A week of media trade parties

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The perfect case study

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Media buying: Print up close (Part 2)

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Media buying: Print up close

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Media in the news

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The New Golden Boy of Media

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Let’s take a break from the heavy lectures. Last week we went to three out of four trade parties. This business of marketing media is very much alive and well even in times of today’s economic concerns – inflation is up to double-digit levels for the first time in recent memory and gas prices have increased by almost 50% since the start of the year, brought about by continuing record-high oil prices abroad; the peso is sliding against the dollar and stock market investors are losing value on their shareholdings by the day.

But media continues to be consumed just as much, if not more, because of the attention-grabbing headlines. Remember that media is as much a commodity as any other, and we consume it in various forms – wittingly or unwittingly – throughout each day. And so media marketers continue to be as aggressive as ever in wooing advertisers. For the broadcast media industry, in particular, advertisers are their only revenue source, so they have no choice but do their best in attracting them. Broadcasting is a strange and unique industry. It is the only business where the consumer and the client are not the same set of people. We watch our favorite shows, and listen to our favorite stations, hey, they will even air whatever song we request from the DJ (or at least they used to), and yet we do not pay them a single centavo for the service they provide. So who picks up the tab? The advertisers of course. What would we do without them?

First off, Monday saw about two hundred media buyers converge at the Rizal Ballroom of the Shangri-la Hotel in Makati for the National Geographic trade party. They talked about their new programs, showed impressive samples of their award-winning work – the kind of audio-visual productions that define the genre for which NatGeo is famous for, documentaries. Emphasis was of course on their HD programs. They also raffled off 42-inch Sanyo LCD screens, trips to Boracay, and cruises courtesy of Star Cruises.

Tuesday we were off to SMX, the big new convention hall beside SM Mall of Asia, for the ABS-CBN 2nd quarter trade party. Some of the new shows that they presented to us last quarter have not yet been shown, so they presented them to us again. Most memorable among these was the Anne Curtis starrer, “Dyosa.” The would-be goddess was there herself but this time she was no longer the hottest item on the visual menu onstage. It was Christine Reyes, younger sister of the more famous Ara Mina. Christine will star in a remake of an old film hit, “Eva Fonda.” The original movie made another local sexy star famous – Alma Moreno, and it is presumed that the show will do for Christine what the movie did for Alma. But the scene stealer was a young on-cam talent from ANC, the weather girl Gretchen Fulido from their late evening newscast, “The World Tonight.” She was going around the audience with a cameraman in tow ostensibly shooting materials for their morning show, “Mornings at ANC.”

Just for perspective, the last time we had a trade event at this venue, it was for GMA7, and we remember very distinctly how well they handled that event. It had an airline theme – the AE’s were all dressed like flight attendants, the gates had mock-up X-Ray machines, and the GMA7 officers were in pilot’s uniforms. The ABS set up, while tastefully done, was somehow missing that creative touch that advertising agencies expect from major network presentations. This does not reflect well on Charo Santos-Concio, the new president of ABS-CBN. People will always compare her to Freddie Garcia, and it will not be a flattering comparison if ABS continues to mount their events in such an unimaginative manner under her watch.

Thursday was set aside for DZMM and WRR-FM, the AM and FM stations of ABS-CBN in Metro Manila. Venue was A. Venue in Makati, on Makati Avenue. Charo Santos-Concio was there again, and in her speech, she stumbled a few times, obviously not familiar with the subject matter. They should have used a real teleprompter so that she wouldn’t have to look too far downwards at the plasma screen placed in front of her, below the stage. The opening number had ABS-CBN’s own radio executives led by Peter Musngi and Ariel Ureta do a medley of old songs. It was amusing, if not entertaining, especially after they joked that they had no budget for real entertainers so we had to put up with their singing. They had a more interesting number where Willie Nepomuceno took the audience on a trip down memory lane, mimicking several great names from radio’s illustrious past – Elvis, Neil Sedaka, Paul Anka.

Understandably, this last event was not as well attended as the bigger affair in SMX, even if both were organized by the same network. There are fewer advertisers on radio these days; a fact and a trend that had been screaming for attention many years running, but the radio industry simply has not found a way to reinvent themselves in the face of continuing audience migration to television, and from free TV to cable TV, and from there to the internet. Radio share in total adspend is now down to less than 20 percent, a sad reality considering radio remains the one true national medium, as many far-flung islands still do not have television. But then again, those radio listeners may not be as valuable to advertisers as they do not have the purchasing power that the advertisers are after. Reality check.

Media Buzz

The other VP from Universal McCann has also left the agency. Malu Vasallo has joined OMD to replace managing director Ador Perez, who retired earlier this year.

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