Good Afternoon America

Summer TV programming is well underway; however, some new programs are slated to start mid-summer. Good Morning America, an ABC morning news/lifestyle program, will launch a spin-off program called Good Afternoon America to run for nine weeks starting July 9^th.

According to MediaPost, the hour-long program will be anchored by Josh Elliott and Lara Spencer with GMA regulars making appearances like Sam Champion, Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos.

Like Good Morning America, the show will be broadcast from the Times Square studio.

Summer is a good way for stations, advertisers and viewers to see if new programming is going to work. Should this be a success, it is possible that it could be a lead-in or pairing to Katie Couric’s new show, which premiers this fall.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

A new shopping holiday?

Americans know when to expect good deals on retail shopping like on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. The print publication Teen Vogue is looking to add another shopping holiday on the calendar called Back-to-School Saturday.

According to the New York Times, August 11^th is the set date and is intended to be a full blown event for shoppers with sales, samples and events in the stores and/or malls. Teen Vogue has gotten many of its advertisers, like American Eagle Outfitters, Express, H&M, Cover Girl, Olay, and Staples, to participate.

The magazine will be rolling out with a strong print and digital initiative in July. One of the digital plans will be an iPhone app called the Teen Vogue Insider.

The push behind the event is to help the magazine and retailers get in front of their core audience in a relevant way. Executives believe that Americans are showing growing interest in event-based shopping. The intention is to get Back-to-School Saturday recognized as a national holiday.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

4Seven to run shows popular on Social Media

Social Media has influenced and joined forces with many forms of media since its creation. A United Kingdom television station has gone a step further with creating a TV channel that runs programming based off its social media traffic.

According to AdvertisingAge, Channel 4 is launching 4Seven starting July 4^th. 4Seven will air shows that create the most noise on Twitter, Facebook, etc. The programming will look like:

§       8 p.m. and 10 p.m.: These slots are reserved for shows that created the most social media and newspaper buzz within the last 24 hours.

§       9 p.m.: This will be a re-run of the Channel 4 9 p.m. programming from the night before.

The rest of the schedule will be shows that were popular from the week prior. 4Seven will run programming from stations like E4, More4, Film 4 and Channel 4.

Advertisers will have to wait a few weeks to see how the new station will be received by viewers. It has been said that a reassuring fact for advertisers is that these programs may be re-runs, but audiences have a clear interest in them based on the Social Media feeds.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

Where is your audience watching TV?

If a snapshot was taken on how typical American family members watch television, it would show that age groups watch it differently.

According to MediaPost, Nielsen took notice of where age groups watch TV. Teenagers 12-17 were found to spend about half of the time watching TV in his/her bedroom at 47%, 48% of TV viewing was done in a living room/family room, and the remaining 5% was done in other rooms. Older demographics tend to watch more TV in common areas of the home. For example, the 18-34 group spends 57%, the 35-64 group spends 62%, and the 65+ group spends 69% of TV viewing in living rooms. 

Interesting to note is that the younger demographic 6-11 spend most of TV viewing, about 60%, in common rooms. It could be inferred this is because the younger demographic is with an adult when viewing programming.

What can advertisers pull from this? Each demographic is unique in how they utilize media. Therefore, advertisers need to be aware of this in order to best cater the campaign message to the core audience.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

Watch a video ad in a public bathroom mirror?

In a world of reality TV shows, it seems as though the only private place left for people is the bathroom. While that is the case, people will now have a source of entertainment in public bathrooms in the form of advertisements running in the mirrors.

According to the LA Times, a company called Novo Ad has created the technology to run video advertisements in mirrors (LED screens with an internal hard disk). Here is how it works: a static ad will be posted over the whole mirror. As a person stands in front of it, a video ad will start to play, and after a moment the video will minimize and take up about one-fourth of the mirror’s surface area. Therefore, the patron can utilize the mirror and watch the remaining video content at the same time.

This latest advertising platform has been installed in Tel Aviv in May and is scheduled this month to be installed in a Carrefour mall in Barentin, France. The shopping center intends to run ads for stores within the mall and self-promoting ads. There is not a timeline for this technology to be installed in public restrooms in the United States of America.

While this technology is new, it’s important for advertisers to not jump on board with a platform if it doesn’t make sense for the campaign. A new platform needs to align with the client messaging.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

What else is playing in the movie theaters?

Media vendors are continually creating new products to best serve a target audience to the advertisers. The theater slide company National CineMedia (NCM) has recently branched out to other big screen products in addition to online and mobile ventures.

According to MediaPost, NCM has made a few deals to present movie-goers with more entertainment during the pre-show. The company is working with the comedy website Funny or Die in which advertisers have the option to incorporate their brands into the content. The Funny or Die comedy shorts will now be part of NCM’s “FirstLook” pre-show package and will be available for online and mobile consumption.

Other new pre-show content includes music video and entertainment footage from Vevo and a feature called “A Taste of the Movies.” This cooking segment will feature a celebrity chef preparing meals from well-known movies. All of these new in-cinema additions allow for product integration.

In order for vendors to offer advertisers access to active audiences, media platforms have to keep a constant eye on what consumers are doing.  A lot of that today leads to cross platform initiatives.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

Public Broadcast and Political Ads?

The advertising community has been preparing for its arrival, and its here. Political advertising has started to stream onto TV. In fact, there is potential for more political ads to reach avenues of media left untouched.

According to MediaPost, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco made a decision in April that states that the ban of political advertising on both public TV and radio conflicts with the free speech clause in the First Amendment.

The decision was not unanimous; however, the majority of judges deemed political advertising would not undercut the educational focus of programming. For-profit companies will continue to be banned from public stations with commercials; however, the “sponsorship” format will still be in effect.

Some estimates show that political TV advertising could reach a record in 2012 with $3 billion.

Overall, the political season is starting and advertisers must be aware of how it will impact his/her campaign.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...