Cox Revamps The Rep Firm

Cable World, Feb 24, 2003

Byline: ANDREA FIGLER

Billy Farina's company just dumped the word "cable" from its name in order to boost - of all things - cable ad sales.

Starting today, CableRep Advertising now goes by the name Cox Media.

"We are television advertising, we're not necessarily cable advertising," says Farina, VP of ad sales. CableRep, he explains, "almost had a repercussion to it that made you lesser than broadcast."

The new name, and new logo, is part of a national identity change meant to take advantage of the Cox brand. Cox Communications has cable, phone operations and high-speed data services. Other Cox companies include newspapers, radio and even broadcast television properties across the country.

CableRep, or now Cox Media, sells ads for Cox's cable systems, which totaled 6.3 million basic subscribers by year-end. Advertising revenue grew to $378 million last year, a 12% gain over 2001.

The name change is supposed to help communicate to advertisers and media buyers that Cox Media has an array of advanced services, such as in-depth research tools, direct mail, customer promotions and state-of-the-art commercial production, Farina says.

Jack Myers, chief economist of the Myers Report, which tracks advertising, isn't so sure. He wonders if the name change might in fact mislead advertisers.

"If cable is so troubled by the use of the word cable, whether it's for advertising sales or consumer marketing, a name change doesn't address [the problem]," Myers says. "The negative implications related to the branding of cable go back 30 years, and the industry is still failing to market itself effectively. Covering it up with makeup doesn't get rid of the blemishes."

Farina counters that the new name is a culmination of the division's changes to improve cable ad sales the past two years. He's been streamlining the organization to help unify data points and simplify trafficking and billing for both company employees and advertisers alike. Farina has brought the billing systems into one central hub for each system, using three billing vendors instead of eight.

Debby Mullin, VP of marketing and new media, says that all systems now can enter the names of advertising clients into a single database with a common format. This helps account executives identify customers in each market. It also allows advertising execs to share information and sales tactics that work for a given demographic or cable program.

"It all boils down to marketing this as the catalyst, not just a name change," Mullin says. "We're using it as a catalyst to invigorate our sales people. We really provide smarter solutions for clients. This gives us an opportunity to tell this to our customer base."

Farina also notes that he has been streamlining systems, not consolidating them. There are no layoffs anticipated with this new company identity.

"It's just a national evolution on the bar being raised."

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*Will Cox move all its trafficking and billing to one vendor to simplify things even further?