Responding to Market Demand, Bid4Spots Opens Up Cable TV Advertising for Businesses of All Sizes; Addresses the Half-Billion Dollars in Unsold Inventory, Giving Cable Systems an Efficient Way to Boost Revenue
Advertising 2.0
ENCINO, Calif. – Bid4Spots (www.Bid4Spots.com) unveiled a new online marketplace for cable television advertising – becoming the first to organize cable advertising nationwide down to the neighborhood, bringing advertisers and cable systems together in a way that makes the process of buying and selling cable TV ads more convenient and cost-effective for both parties.
Offering premium local cable TV airtime at discounted rates for the following broadcast week, Bid4Spots gives both sides relief in this sluggish economy – great rates for advertisers, a much-needed new revenue stream for local cable operators, and a flexible approach to buying and selling with no hassles or long-term commitments. Bid4Spots created this new marketplace in response to advertiser demand, adapting the reverse auction model that has successfully transformed the way last-minute radio airtime is bought and sold.
Bid4Spots will host an online reverse auction every Thursday, in which advertisers will make known their intention to buy airtime within certain parameters for the following week, and the relevant cable systems compete for that business – bidding against each other to drive the rates down. The first auction will be June 11; advertisers and cable systems can sign up for the marketplace now at www.Bid4Spots.com.
“The Bid4Spots marketplace offers a much-needed revenue source for cable systems, and has the potential to change the buying habits of advertisers,” said Neal Schnog, former vice chairman of the American Cable Association and current CEO of New Day Broadband LLC. “It gives advertisers a great opportunity to test something different, and to find out almost instantly what works and how to get the best rates.”
“Buying and selling advertising – no matter the medium – is all about reaching the right audience,” said Dave Newmark, Bid4Spots founder and CEO. Bid4Spots has a successful track record: the company’s online marketplace for radio airtime, launched in 2005, roughly doubled in size last year – even as both the radio and the advertising industries struggled.
“With this launch, we’re the first to organize cable TV advertising nationwide down to the neighborhood and by audience demographic, so we can help advertisers target their audiences on a national or local scale,” said Newmark. “It’s really the first way to efficiently monetize the long tail of cable TV – helping advertisers reach their audiences no matter where they are nationwide with buys that are national, regional or local in scale. A marketplace will only thrive if it offers value to all parties, so we’ve designed this one to empower each side with control over the elements that are most important to them.”
Bid4Spots has organized the most comprehensive registry of the nation’s local cable TV systems – creating a database that will match an advertiser’s stated target audience with all the local cable systems that provide that particular audience reach.
For cable operators, Bid4Spots offers an efficient, risk-free way to sell available airtime. Industry sources estimate that roughly 10 percent to 25 percent of local cable TV airtime typically remains unsold. Local cable accounts for 10 percent of all cable advertising. Based on 2007 numbers, local cable ads totaled about $2.63 billion. If 10 percent to 25 percent remained unsold, that’s an aggregate total of $263 million to $657 million in lost revenue due to unsold inventory.
Individual systems will be invited to participate only when an advertiser has already expressed interest in reaching that particular audience. A cable operator’s usual risks are eliminated using the Bid4Spots marketplace – all advertisers pay in advance, and make their spots available for review before the cable system decides to bid. Each cable system can decide which inventory it wants to make available each week; there are no obligations and no contracts to sign.
Advertisers predetermine the price they’re willing to pay per thousand consumers reached. They set a price ceiling, and the cable systems bid against each other to win the business – bidding the rates down. Advertisers get premium inventory at great rates, the ability to buy time just a week before airtime, transparency into the actual costs of their media buys, and the ability to target by demographic, geography or specific cable network.
Advertisers essentially create their own custom network, encompassing any combination of local systems, to reach consumers using their own precisely drawn national, regional or local footprint. For example, a company wanting to drive traffic to its online luggage store can choose to target cable systems nationwide that insert ads into the Travel Channel, or can choose to target all cable systems in a handful of key cities, or any combination of factors. With this capability, Bid4Spots is bringing the scale and efficiency of a typical national network buy to the local level – with the cost efficiencies of a reverse auction marketplace.
In radio, Bid4Spots has been able to help keep dollars within the medium with a transaction engine that appeals to do-it-yourself media buyers and to stations wanting incremental revenue. By maintaining a razor-sharp focus on one particular segment of inventory – last-minute, unsold airtime – Bid4Spots has become an optimization engine for whatever ad medium it is tackling.
“There will always be a place for the face-to-face handshake deals for scheduled buys – we’re not here to replace those,” said Newmark. “What we’ve done is singled out a very specific type of inventory – quality airtime that simply remains unsold. It’s that inventory, in any medium, that is ideal for a marketplace like ours that pairs ready buyers with motivated sellers.”
About Bid4Spots
Bid4Spots (www.Bid4Spots.com) has been hosting weekly online auctions for last-minute airtime since January 2005. The company’s approach to ad marketplaces is unique – hosting a reverse auction for desirable ad inventory still unsold by Thursday the week prior to airtime. Bid4Spots launched its marketplace for radio in 2005, expanded into the UK in 2007 and to cable TV in 2009. The company’s marketplaces allow advertisers and broadcasters to easily and efficiently buy and sell unsold airtime. Advertisers get desirable airtimes at great rates, and can target audiences by demographics and markets. Broadcasters boost revenue by selling inventory that otherwise would remain unsold. Founded by radio advertising veterans Dave and Patty Newmark, Bid4Spots is based in Encino, Calif.
