Marianne Gambelli, of Fox Networks, said that they mostly planned a virtual upfront presentation because of the continuing shut downs. She said they were trying to pivot and mentioned that live programs are not as important because there is a long tail for viewing from all of their different platforms. They are adjusting to the market with pent up demand and Gambelli said they are right where they should be. She said they like that they don’t have a streaming service because its very competitive and expensive so all their energy is focused on the advertiser and viewer. She said their Tubi Network is doing well.
Jo Ann Ross, of Paramount Pictures, was interviewed about their TV Upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall. She said they were happy to be back after the shut downs. She said that they still put up traditional TV schedules and that they are important to their audience. They also have Pluto and Paramount Plus. They like to put up sizzle reels on their website. One of their new shows is So Help me Todd. They have a lot of shows on cable and she said there is a depth and breadth to Paramount.
They are leaning more into streaming. She said they have two years of practice at Viacom CBS and have unified their sales team–broadcast, cable, and digital. They’ve seen a lot of growth with Pluto to 65 million users. They decided to rebrand as Paramount Plus. She said that client’s like their products which are multi-platform genres, sports, news, and entertainment. Their clients like to pick and choose and they like to focus on what the clients want and then adapt.
Ross said there is streaming competition growing with Disney+ and Netflix but that it just validates that they were right to get into the business. They got in and then rebranded. She said that this is part of the future and they were ahead of the curve.
Here is continuing coverage from some of the TV Upfront network interviews with AdAge regarding the 2023 TV season.
AMC Networks
Kim Kelleher of AMC Networks said that in 2022 they added six new channels so that they are up to fourteen channels. They also have digital inventory. They’re trying to figure out how to breakthrough the noise using their size as an advantage. They do things to put the viewer at the center of everything. They also strive for consistency, quality and are creating suites for super fans.
Peter Olsen of A&E Networks said they are focusing on genre programming to help viewers find the content they are wanting. He said their primary focus is to help marketers with their businesses. He said that consumers tend to gravitate toward genres and documentaries. They would like to bring more diverse storytellers into the industry. Their hope is to intersect diverse storytelling to bring all the groups together. They want to make sure they focus on the content. Their primary relationship is with the viewers, and the marketers come to them so the content is important. They have new ad innovations to keep people’s eyes on the ad and are looking at new forms of currency. They are trying to find better measurement beyond just counting impressions, but rather considering the value of those impressions.
For those of you working hard to gear up advertising budgets for 2023, and even if you’re not working hard, Memorial Day is a chance to take a break to remember the heroes that gave their lives for our freedom. There will be a national moment of remembrance at 3 p.m. your local time. Take some time to remember the ones no longer with us and thank those that are still around. Celebrate, then after you’ve had burgers and potato salad, check out one of the new movies that have been released.
Memorial Day movie releases
The biggest buzz is over Top Gun: Maverick. There’s also the Bob’s Burgers movie for kids and adults, well, that act like kids. Depending on where you’re at and what theater you are going to, expect to spend about $14 per ticket. And celebrate, once again, that you actually get to go to a movie.
As the Madison Avenue TV upfronts (for a deeper explanation of what the TV upfronts are go here) come to a close, it seems the collective idea is that customers and advertisers are looking for good content wherever that show is being served. And, how to measure the new way consumers are accessing their favorites, mainly a glut of avenues for digital streamings, most effectively. Many believe Nielsen is still the best way to measure impressions online. During the next few weeks, articles will focus on a few of the networks and what they are offering.
AdAge held an online discussion this week with some of the leaders of the networks. This post will focus on Disney. Look for other networks’ coverages in the next few weeks.
Rita Ferro, of Disney+, was interviewed by Jeanine Poggi of AdAge. Rita Ferro stated that they are looking at putting the “right ads with the right content.” They want to create an experience that everyone expects from Disney. They like to focus on storytelling and want to find ads that align with movies. They will look for the right breaks in movies to put ads in so it’s not cut off at awkward positions. Ferro mentioned that the Dropout and Kardashian’s on Hulu are popular shows. She mentioned that budgets are up for pharmaceuticals and entertainment. Read more here.
So, what happened at the 2022 Oscars? There were controversies and never-before seen events at this year’s Academy Awards Ceremony that featured movies released in 2021. We are listing the category winners and links to the controversial matters. You can decide for yourself.
The Facts
The 94th Annual Academy Awards
Location: Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood
Date: March 27, 2022
Hosts: Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes
Winners
[This list ranks the movies that had the largest number of awards first}
Will Smith slaps Chris Rock. This is what happened.Here’s one article about the response. The matter is still being discussed almost one month after the Award Ceremony.
Liza Minnelli enters stage on wheelchair despite her request not to be. This is a video about it. Read article here.
Yesterday, February 20, 2022 was the last day of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. I caught a glimpse of the downhill skiing as I was running on the treadmill at the gym the other day. That was my only viewership besides news reports. How about you? Did you watch any of the games? According to the LA Times, I wasn’t the only one with limited viewership. The start of the games was down 55% from the previous winter Olympics. Read more here. So does Nielsen, the company that measures viewership, count gym views? Yes, according to an article in Adweek. Since April, 2016 Nielsen started measuring viewerships in outdoor venues like sports bars, gyms and hotels. Here is where that news report is.
After football, people are watching 60 Minutes, NCIS and Equalizer the most on the big TV networks according to Nielsen. On cable, sports on ESPN and TBS Network mostly rank the highest followed by The Five, Tucker Carlson Tonight and Hannity all on Fox News. Then on syndication, here’s how the shows stack up.
The Christopher Nolan Big Budget Blockbuster movie Tenet was released into theaters nationwide on September 3. Watch trailer Despite consumer weariness about whether it is safe to go back to theaters, the movie hit $200 million globally despite lackluster “U.S Box Office” sales according to a headline on variety.com.
A recent zoom presentation to media buyers conducted by National Cinemedia (NCM) gave assurance to advertisers that, “they did what they had to do to get through it. (Covid shutdown),” said Regal’s Ken Thewes. He mentioned that 64% of their theaters are open and they’re moving toward 100%. He also said that 2019 was a global box office record and expects 2021 to be the same.
If safety is still a concern, Thewes mentioned that masks are mandatory at their theaters unless people are eating and they have mapped seats for social distancing. They even mentioned that they have implemented foggers that emit sanitation and take about ten minutes to dry.
The network has added more slots to their pre and post show ad segments. For more information about advertising on movie screens please contact [email protected]
While watching the Forest Gump CBS Sunday night movie during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was notated that almost every commercial break included one or two drug company advertisements. Considering that the outbreak might benefit the drug companies as people sit at home anxious about the circumstances surrounding the unknown disease and possibly searching for a remedy to calm their fears, Popcorn Press & Media, Inc decided to do some research on how TV ratings and ad dollars are going during the breakout.
According to a Variety online article written a month and a half ago at the start of the quarantine, it was estimated that staying at home could drive up TV viewing by as much as 60% compared to previous quarantine viewing habits.
The Nielsen ratings numbers from a few weeks ago showed CBS and TV viewing seemed to be winning during the time spent at home. For the week of April 27, the top ten ratings winners except for two shows on Fox, were CBS shows including Young Sheldon, 60 Minutes, Blue Bloods, NCIS-ENC, Survivor, Magnum P.I., FBI: Most Wanted, and FBI-ENC. The Fox shows ranking number 6 and 10 were The Masked Singer and 911.
The top rating for Young Sheldon, a 6.2, isn’t a huge rating number compared to when Prime TV was at it’s heyday, for example like in the ’70’s when “Charlie’s Angels finished fifth in Nielsen ratings in the spring of 1977 with an average 26.0 rating,” according to Wikipedia. An article in the Hollywood Reporter from November 2019 stated that Young Sheldon was a top winner in ratings with a 1.2 among adults 18-49. So the Variety writers made a pretty good estimate.
So what about all those drug ads on CBS prime time and which advertising category is doing the best during the outbreak? A Harvard Health Publishing article posted in 2017 stated “Drug marketing is a big business, and companies are willing to spend a lot of money to offer you an easy solution to a health problem you may or may not have. From 2012 to 2015, yearly spending on prescription drug advertising in all media outlets (except digital) rose from $3.2 billion to $5.2 billion, and that figure is expected to only go up.”
A post in January of 2019 from a site called Ars Technica posted a headline, “Big Pharma shells out $20B each year to schmooze docs, $6B on drug ads.”
In a March 2020 article in the Washington Post it was stated that “Spending on Facebook mobile ads alone by pharmaceutical and health-care brands reached nearly a billion dollars in 2019, nearly tripling over two years, according to Pathmatics, an advertising analytics company.”
And most recently in a March 2020 article on a pink sheet on Pharma intelligence a title declared, “TV Drug Advertising Spend Rising, But Few Brands Provide Pricing Info.” So it’s not specific exactly how much pharmaceutical money is being spent nationally on TV ads during this pandemic, but it’s clear there has been a big uptick.
In a January 2020 post on the website Statista it stated the top advertisers spending the most dollars were in the following order.
•Geico
• Progressive
•Verizon
•Turbo Tax
•State Farm
•Liberty Mutual
•AT&T Wireless
•Sprint
•Lincoln Motor Company
•Amazon Prime.
So, it remains to be seen how the ad dollars will fall once the pandemic is over, but it seems the companies with the biggest pockets are the ones most likely to survive.
Open the Gates (OTG) is a non-profit with limited staff and resources. Despite this they are able to provide food, entertainment and gifts for refugee kids and parents every year at Christmas at an event called the International Christmas Celebration (ICC). Refugee children are new to the country and may not speak a lot of English. Most of the parents are struggling and need resources. They may not have a lot of money to give gifts to their children. The ICC fills a need for food, entertainment, and gifts during the Christmas season, a holiday season that they may not be familiar with.
Photo by Rafid Butrus
Project
Open the Gates came to Popcorn Press & Media, Inc, with a request for help in planning the 400 person Christmas event. They also needed help with managing about 50 volunteers prior to and during the party and requesting donations from businesses, individuals and churches.
Photo by Rafid Butrus
Solution:
Popcorn Press & Media, Inc (PPM) took on the pro bono project of planning, promoting, managing volunteers, working with staff and requesting donations for the party.
The first thing was to research ideal locations. They found a facility that is close to where the refugees reside since many don’t have transportation or are struggling with finances. Since this event had been produced before, they gathered the names of volunteers and donors from the past and added names of targeted businesses to contact. They worked with the staff of Open the Gates (OTG) to produce marketing materials. Videos, email blasts and newsletters were produced by the OTG staff. The staff created graphics for T-shirts and programs and these images were used throughout the marketing promotions to create a consistent theme.
Photo by Rafid Butrus
A donation letter, since Open The Gates is a 501 (c) 3, was drafted and targeted to businesses. PPM asked companies for donations and walked around the community with the letter to request help. The local community was informed and educated about the need to help these refugees. Some of the companies didn’t realize that many refugees are struggling in their own areas. Each year, donations were received at a value of food, drinks and gift donations of over $1,500. Working with the president of Open the Gates, they contacted churches and businessmen to receive monetary donations to cover all the costs of the event.
Photo by Rafid Butrus
A few months prior to the event, regular meetings were scheduled with the volunteers and team leads were established for each area of the party. Lead areas included registration, food distribution, kids entertainment, adult entertainment, decorations, security and gift distribution. One of the issues with the refugees is people management, especially since the children can get loud and run around unless they are engaged. The solution was to separate the large conference room into two sections, one for the children’s entertainment and one for the adult’s entertainment The kid’s entertainment included multiple activities so they wouldn’t lose interest. A large volunteer staff was assigned to watch over their activities.
PPM wrote a press release and distributed it to the San Diego media community each year of the party The Californian newspaper brought a reporter and interviewed Daniel, OTG president, the first year and ran an article* in their paper after the event. The second year, KNSD-TV assigned a reporter and interviewed one of the refugees during the event then ran the segment** during the evening news that same day,
In order to help one of the refugees’ new businesses, the third year of the party PPM worked with OTG to get donors to support a doll project to give away to some of the girls at the party and for the refugee business to sew and construct the doll.
The goal was to increase the work given to refugees and give free dolls to girls at the party. The goal is to extend the reach of the doll project even more in future years.
Since the first Christmas event’s donation, every week PPM, OTG and volunteers have managed picking up bread and distributing it to churches, homeless and needy people throughout San Diego.
Even more, in 2019 a See’s candy fundraiser was conducted to provide candy to the refugee kids during Easter. In home visits were made to the families.
To help with the 2020 International Christmas Celebration go here. https://openthegates.org/contact/ and tell them what you’d like to help with.
*Californian Article
A magical evening at the International Christmas party for local Syrian refugees
Whenever kids show up at a Christmas party for them, they get excited. Throw in a magic show and they’re hyped. But you’ve never seen kids get more amped-up than the group of more than 100 gathered in the lobby at the Ronald Reagan Center in El Cajon on the evening of December 22, 2017.
When their pastor Daniel Massieh waved his hand above them all, they quieted a little. He had to yell out that they needed to begin lining up to enter the room for the magic show. The noise then went from a dull roar to excited screams.
The children were Syrian refugees under the leadership of Massieh, who came to the United States from Egypt. A former Muslim who converted to Christianity, Massieh knows intimately the problems of integrating into a strange country with differing traditions, beliefs and culture.
Helping Muslim refugees survive in their new home in America, and reaching out to them with the gospel of Christ is Massieh’s over-arching purpose in life. He does this, he said, “By breaking the walls, and opening the Gates between the Muslim and Christian community in the US.”
Open the Gate, established in 2006 by Massieh, offers many community services to refugees, including teaching and bringing Muslims and Christians together as one community through events and conferences. In addition, at the Education center for refugees, Christians dedicate their time in teaching English, math, and other basic information. The volunteers also share their own faith and hope in Christ.
When asked what he believed what was the biggest misunderstanding that Muslims have initially about Christians, Massieh answered, “They believe that Christians are infidels believing in three gods and claiming that God has a son.”
And of the misunderstandings that Christians have of Muslims? “[Christians believe Muslims] are dangerous, difficult, and violent,” he said.
All those misperceptions get cleared up compassionately yet powerfully through the leadership of Massieh and the volunteers at Open the Gates (OTG). The organization offers classes to Christians, as well, to help them understand Islam and to reach out to Muslims without fear.
Massieh had planted the first Middle Eastern Church in San Diego in 1985. Since then, he has helped other denominations plant another five churches in El Cajon. As the founder of OTG, Massieh is able to help many churches to understand Islam and give the hope. He also teaches in different Bible colleges, is a nationwide missionary, speaker and motivator to churches.
His birth name Muhammed Kamel, he was born and raised in Egypt as a devout Muslim. From the time he was seven years old, he studied and memorized the Qur’an. When he was a young man, he learned about Christ and became a follower.
But how did Massieh hear of Christ? “You need to read my best-selling book, “Traitor,”” he said.
After the secret police in Egypt had arrested him for his faith in Christ and for his telling others the truth about Islam, the Attorney General asked Massieh the reason for his faith in Christ. Massieh answered him by asking three questions.
“Does Allah love you, Mr. Hisham?” He answered, “I don’t know,” said Massieh.
“Where are you going if you died today? Hell or heaven?’ Massieh asked Mr. Hisham, who answered, “I don’t know.”
Massieh asked the third question, “Is Allah able to change you in Islam?” Mr. HIsham, replied, “No, Allah doesn’t change people in Islam. Massieh responded with, “Mr. Hisham, if you don’t know if Allah loves you or not, and he will not take you to heaven, and He can’t change you, why are you following Allah in Islam?”
Then Mr. Hisham asked Massieh the same three questions.
“I said, ‘Yes, Jesus loves me, He gave me eternal life, and he changed my life. That’s why I am a Christian,’” Massieh said.
Even so, Mr. Hisham ordered solitary confinement in prison for Massieh, with no bed, blanket, heat, shower or restroom—and given only one meal a day. He was also tortured for his beliefs.
What helped him get through that time in prison, Massieh said, was “My faith in Christ and His promises to me that He had called me to reveal truth about Him to Muslims everywhere I go.”
Having the International Christmas party on December 22 was important, Massieh believes, because it showed Muslims the love of God and changed their minds about Americans and Christians as they reached out to help them.
Volunteers handed out free Bibles and DVDs in the Arabic language to the children and parents. While the children were entertained by Professor Rich’s magic, the adults were in the adjacent room listening to musicians playing Christmas songs in Arabic and English.
Though the children were excited beyond words to watch the magic show and get a free dinner and presents, there is one thing that really lights up children’s eyes, Massieh said.
“It is when they first hear of Christ and begin to understand his miracles and His love of them,” he said.
