• by Mitch Oscar , Op-Ed Contributor, May 19, 2009

Wikipedia broadly defines the term "Zone" to mean that special feeling of thinking you can do no wrong and everything goes your way. When you are in the Zone you are ensconced in that magical place where everything clicks. According to Sport Psychology Consultant Karlene Sugarman, characteristics of being in the zone include feelings of relaxation and confidence where one is effortlessly targeted and engaged in a meaningful way.

In contrast, the Red Zone, corporeal rather than magically ethereal, is a militaristic term absconded by the National Football League to designate an area between the 20 yard line and the goal line on the football gridiron. Upon arrival, the constituents address one target: driving the pigskin in contrary directions -- a value proposition that has deep primordial implications for all.

The Cable Zone, whose physicality is much greater than the aforementioned real and imaginary zones -- 2,900 distinctive geographical designations encompassing the entire country -- is loosely defined as a gaggle of zip codes configured by the municipality when the cable operator and city governing council negotiated their licensing fee. As an example, in the Philadelphia DMA, a Comcast cable market, there are 28 designated cable zones, the largest comprised of 226 zip codes, which roughly covers 33% of the DMA, and the smallest, 2 zip codes, garnering a .3% DMA penetration. In the April 20th issue of Multichannel News, reporter Todd Spangler disclosed the details of Canoe Ventures' first advertising service -- Community Addressable Messaging -- which will allow marketers the opportunity to offer two different versions of their ads on national cable networks in different local cable system zones. In its first iteration, the Affluent CAM application can target a second commercial to 370 ad zones where the household income tops $100,000.

We are all rooting for TV addressable applications that get us closer to our potential customers whether to the TV household and individual set top boxes (The Zone), the zip code (Red Zone) and even cable zone creative versioning exploiting multiple brand arsenals culled through mergers and acquisitions. Given that a cable zone is comprised of many different zip codes, as exemplified by the Philadelphia illustration, what transparency will CAM offer the media community to enable us to better understand the broad granularity of the cable zone topographic affluence proposition.

Case in point: the valuation of the top 25 soccer franchises worldwide. The average franchise valuation is pegged at $597 million. However, when scrutinized, 16 of the 25 teams, nearly 2/3's, are valued significantly below the average:

The visual: two outer space creatures standing on a barren surface engaged in conversation.

The caption: "When you add up how much it costs for fuel, supplies and getting a sitter, it doesn't seem worth it to invade Earth" -- so how about deploying affluent cable zone creative versioning.