• by October 28, 2003

TV OR NOT TV - WAS THAT THE QUESTION? - Gather a roomful of cutting edge new media gurus in one of downtown New York's swankiest haunts for a discussion on the impact of consumer empowering media technologies and the conversation is likely to turn to, guess what, how godawful the current state of television is. That's exactly what happened Monday night, when the Media Kitchen hosted an event celebrating "50 Years of Consumer Control" at the SoHo House in New York's meatpacking district. "Today's consumers are device agnostic," "TV is a fear-based market that absurdly favors the sellers!" and "Control is gone forever, forget getting it back!" were among the comments made by a panel of executives, which included such Madison Avenue luminaries as Yahoo's Wenda Millard, Wired's Frank Rose, Ad Age's Scott Donaton, TiVo's Marty Yudkovitz and self-proclaimed industry whore, Randall Rothenberg. Perhaps Randall Rothenberg put it best when he said: "the entire TV marketing/ communications structure is predicated on waste." The new interactive business model, they all cried in unison, will be highly measurable, highly efficient, and highly cost-effective.

RARE ALEC GERSTER SIGHTINGS -- He's head of one of the world's largest media buying organizations, but elusive Initiative Media CEO Alec Gerster is suddenly popping up everywhere. First the Riff hears Gerster hosted an International Radio & Television Society breakfast at Initiative's offices last Thursday and now we see him showcased in a Merrill Lynch analysts report on Monday. That report, by the way, finds Gerster waxing fairly optimistic about the advertising marketplace, including a much rosier picture of the network scatter marketplace than others have been reporting. The Riff is happy to see Gerster making his public presence known again. The last time we recall seeing him at a major industry event was the Association of National Advertising Television Advertising Forum last spring in New York. And the Riff remembers laughing heartily when WB president Jed Petrick called Gerster "an ignorant slut" during a point-counterpoint session.

FIELD OF DREAMS - Just as the Riff was finally making the transition from post-season baseball to early-season football, we've been reminded that it will soon be time to set our TiVos for yet another major league sports option. No, we don't mean hockey, though the change of seasons clearly conjures images of beefy NHL players checking and pounding each other on the ice. This winter, it seems, will be time to watch the National Lacrosse League. At least that's what a league spokesperson told the Riff, noting there has been a "remarkable three-year turnaround of the fiscally dying league." And in case you missed the NLL's draft last weekend you still have time to plan ahead for its season opener on Dec. 26, when ten professional lacrosse teams will take the field, up from only four when the league was formed in the late 1980s.

ONE BILLION HOOPS FANS CAN'T BE WRONG -- National Asian-American media marketplace strategies are not that common for major U.S. brands and ones focused specifically on the Chinese-speaking population are even more rare. And ones intended to promote a major professional sports league are, well, unheard of. But that was before the biggest draw for National Basketball Association games were Chinese players like the Houston Rockets' Yao Ming, the Los Angeles Clippers Wang Zhizi and the Toronto Raptors' Mengke Bateer. Aside from revitalizing a post-Michael Jordan era of NBA action, they're boosting the sport's awareness among Asian Americans, especially Chinese- speaking ones. But unless you read Chinese, don't expect to see the 12-page glossy Chinese-language inserts that will break Oct. 31. NBA agency Kang & Lee has bought a highly targeted schedule that includes newsstand editions of The World Journal and Singtao Daily newspapers, the most popular Chinese publications in the following markets: New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Dallas. Surprisingly, this effort is an expansion of an already aggressive Asian American marketing program that was begun last year. "Last season, more than 15 NBA teams incorporated Asian American marketing efforts into their overall marketing plans," said Andrew Messick, senior vice president-international at the NBA.