The Mill’s Post

In 1941, Bulova aired the first official TV commercial during a baseball game, marking a significant milestone in advertising. This groundbreaking 10-second spot symbolized the dawn of televised advertising, a platform that would grow to dominate the marketing world. This moment reminds us of the ever-evolving nature of advertising. How do you adapt to changing advertising platforms? #Marketing #paidadvertising

Traditional media is accelerating its transition to streaming. Can’t argue with the strategy, but three points worth making: 🏈 We may see new subscribers from the pool of 40m broadband-only homes take this skinny sports bundle (priced at, say, $40-50 per month). But we may also see subscribers of traditional pay TV packages (>60m homes) ditch their existing $90+ per month packages in favour of the new sports bundle. It will be a busy two-way street. 🏈 Even if there is a net increase in total subscribers for Disney, WBD and Fox, how much affiliate / retrans revenue from their non-sports networks on traditional pay TV will the three shareholders lose? And how does the calculation look when you factor in the cost of acquiring and retaining customers for a new service (alongside standalone offerings like ESPN+), and running another layer of management. And let’s not get started on the inefficiencies of joint ventures… 🏈 How will MVPDs react? Charter / Disney last year showed relationships were already frayed, before this decision. The new Disney / WBD / Fox skinny sports bundle excludes many important sports rights (including Thursday Night and CBS’ Sunday Night Football, The Masters, MLS), but it significantly weakens the expanded basic cable bundle. MVPDs’ desire to swallow affiliate rate increases in future surely goes down further. Better to bring the pain forward, but it will still be painful… #disney #wbd #fox #espn #longterminvesting

With so many "experts" ranking their favorite Super Bowl ads, it's hard to know which ones will actually bring the biggest ROI for brands. As football fans become loyal customers and evangelists for the brand, it's important to choose ads that drive customers not just to the top of the sales funnel but through it. Check out this article from The New York Times for a breakdown of the best and worst ads from Sunday's game. Which ones do you think will have the biggest impact on brand loyalty and ROI? #SuperBowlAds #BrandLoyalty #ROI

brandTALES 002: Unveiling the First-Ever Video Advertisement Today, let's journey back to a groundbreaking moment in advertising history – the birth of the first-ever video advertisement. On July 1, 1941, during a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game, viewers witnessed a 10-second marvel by Bulova Watch. This iconic ad marked a pivotal moment, pioneering television advertising as we know it today. The ad featured a simple yet powerful display of a ticking clock, accompanied by the tagline "America runs on Bulova time." In those mere seconds, Bulova not only captured attention but set the stage for decades of creative and influential advertising to come. As we celebrate this milestone, let's reflect on the evolution of advertising and how these moments continue to shape our brand narratives today. Stay tuned as we unravel more captivating tales from the world of advertising history in our #brandTALES series! #AdvertisingHistory #BrandNarratives #MarketingInnovation #ThrowbackThursday #brandingstrategist #brandtales

There’s a few pressing — and largely unanswered — questions about the massive news that Disney, Fox and Warner are coming together to assemble a sports streaming package. It’s clearly a potential backbreaker for the cable TV business.  The first and most obvious question is price. While some have speculated a launch price of $40 per month, that would barely cover the carriage fees of ESPN, Fox Sports and TNT’s cable networks and would further chip away at their declining but still profitable linear TV businesses. Then there is the question of who was left out of the deal, namely Paramount and NBC/Peacock. Is that based on an unwillingness to deal or their rival’s lack of faith in the long term viability of their current streaming products (Peacock and Paramount Plus)?  Another lingering question is which sports and games will be included and excluded. Based on the timing of this announcement (Super Bowl week) and the target launch date of fall this year (the start of the NFL and college football seasons) football will play a BIG part.  Then there’s the ownership piece of this — all three companies have equal share. Rightly, most people are pointing out that this rarely goes well in media (take Hulu, for example).  Mostly though, this feels like a step sideways for the streaming world and yet another way for streaming to slowly replicate the halcyon days of cable when you simply turned on the TV and flipped between channels for all the games you wanted to watch. The public’s hatred and contempt for cable companies — incessant price rises and horrific customer service — drove a lot of streaming’s explosive growth. Now as people grow increasingly irritated at streaming’s price rises and inconsistent offerings, cord cutters are faced with yet another opaque and pricey app that may or may not show their team’s games. As the business faces one more threat to its viability, imagine if at the peak of their powers in the early 2000s the cable companies had been more amenable to a la carte offerings, more nimble on pricing, offered better customer service, more imaginative technology and flexible services? Would we even be here? https://lnkd.in/geHy6qWr  

Know your value and worth and be committed to bringing all that it entails into fruition.

The Super Bowl is known as one of the most-watched sports events in entertainment. Surprisingly, not everyone tunes in solely for the football; in fact, over 79% of viewers regard the commercials as a form of entertainment too. With a vast audience captivated by the event, businesses spare no expense to secure a spot during the broadcast. This year, corporations are expected to dish out over 7 million dollars for each 30-second ad. That's only for the spot, not including all the production costs. Is it worth it? #SuperBowlAds #Advertising #BrandAwareness #TVAds

Aaaand that's a wrap on this year's Super Bowl! Whether you were in it just for the ads, the actual game or the Taylor Swift appearances, it was definitely one to remember! What did you think of this year's ads? Did you have a favorite? And if you missed out, we got you covered 😉 Check out the full list of this year's ads right here: https://lnkd.in/g3QN5gmb #Beer #SuperBowl #AdvertisingInsights #Trends #Analysis #Marketing #Advertising #Trending #DigitalMarketing #Branding #Strategy

How to Violate the Most Basic Principles of Marketing: A Football Story First, take a major postseason game, put it behind a paywall and block your insanely dedicated target market from any other means of access. Proceed to declare a new streaming record. (Disregard the fact that records are easy when there’s no competition.) Kick off your media blitz. Don't hold back, indulge in your hubris. Have your CEO call it a “remarkable innovation” in the press release. Now, the coup de grace... Use your next broadcast to really dunk on your core audience. Congratulate yourself for achieving “a milestone moment in sports media,” complete with a highlight reel. And for good measure, make sure to thank yourself and your business partners, not your customers. Watch the video here: https://lnkd.in/g9SEwTN7 #marketing #nflplayoffs

People today value authenticity. They prefer to engage with individual players and real personalities over faceless businesses and organizations. This shift towards genuine interactions marks a refreshing evolution. It paves the way for greater authenticity and deeper connections between viewers and sports organizations like the NFL, facilitated through the personal stories of the individuals within these organizations. To incorporate this into your business, focus on creating high-quality content that offers a glimpse behind the scenes. Showcase your achievements, the challenges you face, the new projects you’re tackling, and share your journey authentically. By doing so, you allow others to walk in your shoes, fostering a deeper connection with your customers and viewers.