Other shoppers remain in business, such as American Classifieds (Thrifty Nickel) and many locally or regionally-owned Pennysavers. The name “Pennysaver” goes back to the 18th Century, and is not exclusive.

Our guess is that OpenGate didn’t see a clear path to profitability and decided to simply pull the plug (apparently, without paying final wages.) Core advertisers and consumers have many alternative options on Craigslist and other sources, and OpenGate didn’t seem to have a plan that would have upgraded Pennysaver to a hyperlocal, searchable and mobile-oriented model. That’s where things need to go.

We look across the aisle, for instance, to Cox Target Media’s Valpak, a coupons and advertising business. It has thrived on a hyperlocal publishing strategy, and has developed a robust digital strategy. Valpak has just announced a great Apple Watch app. But PennySaver wasn’t going there.

Theoretically, we still find Shoppers an appealing alternative sales channel. They are generally 100 percent commission, and many products could theoretically be added to their bundle (Google, et al). WebVisible, at one time, teamed up with American Classifieds to pursue such a model. PennySaver, itself, teamed up with Antengo, a mobile classifieds service. But that was discontinued when OpenGate came on board.

The post GoodBye Pennysaver: Is There Life Left in Shopper Publications? appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Automotive will drive $15.13 billion in local advertising in 2015. That’s according to BIA/Kelsey’s 2015 Insights into Local Advertising report released today.

The Automotive industry, which has returned to strong growth on improved economic conditions, low fuel prices and the largely unanticipated transportation needs of Millennials, who have become the largest car-buying generational cadre in the past year. We project the segment will continue to grow at a three-percent compound annual rate through 2019.

The Automotive category includes: 1. Auto dealers & manufacturers 2. Other motor vehicle dealers 3. Auto parts & accessory stores 4. Tire dealers 5. Gas stations & auto repair. Collectively, these auto segments account for 11.1 percent of all local advertising in the United States.

Car and light-truck advertising remains heavily dependent on television advertising, with 33.9 percent of local ad spend going to television. However, digital advertising is the sole growth category in automotive, increasing by 12 percent annually. BIA/Kelsey estimates that digital, which represented $2.78 billion in local spending in 2015, will account for 30 percent of automotive advertising by 2019. All of the anticipated $2.3 billion in market growth over the next five years will come in digital channels.

The report also examines the growing importance of Millennials to automotive industry growth, despite their long-reported indifference to driving. As they age into parenthood, Millennials are buying more cars than any other generation and can be expected to drive the industry’s transition to low- or no-carbon emissions and digital in-car entertainment and marketing.

“The auto industry and television came of age together as keystones of Twentieth-Century American culture,” said Dr. Mark Fratrik, report co-author, senior vice president and chief economist at BIA/Kelsey. “The two industries remain closely tied, with the auto industry being dependent on over-the-air television advertising, and all auto vertical subcategories relying heavily on traditional media to get their message to their audience. Looking forward though, digital is going to be very important by 2019, representing nearly one-third of automotive local ad spending.”

We also offer our guidance on preparing to use vehicle-generated data and in-dash displays, mobile and PC marketing, which will be responsible for much of the digital growth as the fleet turns over to a generation of digital-enabled cars and trucks. Location, personalization and programmatic advertising will be critical to connecting the in-car experience to marketing messages.

_________

The report is available for purchase in the BIA/Kelsey store. Advisory clients with portal access can login to download the report.

The post Digital Automotive Advertising Drives $15B in 2015 Local Revenues appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Not only are SMBs in the Professional Services vertical heavy users of Social Media for advertising and promotion, they are highly engaged on social media, according to LCM. 3/4 reported that they track “likes” in social media, while 57.4% monitor customer comments online.

There is a big opportunity with this group to offer CRM solutions because Professional Services SMBs stay connected with their customers but only 20% say they use a CRM system. 88.0% have maintained a customer list for a year or more, while an additional 6.4% have maintained a customer list for less than a year.

The full report can be viewed and downloaded by clients of BIA/Kelsey here. This report is one of a series of drill-down reports on the findings from Wave 18 of BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor? survey. In the coming weeks we will be looking at SMBs by additional vertical categories. Our Home and Trade Services SMB report is already available. To learn more about our LCM survey of small and medium-sized businesses, click here.

Click here to purchase the Professional Services SMBs — LCM Wave 18. To purchase any of our other Local Commerce Monitor drill-down reports, check out our new BIA/Kelsey Shop.

*Professional Services vertical includes consulting, legal, architecture, and computer software. Financial Services SMBs are not included, but will be profiled in their own vertical report.

The post Professional Services SMBs are Heavy Users of Social Media appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Today’s announcement that UT San Diego and its eight regional publications will be acquired by Tribune Publishing’s Los Angeles Times for a slightly better-than-fire sale price of $85 million (plus $100 million in pension liabilities) points to several things.

1. The price is probably a flat fee for the brand and expectations of selling regional advertising throughout southern California.
2. Individual components such as subscriber counts include a certain number of online subscribers. But there aren’t many online-only subs in this case.
3. UT San Diego’s various online and mobile services really aren’t factored in.

The U-T reported Sunday circulation of 271,564 for 1Q, 2015. On other days, circulation ranged between 169,484-222,479. The LA Times reported Sunday circulation of 965,598 and average weekday circulation of 650,718 for the six months that ended Sept. 30.

The LA Times will be able to save some costs with the acquisition by cutting circulation, printing, sales and perhaps, content costs. It will also more effectively sell regional accounts to large advertisers, specifically retailers, auto makers and auto dealers and medical. But in the end, online (or mobile) won’t be much of a factor.

That’s a shame. Back in 2002-2004, a former colleague of mine developed a general hypothesis that if a traditional media property could show recurring value in online properties, it would be able to boost its sale price by X percent — probably 20 percent or more. It was a major reason to double down on digital growth. But this clearly hasn’t happened.

I was chatting about this with BIA/Kelsey Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Mark Fratrik. He notes that online revenues accounted for 16.4 percent of newspaper revenue in 2014, and will be 17.9 percent in 2015. The forecast is for online revenues to grow slightly to 22.9 percent by 2019. This reflects some additional online revenue, but as he points out, it also reflects BIA/Kelsey’s expectations that print revenues will decline.

It is true that online could add value to traditional value property in some cases, says Fratrik. But San Diego is full of online competition from TV station sites, alternative sites and news start-ups.

The Times of San Diego, for instance, now reaches 150,000 unique users a month. Publisher Chris Jennewein — a former leader of UT San Diego’s digital operations — notes that 26 percent of his readers are aged 25-34 and seventy-five percent are under 55. “Our readers probably didn’t read either of the two newspapers to begin with,” he told me this morning via email.

For me, it is a sad situation. I lived in San Diego for 11 years, and occasionally did consulting projects for the newspaper. UT San Diego always had innovative online projects going on, and several strong leaders at the digital helm. It got deeply involved in email marketing services, online directories, Spanish language media, hyperlocal editions, premium iPad editions, video services, mobile headlines, entertainment publications, prepaid deals and loyalty services. But in the end, none of it seemed to matter very much.

The post UT San Diego Sale: Online Isn't Adding Value to Traditional Media Sale Prices appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

NCTA’s rebranded INTX: Internet & Television Expo (aka The Cable Show) finishes up today in Chicago. This show, like its sponsoring organization is having a bit of an identity crisis. Indeed, the name change may go beyond the show to its sponsoring organization.

Fourteen years ago, “NCTA” used to be an acronym for the “National Cable Television Association.” But on May 1, 2001 the Association changed its name to “National Cable & Telecommunications Association” in order to better reflect, “cable’s transformation from a one-way video supplier to a competitive supplier of advanced, two-way services including digital video, high-speed Internet, cable telephony and interactive TV.” To further reflect its evolutionary journey in self-identity, the NCTA’s iconic annual “The Cable Show” was rebranded as “INTX – Internet and Television Expo” to again reflect the industry’s transformation as it learns how to better focus on the digital media and entertainment economy. Now, there is some chatter that NCTA will once again change the name of the association, perhaps to NCTA: The Internet & Television Association: and just drop “cable” altogether.

What brave new world has cable entered? As FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler put it in his keynote address, “You deserve straight talk about what it means now that you are cable companies, video providers and network builders.” He then continued on to discuss his controversial stands on his “Open Internet Order” (i.e., net neutrality) and the Comcast/Time Warner acquisition he helped doom. Wheeler’s “straight talk” didn’t go over so well with the crowd. Liberty Global’s CEO Michael Fries drew robust applause in the panel following Wheeler’s keynote by saying, “I am baffled by the chairman’s remarks. There is a presumption of guilt for success I’ve never seen before.”

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts also had his moment during his otherwise business-like presentation about Comcast’s recent successes, including transitioning to a company serving more Internet than cable customers.

Roberts was showing off Comcast’s new Xfinity X1 remote control and user interface that responds to voice commands to bring up various viewing and other choices. “Show me the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger,” Roberts commanded. In response, we see on the big screen Van Diesel sprinting from a house that violently explodes just behind him in a scene from Furious 7. “That pretty much sums it up,” Roberts dead panned.

Beyond the rebranding, politics, and merger break-ups, it was clear from the various panels that industry leadership clearly is focusing on developing and executing on a new business order defined by ever more capable and integrated technology platforms, innovations in content and how users want to interact with this content, and interesting new ways to monetize an emerging set of services.

For example, Time Warner Cable’s EVP/COO Media Services Joan Gillman, who oversees TWC’s advanced advertising, data and interactive solutions for advertisers and network partners, was pressed into duty across several panels exploring monetization strategies. She led a a discussion with MediaLink’s president/COO Wenda Harris exploring the implications to cable providers, oops, I mean Internet and Television Providers, offering OTT services and the future of television advertising in a SVOD (subscription video on demand) world. Operators need to figure out the economics of linear television versus SVOD in ways that keep subscribers engaged and satisfied.

When it comes to the future of television and digital advertising, these worlds are meshing quickly, especially for the “not cable” industry as it leverages it data advantages in the fast breaking era of programmatic advertising. In a panel led by the Cable Advertising Bureau’s Sean Cunningham, Zachary Cunningham (ESPN), Billy Farina (Cox Media), Mark Lieberman (Viamedia) and Brett Wilson (TubeMogul) shared their views on programmatic.

Essentially, the takeaway is that programmatic is about all types of inventory including premium avails, audience targeting data, efficient and automated workflows in the buy/sell process, dynamically serving relevant content, better modeling attribution, and optimizing campaigns. Panelists estimated that by 2020 somewhere between 20% and 100% of television ad trading will be on programmatic platforms. The 20% comes from Lieberman’s assumption that it’s a totally automated process from the buyer’s perspective. The 100% comes from Wilson’s belief that the whole underlying system will be automated and programmatic, though actual trading likely will continue involve human creativity and negotiation in the mix.

Ultimately, the panel concluded that programmatic is just another sales channel. And everyone loses if the industry can’t figure out how to avoid channel conflicts between programmatic and good, old-fashioned human AEs who as direct sellers who will continue to drive high value returns on commercial inventory.

Across the program, content people consistently agreed it’s all about the content. The non-cable executives consistently agreed it’s all about creating compelling user experiences and satisfaction subscribers. Those in charge of generating revenue have to balance the cost of content with the ability to monetize it. What’s the better business? Well top-line revenue and margins tell different stories. Cablevision’s James Dolan put some numbers to it, “For every $1 in profit I make from television subscriptions, I make $7 in profit from selling broadband Internet connections.”

Well, good-bye cable and hello Internet.

The post INTX 2015 – Redefining the (Not) Cable Industry appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Local ad spending reached $137.9 billion in 2014, and will see a slight boost to $139.4 billion in 2015. We talked with BIA/Kelsey Chief Economist and SVP Mark Fratrik about the new research (interview below).

Every year, BIA/Kelsey issues a five-year forecast on local spending in the fall, and then updates it in the following spring based on full year reporting, current trends and anticipated events.

This year’s update shows more spending than originally forecast in 2014, and modest increases in our 2015 given several factors, including a rapid rise in mobile spending.

BIA/Kelsey: We’re seeing a slight uptick from our original forecasts for 2014-2015. What’s driving that?

Mark Fratrik: Local TV spending was stronger in 2014 than we predicted, primarily due to political advertising from many Senate, House and gubernatorial races. And television still drives local political spending, even though its overall growth rates are much lower than online. Television growth rates average 3-4 percent. Online growth is always in double digits, but starts at a much smaller base. To be sure, we aren’t downplaying the shift from traditional advertising to more digital/online/mobile outlets. These new media provide a more focused and efficient advertising vehicle for national and local advertisers to reach their audiences. The shift is especially felt in traditional print outlets, such as newspapers.

BIA/Kelsey: Hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, are being raised for the next presidential election. Won’t that drive spending with local television outlets?

Mark Fratrik: We should see an amazing amount of spending coming up in late 2015 into early 2016-15. With a tightly competitive Presidential race on the Republican side, it won’t just be in the early stats of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. And we want to make the point again about online and digital. While political campaigns are increasingly using digital outlets, local TV and cable still see a much larger part of that spending. They’re an important part of that message building.

BIA/Kelsey: The big new local channel is mobile. We see how the Internet pure plays like Google, Facebook and Yahoo are reporting that mobile revenues are moving towards parity with other digital advertising.

Mark Fratrik: Mobile is driving most of the change in the digital space, gaining traction with advertisers, and jumping to an 11.5 percent share of the media pie by 2019 from 3.1 percent a year ago. We are constantly updating and increasing our estimates for mobile spending . By 2019, it will be the fourth highest channel for local media spending in terms of share. Mobile is also driving our increased forecast for social media spending, which will grow by almost 1/3, or 31 percent.

BIA/Kelsey: We’re seeing a lot of activity for digital audio services like Pandora, I Heart Radio and Spotify. How much will they impact local spending, and especially, traditional radio?

Mark Fratrik: Radio is a good illustration of the gap between digital and traditional media revenues. Take Pandora. It will generate nearly $153 million in 2014 in local advertising revenue, which represents really healthy growth. But that is just $153 million of $139 billion in local media spending. And it is only in the Top 50 markets. Conversely, Radio stations continuously to basically hold its own with $14.4 billion in over-the-air advertising spending in 2015, or 10.3 percent.

Chief Economist and SVP Mark Fratrik

The post $139 Billion in Local Ads: The Word with BIA/Kelsey Chief Economist Mark Fratrik appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

This is the first post in our new series, Vantage Points. On a semi-weekly basis, it will tap the perspectives of various lookout points from around the local media and tech sectors. Though the format, frequency and distribution will develop, please contact mbolandATbiakelsey if you have insights to share. The views expressed within do not necessarily reflect those of BIA/Kelsey.

In Broadcast Media, Legacy Doesn’t Have to Carry a Curse

By Maribeth Papuga

“We didn’t reinvent the circus: we packaged it in a much more modern way, but basically we took an art form which is known,with a lot of dust on it, where people had basically forgot that it could be something else than what they knew about, and we basically organized for ourselves a creative platform.” — Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, 2011

Challenged by an industry that is rewriting the rules while the ecosystem expands, local legacy media must repackage itself in a more modern way. Like other industries, traditional processes and procedures prevail for lack of any viable and collective alternative. Local market broadcast stations have the further burden of regulatory and content restrictions that create complacency and aversion to alter predictable models.

These stations have faced fiscal and competitive entertainment challenges for decades with focused response on improving structural attractiveness through mergers and acquisitions; but long term growth models are dependent on a structure and culture of vertical integrations, hierarchical decision making and risk aversion. Real and substantial opportunities will not prevail unless broader entrepreneurial thought leadership, an open and inclusive business environment and a willingness to shift direction is adopted by all.

Rather than react to headlines or seek answers in a homogenized national marketplace, local broadcasters should concentrate on disrupters in their own markets and their impact on local consumers. These startups create new products and services by thinking unconventionally and expanding their ability to solve problems. With better access to locally sourced data, economic development and demographic shifts taking place in local markets it is unfathomable that the solutions would not come from these centers versus a national aggregator. And yet, this is precisely a direction that many leaders are headed by following nationally driven initiatives.

Its time legacy media concentrate on challenging traditional models, expanding collaborative partnerships and using academia as a key lever for innovation and talent.

Take the Lead

Today’s media environment is flush with new products that elicit both consumer and marketing adoption in lieu of legacy options. This reality has forced traditional owners to find ways to mimic these new offerings with incomparable options by adopting tactics related to impressions and programmatic selling; without fully understanding that the underlying framework will not only make this a difficult comparison but take them further away from the core value they offer their audiences, advertisers and investors.

Think Horizontally

The economics of managing change in today’s divergent marketplace will not enable any one company or channel to create an all-inclusive model. By adopting the practices set forth by local mayors and business development teams through collective problem solving among civic, private, academic and philanthropic resources; broadcasters can build bridges to connect multiple parties to identify shared resources that collectively address their unique market circumstances and promote broader solutions. Underlying these new initiatives is a framework for prosperity that is collaborative, entrepreneurial and network based to drive future focused initiatives Through a more collaborative market structure, legacy media owners can better avail themselves to both nurture and develop a stronger playbook for the future.

Back to School

The role of universities has been significant in feeding broadcast owners talent needs for decades. As technology evolves, the journalism and engineering students are migrating toward new options that appeal to their future forward goals. Much of this interest is born through on campus experience as universities promote inclusive entrepreneurial thought leadership across departments and majors. Legacy vendors should look to universities as the resource lever to help develop and launch innovative solutions against market objectives for more future forward growth targets. Tapping universities in a more disciplined way can foster faster development of new models and solutions to audience measurement, content relevance, device affinity and the interactive value in the local market.

Redefine the Market

A new media ecosystem fueled by entrepreneurial values, new tactics and rules has forced legacy media to become more defensive by following incomparable trends. While entrepreneurial ecosystems take time to develop, that is no reason to retain vertical industry decision making weighted toward an aggregated solution. People live in local markets and legacy media leaders still service these individuals in their own backyard. By following a simple truth that enables the market and its audiences to be the leading source for innovative solutions, the sum of these individual efforts will open up far more possibilities for future growth. If not, legacy leaders could risk further redundancy among consumers, advertisers and investors.

Maribeth Papuga is a 25+ year advertising veteran with specialization in local market media planning and buying. The majority was spent leading the local practice at MediaVest and predecessor DMB&B.

The post Vantage Points: “Legacy” Shouldn’t be a Bad Word appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

This is the first post in our new series, Vantage Points. On a semi-weekly basis, it will tap the perspectives of various lookout points from around the local media and tech sectors. Though the format, frequency and distribution will develop, please contact mbolandATbiakelsey if you have insights to share. The views expressed within do not necessarily reflect those of BIA/Kelsey.

In Broadcast Media, Legacy Doesn’t Have to Carry a Curse

By Maribeth Papuga

“We didn’t reinvent the circus: we packaged it in a much more modern way, but basically we took an art form which is known,with a lot of dust on it, where people had basically forgot that it could be something else than what they knew about, and we basically organized for ourselves a creative platform.” — Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, 2011

Challenged by an industry that is rewriting the rules while the ecosystem expands, local legacy media must repackage itself in a more modern way. Like other industries, traditional processes and procedures prevail for lack of any viable and collective alternative. Local market broadcast stations have the further burden of regulatory and content restrictions that create complacency and aversion to alter predictable models.

These stations have faced fiscal and competitive entertainment challenges for decades with focused response on improving structural attractiveness through mergers and acquisitions; but long term growth models are dependent on a structure and culture of vertical integrations, hierarchical decision making and risk aversion. Real and substantial opportunities will not prevail unless broader entrepreneurial thought leadership, an open and inclusive business environment and a willingness to shift direction is adopted by all.

Rather than react to headlines or seek answers in a homogenized national marketplace, local broadcasters should concentrate on disrupters in their own markets and their impact on local consumers. These startups create new products and services by thinking unconventionally and expanding their ability to solve problems. With better access to locally sourced data, economic development and demographic shifts taking place in local markets it is unfathomable that the solutions would not come from these centers versus a national aggregator. And yet, this is precisely a direction that many leaders are headed by following nationally driven initiatives.

Its time legacy media concentrate on challenging traditional models, expanding collaborative partnerships and using academia as a key lever for innovation and talent.

Take the Lead

Today’s media environment is flush with new products that elicit both consumer and marketing adoption in lieu of legacy options. This reality has forced traditional owners to find ways to mimic these new offerings with incomparable options by adopting tactics related to impressions and programmatic selling; without fully understanding that the underlying framework will not only make this a difficult comparison but take them further away from the core value they offer their audiences, advertisers and investors.

Think Horizontally

The economics of managing change in today’s divergent marketplace will not enable any one company or channel to create an all-inclusive model. By adopting the practices set forth by local mayors and business development teams through collective problem solving among civic, private, academic and philanthropic resources; broadcasters can build bridges to connect multiple parties to identify shared resources that collectively address their unique market circumstances and promote broader solutions. Underlying these new initiatives is a framework for prosperity that is collaborative, entrepreneurial and network based to drive future focused initiatives Through a more collaborative market structure, legacy media owners can better avail themselves to both nurture and develop a stronger playbook for the future.

Back to School

The role of universities has been significant in feeding broadcast owners talent needs for decades. As technology evolves, the journalism and engineering students are migrating toward new options that appeal to their future forward goals. Much of this interest is born through on campus experience as universities promote inclusive entrepreneurial thought leadership across departments and majors. Legacy vendors should look to universities as the resource lever to help develop and launch innovative solutions against market objectives for more future forward growth targets. Tapping universities in a more disciplined way can foster faster development of new models and solutions to audience measurement, content relevance, device affinity and the interactive value in the local market.

Redefine the Market

A new media ecosystem fueled by entrepreneurial values, new tactics and rules has forced legacy media to become more defensive by following incomparable trends. While entrepreneurial ecosystems take time to develop, that is no reason to retain vertical industry decision making weighted toward an aggregated solution. People live in local markets and legacy media leaders still service these individuals in their own backyard. By following a simple truth that enables the market and its audiences to be the leading source for innovative solutions, the sum of these individual efforts will open up far more possibilities for future growth. If not, legacy leaders could risk further redundancy among consumers, advertisers and investors.

Maribeth Papuga is a 25+ year advertising veteran with specialization in local market media planning and buying. The majority was spent leading the local practice at MediaVest and predecessor DMB&B.

The post Vantage Points: "Legacy" Shouldn't be a Bad Word appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Brand advertisers find that striking a balance between traditional and digital media advertising is key to their success at the local level.

During a panel at BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL in Dallas today, brand marketers from across different business categories described on how they manage their localized marketing and advertising activities. The conversation focused on the unique challenges that emerge when blending efforts to gain new customers with promoting brand awareness. In Short: customer acquisition is a common theme for service-oriented businesses, brand awareness is a secondary concern.

Driving more customers to local businesses is the most important goal, said Dave Moody, Director of Field Marketing at Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning. Online marketing is only as useful as the actual revenue it drives back to local service branches, he said. “A click doesn’t mean much to me. The end goal for us is to get into a customer’s home, and we’ve worked on our SEO and search marketing efforts to drive more calls and requests for appointments.”

Service Experts has shifted their online strategy from search marketing (SEM) spending to direct-response offerings.

“We’re not paying for a lot of ads, we’re more invested in a pay-per-call advertising, including yellow pages and direct mail,” Moody said. That sentiment was echoed by Keith Dailey, Director of Internet Marketing for UniGroup, the parent company of United Van Lines. He added that in addition to creating a channel for driving more leads to local locations, an objective that guides marketing strategy for UniGroup is ensuring that location listings are consistently maintained and always accurate.

UniGroup works with an outside agency to manage the hundreds of local United Van Lines branches across the country, as well as managing where listings information appears online.

“We work with an agency to manage our listings across the board,” Daily said. “The majority of UniGroup’s listing management is automated, but they run into [data and customer preference] inconsistencies that drive the need to make manual changes on the fly.” He added that the need to manage listings manually is driven by where they are hosted: “It also depends on where the listings are located — some services like FourSquare and Yelp require more manual review to ensure accuracy and consistency.”

When asked about whether digital marketing accounts for the majority of their companies’ focus, all the panelists noted that they still rely on a mix of traditional and digital media. There was general agreement that the combination of old and new media drives the most impactful ROI for their brands. For Service Experts, the split leads to 35 percent to 40 percent of marketing spend going to digital, with the remainder focused on traditional pay-per-call offerings like direct mail and the yellow pages.

One brand advertiser offered a very different perspective from the service-oriented companies on stage. Brooks Brothers, a global retailer of men’s and women’s clothing, noted that for their business SEO drives brand awareness and e-commerce engagement. The company, which celebrated their 197th anniversary this year, has established a digital brand that is well known across markets, and it focuses their marketing efforts on keeping their brand top of mind with its consumer base online.

Mike Walker, SEO Specialist for Brooks Brothers, noted that a unique challenge his company faces relates to how it markets their multiple sub-brands, such as the recently launched Black Fleece. Using digital channels, Brooks Brothers aims for brand segmentation even in markets where the core Black Fleece audience is nearly the same as their Brooks Brothers brand.

“From an SEO standpoint it can be a challenge,” Walker said. “We offer a similar product across our entire Black Fleece sub-brand that we offer within our primary brand, and it lends to our brands almost competing with each other.” He noted that when managing multiple brands in a single market, cannibalization of audience share has to be constantly monitored.

The conversation was one of many that will take place this week at BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL, with more brand advertisers, their vendors and marketers scheduled to talk about the current state of marketing at the local level.

The post At BIA/Kelsey NATIONAL: Talking to Brands From Different Verticals appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Interestingly, traditional local media has a disproportionate share of 2015 spending (87.2 percent). Yet, the online/digital local will grow substantially in the next few years, reaching 20 percent by 2019. This online/digital will be with pure plays, as well as the traditional media that have expanded their services and see the opportunities with this group of advertisers. These health care providers will be extremely interested in greater integration of digital marketing services.

More information on this vertical advertising spending is now available in the recently released report, Insights in Local Advertising – Health Care Vertical, which examines traditional and digital spending trends, profiles the market ad share by media, and details the advertising trends of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

To read the executive summary of this report, just click on “Insights in Local Advertising – Health Care Vertical.“

The post Health Care Vertical – Important to Understand for All Local Media appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.