HGTV and Lowes Build It Forward

When it comes to commemorating their centennial, which fell in the middle of the pandemic, Lowes had the right idea in mind. Their significant milestone is being celebrated with an initiative called Build It Forward which, in partnership with HGTV, provides funding for vital projects to 100 communities across the U.S.

Build It Forward is the brainchild of Lowes where individuals from local communities nominate a deserving group that needs infrastructure help from damage caused by events such as climate change or the pandemic. According to Lowes’ Marisa Thalberg, Executive Vice President, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer, the process of receiving nominations was, in itself, a highly gratifying experience. “What made the process so beautiful was that those doing the nominating weren’t thinking about themselves, even though they needed help too,” she shared.

HGTV was the perfect choice for this effort. As Catherine Moran, Senior Vice President SVP, Integrated Ad Sales Marketing, Discovery, explained, “When they were looking for a partner for the 100 hometowns project, they naturally came to us. We've been in business with Lowes for over 26 years. They were a charter advertiser for HGTV. So we were natural partner based on our long history and because HGTV is built for this from a brand and content perspective. We tell great stories every day that inspire people to take action.”

Out of the 100 communities chosen, five were highlighted for a series on HGTV which premiered on Saturday, March 12 on HGTV and discovery+.  While the community projects served as the jumping off point for the series storytelling, “the unexpected part is that the nominator too is surprised with a makeover of their own,” Thalberg explained. To help publicize the program and the initiative, Lowes is using signage in their stores and, Thalberg added, “We are giving our customers, as well as all 350,000 or so of our associates, a free 30 day subscription to discovery+.”

HGTV is also very active in marketing the initiative. Moran noted that, “We launched our streaming service discovery+ last year and we have world class content that really serves itself well to their initiative. Even our talent are great ambassadors to initiatives like this. This show is a five part series that launched on HGTV and across our HGTV go app, HGTV.com and d+. We're also launching a mid-form series which rolls out across those platforms as well and contents featured in high profile placements across those platforms.” Within Lowes stores, in addition to the 30 day free trial to discovery+, HGTV, “Just this week added a fire stick to that as an incentive to get people to sign up. Lowes has been a great partner to supporting the show in all the stores.”

“We touched 1.3 million Americans with these 100 communities,” noted Thalberg. In addition, more than 1,850 Lowes associates volunteered nearly 12,000 hours on the initiative – more than a year’s worth of time - across the 100 Hometowns projects. She noted that, “About 45,000 people or more are living below the poverty line, so you start to roll it up, there's a big impact that is real at an individual level. People can feel it.” In terms of a longer term goal, Lowes determined that this would become, “The center of our community action going forward. We're turning it into a five year, $100 million commitment to community impact projects. We've taken 100 hometowns and we're rebranding it as Lowes Hometowns. We're going to do keep doing these for the next five years 100 times, plus another 1,700 smaller projects a year. It's a lot of impact!” Thalberg stated.

HGTV’s goal is, as Moran explained, “To have impact on communities and, with Lowes, really make a difference. These are very deserving people that have dedicated their life to helping others so for HGTV to have the ability to reward them with their own personal renovation was super important to us.” She added, “From a partnership perspective, it was really important for us to help Lowes meet their goals and support their mission as well as show value to consumers who are HGTV fans and also Lowes consumers.”

The initiative, so far, has been very successful. Ratings are increasing each week and there has been, “Great engagement on social media,” noted Moran, who added, “People are eager to hear these stories and are commenting about how inspiring it is to see people really committed to their communities and making a difference. So far it's going really well.”

The hope is that the collaboration between Lowes and HGVT marks the beginning of a long term collaboration, “The beginning of a longer way of they're looking for content, we have stories to tell bringing it together, I think it's a very fresh and modern way of showing up together, and I think we were both very respectful of each other in the process,” noted Thalberg.

Synergy is everything in this ever expanding marketplace. Marketers are aware that, “Not everybody can do this right, so when you have these two brands that sit so well next to each other, like Lowes and HGTV, you have a lot of power and can go into the marketplace and make a difference,” concluded Moran.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

Discovery’s Power of the Package Lifts All Brands

What happens to perceived media brand equity value among different stakeholders when individual networks within a family of networks have a range of competing genres and divergent target audiences? How do individual content brands impact overall corporate equity? Discovery Networks, home to Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, TLC, Cooking Channel, Investigation Discovery and OWN, enjoys strong brand equity as one of only two TV network groups, along with Walt Disney Television, that is highly ranked among all three primary stakeholder groups measured in The Myers Report Media Brand Equity Study: advertiser executives, media agency professionals and consumers.

While individual brands within TV network groups have varying levels of brand equity, the value of packaging at Discovery and Disney, according to John Bishop, president of The Myers Report, “is a story of a rising tide elevating all ships. All the ships in the package are not perceived the same among all constituencies, but across the corporate platform each network has a role to play.”

·         Among consumers, overall Discovery Networks positive brand equity is driven primarily by Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, which rank 4^th and 5^th respectively 

o   Discovery Channel ranks #1 among TV networks, and follows only YouTube and Netflix, for “Distinctiveness.”

o   Discovery Channel is the 2^nd highest ranked TV network for “Cultural Relevance,” behind only National Geographic Channel.

o   For “Emotional Connections” with its audiences, Discovery Channel ranks 1^st, Animal Planet 2^nd and Food Network 6^th among TV networks.

o   Audiences ranks Discovery Channel 1^st, Animal Planet 6^th and HGTV 7^th among TV networks for “Interest in the Content.”

o   Animal Planet ranks first among all 100 media brands for “Corporate Social Responsibility.”

·         Among brand advertisers, HGTV ranks highest for overall brand reputation among the Discovery family at 15^th, followed by Food at 20^th, Animal Planet 22^nd, and Discovery Channel 23^rd. This combination enables the Discovery package to rank 6^th overall among 17 media brand groups evaluated by The Myers Report.

·         Among media agency professionals, HGTV and Animal Planet drive positive perceptions, ranking 12^th and 13^th among all 100 brands. While other Discovery networks included in the study ranked below 30^th among agency respondents, the strength of two powerhouse brands drives Discovery’s corporate brand equity to 7^th among this cohort.

EXCLUSIVE TO MEDIAVILLAGE MEMBER COMPANIES: Scroll to the end of this report or visit The Myers Report for detailed data comparing the corporate brand equity of Discovery Networks and Walt Disney Television to social media groups, streaming/OTT, secondary digital players, and audio.

In the past, it would be rare for multi-brand TV network groups to promote their corporate brand to consumers. But the brand game will need to be played differently in the emerging world of streaming over-the-top brands dominated by Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video. On the horizon are Walmart’s Vudu and NBCU’s Peacock with Discovery not far behind. Hallmark Movies Now has a paid subscriber base approaching one million fans (at a monthly $5.99 cost); Viacom and CBS have yet to define the brand voice for their merged assets; A+E Networks, as previously reported by The Myers Report, boasts powerful brand affinity among consumers. Audio-based content curators Pandora and Spotify are gaining brand traction and fighting for a growing share of the attention of both professionals and consumers. As noted in The Myers Report data chart above, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram represent an almost impenetrable fortress of brand dominance among advertisers, with legacy media fighting an increasingly difficult battle. Attacking social media with consolidated brand force is an imperative.

As TV and digital brands move toward inevitable consolidation, the need for differentiated, relevant, consistent and well-communicated brand equity will be a required asset to sell-through marketing solutions and promotional programs to both advertisers and consumers. This understanding appears to be the foundation of ViacomCBS’ continuing prioritization of the Viacom Vantage service, which new CEO Bob Bakish reinforced in a recent interview with The Myers Report.

MediaVillage members should have access to The Myers Report data chart below. If you believe you are a member or to request membership details, contact Mark Altschuler, E.B. Moss, John Bishop, or Jack Myers.

This article first appeared on www.MediaVillage.com

Unlocking The Addressable Future

According to eMarketer, Addressable TV ad spend is on a tear, increasing from $760million in 2016 and projected to rise to $3.49billion by 2021. The advantages that addressable offers both buyers and sellers also benefits consumers who can now receive messaging that is tailored to their interests and needs. Many companies believe that there is an even greater opportunity for growth in the next few years and are willing to place more dollars against it in the next sales cycle. 

Advertising Week’s panel titled, Unlocking the Addressable Future brought Discovery, Xander, FreeWheel and Omnicom together to discuss how they will ‘unlock’ these opportunities. The potential is great. “First, the infrastructure exists,” stated, David Algranati, Chief Product Officer, Comscore, there is, “the ability to version ads at the household level at scale.” And with national addressable, “If the networks, in conjunction with the MVPDs were to version the inventory that the networks own, the scale or available inventory for addressable advertising would dramatically increase creating a whole new set of opportunities for advertisers.” 

Where is Addressable Today?

For Dan Rosenfeld, Vice President Data Strategy, Xandr, addressable offers relevant advertising delivered one-to-one directly to the consumer or a household through TV distribution or digital. Keith Kazerman, Executive Vice President, Digital Sales, Advanced Advertising and Research, Discovery, essentially agreed, adding that the ads are dynamically inserted.

On the agency side, Matt Kramer, Managing Director, Advanced Advertising, Omnicom, suggested that companies consider the levels of delivery. “At the top you have data driven linear, using first and third party data to better select what networks, dayparts and programs to buy,” he explained, “Layer number two is getting down to the household level and finally you have the IPTV space which is built upon connected devices at the access point and the OTT apps you are trying to sponsor,” which is at the programmatic level.

For Claudio Marcus, General Manager, Data Platform, FreeWheel, addressable identifies segments of consumers who share common attributes and is not necessarily one-to-one marketing.  “This is not,” he assured, “targeting people on a single individual basis.” This is an important distinction, coming at a time of GDPR in the E.U. and state level privacy legislation such as CCPA in the US. He added that addressable offers not only target-ability but is also ubiquitously measureable. “The measurement component of addressability extends beyond the households that don’t support targeting today,” he stated, meaning that an advertiser can deliver a linear ad and still understand which household received that ad. 

Where is Addressable going?

So today, Addressable can be used in a myriad of ways to capture consumers by segment and to measure against traditional targeting and delivery. But where is it headed? For Marcus, looking ahead three years from now will bring profound applications. "Three years from now, the definition of addressable TV advertising will be ads that are targeted to anonymous, likeminded segments of consumers who are reached via TV and premium video content, regardless of the type of delivery or device. Addressable TV ads will be seamlessly enabled across National, Local and premium digital video, and will considerably easier to plan, buy, execute and measure," he predicted.

For Zazerman, the stakes are high and collaboration is pivotal. “If national programmer addressability is not available at scale in 3 years, everyone on this stage should be held accountable. Collaboration is key to bringing this opportunity to market for our collective clients,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Championing Television Targeting Through the ATSG

Sometimes the best way to advance initiatives is to band together a group of frenemies and form a consortium. In the case of ATSG, (Advanced Target Standards Group), Discovery, ESPN, Fox, Turner and Viacom shared their expertise to accelerate the use of advanced targets in the buying and selling of TV advertising.

The group was formed in 2016 when data -driven linear deals were fairly new. At the time, “all the participants recognized that there was a need for standard approaches and consistency in defining and measuring advanced audiences,” explained Pete Doe, Chief Research Officer, clypd who also leads the ATSG. “Since then we’ve grown to include representation from more media owners, agencies and CIMM.”

Since their inception, the group has deliverables in the following areas –

• Guidelines to help buyers and sellers manage advanced audience deals and first party data.
• Calculation Principles ensuring consistent and transparent advanced audience definitions and calculations.
• Pre-defined Advanced Audience Definitions.
• Perspectives on data quality for advanced TV data sets and Attribution.

The need for such a group is evident when you compare linear TV to digital. “Linear inventory is finite while digital is effectively infinite, so that leads to very different demand and supply and monetization,” noted Doe. But another key difference is measurement where linear TV with its human-based panel is a counterpoint to digital which is device driven with inferences about humans being drawn from observed online activity and big data matching.

“Typically, the assumption is that a served digital ad is seen by one person, but with television, co-viewing is common. As OTT continues to grow, measurement needs to reflect that more than one person is watching the IP-delivered content on the big screen. The best of both worlds has to be a hybrid measurement of big data sources reflecting device activity, informed by representative panel measurements of people,” concluded Doe.

The next steps for ATSG are to expand their membership to include other parts of the media ecosystem while continuing to work on cross-platform target definition consistency and guidelines on the reliability of advanced audience campaign delivery.

This article first appeared in Cynopsis.

In Pursuit, the New John Walsh Program on ID, Aims to Close Cold Cases

America is a very dangerous place. And that is why I am happy to report that John Walsh, the justice advocate who turned his family’s personal tragedy into a national crime solving movement, is back on television. 

Last night we attended the premiere screening of his new program, In Pursuit, on Investigation Discovery which previewed on the network at 10p, January 17, 2019.

Walsh and his son Callahan team up to showcase unsolved crimes in the hopes that some of these cold cases can finally be solved. They appeared on a panel with Paula Zahn, whose own show on ID, On The Case, focuses on the investigations behind some of America’s most fascinating crimes. Callahan Walsh has taken up his father’s cause, serving as the Strategic Advancement and Partnerships Senior Specialist for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

In the premiere episode, In Pursuit focused on two unsolved crimes of husbands killing their wives and then eluding the police. Each segment includes photos of the criminal with a toll free number to call and a website address. The program also features photos (age enhanced where needed) of two missing children in the hope that someone will recognize them and help reunite them with their families

John Walsh explained that he wants to highlight unsolved crimes in small towns whose police forces are small and often not equipped to handle many of the heinous crimes in their community. He explained that 70% of all police forces in America have fewer than 10 police. To help support local efforts, Walsh has set up a network of retired veteran police, marshals and detectives, called Team Adam after his son who was tragically kidnapped and murdered 27 years ago. Team Adam participants fly in and help local forces fight for justice by doing immediate actions such as grid searches and hot interviews.  Walsh is also committed to reforming the justice system to find more ways to protect child victims, such as enabling them to testify in the judges’ chambers instead of the courtroom. “We know what it is like to wait for justice,” Walsh stated.

 

In the case of his own son, Walsh explained that the local Hollywood, Florida police refused to act upon his abduction and the case languished until Walsh was able to obtain all of the police files of the case and hire his own private detective to investigate. The case was then solved in one month.  The importance of having experienced investigators on the case and a system that is actively committed to pursuing justice cannot be understated. I speak from experience. 

My mother-in-law was the victim of a homicide in Pasco County Florida in 1997. We were fortunate that two local detectives were actually retired NYC Brooklyn homicide police who solved our case in two weeks. But the then District Attorney of Florida would not prosecute, citing not enough evidence… until one of the local detectives brought the case to the FBI and the U.S. Federal court where it was successfully prosecuted. This hard lesson underscored to me how lucky our family was in having two veteran law enforcers working on our behalf and how they took a risk to go over the heads of state agencies to seek full justice on the national level. 

Callahan Walsh summed it up best when he said, “We want to make the world a smaller place for criminals.” Not even home is safe; John Walsh reported that 35 families turned in their own sons after hearing about criminal cases on America’s Most Wanted, his previous show. So far, the Walshs’ efforts have helped bring to justice hundreds of criminals globally with arrests made as far as India. “The tips from the public are vital,” Callahan continued, “so we want to lower the threshold for tips.” To that end, they are leveraging social media such as Facebook, in addition to their website www.inpursuittips.com. I know that when a family member is a victim of a crime, there is never closure. “But,” as John Walsh pointed out, “Justice helps.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Peering into the Media Crystal Ball at The TV of Tomorrow Conference

Every December in New York, we are given an opportunity to map out the future developments in media at the TV of Tomorrow conference. This year, Tracy Swedlow, co-founder and CEO, TMRW Corp., focused the event on hot topics such as Attribution, Addressable Advertising and Data and how these three impact content creation and sales.

Here are the major takeaways:

Addressable Advertising Advances

“Traditional TV was a one-to-many ad medium where all would see the same ad,” explained Brett Hurwitz, Business Lead, Advanced TV, Oath. ”Addressable is not the case. It delivers a direct ad to the most relevant individuals. It is individualized advertising,” he added.

According to Amy Leifer, Vice President Sales Planning and Operations, Xandr, there is huge potential in addressable. “When you use data to attract audiences, it is more meaningful. Outcomes are so much better than using blunt media,” she stated, and added, “The reality is that it works regardless of whatever vertical you use. And it continues to grow because it works.” Xandr, AT&T’s new advertising division, launched their addressable product seven years ago.

Competing companies, such as AT&T and Dish, are now partnering on certain addressable initiatives, such as the political advertising marketplace, where they need scale and reach. “They are a competitor but we are combining our audiences in certain markets. We have an office in Washington DC that is dedicated to that marketplace,” Leifer noted.

Desirable niche targets sometimes pose a risk in addressable. We need to monitor, “which households are seeing any given ad far too many times,” advised Kevin Arrix, Senior Vice President of Dish Media. “It is difficult to control because sequencing is sold by certain groups.”

Understand How to Leverage Content

Karen Leever, President, US Digital Products, Discovery, understands the importance of content format in attracting the right consumer on the right platform. “Consumers deserve ubiquity of content and we need to give them reasons to come back,” she explained. Discovery offers full seasons on demand and, with key tent pole shows like Shark Week, the company strives to “go deeper on those for super fans” by offering short form content on the event, 8-15 minutes in length that they especially enjoy.

Leever measures the success with number of streams and minutes watched which she examines every day for both long and short form programs. In addition, Discovery has a social media initiative and has developed a robust social media community. “We have 300 million social media fans,” she noted. Discovery partners with such companies as Group 9, Dodo and Seeker which helps age down their linear TV demographic. But this effort is only used to build awareness. “There is not a lot of access to  programming over social media. Viewers must go to the provider,” she explained.

While Discovery seeks to own their content, Google sources news rather than creates it, according to Rebekah Dopp, Principal, News and Local Media Global Partnerships, Google. And thre are no plans at this time to go beyond aggregating. “It is not our core competency, not in our DNA,” she explained. “We are not content creators but a platform. And we do all we can do to maintain integrity of those who provide content.”

Attribution is Hitting Its Stride

Media companies and agencies are focusing more and more on attribution. “Attribution is a super-hot topic,” according to Tracy Swedlow, co-founder and CEO, TMRW Corp, the parent company of TV of Tomorrow. 

For agencies, it is important to manage for frequency and understand targets that are applied to linear space, according to Helen Katz, SVP, Global Director of Data and Contract, Publicis Spine. Creative has been a bigger challenge, she noted, because there isn’t always multi versions of creative that can be used for targeting. “We are in a learning curve,” she stated. But it is possible to measure success. Katz has seen sellers guarantee against the outcome in addition to the grps. And yes, “they have to hit both guarantees,” she added.

Media companies have to create their own benchmarks in this new and emerging space because there is little history to rely upon. “We update our guidelines every year,” Katz said

Data Continues to Rule

Donna Speciale, President of Turner Ad Sales, is a big proponent of data to help sales maximize the value of their inventory. Their work with AT&T’s Xandr has been formalized this past June and now they are working closely, collaborating and gathering data to enhance their current products. Xandr offers Turner access to AT&T first party data for 25 million set top boxes and 147 million mobile devices. “Our goals is to enhance our audience products,” Speciale noted, “making them faster. Our goal is to have real time optimization so we can post a lot quicker and cleaner.”

Speciale is hoping to get to national addressable. “But we are not there yet,” she admitted. “To me, it would have to get to at least a 50% mark for it to be a viable option. It is hard for us to do anything of that size because anything that deviates in a national footprint for C3, we won't get credit for. Nielsen needs one marketer for a national unit.” If ads are split between two different advertisers, Turner would lose that national rating for that telecast.

But in the meantime, Turner is doing beta testing to make the data actionable within audience segments. Speciale expects to announce new products by 2Q 2019. She also plans on being able to do her own attribution instead of going to third party sources. “We’ve got to get out of the demo and into audiences,” she stated.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com