GenDigital

NBC Continues Multi-Platform Push With New Gaming Deal

Pretty soon we won't be able to call them NBC Television Network instead we will have to call them NBC Multimedia. Just coming off an announcement regarding an in-stadium deal cut with Arena Media Networks, the Peacock expanded its offerings again, this time closing a deal with IGA, a leading in-game advertising network competing mainly with Microsoft-owned Massive. We've pondered the effectiveness of in-game advertising in the past, and according to most people who follow the category, in-game advertising is growing at a faster clip than Internet advertising. The latest deal with IGA enables NBC to now offer its advertisers a multitude of touch points ranging from on-air, to in-person, online, wireless and through video games. The aggressive series of deals should provide some extra promotional cushion as we get closer and closer to the next Olympic Games in Beijing.

Wal-Mart Draws First Blood For Holiday Shoppers

Ok so the title is little gross, but if you ever had the chance to hang out and spend some time with those folks in the retail space, they would consistently refer to an omni-present "war" like environment. Time and again, the large discount retailers and even some of the leading specialty retailers launch their seasonal campaigns (i.e. back to school, spring break, graduation), well...way out of season. In an effort to get a head start on the holiday season, Wal-Mart, the most visited discount retailer by teens and college students has just announced that this Friday, yes, about three weeks before Thanksgiving, will be its first holiday shopping day full of deals and discounts, including a $350 laptop computer. Don't expect the competition to sit idle, they will all be out with their own promotions within the next 48 hours. It's go time for holiday shoppers.

Another Perspective on Current TV: Lack of Reach

We all know how much the youth and young adult audience admires for Vice President Al Gore. We reported back in June that based on the results of our Teen and College Lifestyle Report, they would elect the recent Nobel Peace Prize winner the next president, even though he has said numerous times that he won't be running. What's more, his award winning documentary movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" has a been a must watch for the increasing number of environmentally conscious teens and young adults. Besides being a filmmaker and unofficial steward of the global environment, Mr. Gore is also the chairman of cable upstart Current TV, which targets the 18 to 34 year old audience. The day after the former VP was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he was featured as a keynote speaker at the ANA conference in Phoenix pitching his cable network to potential advertisers. One might conclude that everything Mr. Gore has touched since his unsuccessful (or successful depending on who you are talking with) presidential run, has turned to gold, which by the way is trading is at a 31 year high. However, in the case of Current TV, the concept might be gold, but the word is yet to spread to the masses. Today's NY Times has a nice write up on the challenges the youth targeted cable network faces, mainly reaching a wider audience. Without a doubt, their single biggest obstacle is no confirmed ratings. Current is not measured by Nielsen, and regardless of the flack Nielsen gets from everyone in the media community, it remains the de facto measurement service. It is a daunting challenge to grab a share of available dollars without rating points. Taking a cue from Fox News Channel, to be fair and balanced, I've never watched the channel, my cable provider does not carry it. However, I have visited the companion web site on several occasions and visited it last week after a recent re-design. While their model of user-generated content comes off as generally appealing and their format seems unique in nature, without reach, their media proposals get pushed aside or placed on the back burner. If they're in this for the long haul, revenue growth will only come with increased distribution on larger carriers like Comcast and a contract with Nielsen.

Holiday Shopping Preview Part 2

Ok, as a follow up to Monday's post, I wanted to share some additional highlights from the just released Holiday '07 Report. First let's start by noting that price although important, isn't necessarily the main factor in purchase decisions. 39% of teens and college students say "the physical location of the store as well as customer service are just as important, if not important than the price of the item they are interested in purchasing this holiday season." Speaking of location, we might have reached the pinnacle of visits to discount retailers like Target and Kohl's last season. An increasing number of young people, some 32%, up from 26% last year, say they "plan to purchase the majority of their holiday-related gifts at department stores like Nordstrom and Macy's or specialty retailers like American Eagle or Urban Outfitters." The retailers mentioned most often by respondents included Urban Outfitters, Sephora, American Eagle Outfitters, Victoria's Secret, Anthropologie, Zara, H&M, Nordstrom, Forever 21 and Zumiez. The "in" styles for Holiday '07 include corduroy and herringbone jackets and vests from Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, cashmere v-neck sweaters and cashmere cardigans from Nordstrom and Abercrombie(you can thank Justin Timberlake for that look), "something" tweed from Banana or J. Crew, a hat or cap that all the young Hollywood starlets are currently donning, and some comfy sweats from Victoria's Secret Pink or Juicy Couture. We will wrap this up looking at gaming, electronics and entertainment on Friday.

MySpace Debuts Scripted Short Video Series

MySpace is betting on the fact that the success of PromQueen was not an anomaly. The number one social networking site among teens has just released its first ever scripted video series called Roomates. Since going live yesterday, the series has been viewed over 250,000 times but has only signed up 1,000 subscribers. The story behind Roomates is a little tired. It's the trials and tribulations of eight college students beginning life in the real world after recently graduating. Somehow, I think that story has been told many times over. Anyway, it's still an effort from MySpace to put something original and professionally created up. I would have to imagine once the News Corp/NBC Universal video site JV Hulu.com, launches later this month, Roomates will probably receive some heavy promotion. I'm checking it now.

Holiday Shopping Preview Part One

Our Holiday Shopping and Gift Wish List Report will start popping up in client's in boxes later this week after a few final tweaks are made. We've expanded the report this year to include deeper coverage of some topics in order to provide additional context. While the NRF expects holiday sales to rise about 4% this season among the general U.S. population, we are anticipating an increase of 10% among teens and college students with an average individual spend of $634. That amount represents the amount spent on family members and other relatives, significant others, friends and individual "for me" purchases. Breaking out the $634 among those groups looks like this: $266 will go towards family members and relatives, $210 for significant others and other friends, and $158 will be spent on "for me" gifts. Think it is too early for the start of the holiday shopping season? Think again. Slightly more than one in three (36%) respondents said they already have made at least one holiday-related purchase. Better yet, a lot of respondents hope to have everything wrapped up before we turn our calendars to December. 41% said "they hope to have the majority of their holiday-related purchases made by the end of November." So, what will be the hot items this holiday season? Similar to previous waves of the report, clothing and accessories tops the list for planned purchases and the top gift the audience the hopes to receive. We continue to see a marked increase in the accessories category especially. We define the accessories category in very broad terms. It can be anything from a key chain or wallet to cap or hat. Luxury-brand accessories like Coach handbags and wallets, Louis Vuitton keychains and Chanel and Prada sunglasses wound up on many gift wish lists. The audience's insatiable appetite for luxury brand items and accessories seem to have kicked into overdrive just when we thought it might cool down. The denim category also comes in very strong with premium labels like Paper Denim, Seven For All Mankind, True Religion and Rock and Republic showing up all over the place. And finally, it should be a strong season for outerwear and outerwear accessories like hats, scarves. Outerwear brands and stores mentioned most often include Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, J. Crew, Nordstrom and American Eagle Outfitters. More to come on other gift categories later this week.   

The Sitcom Lives Thanks To Samantha Who? Premiere

According to our recently released Fall Television Preview Report, the new ABC sitcom "Samantha Who?" was fourth highest rated new television series among women for planned viewing. Number one of course was "Private Practice," the new "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off, which premiered last month and has been turning in solid ratings so far. "Samantha Who?" starring Christina Applegate premiered last night on the alphabet network and the initial performance looks unusually strong. For all the naysayers out there who have been saying that the network sitcom is dead, "Samantha Who?" begs to differ. Granted the new comedy had a strong lead-in with "Dancing With the Stars," but Nielsen overnights have "Samantha Who?" drawing in nearly 15 million viewers making it the most watched new show of the season, slightly ahead of "Private Practice." This is great news for ABC, who continues to dominate broadcast television among the youth market. Of course the big challenge over the next few months will be holding on to those big numbers, but clearly, they are off to a great start.

ESPN Partners With Kellogg's For New Kids Site

With increasing pressure from lawmakers and special interest groups the giant food and beverage marketers are being forced to shift dollars away from television towards alternative media channels like the Internet. ESPN might be one of the first companies to benefit from the shift in spending. Yesterday, the number one cable television network and sports-related web site among teen and college men announced the launch of a new UGC site in partnership with cereal juggernaut Kellogg's. The site will be housed within ESPN and will be called Earn Your Stripes. The site will offer a forum for kids to post their opinions and thoughts on sports teams and their favorite athletes. Interestingly enough, the site will operate under the theme of balancing schoolwork and sports as well as highlight an active healthy lifestyle, which presumably can be attained by dining on Kellogg's products. They might have to fine tune some of their brand positioning, but Kellogg's will essentially be walking into a loyal built-in audience of young people. I'd imagine most kids would rather rant about their favorite sports personalities and favorite teams rather than do their homework, working to balance the two will be challenging. Perhaps they should think about securing some testimonials from popular athletes who also excelled in the classroom...Tiki and Ronde Barber pop into my mind as fitting in this profile.

3% Of Teens Own An iPhone...Huh, I Don't Think So

It's shit like this that absolutely drives us nuts. We've posted on numerous times about supposed "research" reports released from Wall St. firms. The latest news coming out of Piper Jaffray's research department has data showing that 3% of all U.S. teens currently own an iPhone. I guess these high-priced MBAs never consider doing a reality check. If their research was really accurate, here is what you would say: 3% of all U.S. teens, or 3% of 27.5 million teens, which works out to 825,000 own an iPhone. Working off that stat, then you would have to say that of 1.1 million iPhone sold to date, approximately 75% or three out of four, were sold to teens. Reality check: these figures from Piper Jaffray do not even take into account the 4% of U.S. adults they (meaning Piper Jaffray again) also own an iPhone. So, what gives? It doesn't make an inkling of sense, but I am sure people are reading it (like us) and picking it up for further coverage. Unfortunately, it is so ridiculously inaccurate that it is rather funny. The research report says it based its results on a survey of 980 teens. Our teen Lifestyle report is based on 1,200 teens nationally representative of the population based on the latest U.S. Census data. One would have to assume that Piper's 980 teens live in either Greenwich, CT, Beverly Hills, CA or the upper East Side of Manhattan, and even then, you'd be stretching reality. I really hope we are not the only ones throwing the bullshit card on this.

Wii Today Gone Tomorrow

At recent client presentations, we've dropped not so subtle hints to attendees that if they were considering purchasing a Wii for their children or young relatives (or perhaps even for themselves) to do it sooner rather than later due to extreme lack of supply expected next month smack dab in the middle of the holiday rush. Well, our next month prediction now looks to be too conservative of a call, since we are already seeing Nintendo's lack of supply this month evidenced by two recent reports from gaming retailers and online retailers. It seems the window of opportunity has passed. Locked out purchasers will have to turn to eBay and spend upwards of $400 to $500 for the current number one, best selling gaming system worldwide.