Integrating Advertising PACKAGES

JENNIFER PENDLETON

A move toward cross-media marketing deals provides advertisers another way to play the game.

With the holiday shopping season at hand, Sony PlayStation has turned to the Fox empire to promote its Cool Boarders 2001 snowboarding video game as part of a TV/web/ print/radio marketing strategy as complex as moving pieces on a chess board.

Starting in December, kid viewers of Fox Family Channel and the broadcast network's Fox Kids afternoon and Saturday morning dayparts will see pitches for the "Fox Kids Shreddin' Boarders Sweepstakes." Sony PlayStation is also touting the sweepstakes in ads in Fox Kids magazine, plus spots on Fox's syndicated Fox Family Countdown radio show.

Is it a coincidence Sony opted for all things Fox? Hardly. It's the latest manifestation of Fox Family Worldwide's continuing efforts to sell advertisers "integrated" advertising packages, a strategy that's taken hold in this era of rapid media consolidation.

Fox is not alone. Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting Sales organization also uses a similar sales strategy, as does the numerous tentacles of the Walt Disney-ABC organization, and Viacom, with its Viacom Plus program, selling advertisers across its ever-growing list of media properties.

"There's no question this is a trend," says Ed Erhardt, president-customer marketing and sales, ESPN/ABC Sports. "We are no longer a purveyor of eyeballs, but a purveyor of ideas."

Media sales executives say the momentum is growing. ESPN/ABC's Erhardt, for example, says this year his organization had 15 integrated ad deals with a total estimated value of $100 million (compared to three or four in 1999) and anticipates striking more than 30 in 2001.

Fox Family Worldwide, which reorganized its sales operation to stay abreast of the trend, has at least six of these across-Fox properties transactions percolating now for the coming year, according to Barbara Bekkedahl, EVP-ad sales.

In some cases, the deals have helped build revenues at the organization's online business units, a plus for an industry still grappling with how to best sell major national advertisers on its effectiveness as an advertising medium.

First, a little background. The concept isn't new. As long ago as the 1980s, large media firms, such as Disney, routinely touted the merits of "synergy," using various business units for cross-promotion to achieve greater marketing effect than each could independently.

Today, the buzzword is "integration." When an advertiser or media buyer calls a diversified media company seeking to buy commercial time or space, the media company is primed to pitch an ad package across an ever-widening stable of broadcast, cable, radio, print, outdoor and online properties. Again, the idea is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The media company's motivation: gaining market share.

The pitch: "We can help you, the advertiser, better tap sometimes elusive targets at a time of media fragmentation."

This means the Viacoms and Turners of the world are presenting themselves as more than peddlers or order takers, but professionals with an outlook that extends beyond landing commissions.

"Every client has different goals and objectives," says Charles Theiss, SVP-Turner Broadcasting Sales' interactive operations. "There's branding involved."

This requires moving beyond traditional quoting of ratings points on television or hits (or unique visitors) on Web sites for more nuanced methods. Sometimes that involves promotions that direct targets to editorial or commercial elements in the participating media or demonstrations on how advertisers can reach hard-to-nab target audiences with specific combinations. Turner, for example, sometimes touts pairings of cable and Internet to advertisers intent on reaching upscale, lighter TV viewers.

"We are not looking at the Web as a one-off," Theiss says.

Making this work means making it as easy as possible for advertisers. Fox Family Worldwide reorganized its sales operation for its kid-oriented properties last year, consolidating ad sales for Fox Family Channel, Fox Kids Network, Fox Kids magazine, Fox Family Countdown radio show and Fox Kids.com under one roof to address advertising agency concerns.

"One of the complaints agency people had was that they had to deal with so many different sales people before," Bekkedahl explains.

"Now, we've brought it all together."

According to some sales executives, the integrated approach is boosting the bottom line, particularly helping some units land sales they wouldn't otherwise.

"There's no question that type of cross-media deal has had an impact on online sales," says ESPN/ABC's Erhardt. He says more than $10 million in new ad revenues to the ESPN Internet group at last spring's upfront were as a result of integrated deals. (The ESPN Internet group includes ABC Sports.com, ESPN.com, EXPN.com, NASCAR Online, NBA.com, NFL.com and Soccernet.)

Likewise, ESPN the Magazine, which struggled in vain to land beer advertisers, has grabbed substantial incremental business (from Beck's, Sam Adams and Budweiser, to name a few). Erhardt credits the integrated approach.

"Frankly, in the old days, the magazine guys couldn't even get a hearing with the beers (advertisers)," he says. "Now that they are part of an integrated package, we put them in a position where they have favored nation status."

So what's Madison Avenue's view? Media buyers say advertisers are clamoring for creative ways to spend ad dollars effectively, no easy task at a time when audiences splinter in an unfolding universe of television channels, magazines, radio and Internet sites. They welcome integrated packages that will help them do that. But a common refrain is: Why are there no price breaks when advertisers sign on for these elaborate, integrated commitments?

"I have yet to see that it's a better deal," says Joanne McGill, president of CIA USA, New York, a media buying service that represents Barnes & Noble, Guinness Brand Import Co., Volvo, plus others. She says media companies make it appear they're giving a CPM (cost per thousand) advantage when advertisers buy all the pieces, but careful analysis often reveals otherwise. At most media companies, the different units are separate revenue streams, each with their own agendas and sales goals. Media buyers say they are aware of the internal conflicts.

"In order for me to take 30% or 40% of my budget to this group, you've got to show me the value," McGill says. "Where I can go back to my client and say, `We're giving these guys a bigger piece of our pie, but I was able to put this (discounted) offer together.'"

Donna Speciale, SVP/director of national broadcast at MediaCom, part of Grey Global Group, concurs.

"From a buyer's perspective, if you are looking for efficiencies, this is not the answer," she says.

She sees value in it as a way to build a marketing platform.

"It's not about buying GRPs (gross ratings points) anymore, because the marketplace is more fragmented," she says. "It's about building a brand, giving a product more legs, not just buying more media."