TV

The Debates are the New Super Bowl

For once, Americans care about politics almost as much as sports—so one could say last night’s presidential debate was a Super Bowl-level marketing opportunity. 

• For context, the 2020 Super Bowl had 99.9 million viewers. 
• Some projected last night’s debate would draw upwards of 100 million viewers, although early figures suggest more modest numbers. It's worth noting these figures don't account for OTT viewing, which has skyrocketed since 2016. 

It wasn’t always this way: A Clinton vs. Trump debate broke records to become the most-watched debate in history with 84 million viewers. In comparison, the first 2012 Obama-Romney debate only averaged 67 million viewers, per Nielsen data.

With those numbers in mind, some marketers view the debates as an occasion to ball out almost as much as they would for actual ball-related events . 

Marketing for debates? Absolutely

If Amazon’s #BeforeAlexa commercial stole the ball at the 2020 Super Bowl, then Absolut’s “Vote First, Drink Second” campaign took center stage at the debates. 

• The 15-second video spot depicts a white truck emblazoned with the words “Dear America: Your Vote Can Shake or Stir the Election. Vote First, Drink Second” next to the new Absolut voting-themed bottle. 
• “Vote First, Drink Second” premiered on September 29, just before the first debate. 
• Additionally, the campaign will span TV, out-of-home (OOH), digital, and social channels.

“Vote First, Drink Second” itself isn’t terribly unique—dozens of other brands planned campaigns around voter registration earlier this month. But timing the message around the debates seems savvy, given the program’s projected viewership levels. 

Looking ahead

If you’re not convinced that the debates are the next Super Bowl for marketers, know that… 

• The 17 to 20 TV networks airing the debates this year were reportedly sold out or nearly sold out of advertising inventory for the special by Monday.
• Debate ad rev for said TV networks is projected to far surpass the $16 million mark set back in 2016.
• During the last presidential election, only ~13 TV networks aired the debates, per MediaPost.

: If brands like Absolut see a high ROI from 2020’s debates, 2024’s suite of on-stage arguments could see a far wider swatch of advertisers vying for inventory than ever before.

MARTECH

Disney Sells Ad Tech for Toys

Disney just sold the ad tech company TrueX, which it acquired as part of its 21st Century Fox buy in 2019, to Gimbal. And no, Gimbal isn’t the department store from Elf. It’s an ad tech firm that provides consumer location data to help with mobile ad targeting.

TrueX’s special sauce is actually video ad tech, from interactive streaming ads to “addressable TV,” which lets advertisers show different ads to different households. 

Gimbal wants that kind of tech so it can develop a service that helps mobile marketers better target audiences on CTV platforms, per Mobile Marketer. Plus, it wants to capitalize on TrueX’s existing, established relationships with TV app owners to get the job done. 

Disney has long considered TrueX a “noncore asset,” per the WSJ, as Disney has a lot of balls in the air with its ad tech stack already.

Why this matters: Gimbal + TrueX is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ad tech consolidation. See: Foursquare’s merger with Factual and PlaceIQ’s Freckle IoT acquisition for more evidence that it’s becoming “a thing.”

SPONSORED BY ORACLE NETSUITE

Head Honchos Take Heed

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The second thing we’d like to say to you is this:

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Plus, you can check out how CFOs of organizations like LoveSac and Zendesk are becoming more strategic by automating revenue forecasting, quickly creating reports across all departments, and more.

Download Oracle NetSuite’s white paper today.

PUBLISHING 

The Dreaded Pivot to Video

We have a few updates on publishers diversifying revenue streams during Covid-19. This time, they’re diving headfirst into OTT. 

Food52 launched its own OTT app today, about two years after it entered the streaming space with a channel on Xumo’s OTT app. 

• The Food52 app will be available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Android TV, per Digiday.
• It’s part of a larger video push for the publication: Food52’s revenue from video advertising increased 150% year over year in 2020.

Bloomberg Media is adding QuickTake, its short form video platform that actually used to be called TicToc (Bloomberg rebranded TicToc because it sounded too much like Tic Tac mints, obviously), to its own OTT app.

My takeaway: Publications like Bloomberg and Food52 that typically thrive on subscriptions and e-commerce (respectively) have good reason to expand into the OTT space, even if they’ll never rival Netflix or Hulu. That’s because OTT viewership is sky-high right now and CPMs are resilient, while digital ad rates in general are falling.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Vox Media unveiled its new self-serve tool for marketers, aimed at SMBs. 
• AARP named BBDO NY as its brand agency of record.
• Apple temporarily waived its 30% commission on livestream events from mobile apps.
• Dentsu Aegis Network is rebranding to Dentsu...just Dentsu.
• Pinterest marketers can now advertise alongside visual search results.

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ADWEEK OR ADWEAK?

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is from marketing satire Twitter account ADWEAK? 

1. New Trump Executive Order Tells Agencies To Stop ‘Divisive’ Diversity Training Or Else
2. Nearly Half Of Consumers Will Try New Brands If The Ad Is Relevant
3. Goodbye Open-Plan Offices, Hello ‘De-Densification’
4. Study Finds Consumers Now Consider Influencer Marketing As Pretty Much Just Ads For Products

Keep scrolling for the answer.

AD ANTIQUES

eBay

The fact that this ad is from 1987 and Tiffany & Co. hasn’t changed its brand colors or packaging much at all since then is branding goals, TBH. 

ADWEEK OR ADWEAK? ANSWER

D. is the ADWEAK tweet, as much as I wish it was one of the others.

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Marketing Brew stories from the last few editions.

• Here’s the state of marketing chatbots in 2020
• Google banned election-related ads after November 3
• Influencer marketing has changed a lot in 2020—here’s how