Deep down, TV studios don’t like to shell out millions of ad dollars this time each year. Although it’s necessary to pump up their Emmy chances, it brings little back to the bottom line.
They’ll be biting their tongues a little harder this year: "For Your Consideration" spending is back.
After a drop-off in last year’s spending for the traditional May/June Emmy campaigns, the studios are once again spending anywhere from $500,000 to $1.5 million per campaign for ads in the Hollywood trades and on show DVD mailings to members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Even secondary shows that they want considered can have ad budgets of $150,000 or more.
Studios say they are still running a significant number of print ads lobbying for nominations, but have taken some of their print budget and moved it into online advertising and toward developing more elaborate types of attention-drawing mailers.
These efforts are most apparent in the latest issue of Emmy magazine, which at 240 pages and 2.5 pounds is the largest and heaviest in the publication’s 31-year history.
Juan Morales, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, told TheWrap the magazine has the same number of ad pages it had last year. The additional weight and number of pages, he said, had to do with an increased number of imaginative inserts.
Inside you’ll find:
– DVD inserts from Hallmark Hall of Fame and Warner Bros. Television;
– A six-page insert on heavier stock from Showtime;
– HBO’s front-cover "barn-door" gateway;
– CBS/Paramount’s back-cover gatefold and a belly band around the magazine;
– FX’s 56-page stand-alone catalog that accompanies the magazine in a poly bag the was mailed to the entire Emmy Magazine subscription list.
And of course, lots of the traditional "For Your Consideration" ads.
In addition to print ads in the trades, some studios, like Universal Media Studios (NBC), have been swamping Academy members with DVD mailings. One member told TheWrap she’d received DVDs for about a dozen Universal Media Studios-produced shows.
Others have been taking ads on consecutive days’ covers in the print trades, including Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.
"NBC has historically been aggressive during Emmy time," one studio insider told TheWrap. "And for good reason: Their shows are well received by Emmy voters."
Last year Universal Media Studios shows received 67 Emmy nominations, second to HBO’s 91, and won 16 awards — trailing only HBO’s 21.
This year, each studio, while giving some love to several of its shows, seems to be focusing on a few and spending more money on those which it really thinks can win. Noticeably, ABC Studios seems to be spending lots of money promoting "Lost"; Warner Bros. is focusing on "The Big Bang Theory"; 20th Century Fox is spending most of its dollars on "Modern Family" and "Glee"; CBS Television Studios on "The Good Wife"; and Universal Media Studios on "Parenthood," "30 Rock," "The Office," "Parks and Recreation" and "Friday Night Lights."
"30 Rock" has won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series for each of the past three years, and a Universal Media Studios insider says, "When a show is winning, you want to continue to maintain the same level of support each year."
In an unusual but not unprecedented move this year, DirecTV, which has a deal with NBC to air first-run episodes of "Friday Night Lights," with NBC running the second flight, financed the mailing of a package containing all 13 episodes of this season’s show, sent to all members of the Academy.
Universal Media Studios also has run traditional print ads for its shows, but in a more eye-catching fashion, like 14 consecutive pages in trade mag Variety. And UMS has been one of the more active studios using online advertising this year.
But all this spending by the studios, while they continue to play the game, is a sore subject.
"It’s the price of admission for operating a studio," said one studio insider. "It’s a cost of doing business. Part of a studio’s responsibility is to make the actors, actresses, producers, show creators and everyone associated with a show feel that they have your love and support."
It’s also a way for the TV studios to try to keep prestige parity with their movie-studio counterparts. With more film veteran actors looking at TV as a viable career move, the studios see it as a way to lure these performers by showing that they’ll be backed come awards time.
