Current TV's "Countdown With Keith Olbermann" had some good -- but not great -- rating news on its Monday premiere. The 8 p.m. show hit 179,000 viewers among the 25-54 crowd -- well over the 30,000 viewers the network averaged for the first quarter. This bested CNN's "In the Arena," which drew 89,000 25-54 viewers. But Olbermann trailed other shows on Fox News, HLN or MSNBC, coming in at fourth place in the time period. MSNBC's "Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell," the show that replaced "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" on MSNBC, had 237,000 viewers, landing in third place. HLN's "Nancy Grace" was in second place with 419,000, and Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," the still-dominant leader, had 735,000. Olbermann had said not to expect much from the first night's numbers. He said his show needed to build audience awareness. Ratings-wise, Current TV is still at a major disadvantage to bigger networks, like CNN and MSNBC. For example, Current TV has 60 million TV subscribers compared its larger rivals, which have 95 million-plus TV homes.
A new study showing how local broadcasting is a boost to the U.S. economy is impacted by governmental discussions of TV and radio spectrum allocations. The economic analysis says local radio and television broadcasting -- direct and supporting businesses -- contribute $1.17 trillion to the U.S. gross domestic product, with 2.52 million jobs. The study comes from Washington, D.C.-based Woods & Poole Economics and media researcher/consultant BIA/Kelsey. It was commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters. "Decision-makers now debating spectrum policies need to be cognizant of the millions of people and thousands of businesses reliant on the unparalleled impact of local TV and radio for economic survival," stated Gordon Smith, president and CEO of the NAB. Some 300,000 jobs are directly connected to the local broadcast industry, amounting to $59.32 billion in GDP annually. Television accounts for a little more than half: 187,000 of these jobs. Television itself contributes over $30 billion to gross domestic product. Radio employs 118,000 people and contributes a little over $18 billion to the GDP. The analysis estimates residual effects on non-broadcast businesses -- advertising on local broadcast television and radio stations -- adds more than $986 billion in economic activity and supports 1.38 million jobs.
Rentrak, which offers measurement services based on set-top-box data, said it has a deal to make its system compatible with the MediaBank interface. Among other things, MediaBank offers analytics programs that look to assist media buyers. The Rentrak services that will be synced with MediaBank include one that offers data for national networks -- many of which are not Nielsen-rated -- as well as tracking viewing at local stations and with on-demand offerings. The integration is "a big industry plus and a move that will surely improve efficiencies across all media planning, buying and posting channels," stated John Muszynski, chief investment officer at SMGx. Rentrak executive Cathy Hetzel stated that the deal will allow more exploration of "the connection between TV viewing and consumer purchasing in order to make more targeted buys in both local and national markets." Using set-top-box data from companies such as Dish Network, Charter, and AT&T U-verse, Rentrak provides viewing data in all 210 TV markets. TRA, which tries to pinpoint the impact of advertising on consumer purchasing and could be considered a Rentrak competitor, signed a similar deal with MediaBank earlier this month. TRA also uses set-top-box data.
Andrew Morse, executive producer of innovation and integration for ABC News Digital, has been named head of Bloomberg Television in the U.S.
Amid reports that Hulu has been approached by one or more suitors, analysts seem torn over the merits of any such deal. Some believe that the video venture's owners -- including News Corp, Walt Disney, Comcast Corp's NBC Universal and private-equity firm Providence Equity Partners -- are too conflicted to carry on a healthy relationship. "The disparate corporate interests again have made a joint-venture difficult to sustain," Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce wrote in a research note on Wednesday. Among other issues, some of Hulu's co-owners have started making their content available on other services, including rival Netflix. In addition, the owners have grown increasingly uneasy about Hulu's business structure, and the lingering fear that free online video cannibalizes TV and paying audiences. Still, among other would-be buyers, "Yahoo . . . would consider acquiring a stake in Hulu to solidify itself as an entertainment destination and a 'must-buy' for advertisers," notes Jordan Rohan, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus. Hulu's estimated $200 million in revenue this year 'implies superior monetization' compared with Google's YouTube, according to Rohan, who estimated that Hulu makes about $14 for every thousand domestic video streams -- six times more than YouTube. Therefore, "such an acquisition could be a very smart strategic move as the Yahoo sales force would be able to cross-sell Hulu inventory with parts of Yahoo's own content initiative," Rohan added. Neither Hulu or Yahoo would comment on the rumored acquisition talks. Earlier this year, Hulu management was reportedly thinking about recasting the site as an online cable operator, which would use the Web to send live TV channels and video-on-demand content to subscribers. Controversy aside, Hulu attracted 28.5 million unique visitors in July, ranking 10th among domestic online video sites, according to comScore. Plus, Hulu viewers watched 783 million video ads that month -- more than any U.S. Web property.
TV political advertising spending could see rocketing growth next year, possibly climbing to just under $3 billion. Moody's Investors Service says political advertising revenue for those pure-play broadcasters can expect gains of 9% to 18% over historically high political advertising levels seen in 2010, when spending on TV broadcasters got to $2.3 billion. Previous estimates said President Barack Obama's re-election campaign could raise a record $1 billion in 2012 for all its political advertising efforts. A Republican candidate might get to those levels as well -- looking to avoid the problems that Republican candidate John McCain got into in 2008. In 2008, Obama did not take federal funds, but McCain did. That meant a cap on the ability to spend ad money. Analysts believe the new Republican candidate will follow in Obama's footsteps --- avoiding federal funds -- all of which could escalate political advertising spending, of which the lion's share goes into television. The ad push will be aided by recent changes in political TV advertising laws, such as loosening of corporate-backed political advertising. Moody's says small- and mid-size TV station groups -- Barrington Broadcasting Group, Gray Television, Local TV, Nexstar Broadcasting and NVT Networks/New Vision -- could be the better gainers from political spots. Bigger TV groups -- those in larger markets, such as Belo Corp. and Sinclair Broadcast Group -- will witness smaller ad growth. Those groups have a broader list of TV marketers and larger revenues in many advertising categories. Big battleground states -- Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri -- will see a lot of political advertising money, says Moody's. Overall, the investor-rating services says the windfall advertising dollars will be used to pay down station debt.
Brown-Forman's Southern Comfort has launched a social content hub as the latest extension of its marketing campaign for Southern Comfort Lime, launched last fall. The Lime-themed hub resides on Southern Comfort's main Facebook page and Web and mobile sites. The hub has taken over the sites for the summer months. The concept: Helping SoCo fans to plan and interact throughout their nights out by consolidating a variety of digital activities in one convenient, cross-platform area -- while building awareness of the new Lime product through the hub's features and design. "If you look at a night out with friends, there's a cyclical flow," says Lena DerOhannessian, U.S. marketing director, Southern Comfort. "It starts with planning and maybe a smaller party at someone's home, moves into partying at one location, usually moving onto other locations during the night, and ends with rehashing all of the night's memorable moments." The hub is being supported by Lime television spots. Fifteen-second versions ran last October through December during Lime's introduction, and those and extended, 30-second versions will now run through the summer. Three Southern Comfort agencies, Arnold Worldwide (creative agency), Universal McCann (media) and The Marketing Store (promotions), collaborated on the activities for the hub, then worked with the brand's marketing team to finalize concepts, reports DerOhannessian. The activities include:
While older, foreign-born Latinos tend to prefer media in their mother tongue, younger Latinos -- both those born abroad and in the U.S. -- are not nearly as focused on Spanish-language content, according to the Maximo Report, a new study co-sponsored by MTV Tr3s and conducted by Motivo Insights and the New Generation Latino Consortium. However, the study, based on quantitative and qualitative surveys of around 1,150 Hispanics ages 14-34, shows that young "bicultural" Latinos still want to see media portraying people resembling themselves in terms of ethnicity and lifestyle. Among other findings, the Maximo Report discovered that 30% of young, bicultural Latinos actively seek out "mainstream" English-only content, while 50% seek content that could be defined as bicultural or bilingual. But the language factor isn't nearly as significant for them as it is for older Latino adults. Indeed, about 70% said they like to see English-language ads appearing on predominantly Spanish-language TV channels. Instead, they look for programming where "they are the star," "their lives, entertainment interests and issues are authentically represented," and "their American and Latino sides meet," according to the report summary. Nancy Tellet, senior vice president of research and consumer insights for Viacom International Media Networks Latina America, Canada & US Hispanic, stated: "As bilingual/bicultural Hispanics begin to dominate the younger portion of the adult Hispanic segment in addition to their current dominance in the teen segment, deepening our knowledge on how they express their Latinicity beyond language, and understanding their unique habits and interests will be crucial for the Tr3s brand and Hispanic marketers." Noting both the diversity of national origins among Latino immigrants and the increasing proportion of American-born Latinos who grow up speaking English, multicultural marketers have long argued that simply introducing Spanish-language versions of content will not be sufficient to engage Latino consumers. The mere fact that content is in Spanish does not guarantee it will resonate with an audience composed of many different cultural backgrounds. Conversely, Spanish-language content doesn't exert the same pull on younger Latinos who are comfortable in both languages. The Maximo Report includes a number of other interesting findings. For example, young Latinos feel they are better-equipped to deal with adverse economic conditions than most Americans. They are also more likely to both offer and heed peer-to-peer, word-of-mouth recommendations about products and services. (A majority of those surveyed said they had learned about a new product or service through social media.)
At a time when awards shows offer ample opportunities for backstage extras, social-media exploitation and other multiplatform content, CBS has a deal to continue carrying the Grammys through 2021. That's in line with recent sports-rights arrangements that stretch for years. And the deal trumps ABC, which re-upped the Oscars through 2020. CBS has carried the awards show, billed as "Music's Biggest Night," since 1973 as part of a deal with the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences. Next year's event takes place in Los Angeles on Feb. 12. The broadcast annually offers younger-skewing appeal for a network that can draw an older audience than competitors. The new 10-year deal also includes CBS continuing to carry a special live concert with Grammy nominees prior to the show. There will also be several new Grammy specials. Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS Corp., stated: "The long-term structure of this deal will provide even greater continuity with marketing and sales opportunities for both organizations," adding that the event continues to grow "both culturally and commercially." The 2011 awards show drew 26.7 million viewers, the largest audience since 2000. In key demos, the ratings were the best since 2004.
Michelin is launching the fourth ad in its first global advertising push, the two-year-old "The Right Tire Changes Everything" campaign. The new element talks about safety, and features the Michelin Man, who got liposuction, and a more socially conscious mien in 2007 for the "A Better Way Forward" U.S. campaign. "The Right Tire Changes Everything" had the Michelin Man, now a slimmed-down athletic discus-style hurler of tires, taking on evil gasoline pumps. In the new ad, the Michelin mascot is in an animated world of mobility in which people navigate dangerous rain and roads slick with water, while being assaulted by sentient raindrops. With a Pixar feel and rhymed voiceover, a father and son in a cute cartoon car drive along a road as the rain starts to fall. The voiceover says, "Max and his son made their way homeward bound, when mischievous rain fell down, down down; safety was threatened by every roguish drip, they slipped and slid, they couldn't get a grip." The Michelin man appears at roadside throwing tires like Frisbees. The effort touts Michelin's Primacy MXM4 brand of tires that are designed to brake in shorter distances in wet conditions. The new ad will appear this month on television, in print media and on the Web, as well as being displayed on the official Michelin Man Facebook page and YouTube channel. The national television spot will launch June 20. A Michelin representative said the creative will run in North America and Europe, and that brand awareness isn't an issue. "Michelin's brand awareness is already extremely high, and has ongoing sponsorship programs (for example, participation in the American Le Mans Series)." Separately, Michelin North America's Chairman and President Richard "Dick" Wilkerson has announced he will retire by the end of this year. He will be chairman emeritus of Michelin North America. Pete Selleck, currently president of Michelin Truck Tires worldwide, will return to Greenville, S.C., from Michelin's global headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, France, to succeed him.
Chevrolet wants amateur filmmakers around the world to get their kicks on Route 66 -- but in a Chevrolet. The effort is a contest with MoFilm as middleman, the winner of which gets his or her 30-second spot in the forthcoming Super Bowl XLVI, via Chevrolet's ad buy. Chevrolet has a long-standing partnership with London-based MoFilm, a privately funded company that serves as a clearinghouse linking filmmakers to brands and distributing content globally. But while the automaker has done regional programs with the film instigator in the U.S., India and Europe, this will be the first global effort with MoFilm. MoFilm is promoting the campaign at MoFilm.com, which hosts a video featuring "Titanic" and "Avatar" producer Jon Landau, shown squiring a 1950s-era convertible Chevrolet down the famous highway. He says, "My films might be more ambitious than yours, but we are both filmmakers. So, no matter where you are in the world ... go out there and film the most inspiring sights of the road. Upload what you've got ... don't just sit there, get out and film." Participants have to write a script for an iconic 30-second film, "Which captures the unique spirit of the original Route 66 and Chevrolet." The contest brief says scripts should be an epic road trip story or adventure. "We will provide feedback on all scripts which will give you a jump-start should you decide to produce a video in Round Two," says the site. MoFilm will put a new brief on the site in early September on parameters around the actual 30-second spot. The top five spots will get cash prizes up to $5,000, and two finalists get $25,000 and the winner gets the Super Bowl. Chevrolet's advertising director Kevin Mayer said the most recent effort, around "Chevy Runs Deep" brought in 5,000 dialogues around the brief, and garnered 120 films, ten of which Chevrolet is using. Two of them are running on air and two in cinemas. Mayer says the automaker, for its part, promoted the contest at Cannes this week. "We pushed out a brief to the film community. The idea, ultimately, is to try to get filmmakers to take on the idea of what Route 66 represents around the world -- to express the excitement of the road trip through storytelling and interaction of people in the films. But it's really less about Route 66 and more about people discovering life and how Chevrolet helps them do it." Chevrolet ran one of the ads from the last MoFilm venture, called "Salute" during military appreciation month. The film shows a little boy whose older brother is showing him to salute correctly. Then the dad shows up in a Chevy Equinox, in military fatigues, comes home from war. Another is of a sleeping guy who thinks he's driving his sports car, with his dog at his side. Mayer says that ad is in cinemas, as is another winner from the "Chevy Runs Deep" contest in which an elderly guy picks up an elderly woman for a date, but they transmogrify into younger versions of themselves when they get into the guy's candy-apple red Camaro. "What we love about these films is that they are really about consumer interpretation, and it gets right to the spirit of the brand," says Mayer, who adds that the recent campaign with MoFilm mostly involved U.S. filmmakers, "But this is really a global effort, and we are excited how this will be interpreted by filmmakers in places like China and Russia. The fact is, the more we look at this brand globally, we see a lot of the same foundations; our customers have a lot more in common than you might think."
Combining TV and online advertising isn't easy. It's pretty basic: TV doesn't offer the same measurements as online, but it will. DG, which delivers video ads through a digital network, wanted to expand into online advertising. So, last week it acquired online ad firm MediaMind, formally Eyeblaster, for $414 million in cash. Gal Trifon, former MediaMind CEO, will remain at DG as chief digital officer. Trifon told MediaPost the combined companies -- DG and MediaMind -- stand a better chance of successfully supporting targeted ads based on consumer behavior across traditional and online media, compared with two separate businesses. "The ultimate goal is to identify users and subscribers as they access content on TV and online and target them with ads," Trifon said. "You create an ad -- and, regardless [if it's] online or TV or mobile -- you can deliver it to [users] based on the device capability and track behavior. It's about creating consistency." The idea is to build one platform that targets consumers with ads online and on TV. The bigger challenges become identifying users and measuring the results across TV and online platforms. Unless you're able to recognize that someone is both browsing video content online and watching TV, then offering unique users targeting will become very difficult. Trifon hopes by the time the system is built consumers will feel more comfortable about identifying themselves and benefit from less frequent, but more relevant, advertising based on their interests. It's not necessarily the technology creating the barrier, but consumer confidence and the ability of companies to leverage data to target across platforms.
Having seen what digital media did to the music and newspaper businesses, the television industry has understandably viewed the Internet with a certain amount of dread. The fear has long been that viewers will start watching television shows online and bypassing the traditional cable, satellite and over-the-air broadcast platforms. This, in turn, would undermine the industry's ad-supported business model. With the release of Nielsen's new Cross-Platform Report (the successor to the former Three Screen Report), television executives can breathe a sigh of relief, at least for another quarter. Despite a few warning signs, the report indicates that for now at least, traditional television remains king. Some of the key findings include (all numbers are Q1 2011 and include in-home viewing only): · The amount of time people spend watching TV in the home rose to 158 hours and 47 minutes per month, up 22 minutes over 2010. · The much-feared phenomenon of cord-cutting, in which viewers drop their cable or satellite connections to watch TV over the Internet, remains small: there are only 4.5 million American TV homes with a broadband connection but no cable/satellite hook-up. There is no decline in the very large number of homes that continue to get TV via cable and satellite. · The average American spends about 70 times more time watching video on TV than he or she does watching TV over the Internet. On the other hand, there are a number of countervailing trends that bear watching. Younger audiences continue to be the most enthusiastic viewers of Internet video. The average 25-34 year-old watches almost an hour of online video a week (compared to 30.5 hours of traditional TV.) This is not a high number in itself, especially since this includes homemade YouTube videos, music videos, clips from network shows and full episodes from Hulu and the network websites. But if these viewers increase their Internet viewing significantly, it could eat into their traditional TV time. Also, Nielsen released numbers that showed that the heaviest users of Internet video are also the lowest viewers of traditional television. Specifically, Nielsen found that the top quintile (the top fifth of Internet video users - about 28 million people in all) watched about 19 minutes of online video per day. These same people watched about 272 minutes of traditional television per day -- the lowest of any of the other quintiles. This is contrary to earlier reports that the heaviest Internet users were also the biggest TV watchers. It could mean that a segment of the population is substituting the Internet for traditional television. This is an analysis we will need to keep an eye on, to see if the trend increases, but at this point, it doesn't seem to presage a dramatic move away from television. First, the people who watch the most Internet video don't proportionately watch that much less TV than everyone else (272 minutes a day vs. 282 minutes a day for the average viewer in the other quintiles). We're talking about very small differences. More to the point, it's likely that the heaviest users of Internet video are deploying the Internet to time-shift shows that they would have otherwise missed, making online video an additive rather than a substitutive practice. Nielsen has found that TV viewers use the "best screen" available to them. If they can watch on an HDTV set, they will; if HDTV is not available they will use standard TV; if TV is not available they will use a computer; and if absolutely forced to, will they use a mobile device. If they have a DVR and remember to use it they will record shows they would otherwise miss; if not, most will go without but others will use the Internet to catch up. And since more than half of homes have no DVR at all, the Internet can become a DVR equivalent for many families. The anxiety about cord-cutting has largely been driven by a small group of tech-savvy opinion leaders who actually prefer bypassing traditional TV and don't mind making the extra effort to access favorite shows on the Internet. But what has been overlooked in the cord-cutting debate is the nature of the television experience itself. TV is probably the most passive mass media ever invented. People like it because they can turn on the tube, lie on the couch and let the ions wash over them. It's the ultimate "lean-back" activity. Using the Internet, by contrast, is a "lean-forward" experience, requiring users to be more actively engaged. In other words, until the Internet becomes as simple to use as a TV and has the same range of content, traditional TV will remain the video platform of choice. Of course that could change in a heartbeat if someone figures out a technology to make Internet TV simple. The rise of Netflix is introducing a broader audience to a new way to watch video on the living room television, so the ground has been prepared. But as long as online video is primarily viewed on a laptop or computer, it won't threaten traditional television.
Where are the best places to promote Current TV's new "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" show on television? Not necessarily on Current TV. The best media plan includes airing messaging on better-rated, more widely distributed news channels like MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, and possible other competitors. And, in fact, it is on these networks where on-air promos for Olbermann's new show (in daytime, in particular) -- as well as on Current TV's airwaves, which go to some 60 million TV homes -- are airing. Putting promos on competing cable networks may sound strange. But for decades many on-air programming marketing efforts for cable shows have worked this way -- not, as yet, for TV shows on the broadcast networks, who still view this as an incursion of the worst kind. The truth is many cable TV promos are bought on local cable system advertising avails -- not directly on the networks themselves, thus avoiding any competitive situations. Much has been made of Olbermann and the placement of his show, running against his former home on MSNBC. Added to this is the fact that the name of his Current TV show is exactly that of his MSNBC program; also the new show is running at 8 p.m. ET, the same time as his old show. Some general cable industry ambassadors would say using the leverage of other competing networks is a benefit for the whole industry. But in the increasingly competitive cable network universe, one wonders how long this might last. From Current TV's perspective, it's the right marketing approach. But what if it doesn't work? Wild rumors are that Current TV may be spending $15 million in marketing (paid advertising?), as well as paying Olbermann a big $12 million a year salary. Given Current TV's financial situation -- only pulling in some $40 million in total national advertising sales, and at a mid-size (at best) 60 million viewers -- these marketing (and salary) numbers wouldn't make sense. Current TV is an independently owned cable network, one of the few left, and that brings with it specific, higher marketing hurdles. Current TV is not part of a big TV marketing machine -- like a NBC Universal, Viacom, Fox, Turner Broadcasting -- that can count on broadcast networks, cable networks, TV stations, outdoor, magazines, and digital platforms to blare out entertainment messaging. But given cable TV's current special marketing nature, it has found ways to use the big guys' assets.
Well, now I am going to have to dig that long-unused Xbox Kinect full-body controller out of its box somewhere and reconnect the gadget that took last holiday shopping season by storm. Frankly, after jumping my way through a few test games, me and my family pretty much forgot about that black bar and mess of extra wires sitting beneath our HDTV. And when we moved our home a month ago and didn't' unpack the Kinect, no one seemed to notice. But this week in Cannes, Microsoft gave me a reason to reconnect my Kinect, at least for another test period. They previewed for the first time the long-rumored ad units for gesture-based gaming, now dubbed NUads. As outlined in the video below, the ad tools allow a viewer of Xbox Live on their game console to do things like hover over and activate an ad on screen using the standard Kinect interface. Once in the ad you can perform a range of interactive functions like speak commands to share the content on social nets, email or text TV show reminders to yourself or vote in polls. There is even a command for finding nearby dealers in a car ad. Much of the interactivity demonstrated in the video below and outlined by Cannes attendees I have been reading seem like pretty small potatoes. Using hand and voice gestures to interact with an ad or even to use the on board Kinect cam to plop a picture of yourself in an ad scene really just amount to using a different interface to perform tasks that could be performed on a controller. The big idea here does not seem to be functionality so much as the heightened engagement of gestures and voice. Ok. I will be the party pooper here. As much as gesture-based interactivity sounds like a wet dream for engagement junkies, my admittedly limited use of the Kinect interface did not convince me that consumers would be eager to play along. The enormous engagement seen on tactile interfaces like touch screens are not a precedent. There is a major difference between swiping and tapping a 10 inch iPad screen and waving your arms in the air and holding a hand aloft until the Kinect cams recognize you. When the Xbox added more interface support for the Kinect earlier this year I tried using it for manipulating multimedia playback. I discovered soon enough that the large swing gestures necessary to get across screen after screen of options sent me back to the hand controller in pretty short order. Perhaps I am lazy, but the incredible efficiencies in the abstracted interactions of a digital controller became apparent to me in minutes. Lazy? Maybe. I prefer to think of myself as, well, just American.
It's official. Here's my favorite headline of the 2010-2011 TV season: "The Killing: Worst Season Finale in the History of the Universe?" That gem was the header of Portland Mercury's editor in-chief Wm. Steven Humphrey's recent blog post. It was truly amazing to witness fan reaction to the rookie-season finale in real-time on Twitter and Facebook. The hatred of the episode seemed almost visceral and most of it centered on the fact that fans were sure that the mystery that opened the series would be solved. It wasn't. People will have to - gasp -- wait until next season! Did the producers make a huge tactical error? Did the "leave them wanting more" approach best used in recent times by "Lost" backfire on "The Killing"? I can't help but think of the classic cliffhanger third-season closer, "Dallas: A House Divided," where the nefarious J.R. Ewing was shot by an unseen suspect. Viewers had to wait all summer (and through most of fall because of an actors' strike), to find out not only "who shot J.R." - but, was he even still alive? The summer of 1980 was filled with fun speculation, Larry Hagman became a cover boy, but no one said "Worst Season Finale in the History of the Universe." In fact, Larry Hagman is still amused by the success of the closely guarded mystery in this clip. Even "Star Trek: The Next Generation" used the cliffhanger to great effect in 1990's "The Best of Both Worlds." This episode, where Captain Riker is forced to combat with his superior, Captain Picard (who is now a Borg), ends with the classic "Mr Worf, fire." It is considered one of the best episodes of the series, yet, no one remembers an online outcry (even if it was only on dial-up BBS, CompuServe, or AOL) from the most tech-savvy of all TV viewing audiences. It should be interesting to see if "The Killing"'s producers will stick to their storytelling and not let the buzz affect the show's DNA. Maybe they should listen to what fellow AMC showrunner Matthew Weiner, creator of "Mad Men," said about what could become a disturbing trend -- to write to the tweet: "The audience does not decide what happens on the show. I'm not saying 'fuck you' to the audience, I'm just saying, you don't know what you want. Also the people who are vocal are not necessarily the audience. I had this strange experience about the finale this year where the internet was overwhelmingly negative immediately, then they took it back and said, 'Oh my God, it's genius.' You think about all the artists you admire and their relationship with their audience and who knows how it works. I don't want to be defending the show all the time, but the people who are writing on the internet are not necessarily the only people watching the show." The test will be to see if those disgruntled tweeters return to "The Killing" for season two. I'm guessing, that because of the passion with which they expressed their dissatisfaction in under 140 characters, they may be back after all. Especially to see if anyone in cyberspace paid attention to their public pain....
There's a local car commercial running here in New York. It's for Mercedes-Benz and it's different from what I've heard in the past from the world's leading luxury brand -- a lot different. The spot is all about affordability, which they call aggressive pricing, comparing the Mercedes payment plan to that of the Toyota Camry. Last Thursday former Congressman Anthony Weiner announced his resignation from the US House of Representatives He went to public schools all his life, he reminded us. The middle class story of New York "is my story," he said. While he wanted to continue to fight for the middle class, he could no longer do that because he had created a "distraction." The first example above is a repositioning based on a changed marketplace reality. The second is a repositioning based on a new level of self-serving disingenuousness. But both are interesting because they remind us that one of one of the most important communications requirements in today's marketing environment is where to place your brand in the consumer's mind, in a crowded and fast changing marketplace. Positioning is a concept that's been defined and mapped. There have been books written about it (thank you, Jack Trout and Al Ries) and multiple processes created to develop it. When I moved from the agency to the client side, I did a thorough study of the various ways to think about positioning and to develop it for my brands. It always came down to three essential elements: an intimate understanding of your target; an intimate understanding of the competition for your target; and a sustainable way to beat the competition. Sometimes when discussing the subject with students, I tell them about the Dennis Rodman theory of positioning. For those who remember Rodman before the tattoos, green hair and body piercing became the story, he was the rebounding champion for the National Basketball Association for seven years in a row. While it was a great record on its own, the fact that he was 6' 6" in height (although listed at 6' 8") and 50 pounds lighter than the NBA giants with whom he was competing, made it even more remarkable. Rodman did it by understanding his target (specifically studying where the ball would likely come off the rim for the various shooters), understanding his competition for that target (Shaquille and other big men and their strengths and weaknesses), and developing a sustainable competitive advantage for beating them (anticipation and speed). In short, he was a master of positioning. Really understanding those three elements -- your target, your competition for that target, and a way to beat the competition -- are the keys in basketball, in selling cars or in selling a personal brand for political gain. As we enter the early stages of the political season leading up to the 2012 election, get ready to see some prime examples of positioning, sometimes at its best, more often at its worst. Weiner's juvenile "distraction" aside, we've begun to hear the first trial balloons from the challenger brands as the Republican primary participants try to establish themselves for the selling season. Mitt Romney has already tried to communicate his unique understanding of the plight of the unemployed with his "I'm unemployed too" comment, an initial effort that may not have hit the mark for the independently wealthy former Governor. The Ron Paul camp is the limited-government, end-the-Fed, adopt-the-gold-standard brand. Michele Bachmann is a smarter Sarah Palin who may be tougher for Tina Fey to marginalize, and Pawlenty, Perry and Huntsman haven't told us who they are yet. The point is not their politics, it's watching them use these early days as market research and evolve their message so they can effectively place themselves in our minds as the most viable brand to meet our needs. The final point about positioning, the key point, is the importance of authenticity, which is sometimes a fancier way of saying honesty. A brand has to be genuine, or it will die a quick and certain death in a time of instant, consumer-controlled communication. As we work each day on our own brands and positioning assignments, it can be instructive, and it will be fun, to watch the various campaign positioning strategies unfold. Particularly how they handle the honesty thing.
Why are we only talking about the pledge of allegiance to our flag for the opening of an golf event? Shouldn't we be require to cite our allegiance before other business and sports openings -- perhaps just after waking up in the morning, or before going to sleep at night? NBC mistakenly cut out the words "under God" during a pretaped video piece before the start of golf's U.S. Open event this weekend. The network later blamed a small group of people for omitting those key words. Maybe some TV executive was involved with some "production notes." I'm loyal to the flag -- every day. With that in mind, perhaps every single TV show needs to start up with the pledge of allegiance. Since I love my country, and my God, and my prime-time TV schedule, we need to get serious. We need to gain protection from all intruders -- especially cable networks and YouTube. NBC says: "It was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open Championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship." That's okay. But why stop there. You want to be patriotic? Don't limit it to just sporting events. Before the start of "Glee," open with the national anthem or the pledge of allegiance. Does Macy's open its doors with the pledge of allegiance? Maybe it should. Why do these national traditions happen during sporting events? Maybe because sports is kind of trivial versus the more serious world problem - and so we need to be reminded of matters like armed forces putting their lives on the line. By that token, why not extend this to TV shows -- as well as theatrical movies or concerts? Entertainment is our leisure, non-serious time. The pledge -- and other national traditions -- remind us of what this country is all about. My point is: all or nothing. If entertainment is trivial in the broader scheme of things and we are looking to remind viewers of real serious stuff, we ought to be consistent. If, on the other hand, focusing on pledges and national anthems during entertainment events trivializes those national traditions, that's another issue.