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Greetings!
RJ Palmer st arts off the new year with exciting news. It is with great pleasure we announce the promotion of Pete Regan to Chief Operating Officer (Pete Regan Moves to COO at RJ Palmer). Pete is an advertising mogul whose insight will continue to help us shape the future of RJ Palmer's services (see his plans below). More staff announcements are in our sidebar.
RJ Palmer has also unveiled its new website (www.rjpalmer.com). Void of edge and flash, we endeavored to instead capture the culture and strengths at RJ Palmer, in well thought out, simpler forms of messaging. The point of our design is to keep navigation simple and accessible while sharing our service descriptions in brief language. Please take a look if you have a moment. Unlike our competition, we think it exhibits a very clear picture of who RJ Palmer is and what we can do for our clients.
Marketplace -
As we discussed previously, 2011 is holding the strength we saw in 4Q. The national marketplace is very well sold for 1st quarter putting networks in a position to be bullish and stay bullish. We are seeing double digit increases and working to keep pricing in line. In network primetime, because of ratings liabilities at the other networks, CBS emerges a big winner so far, (though the Super Bowl and American Idol will put some steam back at FOX). Many of their new shows, such as Blue Bloods and Hawaii Five-O are performing well and CBS has re-upped their deals. Whereas other networks might take a shot at more edge with their programming, CBS has the working formula. They really know their audience and they are steadfast at keeping them. Viewers are comfortable with the good guy/bad guy storylines. Their median age is dropping as well. CBS is competing more so on A18-49 and 25-54, whereas not too long ago, it was 35+.
Cable networks, especially top tier, are also enjoying higher increases in scatter. Some to the degree of double digits. 1Q is well sold. 2nd quarter hasn't really begun in earnest.
As always, we will stay on top of the activity and keep our clients abreast. Stay warm.
PK
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COO Pete Regan's Road Map for Progress | |
Pete Regan begins his new position as Chief Operating Officer at RJ Palmer and shares some of his thoughts and plans moving forward:
One of my goals quite simply is to tell the RJ Palmer story in a new and exciting way. RJP has a tremendous amount of talent and I feel it's a well kept secret in the ad community. I want to change that and think it begins with a solid communication plan that's geared to our employees and to the ad community at large.
I'm working closely with Peter Knobloch, our CEO and Jim Vail, our President to flesh out a business plan that will enhance communication among our various departments. Once we've integrated this plan internally we will take it outside our headquarters and use it as a platform to conduct business with our clients and media partners. Some highlights:
RJ Palmer's DNA - What is RJ Palmer about? How do we work better/smarter for our clients? We are constantly asking ourselves, "What have we done today to earn our clients' business"? We've recently revamped our site, to articulate who we are and what we do best, in a fresher more contemporary look. We must convey our message clearly and do it in a consistent, informed manner. We will establish an RJ Palmer look and an RJ Palmer culture of doing business that will become very recognizable and very desirable. We will standardize our operations and merchandise ourselves through better technology, our social media presence, and a streamline of all our correspondence down to the smallest details - fonts, letterheads, presentations, email signatures.
Clients - Improving Their Business - RJ Palmer is known for quality service and importantly for senior involvement. And we're working on ways to do it even better. We are fine tuning our "Best Practices" by discipline and will tailor them to each of our clients specific needs and idiosyncrasies. This will involve pro-active stewardships of each of our clients' businesses with input from them as well. I want to do client audits and find out first hand what they love about us and what they don't. I will be introducing to our teams Brandcare, an initiative I developed at Cliff Freeman before coming here. All RJ Palmer staff - from the buying and planning groups to our accounting personnel will know our clients' businesses inside and out. It cannot be just about media and CPM's. We need to be brand experts. Everyone will submit a new idea to me every month for the clients they are assigned. This will provide more texture to our services and lead to greater successes for our clients.
On RJP Internal Communication -
It's very important to get a sense of what's working and what's frustrating anyone. I want to create a bigger conversation. The people here at RJ Palmer are very hard working and dedicated, a culture instilled here by Peter and Jim. If we can develop ways to streamline, such as cross checking our reporting systems and meeting schedules, this will lead to quicker turnaround times and easier avenues to do more brain storming. Ultimately come up with the goods clients want - "The Big Idea".
To sum up briefly, my plan is to match a cross functional business process with our culture, make sure everyone knows and understands exactly what needs to be done and get everyone on board to do it.
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| Only Stupid Answers: What is Social Media by Andrew Ettinger | |
Recently a brand manager asked me: "I know this is a stupid question, but what is Social Media?" To echo the old adage, there are no stupid questions -- just stupid answers. As such, I can offer nothing but a dumb response. Frankly, I have no idea what is Social Media. My descriptions don't do it justice, and while I can list myriads of examples, I can't articulate a clear definition. Perhaps I need to steal the Supreme Court's definition of pornography; I'll know it when I see it.
If you Google the definition of "Media," you will get a straightforward answer. Do so for "Social Media" and your computer might explode. Given the millions of dollars spent in this area, it bewilders me that Social Media lacks a singular definition -- one on which we can all agree.
Some people define Social Media as participatory media, but that is far too simplistic. Certainly, some aspects are participatory in nature, but not all participatory media is social. Others call it a set of tools. If that is the case, I guess construction workers are the new black. Still others consider Social Media just a fancy name for online Public Relations. While blogger outreach is a big part of the social field, I think that is a naive view. One way or the other, the term "Social Media" is slowly becoming a shibboleth without real meaning.
Social media is hard to define because it is an umbrella term that encompasses many disciplines and approaches to mass communications. Social Media encompasses a spectrum of opportunities, many of which must be viewed in the right light to even be included. That is, they are social only in the right context. Even the lowly Flash banner can be considered Social Media under the right circumstances. A 728x90 SWF is just a banner. Adding Facebook Share/Like links suddenly makes it a social banner. Companies post their ordinary TV commercials on YouTube in the hopes of winning the viral video lottery. Every traditional media element can be viewed through the social lens. Social Media, it seems today, is media itself.
Defining Social Media is more than just an academic exercise -- there are real world implications. After all, how can companies participate in it if they do not know what "it" is? Codifying the term Social Media gives rise to meaningful next steps. Then you can define the parameters of a project and properly fund it. By extension, this helps determine the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) based on practical expectations. The KPIs should reflect the objectives, not the other way around. Since we can measure everything online, any elements of social media should be associated specific Web metrics. Just like page traffic, online buzz can be quantified by a third party. However, if you have not defined what you are trying to measure, objective results will be impossible to measure.
I am increasingly wary of the term "earned media." It implies that that Social Media has no cost. That is simply not the case. First, corporate Public Relations are not free, at least not when you involve a PR agency or a full-time employee. Yes, the media distributes the message at no cost, but someone must first create the message. Second, there are costs associated even with "free" social platforms like Facebook or Twitter. There are opportunity costs for the time spent on updating social media. Blogging is fun at first, but it can quickly become a chore. A marketer has to account for the time it takes to blog/tweet/re-tweet/post/check in every day. That is time not spent on other, perhaps more vital projects. Time still equals money, or so my boss tells me.
Ultimately, each company will need to create their own Social Media taxonomy; one size does not fit all. In the same way that "digital advertising" does not really mean anything, neither does the term Social Media.
Instead, these words stand for a collection of related but most definitely separate topics. Advertisers organize their digital efforts by tactic: email, mobile, search and display. They view each piece of the puzzle as a separate surgical instrument. Indeed, there are specialty ad agencies with expertise in each of those practices. Social also has to be broken down by tactic: online PR, corporate blogging, Facebook functionality, consumer insight. Each is but a part of a larger strategy to engage consumers, but none represent the totality of social media in and of themselves.
This article first appeared in MediaPost |
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The Little Zombie Show That Could by Jayme Cangelosi | |
When the AMC ad sales team first showed us "The Walking Dead" as an upcoming series in development, I had mixed feelings about the show's potential. As a reader of the popular graphic novel that the series is based on, I was  excited to see my beloved zombie comic played out in live action but also had some reservations about how well the subject matter would be portrayed on-screen. A zombie show on basic cable? How could AMC possibly include all the blood and gore from the book? And how could they find actors suitable enough to play characters so many were already familiar with?
When the first episode finally aired on Halloween night, I was pleased to see that AMC had done right by all of the "Walking Dead" fans worldwide. Then the next day when the ratings were posted that 5.3 million viewers tuned in to watch, it was clear that "The Walking Dead" would not only do well with fans of the comic book and/or zombies, but a much wider audience. The premiere delivered the highest ratings ever for AMC and for a scripted cable series of all time, and more than doubled the recent season finale of Mad Men, widely considered the network's strongest show. So why was "The Walking Dead" such a hit? I think part of the show's success comes from the core fan base. Fans of the horror genre will give any zombie/slasher/vampire/monster title at least one watch, and with all of the poorly made horror movies out there, these fans know quality when they see it. And that was just the case with "The Walking Dead"- you can tell by watching that AMC hadn't scrimped on the budget. Frank Darabont, director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, signed on to direct. The "walkers" looked absolutely disgusting, the action looked real, and the zombie-inflicted injuries looked like they really hurt. The cast included a diverse group of "survivors" (mostly original characters from the books, with some new additions) portrayed by a mostly-strong group of actors. Thanks to a strong writing staff, the problems these survivors faced were serious and as realistic as one could imagine if a zombie apocalypse really occurred. Interpersonal relationships were explained, explored, and sometimes tragically cut short.
But I think the biggest reason of all that "The Walking Dead" attracted so many viewers each night (as the ratings stayed strong throughout the six episodes and ended with a record-breaking 6 million viewers tuning in to the season finale) is that it was something  different to watch. While there are multiple serial killer, crime investigation, government conspiracy and, most recently, vampire dramas on television, there are no shows about zombies. Yes, we've seen survivors band together after a catastrophic event ("LOST", "FlashForward", "Gilligan's Island", etc.) but we've never watched a group of relative strangers face an army of the undead while struggling to find food and shelter and wondering to themselves if there is any point in surviving anyway- what kind of future lies ahead for them?
And what kind of future lies ahead for "The Walking Dead"? With season two on order and slated for an October premiere, it will be interesting to see if the Little Zombie Show That Could can keep- or even grow- its viewers and survive to see a third season. |
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| ANNOUNCEMENTS | |
STAFF MILESTONES
Local Buying
Congratulations to Cerissa Chin for two milestones: She celebrates 10 years at RJ Palmer and she was just promoted from Associate Director to VP, Associate Director, Local Buying.  "Cerissa is the pillar of strength of the local buying team. In her 10 years here, as the media landscape changed, so did her abilities to ride the wave and execute innovative buys and creative value added that exceed our clients' expectations. It is an honor to have her on my team", says Meredith Smulian, SVP of Local Buying.
Strategic Insights
Jonathon Donini, was promoted from Research Analyst to Senior Research Analyst. Our SVP, Strategic Insights, Joanne Milano says, "For three years Jon has served as a fulltime employee after interning with us several times  during the summer while he attended Rutgers. He is always ready to help a research system user in distress or pull a quick competitive. He has grown immeasurably since he first walked through our doors and recently developed our latest tool, PalmPulse. More importantly, he understands my sense of humor. Most of the time."
NEW HIRES
Planning
Assistant Media Planner, Thomas Coyle joins RJ Palmer. A Marketing major, Thomas graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration from Western New  England College, Springfield, MA. Prior to RJ Palmer, he interned at Hasbro Inc. as a Marketing Associate. He also played Cornerback on Western New England College's Varsity football team.
Brittany Cianflone, Assistant Media Planner also joins RJ Palmer. Brittany graduated with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Business from Siena College. She previously worked as a marketing intern at Asprey, a  British luxury goods store, while studying abroad in London for a semester. She was in chorus and on the equestrian team at Siena. She recently moved into a "flat" downtown in the financial district with two of her friends.
JUST MARRIED
Devin Fallon, Media Planner, married his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth Davis. Their wedding was on October 29th at St. Francis Xavier in New York City and their reception was held at the Manhattan Penthouse. Honeymoon location is TBD, but they are accepting suggestions!
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First Dance: "I'm Yours"
by Jason Mraz
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