Is Older, Cooler? Interview with RLTV’s Roy Ennis

With Mindshare’s new Culture Vulture study noting a new trend – a Boomaissance where older is cooler - it may be RLTV’s golden hour. RLTV’s General Manager, Roy Ennis, describes his own career path, his network and the opportunities for advertisers.

“I'm an Accounting guy originally,” notes Ennis. But his career path soon took him into television, specifically into TV Documentary production. This led into a long career at National Geographic TV where he became their first SVP of Production Operations and Finance.  Now, as GM of RLTV, his mission is to insure that RLTV, as he explains, “serves the needs of mature, experienced and knowledgeable audiences with information and entertainment that inspires them and enhances perceptions of aging. To be a network that is immersive, engaging and empowering through advocacy, aspiration, and entertainment.”

Charlene Weisler: What do you see as the greatest opportunities for the network?

Roy Ennis: We are focused on non-traditional viewership growth through Live Streaming, Syndication Partnerships and Print/Digital Partnerships through the acquisition of talent and programming with strong social media, prior exposure and memberships. Based on the demo’s increasing usage of Facebook/Digital, Multimedia device ownership combined with a continued commitment to Traditional TV viewing. We actually have limited direct competition for the demo “on mission” in the linear space.  While the race is on to build a presence in the nonlinear world, and to monetize that presence, we have an opportunity to further leverage our traditional base and expand our mission offerings and take a leadership role in providing diverse content.  

Charlene Weisler: What are the greatest challenges for your network and how will you overcome these challenges?

Roy Ennis: Currently we have a lack of a strong Digital footprint and we need to increase our traditional distribution growth. With the lack of a strong Digital footprint, we intend to leverage the value of our traditional platform to incentivize others who share our mission values to grow a base.  These like-minded partners will come from Publishing, Digital or just membership based organizations and we’ll jointly use the power of platforms such as Facebook Live and Twitter along with Print and Cable to build the footprint. When it comes to growing our traditional distribution, we need to be successful in penetrating the non-traditional platforms, create value for our mission programming/campaigns, be relevant and be diverse

Charlene Weisler:     What makes your audience unique?

Roy Ennis: Our audience shares one of the most natural of common interest, Aging Bewilderment. They participate in Digital Media in addition to Traditional TV like no others. And remember, TV is still the dominant platform. In addition, our audience represents over 50% of Consumer Spending and they control of over 75% of US Wealth.  

Charlene Weisler:  Older adults can be a hard sell for advertisers. How can you demonstrate the value your audience has for an advertiser?

Roy Ennis: Advertisers should know the size of our audience’s Consumer Spending, their loyalty to TV as a platform (they still appointment view). They also have increasing growth in Digital Media usage and they remain the household decision makers for a range of purchases.

Charlene Weisler:     How do you define television?

Roy Ennis: There is so much going on I’d define it as the transmission of video (used very broadly) to a receiving screen.  Today I believe it is largely associated with the “in-home” delivery platform, where “home” can be a residence, school, church, business (such as a club or bar, etc.).  Television now provides a multi-screen home environment with remote capabilities.

Charlene Weisler:  Where do you see television in the media ecosystem five years from now? Will it still be a dominant force?

Roy Ennis: I still see the “in-home” delivery platform as dominant in five years, but delivery evolving to “device” versus “home”.  However, similar to the Movie Experience I think the in-home TV experience still attracts a substantial following for the in person social engagement; whether it be live events, romantic movies with couples, or watching that premiere or finale with you buddies/girlfriends, though the timing will be at your leisure.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com
 

Advanced Advertising - Automation, Measurement and Stewardship, OH MY!

There is a lot of activity brewing in the advanced advertising sector and the recent Multichannel Advanced Advertising conference in NYC brought many of us up to date. The conclusion of the conference was, as we prepare for the upfront TV season, advanced advertising will not only be a bigger player, it may even shift dollars. And, according to most of the panels, when we say Advanced Advertising we are also saying TV Programmatic in the same breath.

Granted, most of us think of advanced advertising as local time now but it is fast moving into national applications. Fox recently announced the appointment of Joe Marchese to President-advanced advertising products, a new position overseeing all non-linear TV advertising products and services inside Fox.  According to Louis Hillelson, Group Publisher B&C / Multichannel News, “It is only March 2015 and we have already seen movement in this space.” 

Unifying content offerings and getting credit for all of the audience delivered is the Holy Grail. This requires accurate cross platform metrics, the ability to steward all of the different units and an effective and automated platform to drive the sales process from proposal to completion. 

Automation

Even in this technological age, there are still a number of inefficient manual processes in the television buying and selling process. There is a great hunger among many of the buyers and sellers to automate and streamline processes. Todd Gorden, EVP Magna Global , explained, “Traditional television still has manual processes - Faxes, retyping of plans. We want to automate. Free up more time for conversations that help each business. (TV Programmatic) offers quality data to define target, a tech platform to facilitate business and inventory that can take advantage to where technology takes us.”

Measurement

It all comes down to measurement and the ability to match disparate datasets accurately to gain insight into true consumer behaviors.  “Measurement is a key component,” according to Comcast Executive Director, Dan Carella.  Chris Monteferrante, VP AT&T, explained how his company handles measurement. “We retrieve second by second data from every set top box and developed an algorithm that takes all STB data, culls it down and produces an optimized media plan. The science solid, the research is solid and the output is solid.” Dan Sinagoga, VP Comcast Spotlight concurred, “It is all about the data - household level data against your key segments.”

With the ability to match to segments, we are seeing “real insights into the customer” according to EVP Cadreen, Erica Schmidt, “and the best available source of media usage behavior to match it to.“ But we have a way to go. James Rooke GM Freewheel admited that there is “undervalued inventory because of measurement challenges out there.”

Stewardship

Ultimately, it is the need for seamless de’siloing systems that make the entire buy sell process fully trackable.  Monteferrante noted that, “Systems will bring it all together. What are the standards of that system? How can we tie it all together?”  Some agencies have successfully established a planning protocol. Mike Bologna, President MODI Media, sees advanced advertising commanding 20-30% of a budget at this time. He said, “Hyper segments defined for advertisers can determine how TV content indexes against segments. (We) can do a beautifully balanced TV plan for an advertiser, down to the individual household. We take advantage of all the data and technology and balance between core and future customers.”

The Future?

Though there is a lot of talk about Programmatic TV in the upcoming upfront, this does not portend the end of traditional TV. In fact the two processes can go hand in hand. Gorden explains, “Comparing traditional TV to Programmatic TV is apples to oranges. Traditional TV is a more effective way to get up reach curve. But then it levels out. Then a dollar spent via programmatic can deliver more incremental reach.”

There are many national networks starting to explore the potential, and build out their Programmatic TV strategy. Attendee Hanna Gryncwajg, SVP Sales for RLTV, sees an opportunity, “I see programmatic (automated) selling as a benefit for all national networks.  Long tail cable networks have rich audience compositions and will likely find a CPM benefit from their current undervalued impressions.  Under appreciated audiences such as Boomers (Adults 50+) will be welcome when data shows they are the ones buying certain products and services.”

This article first appeared in www.MeediaBizBloggers.com

Boom Time for Boomers

In the early days of television, media was bought on households and broad demographics like “men” and “women”. Then in the early 1960s, trailing network ABC had an ingenious idea; Why not change the buy sell conversation and sell to strength? ABC did not lead in overall household performance but they did lead among younger TV viewers. The “sell” was that these younger 18-49 viewers were open to messaging and did not have intractable brand loyalties. Advertisers could reach them while they were open for conversion and willing to experiment. The idea stuck and soon all networks were targeting to that valuable consumer group of Adults 18-49.

But maybe youthful age gender targeting was a bit too simplistic? Maybe the mindset of 18-49 year olds in the 1960s was actually more psychographic rather than demographic. Young adults of that time were different from older adults. They were also different from previous generations of young adults. Maybe, just maybe, the shift to A18-49 selling in the 1960s was because A18-49s at that time were Baby Boomers. And you know how different Boomers are from other generations.

In cruel irony, let’s shift to 2013 when the tyranny of targeting A18-49 continues unabated as the Boomers, who once epitomized this youth trend, age out into the advertising netherworld of 50+. The generation that wouldn’t trust anyone over 30 now looks back at that age with some nostalgia.  But psycho-graphically we are still fitting into our skinny jeans and ready to change the world. My mom says “People don’t change” and I have to agree. So maybe it’s time to re-consider the A18-49 media target.

Last week I attended a Town Hall called “Rethink 50+”, sponsored by RLTV and hosted by Jane Pauley which focused on the attitudes, activities and aspirations of Boomers. A special of this Town Hall is slated to air on  February 7 at 9p on RLTV. The panels included experts like NBC’s Alan Wurtzel whose work on Alphaboomers showcased their buying power and cultural influence, CBS’ David Poltrack whose research proves that Boomers embrace media and are big consumers of high tech and media services, Stuart Elliott of the New York Times, film critic Jeffrey Lyons, media executive Johnathan Rodgers, Nancy Graham of AARP, Terry Clark of UHC,Brian Terkelson of MediaVest and Kirsten Flanik of BBDO. 

Adults 50+ are 100 million strong according to RLTV President Paul Fitzpatrick and they are “spending, high worth, highly active, interesting people.” And by 2017, Adults 50+ will constitute over 50% of the US population. Did you know that the average American consumer buys 13 cars in their lifetime, 7 of them after the age of 50? So why aren’t there more product categories willing to buy and sell on Adults 50+? Part of the reason according to the panel, are the ingrained prejudices about older adults; That they are set in their ways and are not brand experimental. But hasn’t the consumer environment changed over the past 50 years? Aren’t there more product choices, brand new-to-market products that are continuously invented and upgraded? Example - The iphone did not exist prior to 2007 and now 23% of all iphone purchasers are 55+.

Boomers represent the generation that epitomizes a revolutionary, individualized mindset that is open to new stimuli and who also now have the discretionary income needed to act on their innate consumerism. Unlike younger consumers today, Boomers, with three trillion dollars of spending power, have the money to spend and they are willing to spend it. They spend it not only on themselves – for clothes, travel, launching new post-retirement second career businesses, CPG, fitness and autos – they also spend on others. Boomers are part of the Sandwich Generation. According to the AARP, more than 70% of all Boomers are supporting their children in and out of college and are caregiving their own parents.

Why not target a consumer group that is responsible for a range of purchasing decisions, not only for themselves but also for the previous and future generations of consumers? Granted, A50+ are not the “be all / end all” target for every single consumer category. But they do represent a considerable percentage of spending in so many important consumer goods and services. We… I mean … they should not be counted out.

Q&A Interview with Hanna Gryncwajg - RLTV

Hanna Gryncwajg, the SVP of Advertising Sales for RLTV, is a sales professional whose extensive experience includes local and national broadcast, large and niche cable networks and even digital and entrepreneurial media outlets. She is a savvy strategist who seeks the addition of research in all of her sales materials. Hanna and I worked together in the early days of Bravo where I saw how she adeptly captured the audience essence and sales advantage of the network through the use of research to great success.

In this compelling four part interview, Hanna talks about her background, RLTV, insights on the Boomer demographic, the current economy on the media market. Hanna also offers some insights on the state of the media in the next few years.

The five videos of the complete interview are as follows:

Subject                                      Length (in minutes)
Background, Sales                     (4:59)
RLTV                                          (6:08)
Boomers and the Agencies         (4:09)
Predictions, the Economy           (5:28)


Charlene Weisler interviews RLTV Sales SVP Hanna Gryncwajg who discusses her extensive background and the current media sales process in this 4:50 minute video:




Hanna Gryncwajg talks to Charlene Weisler about RLTV and its unique position in the marketplace. This video is 6:08 minutes:




Charlene Weisler interviews Hanna Gryncwajg about the Boomer audience segment and its sales position ar advertising agencies. This video is 4:09 minutes:




In this final 5:28 minute video, Hanna Gryncwajg offers some predictions for the media landscape over the next few years: