Social media and Trust
As a social business agency one of our roles is to help clients understand the role and influence of social media.
One of our favourite points of reference is the Nielsen survey which asks “What degree of trust do you place in the following forms of advertising?”
In 2009 (charted here) we saw that the top three were:
1. Recommendations from people you know (90%) – this is the nirvana of all marketing…. positive word of mouth.
2. Consumer opinions posted online (70%) – ie. recommendations from people you don’t know but have a common interest with.
3. Brand websites (70%) – brands stepping up to be transparent, informative and collaborative.
In the world of BOUGHT, OWNED & EARNED media the top 2 fall under EARNED which we define as “the reputation you earn by virtue of your actions.” The tools which underpin EARNED are typically Facebook, Blogs, Twitter & forums. Brand websites fall under OWNED.
TV came in as the most trusted paid-for advertising (62%) right down to text ads on mobile phones (24%).
Three years on, the gap between EARNED and BOUGHT is further opening up as TV and other paid-for media fall away on the trust front.
Worth noting is that ‘emails signed up for’….which presumably means newsletters, holds its ground from ’09 at 50% to raise itself above all paid-for media in ’12. Editorial content has lost ground from 69% to 58%.
Branded websites too have fallen away from 70% to 58% and to me this is symptomatic of the underperformance of expectations that consumers have of brand websites. Every day we all come across websites which are too static, too wordy and too self important leaving us feeling undernourished and wanting.
The key take out here is that the opportunity cost of embarking on a social business strategy is low.
Money invested in paid for/BOUGHT media goes much further in an EARNED environment. For example 1 x 30 sec network spot in “The Voice” on Channel 9 is now purportedly selling for $100,000 +. This spot has the potential to reach approx 16% people (all adults aged 14+) just once. Alternatively $100,000 in the EARNED environment can fund the development and part implementation of a social business consumer advocacy programme for the longer term.
If we agree that trust is a “top 3″ issue in marketing then why wouldn’t you at least explore the potential that a social busines strategy can deliver? A little bit of paid-for media goes a long way in EARNED. We’d be the first to agree that paid-for media still delivers the numbers and you do need it in the mix to drive awareness but you can have your cake and eat it with social.
Be interested in your views.
You can find the full Nielsen report here
Alert the Media: FRANk PR is here
Welcome to FRANk PR. As a social business agency that challenges assumptions about communications and looks at how we can engage with people in media, it was a logical next step that we incorporate PR into our offering, fusing it with our social business know how and connecting the missing link for our clients.
And I am the one who will help you do this – hi!
Who am I?
My name is Sarah Kempson and I come to FRANk Media after a number of years working across a variety of marketing disciplines. My background includes PR, advertising, branding and social across corporate, government and consumer clients, in both agency and client-side. I also produce my own blog and write for online and print publications, helping me to better understand the traditional and new media platforms and how best to engage them.
So what is PR today? And how do we address the challenge of integrating PR and social?
PR today is more targeted than even before. In an environment where most people in media have a Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest – or whatever the flavour of the month is – personalisation is required. Who is the right person to talk to? What is the best way to engage them? Who do they influence? Finding the right approach is paramount – one size does not fit all and it’s important to integrate across all platforms – old and new.
PR now needs to focus on engaged content, rather than just push content
Old vs New
PR Professionals need to be savvy in the way they approach journalists today – a press release emailed to the newsdesk is no longer enough to get your client in the media. Hooks need to be stronger; news needs to be quirkier; a unique point of difference is required. What makes your story special?
And it’s not just traditional media that we are sending a press release to anymore. Whilst print, radio and TV might seem the most logical (or most powerful) choices, are they the right ones? Or are they simply the ones we know and are familiar with? As the graphic below represents, half of our media consumption is now via the internet. Social media, be it viral campaigns, blogger engagement or getting your message across in 140 characters on Twitter – needs to be a part of this mix.
50% of our media consumption is via the Internet
Where to now?
At the end of the day, the basic premise of both PR and social business is the same as it has always been; the building and maintaining of personal relationships. This should always remain at the forefront of any planning for your brand’s PR and social strategy. The communications landscape is changing often and while it may seem daunting to keep up, the key will always be to keep it personal.
What are some of the best integrations of PR and social campaigns you have seen recently? Or, the worst?
Social Business Tipping Point
Whilst awaiting my coffee at the ever so convenient St. Edmonds just across the road I scanned the business section from The Age. The article was about mining billionaires….blah blah…but the bit that caught my eye was the opening paragraph ” In the nineties and the noughties global banking and finance set the tone with an attitudethat could be summed up as ‘we’re here for a good time, not a long time.’ Get in, get out, get the bonus, let someone else clean up.”
It occured to me that the ‘let someone else clean up attitude’ has been highly prevalent in marketing for too long as well. Short term thinking generally underpins short term returns (ROI) in the quest to impress. We all know some perpetrators. This attitude has certainly been one of the barriers to brands embracing a social business strategy and realising its no longer an option.
There is a step-change afoot as marketing/advertising/communication becomes less about quick and repetitive appeal in favour of personalised experiences and long term relationships. A true social strategy is more of a attitude than a campaign and the shift for marketers needs to change from decades of “acting then measuring” to “listening and responding.”
Traditional media has a key role to play within a successful social strategy but we must ensure that the new tools are not used in the old ‘push’ ways. After all the tools will come and go and the danger of navigating these waters like the titanic is very real.
For us it’s not so much about working with great brands, it’s about working with great marketers, because then anything is possible.
I sense that the tipping point is coming as people realise that the same old thinking is working decreasingly well. Onwards to the future and the longer term.
Does anyone notice the beginning of a longer term attitude coming from marketers?
GE study proves consumers respond better to shared content than to paid placements
What’s the worth of a social share? Marketers have always been trying to put dollar values and ROI on social and it is never an easy answer. However, with a new study by GE and social media site Buzzfeed, we may be on the verge of getting some real numbers!
They tested a campaign in which GE distributed “The GE Show” as a video through Buzzfeed both in paid display placements and sharing, and then assessed the attitude changes among the people exposed through each method. Thousands of respondents were involved in the study.
Earned media vs paid media
People who were exposed through sharing had a significantly bigger lift in positive attitudes towards GE – associating the brand with concepts such as ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’ – than those who were exposed via paid placements. This might have been due to people paying more attention to content that’s shared with them than to paid ads.
People who were exposed to the content via sharing were 83% more likely to rate GE as ‘creative’ than those who were exposed through paid advertising.
How does each method relate to shaping positive attitudes?
- Control group (saw no branded content) – 42% had positive attitudes towards GE
- Group exposed through paid advertising – 55% had positive attitudes towards GE
- Group exposed through sharing – 77% had positive attitudes towards GE
Obviously shared media has the advantage of being “free inventory,” said Paul Marcum, director of global digital marketing and programming at GE. But he was also interested in knowing whether it actually has more impact on consumers than paid media.
“We all would intrinsically think that if you see something your friend has shared or a community you’re part of has shared, you’re more likely to value it differently” than paid placement, he said. “But no one we could find had actually tried to quantify the difference.”
Although the GE study represents a wonderful breakthrough in social metrics, it would be great to have more supporting studies for the value of earned media vs paid media. I believe that earned media is an incredibly powerful unit of branding, even though it may be chaotic. But this chaos is what gives the element of interest and trust – it’s real sharing by real people, not churned by the marketing factory.
Original article at AdAge.
Australian Marketers Making Big Moves Toward Social & Digital
The Australian Marketing Institute has released its Senior Marketer Monitor 2011 – a study of Australia’s senior marketing professionals.
The study has been going on 4 years, so it gives a great snapshot of the changing marketing landscape and highlights the growing use of social media, online advertising and mobile. On the other hand, many marketers are lessening their use of more traditional media such as outdoor, TV, print and radio – reflecting the change from outbound marketing to a greater focus on inbound marketing.
Q: Has your use of different communications channels changed in the past 12 months?
The precise targeting, accountability, metrics, control and information provided through digital channels is extremely attractive. However, the shift towards digital does not mean the demise of traditional media. Print, radio, TV and outdoor are excellent ways of broadcasting a message to a wide audience and creating the awareness level required for social and digital efforts to be effective.
For many brands who have already established a strong presence in the market, social and digital can be very cost-effective ways of connecting with their audience. For example, by saving on expensive mass media, brands can pass on some discounts to reward loyal brand advocates on social channels and still reap the rewards from happy fans’ word of mouth and recommendations.
Smaller brands with less budget for traditional media will find that social and digital are a good starting place for marketing efforts and establishing themselves as a trusted, helpful source in the industry.
It’s no wonder that social and digital channels are being integrated into marketing strategies – they are excellent solutions to marketers’ most pressing concerns:
1. Effectively getting their messages to market
2. Acquiring new customers
3. Maintaining the current customer base
The real-time nature of social and digital, coupled with the dialogue and engagement expected in these channels – mean that they are well suited for customer relationship management and for speaking directly with the most engaged consumers.
Q: What are the major marketing challenges you are facing in your organisation today?
‘Social Sofa’ Drives Reality TV Engagement
The guilty pleasure of reality television is more fun shared, with a new survey released showing 67 per cent of dedicated fans of the genre use some form of social media while they watch.
Specifically, 38 per cent interacted on Facebook and 35 per cent on Twitter while watching their favourite shows, according to Reality Ravings blogger Emma Ashton, a phenomenon dubbed “the social sofa”.
Ashton and market research company Nitty Gritty surveyed more than 400 viewers nationally for the “Reality TV Viewer Insights” survey, which showed that Facebook and blogs were the most popular fan forums.
“Viewers clearly like the social nature of the format of reality TV, and people using social media during or after a reality TV episode are more likely to become an entrenched fan of show,” Ashton said.
“These fans who are using ‘the social sofa’ are more likely to watch the shows more regularly, and get emotionally involved with the series and with the contestants.”
There are no prizes for guessing what viewers like the most: 72 per cent said they “enjoyed seeing drama and controversy between contestants”.
The survey also found product placement in programs was extremely effective, with 93 per cent of the respondents saying they were influenced by the advertising and information in the shows and 98 per cent able to make an association with brands aired during reality TV.
The most-recognised brands were Coles, Qantas, Handee Wipes, Freedom and Woolworths.
“Advertisers are definitely getting more for their money by aligning with reality shows,” said Nitty Gritty’s Julia Houston. “Reality TV viewers like the information they receive from reality shows. This would indicate they are more receptive to brand placement and lifestyle messaging than (viewers of) other formats.”
With the high number of viewers interacting in the social media and online, advertisers need to rethink the advertising opportunity, extending it to a conversation with the consumer after the show has finished airing.
This was also important as the research showed 68 per cent of the viewers fast-forwarded through ads and eight per cent watched shows online.
The full report can be found at www.realityravings.com or www.nittygritty.net.au
Greenpeace demonstrates how powerful social media really is
Mattel has given in to public pressure after Greenpeace exposed the toy manufacturer’s appalling paper sourcing policy. The former paper company of Mattel Asia Pulp and Paper” (APP) has been linked to the destruction of the Indonesian rainforest for toy packaging. After a very clever campaign by Greenpeace and public pressure Mattel and Lego recently announced it cut ties with all suppliers involved with rainforest destruction.
This is a huge win for Greenpeace and I hope more companies will follow Mattel’s example. But let’s talk about how Greenpeace accomplished this win. It is a serious issue but the brains behind this campaign took a very light hearted, funny, intelligent and social approach that I just LOVE.
It all started with a public split from Barbie when Ken announced “Barbie, it’s over”
This outdoor guerilla tactic was only the first installment in a hilarious social media campaign that brought the toy giant to its knees. Watch how Ken and Barbie’s public fall out unfolds on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook like a Hollywood drama with name calling, scandals and leaked telephone conversations:
After a four month campaign, Mattel finally gives in and announces the revision of their paper sourcing policy. A very entertaining campaign to watch with a happy ending and who knows maybe Barbie and Ken will get back together?
Watch the whole story here and If you want to help Greenpeace in the future and support their cause why not donate a tweet?
via Storify
What’s hot in food advertising now
The food industry is a very competitive one with price promotions, new players in the field and choosy customers. Marketers are fighting hard for consumer attention and it can be a tough fight. In the quest to be creative, different and innovative we see many brands rise to the challenge and deliver excellent campaigns such as Fibre One in the US and Innocent in the UK:
Cheech and Chong’s magic brownie adventure tour
So Cheech and Chong get high on high fibre brownies in this cheeky and awesome ad. It is especially awesome because you would have never guessed which brand is behind this ad adding a nice surprise element which is set to change perceptions. Yet it makes perfect sense for the old stoners to now use high fibre products to keep them regular as they age. For more information go to: http://www.fiberone.com/magicbrownie/
Tweet and Eat with Innocent
Innocent in the UK have come up a with a cute campaign which rewards the tweeting community with discounts. It is quite clever actually as it generates Word of Mouth and the community does the advertising for Innocent. Cheap, cheerful and effective!
For more info go to: http://tweetandeat.innocentdrinks.co.uk/
Other brands however do not deliver such strong campaigns. This Nestlé TV ad is just for dogs. No really, it is targeted at dogs:
Purina Advertising for dogs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UTF3Gc22va4
Purina has created a television commercial directly targeted at dogs. On air in Austria and Germany it uses three different sounds: a high frequency tone, a squeak that is similar to that of a dog toy, and a high-pitched ‘ping’ to attract the attention of both their dogs and owners. Crazy Germans!
via PSFK: http://www.psfk.com/2011/09/nestle-commercial-first-to-make-direct-pitch-to-dogs.html#ixzz1ZfqIBktM and Brandflakes for Breakfast: http://www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com/2011/09/cheech-and-chong-get-highon-fiber.html
Call to revamp classifications
The Australian Law Reform Commission has proposed streamlining classifications across film, television, computer games and online content.
The proposed changes include the introduction of a PG 8+ and T 13 + (Teen) rating in addition to the current children ratings of C (children) and G (general).
The proposed new framework envisages:
- a greater role for industry in classifying content—allowing government regulators to focus on the content that generates the most community concern, and ensure access to adult content is properly restricted;
- content will be classified using the same categories, guidelines and markings whether viewed on television, at the cinema, on DVD or online;
- changes to classification categories, with age references—PG 8+ and T 13+ (Teen)—to help parents choose content for their children; and
- the Commonwealth taking on full responsibility for administering and enforcing the new scheme.
Currently there are different classification codes across different media. In TV Tonight‘s recent Audience Inventory, readers voted that having TV classifications match Film classifications was an Important industry issue.
The commission believes the use of age references will provide a better guide for parents to in assessing content for children.
Source: The Age/TV Tonight
FRANk’s weekly media updates- October 4, 2011
Latest news highlights
Google expands AdWords to include video ad campaigns on YouTube
Google is enabling greater integration between its AdWords and YouTube ad offerings for all advertisers. AdWords for Video aims to simplify online video ad campaigns, allowing advertisers to create video ads across the Google display network and YouTube in the same interface. The new system, currently launched in beta, is replacing the current Promoted Videos format.
It offers four types of placement, called TrueView Video Ads. Options include in-stream (pre-, mid- and post-roll), in-search (which appears in viewer’s search results), in-display (which shows against similar content) and in-slate (which gives the viewer the option to choose which ad to view while watching longer-form content).
Read more:
Google expands video options
YouTube begins testing Google AdWords for Video
Facebook launches new metric for pages – “People Talking About” to gauge engagement
Facebook has changed its Pages Insights analytics tool and added a new metric, “People Talking About” to gauge the health of a page. This statistic will be shown on a Page below the total number of Likes. It measures user-initiated activity related to a Page, including posting on the wall, Liking, commenting, sharing, checking in on Places, and so on. Other metrics designed for page admins include Friends of Fans, and Weekly Total Reach. The public metric for “People Talking About” is likely to make engagement with Fans more important than the mere number of Likes.
Read more:
Facebook launches new metric: “People Talking About”
FRANk jam – our pickings of the week
Latest news highlights
Facebook launches massive changes
You may have noticed a slew of changes on Facebook – these include a revised news feed that has combined recent stories and top stories, new photo layouts, a Ticker on the side that shows unfiltered stories in your network, smart lists for your different groups of friends, and that you can now write on Pages even when you’re not a fan. But more changes are still headed our way – the profile page is going to be completely redesigned to “tell the story of your life” and there will be new buttons besides the famous Like.
Read more:
FRANk blog – What’s happening to Facebook? A lowdown on the changes ahead
Yahoo hooks up with Facebook for socially curated news
Google+ opens to the public, sitting on 43 million users
After being invite-only for nearly three months, Google+ has thrown its doors open to everyone and has grabbed a record number of new users. Google+ is reportedly up to an estimated 43.4 million users, a third of which have been added since Google+ opened to the public.
Who says Outdoor is dead?
If you think about your next outdoor campaign, have a look at these three awesome outdoor executions:
PANASONIC: Nose hair trimmer billboard
Source: www.brandflakesforbreakfast.com
THE BEACH: Movie to promote clean beaches
Another great execution is the “One Beach” movie billboard which is made up of rubbish collected at the beach:
Find out more about this movie here.
WARNER BROTHERS: Movie Contagion
And another movie outdoor execution that has attracted quite a bit of interest is for Contagion. The creative heads here have infested a billboard with fungi and bacteria to spell the word “Contagion”. Seriously creative and gross at the same time. What do you think?
There’s Always Next Season
We’re really excited to report we’ve launched another integrated campaign that used Bought and Earned media properties to drive engagement, increase reach and brand awareness.
The campaign involved one of FRANk’s clients, Carsales.com.au, who recognised that a lot of football fans are lamenting the fact that their football season is over for 2011 and to cheer them up Carsales wanted to remind them that “There’s Always Next Season.” With that sentiment in mind they’ve decided to giveaway football memberships to the AFL/NRL club of your choice in 2012.
At FRANk we bought this to life by building two mechanisms that would engage the Carsales audience at two different touch points.
Bought: Our relationship with Sports Mate, whom Carsales has been involved with via AFL/NRL live app meant that we could utilise the existing dynamic banners on the app to drive entries into the competition. We designed and implemented a fully customised web form with a simple mechanic so as not to interrupt the users experience with the app for more than a few seconds.
Earned: Secondly, we built an application on the Carsales Facebook page that has driven more likes and increased the reach of the brand across the entrant’s social networks. As part of the application functionality we built an automatic ‘Like’ component to enter the competition and an optional push function to notify the entrants friends about the competition.
At FRANk we believe an integrated media approach is the best way to ensure audience engagement and results from the first week have been super positive. We’ll keep you informed of the progress in coming weeks, but if you haven’t entered the comp, make sure you do, here!
Secondly, we built a Facebook application that has driven more likes and increased the reach of the brand across the entrant’s social networks. As part of the app we built an automatic ‘Like’ component and an optional push notification to an entrant’s network
FRANk jam – our pickings of the week
Tap-to-pay Google Wallet just launched
Google has just publicly launched Google Wallet – an app that makes your phone your wallet – with Citi, MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express. With Google Wallet, you store electronic versions of your credit card on your smartphone and pay and save by simply tapping the phone on a near field communication (NFC) reader at a store counter. The app is now available to Samsung Nexus S owners on the Sprint network in the US and will be available worldwide soon. Check out the Google Wallet app in action in this video
Read more:
Google Wallet launched with Visa, American Express and Discover support
Google Wallet launched today
Facebook set for another overhaul at f8
Facebook is holding its developers conference, f8, this Thursday. f8 plans have been revealed, and its focus is clear: Content. With the directional motto “Read. Watch. Listen.”, Facebook is reportedly planning to structure the platform in a way that shares content activity both inside and outside of the service, to “socialise the internet”. Major redesign of user profiles are being planned, as well as a “Want” button to help understand the way users interact with content and provide more specific data on what content users are consuming and when.
Read more:
Facebook to launch major profile redesign at f8
The motto for Facebook’s F8 event? “Read. Watch. Listen.”
Burberry to give sneak peeks of runway looks on Twitter
After having staged 3D and shoppable livestreams in past seasons, Burberry is raising the bar again, bringing its runway collection to the largest online audience possible with the greatest reach and exposure – through social. The luxury brand has partnered with Twitter to share backstage Twitpics of every runway look with the brand’s followers on Twitter before the models hit the runway. With a live HD stream of the show on burberry.com and Facebook (which users can also host on their own Facebook profile pages), as well as support for all major smartphone and tablet platforms, Burberry’s integration of different social platforms is great for starting conversation around their brand and event.
Read more:
Burberry to premiere runway collection on Twitter before show
See Burberry’s 2012 collection before anyone else on Twitter right now
Magazines record fewer readers
The latest figures from Roy Morgan Research are not good news for magazines, with many titles recording readership drops.
Although it’s not all bad news, increased interest from consumers in the food category has helped titles such Australian Gourmet Traveller it’s up 9.5 per cent and Delicious is up 7.1 per cent, for the year ending June 30, 2011.
The Monthly recorded one of the biggest rises, up 34.4 per cent, beaten by Bride to Be, up 40.8 per cent and Men’s Fitness, up 59.5 per cent.
Women’s magazines showed very patchy performance with several big readership losses. New Idea was down 11.2 per cent, Woman’s Day down 2.4 per cent and The Australian Women’s Weekly down 1 per cent.
According to RMR, Newspaper Readership on the other hand has shown a rise in readers. This however conflicts with the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations showing sales of printed newspapers continued to fall. Monday to Saturday sales of national, metropolitan and regional newspapers dropped 4.2 per cent in the June quarter compared with last year. In Sydney during the week The Daily Telegraph was down 5.2 per cent, while the Herald fell 3.3 per cent. In Melbourne The Age on weekdays was down 0.15 per cent, faring better than the Herald Sun, down 5.2 per cent.
New Men’s Magazine to launch
Is there room for another magazine title in the Australian market? Morrison Media believe so. They currently publish women’s magazine Frankie, and are about to launch a magazine for men.
Called Smith Journal, the title for “discerning gents” will be published bi-annually by Morrison Media.
It goes on sale on September 5 with an initial circulation of 20,000.
Like Frankie, the title will have an editorial to advertising ratio of 70:30, and will be for advertisers in categories such as craft beers, coffee, fashion, luxury & cars.
In a recent round of magazine circulation numbers, Frankie was the most successful monthly in the market, growing by 32.57% between December 2009 and 2010.
Radio Ratings – Survey 5
The fifth metro radio ratings survey for 2011 was released yesterday; and apart from a change of lead in Brisbane, there were few dramatic changes overall.
In Sydney, 2GB recorded a share of 14.8 per cent (down one point), keeping it ahead of 702 ABC at 10.5 per cent. 2Day FM remained in third place with 9.3 per cent, although it lost the leadership among listeners aged 18-24. There was good news for Nova 96.9 at breakfast, with Merrick & Dools recording a share of 6.4 per cent (up 1.1 points).
After a strong fourth survey, 774 ABC in Melbourne eased back to a share of 11.9 per cent (down 1.2 points), behind 3AW on 14.9 per cent who extended their lead.
Brisbane’s 97.3 FM took the lead with a share of 12.6 per cent, ahead of B105 on 11.9 per cent. While Nova 106.9 retained third place with 11.1 per cent.
In Adelaide, 5AA gained 2.1 points to record a share of 16.6 per cent, but second-placed Mix 102.3 also grew to take a share of 15.3 per cent (up 1.9 points).
Perth’s Mix 94.5 fell two points in the survey to record an overall share of 15.1 per cent, but remains ahead of the pack. Nova 93.7 jumped two points to tie with 720 ABC for second place (11.7 per cent), while 92.9 and 6PR followed in fourth and fifth place respectively.
The Nielsen survey covers the period from 8 May – 11 June and 26 June – 30 July.
Harry Potter Tops Box Office
For all of you Harry Potheads, I’m sure you’ve seen the latest and last ever release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Part 2 has so far grossed over $38m at the Australian box-office, making it the biggest film of the year to date. It has broken several records in the process such as:
• Highest opening day.
• Highest opening weekend.
• Highest opening week total.
Other top films for 2011:
1 Harry Potter 7. Part 2 – $38.7m
2 Transformers 3 – $35.5m
3 The Hangover. Part 2 - $32.6m
4 The King’s Speech (2010) – $27.4m
5 Pirates Of Caribbean 4 – $27.3m
6 Fast & Furious 5 - $25.2m
7 Bridesmaids – $24.6m
8 Tangled – $21.8m
9 Cars 2 – $19.6m
10 Thor -$18.9m
So, the big question…does it live up to all expectations?
AFL, $1.253 is a big deal.
I had a great chat to several people last week in reference to the impact of the new AFL media deal on the rest of the Australian sport and media,
The AFL has confirmed that they’ve secured a TV rights deal for the next 5 years with channel 7 and Foxtel to the tune of $1.253bil.
The new deal will make it possible to watch every game of footy live on Foxtel, with four live games per weekend to be shown on free-to-air TV. It appears that all is healthy and well for the AFL and their supporters.
The AFL has made no attempt to hide its intent to not only protect its game (remember the lack of support for the soccer world cup bid?) but also grow the game in other territories that have traditionally been league/union strongholds (Gold Coast and Western Sydney).
I think this media deal will have a large impact on the other codes. The squeeze placed on the Seven and Foxtel to pay for the new $1.253bil (up nearly half a billion dollars from the same deal 4 years ago!) will surely have a ripple effect on other codes in this country.
As Foxtel tipped in a large proportion of the funding for the deal, they will now have to maximise their ROI on their investment. Currently, Foxtel broadcast much of the NRL, Super Rugby and A-League and I suspect these alternate codes will definitely be impacted by this new deal. What will these impacts look like? It’s hard to say at this stage, but it might be reduced air-time or a re-allocation of resources from the other codes.
But the upside for NRL is that channel 9 will not want to be left without a major sport to telecast on a weekly basis and I wouldn’t discount channel 10 coming over the top and trying to pinch the rights for NRL either.
Needless to say, this is a very interesting time for all football codes in Australia. The AFL has landed their big fish, it’ll be interesting to see what is left in the pockets of the Australian TV networks.
When Advertising Contradicts
If you open up today’s media section in The Australian Newspaper, you’ll see on page 37 the Seven Network has taken out a full page ad to promote they were the No.1 network in 2010 against Total People, 25-54, 18-49 & 16-39. My first reaction was that it’s a little overstated and an unnecessary waste of money, but that’s just my opinion. Seven has been tracking well this year, so it really didn’t come as a surprise.
However, within seconds of noticing this ad (it was hard not to!), I saw Nine’s Insight Newsletter had landed in my inbox. When to my surprise and confusion there was the heading “Australia’s # 1 Network for 2010” and sure enough they were stating exactly the same demographics with the exception of Total People.
With both sourcing Oztam data, you’d have to assume one of the networks has manipulated the data in such a way it tells them what they want us to hear. What’s the saying….don’t believe everything you read! I haven’t had a chance to run the data independently yet to determine whose claim is the most credible, but stay tuned…..