♫ It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yup, it’s upfronts season and ION seems to have followed NBCU’s lead with posting upfront ads in the subway.
Nat Geo placed a long-form print ad in Ad Age to proclaim its steady growth over the past decade. The network is currently in 71 million homes and attracts a more upscale and male audience.
It’s that time of year again: Upfront season. I actually watched an MTA employee put this poster for Oxygen’s Generation O up. Subway ads touting the buying power of their viewers has become a tradition for Oxygen (click here for Oxygen’s 2009 ad and here for 2008). Their goal and tagline remains the same: to plug their “Trender, Spender, Recommender” viewers as non-stop buying machines. What recession? What 9.7% unemployment rate? These ladies have credit cards and they’re not afraid of interest rates.
There’s a few differences in the 2010 Generation O ad worth noting:
1. Apparently, the fresh-faced not a girl/not yet a woman seen here is an actual Oxygen viewer. I assume the vapid, plastic expression is a necessity in the upfront ad genre.
2. No diversity. Previous ads have featured women of color because, you know, debt Generation O doesn’t discriminate. I wonder why they decided to focus on one caucasian female. Hmm.
3. Ms. Angie from Dallas isn’t shopping. In previous ads, the Generation O ladies were shopping or appeared on their way to shop. Is Generation O beginning to show some restraint or did she max out her Saks card already?
Rob Walker covers these sort of ads that commodify people in his “Product is You” series. By the way, this photo was taken at the 67 Avenue station in Forest Hills, Queens, which is a residential neighborhood and nowhere near an ad agency. Why do you think Oxygen has repeatedly plastered, what is essentially a trade ad, all over the subway? Sure these ads are meant for media planners and buyers, but who are they really marketing to?
We TV’s upfront advertising just screams girl power. Their female audience are “optimistic and resilient.”
The above banner images mark NPR’s first-ever marketing campaign created to portray the brand as an interactive, innovative medium for advertisers. The campaign is meant to emphasize NPR’s penetrative reach as a cross-platform media outlet that extends beyond radio. The company released an iPhone application for its podcasts on August 15 and as noted by the second panel, achieved over 1 million downloads, which is certainly helping it reach a younger audience (via: ClickZ).
I’m particularly struck by the campaigns references the demise of “old media.” The accompanying sponsorship information page states NPR reaches more than the “combined circulation of the top 55 newspapers.” This certainly highlights print media’s fleeting influence. The bold, albeit cliché in approach, slogan in the last panel implies that radio, television’s predecessor, has successfully combined a throwback medium with progressive media usage sensibilities and garnered a loyal following.
Side note: I’ve never seen a brand brag about the number of Twitter followers it has and perhaps in the not-too-distant future, that number will be just as important as web traffic figures.
The 2009 Upfront ended in August. Because of the recession, major networks sold less commercial time than they normally do and are hoping to cash in on the scatter market. Below are a collection of upfront pages—some require login IDs that are usually given to ad agency representatives.
- BBC America
- Bravo
- Oxygen
- Univision
- Spike TV (ID required)
- History Channel (ended/ID required)
- IFC and Sundance Channel
- GSN - Game Show Network (ID required)
- CNN
- WE tv (ID required)
- Syfy
- AMC
- Scripps Networks
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“What [advertisers] buy are the services of audiences with predictable specifications which pay attention in predictable numbers and at particular times to a particular means of communication [sic] in particular market areas. As collectivities these audiences are commodities. As commodities they are dealt with in markets by producers and buyers (the latter being advertisers). The audience commodities bear specifications known in the business as “the demographics.” The specifications for the audience commodities include age, sex, income level, family composition, urban or rural location, ethnic character, ownership of home, automobile, credit card statues and social class.”
- Dallas Smythe [via: Radio Active: Advertising and Consumer Activism by: Kathy M. Newman]
via: The Advertising Research Foundation
Above are Oxygen and Bravo’s subway ads for the 2009 upfronts. These pictures were taken at the 49th station along the R line, which makes sense for the location since Media:Edge and MediaVest offices are nearby. However, last year, similar Bravo and Oxygen upfront ads were plastered all over New York City. These two pictures (click HERE and HERE) were taken in Forest Hills, Queens. This picture was taken at the 116th St. A train station in Harlem. Neither neighborhood is a hub of media insiders, which raises the question, why would networks display ads that are so obviously industry specific in such a public arena? Granted New York is the advertising capital of the world, but it’s a bit unusual to see posters touting high engagement and ROI occupying the same space as ads for movies, radio stations and cheap legal advice.
I don’t think people generally like viewing themselves as rating points or pawns in a greater marketing scheme, but the 2008 Bravo and Oxygen upfront ads seem to frame consumerism in an empowering way. Although geared towards planners and buyers, the posters also help the public identify themselves and define their media habits. Being described as “engaged” and “cable’s best audience” does wonders for a viewer’s self-esteem and serves to add a sort of creditability to their taste in television.
Although, only strategically limited to a few subway stations near ad agencies, the 2009 were still readily visible by many non-industry straphangers. Given the current economic climate, I really didn’t think Bravo and Oxygen would run this type of campaign this year, but I guess “affluencers, trenders, spenders, and recommenders” don’t know the meaning of the word downsize.
