Image: Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Updated March 8, 2012
It was announced March 7, 2012 in the Detroit Free Press and other media sources that “All American Muslim” would not return for a second series. The ratings had declined below a level that would be even “below average” audience on TLC. Cancelling a program or suspending advertising in a program because ratings are below a set threshold is and always has been acceptable practice. It would have been acceptable last fall when Lowe’s panicked and abruptly pulled out too. It would have even made sense.
Lowe’s the big box home improvement retailer has been all over the news this week and not in a good way. The media is questioning endlessly and pontificating verbosely about whether this was the right decision for Lowe’s. Unfortunately, this is not the right question. The real question is not whether they should have pulled their advertising from the TLC Network program “An American Muslim”, no; the real question is “Why did their agency put their ads in the program in the first place?”
I don’t want to get too political, but unfortunately, in the current environment, everything seems to have been politicized. A glaring red flag is in this survey from YouGov BrandIndex outlining some of the top brands among liberal, conservative and independent voters. It’s telling that there is little ideology when it comes to bleach (Clorox), home health products (Johnson&Johnson) or breakfast cereal (Cheerios). When we get to home improvement, Lowe’s stands out as a solid Republican brand. TLC is a solid brand for women’s programming and Lowe’s more so than other home improvement retailers targets women. The problem came when Lowe’s ads appeared in a program with content likely to inflame and enrage their customer base. What was their media agency thinking? Why did Lowe’s not review the media plan from their agency with more scrutiny?
When I started as a media buyer, there wasn’t as much to media buying. Basically, a GRP was a GRP was a GRP. There were only 3 networks and only larger markets had an independent station. Programming was mostly innocuous pablum aimed at the lowest common denominator. (OK, so some of the game shows that infest network prime time still are.) “Cable” was HBO, ESPN, CNN and MTV which still actually played music. “Research” was the Nielsen or Arbitron (yes they were in the TV ratings business too) book and a ruler to read the pages of eye glazingly small numbers. Today, so much contextual and psychographic research is available to hone and target a media buy.
In planning for clients, I try to consider client and audience sensibilities in matching audiences, clients and programming. For example, I didn’t place spots for a family attraction in a controversial morning radio program. Although the raw audience numbers matched the age for parents of young children, the content was not consistent with the client’s brand. Conversely, for another client, a dealer in pre-owned trucks, the same program was key to our media strategy. It was simple, the station wasn’t wrong and the programming wasn’t wrong. It was a matter of matching clients with content.
As an advertiser in this program, one thing would have me looking for the door, and it has nothing to do with the program’s content – it’s the ratings, or rather the increasing lack of them since the premier.
Source: TV By the Numbers
Anytime you lose 32% of your total audience and 44% of your demo audience between the premier and second episode, your series just might be in trouble. When the audience continues to drop and is less than half that of a marginal lead in, you have a problem. I only have the first 3 weeks because the program has dropped below the radar. I don’t know what audience delivery was promised by TLC or what CPM the advertisers paid, but there is a good possibility that if I were an advertiser in the program, I’d be in serious discussions about make goods.
Photo Credit: Michal Marcol / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
1 Comment(s)
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I totally agree with your take, it was a poor fit for their constituency, as evidenced by the kind of comments their supporters put up on the Facebook page.
“What was their media agency thinking? Why did Lowe’s not review the media plan from their agency with more scrutiny?” I find myself wondering the same thing. Among the many PR blunders in the wake of the debacle is their very weak spin about the buy. Their response letter to FFA also leaves more questions than answers: they claim they dropped it because it did not meet their “advertising guidelines” , but they haven’t made those guidelines public either.
Such bad spin just reveals the level of discomfort they face as they try to preserve profits and loyalty from their customer base while grappling with their ideology.