Toyota and Fox are teaming up for a promotion that could give the term “cell phone” new meaning.
The Fox show “Prison Break” will serve as a vehicle for a cross-platform marketing blitz on behalf of Toyota Motor Sales USA. The promotion will help launch Toyota’s new Yaris sedan through Fox’s broadcast, mobile entertainment, Internet and cable TV operations.
The strategy centers on “mobisodes,” or short episodes of programming designed for mobile phones. Fox will produce a series of mobisodes called “Prison Break: Proof of Innocence.” Toyota’s sponsorship of the series makes this the first-ever ad-supported scripted mobisode series.
The first of 26 mobisodes appeared on phones last Monday, with three or four scheduled to blink on every week. The series is free to Sprint customers with SprintTV. Each mobisode consists of a 10-second spot for Yaris from advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi LA, followed by a two-minute story that parallels the “Prison Break” plot on broadcast TV.
“Our partnership with Fox provides an exclusive portal to showcase Yaris to consumers in a fun way where they can discover more about the car on their own time,” said Jim Farley, vice president of marketing at Toyota.
Mitch Feinman, vice president of digital content at Fox Mobile Entertainment, said he was proud of launching a new way to engage potential customers.
“Toyota’s sponsorship of the ‘Prison Break’ mobisode series is an industry first. We’re excited that innovative advertisers like Toyota are taking notice of this new entertainment medium.”
Meanwhile, back on television, Fox will give Toyota exclusivity as the only auto advertiser during several regular broadcasts of “Prison Break.” Toyota already has sponsored a “Break” marathon for Fox’s FX cable channel on March 19. In addition, Fox has set up a Web site featuring the Yaris-“Break” convergence, and will drive traffic to it with a co-branded print ad campaign.
Prison Break airs Monday night at 8 p.m. on KTTV (Channel 11).
Singleton’s Strategy
Now that McClatchy Co. has agreed to purchase Knight-Ridder, a partnership led by William Dean Singleton’s NewsMedia Group has emerged as the front-runner to buy four newspapers from McClatchy. Three of those papers San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and Monterey County Herald are in California.
It sets up a familiar Singleton strategy, one he’s executed in several U.S. markets. He tries to encircle major metro centers with a ring of smaller suburban papers. Then editorial, advertising sales and administration are consolidated regionally, thus cutting costs and achieving economies of scale.
The technique has succeeded in the L.A. market, where Singleton owns the Long Beach Press-Telegram and the Daily News in the San Fernando Valley. In addition, the same partnership bidding for the McClatchy papers a three-way alliance of NewsMedia, Gannett and Stephens Media Group owns the Pasadena Star-News and the San Bernardino Sun.
With the new publications, Singleton will replicate the strategy in Northern California. The partnership already owns nine papers in the Bay area, including the Oakland Tribune and Hayward Daily Review.
The new acquisitions wouldn’t directly affect the L.A. market. But one expert on media consolidation worries it could be a prelude to a larger strategy, one that could potentially muffle independent voices.
“Buying a chain of suburban newspapers doesn’t really lessen the diversity of voices, given that they don’t overlap anyway. It’s more a move related to offering packages to advertisers,” said Frederick Wasser, professor at Brooklyn College in New York. “My concern would be any breakdown in cross ownership rules.”
Singleton has publicly advocated removal of the FCC rules preventing the same company from owning a newspaper and television station in the same city. Wasser’s biggest concerns center on how chain ownership of local papers, in combination with cross-ownership, could diminish the local-news focus in suburbia.
Radio Responses
CBS Radio reported its first-quarter financials last week for the first time since Howard Stern left the network. Revenues declined 6 percent. Although the announcement never mentioned Stern’s name, a report from Lehman Bros. blamed the soft results on “muted industry trends and replacement programming investment for Howard Stern.”
But maybe CBS should worry more about Stern’s competition than about the shock jock himself. A new study by emarketer found that Stern, now heard on Sirius Satellite Radio, polarizes the listening public, while XM Satellite Radio Holdings has more general appeal.
On a six-point scale, ranging from “like a lot” to “dislike a lot,” Stern alienated more people than he attracted. The study then polled respondents on 46 different attributes for a variety of radio personalities. For the characteristics “mean” and “rude,” Stern came in first place.
But that fits with Sirius’ overall image. The study compared Sirius with XM and found “XM’s talent has more universal appeal.” On the six-point scale, Sirius listeners ranked their radio personalities highly in terms of both “like” or “dislike,” while XM listeners found their hosts generally likeable with two-thirds of subscribers giving positive marks.
“In old-time radio terms, XM has a MOR (middle-of-the-road) station appeal, while Sirius is more of a niche station, appealing more strongly to selected targets,” the study stated.
eMarketer estimated that at the end of 2005, XM had 6.1 million subscribers and Sirius had 3.2 million. A first-quarter announcement from XM put its subscriber base at 6.5 million. The emarketer study predicts that by the end of 2006, Sirius will surpass 5 million subscribers and XM will have nearly 9 million.
Staff reporter Joel Russell can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 237, or at
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