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"Koeppel Direct's media buying expertise has played an integral role in making my company successful. Koeppel generated so much business for our company, occasionally we have to limit their media buys, in order to handle all of the new business." | |
| - R. Gregg Marketer of Senior Products |
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MEDIA BUYING DIRECT RESPONSE TELEVISION (DRTV) ARTICLE ...... |
Why Rupert Murdoch Paid $580 million to Buy a Social Network Website
By: Peter Koeppel
Published: 03/06 |
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MySpace.com is a website where 40 million kids hang out regularly. Membership has
quadrupled since January 2005, according to Business Week. The site ranked number 15 in terms of page hits
last October according to Nielsen//NetRatings. The number of unique visitors grew by 12% in October to
24.2 million. That's why two Los Angeles entrepreneurs, Chris De Wolfe and Tom Anderson, who started
MySpace, were able to sell it to Rupert Murdoch's New Corp. for $580 million.
Why should you care about MySpace and similar sites? These social network sites are a great place to
reach the nation's 24 million teenagers (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project). Teens are
traditionally a hard to reach group, but they have tremendous spending power and can't be ignored by
marketers. Teens have a combined spending of $175 billion and college students account for $200
billion in spending, according Alloy Media + Marketing.
Any savvy marketer needs to understand that 87% of 12-17 year olds use the Internet, vs. only two-thirds
of adults, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In addition, 65% of this group
Instant message (IM) and they consume many forms of media, including surfing the net, watching TV
and playing video games 6 ½ hours a day, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. This makes
them a hard group to reach, but MySpace provides a new opportunity to tap into this market segment.
MySpace takes a low key approach to advertising. The ads blend into the content. There are other social
network sites such as Facebook.com, Buzz-Oven, Bebo and Xanga.com. The large brand advertisers with
products targeted at this audience are experimenting with advertising on these sites. They are using
promotions to engage visitors. They are giving away products and using contests and videos to promote
their products. Kids are influencing other kids to buy products promoted on the sites, according to
Business Week.
Marketers need to be aware that what's hot today may not be next year. Friendster.com was the cool
social networking site last year, but now MySpace is the hot site, so it's important to stay on
top of the latest trends. If you have a teenager, they more than likely know about these sites
and many visit them regularly. Teenage girls 12-17 are the biggest users of these sites, as
reported by Nielsen. According to Business Week, teens have increased their computer time for
social networking by a factor of three over the last five years. MySpace tries to educate kids
about online safety, but many kids divulge personal information online, according to USA TODAY.
So parents are encouraged to monitor their children's activities on the web.
Direct response marketers who want to stay ahead of the curve, need to develop integrated,
multi-channel, advertising campaigns that incorporate direct response TV, online, print and
radio media buying, in order to reach not only the teen market, but other consumer segments that
are increasingly making purchase decisions online. Social networking websites should definitely
be considered as part of the media mix if your product is geared towards a teenage or college
audience. Align yourself with an experienced direct response media buyer who understands how to
buy ad space on these sites.
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