my 2 cents

Age of Conversation 2 -- a snippet

Ryan Barrett in Boston had a great idea when she invited us to share snippets of our contributions to the new and improved Age of Conversation collaborative book.  The deadline for submissions just passed and now Drew and Gavin are busy getting everything organized for a planned August 21  publication date, with some 275 authors, up from the first volume's 102.

Under the theme "Life in the Conversation Lane," my essay is called "Today's Conversations: Immediacy and Intimacy."

A snippet...

    Marketers have been conversing with customers for centuries.  Simply go back to the first retail transaction, where a farmer had livestock to sell or a craftsman hawked his wares at a bazaar.  The marketing conversation was pretty simple:

    "I have this chicken for sale.  Want to buy it?"

    "How much?"

    "Two."

    "For such a scrawny chicken? Too much.  I'll give you one.

    "One and a half."

    ... and the conversation continued until both parties were satisfied.

Read the rest on August 21st.

No Wii addiction for me

I'm going to date myself now, but I was an Atari addict years ago.  After playing Pong on a friend's Atari, we bought a unit and hooked it up to the TV in the bedroom. 

Bad move.

I became an addict.  I'd come home and put the game on to play a few rounds of Pong or Space Invaders before dinner.  Then, after watching the 11 O'Clock News, I'd fire up the Atari for some Space Invaders and, before I knew it, it was 1:30 or 2 a.m. or sometimes later.  (Oh, that game did wonders for our sex life. Not.)

When we got the more advanced Nintendo games for our son, I saw myself getting hooked on Super Mario Brothers.  But I quickly got discouraged when my son would beat the pants off me.  And, unlike me, he never even bothered to read the instructions.  It was then that I realized it's a generational thing.

With all the fuss over the new Wii games, I've remained totally disinterested.  Until I was at Bernie's house the other night.  He got a Wii for his grandchildren... or so he says.  He admits that he's been playing it a lot.  Practicing so he can keep up with the kids, he says.

So we played a few games of bowling on Wii.  I used to be a decent bowler, but I got the lowest score for both games.  Even my wife, who at the bowling alley would never even come close to 100, beat me.  In my second game, I barely broke 90.

I realized that bowling on Wii is not like real bowling.  It's not about keeping your eye on the pins on the screen, but about lining your avatar up properly.
The only thing that's like real bowling, I found out, is that you can hurt yourself playing Wii.  As I "released" the ball, I must have twisted the wrong way.  Now I have an occasional pulling pain in my upper left thigh.  I've read how chiropractors are seeing more Wii-related sports injuries.  I can't believe I'm one of those geezers who got a Wii injury.

Well, at least I don't have to worry about getting addicted to Wii.  It ain't gonna happen.

We love product placement

Entertainment Weekly did a poll that found three out of four TV viewers prefer product placement over ads.  The survey didn't ask how they thought their free viewing would be paid for if ads were replaced by product placement.

Wayne Friedman, writing at MediaPost, did the math and figured if ads were replaced by product placement, we'd have to see a placement about every two minutes in order to make up for the 20+ commercials we see in a typical hour of primetime.  And could you imagine how they'd do a placement for Summer's Eve in "60 Minutes?"

On some of the reality shows, placement has been worked in smoothly.  Product placements for health-conscious diet foods have been worked in nicely in installments of "The Biggest Loser," for example.  But other placements in shows like "The Apprentice" have been so blatant that they're obnoxious -- at least to me.  And if it's a paid placement, then what credibility will it have, even if (or perhaps, especially if) Donald Trump is telling me it's the greatest or the best?  Absolutely none, I'd say.

But, according to Entertainment Weekly, I'm in the minority. 

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.