New Persuasion

Personalize Everything for Us Please

The population mark in the United States recently topped 300 million. There are so many of us sharing similar goals and buying similar products. We commute to and from work and see other people with the exact same cars and the same routines we have each day. Sometimes we get tired of this and go to great lengths to make what we have different from what everyone else has. We love finding ways to make things our own and bring our unique styles to the forefront and enjoy standing out. We crave personalization in America.

From custom stamps to clothing to video games and popular websites which are based on the concept of customization like MySpace and Facebook, being able to create a space that is all your own is definitely catching on. And this isn’t something that just kids enjoy—adults are even more obsessed with personalization than kids are in some respects. Companies like Google, which created “iGoogle,” a personalized search homepage that has become the fastest-growing product by a number of new users have realized the importance of this trend. Apparently, about 9,000 iGoogle pages are created each day.

Advancements in technology have made it possible to bring the “make-it-yourself” trend to anyone with a computer and with time to spend. Lucasfilm posted 250 sections of “Star Wars” clips from 6 movies to the Internet for people to edit and rearrange in any order they like best. Fans can then add to or cut the clips and decide if they would like to post them to MySpace or a similar social-networking site. This gives everyone a chance to take their favorite clips and create something that is all their own. Everyone wins.

People who rely on us as customers have also started to take notice of our feelings about personalization. Comedian Jim Gaffigan promised to stay at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center after his stand-up performance until he met everyone who was interested in meeting him. He has kept this same promise every evening after each of his shows on his 30-city concert tour. His connection with his fans on a personal level creates an environment that everyone is happy to be in.

Consumers and businesses see the appeal of personalized products and services and are doing what they can to keep up with competition and create new and innovative ideas that will surprise us. We love anything that will make our lives easier, create shortcuts for tasks and responsibilities that we already have, and represent us as individuals.

TV News and Print News - Destined to Merge?

I've always thought that someday the 3 (4?) major broadcast networks would consolidate their newsgathering operations into one global brand.  I think that because they all do the same thing - and none of them have the resources anymore to do it as well as they'd like. 

Now, I see Mark Cuban is calling for convergence of both print and television.  He argues that some of the print brands (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, etc..) are the most trusted names in news:

Riddle me this Batman: Rupert Murdoch has figured out that Print and TV can be combined to be a vertical news organization and is willing to pay 5 billion dollars to do it. Why has no one else realized the value of combining big news brands and organizations ?

Why isn't a CBS News merging their news department with a NY Times and rebranding itself as the 6pm NY Times News ? Or with Time Magazine News ? Or NBC News and ???

With newsroom cuts a daily occurrence, why wait until you've been bled to death?

Of course, this does bring up the questions of putting the reporting of news in fewer hands, but with the Internet/blogs/podcasts and millions of amateur journalists at the ready, is this really true?  We'll see.

The Price is...Different

Although I have been criticized at times for my odd taste in TV shows, I know there are certain shows that a lot of people love.  Sometimes I end up watching a show because of the host-- and then pretty soon, the show grows on me and I can't imagine it going off the air.  Recently announced is that Bob Barker will be retiring from "The Price is Right" after 50 years on TV and 35 years at CBS.

The legendary daytime game-show host won’t tape his last “Price Is Right” episode until June 6, but CBS will honor Barker next week with a pair of prime-time specials celebrating his five decades on television.

“After 50 years in show business and 35 years on CBS, we want to give Bob a prime-time send-off befitting of an entertainment icon,” Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, said in a statement.

The 83-year-old Barker told The Associated Press he picked “just the right time” to say goodbye to the cameras.

“I do not have any regrets about retiring,” he said. “Isn’t that strange? I expected to have second thoughts.”

Barker started his national television career in 1956 as host of “Truth or Consequences.” The CBS special features footage of a black-haired Barker cajoling contestants through tricycle races and flapjack-flipping contests.

I think that we naturally become attached to television hosts and TV personalities-- which really shows that we enjoy entertainment as well as routine.  We like to be challenged but we love to see the same people each day and night.  My friend Kate's grandma has watched the same news anchor for years and her family went as far as getting Grandma a personalized autographed picture of him for Christmas.  She was so excited about her gift that now the  picture sits on her mantle nestled between pictures of her family members on graduation and holidays.

Goodbye Bob Barker.  We'll miss you.

So many channels, so little on

Nielsen Media Research recently released a report that found the average household now gets 104.2 different TV channels.  Eleven years ago this number was just at 41.1 channels.  However, even with this huge jump, the average viewer only actually watches 15.7 of these channels, up from 10.1 in 1995.  So, even though we now have over 60 new channels to watch, we're only taking advantage of 5 of them. 

Davis Freeberg finds this very interesting:

What’s interesting about this stat though, is that even though consumers are watching more channels, because the number of channels they have access to has expanded so rapidly, they are actually watching a smaller percentage of channels overall. In 1995, the 10.1 channels that consumers were watching represented about 25% of all channels that were available to them, but today, because we now have over a 100 channels to watch, the 15.7 average channels, really only represents about a 15% share. As the internet and digital delivery continue to exponentially increase the number of programs that you have to choose from, fragmentation will present an even greater challenge for the television industry then it does today.

Number of Channels Available in the Average U.S. Home

YEAR	# of Channels	# of Channels Viewed	% of Available Channels Viewed
2006	104.2	15.7	15.1%
2005	96.4	15.4	16.0%
2004	92.6	15.0	16.2%
2000	61.4	13.6	22.1%
1995	41.1	10.1	24.6%
1990	33.2	n/a	n/a
1985	18.8	n/a	n/a

Most of the new channels added have very specific content and are targeted to a very niche market.  Therefore, the average viewer wouldn't be interested in most of what the new channels have to offer.  However, you'd think there must be a demand if the channels remain on tv.  But in today's society with more demands on our time and more media outlets like the Internet and Netflix, it really isn't a huge surprise that we aren't watching more channels on a regular basis.  How many channels do you watch? 

American Idol's Lessons for Communicators

Note:  This column by Dan McGinn first appeared in the March 2007 issue of the DC Communicator:

American Idol is an entertainment juggernaut. In the first season the Fox show had a weekly audience of 12.7 million and a total of 111 million votes were cast.  By season five, the audience had grown to 30.6 million a week and 578 million total votes.  Taylor Hicks, last season’s winner, got more votes (63.4 million) than George Bush did in the 2004 presidential election (just over 62 million).  American Idol has generated more than six million radio plays in the U.S. and Canada.  And last week, 12 former American Idol contestants are on the charts or close to making it on.  So why should we, as communicators, care?  Because the phenomenal success of this show can teach us important lessons of effective communication:

1.  Inclusion
On American Idol, inclusion is the heart of the show.  Anyone can audition and possibly become the new idol. Once contestants are selected, anyone with a phone can vote and play a part in determining the outcome.   From start to finish, the audience is included and needed.  I am an essential ingredient in the success of this show. 

For communicators and their clients, it is important to think of their audience, their target market, their consumers – not as a separate entity, but as part of the team.  What can you do to make them feel more included in your efforts?  You can always start by asking them just that.  But often, that’s where our efforts end.  We get feedback, ponder it, and carry on as before.  What American Idol does is let its audience know your feedback is what determines what this show becomes. 

2.  Personal Stories
American Idol is only partially about talent.  It’s also about the personal stories of the contestants.  Each singer’s individual story gives me something to think about and possibly identify with.  These contestants are on a tough journey, with tough judges, and I can relate to the ups and downs they are going through.  The personal connections I make as I watch the show also lead me to follow my favorites even after they’ve been cut.  Viewed this way, it’s easy to see why so many were thrilled when American Idol loser Jennifer Hudson became an Oscar winner this year.  American Idol is really about the heartbreaks of those cut along the way. 

As much as possible, communicators need to tell the personal stories of their clients or even their customers.  It’s not about ‘messaging’ – it’s about storytelling.  We need to make personal, emotional connections with people if we’re to succeed in communicating effectively.

3.  That's Entertainment:  Let's be honest - it's fun to watch.  It's fun to love or hate the contestants and the judges.  It's fun to fight with your friends and family members over your favorites.  It's never boring. 

We communicators have to remember to eliminate the boring and remember the fun.  And if we can't do fun, maybe we should at least try for interesting.

2007 Trends - Part 7

JWT, the largest advertising agency in the U.S. and the fourth-largest in the world, wrote their 70 "products, services and trends" to watch in 2007:

1. Skype/VoIP
2. Wii and the next-generation gaming systems
3. The business of social networking
4. Pop-up stores, restaurants and bars ... installation style
5. Shrinky Dink technology (TVs are flat and hidden, iPods are down to half an ounce, speakers are smaller and less visible, and so on)
6. The rise of nanotechnology
7. Sustainable construction/green buildings
8. Hydrogen fuel cell technology
9. Veggie-bus: school buses running on biodiesel fuel
10. Trans-fat fallout
11. Reality show talent searches
12. Ohio State's freshman basketball phenom, Greg Oden
13. Fear of agri-terrorism
14. Halal foods
15. Participatory advertising (user-generated advertising and music video competitions)     16. Premium-drink bars
17. Organic fabrics
18. Stem cell research
19. Iceland
20. Hybrid dogs
21. Locally sourced produce
22. Churchonomics: religion as big business
23. Reunions of donor insemination siblings
24. Hitting the off button: demanding downtime
25. Indian cross-over actress Aishwarya Rai
26. Home-schooling
27. Natural building materials such as stone and wood
28. Binge chilling
29. Personalized diets
30. Brand sluts
31. Modernized tradition
32. Chindia
33. Alpha moms
34. Internet TV
35. Citizen journalism
36. RSS feeds
37. Fresh Direct
38. Google domination (Google as acquirer, and Microsoft as Google follower)
39. Mobile video
40. Rachael Ray
41. Inconspicuous consumption
42. X-Factor's Leona Lewis
43. Dreamgirls' Jennifer Hudson
44. Environmental causes
45. Companies going green
46. Barack Obama
47. Soft, natural hair
48. Microgeneration (generating one's own energy)
49. Party planning for teens
50. Paying for user-generated content
51. Higher-waisted pants
52. iPhone
53. Co-branding (think Nike plus Apple)
54. Britain's Amy Winehouse
55. The rebirth of raves
56. Energy-saving lightbulbs
57. Sacha Baron Cohen
58. Mash-ups (music, Web sites, everything)
59. Japanese apparel chain Uniqlo
60. Promoting "Brand Me"
61. Ensemble TV casts (Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Criminal Minds)
62. Multilingual cinema
63. "Kidults"
64. Transformers (the movie)
65. Web-based microfinancing
66. Generosity
67. Al Gore, the environmentalist
68. Unstrategic alliances (Paris and Britney, Tom and Brooke, Bush Sr. and Clinton)
69. Europeans getting fatter
70. Age shuffling (40 is the new 20, for example)

Higher waisted pants - bring it on.  Al Gore, enviromentalist - played out.  And now I'm going to have to find out what Halal food is. 

Mourning the Movies

I did not watch the Oscars last night. I didn't much care.  It bothered me that I didn't care.  I was the kid who sat in Sister Adele's fifth grade class silently reciting my acceptance speech for my Academy Award.  And I used to think that I should have been born in 1911 so I would be the right age to marry Jimmy Stewart.  In the summer of 1977, I traveled a long way- eight different times - to see Star Wars at the Uptown theater in Washington, DC.

Movies have always been a big deal to me.  I love movies.  But I find myself going less and less to the movies.  And once again,  I am a statistic, because everyone else is going less too. What is going on here?

Chris Anderson has been writing about this forever on his Long Tail blog, but I guess I never felt its "trueness" until last night.  Movies aren't the center of my life the way they used to be.

And then Len at work sends me this op-ed from yesterday's Los Angeles Times.  Neal Gabler first cites statistics:

• In 2006, Box Office attendance reached its lowest point in 10 years.  Foreign receipts are down and even DVD sales are plateauing.
• 45% of American moviegoers had decreased their attendance over the last five years, with the highest percentage of that decrease in the coveted 18- to 24-year-old bracket. (Zogby Survey)
• 21% of respondents said they never went to the movies. (Zogby Survey).
• In another survey, 83 percent of its respondents said they were satisfied with the content of the films they saw, but 60% nevertheless expected to spend less of their income on moviegoing in the future, citing dissatisfaction with the moviegoing experience and the emergence of better alternatives for their time and money. (PA Consulting Survey for the Motion Picture Assn. of America)

Okay - so things look bad - but what's behind it?  Gabler describes:

...an ever-growing culture of knowingness, especially among young people, in which being regarded as part of an informational elite — an elite that knew which celebrities were dating each other, which had had plastic surgery, who was in rehab, etc. — was more gratifying than the conventional pleasures of moviegoing.

In this culture, the intrinsic value of a movie, or of most conventional entertainments, has diminished. Their job now is essentially to provide stars for People, Us, "Entertainment Tonight" and the supermarket tabloids, which exhibit the new "movies" — the stars' life sagas.

This explains the rise of the celebrity culture.  But according to Gabler

...To the extent that the Internet is a niche machine, dividing its users into tiny, self-defined categories, it is providing a challenge to the movies that not even television did, because the Internet addresses a change in consciousness while television simply addressed a change in delivery of content...

The Internet...not only creates niche communities — of young people, beer aficionados, news junkies, Britney Spears fanatics — that seem to obviate the need for the larger community, it plays to another powerful force in modern America and one that also undermines the movies: narcissism.

[Social media sites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube] are replacing one of the movies' functions: If stars' lives are superseding movie narratives, audiences are superseding the stars. Who needs Brad Pitt if you can be your own hero on a video game, make your own video on YouTube or feature yourself on Facebook?

I believe what Gabler says.  Why does that make me so sad?

Local News Your Way

The San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday that little Santa Rose station, KFTY-TV,  is embarking on an experiment in local television coverage.  After laying off most of their newsgathering staff, and acknowledging that their "business model" hadn't worked for years:

Over the next few months, the station's management plans to ask people in the community -- its independent filmmakers, its college students and professors, its civic leaders and others -- to provide programming for the station.

Will they be paid? That's being worked out. Who will cover the harder-edged stories? Some will be culled from local newspaper and TV online sites, Spendlove [Clear Channel executive] said, and "other sources" that are still being discussed.

They don't want to call it citizen journalism - instead saying "local content harvesting" (say what?)  But a rose by any other name. 

I think this is a positive step - they could have chosen to do no news at all.  But Stephen Denny, at Note to CMO blog, is a big more cautious than I am:

So why am I itchy over “the news”? I think that whoever reports on local news in Santa Rosa won’t be participants but amateur observers, I guess...when the “average Joe” – who is unpaid and unprofessional by definition – becomes my main source of information on issues on which he or she is only a casual observer, I lose interest. We’ll see if I’m an outlier or not when this hits the airwaves.

Gonna have to keep on eye on this - it's one tiny step with huge footprints.

Shape-Shifting Television

   "People have become used to time-shifting TV and changing the time they watch programmes. They can also place-shift TV and choose to watch it on a different device from their TV set, such as a PlayStation Portable (PSP) or on a mobile phone. ShapeShifting TV means they can change the shape of the narrative presented to them. "  --  Doug Williams, NM2 project director at British Telecom

This is already happening in Finland.  Viewers watching a series called Accidental Lovers will see:

...text messages and will hear the characters respond to their messages. A glowing heart will show whether their messages are warming or cooling the hearts of the romantic couple, and viewers will see the relationship develop according to their wishes.

If the romance doesn't progress as viewers wish, they can try again later as four runs of the programme will be broadcast showing 12 different evolutions of the love affair. Each one will be different, with each reacting to the viewers' wishes.

This series is on regular television, but the Shapeshifting technology's creators think broadband is its real future.  From Media Life magazine:

“With broadband TV, what we have now is the ability to create something that is as different from TV as TV is from cinema. We have the opportunity to create a new storytelling genre,” says Doug Williams, BT’s project director on the ShapeShifted TV project.

On regular TV, viewers would direct the story line by popular vote. On broadband, each viewer would be able to piece together the various elements of the drama as he or she saw fit, creating a far more personal story.

This IS interactive - and when I look at the attention span of the younger generations today - I'd also say, this IS the future...

e-Commerce and Breaking News

I'm just now reading about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force guerrilla marketing campaign that was mistaken for a terrorist threat in Boston.   According to Cato-at-Liberty blog:

"The campaign received little notice in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Austin, Texas.  But in Boston, public officials treated the signs as a possible terrorist threat, closing bridges, subway stations, roadways, and even part of the Charles River while bomb squads removed the signs."

To me, the whole thing is hilarious.  Especially considering the signs were up for 3 weeks before anyone in Boston noticed.  And now, because they made such a big deal about it, Boston officials want to prosecute the guys that put up the signs. 

Enough.  There's only one thing that interests me about this whole thing - the e-commerce angle.  My colleague Steve Skojec sent me his take on this " ebay Flash Market for breaking news items."

Steve says this story is notable for three reasons:

• New Media Effort -guerrilla marketing in the form of electronic graffiti;
• Major Media Story that has erupted around the citywide panic in Boston over what officials thought was a terrorist plot; and
• New E-Commerce opportunity for individuals who are already selling some of the signs in question on ebay while the story is still in the headlines. One seller has already received a bid of $2000 on a sign he took from an undisclosed location in Atlanta, another city where the marketing campaign was deployed.

Steve goes on to say:

"When the story broke, I knew immediately someone would have them on Ebay – it just made sense. The question this raises is how much of a trend these news-based 'flash markets' will become. Imagine if ebay had existed during the destruction of the Berlin wall. Artifacts that can be sold as an interactive part of a news story have an intrinsic value that is probably much higher in the initial days of a story."

Steve believes (and so do I) - we're going to see more of these flash markets for news related items - and all the ethical questions that brings up.  How long before evidence in a murder trial is up for sale on ebay?

Sciencey Truths

In Seed magazine's "Year in Science 2006" Issue, Jessica Banks was given this assignment by Seed's editors:

"The Colbert Report is one of the few spots on American television where scientists and science writers discuss their work, lampooned though it may be.... Today in order to vote, appreciate contemporary art, etc., more and more you must have an understanding of what's happening in the world of science. The Colbert Report has upped the ante: You now need to know the science in order to get the joke. Science is becoming the currency of the hip."

Jessica's article disagrees with this assessment of Colbert's influence.  She asserts that you don't need to know the science to appreciate the joke.  This is true.  However, she's missing the point.

Stephen Colbert is both a character (on camera) and a real thinking person (behind camera).  The very fact that scientists and science writers appear on his program signals their importance to Stephen Colbert, the writer and producer.  The fact that Stephen Colbert the self-important, blow-hard character makes fun of science only emphasizes how important science has become these days. 

Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion said it's the geeks and the tech savvy "who influence everyone else in our society." You could certainly include scientists in the definition of geeks.  And the exposure scientists get on "The Colbert Report" only strengthens this notion. 

Why is it that people who don't watch television never understand that television is an influential medium?  And why is it so hard to believe that making fun of a subject actually increases interest in that subject?  And why didn't the editors of Seed ask me to write this article?

If you want to judge for yourself, see Stephen Colbert's coverage of science topics here.

CGM Evolves

I was watching the NBC program "Grease: You're the One that I Want" with my two daughters the other night and it occurred to me that this was a different form of Consumer Generated Media (CGM) - it's more a Professional-Amateur blend of CGM - or Pro-Am CGM.  The professionals judges make the first cuts of contestants who are both professionals and amateurs.  The professionals then train these Broadway hopefuls, while the audience (amateurs) ultimately chooses who will star as Sandy and Danny in a brand new Broadway production of Grease. 

The Grease television show uses the crowdsourcing of American Idol, but takes it a step further and puts the ultimate product up for sale early in the process (tickets to the Broadway show).  In the first two days of sales, $1.3 million worth of seats were sold - not bad for a show that has no-name leads and no theater yet.

Another example of Pro-Am CGM is the contest being run by HP as part of it's efforts at the Sundance film festival.  From Susan Getgood at Marketing Roadmaps:

...HP is holding a photo contest called Snapshot Diaries. Entrants submit 6-10 related photos with captions that tell a story. The winning entry will be turned into a short movie by film director Matt Pope like this one:

So what begins as an amateur production winds up as a polished professional movie.  And the winner goes to Sundance in 2008 to see his co-created movie.  Very fun. 

The only other comment to make is that it's fascinating to watch how photos, movies, television, theater and the Internet are all used in these Pro-Am CGM projects.  The Grease television show keeps showing clips of the popular movie to sell tickets to a Broadway show.  And the HP contest uses still photos to make a moving picture.  More and more blending of media. 

High School Musical - What it Means

This past summer, my boss Dan gave me an article on Disney Channel's Original Movie, High School Musical.  The cable movie is a mega-hit and Dan wanted to know what that meant.  So I dutifully rented the movie and watched it with my daughter (age 11) and a few of my nieces (ages 12, 13, 13).  We watched the movie four separate times that weekend.  By the fourth time, we played the sing-along version and sang along.  Then I got to work on Monday and promptly was distracted by other things and never told Dan what I thought.

Fast forward to this week - my daughter informs me that her sixth grade class wants to perform High School Musical for the annual spring musical.  And then I remembered my long neglected assignment.  This time I bought the movie and watched it during lunch with the other New Persuaders in my office.  And then we all talked about it.  Here's what we came up with - some obvious, others maybe not so much:

• Be yourself, Believe in Yourself.  Don't cave into peer pressure. That's what my daughter and my nieces told me the message of the movie was. 
  • Jocks can sing, or bake; freaks can play musical instruments; geeks can dance hiphop.  It's a positive message.  And is related to the thinking that by being ourselves, we are the star of our own life and each one of us is special.  It helps that Disney cast unknowns to star in this movie. 
  • Now I do think each one of us is special, but not all of us are going to be superstars.  And I think when this "be yourself, believe in yourself" tenet is taken too far, you get contestants on American Idol who clearly stink, yet truly believe they are supremely talented.  To quote from The Incredibles: 

Helen: Everyone's special, Dash.
Dash: Which is another way of saying no-one is.

• The Tween Market (ages 8-14) is influential and sophisticated. Consider:
  • Almost 37 million viewers have watched the $4.2 million production [o f High School Musical] at least once since its first airing. (Newsweek, 7/24/06)
  • The soundtrack, a top-10 hit since its January release, is the year's biggest-selling CD, at 2.7 million copies. And the DVD has sold millions too.  (Newsweek, 7/24/06)
  • From Toy Directory Monthly: “Tweens have been raised as consumers,” said [Anne] Sutherland, co-author of the book Kidfluence: The Marketer’s Guide to Understanding and Reaching Generation Y—Kids, Tweens and Teens...
  • Reyne Rice of the research firm NPDFunworld credits Tween spending with bringing $3 billion of new money to the marketplace.  “They are a very vocal group,” Rice said. “They tell you exactly what they do and don’t want. Parents don’t want to buy something their kids don’t want."
  • You'll notice that High School Musical gives logical reasons for the kids to burst into song.  The two leads first sing together during a karaoke party.  With the exception of a couple songs, most of the other songs in the movie are part of a winter musicale the high school is putting on.  I've talked about this before - that if you want today's audiences to buy into your fantasy, you better explain yourself first - these kids are smart.
• It's the Music stupid. Music is interactive entertainment.  You can sing along, you can dance along, you can pretend to be the singer.  And if you are a tween, you'll do all of the above over and over and over again.  Thanks to devices like the iPod, music is accessible and part of these kids daily routine.  Music is central to their lives. 
  • No wonder Disney ran a karaoke version of the movie after it originally aired.  And Disney Channel also used its Web site to make the songs' lyrics available for download for 24 hours. More than 500,000 copies were downloaded within that period. (from Cnet News, 2/6/06)
  • Steve Jobs recently told Newsweek: 

"I think that music faded in importance for a while, and the iPod has helped to bring music back into people's lives in a really meaningful way. Music is so deep within all of us, but it's easy to go for a day or a week or a month or a year without really listening to music. And the iPod has changed that for tens of millions of people, and that makes me really happy, because I think music is good for the soul."

• We have become very conservative.  Many have said this movie is this generation's Grease, but I would beg to differ.  The students of Grease smoked, drank, had sex, got pregnant, and the ultimate message was you can't be yourself to get the guy.  The only things Grease has in common with High School Musical is that both take place in (fantasy) high school and both have singing and dancing. 
  • Newsweek described High School Musical's setting best:  "...there are cliques and rivalries at East High, but there's no sex, no drugs, no racial or ethnic tensions, no dropouts and no violence. Everyone is good-looking, well-dressed and talented. Classrooms are spacious and clean. In the end, the home team wins, all conflicts are resolved and everybody dances together in the gym. It's not high school; it's high school the way we wish it could be."
  • As a result of our conservatism, our thirst for G-rated fare is increasing.  Think Napoleon Dynamite.  Parents are increasingly involved in every aspect of their child's life. (Even interfering at work!) Parents want to comfortably watch a movie with their children.  And even if you're not such a conservative parent, you can enjoy making fun of the movie as you watch it.  And you can enjoy your child's enjoyment.  So it's win-win when you make G-rated fare. 

I think Disney was not completely surprised by the success of High School Musical because they knew what they were doing.  And now we have High School Musical, The Musical and High School Musical 2 to look forward to:

"East High is on summer hiatus, so the battleground shifts to the country club, founded by (who else?) Sharpay's granddad. Troy, Gabriella and the others show up as lifeguards, waiters and caddies. And the haves and the have-nots tee off in the club's annual midsummer night's musical. There'll be plenty of drama: this time around, Ryan may turn on his sis.  But will Troy finally get to kiss Gabriella?"

So now the comparisons will be with Dirty Dancing (Without the sex, abortion and affairs).

As for my experience with the movie, I'm embarrrassed to admit I had fun watching it.  I did make comments and poke fun, but I also sang along.  And I think that's a key ingredient for any successful venture these days - Make it Fun.

Dwight Schrute + Reality + Fantasy + Fantasy

I am what you might call a committed television viewer.  I take a show on and I commit to it - I will watch every episode ever if I have taken the vow.  So you can imagine how happy I am that the fall TV season is upon us.  I get attached to characters (Hurley on Lost) ,I despise other characters (Baltar on Battlestar Galactica) and I certainly am not afraid to yell at characters when they're stupid (that means you Lorelei Gilmore). 

I've mentioned here before about how fantasy and reality are blending in so many ways in our society. And now it seems, reality and fantasy and fantasy are beginning to blend too. My favorite example of this is the fact that Dwight K. Schrute, Assistant (to the) Regional Manager of the Scranton, PA branch of Dunder Mifflin Paper Products, Inc (and a character on NBC's The Office) has his own blog, Schrute Space. 

And Dwight has written has taken the fantasy reality blend to a whole new level with what is perhaps the greatest blog post ever written:  Lost Battlestar. 

Dwight asks this profound question:

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THE CAST OF  BATTLESTAR GALACTICA CRASH LANDED ON THE ‘LOST’ ISLAND???!!! (again with the nudge, nudge, wink, wink factor)

He then goes on to answer (accurately in my opinion) what would happen:

Meanwhile back at the hatch, Adama would want to imprison the “Lost” 
cast in the old cave with the creek in it, but president “Roslin” 
would want to reason with them and have both casts mate in order to 
create more surviving humans.

Meanwhile the Cylons would have contacted the Others and they would 
form an “alliance” to destroy all the good humans and especially that 
annoying French woman who lives on the other side of the island.

Starbuck would shoot the unseen monster and Sawyer would say 
something witty and sexy, like “Nice shot, blondie.  Where’d you 
learn to shoot a laser like that?  From watching princess Leia?”

Dwight knows his fellow TV characters.  Dwight is one of us.  Now I see Dwight in a whole new light.  And I'll probably be a more loyal follower of The Office (which I haven't taken the vow for since it makes me cringe and sometimes I have to leave the room - too real for fiction.) 

But what is fascinating here is that I don't care if Dwight's not real - he's real to me.  And I like being in on the joke. 

Which leads me to my next piece of news regarding two of my favorite shows and characters (Scrubs and the much-missed Arrested Development - via The Ausiello Report):

Ausiello: What's this I hear about David Cross coming on as his Arrested Development character?
Braff: That's what I'm trying to broker. I'm a huge fan of his and so is Bill, and our idea was that he would play Tobias in an episode. Obviously, we have to get that cleared by a lot of people, like [Arrested creator] Mitch [Hurwitz] and Fox, but that was my pitch. David wants to do it.

That would make my television year.  Reality + fantasy + fantasy works for me.

(Note that once again, the show Lost and its creators are one step ahead of everyone - when you click on the cast - you get bios on not just the actors, but on the characters too.)

Customer Inclusion at Sci-Fi Channel

Erick Schonfeld at B2DAY reports on a first at the Sci-Fi Channel:

NBC Universal's Sci-Fi Channel posted online the complete pilot of an animated show called The Amazing Screw-On Head.  It's based on a comic book written by Mike Mignola (who also wrote Hell Boy), and features the voices of actors Paul Giamatti and Molly Shannon.  Still, the Sci-Fi execs are on the fence about whether or not to greenlight the whole series.

The pilot will run on TV on July 22, but you can't get feedback from viewers on TV.  So Sci-Fi is using the Web, specifically its recently launched broadband channel Sci-Fi Pulse, to convene a massive online focus group.  The show runs ad-free, but then each viewer is asked to fill out a quick survey asking for age, gender, and whether they liked the show, would watch it again, or recommend it to friends. 

So the web becomes a new, cheap method of pre-screening tv pilots and getting instant feedback from thousands of people.  A Sci-Fi Channel exec told Schonfeld, "...this gives an opportunity for shows that we might not normally even make a pilot out of.  We can test it online, and maybe go a more inexpensive route when developing it.  Maybe we make a six-minute pilot instead of 22-minute one."

A six minute show?  Now you're talking.  That goes along with NBC's plan to run 10 original 2-minute webisodes of The Office this summer. It's a start, but I'm hoping that sooner or later the networks will realize that the world wide web is not an adjunct to television, but a primary platform alongside television.  And the web is not limited to the same constraints (like length) that television has.

More Innovation from TiVo

Ok, you may have noticed that I like TiVo. Half of my New Persuasion blogs seem to be about TiVo, which I often refer to as “the best thing that ever happened to me.” (After my husband, of course… if he happens to be reading this).

In all seriousness, though, I write about TiVo a lot because the company is constantly innovating and offering new services that relate to New Persuasion topics. BrandNoise reported yesterday that TiVo is launching the TiVo Guru Guide, which allows subscribers to “discover programming and automatically record collections of shows recommended by editorial experts at top consumer magazines and new sources,” such as Entertainment Weekly, Sports Illustrated, Billboard, Automobile, and CNET.

(You can read all about the Guru Guide here).

The Guru Guide comes on the heels of two other new offerings from TiVo: TiVo KidZone, a password-protected, "safe" mode that, when enabled, automatically displays only the shows that subscribers pre-approve for their kids and allows subscribers to browse and select shows recommended by family-friendly organizations; and TiVo ToGo, which allows subscribers to download recorded programs to watch on other devices, such as computers, DVD players, and other mobile devices.

According to TiVo president Tom Rogers, “Providing our users with a better, smarter way to enjoy their favorite television is at the core of what we do at TiVo and how we transform television viewing for consumers." These are New Persuasion principles: letting viewers control the televison experience, and using innovation to transform how TV consumers enhance the use of and enjoyment of the medium.

It’s all about user empowerment, which TiVo vice president and general manager of programming Tara Maitra recognizes:

By matching up TiVo technology with engaging Guru Guide recommendations from trusted sources, we are empowering TiVo subscribers with a brand new way to find, organize and view their favorite shows in an increasingly crowded television environment.

Looks like TiVo has also found a new way for television to survive, if not thrive, in our saturated world.

Lessons From Lost

On the subject of Gayle’s post yesterday, it seems as though the creative team behind ABC’s hit show Lost has found a way to engage viewers… even during commercials. Last night's episode featured a clue among the commercials – an ad for the Lost-created Hanso Foundation. The commercial directed viewers to this website, which some think has a rather creepy tie-in to the Sprite “Obey Your Thirst” campaign. This clue-in-the-commercial concept brings a bigger question to mind: could such tie-ins make the TiVo crowd think twice before skipping commercials? Daniel at the Free Associate blog:

So did you see the "hint" in a commercial during lost? I did, although I caught it while I was fast-forwarding on my TiVo. Oops, not what was supposed to happen right ABC? I was supposed to actually watch commercials to look for clues. Well I did for a while, but I got bored and started fast-forwarding again.

I don’t even watch Lost, but I am fascinated by what a phenomenon it is – and its amazingly loyal viewers. (Check out a few of the ways they’re engaged here) I heard about the clue/commercial on morning radio, DC 101, and then again from Nellie when I got to the office. However, not everyone thinks the commercial was clever. Epth Nation is not a fan:

Is LOST trying to use some corporate Hanso connection to a soft drink to both demonstrate Hanso's evil powers AND advertise for that soft drink?
Am I starting to get the feeling that this so-called "Lost Experience" is going to be 1 part mystery, 10 parts advertising for real-life products?

Whether or not these "commercial clues" encourage the ever-growing number of TiVo users to watch commercials remains to be seen. While I don’t claim to be a Lost expert by any means - reading blogs and message boards today while researching this post, lead me to this conclusion: companies could learn a few things about what customers expect by watching the folks behind Lost.

• First, they involve their viewers by integrating multiple platforms. Gone is the passive audience. The Lost book, the Lost websites, ABC’s inside the experience blog, the upcoming game… plenty for loyalists to investigate between episodes.
• Secondly, they’re accessible. Missed an episode and need to catch up? No problem, watch it on ABC.com or buy it on iTunes.
• Finally, they produce a product worth talking about. Let’s face it, no matter how good the marketing campaign, if the product behind it is poor, attention will be limited. Lost is intriguing enough to be talked about. Morning radio shows dedicate huge blocks of time to it every week. Dedicated bloggers post on it weekly. Newspapers feature wrap-ups. A product worth talking about will be talked about. 

We've mentioned Lost several times before here at NP. But the lessons found within TV's interactive future are worth bringing up again.

South Park, Society's Conscience

One of my favorite shows, South Park, just won a Peabody Award.  The Peabody represents "the best in electronic journalism."  Here's what the Peabody committee had to say about the merits of South Park:

Comedy Central`s notoriously rude, undeniably fearless lampoon of all that is self-important and hypocritical in American life, regardless of race, creed, color or celebrity status.

There was lots of cheering in the blog world.  I have said to anyone who will listen that South Park always dissects an issue, religion, movement, whatever...better than any other show.  Their recent show on hybrids - Smug Alert -  is a prime example.  The gist of the show was that hybrids cause Smug – an inflated sense of self-satisfaction.  Here's the dialogue at the end of the show:

Stan:  No, hybrid cars are a good thing…hybrid cars don't cause smugness - people do, look, hybrid cars are important they may even save our planet some   day, what you all need to do is just learn to drive hybrids and not be smug about it

Randy Marsh (Stan's Dad):  You mean driving hybrids but not act like we're better than everyone else because of it?

Stan:  Yeah

Randy Marsh:  I'm not ready

Mr. Broflovski: I don't think I can do it either –

Mr. Mackey:  It's simply asking too much

Randy Marsh:  Perhaps one day we can learn to drive hybrids without  being smug about it – but for now the technology is just too much for us.

Now that is some funny truth.  Seeing this episode made me think of the Chevy Tahoe/Apprentice create-an-ad website.  (Disclosure - General Motors is a client of  The McGinn Group, where I work -  though we're not involved with this campaign.)

GM's gotten both high praise and no praise for this campaign.  Then people started creating ads like this- blasting SUV owners and SUVs all together.  And it reminded me of the holier-than-thou attitude of the hybrid owners in the South Park episode.  I wrote once before about the New Puritans among us, and I think this is another example of people imposing their views on others.  And I give credit to Chevy for leaving the ads - both pro and con - up on the website. 

Truth is, I drive a 1998 Saturn, my sister drives a 2004 Tahoe, my brother drives a 2005 Expedition, my nephew drives a 2006 Prius (or Pious as South Park called it.) and my son drives a 2001 Jetta.  We all lead different lives and need different things - and that includes cars. 

 

South Park is my hero.

Life After the 30-Second Spot

Joseph Jaffe was kind enough to send me a copy of his book Life After the 30-Second Spot in exchange for a review on this blog.  Little did he know it would take me this long. 

This is an excellent book.  He's trying to wake up and shake up the advertising industry.  (Something we've looked at before - see Advertising is Going through Menopause.)He challenges advertisers to rethink four fundamentals of marketing:

• The Changing Customer
• Branding
• Advertising
• The Agency

For me, the most important area is the changing consumer.  Jaffe outlines ten areas where the consumer has morphed.

Jaffe says today's consumer is:

Intelligent - super-intelligent actually

Empowered - they can effect change

Skeptical -they're not going to accept your word

Connected - 1 or 2 degrees of separation from the information they need

Time-pressed - it's hard to get their attention

Demanding - you owe them a product with value, and much more

Loyalless - they're loyal to "a brand or company until they fool, disappoint, or let me down once." 

Always Accessible - "If the consumer is given more avenues to access, connect, research, purchase, and communicate, the result is an always-open-for-business utopia.  Media or mediums become essentially transparent, as information is delivered in a seamless on-demand fashion."

Ahead of the Curve (or at least ahead of you) - "using a combination of most of the preceding tenets, today's consumers use the power at their fingertips to manipulate, finesse, and fine-tune information and knowledge to their unique requirements."

Vengeful - we'll use the "word-of mouse" to let others know about bad service and experiences.

Life After the 30-Second Spot is not just a thought piece. Jaffe also gives solutions and practical advice to marketers on reaching these new customers using every method available in this high tech world of ours. 

The 30-second spot isn't really dead.  It will live on for a long time - but it is aging rapidly.  And Jaffe wants advertisers to recruit some of the young media out there.  He's right.  Advertisers should get this book and do some changing - like their customers.

Arrested Development Cancelled? Yahoo!

There's a lot of talk these days about the all-but-cancelled Fox show, Arrested Development.  (One blogger's headline: Fox's Arrested Development Cancelled: Retards More Influential Than Thought).   

But you have to read Steve Safran's post over at Lost Remote.  He thinks the cancellation could be great for the show.   Safran suggests the creators of the show take advantage of new technologies:  Video on Demand, Video podcasting, short-form content available in all formats, BitTorrent, cast blogs (in character - more fantasy/reality blending?), web contests, DVDs with extra content, premium memberships online with extras...the possibilities are endless.

As his many commenters debate the actual economics of this particular show, Safran responds that though it might not happen for Arrested Development..

...it WILL happen with some show, and it will happen soon.  I firmly believe original content VOD channels are a matter of when, not if. And that "when" is sooner than maybe any of us think.

He's right.

Television is morphing before our eyes. 

• Select ABC shows, such as Lost and Desperate Housewives, are distributed for $1.99 via iTunes store.
• NBC and CBS will sell reruns of their top new shows for 99 cents an episode through video-on-demand services. CBS is working with Comcast and NBC with DirecTV.
• Warner Brothers is preparing a major new Internet service that will let fans watch full episodes from more than 100 old television series. The service, called In2TV, will be free, supported by advertising, and will start early next year. More than 4,800 episodes will be made available online in the first year.  America Online, which is making a broad push into Internet video, will distribute the service on its Web portal.
• Lost - As I've said before, this show is leading the way for a new breed of program that extends way beyond the confines of one hour a week.  John Borland at CNET News writes:  "The marketing mix of mystery and real-life activities has helped keep the buzz around the popular show at a fever pitch--and is essentially part of a new cross-media art form that's quickly picking up speed and sophistication online."
• Comedy Central's new MotherLoad Web site - is taking baby steps into the future by offering select clips of content rather than the full range of programming available on Comedy Central's cable channel.
• Sky, a satellite TV provider owned by News Corp., will launch an Internet TV service  before the end of the year.
• Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network will offer the online sale of several half-hour programs for $2.99 per download...the episodes will be formatted to work exclusively with toy maker Hasbro Inc.'s VuGo portable media player, which sells for about $100 a discount retailers.
• Pete Blackshaw over at ClickZ writes that "TV is dead, Long Live TV!"  Blackshaw says of the Video iPod, "Apple's breakthrough, once again, isn't simply about selling iPods but in cultivating a new cultural mindset around content distribution that will benefit all portable device players. iPods are easing our transition (with real, tangible benefits as bait) to a new, hugely consequential habit change."  He goes on to list several opportunities for marketers in this new world of portable content.
• Yahoo! runs original content with Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone - where broadcast journalist/blogger Sites does "solo journalism" from conflict zones around the world.   Content includes text, photography, video, audio, and interactive chat.  From a recent Newsweek article on the future of entertainment:  "Yahoo, under the leadership of former Warner Brothers chairman and CEO Terry Semel, is moving more and more of its staff from Silicon Valley to L.A. As the worlds of media, technology and telecommunications collide, there will undoubtedly be more and more interesting new pairings..."

So here's my thinking:

Fox is only one distribution channel for media content.
Arrested Development needs another distribution channel.
Yahoo! (and Google for that matter) is a Media company.
Arrested Development is media content.
Yahoo! is a community of millions.
Arrested Development already has a loyal fan base of about 4 million.
Yahoo wants original content for its site.
Arrested Development is original, primo content.
Yahoo has a lot of money and wants to make a bold statement.
Arrested Development is expensive and needs a sugar daddy.

I'll only echo Steve Safran again - if not this show, then it will be the next - one thing is for sure - it will happen, and it will happen soon.

Special thanks to Chris Anderson at The Long Tail for the link.  And for relating television's metamorphisis to The Long Tail.

Lost - TV's Interactive Future?

My family knows not to mess with me at 9 o'clock on Wednesday nights.  I'm watching Lost.  I love this show.  It's mystery buried in mystery shrouded in another mystery.  But as much as I love what they do onscreen - I really love ABC and the makers of Lost for what they're doing off-screen.  Lost is more than a show.  Examples:

• Last season, cast members actively contributed to fan message boards - expect more of the same this year.
• Entertainment Weekly magazine ran a special advertising section in their September 16th issue - featuring a set of 9 Lost trading cards (27 in all) w/character info on the back.
• ABC had already set up a fake website about Oceanic Air - the airline the Lost passengers flew and crashed on.  It only added to the show's mythology.
• After last night's episode, there are two new websites that fans can explore.  The Hanso Foundation and Dharma Industries - two organizations mentioned during the show.

These efforts are awesome.  They build fan loyalty and feed fan appetites for more information - especially since that information leads to more questions.  The Lost team is creating an incredible world here that goes far beyond the actual show.

What should they do next?  Some kind of massive multiplayer game w