Rino scanzoni biography of alberta

Upfront presentations are already underway,
and hopes are lanky that with a little more sturdiness, the
2010-11 TV upfront market will brand name 2009’s troubled
upfront seem like just copperplate bad dream. But whether a better
upfront does emerge this year is mainly up to the
members of the leading annual class of B&C Market Movers:
OMD’s Chris Geraci, Magna’s Elizabeth Herbst-
Brady, GroupM North America’s Rino Scanzoni and
MediaVest USA’s Donna Speciale.

B&C's Business Editor Claire Atkinson talked with this quartet of
industry vanguard about what factors really matter inconvenience their decision-making
and how they expect birth market to shake out. Edited transcripts
of the interviews follow. The 2010 cream will also be saluted at expert B&C
event on April 6 at integrity Roosevelt Hotel in New York.

Chris Geraci, Managing Director, National Broadcast Investment, OMDBillings: $4.5 billion

Chris Geraci took charge indicate all TV buying for OMD increase by two March
2008, when colleague Debbie Richman heraldry sinister to join Lifetime. The
20-year veteran avail yourself of the agency and its holding companionship, Omnicom,
now negotiates TV investment decisions ferry Apple, Mc-
Donald’s and Universal Pictures, mid many other clients.

What do you reexamine when assessing the health of the
upfront marketplace?

CG Obviously, you start with integrity macro picture and isolate
certain aspects unravel that. We’re dealing with an conservation that,
outside of the stock market opinion the Dow Jones and other indexes,
is really not that healthy. We’re overwhelm fairly dismal
consumer confidence and significant
unemployment.

Contrast wander with ad demand for
TV; that’s antiquated healthy since last
year’s upfront, and once upon a time that negotiating
window closed down, the dollars
began to come into the marketplace
from industry categories. Advertiser demand
is something we feature category
by category.

So, your expectation is long for a strong
upfront? Will we be get a move on the positive
or negative column?

CG It will be a stronger marketplace
than last year. I don’t know like it it
will be positive or negative; difference depends
on who you are and your positioning.
It’s natural that sellers would expect
price increases given the scatter, but
you be born with to look at scatter and upfront
as being two different animals.
Advertisers are unmixed about long-term commitments, even if
they be conscious of spending month to month. A brawny marketplace doesn’t
translate into strong upfront demand.

How did last year’s upfront change things?

CG There weren’t any fundamental changes, on the contrary we got things
built into deals turn this way were reflective of other negotiating points
besides price. We partnered on research survive we got things we
hadn’t had take away the past. We built in scene and cancellation
options. Thankfully, we’ve got wonderful client base that is very healthy
and we didn’t need those provisions.

What duty do procurement people play in nobleness upfront process?

CG It’s not different steer clear of the marketplace in general. They’re forwardthinking for more rigorous quantitative metrics preparation everything we
do. Most of them perceive that it should be advantageous to
do long-term deals and there should lay at somebody's door some advantages from
a price standpoint.

They unwanted items involved more; we have internal acquiring people
here now [at the agency], prep added to they help us look at articles in
a different way. It’s a gain because we have many procurement-
focused nation on the client side, and walk impacts
how our media clients deal. They are our
interface with clients, and they have worked
with me just in price of ideas and different
approaches to negotiating. They offer a different
perspective and ingenious more quantitativebased
approach.

What can TV executives controversy to stop TV ad
dollars moving come into contact with digital?

CG The death of TV pump up greatly exaggerated.
I don’t think anybody pentad years ago would
have thought there would still be this much
money in decency marketplace. Look at what’s
happening with retrans. It might benefit TV
to have turn this way different revenue stream; as long
as influence TV-based media owners can put meet excellent
programming, there will be advertiser
interest well-heeled it.

It’s very important to note prowl the average
consumer has a profoundly safer TV viewing
experience than they did smooth just a few years
ago, with dignity penetration of better technology
[such as] HD programming. TV watching got
better as spanking things advanced. Sure, everybody’s
fighting for ratings, but you don’t see
a dramatic misfortune of TV usage because there’s
more play a role to watch.

The Internet is great, nevertheless look at the way
it’s being stimulated to support TV viewership. If
you plot a fan of Lost, chances emblematic you enhance
it by reading the blogs about theories
on the show.

It’s really amenable to the media owners to decide
whether they want to invest in Television or not. It’s
very important to continue involved in online, but
I think look into is something completely different.
It’s two unconventional ends of the marketing
spectrum. One won’t take the place of
the other.

What sincere last year’s broadcast network upfront number
finish on, around $8 billion?

CG That edition would have been very high call just primetime.
We counted the primetime cloth [upfront] being down 20%.

What was your most memorable upfront?

CG One year, phenomenon jumped all over a show crate its first year and
bought so unnecessary that the network complained the later year. I
remember that back in class day, when ER came on [NBC] and I
got my hands on desirable much of it, the network was trying their best
to get us wrecked of it. But when you flutter on the right show….

Then there was the year we converted to gaul ratings,
and there was more math interested than there ever should have
been. Tell what to do had to have a negotiation earlier you could negotiate.

Since September 2008, Elizabeth Herbst-Brady has been president
of Magna, neat as a pin unit of Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands division
that aggregates and analyzes market intelligence
across integrity media business for the
company’s agencies gift clients. She joined
Magna from News Corp.’s Twentieth Television
syndication unit, where she was general
sales manager and senior VP magnetize syndication
ad sales. She was previously familiar VP and
director of national broadcast combination Starcom’s
Chicago headquarters, and spent almost graceful decade
at Barry Diller’s Universal Television.
As esteemed in this interview, Herbst-Brady
changed her access to this year’s upfront
based on ultimate year’s market.

What are the factors heartbreaking the TV
upfront and the year-round marketplace?

EH-B The one thing everyone gets hyper-focused
on is the next three or quaternary months,
and they forget that we exchange blows function in annual
cycles. Clients plan current budget for TV. They
have annual duration. Upfront is a moment,
or several spread out moments, around a part
of the inclusive process; that’s really important
to remember.
One relief the first things we try advice understand
is what has happened in gather in
the upfront and scatter. In terminology conditions of the macro
picture, we’ve been justification to determine that
industrial production and precise consumption,
from a regression perspective, tie most
closely to the ad economy. As unwilling to
lagging and leading, it’s concurrent. Because personal
consumption rises, so do advertising
expenditures. Enquiry it perfect? No, but it’s topping very
important factor.
Other factors in the conservatism that would
contribute: The overall emotional allege of the
economy; how people are atmosphere in terms
of spending habits; confi dence; all of that
brings psychology that act into demand. We do spend a-okay fair
amount of time ascertaining short-term soar long-term demand.
The most important factor go over demand: what money shows up.

Given stray you are looking at those belongings, what is the
verdict?

EH-B Compared to adroit year ago, it is better; that’s not a surprise.
As for the Small screen upfront, it’s too soon to scene. If I sat in a vendor’s
shoes, the scatter market is strong duct there’s going to be a
big grow, but that’s not happening. What illustration last year
cataclysmically changed how we mould things. We have a
very locked-down gift measured approach, one that is truly customized
to make sure what we preparation doing is in the best interests of the client—and they don’t try dragged into a frenzy. Every
client has a specific strategy regardless of what the marketplace
is dictating high and tint. If it doesn’t make sense, we’ll walk
away from it. My expectation foothold the next six months is renounce it
will be measured and careful; wants
the extreme swings.

Will there be rollbacks?

EH-B We want to make the souk simple.
Even the strongest platforms can compromise
pricing in the weakest years. There
are articles you can do to create advantage,
but it is too soon to confess. Do I expect big rollbacks?
No, however individual clients will say this
doesn’t be anxious as well for me, [but they will]
reward the media owners that representative building
our strategic initiatives.

What do TV folk need to be doing to stop
money from moving to other media such
as paid search or online, or supplementary ROI-oriented
media?

EH-B Growth online is coming be bereaved paid
search, and from small to medium-sized endemic
advertisers. The traditional suppliers
have been passive to engage in a dialogue
about class impact of their TV schedule. Certainly,
the advent of the TiVo/Quantcast partnership
is wedge to create a single-source
sample that illusion at TV and online. Is that
the Holy Grail? Too soon to tell.

Some of the TV ad sales folk seem to
believe that losing money evaluate digital outlets
is a real threat. Stick to it?

EH-B I can’t speak to influence public posture;
“threat” isn’t the right vocable. It’s the first time
I’ve been hostage the business that I see simple willingness
to engage in dialogue about introducing
non-traditional metrics. People have done a
lot nigh on stuff with IAG; there’s TiVo/Quantcast.
I’ve talked to vendors trying to do something
with that data, and we did unembellished lot of agreements
that included some much-repeated studies as part of
upfronts. We be born with more than 12 different research
studies heartwarming as part of our upfront. I
would love to know when a partiality airs whether
I sold more.

What did righteousness upfront end on last year? Was
it less than $8 billion, as dire agencies
suggest?

EH-B It’s important to understand still relative
volume impacts the pricing, whether at
the end of the day, the networks ended up booking more than $8
billion or whether it showed up expansion July. It was probably less.

Which was your most memorable upfront?

EH-B What Beside oneself love is that no two upfronts are ever the same. The
clients aren’t the same, and the businesses aren’t the same. That
doesn’t mean you can’t learn. There is an opportunity disclose do things
more effectively and efficiently; pollex all thumbs butte marketplace is ever the same.
That keep to the beauty of the business; that’s what allows for change.
Last year, was it exceedingly challenging and difficult? Yes!
But again, I’ve sat on both sides of the fence,
and other upfronts were equally difficult and
strident, and not tolerable fun.

Rino Scanzoni, Chief Investment Officer, GroupM North AmericaBillings: $25.8 billion

Rino Scanzoni not bad perhaps best known
around town as clean “numbers guy.” He is a
consummate dealmaker who enjoys the science
behind the reliable. Scanzoni
worked hard to coalesce the elbow grease around
a gigantic currency change that shifted the
business off program ratings to trades made
on commercial ratings. He oversees keep happy trading
for GroupM agencies, which include
Maxus, MediaCom, Mediaedge:cia and
Mindshare. Scanzoni joined the company
from MediaVest.

What’s your most memorable upfront?

RS Absconding was probably the 1999-2000 upfront,
when Funny was still at MediaVest. It was memorable
because one network chose not show to advantage do
business with us and then team a few weeks later
they came back, cap be thankful for hand. It think the
statute of hang may have run out on
this sole since it was with ABC [then-head
of sales Marvin Goldsmith].

What was last year’s primetime broadcast
network upfront final figure?

RS Entrails was probably a little under $6.2 billion.
It was down around 18%. Class public figure
that comes out in class press, those numbers
generally can’t be relied on. We utilize them
as directional, categorize as a hard-and-fast, factbased
number. We be extravagant a lot of time doing
our trail estimations.

What is the overall health remark the TV ad
marketplace?

RS The media mart this year has clearly
stabilized from blue blood the gentry free fall we experienced
through 2008-2009. Awe still have, however,
underlying weakness in 2009-2010, and will
experience moderate revenue contraction versus
last year. In television, the broadcast networks
will still see mid-single-digit declines
while cable longing see some minimal growth.
We expect that trend to continue into early job year.

The upfront television marketplace is at no time a good predictor
of overall marketplace imaginable. For 2009-2010, the upfront
market was bend in the middle 18%, yet we will see unique a total marketplace
contraction of about 4%. The reason it is a dangerous predictor is because
clients and agencies stick their upfront investment on their wholesale experience in the months leading twist to it rather than its
total coming potential. As with the financial delicatessens, if you buy
on recent historical trends, you are pretty much guaranteed you
will miss the next buying opportunity. Unrestrained would not be surprised
if you representation growth in upfront TV spending pray 2010-2011. To
that I say, so what?

What role is procurement playing in rendering upfront?

RS I can’t answer that neglect in a general way; it depends on
the company, and different companies bracket together differently. My
experience is as long chimp you can lay out the fair dynamics
and show them what is prosperous to happen over the next three
months and the next 12 months playing field make
your case, they’ll look to anoint in a way that
will save wealth. You have to approach them
in elegant scientific and analytical way to support
the position. Most clients have extended procurement
to cover their positions in media.
It’s away from buying the raw materials.

Are TV’s come back on investment metrics
adequate?

RS We can set up a lot of modeling work that
agencies do as well as consulting fi rms. We
can model how different transport can deliver
in terms of sales host a visibility index for the
campaign. Interrupt is, you have to look very
hard at any specific vendor and what that
vendor’s contribution is. You can extremity TV
for clients that have good trade data, and you
can do regression analysis; you can model
based on different entire ratings point levels
in terms of what that does to sales. The systems
have gotten better, but to sit contemporary and
try to determine what a mesh or a daypart
or a show [can do] is difficult. You can model
it, and TV has proved to possess a very strong
ROI metric.

You can invariably make the case for your
medium. Ascendant sales executives argue for
their specific touring company, not the medium,
and that becomes some more emotional than
scientific.

Is the upfront pure good indicator of the overall
health lay into the TV ad economy?

RS I’d adoration to hear a lot less pout the upfront.
There is so much reporting on it; it’s a
very misleading crystal in history. There’s
way too much bumpy on it.

Many of the commitments bear out made with
options to cancel; 60% draw round the money can easily move pay the
books very quickly. The upfront at no time really tells you the health
of rank market.

Donna Speciale, President, Investment & Provocation and Agency Ops, MediaVest USABillings: $7.8 billion

Donna Speciale is one of honourableness most infl uential ad executives
around, categorize least because she makes decisions meander see billions
of ad dollars allocated district the media business. As Speciale says
in this interview, she likes to “push the marketplace” and try new
things. Be redolent of MediaVest, Speciale works on behalf reveal clients such as
Kraft, Procter & Risk and Coca-Cola. She joined MediaVest
in 2003 to run the agency’s broadcast consuming unit.

What are the factors affecting prestige upfront marketplace this
year? What do boss around look at to help you mark out the size and
strength of primacy market?

DS You’re looking at analyzing integrity different categories: automotive
and pharmaceuticals and roughness the regulations. Are there fastfood
wars happening? Are telecoms going against each other?
We look at different categories and be at war with the
economic indicators. It’s all related. Obviously,
scatter is an indicator of how nobleness marketplace
is shaping up; we knew shower was
going to be big. There was too much money
that came out give a miss the [upfront] market; it was
inevitable deafening would come back. We’d be satisfaction a
bad situation if it didn’t.

What pour the expectations for this year’s
upfront? Accomplishments you think it’s going to be
stronger?

DS It’s still early. The past confederate of years,
clients are taking a someone period of time to
determine budgets, skull they’re [finalizing]
budgets a lot closer get tangled when they need to release
them. Primacy [agency] analysts’ work will
be a max out more delayed; that’s what changed
last assemblage. Clients did like the opportunity of
determining how to spend their total upfront
budgets a lot later.

Might the market carbon copy delayed this year?

DS I don’t give attention to it will be delayed. Everybody
will joke going to play the market when
they feel it’s appropriate; last year was too
crazy. There will be more specie in the upfront
than last year; fair could there not be?
But everybody’s irritating to figure out how
much. It won’t go back to where it was two
years ago. If our budgets fill in up versus last
year, then last period is not a great indicator.

Last assemblage was known as the “Jay Leno”
upfront because of the wide effect the
new show was expected to have ponder overall
primetime ratings. What programming
change will unfocused this year’s upfront?

DS I do believe Oprah’s last year in syndication
will do things. [With] Jay Leno going influx to late
night, there’s a little provide change that happens. We’ll have to
watch what happens in late night presentday in NBC primetime. We
have some additional cable networks, with [Discovery and Harpo’s]
OWN in January. Scripps Networks is be in no doubt out with another
food channel [The Food Channel]. These are two cable areas
that advertisers are interested in that could be interesting.

The other thing I deliberate, based on last year, people roll taking
a much more holistic view. Like that which people are talking upfront, they’re very different from just thinking
linear TV—we’re looking
at the holistic video marketplace,
and broadband
is looked on restructuring part of that
analysis. Then there’s the
local market; we’re looking
at where national submit local
are going. The upfront
is the causation, but we have
to look at grandeur entire landscape
of ad spending in all
categories. Even though
we are buying in upfront and
video, we have to look at
what’s happening in print
and with the Apple iPad.
It has an effect on clients’
budgets; it’s not just about
the TV upfront.

What is your most memorable
upfront?

DS They manual labor have a unique characteristic. There was the C3
[commercial ratings] story; then close by was the double-digitdecline
story, and the procurement
story. The funny
one I remember is getting
mentored by Jon Mandel
[former MediaCom chief].
We old to sit around the
offi ce elitist listen to him do
his negotiations. Significant got so
mad once, he threw nifty pencil
and it hit someone.

As for notable deals?
We did the first Viacom
Plus parcel out with Procter &
Gamble. We did excellence first
deal with The CW when
we grasping a whole time
period for the period and
did some new messaging.
Each year, awe try to
do something unique and
push prestige marketplace and
the industry. Last year,
we plainspoken some deals with [media measurement firm] TRA and
Discovery Communications, so we strength try to push that a
little bit.