The Perfect Storm Part III

April 7, 2008

continued from:
The Perfect Storm Part II

Pulling Passion Across Platforms Cable networks with "enthusiast" audiences, such as ESPN, E, Food Network, HGTV and Lifetime, insist that passionate viewers should translate into higher ratings and bigger CPM prices. To wit: ESPN2 and ESPNEWS had their most watched January ever, while ESPN's 24- hour HH impressions were up 10 percent. According to Ed Erhardt, ESPN president/customer marketing & sales, agencies need to understand that his network, among others, can serve the needs of TV only accounts as well as those who want cross-platform deals, all from one site.

            Indeed, Michael Teicher, executive vp of sales, Warner Bros. Television, speaking at the recent ANA conference, cited ESPN as the model for agencies to follow, one that doesn't keep planning and buying and creative in separate silos, but long has used mixed media teams.

            "We have the ability to deal with TV only buys and those that want an Internet and TV buy, a magazine and Internet mix, or a TV and audio component," Erhardt says. "We have the largest integrated deal teams, who operate agnostically in terms of how advertisers should invest. And we offer compensation for the teams, not for the medium."

            In 2007, however, American TV viewers watched 11.2 billion hours of sports on the four ESPN networks. "That's 36 million hours per day," an ESPN fact sheet notes. Those kind of hefty numbers give targeted cable TV clout, especially since Nielsen started to track some college-age viewers, Erhardt notes.

            This brand strength is prompting ESPN to look beyond advertisers targeting men. Indeed, ESPN says it's going after more financial services and even fashion and grooming clients-male- as well as female-targeted.

            "We want people to think of ESPN as all-pervasive, not just our sports and news networks, but as a sports portal," Erhardt explains. "Financial-service clients are already buying us out of their news budgets, not their sports news budgets…We're also looking at B-to-B advertisers such as IBM, United Tech and BASF."

            Jon Steinlauf, senior vp/sales at Scripps Networks (Food, HGTV, DIY and GAC), is another executive who thinks that cable will benefit from commercial ratings and other metrics tracking viewer loyalty and passion. "This is not the year the broadcast model goes away, but…engagement and receptivity will play a big role for cable," he says, adding, "Ratings parity has now given way to passion parity."

            Steinlauf cites three national comprehensive studies showing Scripps Networks with high viewer engagement. "Our networks have a special connection between the viewer and the network, especially during breaks." These studies (done by Myers Research, Simmons and BETA) all describe Scripps programming as "passionately viewed." Indeed, even with a lousy housing market, House Hunters and Designed to Sell (on HGTV) still loom large, while Iron Chef, Next Food Network Star and Rachel Ray 30-Minute Cooking reign supreme on Food.

The Perfect Storm continued:
The Perfect Storm Part I
The Perfect Storm Part II
The Perfect Storm Part III
The Perfect Storm Part IV
C3: Metric for the Market