Spots N Dots
The Daily News Of TV Sales
November 17, 2016

MANY LOCAL BUSINESSES LACK DIGITAL SAVVY

LOCAL DIGITAL MARKETING OPPORTUNITY

Many local media companies have gotten into providing digital services to businesses—either as an add-on to their traditional advertising business or even as a stand-alone digital services company. Based on the latest The State of Local Marketing Report from Brandmuscle, it appears they could really use some help. Its survey found that 56% of local retailers haven’t even claimed their FREE Google My Business listing (screen pictured).

Doing digital marketing at the local level has obvious advantages for businesses, whether or not they’re big enough to do traditional advertising on TV and other media. First off, they at least need to be sure than potential customers find accurate information about their location and hours when they check Google or Facebook. But many businesses don’t keep up with those things very well. Brandmuscle found that 57% of local retailers execute digital marketing on their own. Only 6% hire an outside firm to handle their digital marketing. What about the other 37%? Our best guess is that they’re not doing anything to oversee their online appearance to potential customers.

Brandmuscle’s report sees a big opportunity for national brands to build sales through local digital marketing, largely by helping their local affiliates with additional co-op funding, digital and social media content and marketing training. The latest survey of over 2,000 dealers, agents, franchisees and distributors found that marketers still invested60% of their overall co-op and market development funds (MDF) spend ontraditional marketing tactics in 2015.

With many (perhaps most) consumers no longer differentiating between buying from a company online or in one of their bricks-and-mortar stores, the report emphasizes the need for integrated, omnichannel marketing efforts that work at both the national and local level. “Understanding which tactics generate the best results for affiliates so you can align co-op funds and co-branded materials to support these efforts represents a major opportunity to optimize local marketing,” Brandmuscle advised national brands.

The local affiliates can achieve a real connection with consumers beyond anything the national brand can do through local events and promotions. 75% of the local affiliates surveyed for the report found local events to be “effective” or “extremely effective,” but also found the marketing tactic to be the most difficult to implement. Such events can and should be promoted using social media, in coordination with traditional advertising. And Brandmuscle notes that it is not necessary for every local business to be active on every social media platform. “However, approaching platforms like Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Snapchat with an open and creative mind presents clear opportunities for brands to execute hyper-local, targeted marketing that helps local affiliates establish a viable social media presence,” states the report, available here.

ADVERTISER NEWS

Lowe’s third quarter same-store sales showed just a 2.7% gain (well below Home Depot’s 5.5% gain that we reported yesterday), pulling the year-to-date increase down to 3.9%. One analyst that had looked at the Home Depot numbers found that it was growing more quickly in sales to professionals over sales to do-it-yourselfers, and “big tickets” ($900 and over) accounted for about 20% of all sales. Lowe’s now sees full-year comps up 3-4% and it will finish the year with about 40 more stores than last year…… Target is a bit more optimistic after third quarter sales and profit each beat expectations. Comp sales were still down 0.2%, but it had forecast comps could be down as much as 2.0%. It now projects the current holiday quarter to be in a range of +1% to -1%--previously it had felt flat sales would be the best possible result……Macy’s is expanding its off-price Backstage concept putting pop-up apparel shops into 45 existing Macy’s stores for the holiday season. The Backstage operations do not sell the same merchandise that Macy’s itself offers, rather it brings in different offerings that are not available in the main store……Off-price apparel retailer TJX had another very strong quarter with blended same-store sales at T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods up 5%. The company is devoting some of its current commercials to highlighting the fact that it will be closed on Thanksgiving……A new study from Cox Automotive finds the average customer is willing to pay about $3,000 more to buy a certified used vehicle as opposed to the same vehicle without certification. Dealers have estimated the difference to be about $1260 in value for the certification, so Cox is suggesting dealers may be underselling the value of the average vehicle by as much as $1740 per unit. Cox also says certified vehicles sell faster—an average of 30 days on the lot before a sale, while a comparable non-certified vehicle would sell in 35 days……In what Supermarket News is calling “a massive recreation of the overnight banner transitions executed at select stores earlier this year,” Southeastern Grocers repositioned 73 stores to the Harveys banner, revamped to target lower-income customers with “more relevant selections and value prices.” Along with the new positioning for 55 Harveys units, 10 Bi-Lo stores and six Winn-Dixie locations have also been converted……Furniture Today reports sales for furniture and home furnishings stores were up 1.7% year-to-year in October according to Commerce Department figures, but it calls that result “lackluster” as the growth was well behind a 4.3% increase in total retail sales.

NETWORK NEWS

Empire has cast Rumor Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, in a recurring role this season. Willis will play a brilliant but volatile singer/songwriter whose talent becomes invaluable to Jussie Smollett’s character, Jamal. Willis joins other notable guest stars on Empire including Mariah Carey, Taye Diggs, Birdman and French Montana……NBC has picked up a comedy project from Andrew Gurland, creator of Married that ran for two seasons on FX. The untitled relationship comedy revolves around a happily married man whose level-headed wife helps him navigate some of the more complicated female relationships in his life. Gurland is also writing and executive producing a pro-wrestling comedy inspired by the experiences of Dwayne Johnson for FOX……Treasure, is an action adventure mystery cop drama also in development at NBC. Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt of Grimm will work on the project along with executive producers Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner. David Giuntoli will be the star in the lead role. The upcoming sixth season of Grimm will be the last for the NBC prime-time show……FOX has acquired a new action comedy from Matt Liebermann called Free Guy. A story about a bank teller that discovers he’s a background character in a realistic, open world action-adventure video game, and he’s the only one that can save the world. The project will be produced by Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schechter……Alex Wagner, the popular host formerly of MSNBC, will join CBS This Morning as co-host of the Saturday Edition. Wagner will appear alongside Anthony Mason on the show starting this weekend. She will also be serving as a correspondent for CBS. Wagner will be replacing VinitaNair who is leaving the network……Mariah Carey will performer her unforgettable hit All I ForWant Christmas is You on the ABC broadcast of The Wonderful World of Disney: MagicalHoliday Celebration. The special will air on Thursday, November 24th at 8 PM (ET). The Disney Parks’ Magical Christmas Celebration will air on Christmas Day at 10 AM (ET)……The CW network has released the mid-season premiere date for its new drama, Riverdale. The program will debut on January 26th at 9 PM (ET). The network also announced that DC’s Legends of Tomorrow will move to Tuesdays at 9 PM (ET) starting on January 24th. On Tuesday, April 4th at 8 PM (ET), iZombie will debut with a two-hour premiere, then move to its normal time slot at 9 PM following new episodes of The Flash. The 100 will return on Wednesday, February 1st at 9 PM (ET), and The Vampire Diaries series finale will air Friday, March 10. The Originals will return on Friday, March 17th at 8 PM (ET) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend will wrap its season on Friday, February 3rd at 9 PM (ET).

TUESDAY RATINGS

Several of the programs on the broadcast networks showed some improvement on Tuesday night as the schedule got back to normal after election week. This Is Us gained three tenths of a point from its last broadcast to a 2.6 Nielsen 18-49 rating. The Voice (2.1) and Chicago Fire (1.5) both held steady and made it a good night for NBC. ABC saw some improvement as well with The Middle doing a 1.6, up two tenths from the last episode, freshman comedy American Housewife gained a tenth of a point to a 1.6. Fresh off the Boat (1.3) was up two tenths and The Real O’Neals posted a gain of three tenths to a 1.1 demo rating. The David Blaine Beyond Magic special nearly doubled the rating of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D in the 10 PM (ET) position posting a 1.6 rating. On CBS, NCIS delivered a 1.7, Bull a 1.5 and NCIS:New Orleans managed a 1.2 rating at 10 PM (ET). FOX was steady with Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl doing a 0.9 and Scream Queens pulling a 0.6. The Flash posted a 1.2, up two tenths from its last episode, and No Tomorrow did a 0.3 for The CW.

MORE TROUBLE FOR FACEBOOK

Facebook has admitted to another glitch in its ad metrics. This time the error is in calculating the organic page reach shown for two time periods on the Pages dashboards. The new embarrassment comes about two months after Facebook said an error in its metrics inflated average time for viewing of video ads.

For the latest disclosure, Facebook said this well down in a blog post that focused first on increasing third-party verification and working with its Client Council on better measurement solutions: “We've uncovered a bug in Page Insights. On one of our Pages dashboards, one summary number showing 7-day or 28-day organic page reach was miscalculated as a simple sum of daily reach instead of de-duplicating repeat visitors over those periods. However, the vast majority of reach data in the Page Insights dashboard was unaffected, including all the graphs, daily and historical reach, per-post reach, exported and API reach data, and all data on the Reach tab. The de-duplicated 7-day summary in the overview dashboard will be 33% lower on average and 28-day will be 55% lower; data in other fields is unaffected. This bug has been live since May; we will be fixing this in the next few weeks. It does not affect paid reach.”

BUD AND COKE?: MAYBE!!

After having taken over SABMiller, speculation is growing that Anheuser-Busch InBev could make a run at another iconic American company, Coca-Cola.

If that sounds a bit ambitious, consider this: Anheuser-Busch itself was taken over by Brazilian equity fund 3G Capital, which put it together with its own InBev business. Since then, with help from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway, 3G (known for aggressive cost-cutting) put H.J. Heinz together with KraftFoods, and also created Restaurant Brands, Inc. combining Burger King with Tim Hortons. Huge deals are not beyond its capabilities and as additional evidence this deal could get done, CNBC reports Berkshire Hathaway is already Coke’s largest shareholder. And of course the possible synergies between the world’s largest brewery with Coke, a major food company, and thousands of restaurants offer huge potential.

A-B InBev paid about $107 billion to take over SABMiller, and CNBC says the market capitalization (shares outstanding times the current stock market price per share) value of Coke is about $176 billion.

THIS AND THAT

Dentsu Aegis Network has acquired Findr Group, owner of Gravity Media, a full-service multicultural marketing agency headquartered in New York City. Gravity will form the backbone of the group’s specialized and dedicated multicultural marketing offering in the U.S……WPP has a global deal with Spotify giving WPP agencies access to anonymized and aggregated data from Spotify’s 100 million listeners across 60 countries.

DONE DEAL

Total Traffic and Weather Network has promoted Jack Dunkle to Senior Vice President of Affiliate Sales, adding Senior to his title. He will manage the company’s radio, television and digital product sales and distribution.
AVAILS

General Manager: WPBI-TV FOX 16 NBC 16 and Top-Rated FM Radio Group - Lafayette, IN. This is a rare opportunity to start at the ground level and build your team, create a new brand in the community, and develop a media group from scratch.The successful candidate will have a proven track record of growing sales, controlling expenses, and building profitability.5 years’ experience in TV management or TV sales management required.Get more details HERE.To apply, send info to: . EOE.

The FOX affiliate in Kansas City, WDAF Fox4, seeks an experienced and highly motivated Multi-platform Account Executive to grow our core broadcast business, interactive platforms and digital TV. The AE must develop new business across all platforms. The AE will negotiate rates, prepare and present avails and sales packages to agencies and direct advertisers.Candidate must have previous media sales experience.Use of Wide Orbit, Excel, Microsoft Word, Power Point and other technology is a plus. College degree preferred.CLICK HERE to apply (job # 2016-44911). EOE M/F/D/V.

WZDX TV in Huntsville AL is searching for a General Sales Manager.The GSM oversees all aspects of the sales department, including staff management, advertising inventory throughout all channels, revenue goal setting and achievement, and budgeting. The GSM also determines inventory, pricing and discount rates, and has direct responsibility for national sales efforts. Qualified applicants can CLICK HERE for more information or to apply now.Equal Opportunity Employer

WCSC, #1 station in beautiful Charleston, SC, is looking for a strong Research Director to assist station and clients with the research needed to successfully move both parties forward. This person will assist station efforts with data analysis and interpretation/sales application of syndicated research resources including Nielsen, Rentrak, WideOrbit Media Sales and other online resources. Must be an analytical thinker, detail oriented with strong math skills, be familiar with qualitative and quantitative research and proficient with Microsoft Office. CLICK HERE to apply. No phone calls. EOE- M/F/V/D.

Passionate about your career? Ready for some southern charm? CBS46 / WGCL-TV in Atlanta is seeking a bright, enthusiastic Account Executive to join our dynamic sales team. We are looking for a person who is currently a star with developmental and digital sales, and a person with a renewal rate that proves their solutions are profitable for their clients. Employees enjoy a great work environment and flexible benefits. The station is located in Midtown Atlanta– a great place to work, shop, and live. CLICK HEREfor immediate consideration. E.O.E.

WSBT-TV, South Bend/Elkhart, IN is looking for a Local Sales Manager to lead our local CBS and FOX sales departments in maximizing all sales opportunities with an emphasis on new business development and NTR. The LSM will oversee new local business efforts, including accountability for new business goals and inventory management. Candidates should have a proven success in developmental business and multimedia platforms including web and mobile applications.College Degree preferred. CLICK HERE for more info or to apply now. EOE

Nexstar Broadcasting seeks an experienced Local Sales Manager for KCWI-TV in Des Moines, IA. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to join the fastest growing broadcast group in the country, and oversee the sales success of our CW operation in Des Moines. The LSM must create a positive culture for success in the areas of new, direct, transactional and digital revenue through the idea generation and execution. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and work related experience required. CLICK HEREfor more infor or to apply now. EOE/M/F/V/D

Donald Trump will be the first U.S. president ever to have appeared in an ad for Pizza Hut. In fact, some pundits are predicting Trump will run in 2020 against Flo from Progressive.

--Conan O’Brien

Trump said that he would not accept the standard $400,000 salary that presidents get. That story again: Trump made his first deal as president-elect and lost almost $400,000.

--Jimmy Fallon

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SPOTS N DOTS
The Daily News Of TV Sales
November 17, 2016

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