Archive for February, 2010
John Skipper of ESPN is both a neighbor of mine as well (he was also my son’s 4th grade basketball coach over a decade ago) as the Executive VP for content. In an article in yesterday’s NY Times http://nyti.ms/ciWFqt he discussed the idea that should ESPN be awarded the 2014 winter and 2016 summer games (which they plan to bid on) they would discontinue the tape-delay template.
I agree completely with him. Let this be the last Olympics where I have to be cajoled into hanging in there under the banner of ’17 minutes until Lindsey Vonn’. Or ‘Apolo Ohno in 22 minutes’. This while they show a taped cross country ski race for which we already know the result.
NBC has offered live coverage on MSNBC (hockey in particular) and CNBC to name two alternate stations. In fact I watched the women’s gold medal game last night live. But NBC rarely if ever suggests that you go to MSNBC or CNBC to watch an event live. As if they are somehow going to scoop their own coverage. Yes I realize that non-cable subscribers may not have that access but – too bad for them if that’s the case.
And as I was watching the hockey game last night with my wife and 16 year old daughter (the Canadian goaltender nearly stood on her head in pitching a shutout vs. a very determined and capable American squad), I marveled – (well maybe I was just impressed) at the continuous action and NO commercial breaks during the period. The game was fast paced and took less than 2 hours to complete. It was an enjoyable experience and although disappointed the Americans did not win I was happy for the Canadians who have a world of pressure to deliver gold in what should be but is not their national sport (lacrosse!).
If you watch soccer on TV (and the 2010 World cup in South Africa is coming up fast in June) you notice that there are not commercial breaks either. The action is continuous but what they do is place rotating ads on the screen in the corner. Why doesn’t MSNBC do the same thing during the Olympic hockey coverage? Viewers are fairly accustomed to this now and we do understand that broadcast rights are expensive. I sincerely doubt most people would begrudge rotating on screen ads if done unobtrusively, particularly if we exchange that model for one that has us going to commercial breaks at seemingly every stoppage of play as it is in the NHL TV coverage.
How could MSNBC miss this opportunity?
Two articles today one in the NY Times and the other in the Wall Street Journal cover location based mobile advertising.
Using a tactic called Geo-Fencing a company called Placecast (http://www.placecast.net) has a platform of ‘location-triggered’ mobile marketing solutions. They ‘fence’ areas in cities and if you walk inside the fenced area and have signed up to receive messages from a marketer (in the case of the NY Times article the retailer The North Face is used as an example) the marketer by the use of the platform can text message offers, events and promotions. Visit http://nyti.ms/a5xLoR for the NY Times article.
The Wall Street Journal article also covers the combining of social media and marketing. Using a variety of platforms retailers can offer one-day promotions and offers. Visit http://bit.ly/9a1MKx for the Wall Street Journal article.
A 2008 start-up called FourSquare (www.foursquare.com) is a free application that allows participants to ‘check-in’ via a mobile application to essentially let their friends know where they are and in addition to racking up ‘points’ with individual retailers they also can be rewarded for frequenting eating and drinking establishments – even becoming ‘mayor’ if they go there enough.
I will readily admit that I don’t personally see the value in alerting my friends to where I am at any given moment. But I don’t live in the city and have not for some time. And when I was living in New York I was often surprised to run into people I knew at places and on the streets – not necessarily something one would think in a city of 8 million people.
For me I also don’t see myself signing up with retailers/merchants to receive offers from them when I step inside their geo-fence. But then again I’m a buyer not a shopper. And I personally am not so brand-driven but understand that I am in minority there.
Yet in terms of overall marketing strategy and engagement I think all these location based services are interesting, relevant and will shake out such that a few will emerge as regular every day parts of people’s lives – first primarily in cities but it will evolve beyond that as well to include people outside of cities.
2010 may not end up being the year of mobile but that ‘year’ is getting closer and maybe it does not make sense to anoint a year at all. After all why would we really care about which year is the year of mobile anyway?
Email remains a relevant and workable platform when communicating with customers and interested prospects. I continue to feel that email as a customer acquisition tool is a difficult road at best.
Our agency helps craft email messages for our clients. The method of distribution comes up frequently. The leading commercial email provider is Constant Contact (CC). There are others like Strongmail, Goodmail, Silverpop and many more. CC is a solid platform that is relatively inexpensive with somewhat limited functionality. But it’s cheap. Did I mention that? When we recommend email distribution (and we have our own proprietary platform) we sometimes recommend NOT using our own solution. This has mostly to do with individual client budget limitations.
If you are sending 500 emails, or even 2,500 a platform like Constant Contact offers a simple interface, a few templates and a decent reporting system. Once you step up to higher quantities it makes more sense to consider a platform that has more features, better reporting and unlimited graphical opportunities.
Most of the commercial email platforms like CC have their own ‘advertisement’ at the bottom of the email. If you are a corporation connecting with your clients and prospects that’s not necessarily the most professional look and feel. And once you are sending out thousands of email at a time the expense factor levels out and a proprietary system can actually be less expensive as the numbers get larger.
And what about substantially expanded creative capability? Our www.YourCover.com product had used CC for years and we were frustrated by the limitations set forth by the platform itself. We simply could not maintain our brand image using the CC interface. And as our email list has grown the cost savings has become less evident. So we are moving over to our own platform (finally) since our list is both large enough and we cannot put up with the graphic limitations of CC.
Why a proprietary system over one out of the can? It’s all about integration. The ability to send emails, surveys, Purls, direct to landing pages and even print on demand off of one engine makes our lives (and our client’s lives) so much easier AND so much better in terms of reporting and metrics. And last time I checked making things easier and better was still important.
Or at least I think so.
I’ve been reading a lot about the ‘future’ of twitter. Yet is more in the context of ‘will it last’ than ‘what it will be?’ Our agency’s clients are eager and interested to know how we see Twitter and what we might recommend for their brand. If you want to have the experience of going on twitter do it now folks as I am not convinced it will be around for the long haul – at least not in the present form. If you are wondering if Twitter is a legitimate business platform my overall feeling is, save your money folks.
I was a relatively early adopter of Twitter so I could see how people would use this ‘new cool’ social networking tool. I started in 2008 and to this day only ‘tweet’ what I hope my followers will find to be amusing and of interest. While I have put up 350+ tweets over the 20+ months, there are a number of people that have posted more than 10,000 tweets. What they do other than tweet is a mystery to me.
One disconnect I have is that in order for me to check on what one of the 1,000 Twitterers (or Twitterati as they somehow like to be called) that I follow are doing, I have to go to that person’s profile or put them in my ‘favorites’ on TweetDeck or another platform. If I tried to view the tweet stream in real time or even periodically there are SO many tweets that things can get buried very quickly. Not exactly ideal for engagement.
A recent article in Brandweek asked the question is Twitter the Next Second Life.
To me it seems that Twitter is a good platform for smaller brands looking for a one-to-one connection with a narrow audience. Some would argue that it is more than a connection perhaps even a conversation but I don’t see it that way. If you are interested in exclusive offers from an exclusive merchant or provider then Twitter can be a lifeline direct to the consumer.
Twitter can be a worthwhile tool for monitoring the conversation about your brand and we do recommend that to our clients. But with seemingly more than 90% of the conversations between like minded individuals Twitter is more about preaching to the choir than anything else. Without a sound revenue model, and with the cacophony of the Twitter cocktail party at nearly deafening levels, I suspect that eventually people may just stop listening altogether.
Agree or disagree?
The Winter Olympics are here. Finally? After all it’s been less than a week since the Super Bowl and this is the time of the sports year where there is VERY little going on. This weekend is the NBA All-star game. Ho-hum. And the NHL will be over shadowed by Olympic Hockey. NCAA basketball is still weeks away from March Madness.
NBC Universal paid $ 820 million for the right to televise the 2010 winter games. In 2006 NBC paid $ 613 million. I cannot think of another valuation that has increased that much (+33%) since 2006. All this and NBC has reported they will lose money on the 2010 winter games.
So who stands to benefit most from the games in the U.S.? My prediction is World Cup skiing champion Lindsey Vonn. Fresh off her appearance in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue (May Lou Retton and even Nancy Kerrigan never had that opportunity), Mrs. (yes that is her married name) Vonn will become the most covered up yet over-exposed participant (American or not) at the games. Check the ‘photo shoot’ NBC has posted on its winter Olympic website – http://www.nbcolympics.com/photos/galleryid=261208.html#lindsey+vonn+magazine+fashion+shoot
Just yesterday there was concern that a shin injury might preclude Lindsey’s participation in the Olympics altogether. Yet somehow miraculously she took a ski run and declared herself fit and ready for the games. She averred that she hoped to win ANY medal at the games but if she fails to bring home gold of any kind it will be seen as a monumental failure. As the reigning World Cup champion (something that simply does not occur for American skiers regardless of gender) the pre-games hype is hardly unwarranted.
Unfortunately since ski races take place during the daylight hours many people will not be able to view Lindsey’s exploits in the comfort of their living room. A ski run takes 2 minutes or so and I am sure people will be watching at work or wherever – once the event has taken place – but not live.
Vonn is planning to race in no less than five events. NBC and the U.S. Olympic committee have hitched its wagon to Lindsey’s rising star. No other American athlete is even close on the radar screen. Be prepared to be tired of all the ‘up close and personal’ and background on the life of Lindsey Vonn. Remember the Michael Phelps love-fest a couple of years ago? Kind of makes me tired of it before it even starts (and yes I will be rooting for her despite all that).
Your fifteen minutes are here Lindsey. A lifetime of living off then awaits you. What will you do with them?