business briefs/leads.
WSJ.com - J&J to Skip Network TV's 'Upfront' Market The annual network “upfront” ad-selling season officially kicks off today, but one of the country's biggest advertisers won't be buying -- at least not now.Johnson & Johnson, the New Brunswick, N.J., health-care products maker, has informed the major TV networks that it is planning to sit out the annual selling bazaar, the time of year when TV networks secure ad commitments for about 80% of the coming fall season's primetime ad inventory. J&J spent almost $500 million on network-TV ads last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, although not all of that is necessarily committed in the upfront market.
J&J's decision is a sign of how the balance of power in the TV industry has shifted to advertisers, who are less dependent on network television nowadays, partly because of the growing list of media options...
The company, whose well-known brands include Tylenol and Neutrogena, has told network executives that they want to do deals on their own timetable. ..
“What we found is, if we can synchronize our business-planning cycle [with buying media time] it will benefit the brand and that is what this is all about,” says Kim Kadlec, Johnson & Johnson's chief media officer.
Good, advertisers should spend more of their budget outside of television altogether.
Tags: Advertising, /media, /Out_of_Home, /television
Media, in its traditional forms (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines), is a relatively tough sell with many dollars being spent on internet marketing. Though the traditional clicks (for more visual ads, not Google-type text links) may not translate on paper, the less intrusive forms of net advertising do work and companies who advertise on TV are losing eyes with the popularity of DVRs.
I can relate from being in media for 8 years that it's not just a one-horse show and companies, both advertisers and 'publishers' are finally figuring that out.
In my experience, quite a large portion of advertising dollars still gets sucked up by television, whether or not it is effective.