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Newsletter Archive - News U Can Use

News U Can Use

03/06/2008 - These news items are brought to you by Kuk, Baldwin & Associates:

PIZZA NEWS. Heavy competition keeps driving the $32 billion-a-year pizza business to more menu breakthroughs and increased uses of high-tech innovations – in spite of fast-rising costs for ingredients. For example, a few chains like Figaro’s now offer “raw” pizzas for later baking at home. Others like Red Brick Pizza are putting heavier emphasis on healthful toppings (sold at higher price points), while a NY independent turns customers into walking billboards by giving away over 200 logo T-shirts weekly. And now, Domino’s lets customers track their pizza orders online from the moment the order is placed. So ask your pizzeria advertisers what’s new with them (USA Today, 1/30/08; Restaurant News, 1/28/08).

CLOSETS. The US custom closet business generates $4 billion a year of revenue, double that of 2002 – or an average of about $36 per household. That doesn’t seem like much, but in a 60,000 household area, for example, it’s almost $2.2 million of business a year for closet specialists and remodelers. And since customers routinely spend $4000 to $5000 per closet (according to the California Closets franchise), relatively few customers are needed to make a Yellow Pages ad pay off with a handsome ROI. Right now, there are over 2000 closet specialists in the US, mostly in larger cities (Smart Money, 3/08).

ALTERNATIVE CARE. Look for headings like “Acupuncture” and “Yoga Instruction” to expand in the coming year – since several top US hospitals, including academic medical centers, now offer alternative therapies as part of their total treatment programs for a variety of disorders. Some of these therapies also make good YP ad copy for hospitals that offer them. Besides acupuncture and yoga, new offerings may include touch therapy, reiki, homeopathy, reflexology, and herbals. In any case, asking a hospital administrator about them can be a good way to get fact-finding going (US News & World Report, 1/21/08).

Find out how to be at the top of your sales performance by clicking on www.kukbaldwin.com.

One view – 2008 will be a recession-proof ad market.

It should come as no surprise that advertising spending usually plunges when economic growth slows. But some industry pundits still say 2008 will be a solid year overall for media advertising despite the slowing economy mostly due to the Olympics, the never ending U.S. presidential election, and European football championship.

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10567459

Another View -- Online ad sector likely to withstand economic slowdown

Another media monitoring group says that despite an ongoing economic slowdown likely to prompt marketers to cut back their ad spending in most areas, the online segment which grew by 27% last year will continue to grow in 2008, this according to IDC analyst Karsten Weide. The IDC report did show the first slowdown ever in Google's domestic sales growth, with the company's share of the U.S. Net ad market at 50% in Q3 versus 40% in Q4.

http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628407

Forbes – Local Ad budgets Hit First

Forbes also notes that when the economy slips, marketing budgets often get the ax first, although not all in the same way. Their view is that among those already cutting back are local retailers and service providers like mom-and-pop stores, attorneys, dentists and others who tend to be more sensitive to changes in the economy.

Ad spending by such local businesses has dropped fast, rising just 2.3% in the first nine months of 2007 from an 11% growth pace during the first nine months of 2006, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

While TNS sees total U.S. ad expenditures up 4.2% this year on spending on political campaigns and the Olympics, it may be masking weakness in some core ad markets. And among the biggest sectors apt to cut back is financial services, retail banks and mortgage lenders.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/01/31/advertising-media-newspapers-biz-cx_lh_0131ads.html?partner=msn

Newspaper’s Want to be in Internet Advertising Too

While their print editions continued to slide, newspapers enjoyed an online audience boom in 2007, according to the Newspaper Association of America, which says the total unique audience for newspaper Web sites increased 9% in the fourth quarter to an average 62.8 million per month, compared to the same period in 2006, The figure from October, when 63.2 million people visited a newspaper Web site, is an all-time record.

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=75047&Nid=38644&p=221362

Magazines and the Internet – Me too, Me Too

The top 320 magazine Websites received on average 67.5 million unique visitors per month during the fourth quarter of 2007, an 8.1% jump from the same period in 2006, according to Web data collected by Nielsen Online and compiled by the Magazine Publishers of America.

http://www.magazine.org/Press_Room/MPA_Press_Releases/26104.cfm

TB Advertising Less Effective

TV advertising isn't as potent as it once was--especially in the last two years. A recent survey by the Association of National Advertisers and Forrester Research says 62% of marketers believe TV is less effective since 2006. As a result many TV marketers are interested in exploring new digital platforms for video commercials.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/marketers-tv-advertising-less-effective-than-two-years-ago-3521/

One view -- Google Keywords Cost More But Deliver Less

Dave McCarthy believes that Google is changing the keyword game. He offers suggestions on what businesses (and knowledgeable Yellow Pages account executives – my words not his) what you need to do to stay ahead of the curve.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/18193.asp

Mobile Advertising – Promise Not Yet Realized

Undeterred by small audiences and a confusing jumble of formats, Web companies, handset makers and marketers are betting on a future in which consumers everywhere carry around an advertising screen in their pocket. At present, however, the promise of mobile advertising is unfulfilled, this article says.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120276808818360241.html?mod=dist_smartbrief

Super Bowl Ads Ok, big Winner – Ad Metrics

Sarah Mahoney writing for the MediaPost believes the clear winner in this year's Super Bowl advertising competition wasn’t the ads themselves, but more the booming business of ad metrics. Did you notice that the USA Today's Ad Meter was even referenced by name in a Hyundai spot? Of course, the Wall Street Journal had their rankings, as well as Hey! Nielsen (online division of Nielsen). Guess you can’t tell the players without a scorecard of the metrics providers??

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=75779&Nid=39028&p=221362