The fi ne art of style guide design The fi ne art of style guide design

Nick’s iCarly will play
on TV and the web
With the dog-and-pony-show portion of the annual
US kids advertising upfront out of the way, network
sales execs are getting down to business as
they fi ght for their share of the some US$800
million spent by advertisers on three key periods:
Easter, back-to-school and Christmas. On
the programming side, kidnets are continuing to push content into
the digital realm, while their sales counterparts are taking this tack
to reach untapped streams of
ad revenue. And this year,
Kidnets a few new challenges are
threatening to shake up the
integrate traditional advertiser/broadcaster
relationship. To begin
with, an industry-wide shift
online to embrace a new ratings currency
is in the works.
content to Nielsen’s pending release
of commercial-ratings data
bridge the at the end of May and its
perceived effect on sales
digital gap dynamics is currently the
talk of the town. “Commercial
ratings are going to
get done in some way, shape or
form,” says Jason Maltby, president and co-executive director
of national broadcast at New York-based media agency Mindshare.
However, he notes, the impact on kidnet sales should be
fairly minimal.
While adult programmers scramble to fi nd new ways to increase
viewer engagement during commercial breaks, the scene is more
26 MAY 2007
$ELLING
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b y k a t e c a l d e r
encouraging for players in the kid space. “Kids don’t see commercials
as interrupting their programming,” says Maltby. Rather, he
says, they happily view the 30-second spots as a source of information
about new toys and products.
Also keeping ad sales execs on their toes this past year was the
eBay Media Marketplace, a proposed online ad-auction space that
has been effectively thwarted for now. Key trade org the Cabletelevision
Advertising Bureau scrapped the system after members
tested the process and found it wanting. Several cablers reported
that it lacked the human element necessary to negotiate integrated
and interactive buys.
In Maltby’s opinion, cheap deals aren’t a valid reason to cause an
industry-wide shift to online ad sales. “If they develop a truly soupto-nuts
model that makes it transparent and improves the process,
then we’ll have something applicable,” he says. In the meantime, he
believes commoditizing media will only work for classic bottomfeeders
with short-term goals who can risk losing bids for air time,
as opposed to players with complex, long-term brand launches in
mind that don’t hinge on securing the cheapest spot possible.
On the spending front, Maltby predicts sales to key kids
advertisers in toys and packaged foods will remain fl at. The fact
that most networks are more eager to talk about non-endemic ad
sales and are actively courting new advertisers in electronics and
digital bears this forecast out somewhat.
And food advertisers, in particular, continue to tread lightly
in the kids space amidst an unprecedented level of public scrutiny.
Maltby says he doesn’t see packaged goods fi rms ramping
up spending this year. And even though there are healthier
products on the market, there’s still too much controversy
swirling around the category to make these manufacturers
want to push the ad envelope.