New York -- The Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau will
devote the bulk of its five-hour Cable Advertising Conference here later this week to
convergence and optimizers.
At least 20 speakers from the advertiser, ad-agency,
cable-network and financial-analyst sectors are slated to appear at the conference, set
for Thursday (March 4) at the Marriott Marquis Hotel here.
With the cable- and broadcast-television networks'
1999-2000 upfront ad-sales marketplace "just around the corner," as a CAB
mailing recently put it, one session will feature "the clients' point of
view" on how big a role optimizers will play in those negotiations. Optimizers are
new computer-software tools designed to build the most effective media schedules that will
deliver the desired audience reach
At last year's CAB conference, speakers speculated
that optimization could mean a decline in traditional daypart buying and replacement of
the traditional cost-per-thousand-homes (CPMs) tool with cost-per-reach (CPR) points.
Among those scheduled for that session are: Bob Fellows,
senior vice president of advertiser services for Sara Lee Corp.; Warren Siddall, director
of advertising services at SmithKline Beecham; and Erwin Ephron, partner in consultancy
Ephron, Papazian & Ephron. The panel's moderator will be Jim Van Cleave, Procter
& Gamble Co.'s former vice president of advertising.
In the conference's other big discussion, at least 14
executives will attempt to size up the impact that the convergence of TV, personal
computers and telephony may have on advertising, brand building and consumer choices.
Arthur Miller, Harvard Law School professor and legal
editor for Courtroom Television Network, will moderate that panel.
Among the participants from the advertising world booked
for that panel are: David Ropes, director of corporate advertising and integrated
marketing for Ford Motor Co.; Mike Neavill, director of media services at AT&T Corp.;
Tony Ponturo, vice president of corporate media and sports marketing at Anheuser-Busch
Inc.'s Busch Media Group; PeriAnne Grignon, director of media services at Sears,
Roebuck & Co.; Alec Gerster, chairman of GreyWorldwide's MediaCom media division;
and Arnie Semsky, recently retired worldwide media director for BBDO Worldwide.
Cable executives due in that discussion will include: ESPN
president George Bodenheimer; Johnathan Rodgers, president, Discovery Networks U.S.;
Robert Johnson, Black Entertainment Television's chairman and CEO; and Rick Kaplan,
president of Cable News Network U.S.
Rounding out that super panel will be three financial
analysts -- Dennis Liebowitz of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Inc.; Tom Wolzien of
Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.; and Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch & Co.
The CAB conference will close with its luncheon keynote
speaker, Ted Turner, vice chairman of Time Warner Inc.
