Spots N Dots
The Daily News Of TV Sales
November 28, 2017

SMB FIND LOCAL EVENTS ‘VERY IMPORTANT’

LOCAL EVENT PARTICIPANTS LOVE TV TOO

Station events may not get the attention that digital does, but a recent survey shows that 97% of local businesses participate in some sort of local event or promotion. And plenty are spending to market those events. That’s money stations are increasingly targeting as a way to grow sales revenue.

How much is up for grabs? A Borrell Associates survey shows the average local business spends $28,200 per year on a range of events. But that number is a bit deceiving.

Among what Borrell labels “event enthusiasts” the figure is $46,949. “This is often seen as a marketing expenditure, not an ‘advertising’ line item,” Borrell points out.

There’s another good reason for TV reps to develop a relationship with event enthusiasts according to the survey. It shows they expect to spend $119,468 this year on traditional advertising—a 6% increase for a year ago.

Borrell says the survey shows the group is also more likely to be growing their marketing budgets as 29% forecast to spend more this year. That compares to 23% for local advertisers overall.

Digital may be the area that most said they plan earmark some of those new dollars toward, but being enthusiastic supporters of events it shouldn’t be surprising that 41% plan to beef up their event marketing. There’s also an existing tie-in for TV reps too. The survey shows 24% plan to spend more on cable TV ads while 21% expect to put more dollars into broadcast TV.

As more broadcasters become a virtual in-house digital agencies how event enthusiasts are spending their digital dollars also opens a door as stations offer components that can be sold in tandem with traditional spots.

If there is a downside for TV reps it’s that event enthusiasts haven’t always worked with local stations. While two-thirds used newspaper advertising in 2016 but only about one-in-four bought ads on broadcast or cable TV. That said, because this group is more prone to spend on marketing,

Borrell points out that they’re also 32% more likely to have purchased television advertising than other local businesses. And because a lot of digital outreach is seen as “low-budget DIY solutions”—that includes social media and email outreach being done in-house—Borrell says there’s an “odd dynamic” to how budgets are allocated. Consider this: social media is the No. 1 ad type used according to the survey, but only 4% of marketing budgets go toward that form of marketing. At the same time 28% buy broadcast TV but they spend 31% of their budgets on the medium. Cable TV gets about 9% of the budget. A big reason is event-prone companies give television some of the highest scores on effectiveness.

Borrell says “event enthusiasts” are most commonly service businesses, retail stores, religious and civic organizations, and health care businesses. Three-quarters are businesses that have been around for 10 years or more.

ADVERTISER NEWS

Remember all the fuss about Black Friday? More than $5 billion dollars in sales? Well, (yesterday’s) Cyber Monday sales are projected to top $6.6 billion -- up 16.5 percent from last year, according to CBS News....Kroger is introducing a premium and sustainable store brand floral line called Bloom Haus, which will debut in time for the holidays, says fooddive.com. The new line carries the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal, which means plants have been grown and harvested using sustainable and socially responsible practices. The new floral line will be sold in stores and available for online ordering using Kroger’s ClickList curbside pickup service. According to the news release, the line also could become available for home delivery as the retailer expands its delivery services....A new study by Technomic finds that more consumers are skipping breakfast now than they were two years ago. All-day breakfast menus are still popular, with 30% of consumers reporting they buy breakfast foods outside of the traditional morning hours more now than they did two years ago. In addition, brunch is gaining popularity, with 40% of respondents saying they eat brunch at least once a week....Office-sharing company WeWork plans to expand into retail, which could include adding short-term leases for retail firms or incorporating retail stores into its co-working spaces as an amenity for its users, The Real Deal reports. The company has branched into several different areas of business already. For instance, it has created a gym in New York, acquired the coding school Flatiron School and announced plans to establish an elementary school, according to The Real Deal....Clothing retailer Everlane, which has built a loyal online following since opening its digital doors in 2011, is launching its first two brick-and-mortar locations. The stores, on Prince Street in New York and in San Francisco’s Mission District, will open Dec. 2 and will sell Everlane’s T-shirts, cashmere, denim and shoes, The Washington Post reported. The New York location will be about 2,000 square feet and the San Francisco store will be 3,000 square feet....Nearly 700 workers are being laid off from a facility that stores and provides products to Kroger, one of North Texas’ largest grocers. Kroger has nearly 100 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. The grocer will end all operations at SouthStar, resulting in the loss of 690 jobs....Macy’s Retail Holdings Inc., will purchase up to $400 million in outstanding debt notes in the next few weeks. The company did not release an explanation for the pay-down in a Nov. 27 news release. Macy’s had about $6.9 billion of outstanding debt at the end of 2016.

NETWORK NEWS

The latest Nielsen ratings are showing that Megyn Kelly is struggling to get big numbers in her time slot on NBC’s The Today Show. Currently, Kelly is on track to deliver historically low numbers for the November sweeps. The Wrap is reporting that Kelly’s numbers for November show only 699,000 viewers in the coveted adult 25-54 demographic. The number is even smaller in adults 18-49 with only 548,000 demo viewers. If the trend continues, Kelly will have the lowest sweeps numbers of any period since the Today Show first started broadcasting at 9 AM (ET). It should be noted that both the 7 AM (ET) and 8 AM (ET) hours have seen a dip in ratings, but not at the same scale as Kelly’s. The 10 AM (ET) hour with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb has suffered in viewership as well. It’s unknown how NBC and Kelly will address the viewership erosion…… Next Monday, December 4th will be the debut of the Jeff Glor’s tenure at the anchor desk of the CBS Evening News. The promos have begun to air on the network for Glor’s first night as anchorman. Glor’s new assignment is part of the CBS News division’s effort to place more emphasis on their digital efforts and a group of correspondents who will appear regularly on the evening broadcast. He takes over a broadcast that has remained in third place behind ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC’s Nightly News in both total viewers and the news demo of adults 25-54. Prior to joining CBS News, Glor was the weekend evening news anchor and weekday reporter at WHDN-TV in Boston. Before that assignment, Glor was an anchor and reporter for WSTM-TV Syracuse. Glor is replacing Scott Pelley who was assigned to work full-time at the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes……Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications has announced that it is taking back the award it gave to Charlie Rose in 2015. The announcement follows the accusations that Rose had sexually harassed several women and his subsequent dismissal by CBS News. “This unprecedented action is taken with the utmost seriousness and deliberation. We are not in the business of trying to rewrite history,” said school dean Christopher Callahan in a statement……. The 66th annual Miss Universe Pageant on Fox managed a 1.1 adult 18-49 rating and 4.4 million total viewers on Sunday night. The number was down from last year’s 1.5 rating and 5.2 million viewers. NBC’s coverage of the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers game was easily the most viewed program of the night. The telecast drew a 12.2 household rating in the Nielsen metered markets. A three percent increase over the comparable game from last season. Sunday Night Football on NBC is currently averaging a 4.1 adult 18-49 rating and 13.4 million total viewers in the overnights……CBS is getting its best ratings for CBS Sunday Morning since 2013. The show, now hosted by Jane Pauley, averaged 6 million total viewers in the just-completed November sweep. That’s a 1% increase over last November’s 5.92 million.

SALESPEOPLE STILL VALUED FOR CAR BUYING

Is the showroom car salesperson an endangered species in this increasingly digital world? Maybe not. Although car shoppers are arming themselves with more vehicle information gathered online before going into a dealership, it’s the pre-purchase interaction with the salesperson that leads to high sales satisfaction, according to the J.D. Power 2017 U.S. Sales Satisfaction Index Study.

“Dealers can’t control a customer’s pre-purchase activities, but they should be prepared to positively influence areas that will affect a customer’s likelihood to buy as well as their level of satisfaction,” says Power VP Chris Sutton. An example, he says, is to post photos of actual inventory to their website or engage with shoppers via text messaging or phone calls. Also, be sure that online specials are up to date and easy to access from the dealer’s site.

“These simple things go a long way toward earning a sale and satisfying a customer,” Sutton says.

The latest satisfaction study found that demonstrations are key. As vehicle technology becomes more complex, shoppers rely on dealership experts to demonstrate how to use the new technology. In this case, 41% of mass market buyers and 33% of luxury buyers want to completely learn about a vehicle’s features and controls during the delivery process. Additionally, 65% of shoppers who have a sales consultant show them how to use features on their personal smartphone say it was a “very effective” tool.

After the purchase, 80% of mass market buyers and 87% of luxury buyers indicate they were contacted by the dealership. But only 32% of mass market buyers and 51% of luxury buyers receive a second follow-up explanation of vehicle features. That second follow-up improves satisfaction by as much as 100 points (on a 1,000-point scale) among both mass market and luxury buyers.

Lincoln and Mercedes-Benz rank highest in sales satisfaction among luxury brands, each achieving a score of 830. This is the first time Lincoln ranks highest. Mercedes- Benz previously ranked highest in 2014. Infiniti ranks third with a score of 821, followed by Porsche at 818.

Buick ranks highest in sales satisfaction among mass market brands for the second consecutive year, achieving a score of 808. MINI ranks second with a score of 803 and GMC ranks third with a score of 793.

The study—now in its 31st year and redesigned for 2017— measures satisfaction with the sales experience among new-vehicle buyers and rejecters, who are those who shop a dealership and purchase elsewhere.

The 2017 satisfaction study is based on responses from 28,989 buyers who purchased or leased their new vehicle in April or May 2017.

SEE THOSE “HOLIDAY BOWS” IN CAR SPOTS?

They’re not just a cheap prop. Car Bow Store began making big bows out of their Warminster, PA facility in 2012. The first year, the company sold about 5,000 bows. Last year, they sold 25,000. Before 2012, the bows were made in China, and were flimsy, the ribbon was semi-transparent, and they had glue splattered all over them, said a spokesman.

UNIVISION EXPANDS VIA YOUTUBE

Univision is looking beyond television to expand their revenue model. The network has launched two original shows for YouTube, per DigiDay. The two shows, “¿Qué crees?” (“What Do You Think?”), and “La Polémica” (“The Controversy”). The shows run anywhere from two minutes to five minutes each.

One of the reasons Univision found YouTube more appealing than Facebook is its monetization system, which allows the network to make money off their videos with pre-roll video.

The network also posts clips of their TV shows, and reported an average watch time of six minutes across its six YouTube channels. That is compared with an average watch time of 30 seconds for its videos on Facebook.

“Each platform has its ethos, if you will,” Sameer Deen, SVP of Univision Interactive Media, told MediaPost. “If you want to get to younger audiences, YouTube has to be part of your strategy. Facebook is about sharing. YouTube is about search-driven, probably longer-format content because people will sit back and engage.”

Univision is a linear TV network but is looking to reach all audiences through their short videos by targeting people searching for entertainment and soccer news.

ECONOMIC NEWS

The real estate market continues to improve, and signals for new construction are especially strong. According to Bloomberg, the sale rate for new homes (properties that have not yet been built) is the highest it has been since January 2007.

Many areas of the country are seeing strong increases, including the Midwest, which saw a 17.9% increase in home sales. The average selling price of a home in October 2017 was $400,200, a record high, but also a hindrance for first-time homebuyers to enter the market.