Nielsen's bid to restore faith in TV ads

New electronic ratings from the television-viewing measurement firm could help save ad-supported TV.

By Susanna Hamner, Business 2.0 Magazine writer-reporter

June 27 2006: 2:47 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Nielsen's famous TV ratings are getting a serious shakeup - one that people in the advertising industry say is long overdue.

While Nielsen has already made partial moves to the electronic measurement of TV audiences in the largest television markets, in smaller cities - which make up more than half of the U.S. population - it still depends on household-survey participants to fill in handwritten diaries. But that old system is finally on its way out, thanks to challengers in the TV-ratings business and the threat that the TV-advertising industry faces from online ads.

"It's incredible that one company has so much power," says Derek Robson, co-managing director of advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. "Nielsen's ratings system has been viewed with a bit of skepticism for a long time, and there hasn't been anything out there to compete with it."

READ THE ARTICLE AT BUSINESS 2.0

You can star in a Jessica Simpson video!

I've posted a number of articles about 'user generated content' and am a real believer that this trend will grow. Seeing the power of MySpace.com and other online communities and being aware of this growing trend, it still amazes me to see the way that marketers are using it.

Take a look at what users (consumers) are being asked to do for a new Jessica Simpson video.

CLICK HERE

It's very cool.

Mitch

Canada a mosaic of tastes - Marketers cash in on the differences

Rogers' cellphone unit leads the pack

Stefan Atton is the first to admit Canada's beer sellers face a challenging future.

Not only are aging core customers drinking less, or switching to wine or spirits, but the fastest-growing segments of the population — Asians and blacks — aren't big on beer, according to extensive targeted polling conducted by Solutions Research Group Inc., which produced a report examining diversity in Canada.

Only 12 per cent of South Asian respondents, 14 per cent of Chinese and 16 per cent of blacks — a category that includes African and Caribbean respondents — said they drank a beer at home in the prior week, compared with 27 per cent for the general population.

READ THE ARTICLE

Cellphone Company Makes A Call: Korean Americans

Firm Targets Tech-Savvy Population

When Helio LLC wanted to market a new $250 ultra-high-tech cellphone this year, it targeted three distinct groups: spoiled teens, tech geeks and Korean Americans.

Korean Americans make up less than 1 percent of the U.S. population, but U.S. telecommunications firms take note of them because their kin across the Pacific are among the most tech-savvy people on the planet.

READ THE ARTICLE AT THE WASHINGTON POST

Check It Out: New Network To Sell TV Ad Time Via Online 'Shopping Cart'

FRANK MAGGIO HAS SPENT MUCH of the past year trying to shake up the way TV audiences are measured. Now he wants to change how TV advertising is bought and sold. In a move that is likely to win favor from advertisers seeking to develop an open market structure for buying media, Maggio this week will unveil a new system for buying TV ad time on his new ReacTV channel that utilizes an approach akin to Amazon.com.

"Authorized buyers would see every ad unit that's available and can click on it and buying and put it in a shopping cart," Maggio tells MediaDailyNews. When enough TV ad inventory is selected to meet an advertiser's gross rating point goals, Maggio says buyers will simply proceed to the system's checkout area, where the buy will be implemented.

READ THE ARTICLE AT MEDIAPOST.COM

As Cannes Begins, marketers wrestle with future of ads

Digital media have turned Madison Avenue on its head in the past year, and ad agencies are racing to remake themselves to respond.

As new media challenge traditional media's dominance with marketers trying to hawk products, agencies are scrambling to reorganize to be able to create advertising for the growing range of platforms, to develop tools to measure effectiveness of alternative ad forms and to devise models for getting paid for the new types of work.

The pace of change will be the hot topic this week for the ad industry's leadership at the 53rd International Cannes Lions Advertising Festival, opening today in France.

READ THE ARTICLE AT USA TODAY

Ad Execs: Online Video Has Little Impact On Upfront TV Ad Plans

FOR ALL THE HYPE SURROUNDING the emergence of online video, nearly two thirds of ad executives say it has had no effect on their ad spending plans during the 2006-07 upfront TV advertising negotiations. That's one of the conclusions from a survey of top ad executives fielded by the American Advertising Federation.

The findings, part of a survey of the digital media plans of 140 ad execs, were released Sunday during the opening day of the AAF's national conference in San Francisco. While the majority of executives said online video has had no impact on their TV advertising plans, 23 percent said they planned to spend more on TV networks because of it, while 15 percent said they would actually spend less.

The Network Unbound

How TagWorld and other next-generation social networks could feed your business--and maybe even change the world.

The spring of 2006 will go down as a curious moment in the annals of buzz. The mainstream-media steamroller caught up with a bona fide cultural phenomenon, then flattened it into a cliché before the average person knew what all the fuss was about. That's ironic, because the fuss was about the average person--that is, his or her participation in what's known variously as "social media," "social networking," "user-generated content," the "live Web" or the dreaded "Web 2.0." But don't worry, this isn't yet another story getting all up in MySpace or metaprofiling Friendster profiles.

This is about how those sites, and their successors, are growing up--and about their impact on how business gets done. Companies, whether they sell software, movies, or dog food, are changing the way they communicate, make decisions, and develop and market products, all because of the exponential rise of new tools that allow people to express themselves more easily online--and on the streets.

READ THE ARTICLE AT FASTCOMPANY.COM