Media Tonic

Now there’s a headline that wouldn’t have made any sense ten years ago. The rest of this post covers off latest developments in Subscription TV as they relate to the West Australian market.

Subscription television numbers continue to grow nationally; current rate of growth is 5% (Dec 09 vs Dec 08). WA is a poster child for subscription growth; penetration here is now 32% of All People (OzTAM). That’s one percentage point behind Melbourne; remarkable given our late start…

MCN continues to show Free To Air stations a clean pair of heels technologically; the free iPhone ap lets IQ subscribers (55% of Foxtel households) check schedules two weeks in advance, remotely record programs and set reminders. They can also access Green Button advertising; click during a TVC to download content to the IQ hard drive. Gives rise to some cute interactive possibilities where you use a single ad to trigger a story, a competition or an information package.

XBOX Live users can now subscribe to Foxtel without the need for a set top box. This targets young people who move house often.

Mobile Foxtel already has 100,000 subscribers and ad packages are available separately for that medium.

MCN has a presentation which discusses the (extensive) cannibalisation of FTA by their new digital stations. Happy to send you a copy under cover of darkness.

Brian Walsh says Foxtel are “now Australia’s first choice in home entertainment”; probably a fair call. If you’d like to discuss a campaign or debate the stats, hit the green button on your iPhone now. 9388 7844.

Campaign Brief runs the Media Organisation of the Year Award. Congrats to the Nine sales team and Austereo who picked up the top two positions. Media Tonic came in equal sixth, up from tenth last year.

It’s judged by 35 senior media managers around town on criteria like service efficiency, proactivity and innovation, delivery on promises and demonstrated understanding of client businesses. There are no points for sucking up to Campaign Brief.

Should there be a nickname for the award? [The Pinnacles? The Mooty?] and/or a perpetual trophy for the Media Organisation of the Year? [A Cadillac Eldorado?]

Anyhow, if you’re not currently dealing with Media Tonic, you should. Because we’re like, sixth best at this stuff.

No, not an oxymoron. A survey of the buying intentions of 1,972 American media planners. Planned spend for non-traditional media next year exceeds traditional. The full survey costs US$495, not unreasonable considering they work out of the Acropolis.

Subscription TV continues to improve its position relative to free-to-air. OzTAM results for the first half of 2009 show Subscription up 4.1% in metro and FTA down 1.5%. Subscription has a larger audience share than any free-to-air network with 23.2%. Ten Network on 17.4%. ABC 12.7%.

We’d be buying shares in Consolidated Media too if we were Kerry Stokes.

So the numbers are in on another half year. If you’d like a personal briefing on who’s doing what to whom, have your people call their people on 9388 7844. Source. Ukulele Music.

The third in a series of video studies commissioned by Media Tonic on the subject of consumer behaviour.

Unfortunately their website does not. The new site set up to market the newspaper media is not quite ready for publication. Search for ‘The Australian’, ‘The West Australian’, ‘Sydney Morning Herald’; zero results. Most things in the Media Toolbox don’t work. There is a Newspaper Locator and if they get that working, that would be great, because I can never remember which room I left it in.

Well actually they chose MCN, who Media Tonic represent in Western Australia. Details, details.

1.5 million unique visitors a month visit the foxsports.com.au site. In 2008 the most viewed sports web site in Australia. In August it was 18% ahead of 2007 levels.

So as a result of this very sensible re-alignment, you now have the ability to combine TV sport and online in a single buy. Or, as we like to say, a Powerful and Valuable Multimedia Sports Proposition. If you call us to discuss, we can say it to you over the phone. Dave or Mark: 9388 7844

BWS FM and BWS Digital Screens are new ad networks set up by TorchMedia within Australia’s largest liquor retailer (2.17 million customers per month). Clients wanting influence at point of purchase can now buy advertising that reaches only the buyer. Plus nobody has to listen to Howard Sattler.

Torch has constructed these ad networks after researching purchase behaviour. For example, three-quarters of buyers spend less than five minutes in-store so ad frequency needs to account for that.

BWS Digital Screens offer 10 second spots (ads run four times in a six minute loop) with 20% of broadcast time allocated to news, sport and weather. (People like that stuff). There are 47 locations in WA; they are LIVE in September. Flash or MPEG; no TVCs.

BWS FM is a fully fledged radio station with 48 minutes of contemporary music per hour. A client can buy six fifteen-second ads in that time. In WA, it’s a 40 store coverage – goes live at the end of December.

Packages make combining radio and screens financially attractive. Overall, the extreme targeting at the pointy end of the sales process makes this (we argue) a very smart alternative to MSM. Call Dave or Mark at the top of the hour and request a song for the one you love. Or more sales information. 9388 7844.

MCN’s new web site is waaaay ahead of the pack in terms of product detail and downloadable content. It includes customisable PowerPoint presentations, media packs, complete material requirements and specifications and hopelessly thorough channel information. In the channels section you can specify a demographic or a genre and the database filters the channels down to those relevant. Big time saver.

Yes. But. Is there a competition hook? Will they lavish prizes on me with a launch promotion? Indeed: Media Tonic provide the following clickable image for your convenience …

mcn.com.au

Orbit Health and Fitness Solutions have come to the sponsorship party and engaged Eagles captain Darren Glass as a brand ambassador. It’s a two year deal. Coincidentally, Darren had been into Orbit a couple of weeks before the sponsorship was proposed and spent some of the heard-earned.

Darren is managed by our partners at IMG and Media Tonic brokered the deal with Peter Hodgson, Orbit’s Managing Director. The company are the leading supplier of fitness equipment in the WA market, with eight showrooms, a wholesale division and an in-house service division with very impressive physiques.