Coming off the Super Bowl surge of popularity for advertising (when commercials get higher audience than the game thanks to DVR devices), a NY Times had an article today noting the importance of the web for additional viewing of popular commercials. In fact, marketers should be thinking about ways to post all spots on the Internet on various sites:
“The ‘torture test’ for brands beyond their Super Bowl ads is how to make it easy for consumers to find the ads and engage with them, whether you put them on Web sites, on YouTube or make them easy to search for on Google,” said Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president at the Nielsen Online Strategic Services division of the Nielsen Company.
With broadcast production costs rising and media placement costs continuing to rise, it just makes sense to take the spots that have been produced for the paid media placement and use them in free media outlets that consumers actually seek out. As an advertising agency and strategic partner to our clients, we should be recommending that all produced spots are placed on the web.
Earlier this week I wrote about my love of the Kindle after reading that Steve Jobs thinks it is stupid (I am exaggerating, of course) because no one reads anymore. Well, it seems his comments stirred up some others as well. Advertising Age disputes Jobs’ statistics on reading as well:
“‘Who are these “people” to whom Steve Jobs is referring?’ Publishers Weekly Editor in Chief Sara Nelson asked me last week. ‘Not the million-ish who are devouring Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love” or the ones who line up for Harry Potter and/or James Patterson novels.’ She added: ‘All I can say is that when I sat in restaurants and airports or on buses or trains and pulled out my Kindle, I got more attention than if I’d shown up naked–with an adorable puppy.’”
Right on.
This is from an article in Advertising Age:
“Research from internet ad network Mindset Media confirms the ad’s personification of Mac users as superior and self-satisfied. Its recent Mac user ‘mind-set profile’–a psychographic ranking system that scores respondents on 20 different elements of personality–found them to be more assured of their superiority, less modest and more open of the general population.”
“Far fewer cohesive personality traits emerged among PC owners, likely because of the breadth of PC ownership. Given that 95% or so of all computer users own a PC, those users essentially are the general population. The one area where PC users did stand out as statistically different was in creativity–low creativity, that is. Mindset Media found they tend to be realists who are emotionally steady and work well with what they’re given.”
This makes total sense. I don’t think research really had to be conducted to learn these things, but it is interesting that now there are statistics to confirm it.
Tom Green, the comedian who has had a few television talk shows already, has launched an Internet-based talk show. Here is what the site says about it:
“Tom Green Live is a LIVE Internet-based talk show featuring celebrity guests, hosted by comedian Tom Green, from his living room…yes, his actual living room. The show is LIVE at TomGreen.com, The Channel, from 8pm-9pm Monday through Friday. Although technically it’s a talk show, it’s really much more than that. Tom Green Live is non-political, and because The Channel is completely independent, pretty much anything goes! With a combination of A-List celebrity guests, a global audience, and Tom’s signature brand of comedy, Tom Green Live is unlike anything you’ve seen before! Tom takes calls over the phone, along with Skype video calls from viewers from locations as varied as the U.S.A, Canada, Australia, Estonia, and Argentina, not to mention several others! The mission is simple, to make you laugh, and to make you, the viewers, an integral part of the show by harnessing the power of the National Internet, something no other show can offer, sounds cool right? Check it out right here by clicking on the “Tom Green Live” tab on the player, oh, and make sure you tell a friend!”
Think about the growth potential of a channel like this if he were to get paid advertising.
The Wall Street Journal had a great article in yesterday’s edition with predictions about the ways in which technology will change our shopping behaviors, learning tools and entertainment methods. It is a long article, but I encourage you to read it if you have the time. Here are some highlights from the intro to give you a little taste:
- Televisions that project 3-D images into the middle of the living room.
- Appliances that “talk” to us through email alerts.
- Commuters will still carry newspapers to work, but will likely download them to a pocket-sized computer that can also show TV news broadcasts.
- Shoppers will still be greeted at Wal-Mart, but a computer may be the one saying hello–and reminding them of what they bought on their last visit.
- Friends will still send each other birth and wedding announcements, but the process will be virtually automated, thanks to alerts on social-networking sites.
I love future predictions! Enjoy.
I’ll admit it. I bought the Amazon Kindle, the electronic reader that received much hype and not-so-great reviews. And, I’ll admit that I love it. But, I am a reader. I read a lot and I read fast. I also travel pretty frequently. So, the idea of a device that holds 200 books that I can purchase for $9.99 each was appealing to me. The device has its faults (clunky page turn buttons that are too easily pressed mistakenly, the cover sucks, the power switch is on the back), which I am sure will be repaired in the next generation. I am a little self-conscious using it in public places because it is not that common and people tend to stare (and, I am a little embarrassed about how much I paid for it). But, nonetheless, I love reading from it–it is lightweight, easy to hold, doesn’t hurt my eyes, and holds more books than I can read. The New York Times has even said that “Amazon’s device could turn out to be the iPod of the written word.” I would agree, except supposedly no one reads anymore:
When Steve Jobs “was asked two weeks ago at the Macworld Expo what he thought of the Kindle, he heaped scorn on the book industry. ‘It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is; the fact is that people don’t read anymore,’ he said. ‘Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.’” Jobs, however, is not always right: “a survey conducted in August 2007 by Ipsos Public Affairs for The Associated Press found that 27 percent of Americans had not read a book in the previous year…the same share–27 percent–read 15 or more books. In fact, when we exclude Americans who had not read a single book in that year, the average number of books read was 20, raised by the 8 percent who read 51 books or more. In other words, a sizable minority does not read, but the overall distribution is balanced somewhat by those who read a lot.”
“The book world has always had an invisible asset that makes up for what it lacks in outsize revenue and profits: the passionate attachment that its authors, editors and most frequent customers have to books themselves. Indeed, in this respect, avid book readers resemble avid Mac users.
“The object we are accustomed to calling a book is undergoing a profound modification as it is stripped of its physical shell. Kindle’s long-term success is still unknown, but Amazon should be credited with imaginatively redefining its original product line, replacing the book business with the reading business.”
