CMO Today: AT&T Defends Time Warner Merger as Trump Era Approaches
09 December 2016 - 12:01AM
Dow Jones News
By Steven Perlberg
MAKING THE CASE: The CEOs of AT&T and Time Warner were on
Capitol Hill Wednesday to defend their proposed $85 billion merger,
The Wall Street Journal reports. And they were doing so in a tricky
political environment where President-elect Donald Trump has said
(before the election) that he wants to block the deal. The two
executives have maintained that their companies don't directly
compete and were joined by a high-profile ally, entrepreneur and
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who argued the blockbuster deal
is necessary to create another company with any hope of competing
with the likes of Facebook and Google, Recode notes. "A combined
entity at least gives them a chance to battle the dominant players
in the marketplace," Mr. Cuban said. As Politico reports,
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he "may well agree" with
Mr. Trump that the merger should be blocked, but he argued Mr.
Trump's aversion to the deal has more to do with his disapproval of
Time Warner-owned CNN's coverage. "There were comments made from
candidates on all sides, saying they were against the merger,
before any of them had information," Mr. Bewkes said, adding that
he is confident that regulators will evaluate the deal fairly.
AMAZON AD TECH: Amazon has been quiet about its advertising
business, but the e-commerce company is something of a sleeping
giant. And as CMO Today reports, Amazon is now pushing further into
ad tech with two new products. The first is a new "header bidding"
product which is designed to help publishers generate higher
revenue from their ad inventory by enabling multiple ad buyers,
including ad networks and ad agencies, to bid on ad space
simultaneously. Amazon's already in the header bidding game. The
twist with this product is that it's in the cloud, so that should
allow publishers to not slow down their page loads, according to
the company. Amazon is also rolling out a new analytics product
that uses its e-commerce data to help publishers better understand
who is visiting their sites. Given Amazon's vast trove of user
data, the company's advertising efforts are attracting marketers'
attention, but it's far from clear if the company can really
challenge Google and Facebook in the ad marketplace.
TRUMP MARKETING: Donald Trump's campaign was criticized for
focusing heavily on social media advertising when TV ads have long
been the formula to win over voters. But Jason Stein, CEO of social
media agency Laundry Service, said on the latest episode of the WSJ
Media Mix podcast that brands can learn something from Mr. Trump.
"He used Facebook data to not just inform the ads and the content
they were making, but actually to inform the messaging of his
speeches on the campaign trail. That's something brands really
don't do enough," Mr. Stein said. It's perhaps not surprising that
Mr. Stein would be arguing in favor of social media, given that his
firm specializes in creating social media-geared content for
marketers. He argues that the TV landscape is showing signs of
erosion this year, particularly through the NFL's ratings decline
and ESPN's subscriber losses. "There are way too many young people
who are not watching TV at all," he said. For more with Mr. Stein,
check out the episode and subscribe to the WSJ Media Mix podcast on
iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify or Stitcher.
MAGAZINE MOVES: Most magazine news these days has to do with
titles shutting down, but as WSJ reports, Hearst is readying a new
title in collaboration with food blogger Ree Drummond. The
magazine, called The Pioneer Woman, is in partnership with Food
Network-owner Scripps Networks Interactive, and the first issue
will be exclusively sold in Wal-Mart. "It is a little old school,
but one thing I've learned through having a blog and then having
cookbooks with some of the same recipes, is that people want to
hold something in their hand and kick back and read it," Ms.
Drummond said. Hearst says that it has found profitability in its
other magazines it has created via partnerships, like Dr Oz The
Good Life and Food Network Magazine. Meanwhile, Billboard reported
that Complex, which is owned by Hearst and Verizon, will cease
publishing its print magazine, and an unspecified number of
employees were laid off as part of the move.
Elsewhere
Interpublic acknowledged that one of its advertising agencies
has been contacted by the Justice Department as part of its probe
into whether agencies are manipulating pricing of contracts for ad
production. The ad holding company said it is cooperating with the
government. [ WSJ]
NBC aired live commercials during "Hairspray Live" Wednesday
night. Oreo and Reddi-wip were among brands whose ads were
integrated into the performance, featuring cast and crew. [ Ad
Age]
BuzzFeed has hired Mondelez marketing executive Laura Henderson
as senior vice president of marketing. Frank Cooper, the former
CMO, recently left BuzzFeed for asset manager BlackRock. [ CMO
Today]
Turner has signed an expanded deal with Snapchat. Bleacher
Report will launch on the app's Discover page and Turner networks
like TBS and TruTV will work with Snapchat to make original shows.
[ Variety]
Facebook's measurement miscalculation has led some brands and
agencies to rethink their spending on the platform. [ Marketing
Land]
Facebook is patenting a new tool to "identify objectionable
content," a feature that might be able to automate the removal of
fake news articles. [ The Verge]
Advertising tech company AdRoll has laid off about 50 employees.
The company has raised about $90 million in funding. [ Fortune]
Apple is in talks with the Hollywood studios for earlier,
high-priced rentals on new movies. Some studio executives have been
pushing to allow rentals as early as two weeks after a film debuts.
[ Bloomberg]
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 08, 2016 07:46 ET (12:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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