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800.275.2840 MORE NEWS» insideradio.com THE MOST TRUSTED NEWS IN RADIO MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2014 Survey: More marketers using radio for holiday ads than TV. Nine out of ten marketers say they’ll use email marketing this holiday season. But when it comes to traditional media, there’s a surprise in the results of an Experian survey. It shows that more companies plan to use radio than television, 17% versus 15%. Among the 379 marketers surveyed that run holiday-specific campaigns, print and direct mail out-performed the two forms of electronic media. That unexpected finding is most likely explained by how the companies see the media puzzle pieces falling together. Experian found more marketers feel radio is easier to integrate with their email, online and mobile advertising than is television. Thirteen percent of companies said they were using radio as part of a cross-channel campaign. While the Christmas season is a big deal for jewelry stores and toy stores, two-thirds of marketers who took the survey reported they spend 20% or less of their overall budget on holiday marketing campaigns. If the mood of the shopper is any indication, Experian senior analyst Ethan Van Auken says based on its monitoring of consumer sentiment there’s good reason to spend this year. “We’re feeling pretty good – we’re actually at a high point for the last seven years so that is enormous news for anyone looking to sell to the consumer,” he says. The U.S. Commerce Department recently reported a modest 0.5% increase in retail sales last month, which some analysts suggest could mean lower gas prices will help boost holiday shopping. The National Retail Federation projects holiday sales will increase 4.1% this year. Want a piece of the holiday budget? Think summer. Decking the halls may be the furthest thing from your mind during the dog days of summer, but that’s when holiday marketing decisions are made. Experian’s 2014 Holiday Marketer Report shows more marketers begin their planning for the Christmas season in August than any other month. More than a quarter of those surveyed said the end of summer was their crunch time, with another 18% saying their planning cycle begins in June and July. By the time October and November arrive, every single marketer says their planning is already underway. But that’s when a different crunch time arrives – the launch of holiday-themed advertising. “These first [ads] really happen in the first couple weeks of November,” Experian’s Elaine Yavorcik says. The survey shows 43% of marketers in the U.S. and Canada planned to start deploying their holiday campaigns between November 1 and 15 – showing more marketers are going early with the ads. That’s a 65% jump from a year ago. About one-in-five start their holiday marketing in the second half of the month. Live reads can lose their luster when caught up in client battle. The battle between a pair of competing Nashville jewelry retailers is illustrating the potential dangers of live read ads. Cumulus Media has found itself caught in the middle of a seemingly NEWS INSIDE >> no-win situation between two of its clients and is now defending itself in court. Service -News/talk is 2014’s top Jewelry says it bought “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in advertising from Cumulus radio format since 2007, using personal endorsements from “Super Talk 99.7” WWTN late-morning personality Michael DelGiorno. It credits those live reads for allowing the store to “build [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 1 NEWS insideradio.com MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2014 brand recognition and reputation” in the market. The trouble began after a local TV station ran an investigation questioning the quality of diamonds at rival Genesis Diamonds. That’s when DelGiorno allegedly referenced the TV report during his live read for Service Jewelry. The store had wanted him to casually mention the news story, even listing it in their pre-approved talking points, which suggested DelGiorno direct listeners to check out the TV station’s website for the story. But as live reads are designed to do, DelGiorno expounded and he specifically named the competitor. As to be expected, Genesis – which spends more money on advertising – wasn’t happy and Service’s complaint says it led Cumulus to repeatedly air an apology to its client. The apology said DelGiorno was simply using “very strong and disparaging comments” given to him from another store. That set off its rival, who alleges WWTN was “kowtowing” to a big client after “bungling of its live commercial reads.” In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District in Nashville, Service Jewelry is seeking unspecified damages. Cumulus has denied all the allegations in its response to the suit, noting that the account executive involved no longer works for the company. News/talk is 2014’s top format, but its lead is shrinking. Despite consistently declining year-over-year ratings, news/talk remained radio’s top-rated format among listeners aged 6+ in 2014, but its lead over the competition has grown smaller with every passing year. CHR and country are both within striking distance of dethroning the format, according to a new ratings analysis from Nielsen of the 48 PPM markets. In fact, both did that briefly this year. Country took the top spot in June and July, sharing the honors with CHR in July and pushing news/talk to third. Before June, news/talk had been No. 1 in every non-holiday PPM monthly since at least January 2011. It’s been an up and down year for country. Reaching its all-time 6+ PPM peak in June, country ended the year with four straight months of declines. The other headline from Nielsen’s new ranker of the year’s top formats is the growth of hot AC, especially among listeners aged 18-34, where it has moved up from fifth to third this year. CHR continued to dominate both in its core 18-34 cell (12.3) and in the more compressed 25- 54 Money Demo (9.0). FCC greenlights E.W. Scripps-Journal merger. Journal Communications and E.W. Scripps are one step closer to consummating their marriage. The FCC has approved transfer of control of Journal’s television and radio station licenses to Scripps, conditioned on divestitures that include the sale of Journal’s “Classic Country 92.3” KFTI-FM at its grandfathered cluster in Wichita. The mega merger will see the two companies merge their broadcast operations into a company that retains the Scripps name. The combined newspaper assets will be spun off to form a new publicly traded company called Journal Media Group. In approving the deal, the commission notes that “it eliminates all existing and potential newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership combinations, while creating a new, rule-compliant radio- television combination in only one market.” The transaction is subject to approval by Scripps and Journal shareholders and is expected to close in the first half of 2015. Nielsen and Saga settle lawsuit over alleged ratings piracy. Nielsen Audio and Saga Communications have reached a settlement in the measurement provider’s lawsuit against the broadcaster over alleged copyright infringement. Saga was accused by what was then Arbitron of violating its copyrights by illegally obtaining copies of ratings data between September 2010 and 2012, copying the information, and circulating it among staff. The company has denied the allegations. Now a federal court filing shows all claims and counter-claims between the two parties against each other have been “dismissed [email protected] | 800.275.2840 PG 2 NEWS insideradio.com MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2014 with prejudice,” meaning Nielsen can’t file another lawsuit against Saga based on the same grounds. In early November, Saga indicated it was close to settling with Nielsen, saying it had set aside $2.8 million as it expected to enter into a licensing agreement by the end of the year. If the deal follows the model of two other Nielsen settlements with Renda Broadcasting and L.M. Communications, it would also include the return of Saga to subscriber status after living without ratings data for more than six years. Eastlan adds out-of-market cell phones to its ratings samples. Small and medium market ratings firm Eastlan Ratings reports that 5.6% of the cell phone users who participated in its Fall survey reported their primary cell phone as having an area code from outside the market. Not surprisingly, Eastlan found radio listeners in markets with a significant student population had the highest percentage of out-of-market cell phones. Gainesville/Ocala had 13.2% of all cell phone users reporting out-of-market area codes. Other markets with higher than average penetration included State College, PA (11.4%) and Columbus, GA (11.2%). Keeping up with the growing number of Americans who rely on their cell phone as their primary (or only) phone has become crucial for ratings companies to recruit samples that accurately reflect the markets they measure. It’s especially important for Eastlan, which relies on telephone-recall methodology as its primary measurement instrument. One way Eastlan is getting out-of-market cell users to participate is through the use of e-diaries, which it added in its spring survey to boost participation among younger demos. The portion of survey respondents that Eastlan recruits electronically has the choice to participate via the e-survey or through a callback on their cell phone. CBS Radio’s ‘Night Before’ Super Bowl concert series goes country. Last year it was rock in New York, this year it’s country in Phoenix.