my 2 cents

Weekend Fun -- What are you reading?

There's a TV campaign for a credit card company whose tagline is "What's in your wallet?"  Kind of a personal question, perhaps.

So I hope it's not considered too personal when I ask "What are you reading?"

I got tagged by Lewis Green with the question, passed along to him by Mack Collier.  The tag asks me to say what I'm currently reading and what I plan to read next, plus copy sentences 6 - 8 on page 123.

I'm now reading The Children of Abraham, a 1989 novel by French writer Marek Halter.  It's a fictionalized account of his family's escape from the Nazis and their dispersal throughout the world.  I'm not yet up to page 123, but sentences 6 through 8 of a chapter set in Beirut go like this, picking up dialogue between Halter and an acquaintance of his uncle who was killed in a roadside ambush in 1967 Israel:

    "You haven't found them all?"

    "That's right."

    Hidar relaxed.

    "It's an incredible story.  If you had the notebook, I  might be able to tell you some helpful things about the names you don't know."

Next on my list is John Adams, by David McCullough.

Instead of tagging anyone in particular, I invite any readers to answer the question in the comments below.

So what's a marketer to do?

If you're a mass marketer, it's getting harder to use the tried & true methods of reaching the masses.

Just as the network upfront presentations are set next week to introduce the networks' new programs and fall schedules to advertisers and their agencies here in New York, a new study just released by DoubleClick shows what many have been thinking for some time -- DVR owners tend to ignore commercials.

The study found that only 35% of DVR owners pay attention to ads even occasionally when watching programs they've recorded.  More than half say they always fast-forward through the commercials.

Even fewer of viewers who watch TV programming online pay attention to the ads -- a measly 9%.  The answer is not online banner and search ads, since the study shows only 3% pay attention to those ads.

So what's a marketer to do?  Look for other platforms to carry your message, where it might be harder to be ignored.  How about a good placement in newspapers and magazines?  Or radio, if you can get a guarantee that yours will be the first spot in the commercial pod.  Out-of-home offers lots of opportunities for impactful and innovative advertising.  Maybe establish or up the p.r. budget.

As household DVR penetration rises, the TV spot will get less viewing.  There's talk of the networks using technology to prevent zapping, much the way online video has ad in a pre-roll that often can't be fast-forwarded.  Heavy-handed for sure, but if I were paying a few hundred thou for a network spot, I'd want some assurance it will be seen.

As a consumer, if the fast-forward option were to be disabled for ads, I might DVR it and then record it on my old VCR, where I'd still be able to fast-forward.  Or probably, like so many TV viewers have been doing for decades, I'd use the commercial break to go to the bathroom, hit the refrigerator, make a quick call or take the dog out.

Thus, the question remains... what's a marketer to do?

Smart move

Here's a smart move by ABC News...

The network has announced it will soon open on-campus news bureaus at five colleges throughout the U.S.  The first on-campus bureaus will be at schools with good journalism programs -- Syracuse U, Arizona State, Florida, North Carolina and Texas.

The on-campus bureaus will give students some real on-the-job training for local stories that may be used on ABC News programming including the evening newscast "World News Tonight" and "Good Morning America" and "Nightline."

This is a smart move on at least two fronts -- first, the obvious real-world training for some lucky j-school students.  It also will help the network find and report news that may be of more interest to the 18-25-year old demos the network newscasts are sorely missing. 

Sounds like a win-win situation. 

I don't know if any major newspapers are doing anything like this, but it looks like something they ought to consider.  It might get young people to develop the habit of reading the paper -- online or off -- and possibly stem the tide of declining circulation we keep hearing about.

My media diet

C.B. at Flooring the Consumer tagged me last week with a fun topic:  What is your media diet?  It encouraged me to take a closer look at what media I regularly consume and how.

First, a look at news media I see.  My daily reading -- offline, of course -- includes The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the New York Post and, a few times a week, The Daily News and The New York Sun, with its great Arts section. I also skim through The Journal News, the Gannett paper that covers Westchester and the northern suburbs.

Online, I try to check out some of the out-of-town dailies once or twice a week, such as The L.A. Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post or whatever else I happen to click onto.  Those are usually quick skims, not really thorough reads.

My news also comes from the network morning  shows (NBC's "Today" and "CBS Morning") and the local FOX affiliate's "Good Day New York."  I'm rarely just sitting and watching; I hear and glance at these shows as I'm getting dressed .  At night, I sometimes watch the local news at 10 or 11, and  I may skim New York  1, the all-news channel for New York City.  "Charlie Rose" and "BBC World News" are also late-night options.  If I'm in the car, which is usually just on weekends, I'll listen to WCBS Newsradio.

My weekend viewing includes "CBS Sunday Morning" and, depending on the subject and guest, "Meet the Press" and/or "Face the Nation."

For entertainment on TV, now that The Sopranos are gone, I enjoy Law & Order, 30 Rock and Samantha Who.  I've also gotten into The Riches on FX, which is a strangely interesting show starring Eddie Izard and Minnie Driver.  When Curb Your Enthusiasm comes back, I'll be watching that too.  Most of the entertainment shows I watch on TV are now time-shifted and commercial-free thanks to my DVR.  Live, I'll often watch Letterman and/or Jimmy Kimmel and, if I'm still up, I'll catch at least the monologue by Craig Ferguson.

In the office, if I'm in the mood for music, it's either WBGO-FM, the local public jazz station, or online XM Satellite Radio's jazz or Latin jazz channels, and there's a great online station you program yourself called Pandora.com.

Magazines -- Most of the magazines I read are trade journals or general business, with the exception of National Geographic, which I've been getting since I was 10.  To my wife's dismay, I probably have most of the old issues up in the attic.  Don't ask why.

...Sometimes,it feels like Media Overload

Trade books I read include Ad Age, Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek and several online ad and marketing newsletters that come in daily and weekly.

Online, I also try to read several blogs, especially those on my blogroll.

Other media:  We probably see, on average, 2 - 3 movies a month, although that number varies widely depending what's out and what else we have doing on weekends.  I'll also watch films on HBO or the other movie channels on cable like Sundance or IFC.

Books: The most recent novel I read was A Thousand Sons, by the author of The Kite Runner.  It's a fantastic book, but the story makes me appreciate being born a male in a free western society.  I have, waiting on my night table, a book I stumbled across called The Children of Abraham, a 1989 novel about the remains of a European Jewish family after World War II.  Or I may first read John Adams, by David McCullough, who I chatted with a few weeks ago at The Christopher Awards where he was honored.  I've been hearing great things about the HBO version of the book.

For nonfiction, I have a bunch of marketing books to read courtesy of the Blogger Social goodie bags.  I'm just starting Media Rules by Dan Solomon and Brian Reich (no relation).

Damn, that's a lot of media I consume, and I didn't want to bore you with other stuff I see or read.  It makes me wonder how I find time for things like work and family and sleeping.

Since this is a meme, I'll tag newspaperman and One Reader at a Time blogger Bob Glaza in Washington and Cheap Thrills' Ryan Barrett in Boston to see what their media diets are.  It should be interesting to see how they differ (or don't) since they're on opposite coasts and of different generations.

And thanks again for the tag, C.B.  This was fun.

Sound bites can bite back

The sound bite:  It's something we in public relations and marketing strive for.  We train our clients how to speak in sound bites for the media, wrapping up our key messages neatly in a brief, punchy and self-contained two or three sentences.  Ready for prime time or the front page, we hope.

But there's a real potential risk with sound bites, when they get taken out of context.  It's something we've been witnessing these past few weeks as Barack Obama's campaign gets derailed by constant media replays of provocative sound bites from speeches by his minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

But have the media made some mistakes by zeroing in on the sound bites without reporting on the context in which they were made?  There's a lesson for marketers and communicators here.


Read more about it at my post over at MarketingProfs Daily Fix.

Big Truck Day

Public libraries have evolved over the years.

When I was a kid, the library was simply books.  Borrow books, browse books, and use books for research.  (This was before the internet, when most of us do our research online.)  It was about books.

I remember when the local library added records to its collection, and later CDs, and then videos and DVDs.  And now you can surf the web at the library as well.

Really, it's always been about more than books... sharing information and experiences with the public.  And reaching out to attract everyone, young and old, to the library through community relations programs.  Many libraries have lectures and host events where people can interact first-hand with people or things they might not normally see close-up.  Baby animals for the kids, experts giving advice for seniors, local arts & crafts and much more.

The library in Topsham, MaIne the other day had a program that, to me, trumps them all.  It was called Big Truck Day.

I heard about it from someone who was there -- our daughter Jennifer, who went with our 2-1/2 year old grandson Jack. 

According to Jen, there were several dozen kids -- almost all boys, accompanied by a handful of female siblings and their moms.  But considering it was a weekday, Jen said there were quite a few dads there as well.  (Of course there were.  Guys love Big Trucks, no matter how old we are.  If I lived in the area, I definitely would have played hooky from work for the afternoon to see the Big Trucks, even if I didn't have a young grandson.)

As each truck pulled into the parking lot, a collective cry went up from the assembled boys, calling out the name of the truck.  To these boys, it wasn't just a fire engine.  It was a pumper truck.  Or it wasn't simply a construction tractor; it was a front-end loader or a back hoe.  These kids know their Big Trucks.

Big Truck Day was fun for the kids and it reinforced, for the kids and the parents, the idea that the library is a place for them and that it's about more than books.  So much more.

Jack in a tractor.  (Oops, I mean a front-end loader.)

As times change, should your marketing message?

An article in this week's Advertising Age, "Why consumers may never be the same," talks about changing purchase motivation by consumers during these turbulent times where we are faced with ongoing talk of recession, real inflation fueled by climbing gasoline prices and higher food costs, and layoffs across a broad range of industries.

The article says "our customers' behavior is changing right under our noses" and goes on to warn that when the economy eventually bounces (or limps) back, we might find what motivates customers to choose or not choose a brand has changed.

The author advises marketers to observe consumer behavior and not to rely on what focus groups or one-on-one interviews find.  That's good advice even in the best of times, since I've found that people in focus groups often say what they think the people behind the one-way glass want to hear. And even as the moderator prods  for honest answers, many respondents simply don't want to hurt the feelings of those unseen people playing big brother back there.

So you watch trends, follow blogs and other internet chatter to see how your consumers are thinking during these changing times.  But if, in fact, their thinking has changed, does that mean you've got to change your message?

Maybe, but think carefully. 

Most consumers like stability... something they can count on.  That's especially true in uncertain times.

So make some fine-tuning, if you think it's really called for.  But be careful not to change too radically, or you might throw your target consumers off balance and send them scurrying to your competitor, whose message seems to have remained steady.

And if you change your message -- and thus, possibly, your positioning in the consumer's mind, where does that leave you once the economy settles down in a year or two, or less?  Will your message then be off-base, forcing you to change it again?  You'll risk becoming a moving target in the consumer's mind, as he or she tries to figure where your brand fits in his or her life.

So yes, study what consumers are thinking.  That's basic good marketing.  But be cautious as you consider changing your messaging and your positioning.  It could backfire over time.

Magazines... and then some

At the Advertising Club's annual Magazine Day in New York this week, the e-word -- engagement -- was still heard a lot.  The advertisers say they want it; the media say they offer it.

The key media represented were, of course, magazines.  But magazine today often means a whole lot more than the pretty printed piece that comes out every week or every month.  "Magazine" today for many publishers also means broadcast, cable and, of course, the other word that was used heavily at the conference -- digital.

John Griffin, president of the National Geographic Magazine Group and one of the session panelists, said his company is actively involved in all platforms.  "We develop stories from the ground up, considering all of our media brands," he said. 

In print, he noted, the line between editorial content and advertising remains fairly clear.  But in other forms of media, especially online, the line is not as hard and fast.  I think that can make for some interesting possibilities, both from an advertising and public relations perspective.

Digital is the hottest area for publishers.   One media buyer said digital offers his clients the chance to place a message where news is being seen almost as it's happening, rather than in a place (in print) where something is already stale.  Print, though, still offers a great environment for certain products like  beauty, fashion and food where there's usually not a hard news edge.

One advertiser noted that with some publications now, the print part of his buy is the smallest, as more money goes to cable and digital incarnations of a magazine brand.

The publisher of Gourmet, Tom Hartman, told the audience  that "no one just wants to buy a page anymore.  They want to talk about the other opportunities in addition to the page."

In most cases, what they're talking about -- and buying -- is that d-word -- digital.

Taking a new look at newspapers

Valeria Maltoni, the real Conversation Agent, pointed to an article several days ago in The New Yorker, titled "Out of Print: The Death and Life of the American Newspaper." In typical New Yorker fashion, the l o n g article by Eric Herman stretches, going back to the first American newspaper published in Massachusetts in 1690. 

The article offers a good understanding of the pressures today's newspaper management is under -- rising production and labor costs, increased competition on a playing field that's no longer level, and advertisers looking at  and moving to other channels for reaching their target consumers. 

The article also talks about news websites that are becoming generators of original news content, singling out the Huffington Post, which coincidentally that same week enjoyed a major profile in the business section of The New York Times.  Both stories cite the online venue's hiring of news reporters, albeit a handful at this point, to do original reporting.

Independent news sites (ie., those that are not an online offshoot of a newspaper, magazine, radio or TV station) seem to have focused their original news content in a few distinct areas -- politics, entertainment/gossip, and health.  That's sure to change over time.

Newspapers are still the primary generators of original local news content -- and that is their strength.  Local news is what can keep newspapers alive.  Whether the paper of tomorrow is delivered to your doorstep, on your computer screen or on a Kindle-like reader remains to be seen.  My guess is it will be a combination of them all, as well as through other channels that haven't even been developed yet.

Regular readers here know I'm a newspaper junkie and my preference is to turn the pages of a "real" newspaper rather than scroll through a virtual edition.  I was pleasantly surprised, though, when I heard similar comments from many of the 20- and 30-something marketing bloggers I met recently at Blogger Social.  Some said they usually skim through a paper online and then later, at their leisure,  thumb through the same paper in print, where they might spot something they missed going through it online.

So maybe newspapers aren't dying the slow death we keep hearing about.

I think they stand a good chance if the build on what they do best -- deliver local news and analysis.

In the public relations profession, we may need to view newspapers in a different way as well.  One of the biggest p.r. prizes is a great feature article in the paper.  There's still something about seeing a story in print that has a certain impact and credibility.  But newspaper websites and blogs are opening new opportunities for p.r. placements, and their readership is growing.

I sent a story idea a few weeks ago to the ad columnist at The New York Times, even though I knew it might be a bit too technical for his column.  I acknowledged that in a note, saying I wanted to give him a first look and asking that he pass it along it wasn't for him.  He did, and the material ended up in another reporter's nytimes.com blog.  The readership isn't as big as it would be for a story in print in the business section, or even as big as  a mention in Stuart Elliott's weekly online column.  But those readers it did reach are a highly targeted group.

Likewise, advertisers need to take another look at options newspapers offer.  In some cases, a smaller but much more focused audience may make sense, rather than the costly mass audience of print newspaper or TV.

And, the ad salespeople for newspapers need to do a better job selling the merits of their online options.

I got hugged by a Grouch last night

I was finishing a post about newspapers, which I had planned for today.  But that will wait until next week, because I met Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch last night.

Yes, I spoke with two of my favorite Sesame Street characters at the annual Christopher Awards last night.  Master puppeteer Caroll Spinney, who created Big Bird and Oscar when the groundbreaking children's show began 39 years ago, was a presenter at the annual awards program that recognizes outstanding work in TV, film and books.

Before he presented the Christopher Award for outstanding children's books, he told a story that touched me -- and it obviously touched him because he became choked up as he told it from the podium.

He told of a letter that came to the producers of Sesame Street from the parents of a young boy of about 5 who was dying of cancer.  He had lost the will to fight and was depressed -- never smiling.  The parents asked if it might be possible for the boy to get a phone call from Big Bird.

When the letter was passed along to Spinney, who seems to be a gentle and compassionate soul, he immediately agreed.  He said he called the boy and, in his Big Bird voice, spoke for several minutes with the sick boy.

A week later he received another letter from the parents, telling him how thrilled their son had been to get the call.  He showed excitement and smiled for the first time in weeks as he told his parents, who were at his bedside in the hospital, that Big Bird had called him and he was happy that Big Bird was his friend.  A few minutes later, he peacefully slipped away.

Spinney's voice choked with emotion as he told the story.  I had a chance to chat with him for a while after the ceremony, and he said to this day he is glad that he showed compassion and called that boy.  As we talked about it, his eyes teared and he explained it still moves him, even after a few years.

Spinney told me that Big Bird's role originally was simply to teach about letters and numbers.  But he realized the importance of teaching about compassion after he walked past a man on the street who he assumed was a derelict muttering to himself.  Something made him stop, turn around and ask the man if he needed help.  It turned out, the the man couldn't walk well and had been asking strangers to help him across the street.  Spinney walked the man not only across the street, but the three blocks to his apartment building.

The next day, he told the producers of Sesame Street that he wanted Big Bird to teach kids about feelings and compassion.  And after a while, Big Bird became the character who expressed concern about others' feelings.

Spinney, part of a pioneering TV show, added a new approach that taught life lessons perhaps more valuable than the ABCs.

After we talked for a while, I thanked him for taking the time.  And he said, "No. Thank you for coming over to talk with me."

And then Oscar gave me a hug.  How cool!

David, Oscar and Caroll Spinney (photo courtesy of Jules Peimer, 15minutes.com)

[To those who I met at BS 08, if I look different in the photo, it's because after seeing the BS 08 pix of myself, I ran out to get a long-overdue haircut.  It'll grow back quickly.]