How Coca-Cola's 'American Idol' Deal Transformed TV Advertising

via AdAge

When Coca-Cola signed on as an initial sponsor for Fox's "American Idol" back in 2002 for $10 million, it was considered a huge coup.

Coke 'Idol' promotion

At the time, Coke's cachet was lagging.Pepsi had just won National Football League rights over Coke and was successfully targeting younger consumers by utilizing pop stars like Britney Spears to promote its brand. Then Pepsi famously passed on sponsoring "Idol" in its first season and Coke jumped at the opportunity.

The rest is history.

"American Idol" far exceeded expectations, averaging 12.7 million viewers in that first season when it aired during the sleepy summer months, prompting Fox to move it to its regular season.

The show "brought Coke to viewers young and old alike, as 'Idol' at the time had a younger-than-average median age for primetime and was one of the few shows that truly crossed generations," said Billie Gold, VP-director of buying and programming research, Carat. "Not only was Coke prominently displayed everywhere in the show, but it had top pop icons sitting behind their cups and promoting them, which was something Pepsi was known for."

Coke's giant red cups became as much a part of the reality singing competition as the table of judges or host Ryan Seacrest. The 13-season partnership included the branding of the show's green room into a "red room"and its "Perfect Harmony" program, which enlists fans to write a song to be performed by a pop star in the finale. Coke also routinely used "Idol" to launch new ad campaigns like the ongoing "Open Happiness" effort, which broke during an episode in early 2009.

Coca-Cola's decision to end its partnership with "American Idol" signals another blow to the sagging TV show and closes a significant chapter in the cola wars.

What made the deal stand apart was its breadth, said Jim Andrews, senior VP-content strategy at sponsorship consultancy IEG. Coke, he said, treated it almost like a major sports sponsorship. "It was more than just product placement," he said. "Over the years they used it as a promotional platform. So they were doing retail promotions around 'American Idol' like they would do around a sports sponsorship [like] the NFL or Olympics," he added. "It was a hybrid and it was one of the earlier and bigger ones."

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The deals "Idol" cut with advertisers, including AT&T and Ford, advanced the use of product placement across TV.

"That deal was cited more than any others, with clients saying 'I want to do an integration like Coke in 'American Idol,'" said David Campanelli, senior VP-director of national broadcast, Horizon Media.

What made this such a pioneering deal was Coke's ability to get in on the ground floor and discover a hit in a genre that up until that point hadn't really existed, Mr. Campanelli added.

It also allowed Coca-Cola and other sponsors the opportunity to extend their brand beyond the TV screen, through merchandise, national tours and music sales. And it provided brands with access to rising talent who interacted with the product in a fairly organic way, said Eric Levin, senior VP-group client director, Spark.

Coke's cups on tour with 'Idol Across America'

Coke became such a key part of the show that its ubiquitous cups even went on tour as part of roving bus/tour museum dedicated to the show called "Idol Across America"alongside Randy Jackson's boots and Season 7 winner David Cook's guitar.

But "American Idol" has lost its luster in recent years as ratings declined precipitously. The emergence of rival singing competition shows, like NBC's "The Voice," has stolen viewers, and the sheer age of "Idol" has created viewer burnout.

"Idol's" most recent season finale averaged 10.1 million viewers, down 27% from the season prior. In its heyday, "Idol" regularly attracted an average of 30 million viewers. Its most-watched finale, the Season 2 showdown between Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, brought in 38 million people.

Fox is now cutting back on the number of hours it airs the show. "American Idol" will start the season on Jan. 7 airing two nights a week, then eventually go to a single weekly episode that includes both performances and results.

Once one of the costliest shows for advertisers, a 30-second spot in season 14 of "Idol" is now averaging around $225,000 to $250,000, according to Ad Age's annual pricing chart, with some agencies noting they are still paying more than $300,000. This is a far cry from the $500,000 or so advertisers spent in 2011.

Coca-Cola has appeared to lean less on "Idol" as an ad platform, according to measured-media spending figure estimates from Kantar Media. In the first nine months of 2014, the company spent $18.5 million in measured media on all of its brands during "Idol" programming, compared with $37.6 million for all of 2013, according to the most recent Kantar figures. In 2010, the marketer spent $63.2 million, according to Kantar. Those figures do not include sponsorship fees.

Coke's decision to pull the plug on the sponsorship comes as the beverage giant is poised to make a $250 million to $350 million incremental media investment globally in 2015, as Chief Financial Officer Kathy Waller outlined on Monday during a call with analysts. In North America, spending decisions will be driven by a new team of executives, including Emmanuel Seugue, who on Jan. 1 will move from a global role to become senior VP-content in North America. He will report to Wendy Clark, who on June 1 became president-sparkling and strategic marketing in North America.

When Ms. Clark announced Mr. Seuge's appointment in November, she made a point of saying that music content is "the most-watched form of all online content," and that Mr. Seuge would be charged with helping to "harness" the growing role of content.

Coca-Cola this week did not elaborate on how it would replace the "Idol" spending. A spokeswoman said the marketer would "venture into new spaces and pursue other opportunities to connect with teens and leverage music as a passion point."

Tom Pirko, managing director of food and beverage consultancy Bevmark, compared Coke's "Idol" partnership to catching a wave. When the show was hot Coke rode it, "but when that wave crests it's a different matter, so you get off."

John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, said "big properties like 'American Idol' serve a role. But I think at this point in time, [Coke] needs to focus on marketing that drives home why people should buy and drink the product, that drives home the 'intrinsics' of the products. Coke is focusing more and more on that, and I think that is all to the good."

Coca-Cola hasn't been the only brand to rethink its partnership with "Idol." Last year, AT&T ended its 12-year relationship with the show. "No one is avoiding it, but it became just another show on the schedule," Mr. Campanelli said. "It used to be 'I need to be in 'Idol,' but there aren't a lot of those types of shows that still exist."

But Ford will return to "American Idol" Season 14, a Fox spokeswoman confirmed.

Despite ratings declines at "Idol, and the anticipation of the show shedding more viewers, it is still one of Fox's top-rated shows in the all-important 18-to-49 demographic, Ms. Gold said.

And with an average of 10.5 million tuning in to Wednesday performance show last season, "Idol" remains one of the most popular entertainment properties on broadcast prime time.

Fox is currently in discussions with new potential sponsors, according to a person familiar with the matter, and industry executives agree "Idol" still holds allure for advertisers.

"It shouldn't be difficult to bring in new advertisers," Mr. Levin said. "'Idol' allows for a level of consistancy that other things don't give. Normally, with integrations it's one and done, but this is season-long."

It's a $6.2 billion industry. But how did Electronic Dance Music get so popular?

via CNN

(CNN) -- There's little question that EDM (electronic dance music) is the fastest-growing musical genre out there. With DJs like Calvin Harris, David Guetta and Tiësto leading the pack, electronic music's popularity has ballooned in the past decade. From festivals to radio airplay, social media and even collaborating with A-list musicians, EDM artists are getting a lot of attention -- and money -- from all over the place.

The numbers don't lie. So far, Forbes' top 10 EDM artists have racked up a combined $268 million this year, an 11% increase from 2013, with top earner Harris bringing in $66 million.

How did this musical genre grow from a small, cult following into this global phenomenon we feel today? How have those who've stuck with it from the beginning grown with it? And where is it going next? To obtain these answers we headed to one of the biggest festivals in the world, TomorrowWorld, to meet up with some of the genre's key players: David Guetta, Tiësto, Steve Aoki, and EDM's newest dynamic duo, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike.

Superstar DJ Tiesto's super success

The origins of EDM

Electronic dance music is not a new genre. In fact, it's been around for more than three decades. David Guetta, whose DJ days began in Paris in the late 80's, recalls how the house/electronic music movement began when the disco era was ending. "There was a movement called 'disco sucks'," he says. "It was a shame to like disco, but then there was no music to dance to, so some DJs started to use old disco records, but the B-sides and the acapellas, and we began producing beats with drum machines."

Simply put, DJs snuck disco music into people's ears.

"I remember buying those records and the label (vinyl sticker)," says Guetta. "(DJs) would use old records and print on top of it, melt it, and print on the top...very low quality, this was super, super underground." In other words, disco music is EDM's ancestor.

"I started in '88 to play House music, it was a huge revolution for me. I went to London and I saw a DJ on stage and that was crazy at the time. I was one of the really respected and famous DJs in Paris, but they would never show me. I was hidden. A DJ on stage and people dancing and facing the DJ, looking at him? I was like 'wow!'" says Guetta, as if still surprised to this day.

Read: How astonishing visuals are revolutionizing concert experience

A few years later, in the early 90's, in the Netherlands, Tijs Michiel Verwest began his journey to becoming Tiësto. He also started when the genre was completely underground. A trip to Spain, some parties and general love for music got him interested in becoming a DJ. "Back then, first of all, we all played vinyl records, so even when you knew the track, you could not get it. Everything was very exclusive," says Tiësto in his dressing room, 300 meters away from the main stage of TomorrowWorld.

"That's the big difference with nowadays, because when you jam to a track you already know what it is, and then right away you have the song in your phone or your laptop...that was a very magical period because you played a track and people said 'I know this track,' but they still couldn't find it. That was very special," says Tijs, as his staff calls him.

It's hard to pinpoint a date and location to the beginnings of EDM. Some say it began in Germany and London, others make a case that it started in Detroit, in the U.S. For Guetta, both continents played a role, "this is what happened...it was born in the U.S., but the U.K. made it trendy. And it became a massive movement in Europe, but never in the U.S., which is crazy". He later adds, "I think America is always creating the new movement and then the U.K. has this genius of taking this concept and making it accessible to the masses."

From underground to the masses

INEZ TORRE

Recently, Guetta has had mainstream success by collaborating with pop stars like Kelly Rowland, and The Black Eyed Peas, for whom he produced the best-selling single 'I Gotta Feeling' in 2009. Other successful DJs, including likes of Calvin Harris and Avicii, have also found success this way.

"I love collaborating outside of my space," says Steve Aoki, who has worked with artists like will.i.am and Luke Steele. "When I got into the dance culture and started producing the music I kept on thinking how to do something unique or different than what the status quo does."

For EDM, collaborations may have attracted listeners, but the internet and its subsequent components, i.e. social media, apps and music sharing programs, have played essential roles in getting more. Nowadays, in the digital era, success is measured in followers, video hits, downloads, hashtags, tweets, retweets and likes.

Read: 15 super-hot DJs who deserve to be stars

"For us it (social media) has played a very big role," says Michael Thivaios of the duo Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike. "We can make a new track and with one click, it'll be spread all over the world. Twenty years ago you had a vinyl, and that vinyl had to go to a distributor, and six months later maybe another country would have the vinyl," adds the other half of the duo, Dimitri Thivaios. "All we did for one year is talk to DJs by Facebook and somehow that got us our first gig. Social media has been the biggest factor in our career."

In Europe and the Americas, mainly, there are an increasing number of electronic music festivals; events that gather people from all over the world and celebrate in unison. The TomorrowWorld festival celebrated outside of Atlanta, Georgia, gathered 160,000 people from 75 countries this year, according to the organizers.

"It's like a theme park for adults," says Thivaios.

INEZ TORRE

Not all genres can brag about selling out festivals with over 150,000 attendees, and do it in a matter of minutes. Sure, some could mention the Bonnaroos and the Coachellas of the world, but they offer musical variety. From pop to rock, rap to indie and even country. EDM festivals offer only EDM.

"When I'm on stage I'm looking out and seeing everyone putting up their flags from hundreds of different countries, representing hundreds of different cultural lifestyles. They're all jumping in unison forming almost like one entity, one spiritual being," adds Aoki, who, besides his music, is known for his selfies with the crowds, riding inflatable rafts, and caking one lucky fan per show.

If you're confused about the latter, it's a Steve Aoki trademark, where he throws a whole cake to someone in the audience. Based on reactions seen from the fans, they love it. "When they get caked in the face, the first thing they do is immediately turn around to make sure that everyone else saw that they got caked, it's a very bizarre thing. People don't get it," says Aoki, full of enthusiasm.

Naturally, EDM was unlikely to become this popular without generating incredible amounts of money. A recent report stated that EDM is a $6.2 billion global industry. Most of the money comes from festivals, Las Vegas club dates and other global club gigs. All this peaked the interest of ad men and the big brands they represent. In fact, some have already made moves and are sponsoring festivals, events, and others have DJs featured in commercials.

Live events represent the largest part of the $6.2 billion global EDM industry.

INEZ TORRE

Business is good, but is the music getting better?

EDM has been highly criticized. Many see EDM as an art that lost its purity. "It's an evolution. The thing is that, every musical genre starts from the underground, gets trendy, then it becomes popular, and then it dies or it is reinvented in a different way," says Guetta.

Many wonder if EDM is at his highest point. Is this its climax? Or will it end soon, just like Disco did? "They've been asking me that since 1994, 'is it going to end?' I always say I don't know. It keeps evolving, every year something new comes up, and now it's at the highest it ever has been, so now I don't know how much higher and how much better it'll get," says Tiësto.

"It has been more than 20-25 years that this music is existing, so it's already amazing."

Coke Bows Out of American Idol

via WallStreetJournal

Long-time American Idol sponsor, Coca-Cola Co.KO +1.68%said it will no longer support the one-time mega hit.

Coke had been a high-profile sponsor of the program for 13 years. It was one of the big advertisers most closely associated with the program thanks in part to the product placement the beverage giant received because of its ad deal with Fox.

Coke’s ad package not only included airing TV commercials during the program but also included having its brand mentioned and seen throughout the program. For example, Coke cups had been a regular fixture on the judges’ table for several years.

“After 13 years, we feel it is the right time for the Coca-Cola brand to venture into new spaces and pursue other opportunities to connect with teens and leverage music as a passion point,” said Coke in a statement.

News of Coke’s decision was first reported by Variety.com.

A spokeswoman for Fox said that Ford, another of the show’s main sponsors, will return for season 14 of Idol.

Last year, AT&T T +0.84%, another big sponsor, dropped out of the program. Although ratings for the reality show have declined significantly, Coke remained a sponsor of the program. However,  beverage giant did “significantly” reduced its spending on the program, the Wall Street Journal reported last year. A few years ago, the beverage giant was shelling out roughly $30 million on the show and last year was spending under $10 million, the report said.

Although “American Idol” had been a ratings juggernaut for years — reaching over 30 million viewers in 2006 — the show has suffered a big decline in ratings as the program aged and faced competition from other singing competition shows such as NBC’s “The Voice.”  Last season the show averaged 11.9 million viewers.

Action Sports Sponsorship The Life Blood Of Mountain Dew

via Forbes

Over the last several decades, there have been just a handful of companies that have succeed at using sports as a vehicle to create an awareness amongst consumers that transcends basic brand recognition and enters the realm of a deeply rooted association with a particular lifestyle.  One of the most successful examples is that presented by Mountain Dew, a division of PepsiCo PEP -0.1%, which has concentrated its sports marketing and sponsorship strategy on achieving a single goal – making the brand synonymous with the extreme.

Mountain Dew, a brand with 75 years of history, has long been known as an outlier in the carbonated soft drink market. One of the first soda’s to eschew the usage of coca extract as an ingredient in favor of a citrus flavor, the brand has always embraced its ‘radical’ identity by focusing its sponsorship strategy on  sports and entertainment properties that lay on the fringes of both worlds. More significantly, the company has gone out of its way to both create and own their own experiential properties in order to insure that it maximizes the authenticity of its branding.

Entering its 10th year, the Dew Tour, a showcase of action sports ranging from BMX biking to snowboarding, has become helped Mountain Dew firmly cement its name as the drink of choice for non-traditional athletes around the globe. While the event makes stops around the country, and is broadcast live by NBC in several locations, its highlight is the Dew Tour Mountain Championships, held in Breckenridge, Colorado. A four-day extravaganza of all things extreme, the competition brings together the world’s premier international snowboard and free-ski athletes. In fact, this year’s event reunites the top winter athletes from the Sochi Olympics, including eight gold medalists.

“Action sports have been at the core of Mountain Dew’s brand heritage for decades,” said Greg Lyons, Vice President of Marketing, Mountain Dew.  “In addition to providing a highly engaging consumer experience between the brand and some of our most loyal fans, the development of Dew Tour a decade ago has helped drive the progression of action sports through creativity and community, and has become a signature event that we are extremely proud of.”

Unlike other consumer package goods companies, who often piggy back on existing platforms to get their marketing message across, Mountain Dew has sought to control all aspects of the their target audiences experience with the brand. The latter form of marketing may help create brand awareness, but it becomes predicated on the platform (i.e. football) triggering the association (i.e. beer). The issue thus becomes, 1) that the brand benefiting form such an association is dependent on a variable outside its control (consumer has to watch football) and, 2) that the association is tenuous at best (any beer might due). On the other hand, companies like Mountain Dew have been able to flip the equation with their unique approach to anchoring consumer behavior through sponsorship. Just like eating crackerjacks reminds us of baseball, drinking Mountain Dew triggers an association  with action sports (fast, exciting, extereme). While Mountain Dew has no expectations that the average consumer will suddenly be compelled to go snowboarding by drinking a can of soda, having a deeply rooted association with pleasant and enjoyable feelings an incredibly powerful  tool that helps drive consumer behavior.

Of course, the residual benefits of sponsoring such events are also substantial. By supporting communities through the financing of events and prize money, as Mountain Dew has done both in the world of action sports and video games, the brand has created loyalty with the members of those tribes that no amount of traditional marketing could ever do. Instead of spending millions of dollars attempting to convince consumers to purchase their product, through its authentic and genuine approach, Mountain Dew has been able to get those very individuals to convince themselves that the brand is simply an extension of who they already are.

Mountain Dew’s approach to sponsorship serves as an excellent case study for companies seeking to create an identity with consumers that transcends traditional notions of brand awareness and enters the realm of the achievement of self-actualization and the pursuit of happiness.

Is the College Football Playoff the Next Brand Super Bowl?

via AdAge

ESPN has been pitching brands on the new College Football Playoff for more than a year. But it might take another year before the first-of-its kind sporting event reaches its full marketing potential, which some sports marketing execs say could approach Super Bowl status some day.

"This year was about the sales teams and the lawyers getting the deals done. Next year is about the marketers and the fun," Rob Temple, ESPN's VP-sports management, said in an interview.

ESPN will broadcast the Jan. 1 semi-final games and the Jan. 12 national championship game as part of a 12-year media rights deal announced in 2012 that reportedly cost $7.3 billion. The network has reached deals with 15 official playoff sponsors, including Reese's, which announced its deal only two weeks ago. The other sponsors are: Dr Pepper, AT&T, Allstate, Northwestern Mutual, Goodyear, Capital One, Chick-fil-A, Vizio, Taco Bell, DirectTV, General Motors,Nissan, Ford and Gatorade.

ESPN's deals with the sponsors include multimedia ad buys, such as TV ads during the national championship game and the six bowl games that are affiliated with the College Football Playoff (see graphic). The sponsors also have rights to use College Football Playoff trademarks on packaging and at retail.

	Sugar (Allstate)	Rose (Northwestern Mutual)	Orange (Capital One)	Cotton (Goodyear)	Peach (Chick-fil-A)	Fiesta (Vizio)	Championship
2014-15	Semi-final (Jan. 1)	Semi-final (Jan. 1)	Orange (Dec. 31)	Cotton (Jan. 1)	Peach (Dec. 31)	Fiesta (Dec. 31)	North Texas (Jan. 12)
2015-16	Sugar (Jan. 1)	Rose (Jan. 1)	Semi-final (Dec. 31)	Semi-final (Dec. 31)	Peach (Dec. 31)	Fiesta (Jan. 1)	Arizona (Jan. 11)
2016-17	Sugar (Jan. 2)	Rose (Jan. 2)	Orange (Dec. 31)	Cotton (Jan. 2)	Semi-final (Dec. 31)	Semi-final (Dec. 31)	Tampa Bay (Jan. 9)

But it takes brands time to put integrated programs in place. "Right now the level of promotional spending isn't quite on par with what we would typically see a month before some of these other major events," said Jim Andrews, senior VP-content strategy at sponsorship consultancy IEG. "But that's not necessarily surprising given that it is the first year and some sponsors signed on late. I would expect to see more next year."

Even so, Mr. Temple said brand involvement has already surpassed what marketers invested during the pre-playoff era. "Everything you are seeing this year is bigger than anything we've done before in the BCS [Bowl Championship Series]. And everything you are going to see next year is bigger than this year." He added: "This is a transformative event, not unlike years ago when the Super Bowl was created and when March Madness turned into what it is."

The marketer interest is driven in part by the TV ratings potential for three high-stakes games, rather than a single title game under the old BCS system, which by itself drew big ratings.

Another benefit for brands: The playoff creates a period of more than a week between the semis and championship game during which college football will be a large part of the nation's sports conversation.

"It creates a larger promotional window for advertisers and marketers and sponsors to activate around and for consumers to engage with," said Andrew Judelson, senior VP of national sales for IMG. He added that it is "not too aspirational" to think that the playoff has Super Bowl-like potential. IMG College is the exclusive licensing agent for the playoff via its Collegiate Licensing Co., which has reached deals with 42 licensees -- ranging from Nike to Franklin Mint -- to create College Football Playoff-branded merchandise. That is actually fewer than the 120 BCS licensees, but IMG purposely crafted fewer deals to create more value, Mr. Judelson said.

Of course, the playoff occurs during the holiday season. So sponsors will compete for attention with other seasonal marketing programs. That is a potential complication that sponsors of other big sporting events -- like the Super Bowl and Olympics -- typically do not face.

ESPN is trying to incorporate the holidays into its pitch to fans, which includes a new TV ad that plugs the "six classic bowls," including the two playoff games, that ESPN will air over 36 hours running from New Year's Eve to New Year's Day. The spot, called "Party Spread," is by Wieden & Kennedy, New York. Another new ad, called "Playoff Ride," hypes the new system by showing crushed TV monitors as a symbol of the teams that didn't make it, leaving only the final four: Alabama, Oregon, Florida State and Ohio State.

Walt Disney Co.-owned ESPN also plans to promote the games using other Disney properties, including promoting the playoff on ABC's telecast of "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest." The goal is to create a "sports holiday on a holiday," while drawing in more casual fans, including women, Mr. Temple said. On the weekend leading to the championship game in Dallas, performances by Lenny Kravitz and Sting will highlight an event at the American Airlines Center that is called "AT&T Playoff Playlist Live!" AT&T is the presenting sponsor of the game.

Dr Pepper, whose deal includes a sponsorship of the national championship trophy, used the playoff to secure a large partnership with Walmart for a retail program called "College Football Playbook." It includes a co-branded TV spot (below), in-store displays, social media campaigns and ticket giveaways. A special section on walmart.com plugs recipes like "beef briscuit with Dr Pepper marinade."

Leah Bach, who is Dr Pepper's shopper marketing manager for the Walmart account, said the retailer had traditionally viewed the football season monolithically, without making a huge distinction between college and pro. But with the playoff, "they are really getting behind the fact that it is a huge at-home viewing occasion."

Taco Bell is creating a "Live Mas Student Section" at the semifinal and championship games as part of a ticket giveaway for students at the participating schools.

Reese's will sample its newly re-launched Reese's Sticks at the "College Football Playoff Fan Fest" prior to the championship game in Dallas. The brand is also running a new TV ad featuring the playoff logo.

But as with most first-time events, marketers are still assessing the total potential of the playoff.

That includes Allstate, which is entering its ninth year as sponsor of the Sugar Bowl, which hosts one of the semifinal games this year. The insurer has had "great success this year with the 'It's Good Sweepstakes' by leveraging a trip to the Allstate Sugar Bowl and the national championship game," Lisa Cochrane, the company's senior VP-marketing, said in an email. "So the change has been good from a branding perspective, but until the game is over and we can analyze everything, it's a bit too early to report on all the benefits. "