Summary
With television advertising targeting undergoing a revolution in capabilities and accuracy, this paper reviews a variety of different targeting algorithms. These range from the traditional age-gender targeting methods employed based on Nielsen ratings, to new approaches that attempt to target high probability buyers using Set Top Box data.

Summary
This paper reports on a global analysis of Ipsos ASI's advertising tracking databases. It found consistent consumer responses to advertising around the world, but disparate media buying practices: advertisers in emerging markets routinely invest in higher TRPs than those in mature markets. This difference leads the paper to suggest that there is considerable potential for improving advertising ROI across the Asia Pacific region.

Summary
The authors (from Zenith Media and Rentrak) argue that the current system of US national TV audience measurement for advertisements is flawed. This is because these ratings are based on an average of all commercial minutes by program. In a typical hour of broadcast, this represents 14 minutes of commercials, and therefore about 96% of the rating does not encompass the advertiser's specific commercial. The report evaluates the collaboration between Rentrak and Zenith to produce exact commercial ratings for 23,372 TV spots using Rentrak's database of over 8m households. Based on the study, the report argues that exact commercial ratings are a precise and stable measurement tool to examine an advertiser's investment in TV (and can therefore provide more accountability).

Summary
This slide presentation covers the problems and opportunities faced in developing TV media plans based on imperfect audience information. It illustrates its case with the approach that Microsoft used in the U.S. to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its television media buys for its Bing search engine. By combining TV and online panel information, Microsoft was better able to target heavy searchers, improving the efficiency of reaching them by over 25%.

Summary
The Association of National Advertisers has identified four areas of “concern” that, according to organization chief Bob Liodice, “potentially undermine the cost effectiveness and value we expect from our investments in the TV medium.” These concerns are fresh regulation, privacy, network integration fees and new forms of advertising clutter. This piece, from Warc’s coverage of the ANA’s 2011 TV and Everything Video conference, looks in detail at these four areas of concern and why advertisers should be aware of them. It features comment from the ANA’s president/ceo Bob Liodice.

Summary
Media agencies are having to examine their cost structures to identify savings, but they know they must invest in the skills and resources that give them a competitive edge. There is scope for streamlining planning processes by increasing automation, and by changing the focus of how agencies operate. As long as the client has high quality sales data, this can contribute to automating the media planning process, freeing up planners to focus on interpreting human behaviour, building relationships between people and brands and creating exciting content. These activities would result in genuine added value, strengthening the client-agency relationship.

Summary
Television upfronts would be nothing without hype. But in recent years, a different kind of hype has been surrounding the television upfronts, driven largely by the fragmentation of media that has siphoned off the networks' audiences. Some say the upfront buying season has become an antiquated marketplace and process that won't exist in a few years, while others say it will remain, but in a radically different form. With that in mind, advertisers and their media buyers need to understand how and why this year's upfronts will require a new strategic approach - one that has them considering television in the context of the overall media mix. A range of agency reps, media planners, media buyers, and network executives are asked for their insight and perspective on what about the upfronts has changed and what has stayed the same. These include that with more outlets have come more otions; C3 has emerged as the ratings standard; new products require new tactics; new media platforms have given new options for spending. However, upfronts still offer value and efficiency; CPM-based pricing persists and TV is still the primary marketing medium.

Summary
This 2009 article, from the executive vp of the Television Bureau of Advertising, discusses the necessary "reinvention" of the traditional media buying process that must come about with the rise of digital. The change - including the imposition of new universal standards - will be facilitated by a 4A's-backed alliance of media buyers working on Project Reinvention: Spot TV. Possible changes include switching ad sales from a cost-per-points basis to a cost-per-thousand viewers basis. One of the changes already undertaken is a switchover of all communications between buyers and sellers to be published in the XML format. A separate article from David Cohen, U.S. digital director at Universal McCann, states digital media buying is currently "terribly inefficient", and that processes need to be improved.

Summary
This article describes the U.S. system for selling TV time, and argues that the mounting pressures against this system may soon become irresistible. Unlike other countries, in America the TV airtime buying and selling system was designed by advertisers not broadcasters, which largely explains why it has been impervious to change. TV remains the dominant medium, and is still growing, but the basis of its advertising is under increasing pressure from a number of fronts, including: resentment at escalating costs, the growing power of media buying groups, and audience migration to other channels such as the internet, DVD and video games. The three interested parties - advertisers, TV stations and buying agencies - have different and irreconcilable objectives, and until these are resolved, the current system will continue to struggle.

Summary
In the 1980s and 1990s, the media barter business was viewed with scepticism by many marketing executives, but since then the industry has undergone a transformation, and is now valued at over $1.5 billion. This article discusses the development of the industry, and also offers some best practice advice which will be essential in securing the right deal.