{"id":178263,"date":"2025-09-29T19:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T19:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/178263\/"},"modified":"2025-09-29T19:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T19:35:07","slug":"small-sponsors-gain-bigger-voice-at-fox-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/178263\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Sponsors Gain Bigger Voice at Fox News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWatch an hour of Fox News Channel<\/a>, and you\u2019ll no doubt see the usual commercials from pharmaceutical giants and auto companies. Increasingly, you may also encounter Anna Brakefield or her father, Mark Yeager, talking about their upstart family business while standing in an honest-to-goodness cotton field.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re proud to say that 100% of our products are made right here in the U.S.A.\u201d says Yeager, whose family owns and operates Red Land Cotton<\/a>, in one spot, dressed in a farmer\u2019s hat and a gray button-down shirt. Brakefield tells viewers in a separate commercial that her family\u2019s textiles all start \u201cwith a seed in the ground, a hope, and a prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrakefield says the company was accustomed to reaching customers via digital media, and accordingly put its focus on finding customers online. \u201cWe built where we are with Google ads, Meta ads \u2014 all that you\u2019d typically think an e-commerce business would grow their advertising on,\u201d she says. But her father, a 60-year old farmer in northern Alabama, is \u201ca religious Fox News watcher, and so it was his idea to approach Fox about an advertising opportunity.\u201d The company tested commercials on Fox News in 2023, she says, \u201cand to my surprise, it was successful.\u201d Now, Red Land Cotton tries to maintain a regular presence on \u201cFox & Friends\u201d and \u201cAmerica\u2019s Newsroom,\u201d along with some commercials on \u201cThe Five.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201c\u2018I saw you on TV,\u2019\u201d says Brakefield. \u201cThat is still a thing for people.\u201d Now, she and her father are quickly becoming as important to Fox News as Madison Avenue stalwarts like Novo Nordisk and Lowe\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\n\tFox has sold ads to a growing number of companies that in a previous era might not have run TV commercials. A regular Fox News viewer might in recent weeks have seen spots from Blue Compass R.V.; the Good Ranchers meat-delivery service; Boll & Branch luxury bedding; or Fire Department Coffee, which was founded by a former Navy veteran with experience working as a firefighter and paramedic in Illinois. In some cases, Fox News sales staff have found these sponsors by listening to podcasts and watching video programs on social-media outlets, searching for advertisers that might find favor with Fox News viewers. Some might make all their goods in America. Others might seek a faith-based audience.<\/p>\n

\n\tCommercials for smaller businesses represent \u201cone third of our national business right now,\u201d says Trey Gargano<\/a>, Fox News Media\u2019s executive vice president of ad sales during a recent interview, and it\u2019s not something owed to happenstance. Fox News has since the start of 2024 made a priority of finding independent companies that often spotlight patriotic themes or other elements that might appeal to its core viewers, then lined them up to sponsor its programs. \u201cSometimes they are veteran owned. Sometimes, a CEO we know is like-minded and wants to reach the audience on Fox News,\u201d Gargano adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tFox News isn\u2019t the only TV outlet thinking small to get big. Several media giants have been on the hunt for so-called \u201cSMB\u201d advertisers \u2014 or \u201csmall-and-medium-sized businesses\u201d \u2014 for the past several years. NBCUniversal said in July that it had seen a 30% uptick in ad buys from \u201cSMB\u201d clients<\/a>. Hulu, now part of Disney, in 2020 offered use of a \u201cHulu Ad Manager\u201d that would allow advertisers willing to spend at least $500 <\/a>on the streamer\u2019s commercials to launch, manage and track the commercials. Paramount Global last year named a new senior vice president to oversee all its efforts tied to \u201cSMB Advertising.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSMB ads have become more important as TV publishers try to maximize, diversify, and increment their advertising\u2019s yield,\u201d says Nikhil Lai, a principal analyst with Forrester who tracks the advertising industry. \u201cSMB advertisers are saturating search and social, which have diminishing returns. They need to scale acquisition without escalating acquisition costs, so they turn to TV.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe TV networks have been chasing what are in many cases unlikely national TV advertisers while many traditional Madison Avenue categories are in the midst of significant change. Ad spending from big auto companies has been in flux since the coronavirus pandemic, according to various TV ad-sales executives, as manufacturers struggled with supply chain issues, and then how much of their product lines to convert to electric vehicles. Beverage makers are grappling with consumers\u2019 desires for healthier fare, and sales of beer and soda have ebbed. And now, one of TV\u2019s sturdiest sources of ad spending, pharmaceutical marketers, are fretting over potential restrictions from the Trump administration that could potentially force them to run longer ads to detail potential side effects; the costs of doing so could spur them to be more careful about how they use their ad dollars.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the same time, some of the marketers who are thriving are upstarts who cultivate online crowds.<\/a> Today\u2019s digital entrepreneur might be tomorrow\u2019s Wayfair or Warby Parker, and big media companies want to strike partnerships now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while Fox News is enjoying a noticeable ratings surge<\/a> in President Trump\u2019s second term in office, it is not immune from the challenges all traditional media outlets continue to face. Fox News Channel is projected to see overall advertising decline over the next two years, according to estimates from Kagan, a market-research firm that is part of S&P Global Intelligence. Ad spending at Fox News is seen falling about 5% from $1.44 billion in 2024 to about $1.36 billion through the end of 2026. Fox News says, however, that it is seeing growth in ad spending in 2025. Advertisers tend to spend more highly on cable-news networks during a significant election year, like 2024, when a broader set of viewers tend to watch.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome of the smaller advertisers require a personal touch. In some cases, says Gargano, Fox News sales executives fan out to make a pitch directly to a company\u2019s founder. \u201cYou are going to their house, or their ranch. They invite you in,\u201d he says. There can sometimes be a learning curve, because typically they have little experience with buying and running TV ads.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe entrepreneurs behind Grill Rescue, a grill-cleaning tool that relies on steam cleaning rather than wire bristles, have only been advertising on Fox News Channel for a few weeks. They had largely stuck to digital advertising, but grew intrigued when the McLemore Boys, a father-and-son cooking duo, were barbecuing during a \u201cFox & Friends\u201d segment and briefly mentioned their product. Anthony Tranchida, one of the founders, noticed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI always had the belief that the new age of advertising is online,\u201d he says. After launching TV commercials on Father\u2019s Day, he says, \u201cwe are spending millions with Fox,\u201d and might consider other TV outlets, too.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was impressed by the network\u2019s willingness to put him in touch with other small advertisers who bought commercial inventory. \u201cI asked them, \u2018You\u2019re asking me to put quite a bit of money into advertising on the network. I\u2019ve never done this before. I want a little bit of reassuring,\u2019\u201d recalls Tranchida, who sometimes appears in his company\u2019s ads. \u201cEveryone else is like, \u2018Nope, we don\u2019t do that.\u2019 Fox made it their mission to find someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe puts a lot of emphasis on monitoring the company\u2019s sales channels after a TV ad runs. \u201cYou can see pretty clearly if stuff comes in,\u201d he says, \u201cWhenever an ad runs, what comes in within the next hour or so?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMany of the ads spark recognition, says Red Land Cotton\u2019s Brakefield, but what really gets consumers interested are the occasional appearances executives can make on shows like \u201cFox & Friends\u201d in lifestyle segments. Of course, such cameos likely hinge on having a strong relationship with the network \u2014 much as they would for a product placement created for a major blue-chip sponsor. \u201cThe more segments you can hit, it\u2019s definitely the way to go,\u201d says Tranchida. But \u201cI don\u2019t think they just hand those things out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t(Above, pictured: Anna Brakefield, owner, Red Land Cotton, in a commercial that has aired on Fox News Channel)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch an hour of Fox News Channel, and you\u2019ll no doubt see the usual commercials from pharmaceutical giants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,89920,115157,115158,115159,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-178263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-fox-corporation","12":"tag-fox-news-channel","13":"tag-red-land-cotton","14":"tag-trey-gargano","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}