Benedict Advertising - Business Building Solutions

I couldn’t tell you the last time I read the newspaper. I mean REALLY went through and read it front to back. I have my google alerts set and if an article comes up about our clients or something about the industry I’ll read it, but that’s about it. I’ll catch bits and pieces of the news while I’m changing channels late at night but I don’t make an effort to turn it on at 6:00pm like my parents use to do every night, and I find that I’m getting along just fine. I know all about FPL trying to hike their rates, the Black Bear that’s loose in Daytona, the governor of South Carolina and his mistress, and the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon.

Between Twitter, Facebook, and blogging I usually find out news around the same time as everyone else. In a day when there’s never enough time I’m ok with the fact that there’s some stuff that I’m missing out on from reading the newspaper or watching the news but I’m ok with that. Maybe one day I’ll be the type who gets up early, pours a cup of coffee and sits down to read the morning paper, but as for now I’ll spend the extra 30 minutes hitting the snooze button.

Stay in the loop too following Perez Hiltons blog for the latest celebrity news www.perezhilton.com. For the latest in Daytona Beach news you can follow the Daytona Beach News Journal at http://twitter.com/dbnewsjournal and for national breaking news follow CNN at http://twitter.com/cnnbrk.

-Ashley Kelly
facebook.com/ogabot
twitter.com/ogabot
linkedin.com/pub/ashley-kelly/14/120/5ba

I know that sounds like the title of a 2nd grader’s school paper, but not to worry. Although I did grow up with a slight hatred for summer, the scorching Miami heat being the culprit, as well as not being an “outdoorsy” type of gal, with my career I have found a whole new reason to loathe this time of year. Yes, I am speaking of the dreaded July Nielsen ratings book.

As you may be aware, I am a media buyer here at Benedict Advertising, and in the world of broadcast television, we are slaves to the Nielsen ratings. The July book is the one book that I can count on every year, in every market, to have very low ratings points, leaving me with a big, flashing question mark over my head—how the heck am I going I going to do my buys?!? Prime is huge concern, especially. Every year, with the onslaught of more reality TV programs thrown into the line-up, different shows running in the same time slots from week to week, and online access to all the new shows via Hulu and the station website themselves, the Nielsen ratings are dropping lower and lower than the year before. The ability to buy enough points for a reasonable cost is becoming an ever greater challenge. This summer, reruns seemingly are a welcome annoyance to viewers, probably because at least they know what’s coming on Monday at 8pm. And maybe, just maybe, the viewers may be getting sick and tired of reality TV?

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/ratings/zap-tv-ratings-061509,0,5169236.story

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/ratings/zap-tv-ratings-061809,0,5759063.story

What’s more is that even though the points are declining year to year, the stations still have the need to generate revenue, so the cost for most of these shows are staying the same as the new shows in the Fall.

So, what is a media buyer to do??

Check out the summer line-ups on each station and let me know what you’re in to. Do you prefer new summer reality TV, or are you content with catching up or revisiting the latest season of your favorite shows?

ABC -http://abc.go.com/
NBC - http://www.nbc.com/Schedule/?tz=ET
CBS - http://www.cbs.com/info/schedule/index.php
FOX - http://www.fox.com/schedule.htm?src=menu_item_schedule
CW - http://www.cwtv.com/shows/

- Erin Saffer

I have to start out by saying, my job rocks. Where else can you find this much excitement, the constant challenges, and a boatload of fun in a career?

I’ve always been the girl to think with the right side of the brain, and growing up I could always be found in the “arts and crafts” section in the classroom, creating. My passion for creating eventually turned into using my creativity to sell, and I have to give props to my father for always buzzing around with his work during my childhood. Whether it be him on the phone with a client, or knowing the reason he was away was because he was in Chicago working his magic in the advertising business, it fueled my curiosity and interest in advertising.

The agency atmosphere is a crock pot of creativity. Every project is an opportunity to shine, and ideas come from every direction in this business. You can learn from the young people, and you can learn from the veterans. In advertising we’re always learning, trying something new, and there’s a sort of super power of not being afraid to fail. And being in an environment where inspiration is a daily occurrence is invaluable.

Being an art director, I think really is the best of both worlds. Not only do I get to “draw” on my Mac, being a part of a project’s development process really has it’s rewards. Working with a strong team where everyone brings their individual strength and knowledge to the table is an exciting storm. And personally, some of my best ideas come from behind the very desk where the late great Big Z’s ideas were originated. I look forward to
keeping that tradition going.

So yeah, my job rocks. I’ll leave you with a bit of creative genius and a glimpse of where I’d like to think I get my “advertising bug” from. Curtsy

- Kym Zurstadt

Why can’t they all be “Friends”? That’s what the major networks have been asking themselves since the show went off the air in 2004. NBC was King on Thursday nights with “Friends”, “Seinfeld” and “ER” .

“Friends” ran on NBC for 10 years with an average of 20 million viewers per episode. It consistently ranked in Nielsen’s list of top 10 shows. It was one of the few series to “go out on top.”

Now, audiences are so fragmented with the addition of new cable channels with original programming, DVR’s and websites like Hulu . While we have many more viewing choices, there is fierce competition to top the ratings charts. This has led to many shows being cancelled after 1 season or even worse, 3 episodes! Some shows are yanked and replaced so quickly it feels like a bad assembly line of entertainment.

That is why I wanted to pay homage to some of my favorites, and ask the networks what was behind their reasoning of switching days/time periods and canceling before an audience had time to grow?

Samantha Who starring, Christina Applegate. It first aired in the fall of 2007 on Monday nights on ABC. The show averaged 11 million viewers. It was moved to Thursday nights and ratings dropped to 4 million.

Pushing Daisies aired for 2 seasons on ABC. It had a decent start with an average of 10 million viewers. The show leveled out at nearly 8 million viewers before it was cancelled. The last 3 episodes aired on Saturday at 10 p.m.

Welcome to the Captain starring Chris Klein, Jeffrey Tambor and Raquel Welch ran on CBS for only 3 episodes! I caught it once and thought it was quirky. I was willing to give it another shot and POOF! it was gone.

And the last show I will mention has been a sore spot since it came and went back in 2003. It was the time before DVR’s and after everyone threw out their VCR for a DVD player (that didn’t record!).
Miss Match aired on NBC on Friday nights for 1 season. It starred Alicia Silverstone and was produced by Darren Star (“Melrose Place” and “Sex and the City” fame). It was supposed to appeal to a younger skewed female audience.

I’m sorry, but what percentage of young, single women are sitting at home watching TV on a Friday night? The show was doomed from episode one.

I’d like to throw some facts out there for the network bigwigs to consider while they are deciding whether they should cut a show after 1 season:

“Seinfeld” was on air for 4 seasons before it broke into Nielsen’s list of Top 30 Shows with an estimated 12.75 million viewers. Seasons 5-9 averaged over 20 million viewers.

And I’m sure we’ve all heard of a little show on Fox called American Idol. It ranked number 30 with 9.9 million viewers during its debut season. Every year after, it has ranked #1 with an avg. of 25 million viewers.

- Julie Coln