The Media Insights & Engagement Conference 2015 Executive Summary is Here

 This year, The Media Insights & Engagement Conference brought together leaders from the best of the media industry including: ESPN, NBCUniversal, Disney, ABC, Viacom, CBS, Scripps Networks, Turner Broadcasting, Revolt TV, Comcast, Netflix, AMC, Discovery Communications and more. They collectively explored the changing media experience to create better engagement strategies informed by actual viewing behaviors. This event proved to truly be the place to explore the new world of multi-platform, hyper-viewing in the post-disrupted media landscape, advance new insights and create future partnerships.

The feedback from this year’s event was overwhelmingly positive. Check out what people had to say about it:

“An awesome conference that provides a once-a-year enclave for researchers looking to share ideas, keep current with trends and learn more than they expected.” -Theresa Pepe, VP, Ad Sales Research, Nickelodeon Group, Viacom Media Networks

“The Media Insights & Engagement Conference is one of the most efficient ways to keep on top of (or even ahead of) the rapid and unprecedented changes in the media environment.” -Jess D. Aguirre, SVP Research & Media Planning, Crown Media Family Networks

“The Media Insights & Engagement Conference has become the ‘must attend’ event to hear candid and uncensored insights from the top echelon of today’s TV research thought leaders.” -Robert Miner, President, Miner & Co. Studio

“The Media Insights & Engagement Conference hit the rare trifecta of an event, topical program agenda, insightful speakers and an engaged audience.” -Tom Ziangas, SVP, Research & Insights, AMC Networks

From iconic speakers, to brilliant presentations, to collaborative workshops, and unforgettable experiences, download the executive summary of highlights and takeaways from The Media Insights & Engagement Conference 2015: http://bit.ly/1zsXXUg

Overall, this year’s conference was a success. Technology is constantly changing, and The Media Insights & Engagement Conference helped the attending researchers to stay ahead of the curve to be successful in reaching their audiences.

Jim Bono, VP Research, Crown Media Family Networks, wrote: 

“Our morning keynote speakers were all entertaining, engaging, and a great way to start off each day. Dr. Jeffery Cole, Nir Eyal, Casper Berry and B. Bonin Bough each captivated the room, and in their own humorous way had us laugh, as well as think, as they each shared great insights about media, brands and viewers. Our co-chairs, Tom Ziangas and Jess Aguirre, along with our event producer Rachel McDonald put together a fantastic program, and I am looking forward to next year's conference in Fort Lauderdale.”

Download the executive summary here: http://bit.ly/1zsXXUg

For more on The Media Insights & Engagement Conference and the latest in media insights, visit our social media channels at any time on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blog for more.

The Most Creative Super Bowl Ads of 2015

The 2015 Super Bowl saw last gasp defending, dancing palm trees and a 4th Super Bowl win for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. However, off the field there was a lot of hype over the commercial breaks and which ad would get the best reaction. Despite there being a general consensus that the majority of the adverts didn’t live up to the excitement I picked out my favorites that I thought were a success:

Budweiser “Lost Puppy” – After the massive success of the 2014 commercial, the beer company went for the cute puppy as the main focus of the ad again. This year shows the story of how a puppy finds its way home after accidentally getting lost. The commercial plays on the watchers emotions by evoking sadness, fear and in the end a sense of relief and happiness culminating in the ‘#BestBuds’ slogan. At the end of the day you can’t beat a happy ending, when there is a cute puppy involved! Watch the full commercial here.

Doritos “Middle Seat” - The tortilla chip company once again offered $1 million to the best ad created by the public. The one that stood out for me was of a man on an airplane trying to keep the seat next to him free. He cuts his toenails, plays the recorder and does other silly things, before seeing a pretty blonde who he’d be happy to sit next to, so produces a bag of Doritos to tempt her. The twist and sucker punch for the protagonist is that the lady has a baby so all his work is ruined anyway. The ad is a very easy watch and produces a lot of laughs. Watch the full commercial here.

Toyota “How Great I Am” – This advert ranges from powerful, to elegance, to passionate and sexy. It features Amy Purdy the Paralympic bronze medalist in snowboarding and recent Dancing with the Stars phenomenon with Muhammad Ali’s ‘How Great I Am’ speech playing over the top. It shows Purdy going through the struggles and hard work in training and has features of the new Toyota throughout. It is a very powerful advert that really stuck in my mind. Watch the full commercial here.

 

Fiat – The carmaker show off their new product that is a crossover and larger version of their 500 version. The ad depicts an unfortunate, but amusing older Italian man who loses a little blue pill that eventually falls into a Fiat 500 which causes it to bulk up and get a lot bigger. Despite maybe causing some awkward conversations for parents, the commercial combines the amusement of an unlucky old Italian man with slightly crude, but effective hilarity of bulking an already successful car to create a great ad. Watch the full commercial here.

Other notable ads included the Snickers advert featuring the Golden Girls and Kia’s entry involving ex 007 Piers Brosnan. The most memorable commercials were the ones that really draw the watcher in and evoke a sense of emotion, whether it makes them laugh, cry or feel inspired. The most successful for me was once again the Budweiser commercial, it was a real good feeling ad which threatened to break the resolve of my English stiff upper lip nature!

About the Author: Harry Kempe, a marketing intern at IIR USA, who works on various aspects of the industry including social media, marketing analysis and media. He is a recent graduate of Newcastle University who previously worked for EMAP Ltd. and WGSN as a marketing assistant on events such as the World Architecture Festival, World Retail Congress and Global Fashion Awards. He can be reached at hkempe@IIRUSA.com.

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Summary of The Media Insights & Engagement Conference Day 3

The final day of The Media Insights &Engagement Conference started off with co-chair Tom Ziangas giving us a recap of Day two.

Once again, we had a top-notched entertaining and informative keynote speaker, B. Bonin Bough, VP of Global Media and Consumer Engagement at Mondelez International, who discussed Turning Talent into New Rockstars. Bonin talked about the challenges of media and commerce in our ever changing world (radio to TV to digital to what's next). His comical approach to our business covered topics like multi-tasking vs smoking pot, toothbrush usage, and the addiction of social media. He also gave us an understanding of Hackonomy - the concept of breaking things to create value.

Our featured session of the morning, Post-Disruption, The New, New Media Landscape, saw Jake Katz, VP of Audience Insights & Strategy at Revolt TV explain how brand positioning should take advantage of all of the cross-platform opportunities available. He focused on the cultural shift of audiences and consumers, as well as brand behavior, and how social media amplifies traditional media. Due to all our media options, Jason tells us that the medium influences how the message is received, so don't be everywhere, be somewhere strategically.

The last day had three groups of strategy labs. The first breakout at 11 am consisted of:

·         Developing a Global Cross Channel Measurement Plan with Vivian Takach of Netflix

·         Gen Next: Is TV the Second Screen? with Mark Loughney of Turner, Sesame Workshop's Diane Polvere, and was moderated by Robert Miner

·         The Democracy of Downloading: What Gamers Expect from Digital Distribution with Chris Rethore and Allison Taylor from MarketCast

The next lab sessions at 11:45 am were:

·         Viral Video Hits: The Why, How and What Established Networks Can Do About It

·         Decoding the Entertainment Landscape in Latin America

·         The New Habit of Always-On Shopping: What it Means for Marketing

Comedy Central's Shari Cleary presented an entertaining (and R rated) session about viral videos on social media and how their growth is taking the world by storm. Content experiences resemble hanging out among friends for the viewers. Self-created content also creates a platform for those lacking presence in traditional media. Fans like these videos and find them fun and easy to use.  They also like the fact that they can form conversations around them.

The conference's final lab sessions at 12:30 pm were:

·         The Future of Online Video Measurement

·         Understanding Kids and Media Behavior in a Multi-Screen World

·         Best Practices for TV Advertising in a 2-Screen Environment

Theresa Pepe from Viacom covered all of the areas about kids' viewing and behaviors (that Nielsen is not measuring). Kids are using more social media and digital media like Facebook, Netflix, Instagram, Pintrest, Skype, Pandora, and a wide array of apps. We also learned about how moms are using smart and mobile devices. Top activities for moms include listening to music, communicating/sharing pictures, browsing the internet, and playing games. And kids continue to follow mom's lead, but kids are more likely to view TV on mobile.

The conference concluded with the Case Study Awards. This year's nominees were:

·         Digital Acculturation: Helping Brands Engage New Canadians presented by Olga Churkina-Voigt (Fresh Intelligence) and Sebastian Fernandez (Yahoo)

·         Not So Fast: The Benefits of Fast Forward Disabling with Duane Varan (MediaScience) and Julya Fridman (A&E)

·         Longitudinal Ethnography of Media Audiences given by Richard Zackon (CRE) and David Tice (GfK)

After our co-chairs gave their closing remarks the MediaScience/A&E presentation was voted this year's Case Study winner.

Overall, this was a great conference. The lab sessions were extremely helpful, as there were some very interesting studies and discussions about how we can better use data to monetize ROI. Yet, there is still a lot to learn in our ever-changing industry, especially among millennials, social media and cross-platform opportunities. Technology is constantly changing and we as researchers need to stay ahead of the curve to be successful in reaching our audience and consumers.

Our morning keynote speakers were all entertaining, engaging, and a great way to start off each day.  Dr. Jeffery Cole, Nir Eyal, Casper Berry and B. Bonin Bough each captivated the room, and in their own humorous way had us laugh, as well as think, as they each shared great insights about media, brands and viewers.

Our co-chairs, Tom Ziangas and Jess Aguirre, along with our event producer Rachel McDonald put together a fantastic program, and I am looking forward to next year's conference in Ft. Lauderdale.

About the Author: Jim Bono is a TV industry veteran of nearly 25 years, working in Cable TV research for over 20 years.  He’s coming up on his 15th year with Hallmark Channel and Crown Media, where he is VP of Research and heads the department on the East Coast.  A Long Island native all his life, Jim is married to his best friend and wife of 23 years and has 2 wonderful teenaged sons.

Decoding the Entertainment Landscape in Latin America Across Generations

This morning at The Media Insights & Engagement Conference 2015 in San Diego Laura Berga, Director, Strategy & Programming Analysis, HBO Latin America and Danielle Escasena, Research Manager, HBO Latin America talked to us about how to decode the entertainment landscape in Latin America across multiple generations.

In order to understand the Latin American consumer, HBO conducted a study about generation Z, Y, and Z to see how they are consuming TV in Latin America in different ways. In Latin America, there is a very different adoption curve than in the United States because there are barriers in infrastructure and socio-economic restraints, so those have caused a lag in Latin America media.

According to Berga, the reality is as people are adopting new technologies through new devices, and that is affecting the way they are consuming content. Berga said, “We had to figure out how to bridge this gap.”

In the study, HBO studied five key markets in Latin America, three generations, seven lifestyle topics, and six technologies. A key trend that came out of the HBO study was a huge decrease in consumer demand for bundles. As of late, there is a trend towards downgrading that translates through entertainment and luxury goods. So, the consumer is demanding this and the market is really stepping up to the plate and creating offers, according to Escasena.

Another big trend that came out of the study is that a lot of this easy and often free access to watch content on mutli-devices and multi-platforms has created a demanding consumer who wants content at low cost or no cost. There has also been a big change in the players and platforms. Now, everyone is in the content game, according to Escasena.

She added, “Everyone has skin in the content game.”

About the Author: Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the Marketing Division at IIR USA, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR’s blogs including Next Big Design, Customers 1st, Digital Impact, STEAM Accelerator and ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts, and a regular contributor to Front End of Innovation and The Market Research Event,. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the technology industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.

Summary of The Media Insights & Engagement Conference 2015 Day Two: Part 2

By: Jim Bono, Vice President, Research, Crown Media Family Networks

The afternoon portion of Day two at The Media Insights & Engagement Conference consisted once again of the Strategic Lab sessions.

At 2 pm, there were three choices:

·         Cross-Platform Insights & Monetization - Emotional Tonality and Ad Receptivity with Marcela Tabares (A&E) and Mike Bloxham (Magid)

·         Hyper-Viewing & Behavior Trends - Insights into the Effects of Internet Technology and Video Platform Proliferation with Richard Zackon (CRE) and David Tice (GfK)

·         New Disruptions in Media - Understanding Sharknado 2: The Even More Social One with Ashlee Gouldstone (NBCU)

At 2:45 pm there were three more choices:

·         Real Cross Platform at Scale: Tune-in and Sales Impact

·         The New Living Room: What ESPN Learned from World Cup and College Football

·         The New Age in Mobile Music Consumption

Jonathan Steuer and Brian Katz of TiVo presented at the Real Cross Platform at Scale session. At this session we saw how it is possible to gain more in-depth understanding of consumers across devices. We also learned that TV and digital media work differently in their impact on tune-in and Sales, and heard about new tools that TiVo has to assist in the prediction of program success or failure, early in process.

After a short break, we were offered three more interesting sessions to choose from:

·         Surviving The Cross Platform Explosion: Lessons from the Walking Dead

·         Consumer Behavior and Consumption Across Media: The Digital State of Play

·         What to Worry About: The Most Important Trends in 2014

AMC's Melanie Schneider and Jason Kramer of Vital Findings gave us a great look at cross platform data for Walking Dead - the cable show that Melanie kept reminding us that is "the #1 show on the planet" (even though I don't watch it.) Key topics they discussed were quantifying relationships, market size, and the relative importance of social media. They touched on the fact that data tells us the "what", but not the "why." To put data into context, they compared Walking Dead to other shows like Mad Men and Son of Anarchy. They also compared viewing of current season of Walking Dead on AMC to previous seasons available on Netflix, as well as re-runs, DVR and VOD viewing.

The day concluded with IFC's Daniel Marcu leading a fun and entertaining interactive session - Generation P (Power). A mixed panel of millennials and "experienced" researchers, consisting of Jim Bono (Crown Media), Theresa Pepe (Viacom), Courtney Thomasma (BBCA), James Fulton (IFC) and Carol Hinnant (Rentrk) shared views and engaged in an open discussion with the audience on what we know and what we think we know about the millennial generation.

About the Author: Jim Bono is a TV industry veteran of nearly 25 years, working in Cable TV research for over 20 years.  He’s coming up on his 15th year with Hallmark Channel and Crown Media, where he is VP of Research and heads the department on the East Coast.  A Long Island native all his life, Jim is married to his best friend and wife of 23 years and has 2 wonderful teenaged sons.

New Disruptors in Media....Understanding Sharknado 2: The Even More Social One

Syfy's Sharknado and Sharknado 2 has taken the social media by storm over the past few years.  The buzz and tremendous media coverage drove viewership for the movie and it's encore, Sharknado 2, into the social media stratosphere.   Ashlee Gouldstone, VP, Syfy and Digital Research, NBCUniversal tells us what was in Syfy's secret sauce that generated unprecedented buzz for a brand new Science Fiction show that no one had ever heard of.





Understanding The Success Behind Sharknado

How did a tornado full of sharks become such an explosive hit?  For starters, there were over 385, 502 social media mentions that drove significant traffic to the site where you could view the trailer (content).  Once the show launched Sharknado was receiving approximately 5000 tweets in a given episode (that scary chainsaw scene helped activate social media responses).  The Twitter-sphere went wild! Sharknado had more tweets than Kim Kardashian (and that's saying a lot!).

Sharknado took on a life of its own:  Television and social media drove the ratings and continued interest in the show.  Niche and industry influencers ignited the conversation and kept Sharknado alive on Twitter.  Plus, let's be honest, we all have a fascination with sharks-whether good or bad. It also appealed to a wide range of audiences and was a show that families could enjoy together.

Sharknado 2 Plan:  "Nudge don't Shove" was Syfy's motto.  Syfy tapped into the Today's Show, and the strong continuous tweets by actress Tara Reid (who's in the show) and other top actors who tweeted info on the show. Celebrities and brands getting into the action to promote the show helped give Sharknado tremendous lift and visibility.  This had a dramatic impact on driving new audiences to the show.  They even created a Sharknado 2 app which also increased engagement and helped to drive viewership.  Syfy was smart.  They tapped into every tool in their tool kit, and took a creative, consistent, methodical approach to generating buzz.

Lessons learned from Sharknado

Niche and industry influencers ignited the conversation.  Placement in Daily News, Deadline, USA Today and jokes and parodies by Jimmy Kimmel and other famous talk show hosts helped generate immediate buzz.   Sharknado has broad audience appeals across many demographic categories making it a feel-good success story.

Stay tuned.... Sharknado 3 coming out summer of 2015.


Kerry Inserra is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Zip2Media, a media planning and buying agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zip2Media focuses on social media, SEO, SEM, traditional media, sports marketing and blogging.  Kerry has worked for CBS Radio/Television, ABC Radio/Television and Disney.  Follow her @kinserra or email her at Kerry@Zip2Media.com.

Summary of The Media Insights & Engagement Conference 2015 Day Two: Part 1

By: Jim Bono, Vice President, Research, Crown Media Family Networks

We started Day two of The Media Insights & Engagement Conference with our event producer, Rachel McDonald introducing co-chair Jess Aguirre who gave us a recap of Day a, and informed us of what's in store for today.

Our first keynote speaker was professional poker player Casper Berry, who gave us some insights about Risk Taking and Decision Making. Casper shared his thoughts on uncertainty. What is it?  What causes it? What do we do about it? We deal with it every day, but are not always aware it's there. Like poker, the business world is a game of limited information. Our lives are impacted by the butterfly effect, however, most of the time it is invisible to us. As humans, we want to be able to control events in our life, and we need certainty. But Casper tells us we should embrace uncertainty. Interestingly, the pain we suffer from loss is greater than the joy we experience with gain.  There is always a "fear of failure." But failure is a necessity and we need to learn from it.

The morning's keynote panel, Big Data Overload: Getting Creative with Data in the Digital World, was moderated by Christine Kawada of GfK MRI. The distinguished panel of Fabio Luzzi (Viacom), Mike Clark (Google), Bryan Mu (NBCU), and Sandy Padula (Turner) gave us an interesting look at all of the data and options that are available to us. Fabio gave us a humorous definition of Big Data - It's like Teenage Sex. Everyone is talking about it, no one knows how to do it, but everyone claims they're good at it. Meanwhile, Bryan made a great point that he doesn't look at big data vs. small data, but which data helps him best do his job.

Erica Faust of Nielsen Social was our second keynote speaker of the day. In her session, How Does Social TV Drive Impact for Your Brand Partners, Erica discussed how social media (mainly Twitter) can help anticipate audience size for certain programs. Over the past 6 months, there have been 433 million Tweets by 18 million people about TV, and there were 335 million Tweets by 20 million people about brands. And people who tweet about TV and brands are more influential and 3 times as many followers. We saw how social can help drive brand sales and TV viewing.

Shari Swan of Streative Branding closed out the morning in her keynote speech Better Beginnings.  Shari presented us with information about data decisions we face daily. Using Moles, Makers, Mavens and Mavericks in her business model, we learned that we are no longer in the business of sales, but we are in the business of culture. We don't necessarily need bigger data, but more accurate and relevant data. We use the term "insight" incorrectly. Insight is not equal to research. Insight is an understanding. It's not an idea, but can deliver hundreds of ideas.

About the Author: Jim Bono is a TV industry veteran of nearly 25 years, working in Cable TV research for over 20 years.  He’s coming up on his 15th year with Hallmark Channel and Crown Media, where he is VP of Research and heads the department on the East Coast.  A Long Island native all his life, Jim is married to his best friend and wife of 23 years and has 2 wonderful teenaged sons.

The Impact of #SocialTV On Consumers and Advertisers

This morning at the second day of The Media Insights & Engagement Conference in San Diego, Erika Faust, Client Service at Nielsen Social spoke to us about the impact of social TV on consumers and brands today.

According to Nielsen’s research, one quarter of social media users are aware of programming because of social TV.  Understanding social TV and the brand chatter taking place.

In the last six months of 2014, according to Faust, there were 433 million tweets about TV.  The research shows that consumers enjoy chatting about TV while they are watching their favorite shows. Faust said that there’s also a lot of chatter going on around brands. In fact, the research shows that there were 335 million tweets about brands.

So, how do these relate to one another?

The overlap between the populations is large, according to Faust. In fact, 59 percent of brand authors also tweet about TV. But, TV authors are sending four times as many tweets about brands than people who only tweet about brands. So, if an advertiser is looking to engage with people who amplify their brands, these people are a really good audience to target.

Meanwhile, TV authors have three times as many followers compared to authors that tweet only about brands. You are sitting on a valuable asset for your advertisers.

About the Author: Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the Marketing Division at IIR USA, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR’s blogs including Next Big Design, Customers 1st, Digital Impact, STEAM Accelerator and ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts, and a regular contributor to Front End of Innovation and The Market Research Event,. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the technology industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.

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Risk Taking and Decision Making....Understanding Risk Reward and Return on ROI

"Uncertainty is a good thing" says Britain's Caspar Berry, Professional Poker Player and Risk Taking & Decision Making expert.  Risk has become a subject very close to all of us. How much risk are we willing to assume?  Berry says that whenever we make a decision in a world of uncertainty, where we do not know the outcome of that decision, we are effectively taking a risk.

Caspar's frenetic energy is just what the audience needed to kick off Day 2 of the Media Insights & Engagement Conference this morning.  He has an infectious, engaging stage presence and humor to boot.

Berry asks the following:  What is risk?  What causes it?  What do we do about it?   Humans often fear the unknown.  No one knows what the future holds.  Predicting the future is impossible.  So what can we do to reduce risk and increase certainty?  These are just some of the many key concepts Berry shared during his Keynote Speech.

Lets talk poker for a minute.....Caspar loves to talk Poker.  I had a chance to take a poker lesson from Mr. Berry last evening with several other conference attendees. Casper is an amazing teacher and I appreciated his statistical poker metaphors utilizing poker strategy as a way to gauge risk and reward in our day-to-day lives.  Today he fleshed out those critical concepts in greater detail.

Let's take a look at the following Poker analogy as it relates to risk taking.

How Poker Players Use Data and Analyze Risk

Berry says in poker, your hand could be a Jack and 10 of Hearts (not great cards).  The three cards presented "the flop", were a 4 and 8 of Hearts and a 3 of Spades.  33% of the time we will make that flush.  But we still need more information before we make a decision on how to proceed next.  According to Berry, here is the probability factor of winning or getting a flush:

Pot=$4,000.  Cost of call + $400 (1000% return=10:1).  There is a 25% chance of success.
25%of the time one will win $4,000=an expectation of $1000.  75% of the time one will lost $400=an expectation of $300.  It's not as great as 10000 but not terrible either.  Thus creating an expectation of $700, thus offering an ROI of $700/$400=175%.  We are always making decisions based on uncertainty and factors out of our control.  So we look at probability using statistical data?  What is the probability that one will win the poker game or be successful at their new career choice?  Caspar urges careful evaluation of calculated risk and emphasizes following intuition.

The Butterfly Effect

Berry also eluded to the The Butterfly Effect.  The Butterfly Effect is dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state, can result in large differences in a later state. The Butterfly Effect is exhibited by very simple systems:  the randomness of the outcomes of throwing dice for example, depends on the characteristics to amplify small differences in initial conditions, into different dice paths and outcomes, which makes it impossible to throw dice exactly the same way twice.  Since we can't control the dice (or the poker cards for that matter) one needs to realize that we have certain limitations and therefore things can and will be unpredictable.  


Are we prepared to lose and fail along the way in order to have greater gains in the future? This was Barry's primary ethos of this morning talk.  Everyone would like to have great success in life. Unfortunately many give up after their first or second failure.  According to Berry, repeated failure and learning from our mistakes, is what allows us to grow, flourish and eventually leads to greater opportunities.  Case in point:  Berry sites Abraham Lincoln-he was defeated over 9 times before he became President of the United States.  The movie Moneyball, based on the true story of the Oakland A's baseball organization using sophisticated algorithims to figure out how to win games.  It worked.  Exploring calculated risks is a good thing.

At the conclusion of Berry's hour-long discussion, I took away 4 key points:

1. Let's work towards becoming less risk averse and accept that risk is part of life
2. Most of us learn from our mistakes, from our failures, but also from our successes.  
3. We feel pain from our losses, and therefore often avoid this from happening in the future
4. Face Fear 

So how do we overcome this Fear of Failure:  WE DON'T.  Fear makes us human and drives us to strive harder and oftentimes leads to our greatest successes.

Casper leaves us with these parting words:  "FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION....SO SHORT TERM RISK , EXPERIMENT, BRAVERY AND CHANGE ARE NECESSITIES."



Kerry Inserra is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Zip2Media, a media planning and buying agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zip2Media focuses on social media, SEO, SEM, traditional media, sports marketing and blogging.  Kerry has worked for CBS Radio/Television, ABC Radio/Television and Disney.  Follow her @kinserra or email her at Kerry@Zip2Media.com.

Summary of The Media Insights & Engagement Conference 2015 Day One: Part 2

By: Jim Bono, Vice President, Research, Crown Media Family Networks

The afternoon portion of day one at The Media Insights & Engagement Conference consisted of the Strategic Lab sessions.

At 2 pm, there were three choices:

·         Multi-Platform Research & Measurement - Discovering White Space: How Oprah Winfrey Network Found Success on Saturday Nights

·         Data Fusion - The Power of Context

·         Digital Future - Smart Viewers with Smart TVs

I attended the Digital Future session.  Here, Beth Rockwood of Discovery gave us an in-depth look at Smart TV viewers and their viewing habits. Viewers treat their Smart TV as their "go-to" hub, where they can access not only their TV, but even more content. Viewers are returning to the living room as the central viewing place, and now can enjoy more options on their "big" screen. They prefer to view these options and/or use apps on the big screen as opposed to tablets. Plus they enjoy watching with others.

At 2:45 pm there were two choices:

·         Finding Funny: Our Journey to Uncover What's Really Behind Female Humor

·         Videobiquity: Using Research to Tell the Story of Multi-Platform Behavior

At the Videobiquity: Using Research to Tell the Story of Multi-Platform Behavior session, Brian West and Lisa Heimann of ABC gave us some insights about linear, VOD, OTT and DVR viewing.  Viewers find VOD easy and convenient, and prefer VOD over pay-per-view and some even prefer VOD over DVR. We also saw an interesting look at PC viewing vs mobile/tablet viewing over the past several years.

After a short break, we were offered three more interesting sessions to choose from:

·         The Roadmap to Audience Passion

·         From Binge to Nibble - Consuming TV Today

·         A Question of Influence: What Makes Someone Watch a TV Show?

Gavin Bridge at Ipsos and Eric Sherman of Twitter gave us an understanding of Twitter's role in TV behavior and what influences viewers to watch. Key findings included: Twitter users are more likely to watch live TV, as well as more TV; Twitter users like to consider themselves as those who know more about television; and two in five Twitter users watched a show because of communication on Twitter. Their study also showed Twitter users are more aware about TV programs than non-Twitter users.

The day concluded with our co-chairs, Tom Ziangas and Jess Aguirre facilitating an informal and up close and personal Master Class Workshop. In this session, also titled A Call to Action for Today's Media Researchers: Boost Your Skill Building and Professional Development, Tom and Jess covered Skill Building topics, such as going from data dumps to storytelling and vendor negotiations, and Personal Development, including credibility as a researcher and learning from peers.

About the Author: Jim Bono is a TV industry veteran of nearly 25 years, working in Cable TV research for over 20 years.  He’s coming up on his 15th year with Hallmark Channel and Crown Media, where he is VP of Research and heads the department on the East Coast.  A Long Island native all his life, Jim is married to his best friend and wife of 23 years and has 2 wonderful teenaged sons.

Videobiquity...say what?

Just what exactly is Videobiquity?  

According to today's Media Insights and Engagement Conference Speakers, Brian West, Director, Research Multiplatform Measurement Strategy, ABC Television and Lisa Heimann, VP of Multiplatform Research, ABC TV, Videobiquity is the presence of video everywhere, simultaneously.  ABC coined this term and recently had it trademarked.

The media landscape continues to evolve at a rapid fire pace.  According to Nielsen, the biggest change is the shift from broadcast to cable particularly with A18-49. Nearly half of ABC viewers are multi-platform viewers (multichannel, DVR, tablet and streaming).  As Ms. Heimann suggested, it's not uncommon for households to all congregate together in the living room watching television, yet they are not all watching television together.  The living room is the hub but they maybe watching different shows on different devices-a proliferation of screens of all shapes and sizes-with all family members being exposed to different ad messages depending on how they are receiving the content.

It's not surprising that  digital video accounts for less than 1% of all ad viewing.  But the big question still remains, what's driving digital growth?  As broadcast time shifting continues to grow more and more viewers continue to lean on their DVR's.  Contrary to popular belief, DVR viewing gives audiences the ability to watch more quality programming and is not necessarily a tool to avoid commercials (tell that to my clients!).  According to our ABC panelists, viewers accept this ad-supported landscape (do they really?) and there is strong commercial retention for all ads viewed on a DVR which increases viewer loyalty. Viewers like DVR or VOD because they can watch their favorite programming, and it's easy and accessible.  Binge watching (watching multiple episodes of a show back-to-back or watching an entire season in one or two sittings) has become quite popular and has a positive impact on commercial retention-repeated commercial viewings over a shortened period of time resonates heavily with viewers.

This is videobiquity.


Kerry Inserra is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Zip2Media, a media planning and buying agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zip2Media focuses on social media, SEO, SEM, traditional media, sports marketing and blogging.  Kerry has worked for CBS Radio/Television, ABC Radio/Television and Disney.  Follow her @kinserra or email her at Kerry@Zip2Media.com.

Summary of The Media Insights & Engagement Conference 2015 Day One

By: Jim Bono, Vice President, Research, Crown Media Family Networks 

Day one of The Media Insights & Engagement Conference started off with our co-chairs Jess Aguirre of Crown Media Family Networks and Tom Ziangas of AMC Networks discussing the day’s upcoming events.

I was totally blown away by our first Keynote speaker, Dr. Jeffery Cole, who addressed media entertainment at its "tipping point"...again. He noted that 12 years ago broadband changed everything not because of speed, but because of the direct connection to viewers. Dr. Cole also pointed out that Over The Top is our future. Young adults are not getting TV or cable TV as they move out of their parents’ homes and into their own residence, but not due to lack of interest. This generation's interest in TV is greater than any prior generation.  But they continue to try to find newer/more affordable ways to view content. Dr. Cole went on to give great insights about theater vs TV, and cites the impacts that HBO, Netflix and Amazon Prime have had on the industry.

In my 20+ years in the cable industry, and considering all of the conferences I've been to, I found Dr. Cole to be one of the best keynote speakers I've ever seen.

Our first keynote panel was moderated by Marilyn Stephens of the U.S. Census Bureau. The panel included Michele Meyer from Univision and Julie Zwissler from MNet America, who discussed The Changing Face of America, as the ethnicity of the population continues to shift throughout the country. Marilyn gave a great presentation and in-depth look at the U.S. ethnic breakdown, while Michele and Julie offered additional information about the Hispanic and Asian cultures.

Next was our 2nd keynote speaker of the day, Nir Eyal, author of “Hooked: How to Build Habit-forming Products.” Nir shared his thoughts about social media, brands, and how we create habits in associating and using these products.  His very humorous approach showed us an interesting view of behavior (ie: people who suffer from depression check email and Facebook more).

He also used the equation B = M+A+T (Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Triggers) to give examples of how we act and react.

Our first half of the day concluded with our keynote panel: The State of the Industry - Deciphering the Future. The panel was moderated by Eric Solomon of Nielsen and included Justin Fromm of Hulu, Howard Shimmel of Turner, Liz Huszarik of WB, and Tom Ziangas (filling in for the absent Dave Poltrack of CBS). Discussions revolved around big data, consumer behavior, and the ever-changing technology that our industry faces every day.  The panel pointed out that there are many obstacles that make our jobs as content providers and researchers even more challenging. They even brought up issues of trust, especially when dealing with our measurement partners (Nielsen, Rentrak, etc.)

About the Author: Jim Bono is a TV industry veteran of nearly 25 years, working in Cable TV research for over 20 years.  He’s coming up on his 15th year with Hallmark Channel and Crown Media, where he is VP of Research and heads the department on the East Coast.  A Long Island native all his life, Jim is married to his best friend and wife of 23 years and has 2 wonderful teenaged sons.

Smart Viewers with Smarter TVs

Today, smart TV is dominant in home television viewing. In fact, according to research by Discovery Communications, 90 percent of viewers prefer the smart TV for watching TV and they like to watch it with other people. One third of people would actually prefer to do all of their interacting on their Smart TV and not have a second screen.

At The Media Insights & Engagement Conference in San Diego this afternoon, Beth Rockwood, SVP Market Resources and Advertising Research at Discovery Communications spoke to us about her recent research that highlights how smart viewers favor smart TVs.

She and her team at Discovery Communications spoke to viewers about why they would be interested in buying a smart TV and what features they would want. Rockwood and her team conducted an online survey of about 1,000 people probing into expectations, behaviors, and desires around smart TV.

Key findings include:

·         Most viewers use smart TV as an enhanced TV – an all in one hub with TV at the center.

·         Smart TV is the go to hub to access variety content. The screen is large enough to be enjoyed without strain.

·         Viewers watch televisions shows more often when using a smart TV.

·         Watching video on a subscription streaming service is high on a smart TV.

·         A top benefit of owning a smart TV is not having to use a tablet or phone to watch videos or TV.

The research shows that smart TV makes viewing social again. Being together in a group, it gives the opportunity for people to chat about the TV show together. In fact, 62 percent agreed that they watch TV together with others more often because they watch on a big screen.

Additionally, with a smart TV you have more control over the content you can access instead of having to pay for products you don’t want. It allows content discovery that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. According to the research, viewers are watching more now than before they had a smart TV.

Further, with smart TV’s viewers expect smart advertisements. They are looking for ads that are less intrusive, more relevant, provide an interesting story, and teach them something.

Overall, according to Rockwood, smart TV will change the way viewers are viewing, so there is a huge opportunity if high consumer expectations can be met.

About the Author: Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the Marketing Division at IIR USA, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR’s blogs including Next Big Design, Customers 1st, Digital Impact, STEAM Accelerator and ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts, and a regular contributor to Front End of Innovation and The Market Research Event,. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the technology industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.

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The State of the Television and Digital Industry

When did television and digital media buying become so complex and fragmented?

A distinguished panel of guests including Justin Fromm, Head of Ad Sales Research, Hulu, Howard Shimmel, Chief Research Officer, Turner Broadcasting, Liz Huszarik, EVP Media Research & Insight, Warner Bros, Tom Ziangas, SVP, Research, AMC Networks and Moderator Eric Solomon, SVP, Digital Audience Measurement, Nielsen helped decipher the future of television and digital media.

The panelists did a brief 2014 recap of the media industry.  Some key highlights included: purposeful viewing (watching only shows we like), rapid speed of change in programming and content, viewers shifting to Video on Demand (VOD), tremendous competition for eyeballs, cable networks taking share from major networks, and a major shift in viewing away from television viewing to video streaming.  The panelists unanimously agreed that the industry must continue to produce quality programming and content distributed on multiple platforms and the content must be readily available and easy to find.

What can we expect in 2015 in terms of audience viewership, quality content, programming and data measurement?  All of the panelists agreed that it's time to recalibrate this over abundance of big data.  Measuring ad effectiveness across multiple platforms is challenging indeed.  The infrastructure is not currently available to effectively measure all the various devices that consumers use to view their favorite programs.  There is a tremendous need for aggregating data and viewership across multiple platforms.  The panelists agreed that there is an opportunity for Research Companies to develop "one important number" or algorithm that data scientists or media buyers could use to determine return-on-investment (ROI) or total audience reached. Perhaps Nielsen or ComScore will take up this challenge in the near future.

About the Author:  Kerry Inserra is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Zip2Media, a media planning and buying agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zip2Media focuses on social media, SEO, SEM, traditional media, sports marketing and blogging.  Kerry has worked for CBS Radio/Television, ABC Radio/Television and Disney.  Follow her @kinserra or email her at Kerry@Zip2Media.com.

The Changing Face of America

Did you know that one in three people in the United States is a minority? The nation’s population is drastically changing.

At the Media Insights & Engagement Conference 2015 this morning in sunny San Diego, Moderator Marilyn Stephens, Data Dissemination Specialist; Media Lead, US Census Bureau, kicked off the Keynote Panel entitled, “The Changing Face of America” featuring panelists Michele Meyer, VP, Network Research, Univision, and Julie Zwissler, SVP, Marketing and Partnerships, MNet America.

These three dynamic women discussed the different ways people in which different cultures in America, specifically Asian and Hispanic cultures, are consuming mutlimedia content today. Univision and MNet America are both seeing a major shift in how media is being consumed differently.

When it comes to the Hispanic culture, the younger Hispanics want to watch novellas because it’s a connection to their family and brings them together.  In their culture, the TV is a family experience in a multi-generational household, maintaining that family feel.  Meanwhile, in the Asian culture, when the parents get older, the children move back home while graduating from a great university and working a great full time job.

Across the board in an American household, families are watching TV, while Millennials are on their phones, tablets, or laptops playing games while also watching TV. More and more, Millennials and younger generations are watching media on multi-devices. They are early adopters and they want something new that no one else has discovered yet. Millennials in America are all about early discovery.

About the Author: Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist of the Marketing Division at IIR USA, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. Amanda is the Editor at Large for several of IIR’s blogs including Next Big Design, Customers 1st, Digital Impact, STEAM Accelerator and ProjectWorld and World Congress for Business Analysts, and a regular contributor to Front End of Innovation and The Market Research Event,. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the technology industry. She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc.

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Content Is "Kinger" Than Ever

"I'm a television guy.  TV is the most powerful medium ever invented" says Keynote Speaker Jeffrey Cole, Center for the Digital Future and Research Professor, USC Annenberg School for Communication.  Keynote Speaker Jeffrey Cole, kicked off the Media Insights and Engagement Conference here in San Diego this morning discussing all things television-where it is today and where it's heading.

Mr. Cole is a storyteller, no powerpoint (how refreshing!) and full of great anecdotes about television penetration and content distribution.  He says that content drives everything.  "Content is 'kinger' than ever," says Cole.  He knows television better than most and was full of many television viewing predictions.

Here are a few of his television predictions in regards to Millennials:

1.  They don't use landlines
2.  They don't subscribe to newspapers
3.   They are not satellite and cable subscribers
4.   Many don't even own a TV set

Mr. cole predicts that television will completely transform itself in the next 24 months. The average sized TV purchased today is 50 inches. Viewers have a wide array of programming choices-almost too many-with Netflix, HBO, Hulu, ESPN, the four networks, etc.,. There simply are too many choices for viewers at ever-increasing monthly rates.  The bottom line:  we need to provide choice but at far more reasonable rates.  The consumer on average pays about $5.85 month for ESPN which is a great bargain if you love sports.  ESPN currently reaches 100 million cable and satellite subscribers.  Mr. Cole sees an a' la carte approach to viewing television- we only pay for content we want-as the next big transformation in television viewership.

Other predictions from Mr. Cole:

1. Half of movie screens in America will go away

2. The line between film and television is blurring

3. Best high quality programming is moving to television (think Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, Netflix)

4.  The shine on Netflix is about to disappear with major competitors Amazon and HBO offering original programming at affordable prices

Mr. Cole says it's a great time to be creating television programming.  It is the most exciting time in television with all the great content that is bubbling up to the surface.  Stay tuned!

About the Author: Kerry Inserra, is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Zip2Media, a media planning and buying agency located in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a focus on social media, SEO, SEM, traditional media, sports marketing, and blogging.  Kerry has worked for CBS Radio and Television, ABC Radio/Television and Disney.  Follow her @kinserra.

Live From The Media Insights & Engagement Conference 2015

Tubular Labs Revolutionizes Digital Video Measurement

As video platforms and social data proliferate, traditional measurement techniques haven’t been able to keep up, which has made the audiences and conversations about online video almost impossible to track.

Tubular, an innovative video intelligence service, has introduced software that tracks the creators and content of one billion videos across over 30 platforms. After unlocking YouTube, Tubular Labs now provides real-time insights into what and who is succeeding on Facebook Video, Vine, Instagram Video, Twitch, Vimeo, and AOL, as well as MTV.com and CNN.com. In addition, Digitas, Comedy Central, Activision, and HGTV are among the Tubular customers with early access to the cross-platform expansion that delivers insights to build their brands online.  

“You don’t have to fly blind in the future of video,” said Tubular Labs CEO Rob Gabel. “For the first time ever, Tubular Labs’ customers now receive real-time, essential industry intelligence.”

Now, just a simple search across Tubular Labs' 2.3 million creators reveals 21,000 are already generating one million views or more each month. Tubular sheds light on these creators, the videos they create, and the audiences they reach. In fact, more than 16,000 videos per month reach the one million view milestone.

Tubular Labs video intelligence has been developed with sophisticated customers in digital video, using big data techniques to derive patterns of success from more than one billion videos uploaded by 2.3 million creators. Video teams are empowered to answer key questions, like what content resonates most with which audiences, where and how should content be distributed, and which campaigns performed best.   

“Digital video is TV for the social media generation. It’s the next great advertising frontier,” said Tubular Labs Co-Founder and VP Marketing, Allison Stern. “There’s a measurement gap. We’re going to fill it - to provide much needed insights to brands, agencies, and media companies.”

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