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For major advertisers, plans for the Super Bowl LV were put on the back burner earlier this year. Retooling ad budgets and managing cash flow to deal with fall out from the coronavirus crisis became the top priority, especially for companies in the hardest hit sectors like restaurants and travel.
With that being the case, committing ad dollars or defining ad concepts for next year’s Big Game wasn’t top of mind for marketers. That changed in September, according to ad agency execs and seasoned PR professionals who’ve managed multiple Super Bowl campaigns, as advertisers began to reexamine their plans in the fall. And in October, Super Bowl commercial shoots got underway.
Aside from making a decision later than usual, the biggest change for Super Bowl advertisers has been figuring out the logistics of doing the commercial shoot. While managing the logistics of shoots has become more stressful overall for production companies and agencies, especially as coronavirus numbers have once again surged, doing so for a Super Bowl campaign is even more difficult. Big Game ads are generally glitzier than the average ad require more shots, locations and actors which means figuring out more locations where coronavirus restrictions will allow what a production needs as well as managing travel of the necessary talent to get to those locales.
That being said, “a lot of agencies have developed Covid-safe ways of filming elaborate commercials,” said a seasoned PR professional who works with regular Super Bowl advertisers. “The actual production process is shifting. There aren’t as many people on set. Social distancing is the main prerogative amongst all those filming commercials.”
Typically, Super Bowl shoots are already more elaborate and difficult to manage with major stars attached and more people on set as brand managers and CMOs like to attend. Finding workarounds to keep the number of people on set low as well as continue to put together work worth the over $5.6 million ad spend has called for creative solutions like using digital, crowdsourced footage or doing more remote shoots over Zoom this year.
Aside from logistics, marketers and agency execs will have a harder time predicting what Super Bowl viewers’ moods will be going into the Big Game. “The world is going to look so different — with the prospect of a vaccine and new leadership in the U.S. to go along with another winter isolating from the virus — it’s impossible to say [what consumer mindset will be],” said John Patroulis, Grey’s Worldwide CCO.
Patroulis continued: “But the longer the vaccine takes, the more I think people will crave the markers of normalcy that help anchor them in a world they recognize. The Super Bowl is one of those markers. And for at least those four hours I think people will be happy for the distraction, the entertainment, and for the reminder that even when the world is upside down, it doesn’t always have to feel that way.”
Marketers are paying more attention than years prior to what customers are saying (on social media?) and using that to inform whether they go for a humorous spot or a more empathic one that addresses the big issues of the past year. For those that go empathic, using platitudes like “we’re here for you” without a charitable element could lead to backlash.
Super Bowl LV will likely feature more consumer packaged goods brands as well as many food and beverage brands, according to the execs, who say that marketers in industries that are still hard hit — movie studios, restaurant chains and travel brands, for example — are less likely to appear this go around. Advertisers like Toyota, Mars Wrigley and Anheuser-Busch have confirmed they are returning to the Super Bowl already this year. While other brands will likely confirm soon, and the PR professional expects more surprise advertisers during the game.
Overall, the industries that have done well during the pandemic will likely be the ones to advertise during the game.
“Online retailers, food delivery services, gaming and other industries that have actually seen an uptick during the pandemic are the most likely to take advantage of the Super Bowl,” noted Allie Wassum, vp and group director of social strategy at Digitas, adding that social activations will likely be an “even greater focus for brands” as second-screen viewing usage has increased in recent months.
In most markets, 2021 we expect to be at or above 2019 levels. In China, we’re expecting growth this year. There are a few markets where we’re expecting growth. That’s different from our June forecast where we only had one market where we anticipated growth. [When spending would come back to 2019 levels was a] 2021 or 2022 question. Our expectations are higher now than they were six months ago.
For the Americas and western Europe from mid-March and for a period of a few weeks the question was whether companies would have liquidity to survive. Under that environment the CFO is the most important person in the company. Once we were through that early stage, normalcy returned [for many]. Power structures are often fluid in large companies. While marketers often have the opportunity to lead the charge in their organizations, they don’t. Also, the typical company spends 1% of revenue on advertising and maybe 2% on marketing as a whole. They might be a massive buyer of advertising, but marketing is a teeny, tiny part of a big company’s organization.
There’s something to be said for the idea that all things that are called “digital transformation” have been accelerated. In some cases, marketers are leading what that digital transformation looks like. In others, they are not. At some companies that digital transformation might be aggressively moving to digital ordering for in-person pick up or an e-commerce sales focus. It might have been a corporate initiative that was sat on for years. It all comes down to individual brands making the most of the situation. So much of this hasn’t shaken out. It hasn’t even been a year since we’ve been in this situation.
Last week, yet another retailer (Walgreen’s) debuted another retail media offering (Walgreen’s Advertising Group) — be sure to check out Walgreen’s pitch deck on Modern Retail — making the environment even more crowded and confusing for advertisers. As retail media continues to grow, brands will have to take more time to figure out which offerings are right for them.
“The retailers now have much more power than they did this time last year,” said Ami Lanzi, North American commerce practice lead at Publicis Commerce. “As we look to a cookie-less world, the retail media networks have a much stronger hand to play. Our brands need to be smart about how they’re investing in capabilities, and investing in the right way with the retail media companies that have transformed to have full-funnel offerings.”
The post ‘Impossible to say’: Marketers struggle with logistics and divining what Super Bowl ad themes will click with consumers appeared first on Digiday.
The New York Times’ has been in the business of selling branded merchandise for nearly two decades, but in the last three years, it has built out a modern, direct-to-consumer e-commerce operation in the form of its NYT Store.
And despite the consistent profitability over the past five year and seeing consistent year-over-year growth in revenue and number of sales — during the period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday the site received 3.2 times the number of orders it received during the same five-day period in 2019. Mark Silver, the Times’ vp of commerce, said that his team’s focus is not solely on the financial indicators of success, but on the further connections that can be created between readers and the publication.
This is exactly what the Times planned for in its holiday season marketing strategy with the late November launch of the first NYT Cooking collection.
“We have a luxury which is that the core business is doing so well. A lot of publishers are looking for a new revenue stream — that’s kind of a ‘nice to have’ here,” said Silver.
In the third-quarter, the category of “other revenues,” (everything aside from the advertising and subscription businesses including the Store, affiliate revenue and licensing) accounted for $46.7 million, or 10% of the company’s total revenue, according to the company’s earnings report.
Most of the products in the initial Cooking collection consist of clothing or accessories featuring phrases pulled from popular posts and other content meant to make the readers of NYT Cooking feel more connected to the section.
For example, there is a sweatshirt in this collection with the phrase “generously buttered noodles” across the chest referring to a recipe published in 2017 that was turned into a meme due to it’s simple instructions of adding a quarter cup of parsley to “generously buttered noodles.”
Silver’s team worked closely with the editorial team on NYT Cooking to select the language that goes on the merch in the collection.
The Crossword collection that was launched several years ago is a “strong parallel” to the Cooking collection, Silver said, in that it too is targeted at a niche, enthusiast audience that has “a strong sense of community.”
Most products on the site see peaks in orders at specific shopping times of the year, such as the Women’s Rights collection that launched ahead of Mother’s Day and was promoted again during the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment in August. But the Crossword collection has consistently sold products throughout the year and is one of the best performing categories overall. For example, the NYT Store sold four times as many Crossword gift sets as it has general New York Times gift sets.
The hope, Silver said, is to replicate that success with the Cooking brand, which currently has nearly 600,000 subscribers by the end of the third quarter this year, per the earnings report.
NYT Cooking is in a better position than other affinity-based verticals for this type of merchandising opportunity, according to Ken Pasternak president and chief strategy officer of advertising agency TwoXFour. The Arts section, for instance, is harder to monetize through branded products because the natural sellable extensions of that vertical would be tickets to events.
“The Arts section is a brand that lives in people’s consciouses, but you can’t sell a product in that way,” Pasternak said. The Cooking section, however, has a white space in the products it can offer, like cooking utensils. Currently, it is selling aprons and phone and tablet stands that home chefs can use while following a recipe on NYT Cooking.
“Internally, there is a barometer for when a particular property is resonating with our readers. You have to grab it and go with it,” said Silver.
The post How NYT Cooking is crafting its recipe for community building one ‘generously buttered noodles’ sweatshirt at a time appeared first on Digiday.
When it comes to direct-to-consumer moves from media owners you’ll often be blown away by the growth numbers. But it pays to keep a close eye on other sets of figures to understand where these strategies are going holistically — and how they’ll dictate the way money is made from content.
Enter the average revenue per user, or ARPU, as key data set.
Case in point is FC Barcelona. The giant football club is building a DTC business, spanning a streaming service Barca TV+, a membership program, ticketing and an e-commerce site.
Given each one launched or relaunched over the summer, it’s no surprise FC Barcelona officials are keeping quiet about the take-up of each. After all, doing so would set an early precedent for what is a long-term play for the club.
In fact, it’s arguable that big growth numbers like subscriptions and sales will be less of a priority for the club — at least initially. Not because subscriptions and sales aren’t important, but they don’t give a clear view into the value of all the direct relationships that underpin a DTC model. Bigger-picture translation: FC Barcelona can’t afford to be too reliant on media rights, not when the value of them seems to have peaked. Therefore, ARPU is one way of checking how valuable new online revenue streams could be, and how much they’re worth investing in.
“By getting that [fan] data and giving them more personalized experiences we will gain a connection of a higher value — that’s the focus,” said FC Barcelona’s head of digital Enric Llopart.
This is particularly true for the club’s streaming service. It has invested considerable time and resources into its own content studio, which creates original programming exclusively for Barca TV+. The service has two tiers; a paid subscription and a free version. For those that pay, they get access to original content, including documentaries about players and access to archive footage produced by the in-house team.
Hopes are that this will not only bring the club closer to its biggest fans, but also give the DTC investments, especially the streaming service, the opportunity to monetize original content and services.
“With so much focus on diversifying revenue streams across the market now, we’re having more conversations where rights owners want to know what the ARPU is,” said Tom Mcjennett, head of over the top marketing at sports marketing agency Two Circles. “They’re trying to work out how valuable it is to acquire a registered fan, how much they’re worth today and then in five years.”
For any DTC upstart, ARPU would likely be low in the early years. Building a DTC business in media is as hard as it is long, and often involves sacrificing short-term gains such as prioritizing rapid subscriber growth in the hope that it leads to a more sustainable, profitable business in the long-term. Little wonder then why monetization isn’t an immediate priority.
“There was a common myth in sports that revolved around the idea that if you had 370 million fans and found a way to get one euro from each of them then you were building a DTC business,” Llopart said. “That’s science fiction. We’re focused on understanding a percentage of that 370 million base so that we can bring them as much content about the club as possible. If we get to a point where we end up with a monetization model then that’s fantastic, but that can’t be the sole focus.”
A look at the club’s Facebook fan subscription page backs this up. Barcelona has 3,600 fans in its subscription group, paying around $2.50 a month for exclusive content and benefits on Facebook. The ARPU of this service isn’t incredibly high, but is already bringing in $9,000 to the club per month. ARPU doesn’t need to be very high in order to provide meaningful income to the club.
Prior to the pandemic, the DTC revamp was set to triple the club’s digital income in five years. The club’s digital business was tipped to increase annual revenue to €300 million ($364 million) by 2025. Despite the current climate FC Barcelona is still on course. As Llopart said: “We had goals for the first few months of Barca TV+ and were delivering against them in terms of revenue and subscriptions, so we’re happy.”
The future of sport looks more and more likely to lie in a direct-to-consumer model in some shape or form. This means clubs must be more focused on finding a balanced ARPU to ensure they can generate revenue streams for the club at scale. While on the face of it, ARPU is an important metric for predicting future finances, it is important to note that the metric will change from club to club and sport to sport. What works for one may not work for another because scale matters, arguably even more so.
“The direct-to-consumer play will become more important to football clubs moving forward, and ARPU can be the deciding factor as to whether these strategies work,” said Aaron Duckmanton, global head of marketing at sports video platform Grabyo. “Clubs need to only look at the entertainment sector to see success strategies — low monthly cost in a flexible offering.”
The post ‘Gain a connection of higher value’: Why average revenue per user stats could hold the key to mega sports franchises’ commercial future appeared first on Digiday.
As Google continues to partner with newsrooms to help boost their traffic and revenue, the company’s Amy Adams Harding has one recurring piece of advice: “making sure that you’re employing e-commerce-like tactics.”
“Even though you’re a news publisher and your journalism is core to what you do, you are, at the end of the day, selling that journalism,” said Adams Harding, Google’s director of analytics and revenue optimization for news and publishing, on the Digiday Podcast.
Those tactics include offering a low, middle and high-budget option for content (the middle is most likely to net buyers, Adams Harding says).
The esthetic of the offer matters, too. Adams Harding suggests orange “squovals” (that’s square ovals) has proven to drive engagement, as well as making these offers more prominent.
“The number of sites that we’ve come across where they’ve got this tiny, little upper right hand side, ‘subscribe to us’ button — that’s not going to build your reader-direct revenue strategy.”
Adams Harding also suggests hiring more like an e-commerce player.
“I can’t tell you the number of meetings I’ve had with CEOs of news companies, and they say ‘well, I want to launch a reader direct revenue monetization strategy. Who should I hire?’ And I say, ‘well, for goodness’ sake, don’t hire anyone from the news industry, hire someone from Amazon, right?’ You need to be able to act like an e-commerce player, because those are the ones that are having success online.”
But Google’s partnerships aren’t just about dispensing pat advice. The company works with thousands of news organizations in more than 100 countries via News Consumer Insights, a digital product launched this summer to help newsrooms parse the mountains of they’re sitting on.
“It allowed us to create our version of a user engagement funnel, specifically for news,” Adams Harding said. “All it did was re-visualize the data in Google Analytics, so that it made sense to a news partner.”
Here are highlights from the conversation, which have been lightly edited for clarity.
“The number one indicator of potential subscribers [are] newsletters. Newsletter subscribers are the ones who have the highest propensity to pay for your content. And when you think about it, newsletters are really a $0 subscription. They’ve already subscribed to something. I can’t think of a publication that I’ve worked with where newsletter hasn’t been their number one driver of subscription. And so we spend a lot of time working with our partners, big and small, on their newsletter strategy, because it is an incredibly important driver.”
“Google Analytics is free for all these news publishers. But they had difficulty deriving the actionable insights from what we call ‘the tsunami of numbers.’ It’s just an overwhelming amount of data. We heard this constantly. And local news publishers in particular were having this issue because they didn’t have a data scientist on the payroll. So they didn’t know how to use this data.”
“The more we worked with these publishers, we actually also realized that they needed to shift their mindset. They didn’t realize they were in the e-commerce business, no matter how they were monetizing their content, whether it was by a paywall, or ads, or subscriptions, contributions, you name it. They just weren’t acting like e-commerce companies.”
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