BIA/Kelsey is partnering again with the Local Media Association to produce this year’s LMA Native Advertising Interactive Summit next July 15-16 in Washington, DC where we’ll share our latest native ad forecast, insights about marketplace dynamics and trend lines of how we’re seeing this sector evolve. (Note early bird discounts offered through June 15th). The plan overall is to offer a mix of data, best practices, hands-on workshops and take-home ideas for getting your native ad business into higher gear.

The program covers a lot of ground in just a day and half. Nancy Lane, LMA president kicks things off with white board session where she’ll be joined by several other speakers to Schurz Communications’ Kerry Oslund, VP of Publishing and Emerging Media, will share a disruptive new approach to native advertising they’re finding to be successful. Of course, Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post has done a lot of innovation around brands and native advertising as we’ll hear from Kelly Andresen, Director of the WP BrandStudio & Planning who will share winning case studies. You’ll hear speakers from Advance, Gatehouse, Desert Digital and Dispath among others discussion pricing and packaging native ad campaigns, content strategies, outsourcing, selling native effectively and since it’s Washington, we’ll also hear from Laura Sullivan, a staff attorney with the Federal Trade Commission who’s following native closely.

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At BIA/Kelsey’s National Brands, Local Marketing conference March 25-27 in Dallas, we’ll be hearing a lot of discussion around where spending is going for national marketers. Based on a survey just released by Duke University’s Prof. Christine Moorman the news is really good!

Overall, CMOs are showing their most positive outlook about the overall U.S. economy in five years with an average optimism rating of 69.9 percent in Feb 2015 versus 47.7 percent in Feb 2009 (0 percent is least and 100 per cent most optimistic).

CMOs plan to increase their spending by 8.7 percent in 2015 based on their expectations for an improving economy. When you break down that spending, digital spending will be up 14.7 percent compared to a 1.1 percent decline in traditional advertising. That increased digital spending will occur less in B2C product categories (2 percent increase) but we’ll see the digital spending rate double in 2015 versus 2014 overall and in the B2B product, B2B services and B2C services categories.

The CMO survey included results from 288 top U.S. marketers at Fortune 1000, Forbes Top 200, and top marketers who are AMA Members or Duke University Alumni and Friends (10.9% response rate).

Check out the CMO survey results in detail but if you really want to know the story behind the numbers, we’ll hope to see you in Dallas where you can hear and meet the speakers responsible for directing this increased spending into digital advertising and marketing.

The post New Survey Shows Optimistic CMOs Increasing 2015 Digital Spending appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Q. Sales force transformation is a buzz phrase that a lot of companies have seized on. What does it mean to you?

A: It is a buzz phrase, and people are using it interchangeably. In reality, transformation impacts two key things: infrastructure and implementation. For any sales organization, you always are going to want to start with infrastructure and how it impacts implementation — things like communication, fulfilment and escalation.

Q: How smart do media companies really need to be about this? Won’t vendors do it for them?

A: To some degree, we see many companies hoping that third parties, like digital agencies, will handle everything for them. In reality, when you are selling and fulfilling digital, there are a lot of things you need to learn to do on your own. There is no such thing as “do it for me.” There is only do it with me.™ A lot of organizations aren’t prepared for that.

Q: In his book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen said that disrupters need to establish their new business separately from the old business. Many media companies originally took his advice to heart, but have now merged their digital and traditional units. What is your position?

A: It really depends on what your revenue expectations are. Companies can sell their own digital assets or they can sell audience extension products. For that, they don’t need to hire a dedicated sales force. But when you set your sites higher and are selling more sophisticated products like SEO, SEM, Video and mobile, you will need to hire people who are more knowledgable about the digital space because it’s a different type of sale. And regardless of sales structure, digital revenue should be managed at a higher level by someone who is dedicated to digital. A VP of Advertising is always going to have to spend more time on products and services where there is a critical mass and revenues.

Q: Is it now possible to bypass Feet on the Street? Can you do it all with telemarketing?

A: Again, it really depends on the product or service. Telemarketers can sell small transactional products like directory and email marketing, and websites and packages that might range from $300 to $500. A digital package with a low cost of entry, and a clear value proposition, is easy to sell over the phone. But it is very hard to sell custom services from the sales center. That’s been the focus on a number of digital agencies that have highly trained sales people to sell these services, and others to manage them. Agencies like ReachLocal, Local Edge and Smart Reach Digital are building customer service teams and account management teams.

Q: Are we dating ourselves by talking about “advertisers?” Should we really be talking about “marketers”?

A: It is definitely much more strategic to talk about marketers and marketing. Clients really want us to offer marketing strategy. They don’t just want someone selling them a 1/4 page ad, or a coupon. We need to be mindful that a good marketing campaign involves a lot more than what you are selling. Our clients need to understand where to spend their money first.

Q: You’ve been a digital sales leader with the whole gamut of local media leaders, ranging from Citysearch to top newspaper and radio groups. What will you be doing as BIA/Kelsey’s new VP of Strategic Sales Consulting?

For me, it is really about change management. What we’ve found is that change management never happens successfully unless it starts at the top, where BIA/Kelsey’s client relationships are. The rest of the management team is critical to implementing the change but they need to know their executive team is committed to the effort.

We really like to focus on understanding the needs of the whole organization, and then assess their needs at the middle management level for digital product training and their value proposition for digital. This helps to increase their speed to market. You know what we find? Too many organizations underestimate the level of time and commitment these efforts require.

The post ‘It is Really About Change Management': Q&A with Stacey Sedbrook, VP, Strategic Sales Consulting appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Q. Sales force transformation is a buzz phrase that a lot of companies have seized on. What does it mean to you?

A: It is a buzz phrase, and people are using it interchangeably. In reality, transformation impacts two key things: infrastructure and implementation. For any sales organization, you always are going to want to start with infrastructure and how it impacts implementation — things like communication, fulfilment and escalation.

Q: How smart do media companies really need to be about this? Won’t vendors do it for them?

A: To some degree, we see many companies hoping that third parties, like digital agencies, will handle everything for them. In reality, when you are selling and fulfilling digital, there are a lot of things you need to learn to do on your own. There is no such thing as “do it for me.” There is only do it with me.? A lot of organizations aren’t prepared for that.

Q: In his book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, Clayton Christensen said that disrupters need to establish their new business separately from the old business. Many media companies originally took his advice to heart, but have now merged their digital and traditional units. What is your position?

A: It really depends on what your revenue expectations are. Companies can sell their own digital assets or they can sell audience extension products. For that, they don’t need to hire a dedicated sales force. But when you set your sites higher and are selling more sophisticated products like SEO, SEM, Video and mobile, you will need to hire people who are more knowledgable about the digital space because it’s a different type of sale. And regardless of sales structure, digital revenue should be managed at a higher level by someone who is dedicated to digital. A VP of Advertising is always going to have to spend more time on products and services where there is a critical mass and revenues.

Q: Is it now possible to bypass Feet on the Street? Can you do it all with telemarketing?

A: Again, it really depends on the product or service. Telemarketers can sell small transactional products like directory and email marketing, and websites and packages that might range from $300 to $500. A digital package with a low cost of entry, and a clear value proposition, is easy to sell over the phone. But it is very hard to sell custom services from the sales center. That’s been the focus on a number of digital agencies that have highly trained sales people to sell these services, and others to manage them. Agencies like ReachLocal, Local Edge and Smart Reach Digital are building customer service teams and account management teams.

Q: Are we dating ourselves by talking about “advertisers?” Should we really be talking about “marketers”?

A: It is definitely much more strategic to talk about marketers and marketing. Clients really want us to offer marketing strategy. They don’t just want someone selling them a 1/4 page ad, or a coupon. We need to be mindful that a good marketing campaign involves a lot more than what you are selling. Our clients need to understand where to spend their money first.

Q: You’ve been a digital sales leader with the whole gamut of local media leaders, ranging from Citysearch to top newspaper and radio groups. What will you be doing as BIA/Kelsey’s new VP of Strategic Sales Consulting?

For me, it is really about change management. What we’ve found is that change management never happens successfully unless it starts at the top, where BIA/Kelsey’s client relationships are. The rest of the management team is critical to implementing the change but they need to know their executive team is committed to the effort.

We really like to focus on understanding the needs of the whole organization, and then assess their needs at the middle management level for digital product training and their value proposition for digital. This helps to increase their speed to market. You know what we find? Too many organizations underestimate the level of time and commitment these efforts require.

The post 'It is Really About Change Management': Q&A with Stacey Sedbrook, VP, Strategic Sales Consulting appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Sales Momentum recently published a stat that says $15 million was spent on marketing new products which does not factor in the product vetting process, integration into back office systems, IT support, sales training costs and lost opportunity of poorly executed launch plans which could push that figure north of $25 million. This investment figure was balanced by a recent UCLA study which indicates more than 50% of new products fail.

While many factors contribute to the success or failure of new products such as competitive differentiation, ease of sale, and fulfillment support, one key area BIA/Kelsey has been investigating is the hand off between product marketing and sales. While there is often heavy investment in time and resources discovering, vetting, negotiating and integrating new products within a media company, often there are miscues in translating the product and marketing message into a coherent sales plan and approach. Some of the key areas fumbled include:

• Fully researching and defining the specific target audiences. Many product marketing plans focus on number of products sold by rep by market taken from their business plan revenue models. Once the product development phase is complete, marketing and sales need to work together to develop proper target audience identification, determine how or if the revenue goals can be supported by these audiences, then develop audience specific messages.

• Clearly identifying how the new product fits within existing product portfolios or advertiser bundles. New products are frequently introduced in a vacuum without enough thought on how they will be sold alongside other products, particularly when it comes to introducing digital products alongside traditional media products. Advertisers are confused about the volume of marketing products available, so local media companies have to work to make it obvious as to why the product is being added and the value it brings to their current marketing initiatives.

• Demonstrate how the new product enhances current marketing initiatives or enables the advertiser to reach more prospects. Advertiser budgets only go so far, showing them how a new product increases the effectiveness of the other marketing products they have purchased helps to streamline the sales process, increasing success.

• Focusing too much on features and benefits rather than on customer-focused needs. Products are a series of solutions to support advertiser business needs. The roll out of any product has to keep the needs of advertisers in mind so that solution sets can be recommended to solve their key business growth needs. Sales people often get overwhelmed by the number of media products in their portfolio, moving to viewing products as a portfolio of solutions helps sales people clearly see which products make sense and which products to keep in the sales bag.

BIA/Kelsey’s goal is to dig in and identify the best approaches to a smooth product marketing to sales handoff, as well as how we can help sales teams better strategize on developing sales messaging, strategies to maximize the ROI associated with new product launches to better maximize each product opportunity. We’re interested in talking with companies who are taking innovative approaches to product launches and sales teams who are figuring out how to integrate digital and traditional media products successfully. If your company feels they have something interesting to share, contact me to feature your best practices on our blog.

The post The Product Marketing to Sales Hand-Off appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

In many states, political advertising revenue is a consistent component every two years for certain local television stations, and the industry as a whole. Failing to acknowledge that fact neglects the continuing impact that political advertising has on the present and future health of the local television station industry. Second, for many local television stations situated in competitive markets, political advertising sometimes “crowds out” other advertising, especially in some programs and dayparts. By subtracting all political advertising revenues, the revenue potential of a particular station/market/and industry as a whole is then understated; this could leave viable advertising unsold.

So what is the most efficient way to look at all advertising revenues generated by local television stations while acknowledging the impact of political advertising on a market and industry performance?

We have come up with a way to evaluate local television revenue annual performance. Our method is to examine the annual revenue changes that have occurred and those we predict will occur and have generated a four-year moving average of those annual industry revenue changes. By continuously averaging four years, the impact of two election years (one Presidential) and two non-election years are incorporated into the prediction. By examining the overall historical trend of the four-year moving average, we can highlight the position of local television stations in the ever-increasing competitive marketplace.

What does our examination show? The chart below shows that four-year moving average change in total local television stations advertising revenue for the past 16 years and what we expect in the next five years in the black line, along with the individual years’ annual change noted by the blue stars.

The wide swings in total television advertising revenues are clearly shown by the blue diamonds. Yet, except for the down years around and coming out of the recession, the overall trend in local television advertising averages around 3-4%. That consistency is expected to continue, which will make local television advertising a continuing, important part of the advertising mix.

The post Evaluating Trends in Local Television Revenue from a New Angle appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Overall we expect national advertisers to increase their spending in local markets from $50.2 billion in 2013 to 68.9 billion in 2018, growing at a 6.5% compounded annual growth rate. The chart below shows the annual estimates of the spending in local media markets by national and local advertisers.

One of the key drivers in this growth is the growth in mobile advertising. While local advertisers will grow in importance, national advertisers will still account for 70% of all mobile advertising in 2018, resulting in over $11 billion in advertising spending. Pure online advertising will also see growth coming from national advertisers, resulting in $20.8 billion being spent in 2018.

Clearly, advertisers of all sorts are looking for all ways to reach their existing and potential customers. Increased usage of local media outlets by national advertisers is just an example of that.

The post National Advertisers Spending in Local Markets appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Local B2B news sites always make sense to us. But they have largely been an exercise in frustration, with a lot of money being thrown at them to build local journalism and sales teams. Back in the late 1990s, sites such as Localbusiness.com ran through millions of dollars in an effort to quickly launch and dominate the space.

New players have come out in recent years with business models incorporating native advertising — content-oriented advertising that contextually fits with other content. One of them is Advance Publications’ Streetwise Media.

Initially launched as an entrepreneurial local Boston site named Boston Innovation (now BostInno), the founders have honed the model — including specialized news index technology that can automatically track news releases — and are now in several markets, including Boston, Washington DC and soon, Chicago. More markets are likely to come on board in the near future. Advance bought the company in 2012 and kept the team intact, seeing clear business synergies with its more traditional Business Journals, which are in 40 markets.

CEO and co founder Chase Garbarino tells us his rollout model is to enter a market and focus on the startup community and entrepreneurship. “Once we get an audience foothold, our publications develop,” he says.

Each city varies in terms of its editorial focus. “In DC, we have four full-time writers focused on advocacy, innovation and things like that,” he says. “In Boston, we’ve had a ton of success with the college vertical.” Advertisers have come to realize they need to do more with content marketing, he adds.

Streewise has an internal team that focuses on the native advertising sales, while BizJournals sells most of the company’s traditional display ads. The key, says Garbarino, is that the native advertising format enables the company to guarantee and sell engagement.

“It is not just impressions,” he says. “We can sell a half million impressions and guarantee one percent engagement; share content on LinkedIn and Twitter; and comment on it. It is not just used on the home page.”

The site’s technology also enables targeting around specific audiences. A campaign for Bentley Business School, for instance, focused on the value of having an MBA and was targeted to 20-somethings. The company does especially well with corporate workers and young working pros. While many B2B sites are focused on automation as a way to make them economical, Garbarino says that just won’t work. “The key to the model is having a local presence. You can’t do community and local news without being part of the community.”

The post Streetwise Media: Native Ads Go Hand in Hand with Local B2B Content appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Localizing ad campaigns via geo targeting and local sales is increasingly important. At BIA/Kelsey, of course, the importance of localization for digital ad sales is an article of faith.

Local Sales are not, however, part of the “A” list of impactful issues for media executives. In a poll of media executives attending Operative‘s Op/Ed 2014 event last week in Palm Desert, Local Sales ranked 7th out of 11 features that impact revenues.

It ranked as less impactful than Effectively Scaling Ad Ops; Changes in buying/RFPs; Consultative Selling; Mobile Monetization; Ineffective Technology; and Cross-platform Selling. Video Monetization; Third-party Data; Buy/Sell Automation; and Real-Time Bidding ranked lower than local.

The post Media Execs: ‘Local’ Sales Are 7th Most Impactful Revenue Issue appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Localizing ad campaigns via geo targeting and local sales is increasingly important. At BIA/Kelsey, of course, the importance of localization for digital ad sales is an article of faith.

Local Sales are not, however, part of the “A” list of impactful issues for media executives. In a poll of media executives attending Operative‘s Op/Ed 2014 event last week in Palm Desert, Local Sales ranked 7th out of 11 features that impact revenues.

It ranked as less impactful than Effectively Scaling Ad Ops; Changes in buying/RFPs; Consultative Selling; Mobile Monetization; Ineffective Technology; and Cross-platform Selling. Video Monetization; Third-party Data; Buy/Sell Automation; and Real-Time Bidding ranked lower than local.

The post Media Execs: 'Local' Sales Are 7th Most Impactful Revenue Issue appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.