media landscaping

Coal Companies Can't Give You Diamonds

This is a great article in todays Post.  Pearlstein exposes the agency community's premise that all business problems can be solved by a 30 second spot.

"If you go to a coal company looking for an energy supply, you'll get coal as the recommended solution. It's the same with most advertising agencies, which rarely meet a marketing problem that cannot be solved or a sales goal that cannot be met by a TV and radio campaign supported by direct marketing, some pop-up ads on Web sites and a bit of public relations."

So true.  "I know that X solution would drive better results, but we will make much more commission if we do it this other way."  How often is that said behind closed doors at traditional agencies?  OFTEN.

Here is the right attitude:

"[The creative solutiuon] starts by analyzing how consumers live and get information and works backward to create messages most appropriate for those channels."

The landscape is changing:

"...the power has shifted from marketer to consumer. Thanks to the Internet and TiVo, digital radio and video-on-demand, consumers decide what information and entertainment they want. Rather than simply pushing messages on consumers, the trick is to get consumers to pull them."

Turn advertising into content...make it fun...make consumers want to watch it and forward it to friends.  In the on-demand, consumer controlled media world that is growing before our very eyes, this will be required for success.

"In simple terms, we charge premium prices now for commodity services and then give away the creative stuff, which is where the value-added is," explained David Jones, the young, cosmopolitan chief executive of Euro RSCG Worldwide. "We need to figure out a way to drive down the price for the commodity parts and get paid for our ideas."

None of this is new for most of you reading this, but it is nice to see this idea spreading.  The more air-time the flawed agency model gets, the sooner it will be over-turned. 

TiVo sells data on ad viewing behavior

Engadget covers a new advertising research service from TiVo and predicts an upcoming battle with Neilsen.

TV is changing...

Steve Hall writes about a panel at Ad-Tech that provided some very interesting insights into TV and how consumers use of it is changing.  It is pretty technical, but worth a read if you are a media geek like me.

The highlight for me is this part near the end:

He also told the audience to, when in a Starbucks, dial 510-653-6473 and hold the phone up to the music. It's the Grace Notes services that provides song information. He says there's no reason this or similar technology couldn't be harnessed to provide a channel to offer people more information on ads of any kind.

I am definitely going to try this and will report back soon.

Added Value is killing emerging media

It is a fairly common practice for traditional media companies to give away advertising on emerging platforms in order to sell the traditional channel.  (I don't do it, but know those who do).  They think they are helping themselves by giving the advertiser a way to "test" and then hopefully buy it in the future.  Problem is, if they don't pay for it, advertisers tend to not take it very seriously and failure is almost guaranteed.

Case in point, I went into my TiVo "Showcases" area for the first time last night.  As I understand it, this is the marketplace where consumers will hopefully seek out exclusive content and relevant advertising.  Consumers will stop by here once and if they see good content, they will return to explore again.  Problem is, they will never return if the experience is poor.  If they feel like they are being sold to with the same or similar ads that interrupt their regular tv experience, why would they ever come back? 

My first visit gave me only 2 choices.  Best Buy Home Theater and the "Lady in the Water" extended movie trailer.  The trailer was great because I have been trying to decide whether or not to see this film and this trailer was the extended version, providing extra scenes that don't make the commercials.  I will go back for that type of content. 

The Best Buy ad really just felt like a long ad.  It gave much more detail than a traditional :30 could provide, but didn't offer any real value beyond that.  I don't think that consumers will frequent an environment like the TiVo showcase or ComCast Spotlight if this is all they find.  I won't.

I am not bashing Best Buy at all here;  I credit them for trying out this new medium.  If they did get it for added-value, then they didn't lose anything and hopefully they learned something about the strategy.  TiVo is the loser here...jeopardizing the future of this strategy by giving it away.

TiVo is Remote-Control on Steroids

While TiVo has enabled viewers to skip ads from the networks, it is pitching itself as an advertiser ally, according to an article in The Mercury News.

As more households have DVRs, TV commercials, as we know them, will become obsolete, say industry analysts. TV ad models might become more like Internet ads, where advertisers pay per clicks. A few advertisers are shifting their attitude about DVR technology from utter panic to tentative acceptance.

TiVo has introduced several ways people can watch ads beyond the ones squeezed between TV programs. Viewers can visit its ``Showcase'' and see ads. And when people fast forward through ads, a banner ad appears asking the viewer to click for more information.

In May, TiVo launched ``Product Watch,'' which allows TiVo users to subscribe to brands or categories. For example, viewers can ask to receive travel and leisure information to be downloaded to their TiVo hard drive. They might receive four two-minute-long vignettes about recreation vehicles and travel from Go RVing, a coalition of RV makers and enthusiasts. The viewer can also ask to be sent more information or to be contacted by an RV dealer. The service is available to people with TiVos with broadband capability, about 400,000 households.

This is all very interesting and the key advantage is that these are opt-in methods for consumers to raise their hand and ask for more information. 

Content Wraps - TV Advertising 2.0?

I Blogged on May 11 and again on May 12th about the interesting ways that the TV Show LOST was integrating Ads into its online game and incenting viewers to actually watch the commercials instead of TiVo'ing past them.  Finally, mainstream media, CNN Money,  has picked up on this topic as well.

While reading this article, I was clued in to a ridiculous strategy that The CW Network (the merged UPN and WB) is pitching at the upfronts.  Its called Content Wraps and another article covering the upfront presentation by Dawn Ostroff, CW's head of entertainment, explains it well:

She also introduced a concept that the network called "content wraps": mini-shows that would appear three times a night during commercials that could be sponsored by advertisers and feature product promotion.

Each "content wrap" would tell a story. The example Ostroff gave was of two people going on a blind date.

One media buyer said that the concept was interesting and that if done effectively could keep viewers from using digital video recorders (DVRs) to fast forward through ads.

"The content wraps looked smart. It's the type of opportunity that marketers want," said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of corporate research for Horizon Media, a marketing firm. He added that younger viewers in particular may be interested in these types of mini-shows.

So now I am going to be looking forward to the commercials?  I don't think so.  How flexible and creative can this "content" be if it has to incorporate the products of a wide variety of advertisers in a short period of time?

"Bob, I can't believe you cheated on me while wearing those Nike shoes I bought you at Target last week!  I knew I should have waited until this weekend to buy them...they'll be on sale for $69.99."

"Whatever Judy, I saw you drinking a Coke with that Abercrombie and Fitch model."

James Joyner offers up some comments on his blog as well.

More on TV's changing ad model

washingtonost.com sheds some light on the strategy that Jo Ann Ross, president of advertising sales at CBS, is calling "extension" to the web.

"If you're trying to sell a car, the car appears in a 30-second ad" on television, she explained. "Also, there's product placement in the program. Then, [advertisers] can go to CBS.com and then to Innertube and perhaps somewhere else. It gives advertisers more places to reach that customer," hitting all of the various "Internet iterations," including the Web, downloads, podcasts, mobile episodes and so forth.

CBS and AOL release more info on Gold Rush

Ad Age writes about Mark Burnett's 'Gold Rush' concept.  Not a show at all, but instead a reality game that viewers play.  By allowing CBS advertisers to embed clues in their commercials they believe that DVR users will stop skipping ads and instead watch them in slow motion to catch the clues.  These clues will lead you to locations where they have hidden more than $2 Million in gold.

It is a great idea, but we will have to wait to see if people actually do it.