing and important. But there is still a place in the media plan for traditional media.


Patricia Wilson is the founder of BrandCottage, a media marketing company with offices in New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

By Patricia Wilson


Overall, optimism is growing in the advertising industry. However, not all media are created equal in projections for U.S. advertising spending in 2010 and beyond. It remains a difficult time for print, while television seems to be holding its own. Digital advertising continues to grow, and may have even benefited from the recession.


(See related blog: Advertising Spending Looks Up in 2010.)


“The rise of the Internet continued uninterrupted during the downturn — in fact, the downturn probably accelerated the shift of budgets from traditional media by focusing advertisers’ minds on the importance of measurable return on investment,” said ZenithOptimedia, in a press release forecasting ad spending for 2010 and beyond.


Television suffered less than other media, ZenithOptimedia noted, while “newspapers and magazines have clearly suffered the most from the downturn.”

Ad Predictions by Media Type

ZenithOptimedia predicts the following for 2010 global advertising spending by media:

• TV: Up 4.36 percent with 40.3 percent market share.
• Newspapers: Down 3.8 percent with 21.7 percent market share.
• Internet: Up 12.9 percent with 13.9 percent market share.
• Magazines: Down 4.4 percent with 9.6 percent market share.
• Radio: Down 0.5 percent with 7.5 percent market share.
• Outdoor: Up 1.72 percent with 6.5 percent market share.
• Cinema: Up 3.07 percent with 0.5 percent market share.

Communications firm Carat, as reported by MarketingProfs, expects the United States — in specific — to follow a similar ad-spending pattern:

• TV: Up 4 percent.
• Newspapers: Down 8.3 percent
• Online: Up 10 percent.
• Radio: Up 2.5 percent.
• Magazines: Down 5 percent.

Last, but not least, in its April revised forecast (via MediaBuyerPlanner), MAGNA raised its 2010 expectations, predicting a 3 percent rise in U.S. ad spending, including revenues from the Olympics and spending on elections, to 3 percent. This is MAGNA’s second correction of 2010, including a January forecast predicting flat growth for U.S. ad spending.


MAGNA’s U.S. outlook is bullish for the Internet and TV, but bearish for print:

• Search: Up 16.8 percent.
• Local TV: Up 16.2 percent.
• Internet: Up 12.8 percent.
• National TV: Up 10.2 percent.
• Magazines: Down 6.9 percent.
• Local Newspapers: Down 10 percent.
• National Newspapers: Down 11 percent.

Industry revenues will rise from $40.5 billion in the first quarter of 2009 to $41.3 billion during the first quarter of 2010, according to a MAGNA press release.


“Among the various sectors, television remains the largest advertising platform in the United States,” MAGNA said. “The $56.0 billion dollar segment will grow by 9.8% during 2010, slightly higher than our prior 8.5% expectation. This growth will erase 2009′s losses and return the sector to levels observed between 2006 and 2008.”

What Media Executives are Saying about the Future

Overall, ad spending is expected to grow an average of 3 percent in 2010, while interactive ad spending is expected to grow 10 percent, according to an AdMedia Partners online survey of global senior business executives in advertising, marketing services, digital marketing and related industries.


The majority of media executives (65 percent) said that online revenue will account for more than 50 percent of total revenue within the next five years at business-to-business publications. For newspapers, 44 percent said online revenue will outstrip print within five years and 38 percent said that it is likely to take 5-10 years.


Mobile and social media marketing are also projected to grow.


“These evolving media and service offerings are considered to be important growth opportunities increasingly requested by content owners and advertisers,” according to the AdMedia Partners report. “Just like the early days of the Internet, media companies are experimenting with various business models to monetize these opportunities.”


Patricia Wilson is the founder of BrandCottage, a media marketing company with offices in New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

By Patricia Wilson


The iPad. Promoted tweets. Interactive ads. Which hot new trends have merit for advertising? Getting to the soul of marketing. These were just some of the main topics covered at the 2010 Ad Age Digital Conference held April 13 and 14 in New York.


BrandCottage was on hand at the conference. Here are some of the event’s highlights:

Best speaker: Jim Farley, group vice president of global marketing at Ford Motor Co.


Farley, who is the cousin of the late comedian, Chris Farley, explained that Ford is riding a wave of advertising success based on the “democratization of marketing.” In both digital and traditional marketing, he explained, Ford puts the brand in the hands of real consumers. “That’s what digital has shown us: how to earn credibility among consumers,” he said.


One out of every four advertising dollars spent by Ford goes to digital, including social media. “Social media has shown the importance of being authentic, even in traditional media,” Farley noted.


Few could argue with Farley’s authenticity. At 16, he purchased his dream car, a Ford Mustang. “To be good at marketing, you have to understand the soul of what you’re selling,” he said.


See Ford’s Jim Farley Says Recession Was a Blessing for Digital in Advertising Age for full story.


Biggest news: Twitter COO Dick Costolo announced promoted tweets. It was refreshing to hear from Costolo that consumers and advertisers have a “wait and see what happens” attitude about the acceptance of promoted tweets and that Twitter was going to move ahead carefully (testing of promoted tweets began during the conference).


“We wanted to do something that just enhances the conversation that companies are already having with their customers on Twitter,” Costolo said. Of course, Twitter also needs to build a revenue model to capitalize on the company’s reported 50 million daily tweets — a fact not lost on attendees.


Twitter’s initial version of promoted tweets — in the form of keyword ads — will appear in search results. Later the ads will appear in user feeds on Twitter and on third-party clients such as TweetDeck, TwitterBerry and Tweetie, which Twitter recently acquired.


In short, each ad is a tweet that will appear at the top of a search. The promotional tweet can be re-tweeted, just as a regular tweet is passed around today. Costolo said ads would be available on a CPM-basis.


See Chats, Stats and Secrets about Twitter in Advertising Age for more information.


Biggest antagonist: Yahoo! Scientist Duncan Watts, who questioned the value of tweets.


Watts reported that, based on his research, a tweet’s average influence score is 0.28 people. “Most of them will send tweets and no one else re-tweets,” he said. “A lot of times, not that many people are listening on Twitter.”


However, Watts did not discount the value of thousands or millions of many-to-many connections. In fact, he said that advertisers would get more value from a lot of small influencers than from a big influencer such as Kim Kardashian, at $10,000 per tweet.


“If you recruit enough people who, on average, influence just one other person, you could get a much better return on investment,” he said.


Best quote: “I’ve seen the future and it’s covered in greasy fingerprints,” said Simon Dumenco, Ad Age’s Media Guy.


Dumenco gave a lighthearted speech on the transformational power of the iPad, for which he believes fingerprints are about the only down side of the device. Still, he added, publishers have only begun to scratch the surface of the iPad’s potential. “So far, the iPad’s killer app is demo-ing the iPad,” said Dumenco, quoting technologist Ben Rosen.


Cautious optimism: Digital is here to stay and marketers are getting on board in big ways. However, most CMOs and brand marketers say they are not hopping on the next shinny thing just to be first. “We never hop on the next hot thing, but the iPad made a lot of sense for us,” said Vivian Schiller, president and CEO of NPR.


For companies such as Dell, however, it’s full speed ahead. “Dell is a total digital company and it’s part of our corporate DNA,” said Dell CMO Erin Nelson. On Twitter, Nelson said the social media platform “has collapsed our customer feedback cycle and dramatically improved product development.”


In conclusion: Understanding how consumers use various media, how they react with online ads and why they join social networks in the first place — these are all important strategy questions for branders. We’ve moved way past mere reach and frequency.


What is clear is that (1) no single media owns the consumer and (2) the consumer now has a lot of influence. Smart marketers understand that consumers now seek authentic and trustworthy brands — new realities thanks to digital and social media.


Patricia Wilson is the founder of BrandCottage, a media marketing company with offices in New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.