Category archive: News

Friday, April 28, 2006

Studios' order for a clue makes some progress

Has Hollywood discovered the long tail by accident? If they are indeed improving box office takings by selling less of more, like Amazon and Netflix do - that is, fewer tickets per film, but lots more films showing - then perhaps this is what will finally kill the unsustainable, economically bankrupt, overblown budget model. We can only hope.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Disney to give away shows online

Yes, on the one hand, MovieBeam. On the other hand, Disney has just done something of seismic consequence for the way we get our entertainment. Media man Jeff Jarvis says:

Not very long ago at all, the networks would not have dared to do this for fear of pissing off their distribution channels: station affiliates, cable MSOs, and even retailers for the DVD market. But now the force of change on the internet is so great that the networks are facing a choice of pissing them off or dying. They are choosing the former. I’d sell your cable stock, by the way.

But what does this mean for advertising?

TV is grabbing a share of online advertising by redefining TV as both broadcast and broadband. Advertisers have always been more comfortable spending big money on TV. Now they can continue to spend their money with those familiar players and get broadband, too. And TV is doing this so as not to lose money to other media even as broadcast — and next, cable — shrink; this is how they rescue upfront. And if TV succeeds at holding advertisers’ attention and money, other players — online companies, magazines, newspapers — may not be able to break in. This an effort for both networks and ad agencies to keep ahead.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Apparently, the Chevy Tahoe really does have guts

The big marketing story of the day is how GM, coming off of an episode of Donald Trump’s The Apprentice where the contestants were asked to create ads for the Chevy Tahoe, launched a website where anybody could edit together video, audio and text into their very own Chevy Tahoe ad. This is a groovy marketing story in and of itself, but what happened next is even more interesting--as is the way what happened next was reported, i.e., innacurately referring to the campaign as a flop. Why? Because some of the 21,000 people who created ads used the format to say critical things about global warming, Iraq, and, well, the Chevy Tahoe. CNET announced shrilly today that:

"Viral marketing” is the current buzzword used by advertisers to describe the way a message can spread among Internet users. Much has been written about attempts by corporations to tap into this phenomenon, but the GM contest is an example of how such efforts can backfire.

A statement that directly contradicts another paragraph in the same article, by the same reporter:

The contest is a success as a marketing campaign, according to Melisa Tezanos, a GM spokeswoman. Consumers have submitted more than 21,000 ads and have e-mailed commercials over 40,000 times, she said. Chevyapprentice.com has generated 2.4 million page views, and the average visit to the site lasts more than 9 minutes. The company anticipated before launching the contest that it may see some negative ads, but Tezanos noted that more than 80 percent of the commercials depict the Tahoe in a favorable light.

2.4 million page views. Hmmm, yes, that is a disaster. As a journalist, I always cringe when web people call journalists dumb--but even if I weren’t a recovering journo, I’d feel humiliated just by having read this unfortunate muddle of an article. And CNET is supposed to be one of those news sources for and by people who know about ‘puters. Heh.

These must be the same people who think you can catch the bird flu by eating a McNugget.

TechDirt got the story right, of course. The right story is that GM gets it. Their being brave and hip enough to take their lumps indicates that they’ve actually shown up for the conversation. As for GM’s detractors, I’d venture to guess that 98% of them would never have considered buying anything but a used Volvo anyway. You’d never catch me in a Tahoe, probably because it reminds me too much of Marge’s fictional SUV on the The Simpsons ("Can you name the truck with four wheel drive, Smells like a steak, and seats thirty five? Canyonero! Canyonero!"). But I’m impressed enough that I’d definitely consider mashing up an ode to my fugly little gray Pontiac should GM decide to extend the invitation....

Thursday, March 16, 2006

The iPod is dying and will die in 2006

Half a year ago I posted a very controversial blog entitled “2006 the Year the iPod died”. We had a lot of comments, trackbacks and found the topic generated a lot of discussion at other blogsites as well. I promised to return to that forecast.

First - let me re-iterate. We, Alan Moore and I, are both big fans of Apple, and we loved the iPod and i-Tunes concepts so much that we made it one of the case studies in our book. A positive case study in every way. We do love this innovation. But unfortunately for the many Apple and iPod fans who shared thoughts with us, this Apple innovation is totally bound to become a niche proposition, exactly like other fantastic Apple innovations like Macintosh computers.

"The iPod is dying and will die in 2006" continued...

Saturday, March 11, 2006

Customer Experience Management 2005 survey

From Customer World:

The annual global Customer Experience Management 2005 study, conducted by the Strativity Group, finds 54 percent of senior executives claim they do not deserve consumers’ loyalty.

According to the study, 67 percent of executives do not meet often with customers and only 33 percent say they have the tools and authority they need to serve their customers.

“Customer Experience Management”? I’d rather have my experience mastered than managed.