Over the pond TV - the unstoppable rise of Sky

Greg Grimmer says HBO has built a paid-for subscription business in the US by producing high-quality drama – a feat not managed by Sky or indeed anyone else in the UK. Sky’s belated response to this has not been to try and re-create the formula with UK talent tub, but to import in its entirety – I give you Sky Atlantic. So well done to Sky for the next phase of its world domination and farewell to free-to-view high-quality US dramas on the BBC, ITV & C4…

The proliferation of television channels since the advent of satellite and cable in the late 80’s has given broadcasters (not normally) known for their love of marketing some testing problems. Suddenly it wasn’t just about the content, the old adage that ‘people watch programmes not channels’ just wasn’t true in the arena of a 400 channel EPG.

Then clever marketers s got involved and spawned the likes of Dave, Blighty and Yesterday, leaving the family numbered channels looking slightly tawdry and dull.

It used to be a ‘build it and they will come’ strategy for programme makers, this then turned into a ‘buy it and they will come’ for the lazier programme directors as they imported (normally but not exclusively from the US) tried and tested dramas from other markets – including ITV, the BBC and most notably Channel 4.

Now Sky – or should I say BSkyB (at least while there are still other shareholders) – had circumvented this problem in a number of interesting an successful ways. Firstly, and of course most controlling, is the control of the hardware – that little set top box (does anyone still put it on top of their new plasma set?) gave them the ability to ensure branding of the television service and not just the broadcast stream.

This has been augmented by Sky+ and more recently HD and 3D. It also gave them further control through the design, numbering and interactivity of the EPG. But we all know what Sky is really known for and what accounts for its fantastic growth story of the past two decades – sport and within that football and within that the Premier league.

Various competitors have come and gone over the 20 years and most have left with their tales between their legs and their wallets emptied – ITV digital and Setanta both failed to break the stranglehold on football and paid for it with their businesses.

However, while sport is obviously content (and arguably the best content we export?), Sky has tried and failed over the last twenty years to break out from sport as its raison d‘être. Sky Movies/Box Office have some fans but have always been overshadowed byDVDs (or videos before them). Meanwhile, Sky One is still a vehicle for the Fox-produced Simpsons and not much else.

Elizabeth Murdoch (before her success with Shine) was one of many content directors who failed to grab hold of the Sky branded channels to create anything approaching the distinctive look and feel of the BBC, Channel 4 or even ITV – whose domination of the ‘Big and Live’ Saturday night is often over-looked by naysayers of that particular broadcast brand. Various British-produced comedies, dramas and entertainment shows have fallen unloved from the Sky schedules. I personally wept at the demise of Harry Enfield on his short run on Sky before gloriously re-claiming him as he returned to theBBC in his Harry and Paul guise.

So what of now. I will return to The Simpsons as my inspiration (and perhaps the inspiration of a Sky scheduler). A running gag throughout the jaundiced family story is every time anyone checks into a hotel, talks about cable TV or acknowledges TV, they will make a gag about HBO and how it always costs more/ isn’t included/ isn’t available.

So why is this relevant… well my dear reader, HBO have built a paid-for subscription business in the US built not on sport or even movies but by producing high quality drama, with Hollywood A-list casts and behind-the-camera support. A feat not managed by Sky or indeed anyone else in the UK.

Sky’s belated response to this has been not to try and re-create the formula with UK talent tub, but to import in its entirety with a rebrand of its EPG – the best channel rebrand since Dave.

I give you Sky Atlantic.

After its launch on 1 February, one of my HMDG colleagues announced: “I’ve series linked the whole channel… It’s that good.”

And sure the content is superlative. From the new Boardwalk Empire and Blue Bloods, through to classic dramas like The Sopranos and Entourage, to the genius that is Curb Your Enthusiasm… and that is before the new series of Mad Men even starts.

But for me the real genius of Sky Atlantic is the branding – the fact that most of the content will have been conceived, written, shot and financed on the Pacific coast is irrelevant.

Sky Atlantic at a stroke makes us Brits think of the closeness of the one-sided special relationship, of NY-Lon, of US citizens finding our accent and manners sexy and suave. Had this channel been called Sky Hollywood, Sky USA, SKY America or even HBO UK, the love and affection I have heard from all corners for this new addition to the EPGwould be lessened.

So well done to Sky for the next phase of its world domination and farewell to free-to-view high quality US dramas on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.

2011 - not as bad as 2010

Greg Grimmer, partner, Hurrell Moseley Dawson & Grimmer, begs, borrows and steals predictions for the year ahead – Sorrell is going to get richer; 2011 will be the year of mobile or location-based ads or digital outdoor (maybe); MySpace will shut; and Mail Online will become bigger than bbc.co.uk/news to name just a few…

The now defunct magazine Punch used to have a long-standing joke fuelled by its readers letters about ‘not being as funny as it used to be’.

This sprang to mind as I approached my first column of 2011 and counseled opinions from inside and outside the agency on predictions for the year ahead – and found the majority ‘praying for not as bad as it has been’.

Now regular Newsline readers with a long term memory may remember it is compulsory for columnists under the 1855 Publishing Act to write with their best soothsaying trends at this time of the year.

As I approach the end of my third year at HMDG and not coincidentally my third year as a MediaTel columnist, I thought I wouldn’t repeat my mistakes of previous years and try to predict wider media trends or latest technology trends but would instead beg, borrow and steal predictions from industry friends, media acquaintances and people who work at digital companies that think they know me.

But of course any prediction column has to start with advertising’s favourite white knight, Sir Martin Sorrell. Over the years he has enraptured city analysts and media journalists alike with tales of bath tubs, double dips and, more recently, clever acronyms no doubt dreamt up by Adam Smith’s team of boffins in WPP HQ . From BRIC’s to LUVto LUVVY, how we have laughed .

Well I have a predicted acronym for Sir Martin (SMS) in 2011 – B-O-N-U-S.

With the WPP share price up from 350p to near 800p in the last two years, it acts as a great barometer for the wider marketing services business. And whilst the city is sometimes slow to recognise the value of people asset businesses, it loves the cash generated by the media machine of GroupM and the smart acquisition of data and digital businesses (the latest of which Blue State digital was credited with Obama’s successful fundraising campaign in 2008).

So SMS is going to get richer, but what of the rest of us…

Well, my friend John has just launched a mobile business and he thinks 2011 is going to be the year of mobile. My friend Dave has launched a location specific advertising business and thinks location targeting is going to be the next big thing. My mate Lisa works in digital outdoor and guarantees me that this is the year it will come of age. And my friend Damian works at Google…!

My last column talked about the hegemony of the big brands in the web space – Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. However, another prediction for 2011 from just about everyone I have spoken to is that new businesses will continue to appear apace in the web space.

Whether ANY of these will end up with sustainable business models is a more moot point. At a recent technology fair I met a dozen or so developers who had no plans for revenue but a fantastic sales pitch for VC’s and other investors. The sage who wrote The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth forgot to mention that a computer science degree from Stanford isn’t necessarily accompanied by a modicum of business (or indeed common) sense.

So, back to predictions for 2011 and my New Year chats with members of our media family:

A leading figure at News Corp: “MySpace will shut, and save us money.”
Media agency CEO: “We will not pitch this year.”
Marketing director: “I will reduce the number of agencies I use.”
Creative director: “We’ll crack digital by learning that it isn’t just uploading the TV ad to YouTube.”
Sales director: “We will seek to do a small number of big deals direct with clients.”
General optimism (even from the first contributor) was the overall feeling – and one that is mirrored in the FTSE, the ad revenue predictions from the major groupings and even some high street retailers (woes of snow notwithstanding).

However, to end with some of my own more fanciful predictions:

Mail Online will become a bigger online news provider than the BBC.
Apple will finally make peace with Adobe.
Sony Erickson will stop making phone handsets.
Simon Cowell will get a knighthood.
The UK will start to become Olympics crazy.
And the one prediction that is guaranteed to come true – this time next year everyone will be looking forward not backwards. I hope your year proves to be better than the last one!

Antler appoints HMDG to global advertising account

Premium luggage brand Antler is delighted to announce that after a
competitive pitch it has appointed the London-based advertising
agency HMDG (Hurrell, Moseley, Dawson & Grimmer) to its global
advertising business. The review follows the acquisition of the Antler
business by private equity firm LDC (Lloyds Development Capital) in
the spring of this year.

Antler, which is headquartered in the UK and has offices in North
America and China, is marketed around the world. In the UK it trades
with major retailers such as John Lewis, House of Fraser and
Selfridges plus hundreds of independent stores as well as its own
retail shops.

Next year Antler will launch a major new integrated marketing
campaign, having already become a partner of the Virgin Racing
Formula One team in 2010.

David Benjamin, Managing Director of Antler said:
The Antler brand has not invested in significant and high profile
marketing activity for some years. With a new range of exceptional
products coming to market we are ready to remind everybody of
Antlerʼs great product strengths.
This is the start of a new chapter for one of Britainʼs best loved brands

Nick Hurrell, partner at HMDG said:
Antler is a famous British brand, and with new private equity backing it
is ready dramatically to accelerate its marketing activity. We are
delighted to have been picked to go with Antler on that journey.

About Antler
Antler has been in the premium luggage business for over 80 years
and has maintained its UK leading market position by
following strict principles of design, quality and innovation whilst
always assuring maximum product functionality. Recent
changes in airline regulations have led to the development of a new
generation of super lightweight and cabin friendly
products which Antler are now introducing to markets across the
world.

Facebook’s recent launches may have run Foursquare out of town.

Many thousands of moons ago in the digital world (about 2006). I used to have a theory about social networking sites. This theory was that they had a half life, a bit like a piece of radioactive waste. The theory stood up quite well for a season of conference speeches, as Friends Reunited, Bebo, Second Life (I like to think my ’get yourself a first life’ comment helped this particular site’s demise) and even the mighty MySpace lost favour with their previously fanatical users.

Then along came Facebook, and I needed another theory (or a longer time span to judge it by.)

However as The Social Network was going big and hitting Hollywood, the latest piece of mass owned technology (geo-tagging on smart phones) was spawning a number of threats to Facebook. Gowalla, Rummble, Foursquare and numerous other location based services have been gaining traction by getting users to Check in their location via their smart phones in order to let their friends, fans or mere digital acquaintances know their whereabouts.

Bright Young Things

Briefly Foursquare has been the digerati’s new favourite social app. I was staggered to hear that over 4500 people earned an ’Epic Swarm’ badge by checking in simultaneously at a recent American Football game, until I realised that it was a 49er’s game in San Francisco down the road from Silicon Valley and smart phone penetration was probably about 200%. Therefore the market usage figure for Foursquare was disappointingly low!

Then in August this year Facebook Places was launched. Has Facebook Places killed Foursquare dead overnight?

I used to run a media company full of bright young things who had already binned Facebook as too mass, and not cool (read “geeky”) enough for their liking.

No doubt this lot will be part of the five million current users of Foursquare and will for the time being carry on gathering “Mayorships” and earning badges.

The problem for Foursquare is that the launch of Facebook Places will not only stall its consumer growth plans - as Facebook Places is automatically added to Facebook profiles - its companion service Facebook Deals also drives a sledgehammer through Foursquare’s commercial aspirations. (Don’t feel too sorry for Foursquare’s founders, who took out $4.6m in the last round of funding).

Facebook has spend the last five years getting brands to set up pages and fan bases. These communities can now be carefully harvested and the investment payback started through offering Facebook Deals to those checking in.

Freedom of choice

So is this the future for new brands on the web? Launch, wait for one of the big boys to copy your best bits and deliver it seamlessly to their larger audience base, then quietly drift into the ethersphere and a become a distant memory? It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

Wasn’t the internet supposed to encourage freedom, proliferation of brands and consumer choice? The actuality is that it is dominated by a hegemony of superbrands: Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon. The web is increasingly offering consumers a parsimonious choice of suppliers.

Forget Chris Anderson’s long tail. Consumer herd mentality has meant that the internet is like a docked Weimaraner. Nothing wagging here except tongues in Mountain View.

Talking of Google, the recent news of Facebook launching an email service is perhaps harder to understand than its launch of Places. There is already messaging and chat on the service and by Zuckerberg’s own admission, kids don’t use email.

But if Google’s failed social network Buzz was a shot across Facebook’s bow then the announcement of the email service for all 500 million Facebook account holders is a broadside against the Big G.

Those that have seen recent user stats from the USA will have seen Facebook overtake Google in terms of time spent with each brand. The addition of Places, Deals and now mail will have ramifications in even the most powerful board rooms of the West Coast.

So back to the death of Foursquare.

The good thing with Foursquare is that users still have the control in the way they communicate their location other people in their network. You can still check-in in secret, just for your own amusement.

Facebook Places current set up means that you subject all of your friends to your updates all of the time, spammer status assured. Unless your friends switch off their notifications (of which there are already detailed guides on how to do on YouTube) your status updates all automatically.

A previous oft quoted rule of website creation was, if you do one thing, do it well. For a limited constituency of Foursquare users then this rule may prevail.

Now I’m off to oust Rina our own pet digerati as Mayor of HMDG.

Original article can be found in Marketing Week.

Life's a pitch

8 November 2010 by Greg Grimmer

Greg Grimmer, partner, Hurrell Moseley Dawson & Grimmer, talks pitches: “Bad news, say goodbye to your social life, friends and family, you are going to spend the next three, four or maybe even six weeks producing endless data and charts that my boss will throw away 24 hours before the pitch to make up his own version that the client will hate and violently disagree with”…

As we approach the silly seasonal time of the year and the awards season takes full hold of the marketing world’s social life, I thought it was time to reflect on another year of client/agency pitches and the enormous time and emotional cost that these sometimes fruitless exercises inflict upon the marketing supplier world.

For anyone that has spent time in an ad agency, media agency or digital agency (and there seems to be a growing number of people on the media owner side of the fence who have done) they will remember the dread of their manager wandering over to their desk with an awkward smile on their face and proclaiming: “Good news you are working on the so and so pitch”…

Reading between the lines what they really mean is: “Bad news, say goodbye to your social life, friends and family, you are going to spend the next three, four or maybe even six weeks producing endless data and charts that my boss will throw away 24 hours before the pitch to make up his own version that the client will hate and violently disagree with.”

It didn’t always used to be like this. I, like others of my era, used to view new business as a preferential hobby, one that challenged you to look at new markets and gave you a chance to impress the boss, get a pay rise and have a night out on the lash (win or lose)… So why the change?

Well part of this shift can be blamed on the economy – my business partner Nick Hurrell has a great line on this when he says we are looking for clients who are looking to get married, not ones that are coming out of a messy divorce… meaning that the best clients appoint a new agency to start something new, not to leave something bad.

However, I was drawn to the recent YouView creative pitch, where you can’t help noticing the chaos surrounding the creative appointment of Adam and Eve. This was after a big headline in the trade press saying that CHI had been appointed but lost the business because of a clash with their TalkTalk business, and among rumours that RCY+R were also close to the appointment but fell down because of their BBC ties. Somewhere in the process, OMD got appointed despite their (or maybe because of their) long standing relationship with Channel 4.

What a mess, and this was a client without an incumbent! Now I’m sure there is no one party to blame in this case and we have all worked on pitches where there seem to be underhand practices at play, but usually the winning agency and client senior team get to work well moving forward. However, for the winning agency team it is often the case of one thing worse than losing a pitch is winning a pitch…

So, what are the other causes of this general pitch malaise? My agency HMDG was recently tipped off by one of the many pitch brokers that exist in the sector that our credentials, approach, and work were liked by a client and to expect to be included in the pitch list. Four weeks down the line, after supplying copious documents and case studies, we were informed that as a young company without the necessary bureaucratic processes in place we were unable to proceed. A bit like the clash situation, it seems to be an excuse. “No we don’t have any live fashion business and neither did we at the start of the process six weeks ago so why put us through the mill!”… “Yes we handle one of your minor competitors in Asia and have done since you first asked us to pitch!”… Irritating and annoying but too often excuses given by the client procurement team at the end of an unsuccessful process.

Now any sales professionals reading this will probably be thinking get over yourself Greg. We have to pitch daily (to often poorly prepared or non existent agency briefs) and it is true, sales teams have to pitch constantly and will undoubtedly suffer disappointment more often than not. This is one reason that despite being one of the more sales orientated agency folk, I still doff my cap to those on the other side of the fence, the job you do is tough. This notwithstanding, the fundamental difference is that agency pitches normally have to produce bespoke content for each and every pitch and media owners will normally re-cycle the majority of the content. Also on the agency side, a field of 10 will only produce one winner, whereas there can be multiple winners on the media owner side.

So what can be done? Well better understanding the procurement industry remains a goal for most of the agency new business people I know. Also, being clearer, stronger and better prepared for the pitches you do want to participate in must be a prerequisite… (I remember gaining more respect from my management team after walking away from a pitch than I ever did for winning one). It is the life blood of any business and especially in agency life, as my first creative director told me very early on in my advertising career. There’s only one thing guaranteed in advertising, you will lose business!

This cheerful ditty keeps me going on the new business trail, looking for those clients who want ambitious, forward thinking work for their business. The pitch won’t go away but try and enjoy it and don’t treat it as a punishment – it should be a chance to recommend new things and have some fun in the process.

So, life’s a pitch but then you try (and try again)…

http://mediatel.co.uk/newsline/2010/11/08/lifes-a-pitch/

Interview with girl-next-door Joanna Page as she lands her first modelling gig

She was the epitome of the girl-next-door in Gavin and Stacey, but beneath the cheery smile and bubbly persona hid cheekbones like a pair of chicken fillets and the smooth, clear skin of a child.

Which is presumably what Superdrug saw when they decided to make Joanna Page their new face and star of the brand's new TV ad campaign.

We caught up with Joanna, 33, who's married to Emmerdale star James Thornton, 34, to try to find the key to her natural beauty (we’re sure it helps that even her dad moisturises!).



I see myself as down to earth, quite simple, tomboyish. James sees me as really feminine and sparky and positive – a bright, shining star.

I looked at myself the other day and thought, 'Am I ever going to age?' My mum's nearly 60 and she looks really good and my dad and all his sisters all look really dinky and really, really young. I think I've got their genes. I hardly drink and I've never smoked, but I do sunbathe because I love it when my freckles come out.

I never dreamed of modelling. I'm comfy in front of the camera, being an actress, but this is a dream come true. I wouldn't wear make-up to go to college, but I'd dress up as different people. So to have the opportunity now to do this with Superdrug and pose in front of the camera is just so much fun. To have bright red lips and smoky eyes and have my hair done and then just stand there and pout is brilliant.

Superdrug Vitamin E Illuminating Moisture Cream is absolutely amazing. It's not expensive at all, it smells of holidays and it just illuminates your face – Mum can vouch for this because she lathers it on all over her body. It gives you a glow and really wakes you up.

I'm naturally blonde. My dad's 58 and he’s still got blonde hair and it's thick with a bit of a wave – perfect hair. My mother has got really fine, rubbish hair. I've got her hair, in Dad's colour.

My dad uses Nivea and my mum used to use Oil of Ulay. She used to tell me always to put moisturiser on with an upward movement so you don't pull the skin and not to forget your neck and your chest. And to backcomb your hair to make it look a bit thicker. That's what I've inherited from her! And positivity – being ambitious, believing in yourself and not worrying about what other people think about you.

I've never dieted or had a problem with my weight. But now I'm in my 30s, I think it's important to start working out, not just to look good, but for your heart. You forget about that, don't you. But I'm getting older now and should be in my prime. If I'm going to get really fit, it has to be now.

I'll be guaranteed to do something at least three times a week, even if it's just doing 50 sit-ups before I go to bed or a few press-ups when I get up or taking the dog for a run down to the newsagents or going for a swim. As long as you do something that gets your heart going every day.

I don't know if they’re doing any more Gavin and Stacey Christmas specials. We'll never do a new series but I wouldn’t be surprised if I got a phone call in a couple of years to say we’re doing another special and that would be really nice. I love working with them all; they’re so much fun. It would be lovely for us all to meet up, have a laugh and spend a few weeks messing around.

See the full article at Hello!

Who the XXXX is Clare Enders?

...Or to put it another way - "where has the media voice of the agency world gone?" asks HMDG's Greg Grimmer.

It has come to my attention over the last few months that we have a new 'Empress of Media'. Regular readers of MediaTel Newsline, or MediaGuardian or MediaWeek or indeed virtually anywhere will have seen Enders Analysis, and more specifically Claire Enders, proclaiming regularly and bluntly about all things media.

Now I myself am not shy of a bit of self promotion, happy to turn up at the opening of (selective) media envelopes, and speak at conferences, weddings, and barmitzfah's, but Ms Enders is making me seem like a recluse. She is everywhere and not shy of making a few enemies along the way.

Now I have never met Claire but mutual acquaintances have told me she is sharp, clever, funny and enjoys being the centre of attention (obviously!) and that she is running a successful business - but why has she suddenly become the doyenne of the media circuit? And more to the point, why is it that she has been the lone media voice in areas where we would expect to hear from our trade bodies and media super groups?

In fact it is not just the media circuit - the ubiquitous Enders can even be seen at House of Commons' select committees criticising government ministers' naivety and lack of basic media understanding. However, Ms Enders' latest move is the one that has really caught my eye - she is taking on big Rupe himself. The News Corp Evil Empire. I am envisioning Enders in Princess Leia plaits and Big Rupe dressed up in his best Darth Vader kit. Surely this is not a battle of equals?

Now running a 'small business' (Companies House definition not mine) registered in Dundee, I can see the business benefit for Claire and her eponymous firm of creating waves and column inches out of not just their reports and forecasts but also her occasional fight-picking abilities (she has proved several times that she isn't scared of the big boys). But normally her forthright views are on old media's habit of tying up capital in fixed assets, or new media's obsession with forgetting to remember the lessons of history.

This time she is just trying to stop a seemingly smart piece of corporate manoeuvring by a media maven, or at least raise some serious questions about it. However, the real reason that I am perplexed by Enders asking the government to investigate News Corporation's purchase of the remainder of the BSkyB shares that it doesn't currently own, is the fact that this significant piece of media lobbying is being fronted by a small management consultancy and not by the normal media establishment of the IPA, ISBA, or indeed the media agency super groups who have obvious client interests to protect.

I remember Chris Locke, now of the great media buying behemoth VivaKi, then of Mediavest, writing an amusing piece in MediaWeek after the now defunct consultancy Michaelides and Bednash won 'Media Agency of the Year'. Chris argued that as they spend no money on media they could not possibly be the agency of the year. And if M+B could win, then so could his mum as she spends nothing on media either.

In another memory recall test, I remember the Monopolies and Mergers Committee investigating the potential power of Rank Screen Advertising when they got to about 80% of the cinema advertising market - a media that was then, as now, less than 1% of the total expenditure in the UK market. It was big news - media directors in advertising agencies got animated about the subject.

There was a similar noise around about the same time Rupert Murdoch took control of the failing mid-market tabloid Today from the union-busting Eddie Shah. The advertising world was nervous of the increasing might of the Murdoch media stable and activated both regulatory bodies and lobbying groups to monitor the deal's progress.

Today - some weeks after Enders' document was mailed to Vince Cable, where it apparently lay un-opened for some time, the rest of the newspaper industry has come together to petition the business secretary... but why the deafening silence from the media agency establishment when News Corporation are adding to their power once again? Are the likes of GroupM and OPera content with Claire Enders doing their work for them, or is the IPA Media Futures Committee (dominated by the CEO's of all the major buying agencies that equate for about 85% of all money spent on media in the UK) about to pronounce on the subject of Sky's ownership? Will Enders Analysis be able to rest easy as both TV viewers and advertisers have their interests looked after by those that control the income streams to the majority of Murdoch's empire?

Or are we now in an era where the major agency groups are too cosy with the major media owners and deals have been struck across boundaries away from the influence or control of a single government?

Surely that couldn't happen today in our egalitarian web-based economy... well maybe not, but of course that is a web that is basically run by three companies - Google, Apple and Microsoft.

And Claire, if you are reading this, I'm sure I wont have to remind you of the wise words of Mr Wilde - "there's only one thing worse than being talked about..."

See the article in full at MediaTel