Network Affiliates

No other format has the potential to reach so many people so fast or with greater impact. But with sloppy placement, you may miss out on your ripest markets. While you are intently focused on your older target, the younger generation may be turning to your competition when the time is right. The television market draws from a vast pool of 80 million Americans between the ages of 10 to 29, more than the baby boomer generation. In a few short years, by 2010, this group will form the majority of the 18-to-49 demo that is the bedrock of all TV advertising and, hopefully, a loyal source of clients.

One of advertising's biggest myths is that people have quit watching TV. Have you? Or anyone else you know? Actually, according to Nielsen Media, people watch more TV than ever before - they just watch it differently. Even while television is used as background noise during dinner, its power to reach people is great. The old world of three networks has expanded to include cable, satellite and DVR's. Reality shows, creative competitions, educational series and documentary-style programming have wooed a new market of watchers in every age group. The typical viewer who has 120 channels watches about 20 of them, but with innovative new programs being added regularly, new watchers are constantly being groomed and recruited.

Too many law firms mistakenly ignore the TV goldmine

You've heard the mantra "TV advertising WORKS!", but if you're not placing strategically, you could be wasting great ads. And if you're not following the trends in the TV world, you could be ignoring easy targets. Fundamental shifts in TV viewing are already underway. Nielsen Media Research says DVR users aged 18 to 49 already time shift about 41% of their primetime viewing of broadcast networks - and this group watches a lot of TV: The average 18- to 49-year-old person watches 31 hours of television a week, which is up from five years ago. The biggest issue isn't fast-forwarding through ads. If you have a good program people will watch it, and if you have a good ad they will pay attention. The biggest problem is the fragmentation of viewership. Now that you're armed with knowledge, it's time to turn it into muscle. Time to pinpoint what our core group is watching.

Cue the all-important Media Buyer. That's where expertise in media analysis, planning and placement becomes critical. The days of buying rotators on 3-5 stations are over. Depending on your product, depending on your demographic, depending on your competitive landscape ... these all play into the need to have a "Media Gatekeeper" watching over every single penny you spend to ensure your hard-earned money is being spent in the most efficient and effective manner. Are you squeezing each format to produce highly visible advertising that translates into calls? If you're not investing in crucial media resources, the answer is most likely no.

Media planning and placement is equally, if not more important, than creative messaging. Their job is to help you find the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the advertising rainbow. Elite media teams spend thousands of dollars each year updating in-house media planning resources to dissect client market areas and design comprehensive media recommendations. This measured approach, utilizing trusted media advisory and evaluation services, allows for precise calculation and discovery of the most strategic advertising formulas to reach the right people in the right place at the right time - to reach potential clients and prompt them to call.

What is the cable penetration in your market? Are you buying stations or programs? Are your stations delivering the gross rating points you are paying for each and every quarter? Are you running rotators or buying program-specific? What is your reach and frequency? How much are your competitors spending and WHERE are they spending their media dollars? Take the time to explore these issues and invest in the power of television with the help of an experienced media team. Time is money and your efforts will most certainly pay off.

Looking to grow your business in 2007? Interested in learning what opportunities exist in your market? Give us a call at 1-800-525-3332 or email for your individual market analysis.

Put us to the test right now.
Stop what you're doing right now and take 10 minutes to call me at 1-800-525-3332. I'll give you two new ideas on how you can strengthen your TV Marketing today. You've got absolutely nothing to lose and a powerful practice marketing tool to gain.

On behalf of our entire legal advertising division, thank you for taking the time to read this issue of Inside the Network. We'll be back next month with another topic of vital importance to your practice.

Sincerely,


Harlan Schillinger
Vice President
Legal Marketing Division

Is your case load below average? Maybe your advertising campaign is too.

If you're dissatisfied with the number or quality of your firm's current cases, maybe it's time to rethink what you're advertising ... to whom you're really sending those messages ... and whether they're the right messages altogether.

Network Affiliates understands marketing for lawyers - from the best advertising channels to the most targeted audiences to the smartest response-driven messaging. We pioneered the model of legal advertising 25 years ago. Today 85 firms in 90 unique markets count on our expertise to increase case acquisition and revenue through customized yet cost-efficient marketing campaigns.

As a full-service agency, Network Affiliates combines great minds - people who not only understand creative advertising but know the inner workings of law firms - and state-of-the-art, in-house resources to create tailored marketing approaches.

Each day it's our job to help law firms pinpoint their crucial differentiators, build credibility, increase profitability and maintain a strategic position in a constantly changing market.

Our comprehensive services include:

* Targeted custom TV production
* Comprehensive media planning & placement
* Client Relationship Marketing (database marketing)
* Account management
* Syndicated commercial library access
* Mass tort campaigns
* Latino-specific marketing
* Internet strategy & website development
* Advertising performance measurements
* State-of-the-art, in-house production

Don't settle for below average. Let me provide a complimentary evaluation of your current marketing approach and introduce you to the people at Network Affiliates, proudly the largest and most successful advertising agency in the legal industry. Please give me a call at 1-800-525-3332. I look forward to speaking with you soon.


Sincerely,

Harlan Schillinger
Vice President/Director of Legal Marketing

The early bird gets the worm: Old saying, but true. It is so very important for you to have all of your TV spending plans in place NOW! We are facing a huge amount of political advertising this fall. Unless you are really on top of your game, you will find it more and more difficult to maintain a productive television advertising schedule over the next 3 months.

Be very aware of all new programing. Check with your TV station reps for any changes in your broadcast areas.

Take a little time to make sure you are spending your hard earned money effectively. There are other opportunities on TV other than spot buys. Look into them. If you would like some helpful hints on how to improve your law firm marketing, please call me.

Harlan Schillinger
Network Affiliates inc.

IT'S A GRAY AREA:
No-fault insurance system would keep extra cases out of the courts
By JAMES P. GRAY
Reader Feedback - Currently No comments posted. Comments

Here is a suggested improvement for the Civil Justice System: Take all automobile collision cases with a value of less than $50,000 out of the trial courts and in its place implement either a no-fault insurance system or a program of mandatory arbitration.

To explain, under a no-fault insurance system if I was, for example, involved in an automobile collision with you, my insurance company would pay up to my policy limits for my auto repairs, medical expenses, loss of income, and pain and suffering based upon an established schedule, and your insurance company would pay for yours — regardless of who was at fault in the collision. Of course, if one of us chose not to have insurance, that person would not receive a recovery.

The negatives of this approach would be the people who were negligent would "escape" being required to pay for the damages caused by their negligence. An additional negative would be we would lose our present right to have the issues of liability and damages decided by a judge or a jury of our peers.

But in my mind the benefits of this approach would far outweigh these negatives. The most obvious benefit would be that people would no longer be forced to pay 33 to 40% or more of their recovery to their attorney. As a practical matter some claimants might receive a smaller gross payment for their damages. But considering they will not be paying the costs of filing fees in court, depositions, expert witnesses and for their attorney time for investigation, negotiation with the other sides, and preparing for and actually litigating the trial, and that their insurance rates would be appreciably reduced, most people will come out way ahead. In addition, the payments will also come to the injured parties much more quickly than they do under our present system.

Under today's system, injured drivers have many reasons to delay their medical recovery, because the more injured a person remains at the time of trial, the greater likelihood of a larger recovery. No-fault insurance would appreciably reduce this problem. And today in many ways it is hard to justify the use of a courtroom and staff, and to require numbers of jurors to take about three days out of their personal or professional lives, to sit and listen to another "fender bender" that couldn't be settled because the plaintiff was demanding $5,000 and the defense was only willing to offer $4,250.

I will never forget one morning as I was driving to our parking garage, I saw a fairly young man with a neck brace walking on crutches toward the main entrance of the courthouse, and it was obvious from the expression on his face that he was in substantial pain. However, when I left the courthouse at noon for a lunch meeting, I happened to see the same fellow again. But this time his neck brace was off and his crutches were tucked under his arm as he was briskly walking away. Very likely he had received his settlement agreement, so now the game was over.

At this time, 12 states in our country plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and all of Canada have some form of a no-fault insurance system in place. Some of them incorporate reasonable variations in which the standard system of fault is retained for situations in which there are severe injuries or damages greater than a threshold amount, such as $50,000 in New York.

Others retain the fault system when the collision involves egregious conduct like reckless driving or driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs, and the no-fault system does not apply when pedestrians are involved. In addition, and all importantly, states still retain their laws allowing suits against insurance companies for any bad faith conduct, which is necessary to keep insurance companies behaving responsibly.

In fairness, it should also be pointed out Colorado had a no-fault system in place for 30 years until it was repealed in July 2003. But that system required people to have minimum coverage of $130,000, which many people either could not afford or did not want, particularly since the average claim was for about $7,800, and 96 percent of the claims were under $25,000. In addition, Colorado required insurance companies to pay for all "reasonable" treatments of pain, which were often found to include hot tubs, treadmills and fish tanks for vision therapy.

And, if parties could meet the threshold of only $2,500 in medical expenses, they could still bring a lawsuit against the at-fault driver's insurance company for their pain and suffering. All of this resulted in Colorado having the eighth highest insurance premiums in the country. But most other states and Canada have been able to avoid these difficulties.

An alternative to the no-fault insurance plan would be for insurance companies and their policyholders to agree in advance to use a system of binding arbitration for cases that had a potential value below a specified amount, such as $50,000. This would be accompanied by an agreement for the plaintiff's attorneys to cap their contingency fee participation at 25%. .

In California, generally no one is winning in standard automobile collision cases except the attorneys. So why not put our heads together and come up with something that works for the rest of us? No system is free from problems, and it doesn't matter to me as a judge, because if I don't try these cases I will try some others — we are not hurting for business. But in my view both of these alternative systems would be much more effective than what we are doing today.

If you agree with these suggestions, contact your elected representatives in Sacramento, and suggest they implement one of these changes. Your efforts could put appropriate reimbursement money into the pockets of the people who were injured, substantially reduce your insurance rates, allow courts to be more readily available for other types of disputes, and save lots of potential jurors a great deal of time.


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JAMES P. GRAY is an Orange County Superior Court judge and author of the book, "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It — A Judicial Indictment Of The War On Drugs." He can be reached at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or at his blog site at http://judgejimgray.judgejim gray.com/