Samuel Chandler, Roland Bahire, CJ Han, Dominic Leo, Donggyun Yoon

Transcription

1 Samuel Chandler, Roland Bahire, CJ Han, Dominic Leo, Donggyun Yoon

2 Comcast Spotlight The advertising sales division of Comcast Cable Headquarters - New York City Operations in more than 80 United States markets Helps local, regional and national advertisers create custom, multi-screen marketing solutions Essentially, sells "time spots" on multiple media outlets to businesses wishing to advertise

3 Comcast Spotlight

4 Contacts Karen Barksdale South New Jersey/Delaware Comcast Spotlight Director of Local Sales 330 Fellowship Road Suite 103 Mt. Laurel, NJ Tel: Employment: Present

5 Karen's Duties Makes sure she has the right people Manages sales rep managers 30 reps per manager Checks that their actions are making good results

6 Contacts, cont'd George Cummings Programming/Production Manager TUTV/The Kal & Lucille Rudman Media Production Center Temple University School of Media and Communication Room 106 Annenberg Hall 2020 North 13th Street Philadelphia, PA Tel:

7 Research Question Focusing on Television advertising sales: How does a Comcast Spotlight regional outlet tailor their sales calls and market offering in order to prevent diminished reach for their clients and promote brand value for themselves? Advertising "noise" and the law of diminishing return could prove costly to the firm How does the sales team avoid this?

8 Hypothesis Comcast Spotlight will not impose limits upon how many time spots their customers can buy Sales advertising isn't like it used to be There are more networks now Time spots can be spread out upon a multitude of outlets with similar viewer demographics

9 Potential Problems Regarding Sales Drivers Definers - Poor territory alignment Shapers - Coaching issues Enlighteners - Poor market research, poor alignment with marketing department Exciters - Compensation (no cross-border bonuses) Controllers - Performance management issues (after customer results)

10 Karen's Insight What are characteristics of potential clients? Simply, a business that wants to advertise their message and can afford to use their service. Everyone is a prospect. Are there any screening questions used to find prospects? There are none. Any customer's business is sought, large or small. How are calls tailored from big customers to small customers, i.e., the ones willing to pay for more spots? More time is spent on the larger ones Many serviced by parent branches

11 Karen's Insight, cont'd How do you keep clients from ordering too many promotional spots? Is there such a thing as too many? There is no such thing as too many ads coming from one company. Spotlight suggests to the client that the audience should be fragmented among different networks. Is there a problem with ad concentration amongst television networks? As long as this model is followed, no. Does excessive noise affect Spotlight's brand value? Following our model, it does not. Salespeople are taught to sell spots across multiple networks with similar viewers, i.e., ESPN and Comedy Central

12 Karen's Insight, cont'd Are reps compensated differently when attaining new business as opposed to renewals? There is no difference in rep compensation when acquiring new business versus a renewal. What is the territory structure on the rep level? Do they work together? Is there a national sales branch? Local territories defined by geography, mainly independent of one another. Regional branches covering multiple local territories. National sales branch exists.

13 Karen's Insight, Cont'd What are some examples of to whom each branch level sells? National - the largest companies: P&G, Toyota, etc. Regional - Toyota dealerships located in the region, i.e., big regional names Local - mom and pop stores What is the main issue Comcast Spotlight faces? Fragmentation of the Audience Networks are vast in numbers Viewers are no longer watching only the major outlets Internet and video-on-demand segregates audiences further

14 Solutions to Audience Fragmentation Research about the new tools (Social media, VOD, etc.) Find new strategies to use all the tools effectively Recruit social media professionals Train sales reps about the new tools

15 Comcast Spotlight's Selling Process Interest Creation Companies need to reach potential customers Spotlight can target them efficiently Prepurchase Determine client's problem - can we fix it? Can they afford the services? Purchase Client purchases in bulk a number of spots At price determined by Nielsen ratings Postpurchase Nielsen ratings compiled to determine reach Adjustments made from there

16 Then vs. Now Audience Fragmentation 3 channels versus 100 Sales used to focus on selling the most spots possible on three major networks Regardless of placement among other ads Ford ad directly after Chevy ad Now, media sales is more consultative Market research is key Audience fragmentation taken advantage of rather than avoided Interactive use of segmentation software Spotlight and client use "AdTag"

17 Team Effort of Advertising Sales Increased need for target accuracy Comcast Spotlight seeks help of SRC Web-based software developer Creates "AdTag" Clients given creative control over last 5-10 seconds of an ad Initial ad template provided Localizes advertisement, especially for car dealerships Promotes interactive relationship

18 Conclusions Drawn Comcast Spotlight is a highly effective advertising sales firm Market research across networks is utilized well to help clients target their potential customers Partnership with SRC (software developer) Developed Spotlight's main targeting tools AdTag Their sales team is provided with plenty of insight to ensure this Targeting is the nature of their business While the company sells a product, a time spot, they are arguably more in the business of providing insight to clients Advertising sales is a quickly evolving trade

19 General Recommendations Even deeper market research Consider using market research from clients' companies to help their message spread (enlighteners) Keep a similar selling process (using demographics to sell time on networks) Promote more salesforce cohesiveness across territory borders Adjacent regions can share similar demographics Offer better compensation for cross-border team sales, especially to new customers

20 References "Comcast Spotlight Selects SRC as Developer for Web-Based Demographic Analysis Mapping Plaform."PR Newswire. (2004). Crupi, Anthony. "Auto Helps Drive Up Ad Revenue For Comcast." MediaWeek. 20. no. 18 (2010): Karon, Paul. "Tailoring Spots." Television Week. 23. no. 29 (2004): Smentek, Stefanie. "Media Experts Say Audience Fragmentation is Affecting Advertiser Reach and Agency Resources." In Focus (blog), June 01, "Value Proposition." MediaWeek. 19. no. 16 (2009): AM1-AM1. temple.edu/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=119&sid=f02b858d-b82f-42c