Fox Business trying to attract advertisers

Brian Steinberg of Advertising Age writes Monday about how Fox Business Network is trying to court advertisers.

Steinberg writes, “Ad buyers suggest Fox Business may find it hard to play Pepsi to CNBC’s Coca-Cola. But they want to see Fox Business do better, if only because it helps advertisers to have more options to help them finagle a better price — particularly when the business-news channels are able to, in some cases, command higher-than-normal rates owing to the value of their high-income viewership.

“‘There are only so many places you can go to hit that C-level suite,” said Guy Rancourt, VP-associate media director at Interpublic Group’s Hill Holliday, where client John Hancock Financial Services is a buyer of ad time on Fox Business, CNBC and Bloomberg. Fox Business is ‘making strides in the right direction,’ he said, though he noted it will not see instantaneous growth. ‘It’s not like they’re going to come out of the cage and dominate or get to 100 million homes that quickly. It’s hard to do these days.’

“At this stage of its existence, Fox Business should look to get on the media plans of advertisers who want to blanket the audience for business-news on TV, said Jason Kanefsky, exec VP-director of strategic investment at Havas’s MPG.

“‘CNBC is clearly the market leader, but in every case market leadership can be eroded over time, and it’s good for CNBC to have a competitor,’ Mr. Kanefsky said.”