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| DraftFCB Vice Chair Bill Cella |
BILL CELLA, 57, has been in media since he earned a degree in English at Iona College in his native New Rochelle, New York. He spent 15 years in sales at ABC, first in Detroit and then Chicago before returning to N.Y., and rose to VP/Sports Sales. In ’94 he joined McCann-Erickson, where he quickly became Dir of National Broadcast & Programming for North America. Cella later served five years as Chair & CEO of Magna Global, which handles media negotiations, research and programming for The Interpublic Group. In ’06 he was named Vice Chair of DraftFCB, a behavior-based, integrated marketing and communications organization and a division of The Interpublic Group. Cella spoke recently with SportsBusiness Journal New York bureau chief Jerry Kavanagh.
Education: B.A., English, Iona College.
Favorite vacation spot: Anguilla. We’ve gone there ten years in a row.
Favorite TV shows: “Seinfeld.” And I used to love “Bosom Buddies.” Right now I’m a big fan of “Boston Legal” and “Two and A Half Men.”
Favorite piece of music: Anything by the Beatles, PHIL COLLINS and JAMES TAYLOR.
Favorite movie: “Citizen Kane.”
Favorite athletes: I used to love to watch HERSCHEL WALKER run. Now I love DEREK JETER. I think he’s a great image for any sport, not just Major League Baseball. He’s a phenomenally productive guy who will be in the Hall of Fame.
Favorite quote: I keep this on my desk, from SAMUEL JOHNSON: “The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” That sits in front of me facing people who come to talk to me about business, so they can get their act together if they get out of hand.
Hobbies: Jogging, reading and a little skiing.
Pet peeve: Tardiness gets me crazy.
Last book read: I’m a big reader. I read 40 to 50 books a year, believe it or not. And I’m so anal I keep track of them. I can tell you what books I read in 1989. Recently I finished “The Power Broker,” about ROBERT MOSES: a fascinating book about a fascinating guy. For popular fiction I like RANDY WAYNE WHITE and JAMES PATTERSON. JAMES JOYCE is the be all and end all of literary fiction. A terrific book I read this year is “Team of Rivals,” by DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, about the Lincoln presidency.
Earliest sports TV memory: Watching Yankee Sunday afternoon double-headers on television with my family.
Indispensable piece of technology: My Blackberry. It’s with me 24/7.
Management style: I’m open to a policy. I want people to grow. You’re allowed to make a few mistakes, and hopefully learn from them. I give people a lot of rope and hope they don’t hang themselves, but it happens occasionally.
Greatest challenge: Getting a clear understanding of what online and traditional can offer clients and how you can really marry the two to make sure they are really resonating on behalf of the clients’ brands. I’m sure it keeps everybody in my business up at night on both the buyers’ and the sellers’ sides -- which is not a bad thing.
Best advice: Having been in sales for 19 years, I would say the best business advice I received was to listen. You find out a lot about people. People want to talk about themselves; they want to engage with someone who shows interest in them. And I think you can learn a lot about someone, whether it’s a business prospect or someone who’s trying to evaluate you or your brand, by just listening.
Best move: My wife and I left New York to go live in the Midwest for three years to get a feel for that part of the country, to sit back, look at New York from an outsider’s perspective and get our point of view on what goes on in the city. It was a good learning experience and it built a lot of confidence living outside the city for several years.
Morning routine: Here’s the drill. I usually have two or three business breakfasts at 8:15 every week at the Regency Hotel. And I come to the office and just get into it. I very rarely do lunch. I’ll do dinners, but morning breakfast meetings are a good thing.
Q: In all your time in the business, was there ever any consideration for the road not taken?
Cella: Yeah. I’ll tell you what. When I was at the rep firm after selling radio, DICK OWEN, who was a research guy and kind of my mentor, and I were looking to buy a radio station in White Plains. They wanted $4 million, but we didn’t have the money. But I think if I had done that, it would have been a different road, and it would have been very interesting. I gave it a shot. It didn’t work. And I stayed in the traditional corporate world. But it almost happened.
Q: The New York Times once called you “one of the most powerful buyers of television ad time.” How do you make your buys? What do you look for?
Cella: Well, now we negotiate on behalf of the agencies. However, when you look to make a buy, you look for value -- and not just CPM efficiency. You want to see what an expenditure can bring to the client. And that value may consist of various things, whether it’s product placement or connecting with a digital platform nowadays or a really efficient buy, which is a gratifying thing. Or it’s a strong connection with the content that you’re purchasing.
Q: What’s the best value these days?
Cella: Connecting traditional media with online. By that I mean a big-reach environment that a client can blow out its brands with different online and digital components that can really reach the current or potential customer. Really get into their DNA with what your brand can represent. That, to me, is pretty cool.
Q: Last year at this time you said, “It’s a very exciting time to be in the world of media. The most exciting time ever, and I’ve been in media for a lot of years.” Do you still feel that way?
Cella: Yeah, it’s building ever more. The digital space is happening. It’s gradual, but it’s starting to get more and more traction. I think it’s going to be very robust in two, three, fours years’ time. Where the connectivity of what these online content offerings can bring to a client. It’s going to be explosive. Once something hits, it’s going to be huge. The social networking is enormous, and it’s very, very individual. And so when you go from the big-reach vehicles to cable -- which is niche -- to online, it’s really getting granular, which is what clients need to see. They need to see how their brands can address these individual opportunities and how they can make sure that their brands get into the DNA of the customers.
Q: The Wall Street Journal recently reviewed two new books: “Coolhunting” and “Chasing Cool.” What’s the next cool thing in media business?
Cella: I’m being a little gratuitous here, but I think the Draft FCB merger is cool. It’s the first-ever media-led agency in the business. Draft, a data accountability behavior environment from day one, is now married with FCB, which is probably the second-oldest agency in the world. So, you have the marriage of accountability with creativity content, which equals return on ideas, as we like to say. I think the agencies of the future are probably looking at this model. It’s a pretty interesting go-to-market strategy.
Q: According to Nielsen Media Research, television viewing is higher than it’s ever been: an average of more than 30 hours a week. That could be seen as encouraging or discouraging, depending on your business or point of view?
Cella: Well, I’m a television person. I watch a lot of television. It’s my job. And I watch the commercials to see who’s doing what. But I don’t think it’s a negative. Anyone who says there’s nothing to watch on television is being myopic. Any content you have interest in exists in television. Now, when you get more granular, it’s all over the Internet. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think it’s a very important part of the social fabric of this country. And I think people are engaging more. There’s more home entertainment going on. There are more people, hopefully, with their families watching television, and that’s a really good thing. So, I don’t think it’s a negative.
Q: Much has been made of the changes in TV viewing habits in the last decade or so and of the ever-increasing competition for viewers’ attention from Internet, iPods, cell phones, etc. How has all that affected what you do?
Cella: The world is getting more complex. It’s a matter of the video environment becoming more simple, hopefully, with less of a lot of stuff. When you have initial industry building up, … there used to be a hundred car companies, a hundred airlines. When it starts getting whittled down to, you know, the best and the brightest and the best in class, that’s a good thing. So, I think attrition’s going to happen eventually. But I think that everybody’s looking for content that advertisers and customers and individuals can embrace.
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Cella Notes Iger'sFuture
Business Perspective |
Q: Earlier this month there was an announcement that in a deal with Cox, Disney would disable the fast-forward function on VOD. What will this mean? What are the ramifications?
Cella: I think it’s interesting. As a guy who represents clients, I want people to see our commercials. This fast-forwarding thing is a challenge. Commercials are expensive to put together, and that’s how clients get their ad messages across. I also think ABC and Comcast are being very innovative. It’s good to see them working together. I think BOB IGER and STEVE BURKE have a very good relationship, and I think that they have a very good business perspective of what the future may eventually look like.
Q: DVRs have had an effect on business, have they not? Ad rates are based on numbers of live viewers.
Cella: Yeah. One of the big issues this year is the devaluation of the currency we use, which is ratings points. The DVR playback is a big issue. We’re looking at four different streams: live, live same day, live three days and live seven days. And we’re looking to see where our clients feel most comfortable negotiating that environment. It’s going to slow the process down a little bit, but I think it’s important that we give our clients the opportunity to understand the real value of what they’re buying.
Q: How much do you look at what’s happening online?
Cella: Well, online is constant. Our agencies have their online groups and digital groups. You have those guys all the time. Whether it’s a traditional network exposing its content online, which they’re all doing very aggressively right now -- and I think it’s a good thing -- or a startup or a brand-new environment, and whether it’s new media, like VOD or broadband, we’re looking at it all. It’s a very active time and a very inquisitive time to be a part of media. It’s just constant, and it gets busier and busier every day.
Q: Just recently, you said, “The bottom line is, clients have to feel comfortable with the money they are spending and how it’s being evaluated.” Where do you see clients being most comfortable this year?
Cella: Clients want to see how they can connect the traditional with their online purchases with networks and with broadcasters and with cable. I think their comfort zone is such that they want to experiment. But when you connect the dots there, it’s still a process where it’s just not a quick conversation with a salesperson or buyer to make it happen. It has to be thought out and more than just a quick upfront buy. I think clients want to see how they connect, want to see what their value is, and they want it to happen.
Q: How would you rank the different pro sports leagues?
Cella: The NFL is the benchmark for success among the leagues. Their revenue is tremendous. Major League Baseball is a tradition in our country, and I think it has a tremendous opportunity to expand itself internationally. NBA has been having its problems the past few years, but it has a grassroots urban strength that some of the other leagues don’t have. NHL has been challenged. We all know the issues there. It’s unfortunate that when we analyze the research, the viewership is upscale and younger but it doesn’t seem to resonate a lot on television and with clients. Soccer is a global phenomenon that’s huge.
Q: What about a sport for the future?
Cella: I think lacrosse is getting more and more traction. And IROC–type racing is much more popular internationally than it is in the States. When you talk about Indy car racing outside the States, it’s huge. Formula 1 is huge. And tennis is pretty big, as well as track and field. Those sports resonate internationally and are quite challenged in the States.
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Cella Feels Beckham’s Arrival In U.S.
Will Help Raise MLS’ Visibility |
Q: Where do MLS and AFL fit in the mix?
Cella: MLS has done a good job. I know the commissioner pretty well. The acquisition of [DAVID] BECKHAM is fascinating. I think it will really raise the visibility of the sport here. I’d like to see soccer take off here. It’s been challenged since day one. I think the whole Beckham thing will help. And Arena Football is an exciting environment when you’re there -- and even watching it. It’s a happening. It’s been around for quite some time. When you get celebrities, or well-known people, who are buying into franchises, it helps enormously. It’s pretty much a family experience going to something like Arena Football.
Q: What sports and/or league has the biggest upside?
Cella: You know, I’ve got to tell you, I think it’s Major League Baseball. I look at the strength that they have internationally. I think of their footprint. I’ve got to tell you, they resonate in Latin America, of course, because of the composition of the players. They have an Asian footprint. I think it’s got a lot of potential. The World Baseball Classic is pretty cool. A lot of upside.
Q: Where is the most fertile ground in television today?
Cella: In the sports world, I think there’s a lot of potential for the NFL Network. I’m more of a college ball fan than an NFL fan, but I get NFL Network on satellite and it really resonates with NFL fans. It’s well done. As far as entertainment content, I think the opportunities there are for a big play with Viacom with, say, one of the big search engines. It could be interesting because the Internet is all about niche, and frankly that’s what Viacom and cable offerings are all about. So, there’s something there. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something interesting.
Q: Where would sports be without advertising?
Cella: There probably wouldn’t be that much sports going on. The reality is, all the traditional stuff that we’re used to, with baseball, football, basketball and hockey, have done well. They’re really staples of our country’s sports enthusiasm. But they wouldn’t have as many teams or leagues or divisions without the support of advertising, whether it’s on a national or a local basis. Because frankly when the rights fees are doled out to whatever network picks up the games and/or stations, if not for advertising, those things would be few and far between.
