The death of advertainment in Minnesota

Television news operations have long been looked at as a hybrid between journalism and entertainment. Happy talk between anchors, reporters standing outside in a hurricane to help us better “understand” the significance of a storm, and features full of gift, shopping and dining ideas are just a few examples.

From its call letters to the “focus” of stories within its newscasts, KARE-11 has been a leader in blurring the lines between news and entertainment. The station created a backyard for weather broadcasts, made desks of ice to cover the Winter Carnival, and got people to wave to the camera at the end each newscast.

Five years ago, KARE-11 pushed the journalism-entertainment envelope even farther when it launched “Showcase Minnesota,” a show that combined entertainment segments with paid advertising segments – advertainment.

When “Showcase Minnesota” was launched, KARE-11 general manager John Remes said, "This is an opportunity for advertisers to connect with audiences in a way they haven't done before.”

Critics said it was “paid advertisements masquerading as programming” and that “guests will pay to be on the new show and the anchors will act like inquisitive hucksters.” Critics were concerned that audiences wouldn’t notice or care about the difference between real news and advertainment.

The age of advertainment may be over in Minnesota – KARE-11 announced last week that “KARE-11 Today” would replace “Showcase Minnesota” in January. KARE-11 has not said if the decision was based on a lack of interest from advertisers who wanted to “connect” with audiences in a new way or if it was based on other factors.

"It's a great opportunity to highlight our strong news teams at KARE-11," said Remes. "Whether its early mornings, midday, evenings, late news, or weekends, we are proud of the commitment of our journalists and their connections with our community."

For now, the thin wall between news and advertising has been restored, and advertisers will have to find another way to connect with audiences.

In case you missed it

It’s been another busy week in the fast-changing online world. Here are a few updates from The GH Spin’s “In case you missed it” file.

•Patch goes live: AOL’s hyper-local news source, Patch, went live in Edina this week. Patch journalists in several Twin Cities locations are already active on Twitter and Facebook. According to MinnPost, Patch is hiring journalists for nearly 50 sites in the metro area and is adding 600 journalists nationally. Read more from MinnPost or The GH Spin.

•Preview websites instantly: Google announced today a feature that will allow people to preview a screen shot of websites that appear in a search before they click on a site. The “Instant Previews” feature will be launched in 40 languages over the coming days. Read more here.

•Twitter starts advertising: Starting this month, Twitter will allow companies to place an ad in a user’s Twitter stream regardless of whether the user follows the company. Virgin America, Starbucks, and Red Bull have already bought ads. This advertising option complements the “promoted tweet” that appears at the top of searches on the Twitter website. Read more here.

•Clip coupons via Facebook: Facebook is now offering coupons through a new feature called “Deals.” More than 20 companies, including Gap, McDonalds, and American Eagle Outfitters, have signed on. The feature can alert users when a store near them has a coupon available, making it especially useful for smartphone users. Read more here.

Rock Head PR Move: Proofing nightmare

An advertiser’s worst nightmare hit South Bend, Indiana, when a billboard promoting the city’s public schools urged people to look at the “15 best things about our pubic schools.” The oversight of mistaking “pubic” for “public” is even worse when it’s written in three-foot-tall letters near a busy intersection and for an educational institution.

A picture of the flawed billboard circulated around Facebook before Blue Waters Group, the company that created the billboard, claimed responsibility for the proofing error and fixed the billboard.

While the Blue Waters Group made the right PR move by admitting its fault, it is no doubt wishing it would have caught the error in the first place.

Read more from the South Bend Tribune.

(Photo courtesy of the South Bend Tribune)

Facebook ad revenues skyrocket

Earlier this summer, Facebook reached its 500 millionth member. While the social network’s massive user base receives a lot of attention, its ad revenue is equally significant. This year, Facebook will receive more than $1 billion in ad revenue and is poised to receive $1.7 billion next year. MySpace, on the other hand, can barely retain its advertising. The social network will bring in $347 million in ad revenue this year, a 26% drop from 2009.













To read more, click here.

Non-traditional ads beat out primetime ads

Advertising is an industry based primarily on statistics. But with more advertisers placing ads in non-traditional locations, it’s becoming harder to measure how successful these ads are.

The Nielsen Company recently developed a way to measure the reach of what they called “fourth screen” advertisements. (“Fourth screen” refers to video ads in places other than television, computer, and mobile devices). The results are surprising. According to its inaugural report, an advertisement in a non-traditional location reached 61.7 million adults, while its counterpart on primetime broadcast TV reached only three million adults, meaning it would take 20 primetime ads to reach the same audience as a month-long non-traditional advertising campaign.

These new advertising mediums are shoving more content at an already over-saturated public because we watch less TV, listen to less traditional radio, and read fewer magazines and newspapers. While this situation might annoy us, it also complicates the equation for advertisers trying to decide the best venues to place their ads.

To read more, click here.