Thursday’s Themes . . .

December 14, 2017Uncategorizedgmtartaglia@aol.com

DIGITAL MEDIA IS GETTING ITS ACT TOGETHER: In January P&G CMO Marc Pritchard called on the entire digital media industry to improve its transparency and accountability. Mr. Pritchard pointed out three areas of deficiencies: 1) Ad Fraud which devours impressions and precious marketing dollars, 2) a lack of Billing Transparency which allows agencies and 3^rd party middlemen to tack on hidden upcharges, and 3) lax Brand Safety standards which place innocent brands next to controversial content. So how has the industry responded during 2017? According to Mr. Pritchard, in the attached Digiday link, we’re about 80% to goal on these improvements. Most publishers have accepted 3^rd party tracking and measurement which has reduced ad fraud. Brands are using fewer agencies and forcing those left standing into transparent billing practices. And media platforms like Facebook and Google have implemented filters to weed out bad content. So far so good for our industry, right? But what’s next for 2018? In Marc Pritchard’s own words . . . “Complete the task on transparency. Then, use the data we have to do much better planning across our platforms. And raise the bar on the quality of the creative so it’s more effective. The other thing is we’re pivoting now to data-driven, mass one-to-one marketing. That’ll be a major push over the course of next year. It’s also time for looking at agency models and figuring out what the next generation is of agency work.” I think this is a good road map to stay focused on as the digital media industry continues to raise the bar.

SPORTS’ MEDIA RIGHTS TO TOP TICKET REVENUE 2018: As a follow up to yesterday’s post about the NFL securing a $2.25B/5-yr deal with Verizon to stream it’s games, PwC is out with some pretty amazing stats on the US Sports Industry’s total revenue picture. According to PwC in the attached Inside Radio link, by 2018 total US Sports Media Rights revenue (which includes broadcast airing and digital distribution) will total $20.1B, compared to Sports Gate revenue (aka ticket sales) at $19.2B. Anecdotally this makes sense, because for every fan in a seat watching a game there could 10, or 100, or even 1,000 watching on TV, listening on Radio, or consuming on a connected device. And now it looks like the revenue is finally flowing to where the scale is. My guess is this trend will continue in perpetuity. Could you even imagine a day when tickets to a live game are almost the afterthought for the leagues and their teams, because the real money is being made through the Rights fees? I think it could happen.

WHY CELEBRATING FAILURE IS A GOOD THING: Finally today, I’d like to share a response from an article I posted on LinkedIn. The post was about AdWeek’s biggest marketing failures of 2017 and what they can teach us. The comment I received was from a business consultant named John Orofino. In Mr. Orofino’s own words . . “One of my favorite philosophies is fail fast and make sure you apply those learnings just as fast to your next opportunity. Also, have you seen the Astro Teller TED talk on the unexpected benefit of celebrating failure? It’s a great one.” Heeding Mr. Orofino’s advice I watched the TED Talk, and am so thankful that I did. Astro Teller (real name) is the head of “X” (formerly called Google X), which is an amazing tech innovation lab. Mr. Teller’s TED Talk focused on the value of failing fast, which can be paralleled to mistakes marketers’ make. Examples of the projects X has dreamed up and then cancelled due to unsolvable obstacles is mind blowing. But instead of sulking in their failures, X employees are rewarded for killing an idea. Because it’s better to know early if a new idea won’t work than it is to find out later after you’ve sunk more time/energy into something that was never going to work in the first place. Promise yourself that you’ll find 15 minutes to watch this – totally worth it!