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Promo of the Day: Brexit: #DontF***MyFuture / Billboard's Letter to Congress / KTVT-TXA 21
The "Brexit" debate that finally culminates in a vote on Thursday has been hard-fought, turning advertising, social media and traditional media into a battleground for those who want Britain to remain part of the European Union and those who want out. Although voters as a whole seem split, the vast majority of the advertising and marketing industry supports staying, with WPP CEO Martin Sorrell perhaps the industry's most vocal "Remain" supporter. They are backing the campaign officially known as Britain Stronger in Europe, facing off against the organization Vote Leave. "It's aimed at younger voters, asking them to think carefully because this is forever," M&C Saatchi Worldwide CEO Moray MacLennan said. "Of the over 55s, 80% will vote and most are pro-Brexit. The 18-to-34 age group are the key Remain supporters, but only 50% are planning to vote. We've had to focus on mobilizing the vote.
* 5 Seconds – Stephen Hawking
* #DontFuckMyFuture – Keira Knightley
Hollywood's biggest influencers are calling attention against gun violence after the U.S. Senate rejected four new gun control proposals on Monday. Many A-listers expressed their frustrations following the rejection of the proposed measures, and now Billboard magazine has released an open letter to Congress signed by 133 actors and music stars as well as 57 executives. On Wednesday, the publication featured the appeal letter on the cover with a petition featured in the inside pages. "As leading artists and executives in the music industry, we are adding our voices to the chorus of Americans demanding change," the July 2 cover reads. Click here to watch the ad
* CBS 11 – The Ones For Justice
* TXA 21 – Comedy Justice Avengers League
* 2 Broke Girls – 'Game Face'
Democrats' Sit-In over Gun Control Vote Showcases Facebook Live, Periscope
House Democrats turned to a tactic from the 1960s and technology from 2016 to get their message out on amid a rancorous partisan battle over bringing gun control bills to a vote in the House. The sit-in that ran nearly all day Wednesday and continued into Thursday wound up becoming a showcase for the live streaming capabilities offered by Facebook Live and Twitter's Periscope service. Democratic leaders began their effort on the floor of the House on Wednesday at about 11:25 a.m. ET in order to force a debate on two gun control bills initiated in the wake of the tragic June 12 shootings in Orlando, Fla., that left 50 dead including the gunman. The sight of Rep. John Lewis, a legendary activist in the civil rights movement, and Democratic leaders sitting in the well of the House made for eye-catching coverage on C-SPAN. When House Speaker Paul Ryan ordered the TV cameras that supply the feed to C-SPAN shut off because the House was formally not in session, Democrats turned on their phones and laptops to offer live streaming coverage of hours and hours of speeches from members on the gun control bills. C-SPAN quickly picked up those live feeds and labeled its footage "Live Facebook Video Provided by Rep. Beto O'Rourke" and other members. The picture has at times been blurry and often shaky, but it nonetheless has been a dramatic showcase of the ease of the live streaming functions offered by Facebook and Twitter.
ABC News Wins 5 Murrow Awards Including Overall Excellence
ABC News has been honored with five Edward R. Murrow network TV Awards including the 2016 award for Overall Excellence. The RTDNA presented NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt with best newscast for coverage of November's attacks in Paris. In the TV categories, ESPN won three awards, NBC and CBS each won two, and HBO won one for news documentary for the Edward Snowden doc CitizenFour. ABC News also won for best website and, for the third year in a row, ABC News Radio won for Overall Excellence. "These wins mean so much to us because they recognize the hard work of every single person here," wrote ABC News president James Goldston in a note to staff. "They reflect your tenacious commitment to reporting and innovative storytelling – and working as one seamless team to make it all possible." Here's the full list of winners which will presented at a gala dinner in October.
Television Critics Association Nominees Announced
The Television Critics Association announced its nominees for the 2016 TCA Awards, set to take place on August 6 at the Beverly Hilton. One of the TV industry's most acclaimed and respected events, the TCA is known for recognizing programs often overlooked by Emmy voters. This year, these include two very different news programs nominated in the "Outstanding Achievement in News and Information Category." They are CBS Sunday Morning and CNN's United Shades of America. CBS Sunday Morning launched in 1979 and is television's most-watched morning news program. In fact, it is coming off of its best May Sweeps period since 1987. Longtime CBS News anchor Charles Osgood has hosted the 90-minute program since 1994. Sunday Morning won its first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Morning Program in 2013, beating out Today and GMA in the category. It also won a Peabody Award in 2007 for the feature segment The Way Home.
Some of the nominees include:
Outstanding Achievement in News and Information
CBS Sunday Morning (CBS)
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS)
Jackie Robinson (PBS)
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO)
Real Time With Bill Maher (HBO)
United Shades of America (CNN)
Program of the Year
The Americans (FX)
Fargo (FX)
Game of Thrones (HBO)
Making a Murderer (Netflix)
Mr. Robot (USA)
The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)
UnReal (Lifetime)
Outstanding Achievement in Drama
The Americans (FX)
Better Call Saul (AMC)
Game of Thrones (HBO)
The Leftovers (HBO)
Mr. Robot (USA)
UnReal (Lifetime)
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy
Black-ish (ABC)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)
Master of None (Netflix)
Silicon Valley (HBO)
Veep (HBO)
You're The Worst (FXX)
Outstanding Achievement in Reality Programming
I Am Cait (E!)
The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth (Showtime)
The Great British Baking Show (PBS)
Making a Murderer (Netflix)
MasterChef Junior (Fox)
Survivor Cambodia: Second Chance (CBS)
Individual Achievement in Drama
Bryan Cranston, All the Way (HBO)
Rami Malek, Mr. Robot (USA)
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul (AMC)
Sarah Paulson, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)
Keri Russell, The Americans (FX)
Courtney B. Vance, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (FX)
Individual Achievement in Comedy
Aziz Ansari, Master of None (Netflix)
Samantha Bee, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS)
Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)
Aya Cash, You're the Worst (FXX)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep (HBO)
Constance Wu, Fresh Off the Boat (ABC)
Click here for the complete list of the 2016 TCA Awards nominees.
Hollywood Reporter's 100 Most Powerful People in Entertainment
For the first time, The Hollywood Reporter has put together a ranking of the 100 most powerful executives, producers, stars, creatives, directors and reps in the entertainment business. At the top of the list is Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Co., who leads a top 10 that includes just one woman and one actor. Shari Redstone, president of National Amusements and vice chair of the Viacom and CBS boards, shares the No. 6 ranking with her father, Sumner Redstone, Chairman emeritus of Viacom and CBS Corp. Leonardo DiCaprio slips into the top 10 at the No. 10 spot, with the publication saying of the actor: "He may be the last of the old-fashioned movie stars." At No. 2 on the list are the Murdochs — James, Lachlan and Murdoch — who run 21st Century Fox. Other high-ranking execs include CBS Corp. President and CEO Leslie Moonves at No. 3; NBCUniversal CEO and Comcast Corp. Senior Executive VP Steve Burke at No. 4; and Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos at No. 5. The list offers an insightful rundown of the people who make Hollywood run. Click on the link near the top of this story to see the full Top 100.
New TV News Network in the Works — From an Unlikely Source
The groundwork is being laid for a new television news network, and the company behind it will come as a surprise to some readers. Variety reports that the project is from the tech firm BitTorrent. The company is best known for its ongoing development of the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. "BitTorrent is considering the launch of a TV news network for its live streaming service in time for the election this fall, Variety has learned. The San Francisco-based company is currently looking to hire a news director tasked with building out and running a team of journalists to launch 'BitTorrent News,'" Variety reports. The report quotes a recently published job posting that reads: "If you had a blank slate to start a live-streaming TV news network, what would you build? BitTorrent has recently launched a live video streaming platform. Now we need a team to create a tent-pole live news channel to run on it." The company declined to comment on the initiative.
Facebook Is Paying CNN $2.5 Million to Livestream on the Social Network
Facebook is going big on live video. So big, in fact, that the social network is shelling out $50 million dollars to entice celebrities, athletes and media companies to use the live streaming service, which is available to any Facebook user. The Wall Street Journal reviewed a document that shows Facebook has signed nearly 140 contracts ranging from celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, to NFL QB Russell Wilson, to cable news channel CNN. The highest-paid publisher on the document reviewed by the Journal is BuzzFeed, slated to receive $3.05 million for broadcasting live between March 2016 and March 2017. Just behind BuzzFeed is the New York Times, which is to receive $3.03 million for a 12-month deal. CNN is third, with a $2.5 million contract.
People Prefer Social Media to Face-to-Face Communication
Among the many ironies of our modern digital lives, one of the more amusing is that social media is actually sort of anti-social when you consider its tendency to displace "real" face-to-face communication. But maybe it's not so ironic after all: a new survey suggests that people consciously favor social media to other forms of communication, implying a deliberate choice to be, well, antisocial. Swedish furniture giant IKEA polled 12,000 people in 12 big cities around the world and found that 68% of respondents said they prefer communicating with other people online – and that includes people in their own home (the classic scenario of messaging someone in the living room from the kitchen). On that note, 26% of respondents ages 18-29 said they think having Wi-Fi is more important than a lounge room where they can entertain guests who visit in corporeal, physical form – a proportion that rises to 49% among respondents from Shanghai. Similarly 19% of all respondents think online contact is more important than inviting friends over. In fairness, the preference for online communication – even with someone in the same home – may more reflect the need for privacy in a cramped living situation than any antisocial tendencies: 25% of respondents said if they had an extra hour per day to spend any way they wanted, they would choose to be alone.
Most People Share Content Without Reading It
Do you ever get the feeling your social media contacts are burying you in an avalanche of links that no one could possibly have time to read, including them? Well, your suspicions are well-founded, judging by a new study by researchers at Columbia University and the French National Institute, which found that the majority of links shared on social media are passed along by people who haven't read the content themselves. The study, titled "Social Clicks: What and Who Gets Read On Twitter?," paints a picture of a complex landscape combining broadcasting, small-scale social sharing, and social media curation at different levels. The upshot is that while big news orgs are cranking out tweets by the millions to millions of followers, these generate a lower level of engagement, on average, than tweets from ordinary users reaching smaller audiences. According to the study, which analyzed ten million clicks for a random selection of news stories on Twitter, including tweets with URLs shortened by Bit.ly, just over 60% of tweets containing URLs distributed across the network contain "primary URLs," meaning posts from news organizations that have been re-tweeted. However, tweets containing secondary URLs, meaning those originally posted by other players (including ordinary Twitter users), get a higher proportion of clicks, making up 60% of actual interactions. In other words, reader referrals with secondary URLs are driving more traffic to news organizations than their own tweets containing primary URLs. By the same token, most tweets containing secondary URLs are never clicked on either (60%), meaning a relatively small proportion of secondary URLs are generating an outsized share of clicks, and this only in aggregate across many users. Thus 7% of the secondary URLs shared by Twitter users produced around 50% of the traffic for this group. In another interesting finding, the researchers discovered that many Twitter users are happy to share content that they never even read themselves in the first place: 59% of all URLs shared across Twitter never received any links, despite the fact that they may propagate rapidly through retweets. In short, lots of people are sharing a lot of stuff on social media that no one else looks at. Surprise!
Seth Meyers Pitches Fake Donald Trump NBC Show 'Chicago President'
Seth Meyers wants Donald Trump to drop out of the presidential race in exchange for a TV series in which he plays a fictional president. Meyers mentioned the idea last week, but he said NBC — who has in "no way approved" this fictional show — hasn't heard back from Trump. "This is not a joke," said Meyers, addressing Trump. "To entice you to do the show we've come up with some casting ideas." In this make-believe show, called Chicago President, Megan Fox would play Trump's First Lady because she's "gorgeous, sexy classy, and most importantly, not age-appropriate." However after a few seasons, they would replace her with someone younger since she's already 30. Michael Cera would play Paul Ryan so that Trump can "bully him by calling him stuff like 'little guy' or 'puny Paul'" and show him who's boss. Kevin James would be Trump's vice president, Bradley Cooper would be young Trump and Ryan Gosling would be older Trump. "Just for you, ISIS will be played by Rosie O'Donnell," continued Meyers. He said Harrison Ford would be cast as Hillary Clinton because in Trump's show, Clinton "has been indicted for her emails and is a fugitive." Then came the big reveal. President Obama would be played by Bill Cosby," said Meyers, which was met by groans from the audience. "If that doesn't make you want to drop out of the race and star in a TV show to play the president instead, I don't know what will," he said. Watch the video here.
Political Late Night Licks
"A new Election Commission report just came out saying that the Trump campaign isn't doing so well financially, and is practically broke. It's not good — in fact today, Trump stole a bunch of towels from his own hotel." –Jimmy Fallon
"The report revealed that Donald Trump's campaign started this month with only $1.3 million, which is almost $8 million less than Bernie Sanders' campaign. Even Bernie was like, 'How does it feel to be poor, you LOSER!'" –Jimmy Fallon
"Today members of the conservative Christian clergy met with Donald Trump. They came out of the meeting proclaiming 'THERE IS NO GOD!'" –Conan O'Brien
"Hillary Clinton's shortlist for running mate includes Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Tim Kaine, and HUD Secretary Julian Castro. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's shortlist includes 'anyone from the cast of 'Entourage.'" –Conan O'Brien
"Hillary Clinton gave a speech in Columbus, Ohio, where she called Trump an uncaring businessman. Which I guess is supposed to be an insult, except those are the exact words he has printed on his business card." –Jimmy Kimmel
"Clinton's senior adviser said if we were to put Trump behind the wheel of the American economy, he would drive us off a cliff. That's ridiculous. He's going to drive us into a wall, a nice beautiful wall paid for by Mexico." –Jimmy Kimmel
"Hundreds of demonstrators showed up in Times Square today to protest Donald Trump's meeting with evangelical leaders at a nearby hotel. That's how much those protesters hate Donald Trump: They're willing to go to Times Square." –Seth Meyers
"At a meeting with nearly 1,000 evangelical leaders today, Donald Trump told the attendees that Hillary Clinton is not worthy of their prayers. Although I'm pretty sure Hillary's prayers were already answered when Trump won the GOP nomination." –Seth Meyers
"A recent report found that 52 percent of voters think Hillary Clinton is more intelligent than Donald Trump. While the rest disagreed with that statement …bigly." –Seth Meyers
"The election is still going to be Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. It is the very first time in American history that both political parties have the same slogan, '2016, look, it is what it is. What are you gonna do.'" –Stephen Colbert
"Last night, the Federal Election Commission announced how much cash each campaign has on hand. And Hillary Clinton is burying Donald Trump $42 million to $1.3 million. I always knew those huge skyscrapers were overcompensating for something in his pants. I just never imagined it was his wallet." –Stephen Colbert
"$1.3 million isn't even enough to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Trump's own building. Not that he would want it. I hear the landlord is a jerk." –Stephen Colbert
"Congrats to Chelsea Clinton, who welcomed her second child over the weekend. After the birth, Bill brought flowers, while Hillary brought a focus group to help name the baby." –Jimmy Fallon
"A new poll came out and it claims that 25 percent of voters remain undecided. Apparently, they're undecided on whether to move to Canada or Mexico." –Conan O'Brien
"Donald Trump thanked crowds in Phoenix for their support this weekend, saying, 'I feel like a supermodel, except like times ten.' By the way, 'supermodel times ten' is also his spray tan setting." –Seth Meyers
"Former Republican candidate Herman Cain said that one of the biggest lies about Donald Trump is that he is a racist. Then Trump was like, 'Thank you, Jay Z. Give my best to your wife, Oprah.'" –Jimmy Fallon
"The FDA says it found 'serious health violations' at some Whole Foods stores and actually sent Whole Foods a warning letter. In response, Whole Foods shredded the letter, mixed it with some kale, and is now selling it for $18 a pound." –Jimmy Fallon
"Donald Trump says, if elected, he is willing to 'accept' a visit by Kim Jong Un. Kim Jong Un said, 'No, thanks, that guy's crazy.'" –Conan O'Brien
"Oprah has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. When asked about Hillary's chances of becoming the most powerful woman in the world, Oprah said, 'Oh, I'm not stepping down.'" –Conan O'Brien
"Trump said much of the information is false. And if people want to read hundreds of pages of false information about him, they should go to his Twitter page where he writes it himself." –Jimmy Kimmel
"Today is the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump's announcement that he would run for president. It's hard to believe it was only one year ago that Democrats were worried about Jeb Bush." –Seth Meyers
"In a new poll, 35% of Americans say they think Donald Trump will be elected president in November. They also said, 'Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish packing.'" –Seth Meyers
Promo of the Day: BBC-For All of Us / WFTV Orlando Strong / Dos Equis Interesting Index / Rocky Horror Picture Show
* For All of Us – BBC Promo
* WFTV Orlando Strong
Jonathan Goldsmith's Most Interesting Man in the World might have said adios (and flown off to Mars), but Dos Equis is hardly finished with its "Most Interesting" theme. The Heineken brand just released two new ads, starring sportscaster Erin Andrews and actor Luis Guzmán, who are not the most interesting people in the world—but rather, the 5,008th and 8,507th most interesting, at least according to the comic spots. Visit "Dos Equis Interesting Index," to see where you rank.
* How Interesting Is Erin Andrews?
* Exactly How Interesting Is Luis Guzmán?
* The Rocky Horror Picture Show is back! | FOX
Share your creative work with your promo peers on the602communications.com site. Just email the file or youtube link to email@example.com. Large files may be sent http://www.yousendit.com or you can mail your clip on DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.
Americans Lose Confidence in TV News
Americans have lost confidence in key institutions, with television news suffering significant losses–dropping 10 percent over the last decade to just 21 percent saying they have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the institution. The only institutions Americans have less confidence in than TV news were newspapers, big business and Congress. Only two institutions gained confidence over the same period, with the presidency gaining the most–up 3 percent.. "Americans clearly lack confidence in the institutions that affect their daily lives: the schools responsible for educating the nation's children; the houses of worship that are expected to provide spiritual guidance; the banks that are supposed to protect Americans' earnings; the U.S. Congress elected to represent the nation's interests; and the news media that claims it exists to keep them informed," the report's summary says.
Confidence in Newspapers Is at an All-Time Low
Confidence in newspapers like The Washington Post has plummeted. Confidence in newspapers like The Washington Post has plummeted. Here's yet another blow to the struggling newspaper industry: U.S. consumer confidence in papers has hit an all-time low. Just 20 percent of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in newspapers, according to a new Gallup poll, the lowest number since Gallup began tracking this measure in 1973. On the flip side, 36 percent of Americans say they have very little or no confidence in newspapers, which is the highest since 1973. This marks the 10th straight year that more Americans have shown little or no, as opposed to high, confidence in newspapers. It's not surprising, but this marks quite a change from conditions in the late 1970s, when 51 percent of Americans had confidence in newspapers compared to just 13 percent who didn't. That was the last time more than half of Americans expressed a high level of confidence in the industry. Still, not all is lost. There are still some 42 percent of Americans that say they have "some" confidence in papers, meaning the majority of adults in the U.S. express at least a bit of confidence. One area where newspapers have slipped significantly in recent years is among Democrats and independents who lean Democratic. This is the first year Democrats' confidence is no longer a net positive, with 27 percent having little or no confidence and 25 percent having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence. That has been the case among Republicans since 2004. Gallop doesn't go into why confidence in newspapers keeps falling, but there are two obvious culprits, and one surely is the massive cutbacks in news staffs seen around the country. The other is the rise of competing sources of information, many of them digital-only outlets, such as Facebook.
Sorry, Pandora – Radio Is Still Dominant and Growing
At recent investor sessions, Pandora has been attempting to publicly challenge the strength and growth of America's No. 1 consumer reach medium: broadcast radio. But these claims ignore the volumes of studies that rely upon actual consumer behavior — metered or observed — that underscore why AM/FM radio should be a constant staple of the media mix. Today, broadcast radio's weekly reach among the entire U.S. population 18+ is 93%, and 92% with millennials, per Nielsen. The medium is the leading consumer reach medium, and the dominant source of audio usage and music discovery.
Let's take a look at the facts.
*Despite usage of digital platforms, radio remains the No. 1 reach medium and dominant audio entertainment medium, reaching 93% of adults weekly. Broadcast radio stands alone as America's constant companion, connecting with the community through local news, entertainment and personalities. Radio reaches four times as many people weekly as Pandora does monthly; radio's share of audio listening is eight times greater.
*Radio's daily time spent listening (TSL) among millennials has been strong and steady over the past several years, and is rising.
*Pandora recently claimed that people use streaming music sites to replace their radio listening. Not true. AM/FM radio has a firm grip on its listening audience with more than 9 out of 10 of them using radio every week, on the average of more than two hours a day, per a 2015 Scarborough report.
Radio continues to be the leading source of music discovery and closest partner of the music publishing world. A recent study by Jacobs Tech of over 40,000 radio listeners indicates that radio continues to rule as the primary and leading source of music discovery, as does a recent report from Nielsen 360's music division. Radio is personal — you can't confuse 1:1 targetability with personal connection. One is a technical capability and, the other is an actual relationship, complete with relatable personalities who become listeners' trusted friends — the friends listeners trust to sell them brands and products. Radio is reliable, engaging, responsive and a direct connection to people in their local communities. Nothing can draw radio listeners away from their favorite radio stations and personalities. That is where they live, and, most importantly, where advertisers can truly connect.
Report: Donald Trump Plans to Create Media Empire After Election
According to a report from Vanity Fair, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump plans to create a media empire following the 2016 election to cash in on his increased profile. Sources close to Trump tell VF that the real estate mogul "has become irked by his ability to create revenue for other media organizations without being able to take a cut himself. Such a situation 'brings him to the conclusion that he has the business acumen and the ratings for his own network.'" Trump reportedly sees his supporters as an exploitable "audience" that he could tap after the election. "Win or lose, we are onto something here. We've triggered a base of the population that hasn't had a voice in a long time," a source tells them. The Trump campaign strongly denies the report. "There is absolutely no truth to this whatsoever. This hasn't been even uttered. Not even thought about," says spokeswoman Hope Hicks.
Trump Revokes WaPo Access Following 'Dishonest' Story
Monday afternoon, Donald Trump announced he would revoke media credentials for The Washington Post in response to what he calls "incredibly inaccurate coverage." Trump called the Post "phony and dishonest." In a statement, Post executive editor Marty Baron said Trump's decision represents "nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press." As USA Today reports, the ban was prompted by a Post story, which reported on Trump's comments on Fox News Channel this morning, specifically the Post's headline ("Donald Trump seems to connect President Obama to Orlando shooting,") "Look, we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind," Trump said on Fox & Friends. "And the something else in mind — you know, people can't believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on. It's inconceivable. There's something going on." "He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands — it's one or the other, and either one is unacceptable," Trump said. Trump and his campaign have moved to block access for other journalists, including those from Univision, Fusion, BuzzFeed, The Daily Beast and Politico. Earlier this month, Trump said of NBC News correspondent Katy Tur, "We don't even let her in. We don't talk to her, we don't let people talk to her because she's not a very good reporter."
Seth Meyers Bans Donald Trump From NBC's 'Late Night'
Seth Meyers banned Donald Trump from appearing on his NBC late-night show last night because, Meyers said, Trump had reached a new low by pulling press credentials of the Washington Post over a headline. But Meyers also noted, Trump had banned other media outlets in the past, and Meyers forecast that by the time of the election, the only news outlets still allowed into Trump's campaign events will be National Enquirer and Rich Pricks Monthly. Watch Seth Meyers "A Closer Look" here.
Trump Responds to Seth Meyers 'Ban' by (What Else) Insulting His Ratings
Seth Meyers tore into Donald Trump last night for implying some nefarious things about President Obama and terrorism. But he also lampooned The Donald for revoking press access to WaPo and joke-banned Trump from his show in solidarity. Meyers was quick to deadpan, "Although to be fair, he wasn't coming on anyway, let's be honest, he had no interest in being here." Well, believe it or not, Trump actually sent out a statement, obtained by TheWrap, firing back at Meyers by going after (what else) his ratings: "He has begged me to do the show for the last two years. I have told him emphatically 'no.' I only like doing shows with good ratings, which as everybody knows, I only make better (by a lot)." Now, Meyers has actually been doing fairly well in the ratings and has been beating out his 12:35 am competitors (James Corden and Nightline.) But perhaps the real reason Trump won't come on is that before last year, Meyers delivered arguably the most seismic Trump takedown to date at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner.
Trevor Noah: Trump Might be "Our First African President"
If Bill Clinton was America's first black president, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah quipped at an event Wednesday evening, Donald Trump might just be "our first African president." Throughout a sizzle reel of Daily Show highlights, Trump was shown in medal-festooned uniform as Noah compared the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's boasts ("Everybody loves me") with those of Zimbabwe's ruthless still-hanging-on leader Robert Mugabe. Lulled by the relative predictability of the U.S election process, Americans are shocked by the chaos on the Republican side in the current race for the White House, Noah observed. But for the South Africa-raised observer of all things American, "this madness is how it's supposed to be. This is very familiar to me."
In London, Say Bye-Bye to Bikini Babes
Are the all-too-perfect (and all-too-Photoshopped) bikini babes who populate ads for weight-loss systems and protein pills wreaking havoc on the self-esteems of young girls in London? We all know the answer to that. Yes. Seeing women with those unattainable bodies day after day perpetuates a feeling in teens that they are worth less if their own bodies don't measure up, psychologists have said for years. And now the new mayor of London, a father of two teen girls himself, is taking action to ensure the ads will no longer be seen in the Tube or elsewhere. Sadiq Khan has followed through on a campaign promise to ban such ads from the London transport system. Transport for London will not be allowed to display any ads that might spark "body confidence" issues. The British ad industry has been surprisingly accepting of the ban. But some political rivals have claimed that Khan, who is Muslim, is banning the ads due to his own personal beliefs because he's morally opposed to images of scantily clad women.
TV Advertising Improves Apps' Chances
Television, it seems, is still the best way to get the word out about a new product in a competitive category, even if that category is part of the new media revolution. A study from the Video Advertising Bureau (cheekily titled "What's App'ning") finds a correlation between television advertising and traffic for mobile apps. In previous, similar reports, the VAB found similar correlations between pure-play Internet brands and call-to-action brands. "TV is unparalleled in its ability to sell stuff," Danielle DeLauro, senior vice president of strategic and sales insights for the VAB, tells Marketing Daily. "There's a huge amount of apps for people to download … to be a major player in the category, you have to have a TV campaign." For the study, the VAB evaluated TV spending and app traffic for 60 mobile apps across 10 categories (including games, ecommerce/retail, media, sports and tech/telco) between October and December 2015. The study found 77% of those cases showed a direct correlation between television ad spending and app traffic: when television ads ran, unique visitors went up 25%. When the ads didn't run, visits dropped 20%. The correlation was most significant in the gaming category, which also has high Millennial appeal. "There was a good correlation across all segments, but gaming had the highest," says Jason Wiese, vice president of strategic insights for the VAB.
Twitter Now Lets Advertisers Target Users Who Tweet Emojis
Twitter wants to make emojis the new keyword. Just in time for next month's "World Emoji Day" (which is apparently a thing on July 17), Twitter is launching a new way for advertisers to target users that have tweeted with a certain emoji or engaged with tweets with a certain emoji. All those smiles, thumbs ups, dancers and ghost icons could soon be used to trigger ads across the social media network. With emoji targeting, Domino's and Pizza Hut can target people who use the pizza emoji. Or maybe brands advertising during Tour de France will want to engage with anyone who uses the guy on a bicycle. Brands can also strike a somber tone with anyone that uses the crying face. (Kleenex, anyone?) "According to the Oxford Dictionary, the 2015 word of the year was none other than … an emoji," Twitter Ads API Product Manager Neil Shah wrote in a blog post. "Emojis have become a ubiquitous way for people, publishers and brands to express their feelings. And, over 110 billion emojis have been Tweeted since 2014."
Eye Tracking Shows Mobile Video Ads Embedded in Articles Perform Better Than on Social
A new report that used eye tracking to understand user engagement with mobile video suggests certain types of video ads on publishers' websites perform better than those on social media. According to a study by Teads, a video technology platform that works with many of the world's top publishers, users spent 24 percent more time watching video ads within premium content on websites than they did watching video ads in social feeds. The results showed that ad recall was twice as high for in-article video as it was for skippable preroll and drove purchase intent 27 percent higher than skippable preroll ads or video ads in social feeds. The report also found that 50 percent of users scroll more in social feeds and cover more content but engage less with ads. On the other hand, 23 percent of users were more likely to read content within premium articles than in social feeds. According to Teads CEO Bertrand Quesada, the in-article format for publishers is in many ways more respectful of consumers because it seems less intrusive. "People are engaging in a very different manner," Quesada said. According to Quesada, the level of engagement for video ads on Facebook and Twitter was "nowhere near" that of Teads-powered videos on publishers' websites. It's no surprise that Teads is happy about the findings. After all, it is a video company that makes money creating—and selling—video formats for top publishers. But even apart from the eye-tracking study, publishers and advertisers that work with Teads seem happy with the results they're getting. Here's an infographic with stats from Teads' eye-tracking study.
At Times Like This, We Need To Pull Ourselves Up, Hold Our Loved Ones Close, Block Any Legislation That Would Prevent Suspected Terrorists From Buying Guns, And Say A Prayer For The Victims
Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader
Like the rest of the nation, I was horrified by this weekend's senseless attack on an Orlando nightclub. Such brutality is unconscionable, but as Americans we need to remain strong in the face of violence and intimidation, and resist giving in to despair. At times like this, we must pull ourselves up, hold our loved ones tight, block any legislation that would prevent suspected terrorists from purchasing guns, and say a prayer for the victims.
The loss of life in Florida came as a terrible shock to all Americans. The scope of this tragedy—49 innocent people murdered in a single act of hatred—is almost impossible to comprehend. But does that mean we should give in and abandon our way of life? No. As always, when faced with these kinds of horrors, we must steel our resolve, comfort the families of those killed and wounded, and ensure that we continue to live under a system of laws in which anyone can easily purchase a semi-automatic weapon, no matter their possible ties to terrorist organizations.
This is who we are as Americans.
Now isn't the time for politics, or bickering, or considering the fact that people with presumed ties to terror organizations bought over 2,000 guns from U.S. dealers since 2004, or turning against one another—it's a time for coming together and grieving.
This is a sad day for our nation. Our hearts are heavy, our votes are against measures barring those on FBI watch lists or the government's no-fly list from obtaining a firearm, and our sincerest condolences go out to the loved ones who lost a family member or a dear friend. In moments such as these, we must turn to God to give us the strength to carry on living our lives and rejecting bills that would keep guns and explosives from people who have violent extremist views. Let us all find His grace in these dark hours.
Now isn't the time for politics, or bickering, or considering the fact that people with presumed ties to terror organizations bought over 2,000 guns from U.S. dealers since 2004, or turning against one another—it's a time for coming together and grieving.
As we reflect on this horrible tragedy, it's only natural that we might feel a heightened sense of unease. However, we should take care not to let our fears get such a hold on us that they prevent us from going about everyday activities like fighting initiatives to increase federal oversight of gun sales, going to the store, not putting even a single roadblock in front of someone with inclinations toward committing acts of terror to prevent them from procuring a military-grade weapon, or enjoying the company of our friends and family. Our strength is in our resolve.
And let us be sure not to forget the first responders and law enforcement officials who heroically and selflessly put themselves in harm's way, all of whom—like the 54 senators, including myself, who have rejected measures to keep terrorists from procuring guns—deserve our highest praise.
Attacks like this are designed to frighten us into giving up our liberties, whether it's the freedom to go about our days in peace or the freedom to purchase high-powered rifles with large-capacity magazines without even the most basic check to determine if we harbor sympathies toward ISIS, al-Qaeda, or any other terrorist group that encourages the massacre of innocent civilians. But we can not give in to these attacks on our freedoms.
We must also, in the face of tragedy, never allow the collection of data on gun violence in our nation. That's important, too.
Because ultimately, once we've taken time to remember those we've lost, we all have to go on living. An act of violence like this disrupts our lives with its senselessness and barbarity, but at the same time, it also causes us to remember how much we value this precious gift of life. So please, let us all take a moment today to tell our spouses, our parents, our children how much they mean to us, and let's be sure to open our hearts and share our love and our prayers with our friends, our neighbors, and our fellow Americans.
After all, what more can we do?
Promo of the Day: WBTV Facebook, Women Can / Reporters Without Borders / Comedians in Cars
WBTV Charlotte, NC
* WBTV – Like Us on Facebook
* WBTV TSR "Women Can"
Reporters Without Borders and Euronews Let Millions of Viewers Experience Dangers to Journalists First Hand When News Anchor Suddenly Disappears.
* What happens when a journalist disappears?
Crackle just released a trailer for its Jerry Seinfeld series, and you may be surprised to learn that it's already season eight of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." The season premieres June 16 on Crackle.
* Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee – Season 8 Official Trailer – Crackle
Share your creative work with your promo peers on the602communications.com site. Just email the file or youtube link to firstname.lastname@example.com. Large files may be sent http://www.yousendit.com or you can mail your clip on DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.
'BuzzFeed' Dumps Trump Ads
While that nation's chattering classes profess to be shocked by the rise of Donald Trump, whose meteoric campaign is now veering increasingly into hot-button racial issues, few news media sites have taken a principled stand by refusing to accept the real estate mogul and reality star's political advertising. BuzzFeed became the first national news outlet to swear off Trump's ad dollars. In an email to BuzzFeed employees also published on the site, CEO Jonah Peretti said the company had canceled a $1.3 million contract with the Republican National Committee to run political ads for Trump's presidential campaign beginning in the fall — in the final key months before the election on November 8. Peretti cited Trump's inflammatory statements and insulting language about Muslims, Mexicans and women, among other groups, as reasons for terminating the deal with the RNC. He argued that Trump's policies would directly harm BuzzFeed's own employees or impede its ability to continue publishing. While rejection by one publisher is unlikely to spell success or failure for a presidential campaign — especially when it's a left-leaning "progressive" outlet like BuzzFeed — the site's rejection of Trump ads highlights the mounting obstacles the Republican Party faces in connecting to millennials. They are a politically engaged, if often unreliable voting bloc, who have also displayed a fairly strong aversion to Trump. In April, a poll by the Harvard Institute of Politics, voters ages 18-29 preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump as president by 61% to 25%.
Probe: Kickbacks Widespread in Ad Industry
For days agencies have been anticipating the release of a study by the Association of National Advertisers alleging extensive kickbacks handed out over the years, without the knowledge of advertisers paying these agencies to plan and buy their ad space. Today that study finally dropped, and in it are a lot of things people expected to hear based on information that's leaked out over the previous week. The practice of providing rebates or other incentives from media sellers to agencies in order to pull in more of their clients' spending is indeed pervasive across the industry. Most clients are left in the dark about these matters, suggesting an egregious lack of transparency in the industry. But one of the most startling revelations to come out of the study is that some agencies may have actually engaged in criminal activity that goes beyond being shady and into breaking federal laws. While the study, conducted by assessment compliance company K2 Intelligence along with Ebiquity and FirmDecisions, does not specifically say the word criminal, it's strongly implied. The report says agencies or their holding companies often buy media themselves, and then resell it to clients at a substantial markup. They push clients toward this media knowing they stand to gain financially from it. The report also says some agencies that hold stakes in media suppliers steer clients toward spending with those suppliers.
Other key revelations in the study include:
* Kickbacks are common whether an agency is owned by a holding company or operates independently.
* They happen across all media. K2 found evidence of them in out of home, print and TV, to name a few.
* They're often mandated by senior-level employees. Some rebate contracts, K2 says, are signed and negotiated by top-level agency directors.
* The amounts of rebates ranged from 1.67 percent to 20 percent.
* Rebates are often structured as payment for services that are never performed, such as research or consulting.
The report concludes the culture of kickbacks can often lead agencies to make decisions that are not in their clients' best interests. Doubtless this report will spark protests and calls for reform from advertisers angry over the lack of transparency, but it's also likely to set off criminal probes by various federal and state investigative agencies, especially in New York, where so much media is bought.
How Rampant Fraud Is Impacting Digital Dollars
A few months ago, a handful of advertisers who had moved money from television to digital shifted it back again, voicing concerns about digital fraud and viewability issues that made them believe their dollars would be better spent on TV. At the time it wasn't clear whether the shift was simply a fluke or a sign of a coming trend. It's now looking like a trend. A growing number of advertisers made similar shifts during the end of first quarter, according to the most recent ad spending report from Standard Media Index, which tracks ad spending on the part of 80 percent of U.S. agencies. Digital dollars still grew, reflecting the large number of advertisers eager to jump into the medium. But they grew more slowly. March online spending was up 15 percent, compared to a 20 percent gain for first quarter and 26 percent growth during full-year 2015. Meanwhile, television was up 4 percent in first quarter, compared to 0 percent growth last year.
James Fennessy, chief executive officer of SMI, says consumer packaged goods and automotive were among major categories moving money back to TV after experimenting with digital last year. Concerns about viewability and measurement sparked the moves, he says. "There have been massive viewability issues within digital with up to half the reported audiences being fake," says Fennessy. "Major brands don't want to be dealing with fraud issues like this and also saw at the same time their sales dropped off as they took money away from television." Broadcast has been the biggest beneficiary of the pivot back to television. It was up 15 percent in March, easing the sting of last year's 3 percent decline. "There have been a number of recent studies that have a shown a direct correlation between reduced TV advertising and sales results," Fennessy says. "It hasn't taken long for brands to make this connection and move back into a medium that delivers true ROI."
Consumer Trust Fading with Dishonest Commercial Use of Social Media
According to research conducted by Censuswide for the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a quarter of consumers (25%) claimed to have seen a fake online review, up from 17% when the survey was last conducted in 2014. Some 21% also say they have seen a brand incentivize customers to share positive comments on social media without making it clear to other users (up from 14% in 2014), while 16% said they had seen brands pay someone for promotion without declaring the payment. The research comes on the back of some high-profile examples of dishonest use of social media, including both Procter & Gamble and Mondelez having content banned by the Advertising Standards Authority for not making it clear a vlogger had been paid to promote products. "This has led to consumers querying if what they are seeing is genuine. There is growing awareness of certain practices out there, brands should be wary," says CIM CEO Chris Daly. The lack of trust is also filtering through to the social platforms brands use. Some 30% of consumers say they now have little or no trust in brand information they see on Facebook, up from 20% in 2014. That increase is matched at Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn. Facebook is still the most important social network, with 32% turning to it to help them make purchasing decisions, ahead of YouTube (18%), review sites (17%) and Twitter (14%). This should be of concern to brands because consumers are increasingly turning to social media as a key source of information when making purchase decisions. Some 62% of people questioned by CIM said they now 'always', 'often' or 'occasionally' use social media when deciding whether to make a purchase, up from just 17% in 2014. Some 29% have searched for a specific brand, while 25% use social media to make general searches.
From Posts To Messages — Are People Turning Their Backs On Public Social?
Are users claiming back their feeds? Are they switching away from cluttered, random timelines for direct communication with real friends, relatives and work colleagues? Well, the research that is starting to come in would suggest so. Earlier this week we had research from analytics firm, SimilarWeb, that people are switching toward messaging services and today we have figures from RadiumOne which suggest that four-fifths of "social" sharing is actually done direct on "dark social." The SimilarWeb study found that use of Instagram in both the UK and U.S. is down by around a quarter a and a third, while Twitter wasn't faring much better, with just under and just over a quarter drop in the UK and U.S., respectively. Facebook and Snapchat saw falls, but nowhere near as severe. It now means that while the most popular social site is Facebook, there's no surprise there — the next spots go to WhatsApp, Telegraph and Whisper. After these messaging apps, we then get back to the formerly more familiar territory of Instagram, Snapchat and then Twitter. This fits in perfectly well with the finding from RadiumOne. More than four in five social shares now occur on what it calls "dark social" and two in three clicks to a publisher's site from shared content come from "dark social" rather than material that has been posted in the open on the likes of a Facebook post or tweet. The thing about this research is that it just kind of makes sense. It's pretty easy to accept that people are getting a little tired of showoffs on Facebook and Instagram and simply can't keep track of a Twitter page feed. So it would make sense that they may be in the early stages of preferring to share content that matters to them directly with friends. It also figures that if a friend in real life — and not a social acquaintance — has personally sent content to you or a group on a messaging app, you will give it more attention and check it out. Otherwise, you're going to look pretty rude the next time you meet up and they ask if you saw that amazing video or article they sent over the other day. After years of posting widely and publicly, I think it is fair to say we're starting to see a partial move back to sharing content directly with friends through messaging rather than public walls. Don't expect Facebook to go anywhere anytime soon, but do be aware that content marketing clicks could be coming through messaging apps and not the social giants you were presuming.
Survey Finds 90% Skip Pre-Roll Video Ads
It's no secret that traditional advertising is increasingly ineffective, as online ad blocking and ad-skipping are becoming pervasive. Add another data point to the growing pile on ad blocking: In a survey of 1,015 adults by ORC International, in conjunction with ad-tech firm Mirriad, 76% reported blocking ads online and skipping traditional TV ads. The study found the outlook for video advertising to be even worse: Ninety percent of people skip pre-roll ads appearing ahead of online video content and TV shows. While experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 ads per day, the messages are not sticking. The survey found that 68% of people recall less than five ads they've seen in the past week. Juniper Research estimated in a recent study that digital publishers stand to lose more than $27 billion by 2020 as online publishers struggle to find effective strategies to counter ad blocking.
Among the other findings from the ORC-Mirriad study:
Eighty-four percent of millennials admit to blocking or skipping ads all or some of the time, while 73% and 72% of Gen X and Baby Boomers, respectively, claim the same.
Millennials, more than any other generation, prefer less disruptive forms of advertising in lieu of traditional commercials (27% vs. 15% of Gen X and 9% of Baby Boomers).
Fifty-three percent of Baby Boomers don't want to see any ads at all, compared to 30% of millennials who felt the same way.
Personalized ads are resonating with more than 80% of Millennials, compared to less than 50% of their generational counterparts.
"These results reflect what most of us already know as individuals. We skip ads. If we have a DVR, we skip ads. If we have mobiles, we skip ads. If we watch online, we skip ads — and given access to the right apps, we block them altogether. Why? Because they all too often get in the way of the experience we are looking for when we seek out the content we love. Most of us don't like being sold to, especially by someone we don't know. It's just a natural human trait," Mark Popkiewicz, Mirriad's CEO, told Real-Time Daily via email. "There must be a better way, because ads are an important part of the way content is funded," he added. "In the future, ads must become more respectful of viewers and delivered in such a way so as to add value, be truly helpful at whatever life stage the consumer is at, and not manifest like a stick-up on a street corner at night: 'Watch me or I'll take your purse.'"
Tech Brands Pay For Poor Support Services
Consumer electronics companies need to start taking some time to understand and support their current customers, or it could result in lost business. According to a survey of more than 2,200 consumers by Support.com, nearly 90% of them will return a product within a week if setup and installation is too difficult and nearly two-thirds (64%) will stop purchasing products from a company if they find it too difficult to interact with a technology brand's support services. (Additionally, 59% said they will not recommend the brand to others.) "The customer journey is broken, especially how you're getting support," Alex Poulos, vice president of marketing at Support.com, tells Marketing Daily. "What we're finding is the effort the consumer is putting out has a direct effect on whether they'll buy a product, or buy a product from another company." A majority (52%) of consumers are willing to put some amount of effort into engaging with companies to resolve their support issues, but that dedication varies depending on the cost of the product. If a product costs less than $200, 87% of the consumers will return the product within a week if setup and installation is too difficult. "Customer effort is a leading indicator of whether a customer is going to stay with you," Poulos says. "It is no longer viable for companies to count on brand loyalty as an incentive for customers to put more effort into a particular tech product or service. No matter how much customers like your brand, they shouldn't have to work to love your products."
Meaningful Brands Are Better At Driving Growth In Brandz Top 100
BrandZ's analysis shows that the most successful brands in the ranking have a recognizable point of difference, which is meaningful and therefore salient. It is argued that these three aspects can predict and ensure that brands have the best opportunity for future growth, which BrandZ labels as the 'brand potential' metric. Looking at 167 common brands valued in both 2015 and 2016, those with a higher brand potential have grown most over the past year. Breaking the list into three groups based on their level of brand potential reveals that the top third has grown by an average of 5%, while the middle group's value has dropped by 1% and the bottom third has fallen by 2%. A further study of 95 common brands valued in both 2006 and 2016 finds the value of the brands in the top third has grown by an average of 200%, compared to 93% for the middle group and 31% for the bottom third of brands based on brand potential. "Brands with high potential grew more than six times in value compared to low potential ones," says global BrandZ director, Peter Walshe. "It shows the importance of that relationship with the consumer, how powerful and sensitive a brand can be and how important it is to stay meaningful, different and salient." Check out the infographic here.
Women Like Brands Online
Women be shoppin', as Sinbad famously noted, but even when they're not shopping they're liking brands online, according to a new study by Influenster, a business-to-consumer product discovery site, which surveyed 11,111 female social media users (average age 27) about their online activities. According to Influenster, 94% of female social users polled said they interact with brands online, with 31% interacting with brands every day. Mobile dominated social engagement, with 90% of respondents interacting with brands' social media presence via smartphones, while 53% interact via laptops. The most popular way of interacting with brands was simple "Likes," with 95% of respondents liking brand posts, but a majority go further by commenting on brand posts. Women social media users are also fairly receptive to promoted posts, with 67% saying they were somewhat or very favorable to these paid marketing messages, provided they actually teach them something about the brand. Just 5% said they disliked promoted posts for being "spammy." Asked which social platforms they preferred to engage with brands, 81% of respondents use Instagram, 79% use Facebook, and 56% use Pinterest; these proportions indicate that many women are using multiple social platforms to engage with brands. In terms of the types of content they interact with, 93% of women social media users like photo posts, compared to 58% for posts containing video.
Why Brands Are Applying the Principles of Psychology to Design
There is more to design than meets the eye. In order to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace, brands including Heinz, Oxo and the RAF are applying the principles of psychology and using neuroscience techniques to create designs that resonate with consumers in both an immediate and lasting way.Psychological principles – concerning behavior, attitudes, aspirations and motivations – can help brands understand how their logos or packaging make consumers react. All visuals create a pattern of attention, which is why it is so important for brands to give designs a clear focus, as humans have limited attention spans, explains psychologist Nathalie Nahaï."It's also important to think about the principle of cognitive load, which relates to the energy it takes to process a task," she adds. "Good design reduces the mental effort and makes it easier to take the desired action like buying the product you want," explains Nahaï.A sans serif font, for example, requires less effort to read, while some colors evoke an immediate feeling, such as red for feelings of love or anger and blue, which is associated with trust and calmness.
Neuroscience – the monitoring of brain activity using technology such as MRI scans – can also be used to help marketers better understand why people remember certain designs over others. According to professor of marketing at Warwick Business School Nick Lee the more references you can connect to a brand, the higher the likelihood the memory will be retained and recalled, especially if you can create a positive emotional connection. To understand what makes consumers immediately connect with a brand, but also what engages them in the long term, marketers are increasingly applying the concept of System 1 and System 2 thinking to their design strategy. System 1 is instinctive thinking, processed instantly on a non-conscious level, thereby lowering the cognitive load. By contrast, System 2 is a rationalization stage involving cognitive processing, for example when consumers consider what they think of a brand and the reasons to buy it. If marketers can tap into System 1 thinking when working on their design strategy, they can make the purchase decision or call to action seamless for consumers, encouraging them to transact. Integrating psychology into the design process early on is giving brands the ability to tailor their message to the instinctive, System 1 processes that rule our unconscious decision making, using visual cues, vibrant colors and a distinctive aesthetic as unmistakable calls to action.
The Millennial's Guide to Using a Telephone
Hey there, people born after 1985! I noticed that a lot of you are having issues with your smartphone's simultaneous real-time voice chat app, also known as The Phone. So just in case you don't want to turn yourself into a pariah and die alone and friendless, here's a short guide to how using The Phone works:
Dr Ali Binazir is a speaking coach and pitch doctor at KNP Communications and the author of The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible (available in ebook, paperback and audiobook), the highest-rated dating book on Amazon for 4+ years. Find more of his writing at TaoOfDating.com and blogs.harvard.edu/abinazir. You may reach him at abinazir(at)knpcommunications.com.
Promo of the Day: KRON4 NBA / Under the Gun / Islamophobin / Mad Hatter Surprise / Hungerithm
Submitted by Steven Poitras, KRON4, Creative Services Director:
"Check out this spot. It's airing in the Warriors game on Thursday on TNT. I snuck in a couple of red and white cards into a Warrior game at the end of the season. Shot it on my Iphone… then with a simple AfterEffects plug in, did the rest. I am also the bombastic announcer. Very Low Budget…but a simple message to convey to a basketball audience. We are putting it on Facebook today to see if we can make some noise."
Director Stephanie Soechtig, collaborator Katie Couric and Epix have issued statements in response to criticism over the way the pro-gun control documentary Under the Gun was edited. (story below)
* Under the Gun: Official Trailer I EPIX
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been challenging the anti-Muslim hate by taking an earnest, serious approach to the issue grounded on facts. But now CAIR is trying a new weapon: comedy. That's why on Wednesday, CAIR's national office unveiled a humorous approach to counter anti-Muslim bigotry centered on the product they created named "ISLAMOPHOBIN." (see story below)
* CAIR 'ISLAMOPHOBIN' Public Awareness Campaign
You stumble across all manner of unique and colorful things while wandering around Disneyland in Southern California, but you'd probably never expect to run into the Mad Hatter himself, talking to you from a video screen. That's exactly what happened to surprised visitors at Disneyland.
* The Mad Hatter Surprise
Mars Chocolate Australia and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne have devised a unique twist on Snickers' "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign. The team, using the premise "The Internet gets a little angry when it's hungry," created the Snickers Hungerithm, an algorithmic program built on a 3,000-word lexicon, capable of interpreting slang, sarcasm and variations in context. The program monitors about 14,000 posts per day to gauge the mood on social media, and automatically lowers the price of a Snickers at 7-Eleven's 630 stores across Australia whenever the mood turns angrier. (see story below)
* SNICKERS® Hungerithm
Share your creative work with your promo peers on the602communications.com site. Just email the file or youtube link to email@example.com. Large files may be sent http://www.yousendit.com or you can mail your clip on DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.
The 5 Buzziest Television Trends That Defined This Year's Upfronts
The annual broadcast upfronts week has wrapped, as the networks spent four days wooing buyers with their new schedules, lots of impressive-sounding stats (some figures were more accurate than others) and, most importantly, open bars and buffets. And while each company made distinctive pitches in an effort to grab the biggest slice of the upfront pie, several universal themes emerged from the week—and not just that everyone had the same idea to incorporate Hamilton (the Broadway musical was mentioned during four different events and inspired three musical numbers). The biggest trends that emerged:
Down with digital
While the networks took a few swipes at one another, they each saved their heaviest artillery for digital video companies like Facebook and YouTube, which had just spent the two weeks of NewFronts claiming that more people watch them than broadcast TV. The networks struck back with a vengeance. Toby Byrne, president of advertising sales, Fox Networks Group, slammed what he termed "nonpremium, subprime video," and noted that "the digital metrics game is rigged." ABC hit hardest with a new study from Accenture Strategy that analyzed marketing spend and return on investment over three years, and found that digital can't match the long-term ROI benefits of advertising on linear TV and its related platforms.
TV is the new movies
Even though Limitless, Minority Report and Rush Hour all failed to score Season 2 renewals this year, the networks picked up even more shows—five in all—based on popular movies: Lethal Weapon and The Exorcist (Fox), Taken (NBC), Training Day (CBS) and Frequency (The CW). "If you have awareness that already exists on the shows, it makes the launching and marketing of those shows easier," said Jennifer Salke, NBC Entertainment president. But CBS Entertainment president Glenn Geller insisted, "I don't think an IP [intellectual property] title has anything to do with the quality of the show … the show has to stand for itself."
Stuck in time
One subgenre tends to dominate each year's pickups—say, Modern Family clones or shows that go behind the scenes of a TV production. This season, there was a run on shows about time travel (or communication across time), with four of them making the cut: dramas Time After Time (ABC), Timeless (NBC) and Frequency (The CW), and comedy Making History (Fox).
Funny business
CBS, ABC and NBC have each added new comedy nights to their slates, with ABC now airing comedy three nights of the week (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, for five hours in total each week). ABC's new entertainment president Channing Dungey said that for her first fall schedule she wanted to include more of "what we do well, which is our signature brand of family comedies" (she added American Housewife and Speechless). The other network president newbie, Geller, wanted to bring more multicams back to CBS this year, which led him to tap Kevin Can Wait, Man With a Plan and The Great Indoors. As for NBC, after several years of struggling to find its comedy identity, "we finally feel like we're in a sweet spot," said Salke, as NBC added The Good Place.
King Kiefer
Kiefer Sutherland is back on TV in a big way, as he is involved with two of the best received shows during the upfronts. The actor is executive producing Fox's reboot of his hit series 24, called 24: Legacy, which features a new cast—Fox thinks new lead Corey Hawkins, who steps in for Sutherland, has huge breakout potential—and will debut after Super Bowl LI in February. And he's starring in (and executive producing) what looks to be ABC's strongest series, Designated Survivor, where he plays a cabinet member who becomes president after an attack on the Capitol wipes out every one else in the line of succession. That show, said Dungey, "is perfectly in his sweet spot—and ours."
Epix & Katie Couric Respond To Criticism Over Anti-Gun Docu Editing
Director Stephanie Soechtig, collaborator Katie Couric and Epix have issued statements in response to criticism over the way the pro-gun control documentary Under the Gun was edited. The uproar started over a scene in which Couric, who co-produced and narrated the documentary, asks members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, "If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from walking into, say, a licensed gun dealer and purchasing a gun?" In the documentary it appears the members were dumbfounded by the question and took eight seconds to come up with a response. However, audio published by a conservative website appears to confirm the opposite — that they answered immediately. Intense criticism from pro-gun groups followed, and Soechtig now has confirmed in a statement that the pause was a deliberate choice in the editing room. "There are a wide range of views expressed in the film," she said in a statement today. "My intention was to provide a pause for the viewer to have a moment to consider this important question before presenting the facts on Americans' opinions on background checks. I never intended to make anyone look bad and I apologize if anyone felt that way." Couric said in a separate statement, "I support Stephanie's statement and am very proud of the film." Epix, which acquired Under the Gun after it bowed at Sundance and premiered it on May 16 , is standing by the documentary and the filmmakers. "Under the Gun is a critically acclaimed documentary that looks at the polarizing and politicized issue of gun violence, a subject that elicits strong reactions from people on both sides," the network said in a statement. "Epix stands behind Katie Couric, director Stephanie Soechtig, and their creative and editorial judgment. We encourage people to watch the film and decide for themselves."
Project Aims to Rate Media Outlets' Credibility Based on How They Report Climate Science
An initiative called Climate Feedback has unveiled what it calls the Scientific Trust Tracker, which assigns media outlets a rating based on an assessment by scientists of how accurately they report on climate change. According to their website, Climate Feedback "produces analyses and evaluations – we call them 'feedbacks' – of influential reporting on climate change. Our feedbacks are already helping readers around the world distinguish between news stories based on science and those that only claim to be." In a mockup of the Scientific Trust Tracker (viewable here), visitors can see how 20 articles from six different outlets are considered, and how the Tracker assigns each newspaper or website a rating of scientific credibility from very high (+2) to very low (-2). The rating is determined by the number of "sound articles" and "flawed articles." A complete list of the over 100 reviewers and organizers for the project, almost entirely professors and researchers, is viewable here. . In some cases, a journalist's article on a scientific study is reviewed and criticized by the very authors of those studies. According to the early findings of the project, the group's scientists "found that two of the most popular articles on climate change published by Forbes in 2015, one of which has been read by almost one million people, were deeply inaccurate and misleading. Similarly, op-eds on climate in The Wall Street Journal were consistently found to be at odds with current scientific knowledge." Meanwhile, "Mashable, The New York Times and The Washington Post have so far communicated climate science accurately and insightfully."
Mouse Gets Berned
Despite the company's rebuttal on social media, Bernie Sanders isn't letting up on his criticism of Disney over wages at Disneyland as he seeks to shore up support in California in advance of the state's June Democratic primary election. Sanders slammed the Mouse House tonight at a rally in Lancaster, California, telling the crowd that "The company makes billions of dollars in profit, but they are paying workers… wages that are so low that many of the workers cannot find housing and they have to stay in hotels." Sanders first raised the criticisms during a rally May 24 in Anaheim. To that, Disney CEO wrote on Facebook that the company "created 11,000 new jobs at Disneyland in the past decade, and our company has created 18,000 in the U.S. in the last five years." Iger, a prominent supporter of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, tore into Sanders, asking "How many jobs have you created? What have you contributed to the U.S. economy?" Another Disney spokesperson added to Iger's rebuttal, noting the contributions Disney parks and related tourism make to the local economy as the area's largest employer. That didn't stop Sanders tonight in Lancaster from doubling down, calling out The Mouse House for outsourcing manufacturing to China and other locales. "I say to Disney, bring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck back to America."
Jake Tapper, Cartoonist, Fills In on 'Dilbert'
CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who has showed off his talents as a cartoonist on State of the Union, took his art one step further Sunday, filling in as artist for the long-running Dilbert comic strip. "If you're wondering why Dilbert looks different today," writes artist Scott Adams on his blog. "It's because I asked CNN anchor and host Jake Tapper to be my guest artist for the week of 5/23/16. I wrote six daily comics for the week and Jake did the art. You can see them on the home page starting with the first one today." Tapper suggested auctioning the original, framed art to raise money for a charity, Homes for Our Troops which builds mortgage-free, specially-designed homes for disabled veterans. "I hope you like the change-of-pace this week," Adams said. "My only complaint is that Jake's a better artist than me. Do me a favor and don't notice that part."
Mad Hatter Poster Comes to Life
You stumble across all manner of unique and colorful things while wandering around Disneyland in Southern California, but you'd probably never expect to run into the Mad Hatter himself, talking to you from a video screen. That's exactly what happened to surprised visitors at Disneyland in early April on what at first glance seemed like just another poster ad for the upcoming "Alice in Wonderland" sequel, "Alice Through the Looking Glass." Visitors saw an image of Johnny Depp dressed as The Hatter, his character from the movies. But it wasn't just an image. Depp actually appeared in a live streaming video, enabling him to interact with the crowds streaming past. The actor responded to people by name and exclaimed "ouch!" when someone leaned up against the board. At one point Depp sneezed, triggering bubbles that shot out of the top of the sign. It got people talking on site at Disneyland and also became a viral sensation, with millions of views on YouTube and lots of coverage from news and trade publications.
Can CAIR's Comedy Crush Islamophobia?
For years the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been challenging the anti-Muslim hate spewed by the likes of Donald Trump, Pam Geller, and Frank Gaffney by taking an earnest, serious approach to the issue grounded on facts. (Not that the bigots care about facts.) But now CAIR is trying a new weapon: comedy. That's why on Wednesday, CAIR's national office unveiled a humorous approach to counter anti-Muslim bigotry centered on the product they created named "ISLAMOPHOBIN." Think an anti-anxiety drug designed for people freaked out at the slightest sight or mention of Muslims. As CAIR's Ibrahim Hooper explained, "We hope that humor can help create public awareness about the rising level of anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation that has unfortunately been mainstreamed by public figures like Donald Trump, Ben Carson and others."
'Hungerithm' Lowers Snickers' Price In Response To Angry Social Trends
Mars Chocolate Australia and Clemenger BBDO Melbourne have devised a unique twist on Snickers' "You're not you when you're hungry" campaign. The team, using the premise "The Internet gets a little angry when it's hungry," created the Snickers Hungerithm, an algorithmic program built on a 3,000-word lexicon, capable of interpreting slang, sarcasm and variations in context. The program monitors about 14,000 posts per day to gauge the mood on social media, and automatically lowers the price of a Snickers at 7-Eleven's 630 stores across Australia whenever the mood turns angrier. The candy usually costs about $1.09 Australian, but when the social mood is really nasty, the price can drop as low as 50 cents. To take advantage of a bargain price, fans visit snickers.com.au on their mobile phones and click "Get a Snickers" to generate a unique barcode that reflects the price at that moment. Then they show the barcode on their phone screens at a 7-Eleven. No need to download an app or print a voucher. The campaign includes 15- and 60-second videos, digital, outdoor and PR, as well as social elements to generate and respond to conversations around real-world events. If it's a hit, the Hungerithm could be coming to the U.S.
SunChips 'Laughalizer' Profiles Fans; Ties To Nonprofit
Frito-Lay's SunChips is combining yuks, psychology and cause marketing to generate social media engagement. Its "Waves of Laughter" campaign offers a "Laughalizer" developed by experts in gelotology, the study of laughter (you knew that, right?). Users are asked to visit www.LaughwithSunChips.com and view a short, funny video. The program analyzes their primary personality traits based on their laugh profiles. (Those who prefer not to provide access to their device microphones can still participate by answering some questions about their laughs.) There are 12 personality profiles, including "charming," "likable" and "mischievous." Each time a user shares his or her "laugh-print" on Facebook or Twitter, or by email, SunChips will donate $1 to Step Up, a nonprofit devoted to helping girls from under-resourced urban neighborhoods become "confident, college-bound and career-focused." The brand has committed to donating up to $100,000. The Laughalizer is currently being promoted on SunChips' Facebook page. The campaign aims to help consumers "celebrate their most authentic selves through something irreplaceable and special —their laughter," said Tyler Chapman, SunChips VP of marketing.
Shocker: Boomers Aren't So Different From Millennials
The way we talk about Millennials, you'd think they had absolutely nothing in common with older generations when it comes to media. They're addicted to gaming consoles and eschew traditional media like newspapers, and of course their phones are like another appendage. But it turns out that while Millennials do dedicate a larger amount of time than Generation X and Baby Boomers to media, the patterns in their media usage aren't all that different across generations. Take a moment to let that sink in. It means that, whether you're a Millennial or Boomer, you tend to be making similar decisions about media. That's the finding of a new study from Nielsen that examines media usage among Millennials, Gen X and Boomers. It finds both groups are spending more time than last year with multimedia devices, things like Roku and Google Chromecast that allow you to watch online content on your television. Though Millennials use these devices for more time each month, at 30 hours and 33 seconds to Boomers' 20 hours and 50 seconds, they both increased time spent with them by similar percentages compared to last year, up 16 and 17 percent, respectively. And that's not the only medium where this pattern is seen. Monthly usage of gaming consoles is up among Millennials and Boomers, as is smartphone video viewing and app usage. Again, while Millennials devote more time to these things, the percentage of increase in time spent year over year is similar.
We're always hearing how utterly unique Millennials are. So what to make of this similarity between older and younger users? It's perhaps a reminder that, no matter how big a deal is made about Millennials, they're really not that different from everyone else. This always seems to happen with younger generations. After all, it wasn't so long ago that Boomers were confounding their parents with rock 'n roll. But it may say more about Boomers than anything else. While advertisers tend to overlook them, they're digitally savvy and clearly much more in tune to current trends than they're given credit for. The generation gap is probably never as wide as we perceive it, and media buyers and planners would be wise to keep that in mind.
Millennials Tell Stories Through Social Media, Not Search Marketing
Marketers of small and medium-size businesses struggle with how to spend their advertising budgets. Only 13% responding to a survey from Magisto use search engine optimization and 27% use paid search. More are turning toward social media as a form of word of mouth. The results — from Unlocking The Most Powerful Shift In SMB Marketing, released Wednesday — found that for SMBs it's about selling stories and experiences, not products, and they are using social media rather than search advertising or marketing to tell the tale. In fact, Millennial marketers are 84% more likely to use social media to promote their small businesses than invest in print advertising, 136% are more likely to create a social video, and virtually none say they would invest in television advertising. By contrast, nearly one out in three Baby Boomers marketing small businesses employs TV ads and other legacy marketing options. SMBs are 64% more likely to post on Facebook than YouTube, while Millennials are 183% more likely to post a video on Instagram than Baby Boomers. One in four Millennials post video to company blogs and mobile apps, whereas 0% of Baby Boomers do. Baby Boomers are 164% more likely than Millennials to include a video in email communications. Millennials inherently understand how to push the right content to the right audience at the right time versus posting media and hoping that an audience finds it. The shift from traditional channels — such as print, radio and television advertising — and even classic word-of-mouth marketing, shows how Millennials feel more comfortable with viral, digital practices like social media and particularly online video, according to data from the survey.
Women From Venus, Men Still From Mars on Facebook, Study Finds
Women used warmer, gentler words in their status updates on Facebook compared to men, who were more likely to swear, express anger and use argumentative language, a study of 10 million postings released on Wednesday found. In a bit of a surprise, the study showed that women used slightly more assertive language, said H. Andrew Schwartz, an assistant professor of computer science at Stony Brook University and one of its authors. The study, "Women are Warmer but No Less Assertive Than Men: Gender and Language on Facebook," was a data-driven analysis of the words used by more than 65,000 Facebook users who gave researchers permission to examine their status updates. That shift in assertiveness might reflect the cultural and societal changes brought about by a generation that heavily uses social media, said Margaret L. Kern, a senior lecturer at the Center for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne in Australia and one of the study's authors. In the study, the user's average age was 26. "Those conversations have shifted over time," she said. "On Facebook, people are friends. They're not talking up or down to each other." Women's writing largely reflected compassion and politeness compared with men, who were hostile and impersonal, according to the study, which Mr. Schwartz and Ms. Kern discussed Tuesday in advance of the release. The most commonly cited topics by women included words such as "wonderful," "happy," "birthday," "daughter," "baby," "excited" and "thankful." Women were more likely to discuss family and social life, relying on words that described positive emotions, such as "love," and intensive adverbs, such as "sooo," "sooooo," and "ridiculously," the study said. Men more frequently discussed topics related to money or work, and favored words tied to politics, sports, competition and activities, such as shooting guns or playing video games. Men commonly used words such as "freedom," "liberty," "win," "lose," "battle" and "enemy." "The differences were interpreted as reflecting a male tendency toward objects and impersonal topics and a female tendency toward psychological and social processes," the report said. The study offered insights into the ways people categorize and label others based on their speech, Ms. Kern said. It also was a data-based way to study social media that could be replicated outside the United States, to see if such gender differences surface in other cultures and societies, she said. And it gave parents something to think about regarding the words they emphasize with their children. "The language we use, especially with our kids, that becomes a part of them," she said. "Perhaps we do use language that encourages girls to be warmer and boys to be less warm."
Late Night Licks
"In a recent interview, 'Shark Tank' host Mark Cuban predicted that if Donald Trump is elected, it would be bad news for Wall Street. And in related news, Donald Trump just got endorsed by Bernie Sanders."
–Jimmy Fallon
"Last night, Fox premiered its new reality dating show 'Coupled.' I watched it for 10 minutes and I thought, these two are not going to make it. Then I realized I was watching the Megyn Kelly-Donald Trump interview."
–Jimmy Fallon
"Megyn Kelly interviewed Donald Trump last night. The important thing is that wounds have been healed, which is good. It was difficult to watch Donald and her fight. It's hard to watch a fight between two people with such similar hair styles."
–Jimmy Kimmel
"It seems Donald Trump is integrating himself into the Republican Party establishment, and making amends with those he steamrolled during the race, including the increasingly sleepy Dr. Ben Carson."
–Jimmy Kimmel
"On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders won Oregon. It's funny with Oregon. If recreational marijuana is legal in your state, you can pretty much guarantee Bernie will win it."
–Jimmy Kimmel
"Democrats are concerned that Sanders' campaign could alienate enough voters to hand Donald Trump the election. Bernie said, 'Listen, I'm 74 years old. I'm surrounded by college girls screaming my name. Don't ruin this for me.'"
–Jimmy Kimmel
"So Clinton won Kentucky and Sanders won Oregon, and now this will be settled by whose supporters can be most annoying on Facebook. Good luck, everybody."
–Jimmy Kimmel
"Bernie Sanders won last night's Oregon Democratic primary and this was a surprise. Hillary came in third — behind a bag of weed."
–Seth Meyers
"Fox News host Megyn Kelly addressed rumors about Donald Trump's hair in a new interview and said, 'It's not a wig and it's not a comb-over, either.' So, what is it? It's a mystery, wrapped in a riddle, inside an enigma."
–Seth Meyers
"A new poll has 87 percent of Republicans supporting Trump. The other 13 percent are currently standing on bridges looking vacantly into the distance."
–Stephen Colbert
"He is slowly unifying the Republican Party. All it took was no other options."
–Stephen Colbert
"In last night's Democratic primaries in Oregon and Kentucky, Bernie won Oregon. No surprise there. If you look at it on a map, Oregon is pretty much as far left as you can get."
–Stephen Colbert
"Meanwhile, in Kentucky, Hillary Clinton declared victory after winning by less than 1 percent. So there's another 1 percent for Bernie to be mad at."
–Stephen Colbert
Promo of the Day: Why Can't Girls Code? Boobs / Quaker State – Dipstick 6S * Facebook Has a Serious Problem * Social Media Finds New Role as News and Entertainment Curator * ESPN, Telemundo Most Social Networks (Again) in April * Broadcast Down 8 Percent * CBS Wins No. 1 Spot in TV's Coveted 18-49 Demo * CBS Challenged on Lack of Diversity in Fall Schedule * TV's Big Bet on Nostalgia * What's Different About the New Golden Age of the Family Sitcom * Turner's Upfront Vow To Reduce Commercials Is Growing Industry Trend * Which Cable Owners Are Hot and Which Are Not * In a Reversal of the Usual Model, TV Series Are Moving from Netflix to Broadcast * With Netflix, You Miss Over 150 Hours of Commercials per Year * Megyn Kelly Presents Draws 4.8 Million Viewers * Ben Carson Calls Walter Cronkite a 'Left-Wing Radical' * Warren Buffett Leads Bid For Yahoo * How Treating Employees Well Boosts Brand Value * 15 Pieces of Career Advice That Every College Grad Must Know
Promo of the Day: Why Can't Girls Code? Boobs / Quaker State – Dipstick 6S
It should be obvious that your gender doesn't hinder your ability to code, yet women continue to face an uphill climb into tech careers thanks largely to unspoken stigmas against female coders. For its latest campaign, the nonprofit advocacy group Girls Who Code tackles this issue with satirical, delightfully deadpan humor. Instead of creating a campaign solely geared to inspiring young girls to get into computer science, the nonprofit wanted to show how ridiculous it is to assume that girls have some sort of gender-specific obstacles to being developers.
* Why can't girls code?
* Why can't girls code? Boobs.
* Why can't girls code? They're beautiful.
* Why can't girls code? They menstruate.
A humorous look at the way the motor oil industry tries to sell products is the basis for a video campaign by Quaker State in partnership with The Onion. The campaign's first custom video portrays a fake product, "The Dipstick 6s," a standard dipstick equipped with a selfie cam and a digital ticker featuring weather and sports updates. The provocative, satirical campaign aims to reinforce the Quaker State "It's just damn good oil" campaign message and highlight the brand's emphasis on quality products over marketing B.S.
* Quaker State – Dipstick 6S
Share your creative work with your promo peers on the602communications.com site. Just email the file or youtube link to firstname.lastname@example.com. Large files may be sent http://www.yousendit.com or you can mail your clip on DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.
Facebook Has a Serious Problem
Later today, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will meet with prominent media conservatives including Glenn Beck, S.E. Cupp and Dana Perino to talk about suggestions the social network suppresses conservative content. "I look forward to sitting down with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook because, as I'll explain to them, no one knows more about liberal bias in the media than we do," said Media Research Center president Brent Bozell, who will attend the meeting. "We have been documenting and exposing it for almost 30 years. Facebook has a serious problem. Trust is everything and now conservatives don't trust them. My hope is that today's meeting will begin to put concerns to rest." "I'm going in there with an open mind and some curiosity," Perino told The Wrap. "If I make one point, the bigger-picture problem across the board is that Silicon Valley as a whole is a great champion of diversity, but usually when they talk about diversity, they mean gender and race. Diversity of thought is also very valuable."
Social Media Finds New Role as News and Entertainment Curator
By the end of last week, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook would conduct "a full investigation" into accusations that editors at the company prevented news stories from conservative outlets from appearing in a section of the social network's service. But the statement, issued after a weeklong crush of attention about the accusation, leapfrogged a perhaps more obvious question — one that Facebook's 1.65 billion monthly users around the world may not have considered. Facebook has editors? It does, and it isn't alone. Most major social media platforms have, in recent years, amassed editorial teams of their own, groups that select, tame and fill gaps in the material produced by users and media companies. The teams are often tiny compared with the rest of their sprawling organizations. But most of these employees — whether they are called curators, reporters, editors or something else — make editorial choices that reach huge audiences. How and why these decisions are made are generating new questions for the companies, and their users, to grapple with. Last week's debate surrounding Trending Topics gave users and critics a chance to analyze the Facebook platform, which has established significant reach, in new ways. Social networks like Facebook have been widely seen as impartial systems that reflect users' ideas, preferences and relationship back at them. But suddenly, the companies were viewed not just as tech companies, which the public is broadly endeared to, or as media companies, which are regarded with deep skepticism by much of the public, but also as something in between. Details about the Facebook team's editorial practices, for example, immediately led to questions about the tools they used — the software that identified popular stories in the first place. And analysis of those tools led to questions about the central mechanics of Facebook — the software that uses more than a billion users' personal connections and preferences to decide what to show them next.Many of these interrogations ended up in the same thorny thicket: Who designed the system this way, and why? That may help explain why other companies refrained from wading into public discussions around Facebook last week, hoping to avoid a similar storm.
ESPN, Telemundo Most Social Networks (Again) in April
When it comes to social television, there are many big shows that drive engagement. But Shareablee, a social analytics platform, is dedicated to measuring total network social actions month to month for Lost Remote. For April, their top 3 social networks were ESPN, ABC, and Telemundo. Their rankings include all television shows and the main network brand accounts under the network. In April, there were a total of 619 million social across across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube (excluding views). There was a 3 percent total decrease in actions from March to April, due mainly to a decrease of action on Facebook. Video views, which make up 28 percent of the overall actions, remained flat month to month.
Top 5 Shows By Engagement
SportsCenter (ESPN): 88.2 million actions
NBA (ESPN): 19.9 million actions
El Señor de los Cielos (Telemundo): 11.2 million actions
Good Morning America (ABC): 10.6 million actions
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC): 8.4 million actions
Broadcast Down 8 Percent
It's become a yearly occurrence—tallying up how much broadcast declined among adults 18-49 in the previous season. There's still a week left in the season, but it appears this year the decline will be 8 percent. The Big Four are averaging an 8.1 adults 18-49 Nielsen rating, down from an 8.8 at this point last year. Half of that decline has been from ABC, which has tumbled from a 2.2 last year at this time to a 1.8, ranking fourth among the Big Four. And the rest has been from NBC, last year's No. 1 network. This year, without the Super Bowl, NBC is down 0.3, from a 2.4 to a 2.1. Two networks, first-place CBS (2.3) and third-place Fox (1.9), are even with last year. The declines got sharper as the year went on. During the first two months of the season, the Big Four were off by 6 percent. But compared to past years, the 8 percent decline is about normal.
CBS Wins No. 1 Spot in TV's Coveted 18-49 Demo
Several networks have claimed that they are No. 1 in some demo or another during upfronts this week. Today it was time to hear from the only network that can believably make the claim of being No. 1 this year—CBS, which grabbed the season victory in the 18-49 demo most important to advertisers while continuing its total viewers win streak—as the network unveiled its fall schedule. And CBS will try to stay on top next year with a big return to humor, scheduling eight comedies this fall, including new series with former sitcom stars Kevin James and Matt LeBlanc. During a breakfast meeting with reporters, CBS Corp. CEO and chairman Leslie Moonves noted that CBS will finish the season No. 1 not just in total viewers (for the eighth straight year), but also the 18-49 and 25-54 demos. While the network routinely wins the season in total viewers, its 18-49 victory this year over NBC—which held the 18-49 crown for the past two season—is significant, as CBS is frequently dismissed by competitors as having geriatric viewers. Moonves joined the chorus of broadcasters who are swinging back this week at the debatable claims coming from digital companies. "There's a lot of stats that aren't true," said Moonves. "We see [ad] money coming back to the network. The bloom is off the rose [for digital]." Cable isn't giving CBS a run for its money either, he added: "Basic cable does not have the reach or clearly the ratings that we do."
CBS Challenged on Lack of Diversity in Fall Schedule
Unveiling its new primetime plans this morning at its traditional Upfront day press breakfast, CBS took some heat for lack of diversity. First, one reporter noted almost all the new shows star men: Kevin James in sitcom Kevin Can Wait, Matt LcBlanc in sitcom Man with a Plan, Joel McHale in sitcom The Great Indoors, Michael Weatherly migrated from NCIS to drama Bull, Lucas Till playing Angus "Mac" MacGyver in the remake of MacGyver, Augustus Prew as a young Silicon Valley tech titan in Pure Genius and Bill Paxton as Detective Frank Rourke in Training Day. Katherine Heigl really stood out as the star of Doubt, in which she will play a brilliant attorney who starts to fall for a client who is accused of murdering his girlfriend. Asked whether the network had "focused too much on male characters," CBS Entertainment chief Glenn Geller noted its female-centric returning series such as Mom, 2 Broke Girls and Madam Secretary, calling the schedule a "great balance." One reporter persisted, saying that, at a time in which viewers are seeing more diverse casting and shows that feature women prominently, CBS' new schedule seems to have gone in another direction. "Our new series are more diverse this year than last," Geller pushed back. "And when Doubt premieres, it will be the first broadcast series to feature a transgender series regular, played by a transgender actor. We are moving in the right direction." In that series, Laverne Cox plays a colleague of Heigl's named Cameron Wirth, described by CBS as "a transgender Ivy League graduate who fights passionately for her clients, having experienced injustice firsthand."
TV's Big Bet on Nostalgia
The television industry is facing an uncertain, uncharted future. But next season it's placing a big bet on the past. MacGyver, the crafty secret agent, is returning to CBS three decades after his 1985 debut. "Tales From the Crypt," an HBO series that first aired in 1989, will be resurrected on TNT. "MTV Unplugged," whose Eric Clapton heyday was in the 1990s, is back — and so are "24," "Prison Break" and "Gilmore Girls." "We now live in a world where TV shows never die," said David Nevins, the chief executive of Showtime. He has his own revival on the way: Mr. Nevins helped persuade David Lynch to create a new chapter of "Twin Peaks," the cult series that went off the air a quarter-century ago. Network nostalgia for a happier, Netflix-free age is not the only factor at play. With about 400 scripted shows airing last year alone, built-in name recognition can offer a crucial edge with audiences overwhelmed by new choices. And streaming services have revealed new interest in older titles thought to be past their profitable prime. "We are not saying we are out of the original idea business," said David Madden, president of entertainment at Fox. "Having said that, there are a lot of shows out there, a lot of material competing for people's attention. And where you have a title that people recognize, value and appreciate, that's something we want to take advantage of." A social anthropologist might wonder if television's nostalgia craze can be attributed to viewers who are seeking out the familiar in a disruptive, uneasy age (See Trump, Donald J.). But when that question was posed to Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center for media and society at the University of Southern California, he laughed. "I would not discount the commercial motivations," Mr. Kaplan, a screenwriter and former studio executive, said dryly.
What's Different About the New Golden Age of the Family Sitcom
Don't expect the classic sitcom Leave It to Beaver or squeaky-clean '90s shows like Family Matters and Perfect Strangers. But come next season, there's likely to be an abundance of new family-centric half hours on network TV. Added to returning hits like Modern Family, Black-ish and Mom, family comedies could take up more space on prime-time schedules than they have in decades. Hollywood's producers pumped out nearly 30 family-based comedy pilots during the recent development season, leaping ahead of other popular subgenres like workplace and relationship shows. This trend toward home and hearth is no accident. Several television executives made their 2016-17 schedule priorities clear in recent months, with CBS Entertainment president Glenn Geller telling The Hollywood Reporter that his must-have for next season was a "big family multicam," meaning a traditional three-camera comedy filmed in front of an audience. NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt cited "comedy, comedy, comedy" as his focus for the year, while ABC—which has had the most recent success in the genre—has once again looked at families of all stripes for its potential comedy pickups. "It's one of the most relatable concepts on TV. It makes us think of our own relationships to parents and siblings and kids," said Tim Brooks, television historian. "These shows are very advertiser-friendly, they re-run well, and they tend to skew female 25-54, which is a sweet spot." They draw a multigenerational audience that often watches live rather than using the DVR, making them more valuable to sponsors, and they're reassuring in turbulent times, even if they contend with weighty issues. And though re-dos are still the rage, throwbacks are not, with Lisa Herdman, svp, director of national broadcast and branded entertainment at RPA, noting that today's family comedies need to be diverse, topical and contemporary to survive. "Families are rough and raw and obnoxious and dysfunctional," Herdman said. "Viewers are looking for that edge."
Turner's Upfront Vow To Reduce Commercials Is Growing Industry Trend
Turner-owned networks TNT, TBS and others announced a number of new shows Wednesday at the company's upfront presentation in New York, but the cornerstone of the company's pitch to advertisers was a vow to reduce commercial loads. At the upfront, remarks by several executives drove home the point that for Turner, the development of "premium" content and a reduction in commercials go hand-in-hand. "The consumer experience must come first," said Donna Especiale, president of ad sales for Turner Broadcasting. "We're dedicated to keeping our content bold, engaging and less cluttered," she told ad reps in the audience at the Madison Square Garden Theater. The event encompassed a wide range of Turner-owned properties, including TNT, TBS, CNN, TruTV, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, HLN and Turner Sports. "Early research has shown that with reduced commercial loads, consumers' intent to purchase is dramatically higher. Let's work together to give consumers more of the shows they love, to give the creative community a better environment to tell their stories, and to help your brands win too," she said. Turner is not the first company during this upfront season to promise smaller commercial loads during its shows. Indeed, the vow to reduce the number of commercials has become one of this season's most noticeable mini-trends. Network after network has discovered that the ever-expanding commercial pods they have been positioning within their shows has emerged as a key reason why so many viewers have abandoned linear TV — particularly on cable — for SVOD services that have few commercials or none at all.
Which Cable Owners Are Hot and Which Are Not
Upfronts are all about making sales to advertisers. This means it can be hard to sort through everything that's said to come up with a realistic picture of where the networks stand. After all, most of them make claims to be No. 1 in something, whether that's women 18-49 or men 18-34 who live with their parents and have blonde hair. No kidding, you can drill pretty deep on ratings these days. With that in mind, here's a look at where the cable owners' networks stand during second quarter in their target demo. A few had a standout three months with ratings gains—the cable news networks did particularly well. But others are struggling, and they'll have a hard time making their case to advertisers.
Overall: Its five networks are up 10 percent. AMC has surged 34 percent in its target adults 18-49, thanks to "The Walking Dead."
Overall: Its 13 networks are down 4 percent. Just one of its top four networks (Investigation Discovery, a top network among women 25-54) is up year-to-year. Velocity has seen the biggest gain, up 13 percent in 25-54s, while American Heroes Channel is down the most, 32 percent in 18-49s.
Overall: Its seven networks are down 4 percent. Freeform rolled out a bunch of new programming but it's struggling, down 17 percent in its target 12-34s. ESPN, its top network, is up 2 percent in 18-49s.
Overall: Its 10 networks are down 6 percent. Fox Sports 1 and 2 have each declined more than 20 percent from last year among 18-49s, but Fox News Channel is up 7 percent in 25-54s and has been among the top cable networks this quarter.
NBCUniversal (Comcast)
Overall: Its 13 networks are down 7 percent. Like the other cable news networks, MSNBC is up in 25-54s (54 percent). Nearly all the other NBCU networks are down, however. Another notable standout: NBC Universo (up 43 percent in 18-49s).
Overall: Its seven networks are up 3 percent. HGTV (target: 25-54s), DIY Network (target 25-54s) and Travel Channel (target 25-54s) are all up modestly while Great American Country has surged 53 percent in 18-49s.
Time Warner
Overall: Its 13 networks are down 12 percent. CNN is having a big quarter, up 28 percent in its target 25-54s. Turner's premium networks (HBO and Cinemax) have seen the biggest declines.
Overall: Its 16 networks are down 2 percent. Nickelodeon's big losses have tailed off, and it's down just 1 percent in kids 2-11. But MTV (off 24 percent in 12-34s) and Comedy Central (down 11 percent in 18-49s) continue to struggle.
Note: All numbers provided by Wells Fargo Securities LLC, based on Nielsen data.
In a Reversal of the Usual Model, TV Series Are Moving from Netflix to Broadcast
Two Netflix series are moving to broadcast television in an arrangement that reverses the traditional flow of content from broadcast to the streaming service. Netflix announced that season one of "Narcos" will be aired by the Spanish-language network Univision as part of a promotional deal between the two companies. Additionally, the Spanish-language Netflix series "Club de Cuervos" will air on UniMas. The move comes in advance of the second-season premieres of both shows on Netflix, set for later this year.
With Netflix, You Miss Over 150 Hours of Commercials per Year
Even if we sort of love commercials around here, that doesn't mean we like to have to sit through them when we're streaming content. A recent report on Cord Cutting figured out that Netflix probably saves viewers from about 160 hours of commercials. Even if that's just six of those horribly long ads for heart medications, that's still a lot of hours. Think of all the time you've lost watching them.
Here's their math:
From Nielsen, we know that a typical hour of cable TV includes 15 minutes, 38 seconds – or 938 seconds – of commercials. Multiply that figure by 1.67 repeating and you get 1,563.3 (also repeating) seconds of commercials per day. That's 570,616.7 seconds per year, which works out to 158.5 hours. So each subscriber saves him or herself about 160 hours of commercials per year by streaming their content through Netflix.
Sometimes, it's OK that there are commercials. They give you a chance to order delivery, run to the bathroom, or pay attention to whoever wants to talk to you while you're zoning out. But it's nice to have a choice. That might be something networks think about as they move towards OTT and subscription services. Hulu got the message. If it's worth it to a consumer to pay a few extra bucks to watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine without commercial breaks, they will. Some though, will sit through those Geico commercials.
That's why advertisers and their partners need to get better at listening to audiences. Because even if that viewer doesn't feel like paying extra for a commercial-free session of Law & Order, that doesn't mean they need to sit through bad advertising. Instead of banging their heads against the wall thinking about the "end of TV" as we know it, network execs should be thinking about pricing tiers and dealing with advertisers who only deal with forward-thinking agencies that get it. There are lots of different audience types. There should be a streaming style for all of them.
Megyn Kelly Presents Draws 4.8 Million Viewers
The debut of Megyn Kelly's Fox special, Megyn Kelly Presents, faced huge competition but drew a respectable 4.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen preliminary ratings data out Wednesday. Viewership will grow when other Nielsen metrics are factored in for delayed viewing. The 8 p.m. hour was dominated, however, by the season finale of NCIS on CBS, featuring the departure of actor Michael Weatherly. NCIS was first overall with 17.6 million total viewers–more than triple the ratings for Kelly's special. NBC's The Voice was second with 8.9 million viewers overall, while ABC fell to fourth with Fresh Off the Boat (4.2 million total viewers) and The Real O'Neals (3.3 million total viewers). The NBA playoffs also brought TV competition. The special–featuring Kelly's much-discussed interview with Donald Trump–helped grow the Fox 8 p.m. timeslot 140 percent in viewers from the previous week. The numbers were also double what Kelly gets on an average night of The Kelly File on Fox News Channel. The special also outdrew Fox News at 8pm, which last night was primary night coverage anchored by Bret Baier. The 8pm hour on FNC averaged 2.47 million viewers.
Ben Carson Calls Walter Cronkite a 'Left-Wing Radical'
Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, in an interview on CNN's New Day Monday, described longtime CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite as a "left-wing radical." In his role as a surrogate for the campaign of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, Carson expressed frustration with the media, telling CNN's Chris Cuomo, "There are clearly people who have an agenda. And they will clearly take things that you have said and distort them or overblow them. I can give you multiple examples. It's absurd." That led to Carson's to offer his commentary on Cronkite. "I remember growing up, I would turn the TV on. You would see Walter Cronkite or someone like that. And you could really trust them. Even though he was a left-wing radical, you would never know that."
Warren Buffett Leads Bid For Yahoo
Value investor Warren Buffett is among a group of investors making a bid to acquire the core assets of Yahoo. Citing unnamed sources, the Financial Times reported that Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is teaming with Quicken Loans Founder Dan Gilbert and other investors to make the bid, which comes as many had seen AOL parent Verizon as the leading contender to acquire the Yahoo assets.
How Treating Employees Well Boosts Brand Value
This election season is putting issues like the fight for a higher minimum wage front and center, shining a light on how corporations treat their workers. And what's become clear is those companies that take care of their employees—and let their customers know about it—stand to boost their brand value. According to a recent Interbrand study, consumers' purchase consideration for both b-to-b and b-to-c brands is higher—and they're willing to pay more—if a company treats its employees well. Eighty-four percent of consumers consider a company's social commitments, including employee treatment, before deciding what to buy or where to shop, and 82 percent consider them when it comes to which products and services to recommend to friends, according to a 2015 study on global corporate social responsibility (CSR) by Cone Communications. "Branding used to be about what's happening outside of your door, but, increasingly, about 75 percent of the work that brands do is more squarely focused on how they get the greatest performance out of their employees, and how they lessen the gap between the executives and the front line [employees]," said Andrea Sullivan, CMO at Interbrand. And focusing on employee well-being stacks up well against other CSR efforts, Lenderman said. "When corporations fund disaster relief efforts in Sri Lanka or AIDS eradication in Africa, a lot of people say, 'Why can't they do something closer to home?' These employee programs are as close to home as you can get," he said.
15 Pieces of Career Advice That Every College Grad Must Know
School's out, the commencement speeches have been delivered, and a whole new batch of graduates are starting to look for jobs. It's a tough climate out there, so we've compiled these helpful tips for new grads as they begin to enter the workforce:
Don't lie on your resume. (That was a lie. Definitely lie on your resume)
Dress for the job you want, not the job Gotham deserves.
Leave embarrassing details off your resume, like a silly email address, or the fact that you went to Arizona State.
If at all possible, be a white guy whose dad has a lot of connections.
Apply for jobs on Craigslist. If you get an interview, report that person to the police 'cause they're definitely a murderer. Maybe the police will hire you!
Salaries should always be negotiated by writing a number on a piece of paper and sliding it across a table.
For networking events, "I'm not old enough to remember 9/11" is a good icebreaker.
If you crush the cans you can carry more in your shopping cart.
Remember that movie Blank Check? Keep remembering. Boom, you've killed a few minutes of depressing unemployment.
Incorrect: "I have attached my resume." Correct: "I have attached my řéşůɯé."
If you send a "thank you" email after an interview, you'll seem appreciative. If you send a "thank you" falcon, you'll seem like you mean fucking business.
Six little words, one BIG statement: Donald J. Trump Signature Collection Tie
Resumes are passé. The only way to make a splash nowadays is with a well-edited sex tape.
Know your strengths: arms, legs, or core. Now get an employer's attention and just flex.
Actually, you guys are gonna have to hang out for a little while, we're still working on finding jobs for the class of 2009.
Promo of the Day: FOX5-Most Interesting Chief Meteorologist / WOWT-Our Home in 360 / Pepsi Emojis
KVVU Las Vegas
He has found two identical snowflakes, twice. FOX5's Ted Pretty is the most interesting Chief Meteorologist in the world.
* FOX5 – Most Interesting Chief Meteorologist
WOWT Omaha
As technology advances, so does the way we interact with you. Take a look around at this 360 degree perspective of the Omaha metro and stay tuned on our Facebook page and YouTube channel for more WOWT 360 videos coming soon.
* Our Home In 360
Pepsi is pioneering an approach to advertising that the company says is built for the future of entertainment, which Pepsi says is short-form. USA Today reports that the new Pepsi campaign will feature more than 100 ads, each running just 5 seconds long. The spots, which will promote new emoji-adorned Pepsi bottles, will appear all summer on the Internet and on TV.
* Pepsi Emojis are Coming!
Jon Stewart Bashes Media
Jon Stewart gave a stinging critique of the media during an appearance Monday hosted by the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics. "The comic-satirist and longtime TV host left no doubt that he's not softened toward the media, government or the political process since exiting 'The Daily Show,'" Poynter reports, noting that Stewart portrayed TV news as corrupt and driven to emphasize conflict over clarity. "More than 1,000 students showed up for an appearance sponsored by the university's Institute of Politics," Poynter reports. "David Axelrod, the former political strategist who founded the institute, interviewed Stewart on stage for airing starting Thursday on his 'The Axe Files' podcast." Commenting on the current campaign coverage, Stewart said: "The media is as usual focused on the wrong things and abdicating responsibility for the general filtration of toxicity." Stewart also zeroed in on talk radio, saying the Donald Trump phenomenon "makes sense if you view it through the prism of talk radio." He described that world as "24/7 of 'your country is being taken away from you.' … [They] love America. They just hate 50 percent of the people who live in it." Here's a video of Stewart's full appearance Monday at the University of Chicago.
Morley Safer Retiring as Longest-Serving '60 Minutes' Reporter
Morley Safer, the longest-serving correspondent on "60 Minutes" who was known as much for his hard-hitting reporting as the quirky stories he covered, will formally retire this week after a career in broadcast news that lasted more than 50 years, CBS said on Wednesday. Mr. Safer, 84, served on "60 Minutes" for all but two of its 48 seasons. He started scaling back his appearances on the show after he turned 80; his last segment, a profile of the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, aired in March. His first season as a regular correspondent on "60 Minutes" began in 1970 with a report on the training of federal sky marshals. In total, he did 919 reports for "60 Minutes." An hourlong program on Sunday, "Morley Safer: A Reporter's Life," will, among other highlights, recall an investigation by Mr. Safer that resulted in the freedom of Lenell Geter, a black man who was wrongly convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Texas. In an appearance on the special, Mr. Geter credited Mr. Safer with saving his life. Mr. Safer was not doing interviews with the news media on Wednesday, and in the coming special on Sunday he reveals that he did not really like being on television, according to CBS. "It makes me uneasy," he says. "It is not natural to be talking to a piece of machinery. But the money is very good."
Is Facebook Suppressing Politically Conservative Content?
Facebook and a top Republican Senator have responded to allegations from the tech website Gizmodo that Facebook is suppressing ideologically conservative news or stories from conservative organizations from its "trending topics" column. According to an article Gizmodo published on Monday, Facebook wasn't just relying on algorithms to determine which stories made it onto the list of developing news on the right-hand side of its homepage. The article alleged that contracted employees called "human curators" helped decide what stories appeared, and that it "often depended on the taste of individual supervisors — some of whom were said to favor liberal causes such as Black Lives Matter," reports NPR's David Folkenflik for All Things Considered. The article, citing several unnamed former curators, said some stories in which conservatives may have more interest were passed over. It said that some of the topics that the curators suppressed included "former IRS official Lois Lerner, who was accused by Republicans of inappropriately scrutinizing conservative groups; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; popular conservative news aggregator the Drudge Report; Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL who was murdered in 2013; and former Fox News contributor Steven Crowder." The Gizmodo report adds that some former curators said they were "instructed to artificially 'inject' selected stories into the trending news module, even if they weren't popular enough to warrant inclusion — or in some cases weren't trending at all." Some of these topics included the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, the article said, also citing Black Lives Matter and the conflict in Syria as other subjects that former curators said were "injected" into the module.
In a rebuttal Monday night, Facebook's Tom Stocky, who is in charge of the trending topics section, denied the report's allegations and said the company has "found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true." "Popular topics are first surfaced by an algorithm, then audited by review team members to confirm that the topics are in fact trending news in the real world and not, for example, similar-sounding topics or misnomers," he wrote, adding that the company "does not allow or advise our reviewers to systematically discriminate against sources of any ideological origin." He added: "There have been other anonymous allegations — for instance that we artificially forced #BlackLivesMatter to trend. We looked into that charge and found that it is untrue. We do not insert stories artificially into trending topics, and do not instruct our reviewers to do so."
With more than one billion users a day, Facebook has become indispensable to many news organizations, David reports. "With 167 million US Facebook users reading stories highlighted in the trending section, Facebook has the power to greatly influence the presidential election," the Republican Party said in a statement Monday. "It is beyond disturbing to learn that this power is being used to silence view points and stories that don't fit someone else's agenda." On Tuesday, Republican chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee John Thune of South Dakota also weighed in. "Facebook must answer these serious allegations and hold those responsible to account if there has been political bias in the dissemination of trending news," Thune said in a statement, according to The Hill. "Any attempt by a neutral and inclusive social media platform to censor or manipulate political discussion is an abuse of trust and inconsistent with the values of an open Internet." David reports that on Tuesday afternoon, Facebook told NPR that it will review its practices more deeply and address the Senator's questions.
Three Stations Pull Plug on Koch Funded Political Ad
Three TV stations have pulled a political ad created by a group funded by the Koch brothers. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the three Wisconsin stations — WMSN-TV in Madison and WLUK-TV and WGBA-TV in Green Bay — stopped running the spot after receiving a letter from lawyers for former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold. The letter from Jonathan Berkon and David Lazarus of the Perkins Coie law firm, which represents Feingold's campaign, calls the commercial "false, misleading and deceptive," and adds: "For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station must immediately cease airing this advertisement." The spot comes from the Freedom Partners Action Fund, which is reportedly funded by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch and is backing U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson in his Senate race against Feingold. The Wisconsin State Journal reports that the group is revising the ad. At the center of the controversy is the ad's claim that Feingold ignored a 2009 memo detailing allegations of prescription drug abuse at the Tomah VA hospital, the Journal reports. The ad features a whistleblower talking about alleged falsified records and other problems at the clinic. "The original ad … includes an interview with Tomah whistleblower Ryan Honl, who claimed Feingold received a 2009 memo from a union alleging abusive overprescription of drugs was occurring at the hospital. The ad has been revised and will be worked into a $2 million ad buy, according to Freedom Partners Action Fund," the Journal reports. See the ad here.
Men Trump Women as Ad Targets In 2016
Despite Hillary Clinton's efforts to break the presidential ceiling for women, Trump's social-media prowess appears to be turning gender marketing rules upside down. Typically, women are more likely to discover and share news content. According to a recent study by the American Press Institute, women generally hold an edge over men in interacting with content on social media (49% vs. 39%) and also sharing news (50% vs. 41%). However, based on recent evidence and analysis, the male demographic is interacting with new types of content as a result of the political landscape, having much to do with the 2016 presidential race and the spectacle of Donald Trump's social media accounts. Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor at the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina, and a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, pointed out in a recent op-ed that Trump's success is actually "a symptom of the mass media's growing weakness, especially in controlling the limits of what it is acceptable to say." As a result, Trump's presence in the race has also disrupted the traditional audience dynamics by either attracting men or repelling women. Taking a closer look at social data could be helpful to brands and marketers thinking about social marketing strategies in the run-up to November's election. A study by social analytics firm, Captiv8, which analyzed each candidate's social media accounts, sheds light on why men are consuming more online content. Its co-founder, Krishna Subramanian explains: "Trump and Sen. Sanders each have a stronger male Instagram following at 62% and 63% male respectively…People find Trump's comments offensive, and males are more tolerant of the messaging he puts out there." It's clear that more men are interacting with political content. Corresponding with Trump's rise to the front of the GOP pack, there has been a significant shift in the ratio of male to female viewership, which has recently flipped to a substantially higher male skew around politically-themed or relevant content. The general rule is that my company's politically-oriented content is female – 60% female versus 40% male. Since October 2015, we've seen a significant shift in this segment, which first leveled out to an even 50-50 in January, then flipping on its skew with males now dominating with a 58% male versus 42% female viewership. Over half of these readers are between the ages of 25-44.
Authenticity Overtakes Aspirations In Online Video Ads
Females tend to rely more on word of mouth and social media for online digital video discovery, while males are more likely to turn to recommendations and search, at 69% vs. 29%, respectively, according to recent Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) data. This may explain why Google's YouTube April 2016 Ad Leaderboard seems to focus on authenticity vs. aspirations. The research study — the 2016 Original Digital Video Study — published by the IAB and produced by GfK surveyed more than 1,900 consumers. It shows regular viewers of original video programming grew to 63 million in 2016, up from 45 million in 2013. Across all viewing devices, today's viewers of original digital video prefer this type of content to all TV programming, even surpassing prime-time television for the first time. The IAB study also shows that a greater percentage of the overall original digital video audience tend to remember ads in original video today more than they did a year ago, 38% vs. 29%. Younger adults, ages 18 to 34 years old, are twice as likely as adults 35 and up to watch made-for-digital content, with males in the age group leading the way. Authentic themes continue to overtake authenticity in online video ads, a focus for winners highlighted in the April 2016 YouTube Ad Leaderboard, which ranks the most watched advertisements for the month. Despite the IAB's growth estimate numbers in original digital video programming, views of advertisements continue to fall since February on YouTube. In April, YouTube estimates 37.8 million views and 42.8 million minutes of watch time for the 10 ads on the Leaderboard. In March 2016, YouTube estimates 65.5 million views and 75.6 million minutes of watch time for the 10 ads on the Leaderboard. In February 2016, those numbers jumped to 136.4 million views and 80 million minutes of watch time for the 10 ads on the Leaderboard. The April 2016 YouTube Ad Leaderboard showcases humor and authenticity. Organic Valley highlights what a real women's morning looks like rather than using the metaphoric picture of a working woman waking in the morning to eat a healthy breakfast of organic fruit. Nike and Gatorade salute retiring sports stars Kobe Bryant and Peyton Manning. Notably, Apple also takes four spots on the Leaderboard this month. The one created by the agency TBWA\Media Arts Lab and media agency OMD focuses on Siri's capabilities with Apple TV to support voice search on television.
IAB Study Says Digital Video Is Now More Popular than Prime-time TV
Television programming is losing more of its audience to digital, according to a new study commissioned by the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The number of U.S. adults watching original video programs online at least once a month has grown to 63 million from 45 million in 2013 with users describing digital video as more "innovative," "memorable" and "fun," according to the study released today and conducted in partnership with Gfk. In the study, shows that count as original digital videos (ODV) vary, ranging from content produced by media companies to online-only companies like Funny or Die or YouTube Originals. People who watch videos not supported by ads like those on Netflix or Amazon were not included in IAB and Gfk's report. According to IAB, 26 percent of the U.S. adult population now watch original digital video. The study found that those who do watch online prefer it over prime-time, news, sports or daytime TV. Around 62 percent of those surveyed said they prefer original digital video over prime-time TV because it allows them to watch their shows on their own schedule. The study found that ads in original digital video also proved to be more memorable to viewers than they were a year ago, making them even with ads in the online television category. Those watching the news also were more likely to remember ads than they were in 2015. Median income for the audience also went up this year, rising 9 percent. And while mobile video has been all the rage at many Newfronts presentations this year, 68 percent of respondents said they still use laptops or desktops for viewing original video content online. Around 60 percent said they used smartphones, while 56 percent mentioned internet-connected TVs. Tablets or e-readers were mentioned by 43 percent of respondents.
Speaking In Media Tongues: Digital 'Views' Versus TV's 'Average Audience Per Minute'
You have to wonder why it took this long for traditional TV to take a shot at YouTube's recent claim that "YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S." YouTube also touted this during its NewFront presentation — and then some more. "I'm happy to announce that on mobile alone YouTube now reaches [emphasis added] more 18- to 49-year-olds than any network — broadcast or cable," said Susan Wojcicki, chief executive officer of YouTube. "In fact, we reach more 18- to 49-year-olds [in the U.S.] during prime time than the top 10 TV shows combined." One thing for sure: "reach" isn't "viewing" — specifically not "average minute audience viewing," a metric TV networks use to sell advertising. You know, how TV networks make money. Time Warner Cable Media, at its own upfront presentation, went further. Nielsen data, it said, shows that TV accounts for 95% of average video consumption (the average audience per minute), with PCs at 4%, and mobile smartphone video at 1%. Better still, Turner added, millennials do 88% of their video viewing on TV. We can think back to the glaring example of an NFL football game that ran this past season on Yahoo. Yahoo claimed 15.22 million unique viewers. But that was digital-media speak, not average minute audience. Measured that way, the audience was around 2.36 million — tiny next to the 19 million or so viewers that regularly watch broadcast network NFL games. The difference between digital and traditional TV continues to be one of languages — "views" or "unique viewers" versus "average minute audience." Digital views or unique viewers can be counted with little-to-no reference to time or duration Say what you will about traditional versus new measurement, but mixing these apples and oranges — right now anyway — doesn't make sense. They make a nice business fruit bowl. Just watch your upfront indigestion.
Consumers Value Ad-Supported Web At $100 Per Month
Americans assigned a value of nearly $1,200 per year to the free, ad-supported services and content they access via digital media and more than 85% said they preferred to keep the current model in place vs. paying for the same content and services directly. Those are the top line findings of a survey conducted online among 1,004 U.S. adults April 19 and 20 by Zogby Analytics for the Digital Advertising Alliance. Equally significant in the self-reported findings is the fact that three-quarters of the respondents said they would reduce the amount of time they spend online "a great deal" if they had to pay to access those content and services. Encouragingly, 80% of respondents said they found ads "useful," especially ones promoting movies and TV shows (43% of respondents citing), technology/devices (37%), clothing (36%), local restaurants (34%), groceries (33%), phone and Internet services (32%) and travel (30%).
NewsMax's Best of Late Night Jokes
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Yesterday, the State Department said that it can't find any emails belonging to Hillary Clinton's senior technology staffer from when Clinton was secretary of state. Then Hillary said (WIPES OFF HANDS), "You also won't find that staffer, either."
You know that streaming app you can use to publish video, Periscope? They're now testing out a feature that would let you save your broadcasts, instead of having them disappear after 24 hours. The feature's called "YouTube."
I read that JCPenney is trying to cut expenses by reducing employees' hours. When asked when the changes will go into effect, the company's CEO was just a mannequin in a suit. They're really cutting back over there.
New York's city council recently approved stores to charge 5 cents for plastic bags. So, soon New Yorkers can pay 5 cents for a plastic bag, or just walk outside and wait for one to blow into your face.
According to a new survey, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are tied in Florida. Hillary is winning with Jews and Hispanics, and Trump is winning with meth and bath-salt dealers.
In an upcoming interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly, Donald Trump tells her that although they've reconciled their feud, "this could happen again." Especially if Megyn Kelly continues to stubbornly insist on being a woman.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has been given a new title, "Chairman of the Workers' Party." This narrowly beat out his second choice, "Mother of Dragons."
Jimmy Kimmel Live
According to a new study, L.A. has the most or best road rage in the United States. We are number one road rage-wise. We have the unique ability to get blinded with fury on the way home from a yoga class here.
Here in California, we are in the middle of a very serious drought. Our governor imposed permanent water conservation rules and said this drought might not ever end. Well, not with that attitude, it won't.
Water is a precious resource in California. We need it for our bongs.
I'll tell you something, when Donald Trump is president, we won't have a problem with the drought because we'll all be drinking delicious Trump water. I'm told it's the best.
Late Night With Seth Meyers
School nurses across the country are blaming group selfies for the spread of head lice among middle and high school students. So finally a silver lining for kids who don't get asked to be in pictures.
Tickets for Desert Trip, the upcoming rock concert featuring Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Neil Young and Paul McCartney, went on sale yesterday and sold out in five hours. It would've sold out faster, but it took your dad four hours to figure out the website.
A new study suggests that a chemical released when a person is hungry can lead to poor decision-making. It's what Taco Bell calls "our entire business model."
Late Night With Stephen Colbert
Donald Trump said that Hillary was nasty and mean to the women who slept with her husband. Trump's wives did not treat his mistresses like that at all. They had the courtesy to let him marry them.
Donald Trump has been married three times. Attacking Hillary Clinton for having marital problems is like the pot calling the kettle black, or in Trump's case, calling the kettles "the blacks." By the way, the kettles love him.
Apparently, Facebook censored popular stories about conservative topics from appearing on the trending news section. Folks, I think this is wrong. If Facebook is going to censor things, why not get rid of the stuff people really don't want to see, like your ex's tropical honeymoon? Or invitations to coworkers' improv shows? "Mike, I'm glad you're getting out after the divorce, but I'm not going out at midnight on a Tuesday to see your improvised episode of 'Dawson's Creek.'"
This weekend, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne said that they're getting a divorce. Ozzy announced the separation by biting the head off their lawyer. It's sad news. They were married for 33 years, six of which Ozzy remembers.
Promo of the Day: KSL Amazing Recovery / WLWT DUI Test / KGW Homeless / Things 2 love about NC * Networks Divided on Trump 'Presumptive Nominee' Status * Cruz Calls Out Ailes, Murdoch for 24/7 Trump Support * Infographic: Who's Watching Political Ads, and Are They Finishing Them? * Ratings for White House Correspondents' Dinner Were No Joke * WHCD Afterparty Clash Involves Fox News, Huff Post Reporters * Nielsen: Total Social TV Measurement Relies On LinearEmotion, Family Key To Mother's Day Marketing * 4 Of 5 U.S. Shoppers Frustrated By Mobile Shopping * 'Take Your Kid To Work Day' Results In NPR Newscast Dead Air * Obama's 10 Most Biting Jokes at Annual Dinner * Larry Wilmore's 10 Best Lines
Promo of the Day: KSL Amazing Recovery / WLWT DUI Test / KGW Homeless / Things 2 love about NC
KSL Salt Lake City
A Mike Headrick story you won't want to miss. For the first time, we have video of something that very nearly took down a rescue helicopter in the canyon above Draper. See what happened, and find out how the pilot landed safely.
* Amazing Recovery
WLWT Cincinnati
* DUI Test
KGW Portland
* Homeless
* Triple rainbow on my first day at PayPal Charlotte!
One word. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. You've got to check this out. First day driving to PayPal, and I see this? Where's my leprechaun? I'm going to need one, because, thanks to HB2, this never happened. Learn more about the bill that caused PayPal to rethink adding 400 jobs to our state at http://www.stophb2.org, and share this nonexistent video.
* Epic trust fall (Deutsche Bank NC)
The Deutsche Bank company picnic is always an event not to be missed. This year's was no exception. The kickball match was hotly contested. The barbeque was chopped, shredded and divine. And the team-building exercises, well, never happened. Because of HB2, Deutsche Bank decided against adding 250 jobs in Cary.
* No. 1 seed falls in first round! (Raleigh, NC)
Over 30 years ago, the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams, and a 16 seed has finally toppled a giant. If you're looking for highlights of this shocker you won't find them here. The NCAA has threatened to pull tournament games from North Carolina if we don't overturn HB2.
Share your creative work with your promo peers on the602communications.com site. Just email the file or youtube link to firstname.lastname@example.com. Large files may be sent http://www.yousendit.com or you can mail your clip on DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.
Networks Divided on Trump 'Presumptive Nominee' Status
If you were looking for drama in the Republican race in Indiana, the networks took that off the table at 7 p.m. ET, declaring Donald Trump the winner as soon as all the polls were closed. The not-even-close Trump victory came after a charge by Ted Cruz, who used some of his harshest language to date in describing Trump to voters in Indiana, calling him a "pathological liar," a "serial philanderer" and saying "the man is utterly amoral." The loss, Dana Loesch said on Fox News, is going to force "the Republican Party…to do some soul-searching." Much of cable news coverage focused on what Cruz might tell supporters in his speech. CNN's Jake Tapper asked, "where does Ted Cruz go from here?" Would Cruz concede or quit the race? Cruz took the stage in Indianapolis before 8:30 p.m. ET, and as he spoke, networks carried banners citing sources that Cruz would drop out. "We are suspending our campaign," Cruz said as supporters shouted "no!" Immediately following Cruz's speech, CNN's Wolf Blitzer said "I think it's safe to say Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party." On Fox News, Bret Baier said "as of tonight, with Ted Cruz getting out of this race, Donald Trump will be the GOP nominee." But not everyone was ready to use the specific term "presumptive nominee":
Chuck Todd@chucktodd
At NBC we don't use the phrase "presumptive nominee" until that candidate hits the magic number or all but one drop out.
Rick Klein@rickklein
same standard applies for us at ABC. He's highly likely to be the nominee, but not the presumptive nominee.
Chuck Todd@chucktodd
For now, we will continue to refer to Clinton and Trump as "likely" nominees until either Sanders/Kasich drop or they hit 2383/1237
And then, there was John Kasich, who has vowed to stay in the race. Tapper noted Kasich still trails Marco Rubio in the delegate totals: "not to be mean, but John Kasich is still fourth in a three-man race."
Cruz Calls Out Ailes, Murdoch for 24/7 Trump Support
When Ted Cruz called out Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch this morning, claiming they've "turned Fox News into the Donald Trump network," FNC viewers didn't see it. But anyone watching CNN and MSNBC did. Cruz's news conference in Evansville, Indiana was carried on CNN and MSNBC but not Fox. "Network executives have made a decision to get behind Donald Trump," Cruz said. "Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes at Fox News have turned Fox News into the Donald Trump network, 24-7," he said. Blaming the media is a time-honored tradition among politicians. They're such easy targets. And they rarely fight back. But one did this morning. A Fox News spokesperson's response: "Senator Cruz is wrong." Meanwhile, on her blog, Greta Van Susteren explained that she and her team have "bent over backwards trying to give [Cruz] the opportunity for interviews. He elected not to – which is his right – but now he is crying boo-hoo and claiming we are unfair." "Almost every single day (including weekends) since at least last December when he last appeared on ON THE RECORD at 7p, the staff of ON THE RECORD at 7p has contacted the Cruz campaign offering Senator Ted Cruz live interviews, taped interviews or town halls. We even told his campaign on dozens occasions that they could pick the date and location for the town halls. He did not take us up on our offers. The staff claimed he was unavailable." Van Susteren has moderated a town hall with John Kasich and two with Trump for one simple reason: they said yes. Her first town hall in early April drew nearly 2.9 million viewers. Indiana has 4.6 million registered voters.
Infographic: Who's Watching Political Ads, and Are They Finishing Them?
As primary season reaches a fever pitch, campaigns want to get the best bang for their advertising buck. Digital ad company Conversant took a look at online video completion rates (VCR) along party lines, and delved even further into each candidate. "Granular viewership attributes are essential to political advertisers looking to maximize the impact of their ad spend, especially given the volatility of this year's campaign," said Conversant president Ric Elert. "These attributes can be used by advertisers to refine their video campaigns to ensure they are delivering coherent messaging against the most relevant and engaged audience. In addition to that approach, these attributes can also be used to influence the conversation. For example, a political group might want to run a campaign focused on specific content from the opposition." Check out the Infographic here.
Ratings for White House Correspondents' Dinner Were No Joke
The 2016 White House Correspondents' Dinner delivered impressive Saturday night numbers for CNN. The network's coverage, led by John Berman, ranked No. 1 in both total viewers and among adults 25-54 throughout the evening. CNN covered the event from 7 – 11:30 p.m. ET. Viewership peaked during the 10 p.m. hour, when President Obama delivered his final WHCD remarks with a follow-up set from entertainer Larry Wilmore. CNN averaged 3 million total viewers and 771,000 A25-54 for that hour. *Note: CNN televised the White House Correspondents' Dinner from 7 – 11:30 p.m. Fox News televised the event from 10 – 11:13 p.m. ET, and MSNBC televised the event from 9 – 11:09 p.m. ET. This does not include C-SPAN which also provided extensive coverage.
WHCD Afterparty Clash Involves Fox News, Huff Post Reporters
After a night of barbs and snark, two journalists clashed at the White House Correspondents' Dinner afterparty, reports The Washington Post. Fox News' Jesse Watters and Huffington Post Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim got into a heated exchange that included Grim attempting to "ambush" the O'Reilly Factor correspondent in a manner similar to the stories Watters often files for Bill O'Reilly. According to the WaPo account: Watters didn't take well to this, eventually snatching the phone away from Grim and putting it in his pocket. Grim set out to retrieve it, and a scuffle ensued. No cinematic sparring or broken beer bottles, witnesses said, but the two flailed around a bit, upending a table and bumping into several people. "Punches were definitely thrown," said one witness. The clash was short-lived, with journalists and RNC executive director Sean Spicer, a frequent cable news guest, stepping in. Watters has yet to comment, but Grim told the WaPo "ambush guy can't take getting ambushed. Maybe he should think about his life choices." Update: Watters will talk about it Monday night on O'Reilly Factor.
Nielsen: Total Social TV Measurement Relies On Linear
Everyone can pretty much agree that measuring how viewers are watching TV and tweeting about it can give us important insights. Just how it should be done is up for debate. A new Nielsen Study was released today that looks at the methodology behind live social television measurement. Here are some of the top level findings:
For social data to be reasonably acted upon, it needs to be collected in a trustworthy way, grounded in a sound methodology that reflects true consumer behavior.
Twitter activity would be significantly undercounted if linear terms, such as actors' names and handles, were not used for measurement during live TV.
These same linear terms would bring in a significant amount of irrelevant activity when programs are not airing live.
Emotion, Family Key To Mother's Day Marketing
Mother's Day email marketing should incorporate emotional language, according to a Persado and Yes Lifecycle Marketing study released Monday. Subject lines that evoke emotion have a 21.5% higher open rate than those that do not during the weeks leading up to Mother's Day, according to the report. Yes Lifecycle Marketing — a cross-channel marketing and data solutions provider — partnered with Persado, a machine-learning personalization solution, to analyze more than 118,000 emails sent from the Yesmail email marketing platform in the two weeks preceding Mother's Day in 2014 and 2015. The scope of the study crossed 12 industries, revealing that encouragement and curiosity were the highest-performing emotions, while creating a sense of security or urgency performed poorly. "In order to ensure they have a successful Mother's Day marketing effort, marketers can craft a few subject lines that speak to a variety of different emotions, starting with Encouragement and Curiosity and test their performance in order to identify the most effective one," writes Ivy Shtereva, director of marketing at Yesmail, on the company's blog. Context also plays a key role in Mother's Day email marketing, according to the Persado and Yesmail report. Email subject lines that begin with "Mother's Day" have a 16% higher email engagement rate than those that include the phrase later in the subject line. This difference actually increases on mobile devices, where smaller screens affect the readability of longer subject lines. Mobile open rates increased by 38% when a Mother's Day reference was included at the beginning of the subject line, compared to emails that included the holiday later. Marketers may also want to consider focusing their marketing efforts on a family activity — the top-ranking Mother's Day gift, according to an annual Mother's Day wish list study by cash-back shopping company Ebates.com. Sixty-three percent of American moms expressed an interest in spending quality time with their family, according to the Ebates study, while 33% want to receive flowers and 28% want chocolate. The National Retail Federation also included a question about "gifts of experience" for the first time in its annual Mother's Day study, including concert tickets and sporting events. Nearly a quarter of the 7,000 consumers polled expressed that they wanted to receive such a gift, and 22.3% responded that they plan to gift an experience this year for Mother's Day.
4 Of 5 U.S. Shoppers Frustrated By Mobile Shopping
Forrester has just released its latest forecast for online shopping, predicting that online retail sales in the U.S. will soar to $500 billion in 2020, compared to $373 billion in 2016. But it also reports that mobile devices are more challenging than helpful, with 78% of people reporting that they've been vexed shopping from their phones, usually because of small screens or slow downloads. While some of those gains are due to a stronger economic outlook, it's clear retailers' omnichannel efforts are paying off, whether it's ship-from-store, in-store pickup or simply providing an endless aisle. Even as many still struggle to get the basics right, "we hear from merchants that these services improve customer satisfaction and directly facilitate faster delivery of products to shoppers," writes analyst Sucharita Mulpuru, the author of the report. And some $1.5 trillion of total U.S. sales are somehow web-influenced. Mobile shopping is still troublesome, with people struggling to actually click "buy now" on their devices. "The form factor means that direct conversion rates are low, and consumers just don't find it easy to buy most items on small phones," she says. Amazon, meanwhile, continues to become even more Amazonian, with Forrester estimating it got $23 billion more in 2015 in the U.S., roughly 60% of the growth. To compete with retail's 800-pound gorilla, retailers are going to have to find ways to win with go beyond price. "The economics of retail are challenging and destined to remain low-margin for the foreseeable future," she says. "The future death knell for a retailer will be dependence on broadly available mass-market commodities as firms like Amazon and other pure plays win all price wars." Developing private-label offerings (as Amazon is doing) is one approach. But "even better, they should secure unique access to categories or products that can serve as levers that enable some flexibility in pricing."
'Take Your Kid To Work Day' Results In NPR Newscast Dead Air
"Take your child to work day" is a wonderful day at the office for everyone not responsible for a small child. For everyone else tasked with child tours, kid-friendly presentations or cleanup duty, it is the most stressful holiday of the calendar year. Case in point: the minute of dead air that happened on NPR's morning newscast today. According to Gawker, a few calculated movements of an anonymous child's fingers somehow caused a broadcast of Morning Edition to go silent at 11:04 am for some west coast listeners. A few fun seconds of playing on a control panel for a child; a minute of pure terror for the employee responsible. NPR employee Gene Demby tweeted about the short outage:
Gene Demby@GeeDee215 Apr 28
a room full of grade schoolers meets a room full of buttons to push.
In an email sent to staffers, obtained by Gawker, an entertained and apologetic head of engineering at NPR explained what caused the dead air:
"This error was caused by the head of Engineering Department.
As part of Take our Daughters to work day studio 42 demonstration. One of our junior journalists was some how able to press the exact sequence, and perfectly timed live insert panel to insert studio 42 into the stream 1. I kid you not. Although labor laws prevent me from actually hiring the kid (cause he does have a future-but I gave him my card) This resulted in studio 42 being inserted into the stream, causing a lengthy impairment.
This outage is totally and completely my fault. Besides the justifiable public shaming I rightly deserve for the next decade-my lack of oversite caused the outage. Feel free to giggle at will. Thank you to the MOPS crew for getting us back on track, and triggering rapid notification,"
For the record, all that happened at Mashable's "Take your child or dog to work day" was a few tense moments between a Golden Retriever and a Bichon Frise.
Obama's 10 Most Biting Jokes at Annual Dinner
It was President Obama's final turn at the mic Saturday night in what was his last White House Correspondents' Dinner, and the jokes were rolling. Ten standouts from the president, who spoke to a crowd that included a slew of politicians and plenty of Hollywood's finest: Bryan Cranston, Carrie Fisher, Morgan Freeman, Will Smith, Jared Leto, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, and more. The best lines, as reported by Politico and NBC News:
"It's an honor to be at my last, and perhaps the last correspondents' dinner. You all look great; the end of the Republic has never looked better."
"I know I was a little late tonight. I was running on CPT—which stands for jokes that white people should not make."
"Bernie, you look like a million bucks. Or to put it in terms you understand, you look like 37,000 donations of $27 each."
"Last week Prince George showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe. That was a slap in the face."
"Guests were asked if they wanted steak or fish, and a whole bunch of you wrote in Paul Ryan."
Ted Cruz "went to Hoosier country, called the hoop a basketball ring. What else is in his lexicon? Baseball sticks? Football hats? But sure, I'm the foreign one."
"In my final year my approval ratings keep going up. The last time I was this high, I was trying to decide on my major."
Winding down his speech, thus far free of Donald Trump references: "Well let me conclude tonight on a more serious note. I want to thank the Washington press corps. The free press is central to our democracy and … nah! I'm just kidding! You know I'm gonna talk about Trump! Come on!."
"Is this dinner too tacky for The Donald? What could he possibly be doing instead? Is he at home, eating a Trump steak, tweeting out insults to Angela Merkel?"
"There's one area where Donald's experience could be invaluable, and that's closing Guantanamo. Because Trump knows a thing or two about running waterfront properties into the ground."
The evening's professional entertainer, Larry Wilmore, was said to "underwhelm."
Larry Wilmore's 10 Best Lines
Comedian and "The Nightly Show" anchor Larry Wilmore hosted President Barack Obama's final White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday, delivering sharp barbs on everything from race to Republican candidates to the mainstream media itself. Here's a look at his most memorable lines:
On drones
"I saw you hanging out with NBA players like Steph Curry from the Golden State Warriors. It kinda makes sense, because both of you like raining down bombs on people from long distances."
On the first lady
"After eight years in the White house, Mr. President, we're really going to miss Michelle."
On the President's graying hair
"And let me just say, Mr. President, the office has taken its toll on you. You look terrible, Mr. President. Your hair is so white, it tried to punch me at a (Donald) Trump rally. The President's hair is so white it keeps saying 'All lives matter.'"
On being the first black president
"I don't know when we'll get a black president again. They won't even let Morgan Freeman play president in movies."
On Ted Cruz's likability
"Everybody hates Ted Cruz. Even OJ Simpson said, 'That guy's just hard to like."
On MSNBC
"Trump's family is always gushing over him. Or as it's called, 'Morning Joe.'"
On throwing 'shade'
"No shade, but Fox is the highest rated network among young people who don't know what shade is."
On Bernie Sanders
"The senator recently had a hernia operation. His doctor said it's his own fault for trying to lift the hopes of the disenfranchised."
On C-SPAN
"C-SPAN is carrying this dinner live, which is ironic, because most of their viewers aren't. C-SPAN is the number one network among people dying watching TV and no one finds them."
On the Panama Papers
"But I am impressed with the people in this room. There are so many rich, powerful people in this room. It's nice to finally match the faces to the names in the Panama Papers."
Promo of the Day: Local 5 – Power Outage POP / KTVU Morning Rhythm / Earth Porn
Submitted by Shawn Connelly, CSD/Promotions Director at WFRV-TV Local 5, the Nexstar station in Green Bay, WI:
"Last week, our news department, under the leadership of Kevin Osgood, performed a unique severe weather preparedness drill in which we cut power to our station during our noon broadcast. Afterwards, my promotions team and I cut together this POP to tell the story.
The most exciting thing about this whole experience is the feedback we got on social media. Not only were we broadcasting when we flipped the kill switch, but we were also streaming the event on Facebook live, another incredible tool for sharing with viewers during a severe weather event. We can broadcast over the airwaves all day, but if the viewer doesn't have power, a charged cellphone may be their best way of getting lifesaving information."
* Local 5 – Power Outage POP: 30
KTVU Fox 2 San Francisco
* KTVU FOX 2 – Morning Rhythm Image Promo
It's time to love Mother Earth a little harder. Stock film company Framepool, with help from ad agency McKinney, has produced the sexiest of natural landscape videos for Earth Day today—featuring hard rocks, soaking wet water, lots of wood, and a '70s porn soundtrack by Beacon Street. "Earth Porn" ends the way you'd expect, with an eruption. But it also has a sexy message about conservation that ties into Framepool's business.
* Framepool – Earth Porn
Share your creative work with your promo peers on the602communications.com site. Just email the file or youtube link to email@example.com. Large files may be sent http://www.yousendit.com or you can mail your clip on DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.
TV Dominates Digital Media In Average Minute Viewing, Usage
Looking to resolve differences in the "currency" of digital media and traditional TV media, the Video Advertising Bureau, a TV advertising trade group, says TV still dominates over digital in the key "average-minute" media metric. The VAB says analyzing "average audience per minute" viewing/media usage for all media — for traditional TV and digital media (video and other media usage) — TV accounts for 95% of video consumption for all adults, and 88% for Millennials. This research comes from Nielsen Comparable Metrics Report for the third quarter of 2015. The average audience of multiscreen TV brands (traditional TV and online TV) gets 71% of the total day adults 18 and older audience — 30.1 million. Facebook took in 10% (4.4 million) followed by Pandora at 5% (2.1 million) and YouTube at 5% (2.1 million) and Google with 2% (930,000). The VAB sources comScore MediaMetrix and Nielsen Program Report for December 2015. It analyzed Nielsen total day TV usage, live-plus-same day program viewing and comScore's digital Web site measurement for all visitor activity, including video consumption. Media analysts have complained that it can be difficult to compare digital video viewing with traditional TV viewing. TV viewing is typically analyzed by "average minute audience," while digital video viewing is typically measured in "views," which can be any duration.
CNN Claims 'Cross-Media' Audience of 174 Million
CNN may not dominate cable news the way longtime leader Fox News Channel does, but the network claims a "cross-media" audience of 174 million–more than half the U.S. population. According to research by CNN and comScore, CNN's digital presence essentially extends its TV reach by nearly 50 percent. The research comes from Xmedia, described as the first-ever syndicated product to measure a "total, unduplicated view of audience across television, desktop and mobile properties" in a single metric. CNN is an Xmedia launch partner in a deal announced Wednesday morning between CNN and comScore. "As the global multiplatform leader in news, it's a priority to continuously innovate our measurement capabilities to keep pace with our consumer and meet the business objectives of our advertising partners across all platforms and screens," said CNN senior vice president of research and scheduling Robin Garfield in a statement. "The Xmedia product is a vital tool to analyze our total unduplicated, overlapping and incremental audiences across platforms, as well as fulfill the demand in the marketplace to plan, execute and optimize targeted campaigns against our entire cross-media audience." In the case of presidential debates, the Xmedia research found audiences across media extended CNN's reach by at least 40 percent, and up to nearly 70 percent. "This study of CNN's cross-media audience is a great example of how a media brand with a strong footprint on TV, desktop and mobile can demonstrate its full value proposition to advertisers, while at the same time getting a better understanding of how its own viewers engage across different media touchpoint," said comScore co-founder Gian Fulgoni.
CBSN Wins Webby for Best News & Information Channel
CBSN, the digital streaming news service from CBS News, has won the Webby Award for best news and information channel in the online film and video category. The awards, presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, focus on excellence on the internet. Other winners included The Onion, Vice, and HBO. The Webbys will be handed out next month in New York. CBSN, which launched in 2014, reached a record 48.6 million streams in the first quarter of 2016.
Fareed Zakaria Explores Why Terrorists Hate Us
"Why do they hate us?" This is a question that has often been asked since the September 11th attacks almost 15 years ago, and it's a question being asked once again in light of the recent terror attacks in Boston, Brussels, Beirut, Paris, Mumbai, Fort Hood, and San Bernardino. CNN host Fareed Zakaria wrote about terrorism and rage in an October 2001 cover story for Newsweek, and he picks up where he left off in his new hour-long special Why They Hate Us, which premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET on CNN and CNN International. "Every time we hear of another terror attack, we wonder what motivates these people," Zakaria tells TVNewser. "I tried to answer these questions looking at religion history and politics." Zakaria challenges intelligence experts, religious scholars, policy influencers and violent jihadis – and manages to get rarely heard answers. "Since in some ways this is the central security question facing America, fundamental to even understanding some of the challenges facing the U.S. troops now heading to Syria to fight ISIS, I hope people watch," Zakaria says. During the broadcast, producers of Why They Hate Us will interact with viewers via Twitter, using the hashtag #WhyTheyHateUs with user questions and comments about the special.
U.S. Ranks 41st In Press Freedom Index Thanks To 'War On Whistleblowers'
The U.S. is ranked 41 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index, which measures the "level of freedom of information in 180 countries." According to the organization, the U.S. moved from 49 in 2015 to 41 this year, though it warned that the "relative improvement by comparison hides overall negative trends." Citing the U.S. government's "war on whistleblowers who leak information about its surveillance activities, spying and foreign operations, especially those linked to counter-terrorism," and the country's lack of a "shield law" that would allow journalists to protect confidential sources, the report takes a decidedly negative view of U.S. press freedom. Some of the policies condemned in the report come from President Obama's administration, as NPR's Sam Sanders has reported: "[Obama's] Justice Department has cracked down on reporters in an effort to prevent leaks; it also set a new record for withholding access to government files under the Freedom of Information Act (despite calling for a "new era of openness" on his first day in office); and photojournalists in 2013 from several major news organizations chastised the Obama administration for denying their 'right to photograph or videotape the President while he is performing his official duties,' instead relying on official photos shot by White House photographers." The Reporters Without Borders index also points to the 2016 presidential race and #BlackLivesMatter protests as places where press freedom has been trampled: "Since the primaries began last summer, journalists have seen their access to campaign events regularly restricted by candidates from both political parties and have been insulted and even bullied on social media. [Reporters Without Borders] is also still troubled by the arrest of journalists during #Blacklivesmatter protests in Baltimore and Minneapolis." The countries of Finland, Netherlands, Norway and Denmark are ranked in the top four spots, while Syria, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea are in the last four places. Countries ahead of the U.S. in the rankings include Canada (18), Ghana (26), Chile (31) and the U.K. (38). The U.S. is ranked higher than France (45) and Italy (77).
SNL Will Reduce Its Ad Load in Favor of Sponsored Content
After 41 years, NBC's venerable Saturday Night Live will get a major shake-up when it returns next fall, and we're not talking about the cast. NBC said today that it would reduce the ad load for the show's 42nd season by about 30 percent, essentially axing two commercial pods per 90-minute episode. "As the decades have gone by, commercial time has grown," said Lorne Michaels, creator and executive producer. "This will give time back to the show and make it easier to watch the show live." SNL is averaging about 6 million viewers this season, but gets a boost via time-shifted viewing. Original episodes this season have grown by 50 percent in Live Plus 7-day viewing, averaging about 8.6 million. But today's announcement is about keeping more live viewers by showing fewer ads. This also continues the trend of TV networks cutting ad loads and finding more native ways for advertisers to get their message out. NBC said that some of the extra time on SNL will be used for sponsored content, likely filling the rest with pretaped segments, since the show's set designers need commercial breaks to set up the next sketch. SNL produces a two-hour dress rehearsal a few hours before the live show; Michaels then cuts about 30 minutes worth of content, so NBC will have extra sketches available. NBC has been making these "Cut for Time" sketches available on its digital platforms. It's not known yet whether the not-ready-for-prime-time players will take part in the sponsored content. But, luckily for advertisers, the show's writers and cast members have produced some of the most enduring commercial content over the years. Who can forget Bass-O-Matic, Mom Jeans, Happy Fun Ball, and these.
Turner's New Launchpad Tool Is All About Emotion
Canvs, a emotional analysis platform, announced a partnership with Turner this week to help power the media company's new Launchpad tool. Launchpad will allow Turner to create social content with Canvs' real-time analytics and data visualizations that will inform the distribution of the content. Using Canvs' data will help identity similar users, what they're into and talk about, and then create content to engage them authentically. The tool will help Turner gauge the effectiveness of their social campaigns, among other things. Frank Kavilanz, vice president of social for Turner Ignite said in a statement that emotional insights are helping them connect with audiences. "By aligning with Canvs, we gain deeper understanding of the moments that trigger emotional reaction," he said. It's actually just simple digital math — when people are more emotionally involved with something, they're more inclined to share it. It really is as simple as that. How Canvs digs into emotions is a little more complicated. Turner's Launchpad will use Canvs' proprietary qualitative analytics platform, Emotional Reactions, which can reveal sentiment around specific characters, plotlines, and big moments during a broadcast or series. They map up to 56 unique emotion categories like "love," "funny," "annoying," "beautiful," "exciting" and more. Jared Feldman, founder and CEO of Canvs said that the insights bring extra value to Turner's own campaigns and their advertises."Leveraging real-time Emotional Reactions will help Turner's brand partners identify and market to groups of like-minded fans when they're still emotionally-charged and rallied around a particular topic or piece of content," he said. Turner's already launched over a dozen Launchpad campaigns so far, including ones around Doom and Conan.
Nielsen Study: 81% of Twitter Activity Irrelevant to Linear Programming
Everyone can pretty much agree that measuring how viewers are watching TV and tweeting about it can give us important insights. Just how it should be done is up for debate. A new Nielsen Study was released today that looks at the methodology behind live television measurement. Here are some of the top level findings:
One of the most interesting findings is that measurement for linear programming and then for programs after they air, need to be different. Nielsen writes, "outside of the live airing, 81 percent of Twitter TV activity measured using these same linear terms was not relevant to the aired program." Viewers are reacting emotionally to both, but there are intricacies that are different when it comes to reaching them using their Twitter TV activity. You can read the full study over at Nielsen Insights.
New From Youtube, An Ad You Can't Skip
Ad blocking has gotten a lot of attention lately as it becomes a growing trend among web users. They are trying to find ways to avoid seeing, watching or experiencing advertisements, which puts websites in a difficult position. Those ads often bankroll the very content people want to see, and so websites are trying to figure out ways to make their ads unavoidable. YouTube has come up with one idea. Starting next month, the digital video giant will add short, unskippable advertisements ahead of some content. These ads won't take the place of the traditional preroll ads, which you can skip after five seconds. But they will be a bit different, with a full message contained in a shorter pod. YouTube is calling these new ads bumpers, and they're designed largely for mobile users. Most of the ads will pop up on video being watched on mobile devices. YouTube says that tests of the new format lifted recall and awareness of a product. Its research also suggests that these ads can work as part of a serialized campaign, with new chapters being shown regularly. It's all part of the online industry's push for ads that cannot be blocked or ignored, a trend that will only grow as ad blockers become more common.
Infographic: How Women Want to Interact with Brands Online
According to a new study conducted for Adweek by product review and discovery platform Influenster, brands need to move even further toward mobile if they want to make meaningful connections with women. "Digital consumption, especially of visual content, is happening at such a rapid pace on handheld devices marketers should push mobile optimization to the top of their checklists and not allow it to come as an afterthought," said Influenster president and co-founder Elizabeth Scherle. She added that even though videos and GIFs are in fashion, women still prefer social posts that involve photos. Check out the Infographic here.
Conan Tweets
Yes I own a pair of leather pants, but they're khaki-colored.
Is that a banana in your pants, or is it a different penis-shaped fruit?
I'm not a gambling man, but I'd wager $100 at 5 to 1 odds that I will be one day.
I always thought DWTS stood for Dancing With T.S. Eliot.
Ted Cruz is just a normal guy with hand sanitizer running through his veins just like everyone else.
KFC is undergoing a $185 million upgrade of its restaurants. Or, they could just pay a kid $25 to paint over the "white plantation owner."
It's only gotten more and more awkward in recent weeks that "Bernie" and "Hillary" are what I've named my testicles.
Just heard Charlize Theron will play the villain in "Fast & Furious 8." This is the fifth role I've lost to her since "Monster."
Wow, time flies. It's hard to believe that there are only 15343474788 more baseball games to go in the regular season!
Every generation just wants their kids to have a better "Spiderman" reboot than they did.
This morning, someone recognized me on the street and said, "I'm a huge fan of your effort."
There is a new exercise called "Rage Yoga" that encourages people to swear in between poses. Or as I call that, "yoga."
I like my coffee the way I like my jokes about the way I like my coffee. I don't drink coffee.
Not only have I already purchased a gravesite, I visit it often and whisper, "Soon, soon shall I sleep."
"Haiku Haiku Hai / Ku Haiku Haiku Haiku / Haiku Haiku Hai."
I just tried out Uber's new feature where you can check your "passenger rating" and it turns out I'm "doable."
Every time I see a newborn, I'm reminded of how rare and beautiful it is to look into the face of someone who's never heard of Trump.
What does it mean when your urine is pitch black and smells like midnight?
Is it possible for a grown man to be body shamed by his own mirror?
This morning, I "broke the internet" (accidentally unplugged my router).
When it comes right down to it, aren't we all fighting Superman?
A terrible movie would be Batman vs Superdelegate.
Am I the only one who refers to licking an envelope as envilingus?
If you're a classic rock fan, and an insufferable snob, your favorite band is The Whom.
This is my favorite time of year! (I don't know when my staff will post this tweet, I just wanted to sound relatable.)
A lot of people want Ted Cruz to win, but are we ready for a President that's a melting candle?
I'm having a hard time convincing my kids that Trump and Cosby used to be funny.
ME: Is that a social media app or a rave drug?
INTERN: You are old, sir.
I rarely get asked to autograph a breast, so thank you Dave Chelton of Omaha Nebraska.
I only recently found out that lightning is God trying to kill spiders.
I hate to be an Irish literary nerd but the only adult film I've ever seen is "Dubliners, Double-Teamed," starring the amazing Joyce James.
I know God doesn't make mistakes, but I think even He would agree grapefruit was a misfire.
Million dollar idea: maternity clothes, but for beer bellies.
You can't judge a book by its cover, unless the title of the book is "THIS BOOK IS GUILTY OF MURDER!"
It's a small comfort, but with only 8 justices on the Supreme Court, no one has to rotate out in beach volley ball.
Sorry you didn't win Best Picture, "Mad Max: Fury Road," but if Trump wins the election, you can re-submit for "Best Documentary."
Between Oscar Fever and March Madness, my imaginary doctor bills are soaring.
I will vote for whichever president outlaws visors.
I was very flattered to hear Chris Rock is preparing for his Oscar gig by studying photo negatives from the night I hosted the BET Awards.
If I owned a sneaker store I would totally have a March Madness Arch Sadness Sale.
Just searched "blasé otters" on Giphy so I could show you how my kids react every night when I come home from work.
A wise man once told me, "I am not a wise man just because my name's Glenn Wiseman".
I respect Apple's stance against the FBI, both for protecting our right to privacy, and for not telling them my phone's pass code is 7394.
Promo of the Day: abc7-Blue Mic / KGW News- We're on It / Mondo Promo CBS 2 News
Christopher Dutton, abc7 Eyewitness News
This is a spot driven mainly by the music. It's got a righteous feel with the gospel-like choir. The text treatment is meant to be bold and almost activist in style. The blue color treatment is common in some of our other proof spots.
* Blue Mic Proof of Brand
This spot represents an evolution in our Blue Mic campaign. It's an attempt to explain to our viewers how the Blue Mic symbolizes your voice. It's why the mic appears in different spots throughout Southern California.
* Blue Mic Marc & Michell
KGW Portland Image Promo
* KGW News-We're On It
CBS 2 News
* Mondo Promo – Expect More CBS 2 News
Share your creative work with your promo peers on the602communications.com site. Just email the file or youtube link to email@example.com. Large files may be sent http://www.yousendit.com or you can mail your clip on DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.
How Cable News Covers the Democratic Candidates
A study of cable news coverage of the 2016 campaign by the politically conservative Media Research Center finds wide disparity in how the cable networks are covering the Democratic candidates. "On CNN and MSNBC, the Democrats were much more visible–and, unlike the top two Republican candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders's campaigns received nearly equal airtime, with Sanders and his surrogates garnering 263 minutes of airtime, vs. Team Clinton's 248 minutes." MRC–which previously found Donald Trump and his surrogates far outpaced the other Republicans in terms of cable news coverage–logged prime time interviews of the candidates and surrogates over a four week period (March 21 through April 15, weekdays only) and crunched the numbers: During the four week period, neither Clinton nor Sanders gave interviews to any of Fox News Channel's prime time programs, with surrogates appearing for a total of just 13 minutes. The network has tried with limited success to convince the Democrats to agree to Fox News interviews. The network's one Democratic town hall–on Special Report with Bret Baier, in March–fell outside the four-week period of the study. The Democrats were far more visible on CNN and MSNBC, with a total of 263 minutes for Sanders and surrogates, and 248 minutes for Clinton and surrogates. The break between campaigns was fairly even on CNN, but MSNBC–the only network to cover Democrats more than Republicans–gave the edge to Sanders. (The CNN Democratic debate was not included in the study's minute counts)
AP Wins Pulitzer for 'Seafood from Slaves'
It took 18 months and an incredibly detailed amount of work, tracking shipments and deliveries and interviewing people who had a lot to lose if their cooperation was uncovered. But in the end the Associated Press story about the use of slave labor in shrimp processing had an enormous impact. The series was titled. appropriately, "Seafood from Slaves." Some 2,000 unpaid laborers were freed, and Americans gained new awareness of how their appetite for seafood can impact the world labor market. The AP has also won a Pulitzer Prize for the story, it learned on Monday. The Pulitzers, handed out by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, honored the AP with the public service award for its investigation. There were few multiple winners. The Boston Globe was recognized for commentary, for Farah Stockman, and feature photography, for Jessica Rinaldi. The Tampa Bay Times also collected two, for investigative and local reporting, sharing the former with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Several prizes went to papers covering issues that resonated nationally. The Los Angeles Times won for reporting on the San Bernadino shootings late last year. And The Washington Post won the national reporting prize for a database on police shootings. Here's the list of journalism winners.
PBS NewsHour Wins Peabody
PBS NewsHour has been named a Peabody Award winner, in the first round of winners–news, radio/podcast, web and public service–announced today. Desperate Journey, a series on refugees fleeing Syria and other war zones in the Middle East, was selected by the judges for capturing "the life and breadth of the worst displaced person crisis since World War II: the initial, inspirational hospitality of European hosts, the eventual resistance as the waves of humanity became overwhelming, and the hopes and horrors experienced by the refugees themselves." HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel was also a winner, for its report The Killing Fields, which focused on the billion-dollar ivory trade and the slaughter of elephants. More Peabody winners will be announced over the next week.
Regional Murrow Award Winners Announced
The Radio Television Digital News Association today unveiled the winners of the 2016 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, honoring electronic journalism by TV, radio and online news organizations. In the large market television category, KING-TV in Seattle led the way with nine Murrows this year. Among other categories, the station took home awards in Overall Excellence, Feature Reporting and Investigative Reporting. WISC-TV in Madison, Wis., claimed eight Murrows, the most in the small market television category. This included wins in the Overall Excellence, Investigative Reporting and Newscast categories. Please click here to read the full announcement from the RTDNA, with a link to the complete list of regional award winners.
Bloomberg Media CEO: 'TV Bucked Industry Trends,' Up 27%
Just days after the announcement star anchor Stephanie Ruhle would leave the network for MSNBC, Bloomberg Media chief executive Justin Smith told employees the future looks bright. "We just received the results for our first quarter revenue performance, and I'm happy to report it was a strong one," Smith writes in a memo to Bloomberg staff Thursday. "Total revenue is up more than 8% across Media, with year-over-year gains from our Global Ad Sales and Bloomberg Content Service teams. In digital ad sales specifically, our team increased revenue by 21% vs. last year on top of a sizeable baseline. US TV bucked industry trends by growing more than 27%." Bloomberg in April announced a television partnership deal to expand into India, working with a company founded by an Indian entrepreneur, Raghav Bahl, who helped bring CNBC to India. "Our global expansion also continues across all platforms," said Smith. Competitive pressure at home from CNBC and particularly Fox Business Network (which ended 2015 as the fastest-growing cable network) remains intense. Smith said growth in such an "increasingly difficult media environment" was projected to continue in the second quarter.
Study: People Would Pay to Block Ads
Paywalls have gotten a mixed reaction among web surfers, many of whom say they don't want to pay for content. But phrase it a different way, and people may be willing to pay. Ask them if they'd pay in order to avoid ads, and a surprisingly large number say they're game. That's according to a recent study from Accenture, a professional services company, which asked more than 28,000 respondents across if they'd be willing to pay to eliminate ads from their internet browsing experience. Forty-two percent said they would. Further, the majority of people are aware that ad blockers exist, even if they are not using them. The survey found that 61 percent know about ad-block options. A greater percentage of young people, those ages 18-24, know about them, at 69 percent. Sixty-six percent of 25-34s are aware. This is troubling, for sure, for both publishers and advertisers, who have been frustrated by the recent boom in ad blocking options and adoption of that technology. Interestingly, awareness of ad blockers is highest in Mexico, at 82 percent, and in the Latin American region generally, at 78 percent. The study found that people in emerging markets are more apt to know about ad blockers than those in mature markets, and they're also more likely to say they plan to pay to kill ads, at 47 percent to 34 percent in mature markets. Accenture concludes that the best way to ensure people don't use ad blockers is to serve up ads that are more entertaining, engaging and relevant, to keep people interested and stock them from growing annoyed.
Study: Many TV Viewers Eschew Mobile
Many people are multitasking on a mobile device while they watch television, but their tendency to do so might depend on what they're watching. For drama programs especially, people are less likely to pull screen double time. That's according to a study from the University of West England, which looked at viewing habits to measure how interested viewers are in interacting with a second screen while the TV is on. Researchers were surprised at what they found. Viewers weren't as interested in using social media or TV show companion apps as they predicted, and second screens were often ignored entirely when it came to drama programs, such as "The Walking Dead." On the flip side, viewers were more likely to use their second screens if they were watching quiz or game shows or reality TV. Media and cultural studies professor Sherryl Wilson, who worked on the report, told the science and research site Phys.org that the TV industry has a lack of understanding when it comes to audience behavior and second screen use. "In our study, if a participant was watching 'The Walking Dead 'or a drama they were immersed in, they would switch off their screens because they don't want to be distracted by them," Wilson said. "This wasn't something we were expecting."
Second Screens Theory a Myth: Viewers Only Tweet During Boring TV Shows, Researchers Find
A study of viewing habits was conducted to measure audience appetite for interacting with "second screens" – smart phones or tablet computers – while watching TV shows. Participants in the study snubbed their second screens entirely if engrossed in shows such as American horror series The Walking Dead, only reaching for their mobile devices when viewing quiz shows and reality TV programs. "The industry is living in great expectation rather than looking at what the reality is." The research, carried out at the Bristol-based University of the West of England, found that viewers who said they had previously used "second screens" were often not interested in engaging with social media or TV show companion apps, particularly when enjoying their favorite drama programs. Dr Sherryl Wilson, a media and cultural studies lecturer, said her findings cast doubt on the technology industry's belief that viewers were increasingly eager to enrich their viewing experience by interacting with mobile devices. "There is lots of industry excitement about the use of second screens alongside TV programs and lots of innovation happening," she said. "Broadcasters and program makers see second screens as a way of capturing an increasingly difficult-to-get-hold-of commodity – attention, and monetizing it. But the industry is living in great expectation rather than looking at what the reality is. "In our study, if a participant was watching The Walking Dead or a drama they were immersed in, they would switch off their screens because they don't want to be distracted by them. "This wasn't something we were expecting. They were most likely to go to a second screen when watching shows that are already quite social, like quiz shows, game shows and reality TV shows. "There are some amazing apps out there, including one for The Walking Dead in which you can guess the number of zombies that have been killed, but the sample in my study were not interested in things like that."
There has been a rise in the number of people using mobile devices while watching television in recent years, with a growing percentage of comments or posts on social networks being made about content as it is being viewed. The phenomenon has seen the audience engaging in multiple ways including polling, chatting and accessing background information about shows being broadcast. A recent report from Accenture suggested 87% of people now use a second screen while watching TV.
Dr Wilson believes the findings revealed a "complete lack" of understanding from technology companies about audience viewing behavior. "There is a long history of qualitative audience research about television viewing, focusing on how people interact with what's on and what debates the shows trigger," she said. "The industry is living in great expectation rather than looking at what the reality is" "What I found coheres with what previous researchers have found – not what the industry says is happening. There are claims by technology companies and start-ups that social media is making TV social again, like it never was social or has stopped being social. "Industry doesn't understand TV audiences – it makes assumptions about them. It thinks TV is laid back and passive, and that new media and digital technology is leaning forward and active. "But this isn't true because there is no single way of watching television. The industry doesn't recognize the different ways of watching television and the pleasures that come from them." Dr Wilson's research, called In the Living Room: Second Screens and TV Audiences, has been published in the journal Television and New Media.
Entertainment, Music Apps Enjoy 'Explosive' Revenue Growth
Entertainment and music apps experienced "explosive" revenue growth over the past year, according to the latest report from App Annie. This was largely due to the success of subscription revenue models catering to consumer demand for streaming services, the analytics firm finds. Within Entertainment, video streaming apps comprise the bulk of this mammoth growth in global revenue. In particular, Netflix reached the top spot worldwide for video streaming apps on iOS after introducing in-app subscriptions, late last year. Revenue growth among the top five video streaming apps is mostly attributed to the United States and China. In fact, two of the top five video streaming apps by worldwide iOS revenue — HBO Now and Hulu — are still only available in the U.S. marketplace. Conversely, revenue for iQIYI and Tencent Video — which round out the top five — is driven almost entirely by the Chinese consumer base. Despite these heavyweight countries, video streaming transcends international boundaries, with global demand ripe for the picking. This is evidenced by 34% of Netflix's revenue coming from outside the United States at the close of 2015, and the rise of local players in regional markets, which is the case for video streaming services like Tuluntulu in Africa. App Annie also reports music streaming apps experienced strong worldwide year-over-year growth in top app stores in the first quarter of 2016. China has surpassed Japan and is the second-biggest generator of app-related revenue. China's quarterly iOS revenue grew more than 200% from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016. The revenue growth was driven almost entirely by games. China continued to see strong downloads after surpassing the United States in the first quarter of 2015 to become the largest market for iOS downloads. In surpassing Japan, China narrowed in on the United States, which is still currently ranked first in iOS game revenue. If China's iOS game revenue continues to grow at these rates, it is set to pass the U.S. in the coming quarters, App Annie predicts . Yet the U.S. still maintains a sizable 30% lead on China for total iOS App Store revenue due to the growth in monetization of non-gaming apps in the country. Going forward, the stage is set for substantial revenue growth in competitive mobile gaming events, also known as eSports, App Annie predicts.
Director Ang Lee Electrifies Viewers with 3D Experience
An 11-minute sequence from the Ang Lee's new movie, "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" has electrified viewers, "leaving even experienced pros grasping for superlatives to convey what they had seen. Their praise wasn't reserved for the technology, but for the film itself as well," reports Variety. Adds The Verge, "As part of the National Association of Broadcasters trade show, [Lee's 3D footage] "was presented using twin laser projectors that delivered 4K images at an astounding 120 frames per second, per eye. That's five times the frame rate that movies traditionally use, a change that Lee said provides crystal-clear images and removes unpleasant visual artifacts like strobing that can be present in traditional films, particularly when they're presented in 3D." Praise for the screening was overwhelming. "'I'm shaking,' said Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers standards director Howard Lukk immediately following the screening," reports The Hollywood Reporter. "That content combined with the technology — it was the most compelling 3D I have ever seen." "Since there is currently no single digital cinema projector capable of playing back 4K, 3D at 120fps, a projector configuration that used two 4K 'Mirage' laser projectors from manufacturer Christie, Dolby 3D glasses and 7th Sense's Delta Infinity III servers for playback was installed at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the screening," the Reporter notes. "The sequence chosen for viewing is 11 minutes intercutting an Iraq War battle with a celebration of the soldiers at an NFL game in Dallas," says Variety. "The experience of the soldiers at home, as performers (almost props) in a celebration in a darkened stadium, contrasts with their firefight and hand-to-hand combat of the Iraq scenes."
A Portrait of The Pandora Listener
So who listens to Pandora? It's probably exactly who you'd think—young urbanites who tend to skew male. But how much they listen, what are their biggest beefs with the digital radio service, and what other forms of radio do they listen to? Those answers are much less obvious yet of great curiosity to media buyers and planners. And the answers are found in a recent study from Jacobs Media Strategies, a media consultancy that does an annual survey on the ways listeners engage with new and old media. This year's study includes quite a bit of research on Pandora, at a time when the future looks uncertain for the digital radio service. While it still has millions of listeners and remains a destination for local advertisers, it still isn't making money and is rumored to be on the block. According to Jacobs, 23 percent of men listen to Pandora, compared to 22 percent of women. The company's strength is, not surprisingly, with Millennials, with 28 percent saying they use the service. Generation X is second at 23 percent. Perhaps surprisingly, 18 percent of the Silent Generation, or those before the Baby Boomers, also say they use the service, which is fairly high for anything digital. Twenty-four percent of people in large markets say they listen to the service, more than medium (22 percent) and small (21 percent) markets. Interestingly, a small percentage of Pandora listeners, 23 percent, say they are listening to the service less this year than they were last year. Among them, Millennials are most likely to be cutting back on their listening. Overall, 28 percent of respondents said they use Pandora, down slightly from 30 percent last year. That still puts it ahead of Sirius XM Radio, with 22 percent saying they listen to satellite, but well behind traditional radio, at 91 percent. Why the decline for Pandora listeners? Well, that could be related to the many complaints that respondents had about the service. The biggest one, cited by 51 percent of respondents, was the limited ability to skip songs while listening to a Pandora station. But listeners are also unhappy with the ads. Forty-nine percent said they're annoying, and 47 percent feel as though the service has begun playing more commercials. Of course, this is a common complaint about any form of media, from traditional radio to TV to print. Other complaints include playing too many songs listeners don't like, predictable playlists and not enough local information.
'Hyper-Local'-No News Too Small for Newspaper to Cover
When Ann Belser and Brian Hyslop, veteran journalists at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, accepted the paper's buyout offer last summer, they started their own publication – but not the digital type one would expect in the internet era. Belser and Hyslop pooled their resources and launched Print, a small weekly print newspaper that covers several neighborhoods in Pittsburgh's East End. The first issue of the eight-page broadsheet rolled off the presses on Dec. 3, and readership is about 1,500. The paper does have a website, but it only offers previews of articles in Print. If you want to read it, you need to buy it the old-fashioned way: either single copies for $1 at a local store or mailed subscriptions for $25 a year. The two staffers – Belser is publisher and Hyslop editor – get out into the community and cover the most local of stories, ranging from municipal issues to wins by school swim teams. These are the types of stories that end up clipped and stuck on refrigerator doors with magnets. Print, whose advertisers include local tax preparers and sandwich shops, even lists the school lunches for the week. "No news is too small to cover, and it's the stuff people like," says Belser. "When you're only within a mile or two of your subject, it's easier to use shoe leather than to make a phone call." Adds Hyslop, the former Post-Gazette business editor: "We're so hyper-local." Print, Belser and Hyslop say, results from two mistakes big newspapers have made: decreasing community news coverage and letting people read their stories for free, which they argue is not a sustainable business model. That sparked the idea for the print-only publication. "When the herd is heading this way, you go that way," Belser says. Print could be a model for new community newspapers going forward. The idea makes sense. Newspapers are going to survive in some form, and it's the smaller publications that have done better during the decade-long decline in print advertising and circulation that's hurt big metros like the Post-Gazette. Indeed, this may well be the publishing model for mid-size cities like Pittsburgh and Detroit and Cleveland where the established dailies have cut way back, in some cases to several days a week. Years back, these cities were often served by dozens of smaller papers serving distinct readerships, be they political parties or ethnic groups or neighborhoods. It may well be that the past foretells the future, that the economics of publishing might again favors small urban papers like Print. The talent pool is certainly there. Journalists forced out of those big papers still want to do what they love, and they know these neighborhoods well from years of reporting. Opening their own small community weeklies could be a way to satisfy residents' need for news and unemployed journalists' need for jobs.
This article is part of a Media Life series "Reinventing the American Newspaper." Click here to read other stories in the series.
Mega-Rock Concert in the Works Featuring Classic Legends
A rock concert is coming together for later this year that is being called the "classic rock concert of the century." The Los Angeles Times reports that Goldenvoice, which puts on the annual Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, is putting together a three-night event that will feature Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, the Who, Neil Young and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters. The event is scheduled for Oct. 7-9 at the Empire Polo Field, in Indio, Calif., the venue where the Coachella festival is held. Negotiations with the performers are reportedly being finalized. The tentative plan is to have Dylan and the Stones play on Friday night, Oct. 7, followed by Young and McCartney on Saturday, Oct. 8, then Waters and the Who on Sunday, Oct. 9.
Newsmax: Best of Late Night Jokes
The Late Late Show with James Corden
Coachella was this weekend, and if you don't know what Coachella is, it's a festival where everyone goes to the desert and takes selfies.
Yesterday was also tax day, and there have been reports from Coachella that concert-goers tried to file their taxes from a makeshift post office at the festival.
I really feel sorry for the bands, because how bad does a band have to suck for people in the audience to go, "You know, I'd better go do my taxes."
It feels like most people aren't even going for the music, they're just going to be seen. There are reports of people spending up to $20,000 on fashion accessories and liposuction for Coachella. I have to say, this is the most L.A. thing that could happen at a music festival.
You don't need to get liposuction to feel good about yourself at Coachella. Just do what everybody else is doing to feel better about themselves — drugs.
Jimmy Kimmel Live
It is primary night in New York tonight. We're still in the primaries — we should at least be in the secondaries by now.
The winner of the New York primary gets delegates, momentum, and most importantly two tickets in the front mezzanine to see "Hamilton."
Donald Trump had a bit of a stumble yesterday. He was giving a speech in Buffalo and accidentally referred to the devastating terrorist attacks of 7/11 instead of 9/11. Of course, who can forget that fateful day when the Coke-flavored Slurpee machine broke and we were forced to settle for that blue raspberry stuff.
Donald has actually been pretty quiet for the last week or so. And I don't like it. It's like when the kids stop making noise. Something's wrong.
In Washington, D.C., yesterday Ben and Jerry, the ice cream guys, were arrested for being part of a political protest on the steps of the Capitol building. But some good did come out of it. They got a lot of new attention for their cause. Also, they got a new flavor of ice cream, which is Toilet Wine Toffee Crunch.
A popular designer, Marc Jacobs, is trying to get "#malepolish" going. Like nail polish but for men. He's posting his painted nails on Instagram and he says he's putting the "man" back in manicure. But it really seems like he's putting the "ick" back in manicure.
Late Night With Stephen Colbert
Today is primary day right here in the Big Apple. A day when New Yorkers proudly line up at the voting booth and declare with one voice, "Hurry up in there, I got stuff to do."
Britain's National Environmental Research Council announced a boat-naming contest a little over a month ago in an effort to build public interest in Arctic research — while there is still some Arctic left to research.
Thousands of entries were submitted and the name "Boaty McBoatface" got four times more votes than any other name. I believe it's the best name for a boat. Just as the best name for a man is Manny McManface.
If they overturn this vote, they're Butty McButtfaces.
Ben and Jerry from Ben & Jerry's ice cream got themselves into a scoop of trouble yesterday at Capitol Hill protesting against money and politics. The two were arrested — surprisingly, not for the murder of my waistline.
Promo of the Day: Adobe – Snakebite / Sagami – Acts of Love / Gun Crazy PSA / Distracted Drivers PSA
Adobe has long excelled at comically portraying the disastrous consequences of not managing one's marketing properly. But in its latest spot, it literally becomes a matter of life and death. The commercial, by Goodby Silverstein & Partners, features a couple of buddies out hiking together, when one of them is suddenly bitten by a snake. Luckily, they have their mobile phones with them, and seem to be getting a good signal. But it all goes downhill from there.
* Snakebite: How's Your Customer Experience? | Adobe Marketing Cloud
Sagami Original Condoms has filmed animal courtship rituals as performed by humans, and the results are both strange and seductive. Talented dancers, dressed in the colors of the respective animals, do an amazing job of recreating the hops, wiggles and foot wobbles of our bestial brethren. See how many of the animals you can guess before the reveal at the end.
* Act of Love
States United to Prevent Gun Violence and Grey New York have made celebrated gun-control PSAs together for years. Now, they back with another powerful video, following up 2015's famous "Gun Store" experiment with another sobering real-world prank. This time, they invited self-professed action movie lovers to a screening of a film Gun Crazy, which was billed as the latest big-budget blockbuster. But when they got into the theater, with hidden cameras rolling, they were sickened to see real footage of gun violence, including unintentional shootings, suicides, incidents of domestic violence and homicides. Warning: The video contains graphic footage of real gun violence.
* Gun Crazy
Distracted driving is a serious problem. But while the stats are staggering—3,100 dead and 424,000 injured in crashes involving distracted drivers in the U.S. in 2013—they remain just numbers, without much visceral pull. SR22Agency.com wanted to change that—to show distracted driving in real time. So, it set up cameras over I-95 in Florida, filmed for 20 minutes and examined the footage to see how many drivers weren't fully focused on the road. Some 2,151 cars were filmed in all.
* The Hazards of Distracted Driving
Here are the numbers from the experiment: Of the 2,151 total drivers, 185 of them (8.6 percent) were distracted. Of those 185 drivers, 81 percent were talking on the phone; just over 9 percent were texting; more than 6 percent were eating; and more than 3 percent were otherwise distracted. AdWeek.com/adfreak
Jake Tapper's The Lead Named Best Newscast
The National Headliner Awards, now in its 81st year, have honored CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper as best newscast. The Headliners, which honor the best in print, online, TV and radio reporting, also honored Tapper's afternoon broadcast with best coverage of a major news event for the Paris Attacks. Other winners include PBS NewsHour for continuing coverage of "No End in Sight: Fighting ISIS;" Dateline NBC's Andrea Canning for her investigative report called "Hope and Heartbreak;" and Robin Roberts for news magazine reporting for "Katrina: 10 Years After the Storm with Robin Roberts." And, on its final day on the air, Al Jazeera America is being honored for health/science reporting for coverage of the Flint water crisis. ESPN is also taking home two Headliner awards its E:60 program for sports feature and documentary series. The full list of winners here.
Katie Couric Wins Shorty for 'Best Journalist"
Yahoo News global news anchor Katie Couric won the Shorty Award for "Best Journalist" Monday night, receiving the award from her Today colleague Al Roker–though she only appeared at the award ceremony in a video. "I'm thrilled to receive this honor," Couric said. "I guess I've come a long way since 1994," referring to a segment on Today when Couric and Bryant Gumbel struggled to understand exactly what "internet" was. "Now, I can't imagine life without social media. It's allowed me to interact with people in a much more intimate way, and most of the time that's great. But sometimes, not so much. And that's when I'll block your ass," Couric said, getting a big laugh.
Opposites Attract on Fox News Sunday
Millions of curious Fox News Sunday viewers tuned in to watch the Chris Wallace interview President Obama at various points throughout the day. Some tuned into the original morning telecast on Fox TV, and even more tuned into the Fox News replays at 2 p.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m., 12 a.m., and 2 a.m. Monday. According to early Nielsen data, the original airing of the interview delivered 1.6 million viewers and 516,000 in the key 25-54 demo. These averages are roughly on par with the previous week. Fox News' five rebroadcasts brought in an additional 3.8 million viewers and 800,000 adults 25-54. All in, yesterday's Fox News Sunday delivered a combined 5.45 million total viewers, and 1.3 million in the news demo. If we look at year-over-year performance, yesterday's installment was up +26 percent in total viewers and +25 percent in the news demo compared to same day last year. As of now, it looks as though yesterday's showing across broadcast and cable will deliver the second-most total viewers of any episode in 2016. Final live+ same day data will be available Thursday.
In Chris Wallace Interview, Obama Laments Partisan Media
Toward the end of his first interview on Fox News Sunday in 8 years, President Obama talked about the challenge of getting things done in Washington in such a partisan atmosphere. "Nobody's going to be 100 percent satisfied in a democracy like ours with every outcome," the president said, adding, "I think the danger, both among Republicans, and among Democrats, who increasingly just listen to each other. Or they just listen to people who already agree with them. Republicans, they have their own TV stations, their own radio…" "Go ahead, you can say Fox News," Wallace interrupted. Obama continued: "…they've got their own publications, their own blogs. Democrats, same thing. Increasingly what happens is, we don't hear each other."
Megyn Kelly Booed by Audience at Fox News Trump Town Hall
The mere mention of Megyn Kelly's name triggered some very loud boos from the audience at Sean Hannity's Fox News town hall with Donald Trump last night. The booing was triggered by Hannity simply mentioning Trump's meeting with Kelly at Trump Tower earlier today. Trump said she called last week to set up the meeting and he asked her to come to Trump Tower. He said Kelly was "very, very nice" (to which the audience applauded). "Maybe it was time, or maybe she felt it was time," Trump said. "I give her a lot of credit for, you know, doing what she did." Like Kelly, Trump did not give much detail about what they talked about during the meeting.
Did Megyn Kelly Just Land an Interview with Trump?
Signs of a thaw have been reported in the not-so-cold war between Fox News host Megyn Kelly and GOP presidential contender Donald Trump. Variety reports that Trump and Kelly "may be ready to make peace." "The Fox News anchor visited the Republican presidential candidate Wednesday at his New York apartment in the hopes of getting him to appear on a new prime-time special slated to air on the cable network's broadcast sister, the Fox broadcast network, on May 23," Variety reports. In a statement, a spokesperson for Fox News said today: "Fox News Chairman & CEO Roger Ailes has spoken to Donald Trump a few times over the past three months about appearing on a Fox Broadcasting special with Megyn Kelly airing on May 23. Kelly requested a meeting with Mr. Trump, which took place at Trump Tower this morning. The results of that meeting will be revealed on tonight's Kelly File at 9 p.m./ET. Kelly has acknowledged in recent interviews that Trump is a fascinating person to cover and has electrified the Republican base."
Ted Cruz and His PAC Say No to TV in New York
Ted Cruz shocked some election watchers when he showed up in The Bronx and Brooklyn last week, despite his well-known disdain for so-called "New York values." But despite his interest in the state and its delegates, his campaign and the super PAC backing it have yet to drop a dime on TV ads there. Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are running TV spots in the pricey New York City media market, and GOP candidate John Kasich's campaign has also spent a relatively small amount on TV in the New York City area. However, the Cruz campaign and the PAC Keep the Promise have spent nothing on broadcast TV, cable TV or radio in all of New York State, according to data from Kantar Media's CMAG analyzed by Ad Age. Par for the course, Donald Trump hasn't bought TV spots in New York State, either. Hillary Clinton's campaign has spent $1.35 million on TV and radio ads in New York City since the week of April 5, while her opponent Bernie Sanders has spent $1.9 million. Mr. Kasich's camp has spent just around $131,000 on cable TV, and only in the New York City market, according to CMAG. Mr. Cruz and company may be sitting this one on TV out considering his low chances of winning many delegates in New York. According to a Real Clear Politics poll average on Monday, Mr. Trump is headed for a projected 53.6% of the vote in New York compared to Mr. Kasich's 21% and Mr. Cruz's 18.6%. New York voters will cast ballots in the state's unusually contested primary on April 19.
Clinton Courts UFO Believers' Vote
One of the major presidential candidates appears to be reaching out to UFO believers. The Huffington Post reports: "Hillary Clinton has boldly gone where no front-running White House wannabe has gone before. The former Secretary of State is promising to investigate and declassify government files on UFOs and make them available to the public." Clinton talked briefly about the subject during a recent appearance on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live." In the latest development, her campaign chairman, John Podesta, was grilled last week on the issue by CNN's Jake Tapper. Podesta reiterated that Clinton, if she's elected president, would seek to declassify any UFO records held by the federal government. Podesta, a former White House chief of staff, noted that President Bill Clinton also sought information on UFOs and Area 51 when he was in office. "But I think that the U.S. government could do a much better job in answering the quite legitimate questions that people have about what's going on with unidentified aerial phenomena, and the American people can handle the truth," Podesta added. "So they should just do a thorough search and open it up." Asked whether he thinks the documents contain evidence of alien life, Podesta said: "That's for the public to judge, once they've seen all the evidence that the U.S. government has."
Al Jazeera America Signs Off
The cable news channel Al Jazeera America signed off permanently as a TV channel Tuesday, although the New York Post reports that it will maintain a presence online. The Post also reports that the channel may owe millions to its distribution partners. "The cable channel, owned by Qatar-based media company Al Jazeera, has hired high-priced law firm Skadden Arps to fend off potential claims from cable-TV providers and others that agreed to carry the channel, sources said," the Post reports. "Time Warner Cable and Comcast are among those that could claim to be owed millions, they said." The channel reportedly agreed to split ad money with some of its distributors as it struggled to expand its footprint in the U.S. "Under those deals, it also committed to buy ads to promote itself and its partners, sources said," the story reports. "Time Warner Cable is owed north of $50 million, according to one source, although that figure couldn't be confirmed."
Editor: We Pitched Panama Papers to CNN, 60 Minutes
Martina Walker Guevara, deputy director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism, says the ICIJ pitched the Panama Papers to CNN and 60 Minutes, but both turned them down. "We were a little disappointed, but we understood," she told ProPublica. The investigation, published a week ago by news organizations around the world including Fusion and Univision in the U.S., represented a staggering effort that involved the work of more than 100 newsrooms analyzing millions of leaked documents, ultimately exposed a global system of tax evasion that has implicated world leaders including Russian president Vladimir Putin and relatives of British prime minister David Cameron. Walker, the editor who coordinated the work, says CNN was offered the project, and at first "said yes, but then they said no. They decided to pursue their own investigation rather than join ours." CBS News' 60 Minutes said no as well. "In the end we had Univision and Fusion," Walker said. "We had worked with both of them in previous investigations."
Peabody Awards Honor 'Daily Show' & David Letterman, Name Finalists
"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and former late-night host David Letterman will be among the honorees at the 75th annual Peabody Awards, Variety has learned exclusively. In addition, 60 finalists have been set by the awards' board of jurors. From that field, 30 winners — the Peabody 30 — will be selected. Those winners will be revealed beginning next week and honored at the Peabody Awards ceremony in New York May 21. Among the finalists are ABC's "Black-ish" and "Fresh Off the Boat," FX's "Fargo," Amazon's "Transparent" and "Catastrophe," HBO's "The Leftovers" and "Veep," Showtime's "Listen to Me Marlon," Netflix's "Jessica Jones" and "Master of None," USA's "Mr. Robot" and Lifetime's "UnReal." The first group of winners will be announced April 19 on Facebook Live. Subsequent rounds of winners will be revealed April 21 on NBC's "Today" and April 26 on Facebook Live. Letterman and documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson were selected to receive individual Peabody Awards. "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" was chosen to receive an institutional award. Based at the University of Georgia, the Peabody Awards celebrates projects in the fields of news, entertainment, documentaries, children's programming, education, interactive programming, and public service, encouraging the media industries to reach for and achieve the highest standards. Please click here for the full list of finalists and the announcement from the Peabody Awards.
New Study Shows Millennials Prefer Short Mobile Videos, While Older Crowds Like Long-form
A new study says millennials who view videos on their phones resonate more with brands that take a short-form approach to spots, while older audiences tend to agree more with the traditional 30-second length. The study, conducted by IAB in partnership with Millward Brown Digital and Tremor Video, found brands running 10-second mobile video ads have greater appeal and persuasion potential with younger audiences. However, a slightly longer, 30-second spot did better with those between the ages of 35 and 54. Researchers used 10-second spots and 30-second spots for brands in the automotive, CPG and quick casual restaurant industries. Participants then viewed the ads on either a desktop, smartphone or tablet before answering a series of questions related to ad receptivity and brand effectiveness. "The conventional wisdom is that all video ads on mobile screens must be short in order to resonate with audiences," according to Joe Laszlo, IAB's vp of industry initiatives. "Our research shows that for some demographics and some advertising goals this doesn't hold up. These findings are critical in creating the next generation of multiscreen video advertising." Based on the findings, IAB said marketers should develop video ads with smaller screens in mind, with shorter ads for smaller screens and longer ads for larger screens. Ads geared at millennials should be well targeted, relevant and enjoyable, according to IAB.
Disney, Amazon, Apple Are Most 'Authentic' Brands
Comedy Central show host Larry Wilmore coined the phrase "keeping it 100" as a replacement for "keeping it real." Now Cohn & Wolfe has defined the "Authentic 100," in a report that places Disney, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, Lego, Ford, Google and Coca-Cola on top. The global study examines the role of authenticity in business and its impact on consumer, stakeholder, investor and employee attitudes and behaviors. Consumer cynicism is high globally, with four out of five stating that brands are not "open and honest." The findings reinforce the importance of authenticity for creating valuable, strong relationships with consumers, says Lynn Fisher, EVP, planning director, Cohn & Wolfe. "But findings also revealed the high level of cynicism among consumers today, making achievement of authenticity a real challenge," Fisher tells Marketing Daily. "To overcome the challenge and unlock the authenticity opportunity … there are three critical characteristics that must be addressed: A brand must be perceived as reliable, respectful and real. These 3 R's of Authenticity provide a clear, data-based formula for achieving a higher level of authenticity for a brand, which will in turn, generate benefits for the brand and its business." Nearly 9 out of 10 consumers are willing to take action to reward a brand for its authenticity, including 52% who would recommend the brand to others and 49% who would pledge loyalty to the brand. Twenty percent would be prepared to put their money on the table and invest in a brand that proves its authenticity. Consumers are looking for daily, real-life reminders that they can count on brands. In defining authenticity, they prioritize "high quality" (66%) and "delivering on promises" (70%) over more lofty measures like "social responsibility" (57%) and "environmental responsibility" (55%).
The Pros and Cons of Voter ID Laws
Many states are pushing for stricter voter identification policies at the polls, while critics argue such requirements are unconstitutional and used as a means of voter suppression. Here are some pros and cons of voter ID laws.
Could help temper the country's embarrassingly high voter turnout rates
Less time-consuming form of discrimination than literacy test
Nationwide surge in ID demand could create up to four new jobs at DMV
Guarantees only those bearing the signet ring of the Knights Templar will be able to vote more than once
Current system gives far too little power to septuagenarian volunteers
The most palatable facade we've got for government's racial bias
Phrase "poll tax" has better ring to it
Puts undue burden on privileged elite to choose elected officials
Doesn't completely eliminate possibility of undesirable populations from voting
Disenfranchises the countless Americans who accidentally left a bar tab open at Stilettos last night
Non-citizens could probably give the electoral process a fresh set of eyes
Representative government not worth totally giving up on just yet