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A giant video wall projecting videos and imagery of holidays will form the centrepiece of the next generation Thomson store that will include an "Advice Bar" and diner-style booths.

Purchase Behavior Based Single Source Platform to Play Key Role in Media Activation CINCINNATI - Nielsen Catalina Solutions launches its signature single source software offering, AdVantics on Demand™, which will enable consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers, their agencies, and media companies to better match advertising with desired “buyer-rich” audiences based on actual retail purchase data. “The new NCS AdVantics process provides marketers with a single-source solution for the optimal planning and execution of their television campaigns” The AdVantics™ suite of services embodies the Nielsen Catalina Solutions “Define Once, Activate Everywhere™” continuous media optimization approach, including the newly launched software, AdVantics on Demand, CPG Buyer Segments, and custom analytics. This enables buyer-based segment definition and Sales Effect retail sales lift measurement for nearly all media touch points. CPG marketers using Nielsen Catalina Solutions’ AdVantics suite of services for media activation have increased efficiency by an average of 10% and driven incremental advertising effectiveness, with up to 30% in additional sales lift among households exposed to the TV advertising, versus traditional buys. Approximately 15 product categories representing 60 brands, including CPG manufacturers Kraft, Kellogg’s, and Johnsonville Sausages, and media agencies Zenith, Compass Point Media and others, will use AdVantics On Demand for the 2013/14 Upfronts. In addition, over 10 networks are using Nielsen Catalina Solutions CPG Buyer Segments – which can be accessed in AdVantics On Demand, Nielsen’s NPower, or in other 3rd party solution provider software. Initially covering national TV media, AdVantics On Demand is a web-based platform that enables media decision makers to determine which media vehicles best deliver buyer-based audience segments, including television networks, dayparts, genres and programs. In addition, AdVantics On Demand provides “buyergraphic” post-buy analyses, reach and frequencies and can be integrated with most third-party planning, buying and housekeeping systems. “The new NCS AdVantics process provides marketers with a single-source solution for the optimal planning and execution of their television campaigns,” said David F. Poltrack, Chief Research Officer, CBS Corporation and President, CBS Vision. “With this new analytical toolkit they can select audiences based on actual product consumption; select the schedule that offers the best delivery of their target market; and measure the true ROI of their television campaign. This research tool will allow CBS to work with clients to better harness the full marketing power of the television medium on their behalf.” “Understanding and leveraging the power of data is key to our LIVE ROI! approach and is crucial to how we infuse our media process with intelligence and drive greater ROI for our clients,” said John Nitti, President Activation, Zenith. “The ability to leverage 3rd party data partners such as Nielsen Catalina Solutions across platforms to provide consistent buyer definitions and sales impact metrics is a key component of Zenith’s activation solutions.” From nearly 60 million frequent shopper data households and 2.7 million TV viewing households, AdVantics On Demand accesses the largest single source database of shopper data and television viewing in the U.S. With approximately 664,000 anonymous U.S. households, it is the only single source data that incorporates the Nielsen People Meter panel data used by the industry for national TV advertising transactions, and Nielsen Set Meter panels, plus Cable Set Top Box tuning data, providing both panel-based national projectability and “census” data scale for deep, granular analyses. This complements Nielsen Catalina Solutions’ current offerings including buyer-based audience segments for online, mobile, print and CRM, as well as campaign sales lift measurement. Nielsen Catalina

Chris Moon, Fallon's head of analytics, has been hired by Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R in the same role.

"We never expected to be a UEFA Champions League sponsors for 21 years", says senior Ford marketer Mark Jones, ahead of this year's final, while other sponsors undertake an array of marketing activity.

MediaCo Outdoor is preparing to launch an interactive network of 20 digital touchscreens with Manchester City Council called CityLive.

As far as we can ascertain the demand for physical silver is alive and well with reports of people queuing to buy it while a number of suppliers, including the mints have been selling all that they could produce of the popular coins and bars. And yet the price of silver falls in the paper market which highlights the disparity between the physical and paper markets. The Silver Chart: (Click to enlarge) The above chart of silver prices shows that it has been two years since silver flirted with the fifty dollar price level, since then it has been a bumpy road on a downward slide. The 200dma and the 50dma have weaved their way lower with a cross of death followed by a golden cross followed by another cross of death. The latest crossover took place at $31.00 and silver has since fallen to today's level of $22.22/oz. Although

Filed under: Earnings, RetailEarnings from Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) were so awful that Wall Street pushed its stock price down close to 10%. The question is whether the company can overcome the lack of attraction created largely because of its aged stores. Probably not. Sears Holding's revenue fell to $8.5 billion for the quarter that ended May 4, 2013, as compared to revenue of $9.3 billion for the comparable quarter a year ago. Same-store sales in the United States dropped 3.6%. This drop was made up of a fall of 4.6% at Kmart and 2.4% at Sears Domestic. The company lost $279 million, compared to a profit of $189 million a year ago. Hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, Sears Holdings' chairman and chief executive officer, promised the company will try to better "communicate" with its customers and use technology to better match inventory with customer demand. Those will not matter much if potential customers do visit its stores. A year ago, AP reported a comment about Sears from a retail expert. It mirrors what many analysts have said about the company, which is also the anxiety of many investors: "The image is atrocious. The stores are old and they're run down. They don't look like a nice place to visit," Ron Friedman, a partner in the retail and consumer products industry group of accounting firm Marcum, LLP said. "I don't think that the Sears we see today can be around from a year today. It has to change." Companies that have significant profits, access to capital and strong balance sheets have continued to upgrade stores. This includes Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and Macy's Inc. (NYSE: M). These companies assume that modern stores are as likely as not to attract shoppers. If their financial results are an indication, this assumption may be right. Lampert indicated in the comments he made about the most recent quarter that Sears needs to raise more money. That means it is unlikely the company has the capital to make a companywide upgrade of its locations. But without such a transformation, "old and run-down" stores will bedevil the chance for a turnaround. Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Earnings, Retail Tagged: featured, M, SHLD, TGT, WMT Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Consumer GoodsOld Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) chief executive A.G. Lafley will rejoin the company he used to run and replace CEO Bob McDonald. For Lafley to turn P&G around, he will have to change certain new trends among global consumers. That will not happen. McDonald was criticized primarily for not using P&G's old and powerful brands to lift revenue. Instead, he moved the company toward selling cheaper brands. He had to change his focus to cost cutting to improve P&G's bottom line. This sort of action, often widely admired at other large companies seeking better earnings, did not impress the board or large outside shareholders, which include activist investor Bill Ackman. Critics may want to remember that McDonald took over P&G during the Great Recession. That affected some portion of the company's earnings, and they continued to be affected during what universally was considered a slow global recovery. He did not get any credit for that, and perhaps in an environment in which CEOs are never judged to be better than their most recent quarter, McDonald's departure was bound to happen. P&G prides itself on sales that extend across more than 180 countries. As a consequence, the company recently acknowledged in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that "Our market environment is highly competitive with global, regional and local competitors." Another other important observation in its disclosure to the SEC is: "Demand for our products has a correlation to global macroeconomic factors. The current macroeconomic factors remain dynamic." Put another away, P&G cannot push a rock uphill if the hill is too steep because of gravity created by global consumer spending woes. Yet another phrase P&G uses in the description of its revenue changes is "unfavorable geographic mix." Translated into English, that means the troubles in regions such as Europe have hurt P&G's sales. Because of P&G's size, it is difficult to find companies with which it can be compared. Among U.S.-based firms, the closest is smaller Colgate-Palmolive Co. (NYSE: CL). Its revenue rose just a little more than 2% last quarter, which is not meaningfully different from P&G's figure. The most damning comparison McDonald faced probably was the contrast of the revenue growth at rival Unilever PLC (NYSE: UL), where sales rose 4.9% in the first quarter. Finally, McDonald actually was given the benefit of the doubt by Wall Street, perhaps because of "global macroeconomic factors." P&G's shares are up by 25% over the past year, which is about the same percentage as the S&P 500. A year from now, when investors look back on Lafley's early tenure, the most notable factor may not be whether he did a good job with changing the product mix of the company, cutting costs or buying other companies. At the core of the matter will be whether Lafley was able to get P&G to grow faster than worldwide gross domestic product. Now, that would be magic. Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Consumer Product, Management Change Tagged: CL, featured, PG, UL Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: InvestingAT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has come up with a brilliant way to increase revenue in its wireless unit. Its explanation of the new fees is almost too complicated to understand. The action is brilliant, and the charge is low enough that most customers will not notice it or will not bother to complain. For most customers, their monthly bill will rise $0.61. Some media sources calculate this will improve AT&T's annual revenue by about $500 million. The AT&T description of the reason the additional charges will be assessed is broken into two pieces, although the telecom does its best to comingle them. The first: The Federal USF (Universal Service Charge), created by the federal government, is designed to help ensure first-class, affordable telecommunications service for all consumers across the country, especially residents in high cost rural communities and low-income customers. Additionally, the Federal USF provides for discounted telecommunications services for schools, libraries and rural health-care facilities. All telecommunications providers are required to pay into the Federal USF, and their contributions may be recovered from customers. It is only good corporate citizenship to help people with low income, or those who live on farms, even if the government does not mandate it. Additionally, AT&T tells customers it will add another charge: The Administrative Fee helps defray certain expenses AT&T incurs, including but not limited to: (a) charges AT&T or its agents pay to interconnect with other carriers to deliver calls from AT&T customers to their customers; and (b) charges associated with cell site rents and maintenance. Customers get to help offset AT&T's infrastructure costs, which hardly seems fair, since they are part of the normal expenses of conducting a wireless business. AT&T management knows that very few customers will flee to Verizon Wireless or Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) if they feel that AT&T's charges are inappropriate. Changing carriers can be expensive and inconvenient. So the company has taken very little risk by raising billions of dollars and making an announcement that will be forgotten in a few days. The $0.61 charge is tiny enough to be missed entirely, or be too small to matter at all. Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Technology Companies, Wireless Tagged: featured, S, T Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: Technology, Media, U.S. GovernmentJust as Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ: GOOG) battle with European Union regulators has died down, the United States may bring antitrust charges against the company. According to Reuters: U.S. regulators are in the early stages of an antitrust probe into whether Google Inc, the top player in Web display advertising, breaks antitrust law in how it handles some advertising sales, a source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said that it was unlikely that the Federal Trade Commission had sent out civil investigative demands in relation to the probe, which would be the sign of a formal and more serious investigation. The new line of inquiry focuses on tools acquired when Google bought display ad company DoubleClick in 2007; other firms which specialize in helping Web publishers sell ads to put on their websites are complaining to the FTC, the source said. Google shares are down fractionally in premarket trading to $880.55, in a 52-week range of $556.52 to $920.60. Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Internet, Media, Regulation Tagged: GOOG Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments