Microsoft To Be Sole Sponsor For ESPN's 'SportsCenter'

ON THE HEELS OF PHILIPS Electronics' deal to become the sole sponsor of "NBC Nightly News" next week, Microsoft has done the same with a broadcast of ESPN's "SportsCenter." In both cases, the deals include the marketer running fewer spots than the normal loads, believing that a less-is-more approach will go further in delivering their messages.


Microsoft "bought out" the flagship 11 p.m. ET version of "SportsCenter" last night, airing seven minutes of commercials during the hour--down from the program's usual 15. The technology giant's initiative focused on its Xbox 360, which is facing a major challenge from the just-released Sony PlayStation 3 as the holiday season approaches.

MEDIAPOST

A Lone Sponsor for a Longer ‘Nightly News’

A week from tonight, viewers of the “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” will be able to watch more news — and fewer commercials — as a result of a sponsorship deal with the Philips Electronics North America Corporation.

The sponsorship is part of a weeklong, $2 million agreement between Philips and the NBC Universal division of General Electric that includes “Today,” two cable shows and a feature on NBC’s digital weather channel. The deal is the latest element in a campaign that seeks to drive home the Philips advertising theme “sense and simplicity.”


READ THE ARTICLE AT NYTIMES.COM

What Podcasting Revolution?

What Podcasting Revolution?

More people are downloading audio feeds, but few do it regularly, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project

by Catherine Holahan

Report author Mary Madden says the study shows that, while people are becoming more comfortable watching or listening to programs on their computer, they are far from tuning in with any regularity.


READ THE ARTICLE AT BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE

MTV To Develop Niche Broadband Channels

MTV NETWORKS MAY HAVE LOST the battle to buy MySpace, but it's still moving ahead with plans to expand online.

Next year MTV plans to roll out some 20 super-niche broadband channels, catering to the narrow interests of its customers. For example, it is developing "Web Junk," which will be a companion channel to the VH1 show, "Web Junk 20," where users can see breaking Web clips.

"Talent Load" will be an audition stage for users who will upload videos, kind of like an "American Idol"--early rounds--for the Web. "Faith & Spirituality" will be a place for young people to congregate and discuss spirituality issues. "World Series of Pop Culture" will be another site, complementing the VH1 game show.

MTV will also seek brand extension for its popular "My Super Sweet Sixteen" show, with a site where users will upload photos and video from their most elaborate parties. For those still yearning for more college humor, "Yo Momma" will offer up a site for all "Yo Mama" jokes.

And in collaboration with actor Jack Black and VH1, a site will be developed for sketch comedy and user-generated content called "Department of Acceptable Media," which can be found at www.acceptable.tv.

MTV calls this type of channels "hyper-programmed verticals." Explaining the need for these channels, Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks' Music & Logo Group, said in a release: "Just as MTV networks blazed new territory by establishing linear cable networks built around specific interests and lifestyles, we are now developing new online experiences around niche topics that resonate with our current audiences, as well as those subversive web surfers."

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Chrysler Sets Multilingual TV Plan, Spots Will Run In Three Languages

IN FEBRUARY, TOYOTA CAUSED A frisson with the first Super Bowl spot partly in Spanish. Now, competitor Chrysler is using the strategy to launch a TV campaign in two additional languages--Mandarin and Korean--albeit on less high-profile programming.

Airing in leading markets with large multi-ethnic populations--New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco--the campaign features a spot with the same content, but in three different languages. (English is the third.) It also employs talent from three different ethnic groups.

Focusing on the significance of family, the spot targets people of Chinese and Korean descent in the Mandarin and Korean languages, respectively--and will also air in English to target English-speaking individuals with an Indian lineage.

A corresponding print ad will run in the three languages in publications aimed at the three groups.

The TV effort for the 2007 Sebring sedan will run on a collection of broadcast and cable stations in the three markets, ranging from the Chinese KTSF in San Francisco to Korean WMBC in New York to Indian-oriented SET Asia and Z Cinema.

Print outlets include China Daily News, Korean Central Daily Times, and India Abroad.

"Because our consumers are using an ever-expanding array of media, we are making a direct effort to reach out and communicate with them in venues they find most comfortable," says Dave Rooney, a director in the Chrysler marketing and global-communications unit.

Chrysler says the creative attempts to appeal to the role of family in Asian-American communities. In the spot, a new owner of a Sebring touts its entertainment system, which includes the opportunity to display digital photos and show off family photos.

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Channel M launches new Auto Guide in 2007

by Mitch Drew

With the number of local automotive dealers using Channel M as a way to reach the growing ethnic population of the Lower Mainland, the need to create an "Auto Guide" in 4 languages became apparent.

Starting in 2007, Channel M will present "Auto Motion" 60second automotive product features in English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Punjabi.

Click on this picture to view a 60second sample:



Channel M AUTOMOTION DEMO on Vimeo

For more information, call me today.

Mitch Drew
Channel M
604-678-3912 direct
mdrew@channelm.ca

David Letterman ratings up 5%, thanks to You Tube

Wed Nov 22

NEW YORK (Reuters) - CBS Corp. (NYSE:CBSA - news) video clips from David Letterman's talk show and drama "NCIS" are among the most watched on popular Internet video service YouTube, giving the network a boost in TV viewership, the companies said on Tuesday.

CBS uploaded more than 300 clips that averaged about 850,000 views per day in the first month, in an early sign that YouTube's deals with TV and traditional media businesses could be paying off, the companies said in a joint statement.

CBS said ratings of its late-night programs have seen increases since uploading the shows, including adding 5 percent or 200,000 new viewers to "Letterman" and adding 7 percent or 100,000 viewers to "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE DAVID LETTERMAN PAGE AT CHANNEL M

READ THE ARTICLE AT YAHOO.COM

O.J. Simpson book, TV special canceled

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK - After a firestorm of criticism, News. Corp. said Monday that it has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and television special "If I Did It."

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We are sorry for any pain that his has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson."

A dozen Fox affiliates had already said they would not air the two-part sweeps month special, planned for next week before the Nov. 30 publication of the book by ReganBooks. The publishing house is a HarperCollins imprint owned — like the Fox network — by News Corp.

READ THE ARTICLE AT YAHOO.COM

Yahoo, newspaper groups in Web ad deal

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) will work with seven newspaper groups to share online advertising in a deal that could help newspapers tap into the lucrative online ad market.

A total of 176 newspapers in 38 states will participate in the deal, reported Sunday on the Web sites of The New York Times and some of the newspapers involved.

The groups that have signed on include Cox Newspapers Inc., Belo Corp., Hearst Corp., the E.W. Scripps Co., MediaNews Group Inc., Lee Enterprises and the Journal Register Co.

The partnership will start in December with Yahoo's HotJobs service and move to other types of online advertising.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT YAHOO.COM

LX.TV from NYC and LA

by Mitch Drew

Two former MTV executives have started their own broadband internet TV channel called LX.TV. Joseph Varet said 'the audience is too small to support a 24-hour cable channel but broadband allows you to use the same quality, for lower cost'

The channel targets wealthy 25-49 year olds and features restaurants, nightclubs, shopping and dating advice.

It plays well and has an easy to navigate page. The site was features in the Fall 2006 edition of TRUMP Magazine.



CLICK HERE TO VISIT LX.TV

NBC Breaks into the Ad Business

The network blurs the lines between broadcaster, ad agency, and marketer

by Jon Fine
Business Week
November 2006

NBC Universal: ad agency. Or it will be, sort of. Its new digital czar, Beth Comstock, and her staffers are approaching key advertisers with a simple yet far-reaching proposition: Let our digital studios create some advertising for you. In other words, although NBC executives chafe at this characterization, join with us to demolish long-standing notions of what separates media companies from ad agencies.

"The next natural place to use the talents of the studio is with marketers and advertisers," says George Kliavkoff, NBC Universal's (GE ) chief digital officer. As Comstock conceded at a recent international TV conference, everyone must "get used to the idea that the media marketplace will be full of contradictions and tensions."

One big tension: A direct relationship between networks and marketers could threaten ad agencies' middleman role. Comstock is quick to point out that NBC's marketing efforts will primarily be "adjuncts" to existing campaigns and that "most of the discussions" with marketers involve ad agencies. Still, says one executive familiar with the discussions, in a world of product placement and digital short films built around products, what's message and what's content "starts to become all the same.... That's one of the things Beth Comstock is sitting there recognizing."

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE

For Jon Fine's blog on media and advertising, CLICK HERE

Resorts seek skiers who aren't all snow-white

Some resorts working to attract more ethnic groups to skiing and snowboarding

The Associated Press

HUNTINGTON LAKE, CALIF. // Skiers cut through a fresh dusting of snow, their skis hissing softly against the powder as they crisscross down the slopes, then grind to a halt at the icy base of the Sierra Summit resort where Richard Shimizu is taking a break.

Although the ski resort is in Fresno County, where almost half the population is made up of minorities, most people crunching past Shimizu in their ski boots are white. It's a scene repeated in ski resorts across the country, where only three out of 20 skiers or snowboarders are minorities, according to marketing researchers.

"You see some Asian people sometimes, but few blacks and few Hispanics," said Shimizu, who is Japanese- American. "It's changing, but still there's a big difference. We used to never think about things like ethnicity. Now people pay more attention."

READ THE AP STORY AT THE SEATTLE TIMES.COM

Jim Pattison Lexus Northshore launches new TV

Jim Pattison Lexus - Northshore on Vimeo

Click on the image to view the new Jim Pattison Lexus Northshore Billboards produced at Channel M. They are running in Cantonese, Mandarin and Korean.

www.channelm.ca

Google Readies Radio Ad Expansion, Will Launch 'Audio Ads' By Year-End

GOOGLE IS READYING A PLAN to harness its online paid search platform to allow marketers to purchase contextually targeted radio ads. The program, "Audio Ads," will launch before the end of the year, a company spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

Although the spokesman declined to disclose additional details, rumors swirled Tuesday that the company was planning a major expansion into radio sales by broadening an alliance with Clear Channel Radio.

GO TO MEDIAPOST FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE

Google To Sell Newspaper Ads

by Wendy Davis
Monday, Nov 6, 2006

GOOGLE IS READYING AN EFFORT to sell ads in 50 major newspapers, including papers published by Gannett, the Tribune Company, The New York Times Company, the Washington Post Company, and Hearst. Google reportedly will begin testing the system with 100 advertisers later this month.

Google will begin taking a cut of the revenue next year, after the initial test phase; the search company usually garners about 20% of the ad revenue, according to The New York Times. Among the marketers testing the program is Denver-based online retailer eBags.com.

The program will harness Google's online platform, which the company uses to sell paid search ads. The initiative marks Google's latest attempt to sell ads in traditional media. Earlier this year, Google started selling ads in about two dozen magazines, including ELLEgirl, Motor Trend, and PC World.

That venture, however, didn't gain as much traction as Google had anticipated. In a June conference call with investors and the media, Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's senior vice president for product management, said the print ad sales program "probably hasn't taken off as fast as we would like."

Despite the slow start, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during the same conference call that Google intended to continue to attempt to sell ads in traditional media, including television.

Copyright MediaPost Publications

eMarketer: Online Video Ads To Surge 89% In '07

by Wendy Davis
Tuesday, Nov 7, 2006

RESEARCH FIRM EMARKETER NOW PROJECTS that ad revenue from online video will reach $775 million next year--an upward revision from its previous estimate of $640 million. By 2010, online video ad spending will soar to $2.9 billion--or 11.5% of all dollars going to online ads, according to a new report released Monday.

eMarketer Senior Analyst David Hallerman attributes much of the growth to Google's recent $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube. "The aftershock of that mash-up will, all by itself, contribute greatly to Internet video's growth with products akin to AdWords for Video," he wrote in the new report.

While eMarketer predicts that spending for online video ads will grow by at least 45% every year through at least 2010, ad spending in particular will boom next year with a growth rate of 89%, according to the report. By comparison, total online ad spending will increase 15.1% next year and rich media spending will increase 40.7%, according to eMarketer.

At the same time, the total ad dollars devoted to online video don't come close to approaching the ad dollars that are spent on TV. eMarketer pegs this year's online video ad spending at $410 million--just 0.6% of the TV ad spend.

Copyright MediaPost Publications

Over 3500 Video Views Served

by Mitch Drew

Thank you to all the clients and prospects who have visited MITCH TV in the last few months. Since we added video to the BLOG, the page hits and activity have dramatically increased. We recently passed a couple of milestones including a one-day total of 98 commercial views and our cumulative total since adding video earlier this year is now over 3,500 individual views!

If you would like more information on how to start your own BLOG or host online video, call or email me.

Mitch Drew
Channel M
604-678-3912 direct
mdrew@channelm.ca

MahJongClub.com launches new ad campaign on Channel M

Starting this week a series of 7sec Billboard promoting gaming site MahJongClub.com will begin airing in three languages on Channel M. The creative was produced using provided graphics. We created the 3-D animation and did the voice/over and translation from an English script into Cantonese and Mandarin.

Here are all three versions of the 7sec Billboards.

Mitch Drew
mdrew@channelm.ca



MahJongClub.com 7sec BB - English Cantonese Mandarin on Vimeo

MahJongClub.com