Initiative Media Week in Review: August 23 – 29

TELEVISION

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes – People 18-39

1. Tuesday    2030-2130    Packed To The Rafters    TVW-7    11.8

2. Monday    1930-2030    Australian Idol – Semi Final 1    NEW-10    10.2

3. Monday    2000-2030    The Big Bang Theory    STW-9    9.7

4. Thursday    1930-2030    Australian Idol – Semi Final 4    NEW-10    9.7

5. Monday    1930-2000    Two And A Half Men    STW-9    9.7

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-39

1. Tuesday    2030-2130    Packed To The Rafters    TVW-7    14.1

2. Tuesday    1930-2030    Australian Idol – Semi Final 2    NEW-10    12.7

3. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    12.3

4. Monday    1830-2000    Two And A Half Men    STW-9    12.0

5. Thursday    1930-2030    Australian Idol – Semi Final 4    NEW-10    11.5

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 25-54

1. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    14.8

2. Tuesday    2030-2130    Packed To The Rafters    TVW-7    13.7

3. Monday    1930-2000    Two And A Half Men    STW-9    11.9

4. Friday    2030-2330    AFL Round 22: West Coast vs Richmond    TVW-7    11.9

5. Monday    2030-2130    The Farmer Wants A Wife    STW-9    11.8

Top 5 Prime Time Programmes People 35-54

1. Sunday    1800-1830    News    TVW-7    14.6

2. Tuesday    2030-2130    Packed To The Rafters    TVW-7    13.4

3. Friday    2030-2330    AFL Round 22: West Coast vs Richmond    TVW-7    12.8

4. Monday    1930-2000    Two And A Half Men    STW-9    12.3

5. Friday    1830-2030    Better Homes And Gardens    TVW-7    11.8

TVW-7 has taken out the number one position again, capturing a massivecommercial share of 41.0% for Total People overall (0600-2400) followedby NEW-10 with 30.3% and STW-9 with 28.7%.

The top performingprogrammes on TVW-7 were Sunday News, taking the number one spot withan average audience of 236,000, followed by an additional twelve in thetop fifteen including Packed To The Rafters, News, AFL Round 22: WestCoast vs Richmond, Today Tonight, Better Homes And Gardens, CityHomicide, Air Ways, Dancing With The Stars, Surf Patrol and World’sStrictest Parents – UK. TVW-7’s AFL on Friday night saw the return ofBen Cousins to Subiaco and the return of the AFL into the top fifteenprogrammes for the week generating an average audience of 178,000viewers, an increase of 39.3% from the previous week’s game.

STW-9had one programme in the top fifteen with Harry Potter And The Order OfThe Phoenix reaching 153,000 viewers. Without A Trace drew an averageaudience of 87,000 for the season return which  is a drop of 20,000from the previous seasons finale.

NEW-10’s Australian Idol – SemiFinal 4 on Thursday was their most watched show with 150,000 viewers -their only programme to place in the top fifteen. Ten News At Fivecontinues to dominate day time being the highest rating programme with118,000 viewers on Friday.

Nationally, Seven won the week overall(0600-2400) with a commercial share of 36.7% followed by Nine with34.0% and Ten with 29.3%. The top programme for the week was Packed ToThe Rafters which averaged 1,931 million viewers. It was followed bySeven’s Monday and Sunday News with 1,699 and 1,648 million viewersrespectively.

DIGITAL TV

The Federal Government’sDigital Switchover Taskforce has claimed that over half of Australianhomes (53%) are now digital TV-capable following a 6% increase over thelast quarter. The rise could be attributed to the communicationscampaign run by both the Digital Switchover Taskforce and Freeviewduring this period, including the “More for free” campaign and thelaunch of the Nine network’s new channel Go, according to Freeviewchief executive Robin Parkes.

NEW TECHNOLOGY

EntertainmentWeekly is to include a wafer thin video player in its September 18edition, promoting CBS television shows and Pepsi Max. The screen isroughly two inches wide, and the inserts will use technology similar tothe sound-recorders placed within greeting cards and automaticallystart playing when the magazine is opened. The chip within each playerhas the capacity to hold up to 40 minutes of video, with roughly 65 to70 minutes of battery charge. It can also be recharged with a mini USBcable via as pocket on the back of the unit.

The show reel beginswith an introduction to ‘video in print’ technology, starringcharacters from the CBS’ hit show ‘The Big Bang Theory’, who explainhow to use the player. Readers can then push a button on the insert toview separate clips of ‘Two and a Half Men’ and ‘How I Met YourMother’, as well as several new shows that include ‘Accidentally onPurpose’, ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’, ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘Three Rivers’, aswell as an ad promoting Pepsi Max.

DYNAMIC LOGIC ONLINE RESEARCH

This American ad-effectiveness measurement firm researched 4,800 campaigns and found the following:

• Ad effectiveness depends less on size than it does on shape and placement.

•The best-performing ad unit, in terms of metrics such as brandawareness, recall and purchase intent, was the 180-pixel-by-150-pixelrectangle ad.

• Ads that surround content – skyscraper andleaderboard units – are the least effective, as people have developed”banner blindness”.

• Rectangular ads tend to be closer to and, insome cases, interrupt the content – meaning that when you absorb thecontent, your eye naturally has to roll over the ad.

• Ads with poor creative can have a negative effect on people’s opinions about a brand.

•Ads should never cover the content a user is trying to find, should notbe so busy that they’re annoying and marketers should rethink their useof simple Flash-based – the least effective of all the display formatsmeasured.

DAILY TELEGRAPH

The Sydney Daily Telegraphwill launch a 32-page inserted magazine called Best Weekend on SaturdaySeptember 5. The magazine will features listings and ideas forentertainment on the weekends. This is obviously a circulation builderwhich augers well for the paper since they have already enjoyed a 3.1%boost YOY according to the latest ABC figures.

ROY MORGAN RESEARCH

Survey results on retailer preferences for Gen Y have been released. The main points are as follows:

•The top three shops for Gen Y are Sportsgirl, Starbucks Coffee andJeans West with 59.4%, 49.7% and 45.5% respectively shopping there inthe past 4 weeks.

• Myer ranked 25 with 25.8% of Gen Y having shopped there and David Jones sat at 33 with 22.6%.

• Sportsgirl had the highest satisfaction rating – 92.8%.

•Optus was the only telco in the top 10 with 37.6% of Gen Y’s havingvisited a store and 87% being satisfied with the experience.

• 55% of Gen Y’s enjoy clothes shopping compared to 39% of Gen X and 34% of Baby boomers.

• Over a third of Gen Y’s will buy because of a label compared to 20% of Gen X and 18% of Baby boomers.

• 58% of Gen Y’s will try to buy Australian verses 70% of Gen X and 79% of Baby boomers.