Heineken is launching the latest phase in its campaign to encourage the responsible consumption of its brands. The new theme, "Sunrise belongs to moderate drinkers,” is a part of the "Open Your World" global campaign, which celebrates and encourages aspirational behaviors among adult consumers. The Amsterdam-based beer company chose to launch this program during the holiday season (a time when parties are common) to maximize the message’s impact. The initiative is running on Heineken's YouTube channel, Facebook fan page, and Heineken.com as well as broadcast. The program was developed by Publicis International and AKQA. “This approach breaks from the norm of traditional responsible consumption messages and takes a progressive stance by showing that drinking responsibly can be aspirational,” says Alexis Nasard, Heineken’s chief commercial officer. The campaign will use various online and offline media channels, with strong emphasis on social media. In the 85-second film, "The Sunrise," Heineken’s hero demonstrates how to celebrate the night to the fullest, including turning down a beer and choosing a bottle of water instead. The campaign was unveiled Nov. 28 through a teaser in London, Ho Chi Minh, Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco. Sofas featuring the hashtag #MYSUNRISE were strategically placed in locations that offered the best sunrise view. People were encouraged to post photos of their best sunrise moments, tagging them #MYSUNRISE and then sending them to the Heineken Facebook page. The sunrise images will now be showcased on the brand’s Facebook fan page and incorporated into a dynamic Facebook application, mapping the consumer sunrise photos based on the location in which they were taken. Each week, the best sunrise images will be showcased on the brand’s Facebook fan page wall. They will be re-tweeted from the @Heineken Twitter account through Jan. 2. The Enjoy Heineken Responsibly section on the Heineken.com is translated is into 32 languages in 46 markets and provides information about responsible consumption.
TV producer Mark Burnett Productions has struck a deal with digital technology company ACTV8.ME, which connects real-time digital content of TV shows supported by special advertising messaging. The maker of CBS' "Survivor" and NBC's "The Voice" has partnered with ACTV8, which delivers what it calls a "complete global media integration platform" -- Internet, social, and mobile." The company claims to create a televised world where "viewers won't skip branded messages and integration." Anyone with an iPad, iPhone or Android can watch favorite TV shows while sharing their experience. The platform synchronizes a user's mobile device or tablet to any live or recorded video broadcast. It provides interactive content about the show, as well as connections to Facebook and Twitter. Consumers also get special coupons and discounts from major TV advertisers as part of this digital content integration. "As consumer adoption of the DVR grows, TV ad spot values decline," states Brian Shuster, founder and CEO of ACTV8. "How can we keep the viewer watching?" "ACTV8 and its partners are set to reinvent the value proposition for the TV networks, the advertisers and most importantly…the consumer," says Shuster.
The $99 Apple TV set-top box, which the late Steve Jobs once characterized as a mere “hobby” for the company, could emerge as an important component in Apple’s future plans to dominate living rooms. According to a new survey and projections by Strategy Analytics, the connected TV player will sell 4 million units this year to capture 32% of the streaming media player market. The media player market includes competitors such as the Roku and Boxee boxes. The market research firm finds that 8% of U.S. households currently own a connected media player, while 7% of European households do as well. It projects that some 12 million connected TV players will be sold this year. The penetration of Apple TV into the living-room market has implications for Apple’s much larger business in the mobile phone and tablet world, given the ways its iOS devices also interact with Apple TV. The iPhone and iPad can serve as remote controls for the set-top box. But more importantly, the AirPlay feature in iOS allows the mobile devices to move media to the TV from the devices and allows the iPhone or iPad to serve as complementary screens. With the iOS5 update to the mobile platform, AirPlay has enhanced capabilities, including a mirroring function that displays the device’s screen on the TV via Apple TV. In its more advanced forms in games, especially AirPlay, the device is turned into a game controller or game map. AirPlay has also been licensed to some third-party home theater audio systems to allow music streaming from an iOS device into the amplifier. According to Strategy Analytics Senior Analyst Jia Wu, Apple TV owners are also heavy media buyers. About 30% of these users rented movies or TV shows, while only 20% did so on other devices. Apple TV taps directly into the iTunes media ecosystem for seamless rentals and purchases. With the addition of iCloud services, films and TV episodes that are acquired from iTunes on other devices and the desktop are also available to the Apple TV user. Rumors persist that Apple is planning to launch its own smart TV later this year with built-in connectivity to the iTunes ecosystem. Wu states in the report: “As Apple prepares for its expected launch of smart TVs in 2012, rival platforms must accelerate their development plans to keep Apple from running away with the connected TV business, as it has done with smartphones and digital music.” Dedicated media streaming boxes are not the only contenders for American living rooms. As Wu tells Online Media Daily, “Smart TV and connected TV sales are outpacing TV set-top boxes.” TV manufacturers are selling most mid- to upper-level televisions with connectivity and apps built-in. At the same time, both Xbox and PlayStation 3 game consoles have enormous penetration in U.S. households, and both boxes also include popular services, such as Netflix and Hulu, as well as film and TV rentals. “They are the No. 1 platform in the U.S. in terms of getting Internet video content to TVs,” says Wu. “More consumers use it than connect their PCs to TVs via HDMI.” In November, Strategy Analytics said that 12% of U.S. households (15 million) now stream video to their TVs via Xbox 360 or PS3. Microsoft is also thinking along the same lines as Apple, in terms of tying video and gaming experiences on TVs with mobile devices. The company recently upgraded its Xbox 360 dashboard to include more upcoming TV services. Microsoft is also using smartphone apps to connect to its box. An Xbox Live app appeared recently for Windows Phones as well as iOS. Despite a lead in dedicated streaming media boxes, Apple faces multiple contenders in the living-room wars. “This market is still in the early stage,” says Wu. “Apple’s leading position now cannot guarantee they can win in the smart TV market next year.”
Already with a distribution deal with FX, Charlie Sheen’s coming sitcom “Anger Management” has a deal to appear north of the border. The arrangement will place Sheen’s post-“Two and a Half Men” venture on the Canadian network CTV. “Anger Management,” inspired by the 2003 eponymous film, is set to begin production early next year under the aegis of Lionsgate. (It also owns part of the series.) Sheen informed Canadians about his coming arrival in an on-air message on Bell Media-owned CTV, in which he took hits at some of Canada’s most cherished institutions. "You seem like the nicest people in the world," he said. "But I know the truth. You're holding in a lot of anger. Why else would you drink so much beer, put on shoes with sharp blades and smack each other around with wooden sticks?" A rollout date on FX and Canadian TV have not been announced. Revolution Studios, run by former Disney executive Joe Roth, is also involved in the production. FX reportedly plans to link the show with “Two and a Half Men” reruns. A report said if the first episodes are deemed a success, an additional 90 will be ordered.
The FCC has put in motion a plan to ensure commercials are not louder than the programs in which they appear. The agency’s rules go into effect December 2012. They place degrees of responsibility on TV stations and cable/telco/satellite distributors. The FCC action Tuesday implements the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM), passed in 2010 by Congress. The FCC has received complaints about excessively loud commercials for years -- almost 6,000 since 2008 alone -- and for the first time has authority to regulate the matter. The new rules require that the average volume of commercials does not exceed the average volume of the programming. Promos are viewed as commercials. While some suggested political ads should be exempt, the FCC has deemed them just like any other commercial. The FCC can grant one-year waivers to stations or operators displaying financial difficulty with putting in place the equipment to ensure the loudness rules are met. The FCC said programmers and networks will provide “certifications” to the stations and distributors that the volume of their ads and programs meet the FCC rules. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell stated: “From this point forward, TV commercials, such as those for OxyClean, ShamWow!, HeadOn and the like, will never be the same. Family rooms across America might be a little less noisy as the result of our implementation of Congress’ will.”
Good news for those of us in the TV history business: we’ve learned that George Clooney and his producing partner Grant Heslov are developing a feature film about the tumultuous goings-on behind-the-scenes of the hit 1960s variety show, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour." Based on"Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored story of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," by David Bianculli (it’s very good!), we expect the film will revolve around Tommy Smothers’ battle with CBS to keep his show on the air as the network tightened its reigns and increased its censorship demands as the pair didn’t veer from taking on religion, the Vietnam War, and the presidency. Of note, TV veteran Neil Patrick Harris is already slated to play the incorruptible Tommy Smothers. We interviewed the team back in 2000. Tommy had this to say about their legacy: “If they look back, it was a pretty good comedy act, and that’s all we were, except that we happened to meet in time at a certain point, we met at the scene of the accident and therefore it elevated it above what we really are. Just performers and pretty good ones, and that little scene of the accident kind of elevated us, and they handled themselves well in that environment of confrontation, and maintained their integrity. That’s a sweet little thing. I hope my son looks back on that and see that, and says, my Dad stood up.” There haven’t been too many films based on the behind-the-scenes of actual TV shows (there have been quite a bit of trashy TV movies, and a few good ones like the exploration of the filming of "An American Family" in HBO’s "Cinema Verite"), but there have been some exceptional ones. Here are the top contenders: "Good Night and Good Luck"(2005) -- It’s no surprise that George Clooney and Heslov tried their luck once before in the sub-genre with "Good Night and Good Luck," the story of Edward R. Murrow’s decision to take on Senator Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch-hunt. The best part: actual historic footage of McCarthy was used in the film, and some audiences found “the character” too over-the-top. The well-researched piece garnered a lot of Oscar-love and certainly shows that team Clooney can deliver historically relevant films. "Frost/Nixon" (2008) --Ron Howard’s adaptation of Peter Morgan’s brilliant play on David Frost’s historic interview with Richard Nixon was criticized a bit for taking dramatic license with a few scenes, but stands out as a great representation of the backstory of one of the most iconic TV interviews of the time. It’s also interesting to note that, like Clooney, Ron Howard also began his own stellar career in television -- it’s served him well. "The Insider" (1999) -- Another news-oriented film on the story of former tobacco executive Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, who agrees to go on-camera on "60 Minutes" to talk about unethical practices within the tobacco industry. This film is especially interesting in that, like the upcoming Smothers’ film, it’s the story of CBS’ desire to self-censor its own programming. "Quiz Show" (1994) -- Directed by Robert Redford, the film "Quiz Show" captured the story behind top TV quiz show "Twenty-One"’s fixes. Contestant Herb Stempel (played by John Turturro in the film) blew the whistle on the scandal and it changed the face of advertiser-involvement in series for many years. We interviewed Stempel in 2004 , and he put the film in context. “This was a docudrama. The movie itself was not a documentary. It was approximately 40% true. There’s a lot of dramatic license taken in it. For example, this will surprise a lot of people, I haven’t got a son named Lester. There’s a boy of eight years old in the picture shown known as Lester, who plays the drums. My son Harvey was actually a year and a half old when this was happening. He was in a crib. But, it made a more interesting story to have a growing up son to whom I supposedly would indoctrinate by asking all sorts of questions. I was a little miffed at the portrayal. I was shown to be a nerd, a square, and a hyper sort of a guy. I would never, for example, say something like, ‘That’s the greatest invention since Gutenberg invented the printing press, and I’m the greatest thing on it!’ This is not Herb Stempel…It was an over-the-top sort of portrayal of me.” In the right hands, the Smothers Brothers story will find a way to be relevant in today’s cynical times. But in the end, their fight against backdoor corporate and government censorship in a very tumultuous time in our country’s history cost them their series. When we asked the brothers “Would you do it again?” “Oh, in a minute, Tom said. “I’d probably do it the same way.” The question is, would CBS?
Here at the sumptuous offices of the Social Media Insider, there’s nothing we love more than a corporate PR controversy and a chance to be a Monday Morning (or, in this case, Wednesday afternoon) quarterback. So, in that spirit, let’s talk about Lowe’s! For the uninitiated, here’s the recap: a conservative Florida group, the Florida Family Association, got itself all up in arms this week over the advertisers in “All-American Muslim,” a show on TLC that shows the day-to-day life of a Muslim family in Dearborn, Mich. To the FFA, the show misrepresents American Muslims, apparently because it is 100% jihadist-free. So, Lowe’s, among the show’s advertisers, pulled its advertising, hoping, it appears, to avoid controversy. It turns out that pulling an ad from an inoffensive show -- and, trust me, having watched an episode, it is truly inoffensive -- is a great way to court controversy. And, of course, this being 2011, controversy went a-courtin’ on Facebook. Lowe’s posted a comment on its Facebook wall explaining its decision yesterday, saying that it pulled its ads because the show had become “a lightning rod.” The post then became a lightning rod of its own, and a much bigger one than the FFA could ever hope to harness. Its original post garnered upwards of 20,000 comments, while, per AdFreak, Lowe’s sat back and did nothing while the hate-filled language piled up on the page. (Transparency alert: I co-founded AdFreak.) So what was Lowe’s social media error? Treating Facebook like a broadcast channel, no matter how hard it has tried to explain its way out of its conduct afterwards. The company was smart enough to use Facebook to explain its decision (even if the decision, itself, was dumb), but not smart enough to have a strategy for what would happen when people actually started to comment. So what else has Lowe’s done in the aftermath? It pulled the original post, sort of like pulling an ad schedule from a TV show. Yes, Lowe’s is attempting what is essentially a social media mulligan, even though the trajectory of the initial wall posting has been rampantly posted in bits and pieces all over the Internet for all to see. Social media mulligans don’t really exist. In a new post explaining what happened with the old post, the company explains that “out of respect for the transparency of social media,” it had let the comments to the old post continue, even as the language became more hateful. But that logic seems specious. It seems really unlikely that Lowe’s could watch some of these comments flow by, as they were happening, and not interject. The media did interject. Google the phrase “Lowe’s Facebook Muslim” and you’ll discover more than 1,700 news stories. It seems far more likely that it realized how awful some of the comments were only once the media got hold of the story. So how could this have been played differently? For one, of course, Lowe’s could have stood by the show. In retrospect, it seems silly to cave into a small group’s demands, particularly when the content of the show itself doesn’t merit rethinking the ad plan. That’s particularly true in a media environment increasingly fueled by social media. Second, it could remember that, while social media is a great place to issue corporate statements verbatim, without the filter of the media, what happens afterward needs to be closely watched, and acted upon. It’s a conversation, people.
sssss Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000172 EndHTML:0000007113 StartFragment:0000002759 EndFragment:0000007077 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/lesluchter/Downloads/tvDec14.doc Executives of broadcast and cable networks, local stations and other TV media need to press the flesh more than ever -- at the right time, with the right people. USA Network has moved its upfront presentation right smack in the middle of the broadcast upfront week. Symbolically or otherwise, it wants to have a bigger marketing presence. USA isn't the first cable network to do this. Other big-time cable networks -- ESPN, TBS and TNT -- have been in this game for some time. At the same time, the National Association of Television Program Executives says its upcoming annual meeting in Miami expects the best attendance in years -- of about 5,000 -- with many more station and syndication executives attending. Perhaps nervous TV executives need an increased presence around other executives -- from media agencies, programmers, and especially new digital media -- even if nothing is going on. Station executives seem to have more pressing issues as they look for real-time, face-to-face answers. What, for example, are their future prospects in the digital world? Dangling out there for a while has been a great hope that mobile apps will give consumers access to local TV news, weather and local info through smartphones, tablets and other devices. For local station executives, the need to meet-and-greet also concens finding answers about how syndicated programming will play in the new digital field, and what it means for them locally. USA Network, meanwhile, wants a deeper connection with advertisers -- especially as established cable networks get subjected to the audience erosion long dealt with by their broadcast competitors. Additionally, like the broadcasters, USA needs to figure out what new digital video platforms will mean for its programming assets. Overall whether TV executives are coming from broadcast, cable, syndication or local stations, all need to be even quicker on their feet in a changing marketplace where they wonder when and where TV shows and other content will be distributed -- and who will be in charge. Apart from those big media companies that control content, we seemingly know the answer from the other end of the business equation: entertainment consumers. That said, maybe TV executives should also hang out more often at the mall, Starbucks, Best Buy or Home Depot for some face-to-face consumer info.