Mediaboss Marketing

By John Consoli -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/16/2012 2:25:50 PM One of Turner's messages to marketers and their media agencies at its Wednesday upfront presentation was that spending ad dollars across the company's assorted digital platforms, which offer proven entertainment and news content, will be a better bet than putting promotional dollars into neophyte video-streamed content being offered by myriad social networks and former search engines wanting to become programmers.

Greg D'Alba, president, CNN and Turner Digital Sales, and Walker Jacobs, executive VP, Turner Digital Sales, spoke with MBPT prior to the presentation about the media company's strategy, offering an overview of how they plan to market digital in the upfront.

What is the main message you want advertisers to take with them regarding Turner's digital offerings?Greg D'Alba: The notion that content is king exists, and we have moved our content to where, when and how the consumer wants to watch it. There are so many new video options coming into the marketplace, but premium content is the best place for marketers to surround their ad messages. It's going to be the best brand of video content that draws the most dollars. Some platforms selling only digital video have touted their ability to offer specific audience targeting and have said content is less important than reaching the target audience. They will find out that content and trusted media brands are really the most important. The best content is going to be the driver of digital sales in this upfront. We are looking forward to having buyers compare our content to these digital video-only companies.

Walker Jacobs: There has been so much talk in the past month about the digital NewFront and the emerging digital marketplace. We've watched it unfold and we haven't seen any robust demand by marketers to buy any new digital video content from online companies through a NewFront marketplace. But we have seen demand to buy television across multiplatforms and multiscreens and that is what we offer. We feel this is the way the market will buy video, through traditional TV companies that are offering their quality content across all screens. I believe the leadership in digital spending will come from traditional TV buyers who will want to buy more across all screens in one buy and in doing so, will move some TV dollars into digital.

How do you view this upfront in terms of potential digital ad spending? D'Alba: We anticipate this upfront will be strong and there will be significant growth in video ad spending outside of traditional television. There is no doubt about it; our intention is to grow our digital ad revenue substantially in this upfront. We have made the infrastructure changes to make it easier to buy and easier for us to assist the buyers. On top of our entertainment sales, the presidential election year will make our digital sales even stronger on the news side.

How has the Turner's digital operation evolved?Jacobs: About five years ago, the Turner entertainment, news and sports businesses each had a few digital people who worked with their ad sellers. But we recognized the need to develop more scale when selling digital, so we combined Turner Entertainment and Turner Sports to sell digital together. Then we recently restructured again, adding CNN Digital to Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital to create Turner Digital Sales.

D'Alba: We have reorganized ourselves to make it easier for clients who work with us, and to be able to respond to what they are asking us for. We have attached our digital unit to the hip of our entertainment, news and sports divisions.

Jacobs: We are being more collaborative with our clients about where they spend their money and how they plan their campaigns.

D'Alba: When Turner brought Donna Speciale in to head up sales of our entertainment inventory, and put me in charge of news and digital, that specialization brought our units closer together. We are not selling by screen but by content opportunity and we are cooperating across all of our divisions.

What are some examples of the synergy across digital platforms?Jacobs: There's a TeamCoco.com, the Conan show, TBS synergy. The Team Coco tablet app, presented by launch sponsor AT&T, allows advertisers to connect with fans of Conan O'Brien's show on TBS. The app provides synchronized content delivered in real-time, while Conan's hyper-connected fans watch the show. Conan has about 7.7 million followers across social media and we have opportunities that tap into that audience. Each episode of Conan on TBS features up to 25 different pieces of bonus content delivered through the Team Coco app and synchronized with elements with the show.

Read more:
Turner's Digital Execs Bet Their Content Will Draw Big Upfront Dollars