Comcast Spotlight Take Five

The success of 2012 Obama Presidential campaign proved that large amounts of data from a variety of sources can be combined to micro-target critical voters in critical locations. But can big data provide the same results for consumer marketers? Watch this brief video to hear how marketers are matching data from a variety of sources to increase the efficiency and impact of their ad campaigns.

We hope you had a chance to attend our Take Five for Your Future webcast, "The Marketing Muscle of Sports" on March 13th. If you couldn't join us, or want to review some of the information again, you can view the complete webcast now. A panel of experts shared their thoughts on the popularity and growth in sports television and how it can be an especially effective marketing tool for advertisers.

Stephen Master, Senior Vice President of Sports at The Nielsen Company, kicked off the panel discussion by sharing findings from his company's State Of The Media: 2012 Year In Sports Report. He noted that brand recall was 10% higher for viewers of sports programming than non-sports programming. Additionally, while sports programming only accounts for 1.3% of all programming, 41% of TV related tweets are about sports programming -- emphasizing the high level of engagement and enthusiasm sports fans have with and about their teams and sports. He also shared more insight into the relationship between social media usage and sports programming viewing during the webcast.

Next up was John Miller, Chief Marketing Officer at NBCUniversal Television Group and Head of NBC Sports Agency, who shared his thoughts about sports as a marketing vehicle and the advantages television advertisers have when their messages are viewed in a sports environment as opposed to within other program genres, which supported the findings from Year In Sports Report that Stephen shared. In addition, John shared how offering programming on multiple screens, as NBC did with the 2012 Summer Olympics, was a strong complement to their TV schedule and increased overall viewership substantially as opposed to cannibalizing it.

Mike Wall, Regional VP/GM at Comcast Spotlight, then shared insight into how the engagement consumers have with sports programming extends to the commercials they view during sports. With the growing amount of sports programming on TV, Mike shared some of the key opportunities advertisers have to reach their target demographic across multiple networks, through special programming or by aligning with a league schedule or finding smaller niche audiences that may watch bowling or hunting programming, for example.

After an informative discussion about the trends and opportunities from our panelists, we opened it up for a Q&A where attendees asked more about multi-screen and social behavior, the impact of live vs. recorded on advertisers and more. To hear our speakers' answers to these questions and all of our panelists' insight on how sports programming presents a plethora of opportunities for advertisers, check out the webcast now.

To download the slides from this or other educational videos and webcasts, please visit: http://www.comcastspotlight.com/takefive

Savvy media professionals know that sports isn't "just another" program genre. It's an important part of American life with an appeal that extends across age, gender and geography--reaching large, passionate audiences. In fact, last summer's coverage of the London Olympics was the most-watched event in U.S. television history. Watch this brief video to hear from experts about why the London Olympics were such a success, and learn how sports can be an especially effective marketing tool for advertisers.

We hope you had a chance to attend our Take Five for Your Future webcast, "Reaching Consumers Across Multiple Screens on November 14th. If you couldn't join us, or want to review some of the information again, you can view the complete webcast here. A panel of experts shared their thoughts how they are using two powerful mediums together, television and online, to increase the reach, engagement and effectiveness of their clients' campaigns.

Mike Miller, Vice President/Advanced Advertising at Comcast Spotlight, kicked things off with an impressive rundown of how media consumption is changing, making it more difficult for advertisers to achieve their goals. One key point: while TV viewing is at an all-time high, consumption of major media, which includes internet, mobile as well as TV, also continues to grow over time, gaining nearly an hour over the past four years -- shifting that time spent from radio, newspapers and magazines. Mike also explained that while TV and the Internet are driving the majority of media consumption, increasing from a combined 66% share in 2008 to a 68% share in 2011, this consumption is also happening simultaneously. This represents a fundamental change in behavior from single-platform broadcast TV to multi-platform video viewed across multiple screens that is posing some challenges, but is also creating new opportunities to reach consumers, a point Mike made later in the webcast.

Next up was Scott Davis, Executive Vice President at Harmelin Media, sharing his thoughts on how ad campaigns are now being designed to reach consumers on multiple screens. He also discussed how advertisers can benefit by adding online video to a traditional cable campaign and how consumers are impacted by seeing an advertiser's message on two or more screens (vs. just on one).

Fraser Elliott, SVP, Media Director at Cramer-Krasselt brought the conversation to the earlier discussion on the trend towards media multi-tasking to explain how two-screen campaigns address that change in consumption and how online campaigns can be a great supplement to a TV campaign by adding incremental reach. He also discussed the challenges that advertisers are facing when planning multi-screen campaigns.

The panel discussion was rounded out by Nicholas Wootten, Media Director at School of Thought in San Francisco. He discussed how two-screen campaigns address the fragmentation problems Mike had mentioned and how online video can be used to engage consumers and create a more in-depth experience.

After an informative discussion about the trends and opportunities from our panelists, we circled back with Mike for a deeper look at how consumers can be reached through a multi-screen campaign on Comcast. He noted that because our cable customers log in to XFINITY.com to check their email, voicemail, program their DVR, remotely check in on their home security and view video content, we can more accurately segment our online ads based on their subscriber billing address. We can use an entire DMA or pinpoint an advertiser's audience through available geographic zones and target on both screens - making a multi-screen solution more effective and efficient.

That addressed the question of how to deliver the message, which naturally led to a discussion of what that message should look like—i.e., the creative part of the equation. Advertisers can re-purpose and leverage their thirty second (television) spot online by using In Banner Video, a video embedded within a standard banner ad that plays when a consumer rolls over the message, or pre-roll, displaying an advertiser's message before a short-form video selected by a viewer. This eliminates the need to come up with entirely new creative for an online video campaign and helps with brand and message recall for consumers.

Since this was an interactive webcast, we invited attendees to ask our experts more questions, and they really responded, asking about how multi-screen campaigns are measured, how budgets should be planned to account for multiple screens and more. To hear our speakers' answers to these questions and all of our panelists' insight on the changing trends in media consumption and the solutions available to advertisers, listen to the webcast.

To download the slides from this or other educational videos and webcasts, please visit: http://www.comcastspotlight.com/takefive

Today's consumers are viewing video on multiple devices. In fact, more than two-thirds of total media time is now spent on two screens: TV and online.* Consumers have also discovered how to increase the media viewing minutes in their day by using both screens at the same time. These trends, however, present both challenges and opportunities for advertisers. Watch this brief video to hear from industry experts who are taking the lead using these two powerful mediums together to increase the reach, engagement and effectiveness of their clients' campaigns.

We hope you had a chance to attend our Take Five for Your Future webcast, “Dynamic Ad Insertion: Unlocking the Value of Video On Demand, which took place on June 6th. If you did, we welcome your thoughts in the comments below and if you didn’t, you can view the complete webcast here.

A panel of experts shared their thoughts on how agencies and content providers believe dynamic ad insertion will open new opportunities for advertisers during this live, interactive webcast.

Rob Klippel, VP, New Products & Operations at Comcast Spotlight, kicked off the discussion by explaining what Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) is and how it enhances video on demand (VOD) by allowing ads to be dynamically inserted into a VOD program at the beginning and the end of program segments. These ads can be targeted by day-part, genre and rating. He also told attendees that by Q3 of this year, it will be deployed in 100% of Comcast VOD homes. Rob went on to share VOD usage statistics and trends and finished his portion of the webcast by highlighting some of the findings from the Advanced Advertising Media Project. For all the facts and figures on VOD and time-shifting that Rob went over, you can download the full slide deck here. Later in the presentation, Rob shared his thoughts on the similarities between the online ad model and DAI on VOD.

Next up, Chad Urice, Managing Director at Media Storm, spoke to attendees from an agency perspective about how DAI impacts the media buying process and how advertisers are reacting to this new advertising opportunity.

Rick Mandler, VP, New Media Sales at ABC Television Networks, shared his perspective on VOD from the network side and how VOD impressions are more valuable than impressions in linear programming. Later in the presentation, he shared his thoughts on how networks can benefit from making content available for DAI.

Offering up another network perspective was Chris Falkner, VP, Advanced Advertising Technology & Operations at NBC Universal, who discussed how DAI changes the way VOD ad impressions are measured and how DAI can open the door to new advertisers.

Rounding out the panel was Nick Troiano, President at BlackArrow, the company behind the advanced advertising technology and part of the industry-wide in initiative known as the Advanced Advertising Media Project (AAMP). While Rob Klippel shared some brief details from this study, Nick took attendees through a deeper dive of the Project, going over the four key findings, which included:

1. Consumers accept advertising on VOD; its presence on VOD is neither a surprise nor a barrier to their viewing experience

2. Ad load on VOD does not affect key measures, such as viewer enjoyment of the show, engagement with advertising, brand recall, interest and purchase intent

3. VOD is fundamentally a TV experience, but with heightened attention and engagement compared to linear TV

4. VOD creates opportunities for different ad formats. Consumers respond positively to longer-form, branded content that recognize their heightened level of attention

Since this was an interactive webcast, attendees had the opportunity to ask our speakers more questions about DAI including how it can be bought, fast forwarding’s impact, measurement, etc. To hear our speakers’ answers to these questions and all of our panelists’ insight on DAI, listen to the webcast.

To download the slides from this or other educational videos and webcasts, please visit: http://www.comcastspotlight.com/takefive

Viewership of programming on demand is exploding as consumers embrace watching what they want, when they want it. But ad serving technology has limited the ability of both advertisers and programmers to capitalize on these new-found VOD impressions...until now. Watch this brief video and hear from experts about how Dynamic Ad Insertion technology, or the ability to insert commercials "on the fly," will open the door to new, measurable and highly-targeted marketing opportunities.

We hope you had a chance to attend our Take Five for Your Future webcast, What Every Political Marketer Should Know During an Election Year, which took place on March 22. If you didn't, you can view the complete webcast now.

A panel of experts shared research on how viewers consume news and how marketers can engage the public, reach specific voting blocks and spend their campaign dollars more efficiently.

Dan Sinagoga, Vice President, Political Sales at Comcast Spotlight, kicked off the discussion by explaining how the increase in demand for advertising inventory, particularly in September and October as the November elections near, will impact advertisers. This may lead to shift from positions on cable interconnects (a group of cable systems that collectively reach all cable homes within a market) to individual systems to ease the demand. Because Comcast Spotlight offers zone coverage, which allows targeting by zip code, or neighborhood, marketers can reach specific voter demographics (and for local races, reach only those voters who will vote in that race. Sinagoga said that for the 2010 elections, 70% of cable commercials were targeted by zones.

Next up was Katie Handel, Vice President at The Tarrance Group, who shared the results of a bi-partisan research study conducted by The Tarrance Group in partnership with Lake Research Partners. The study of registered voters in California showed that 62% spend their time predominantly watching cable vs. local broadcasting, and 35% watch news most often. However, 47% hadn’t watched a news program within the previous 48 hours, which means there are many other opportunities to target voters through other programming and networks. More detailed results of the study are available by downloading the slides or by viewing the webcast.

Kyle Osterhout, Partner at Media Strategies & Research, shared some overall media trends and said that political marketers should take advantage of the micro-targeting capabilities now offered along with like Adtag and Adcopy. Adtag gives advertisers the opportunity to use custom five- second tags at the end of their commercial for a different specific location.Adcopy allows two different commercials to different audiences within the same market (for example, airing a message about one topic in a given area, and a different topic in another area). Both of these are advertising solutions are ideal for political advertising, where it’s all about the localized message. Kyle also noted that reaching viewers on multiple screens—on TV and online—is increasingly important for political marketers. This point is underscored by a Nielsen IAG study that found message recall increased by a remarkable 53% when online video advertising is used in conjunction with on-air advertising.

To download the slides from this or other educational videos and webcasts, please visit: http://www.comcastspotlight.com/takefive

As election races heat up across the country, political marketers from campaigns both large and small have discovered new tactics that allow them to engage the public, target voters and spend their campaign dollars more efficiently. Hear how some marketers are effectively using spot cable advertising to generate votes for their candidate in this brief video.

We hope you had a chance to attend our Take Five for Your Future webcast, Integrating On Air and Online for Maximum Effectiveness, which took place on October 26. If you didn’t, you can watch the complete webcast here. A panel of experts showed our audience how advertisers are using video online in conjunction with on-air advertising to connect with consumers and build reach for their message.

Marina Klusas, Director at comScore Marketing Solutions, kicked things off by asking the question that many advertisers wonder, “How many incremental people can I reach if I advertise online in addition to TV?” To figure this out, comScore conducted a nationwide study to measure people exposed to ads on TV channels, to online ads (on what is now XFINITY.com), and to both TV and online ads. The main takeaway was that buying online ads increases TV campaign reach

Kim Woodworth, Regional Vice President at Comcast Spotlight, shared some interesting figures on how consumers are viewing video content. The majority (59%) of consumers watch TV and use the Internet simultaneously, but more importantly, studies show that brand recall scores increase 82% with exposure to both a TV ad and an online ad – this is the two screen—or “peanut butter and jelly”—effect that is taking place today.

Kim also discussed online video options for advertisers, including the benefits of using video pre-roll, or a video ad experienced in-stream, before the video content is played for the viewer. You can have 15- or 30-second exposure before a video, essentially putting your TV ad online and extending the reach of your campaign. These ads can be DMA or zone geo-targeted and advertisers can get detailed engagement metrics on these ads.

Lastly, Kim shared a powerful case study with the audience: Media Storm and its client, Game Show Network, wanted to increase viewership for their show, Improv-A-Ganza. By using existing on-air creative, interactive features and prominent placement on XFINITY.com, they had over 33,000 active video ad views, or 140 hours of brand exposure, which increased awareness for the show. She noted that 31% of viewers watched the complete 30-second video ad, which is a strong indicator of intent to watch the program on TV.

The panel was rounded out by Anupam Gupta, President & CEO at Mixpo, a video advertising technology provider that allows video advertising to be interactive, dynamically tailored and customized in real-time for unique audience segments. Anupam showcased a number of examples where their dynamic ads had powerful engagement metrics for advertisers. The first was an in-banner video for Jeep that had a 3.34% engagement rate where 1.9% of the users initiated the video, meaning 121,000 people chose to watch the spot. That’s a total of 550 hours of video, or, in on-air terms, 66,000 thirty-second spots. Next, we saw how FOX NFL Sunday got a 2.4% engagement rate where 2.27% of user initiated the video play, 216,000 people chose to watch the spot. They also had 7,500 clicks and 4,500 Interactions from this ad. Lastly, we got to see how online video ads can be used for couponing and mapping with the campaign for Big O Tires on Vehix. They had a 4% engagement rate and 3.8% of people initiated the video, which also received 1,300 clicks and 1,600 Interactions.

The bottom line is that online is a rapidly growing space. This year, 5.2 billion monthly video ad impressions were served to 148 million people who are spending an average of 16 hours a month watching video online, according to comScore. Online video is by far and away the fastest-growing Internet segment; from 2006-2010, comScore saw a 344% ad spend increase and a 600% increase in videos. The important thing to remember, regardless of platform, is that advertisers must deliver the right message via sight, sound, and motion, and online video gives them the additional ability to interact with viewers. These online video ads have an engagement rate that is 27 times what static banners deliver in clicks and have 21 times more user initiated views than static banners receive clicks.

To download the slides from this or other educational videos and webcasts, please visit: http://www.comcastspotlight.com/takefive