Jaffe Juice

Just read on Adrants about a new double dose of fake blogs, this time for McDonalds. As one reader points out, Edelman should be fired for this (even though they had nothing to do with this particular "campaign"....or did they?)

Even though there was a press release, it appears that there was still insufficient disclosure on the blog, 4Railroads.

To be sure, 4Railroads is quite harmless. It's not like it is being faked by a 10 year old 200-pound girl who insists that her childhood obesity is completely genetic and not influenced by the Big Macs she gorges down every day.

In fact, from a narrative standpoint it is actually quite cute...the "online journal/diary" of a possessed consumer, intent on winning McDonalds Monopoly Game. I get it.

So what's the problem?

The problem is less the lack of transparency (I am torn between jumping on a holier-than-though puritanical binge, which more often than not leads straight to the gates of hypocrisy...can you say Edelman?...and demanding equal low or high standards for all media on the disclosure stakes before I go nutso on a nascent one e.g. product placement on television) and more plain pathos.

It's just kind of harmless really. And by harmless I mean sad and pathetic.

There are no comments. No life. No nothing.

I guess the real questions from my perspective are two-fold:

1) Surely McDonalds could be investing better in blogs and really reaping the full power of conversation, dialogue, consumer generated content and networking? Is the best they can do...and if so, perhaps they should be handing over the reigns to people that know what they're doing?

2) Going back to the first-person narrative account, surely long form content in some kind of episodic form would have been a better execution of this idea (for example)

This is one of those cases where "social media" and "new marketing" are not necessarily one and the same. The former is dominated by PR people and the latter by more advertising/marketing-oriented folk. I find myself somewhere inbetween, longing for the days of good old fashioned storytelling, with a sprinkle of authenticity and a drizzle of ROI to boot.

How about you?

It's headlines like these that make my job easy: Better ROI From YouTube Video Than Super Bowl Spot.

Via Ad Age

I blogged about this 6 months ago. The other day I saw an "ad" for the iPod Nano "Red" edition on iTunes and within 5 minutes I had purchased it. No questions asked.

This is real. This is what it's all about.

When the American Express RED card is available in the US, I will gladly give up my Platinum card for the RED card.

I love it.

Coming through the launch process, I'm learned a pretty important lesson. Opening up a storefront/presence in Second Life is not dissimilar to a Wal-Mart opening up in a small town.

Let's leave it at that.

MediaPost runs a piece today talking about a threesome of Wendy's videos running on YouTube. The most popular of which is "Molly Grows Up"...

Vital Stats: (as of 6.48am on Friday 10/27)

• Length: 2m28 (or 4.93 30-second spots)
• 584,000 views
• 2 stars from 3,094 ratings
• 311 comments
• Favorited 271 times

I must admit, after reading the MediaPost article, I came expecting to hate this, but I didn't. It's hokey...but it's meant to me. Not particularly original, but brings a smile to your face nonetheless.

More importantly, it's actually not about the long-form content piece anymore and arguably it's not about Wendy's anymore...it has jumped on the viral bandwagon and now will be making its way across the blogosphere and the like.

The other 2 spots in the thread are not proving to be as popular, which suggests a concern about "scale" - iow, once is witting, twice is shitting.

Ultimately the YouTube phenomenon - with marketers scrambling to get free media and viral activation like lemmings - raises a bunch of important questions:

1. Should marketers be paying based on certain thresholds being reached (in terms of popularity)?
2. Is this scaleable? Wendy's Better Value Bureau is just another advertsing campaign...in today's day and age, the wearout factor amongst fickle consumers is incredibly short-lived
3. Will this sell bacon-cheese-bacon-cheese-bacon-cheese-whopper-mac-99c-burgers?

How and where do I start? What a surreal experience. We pulled it off and are now officially...real (and virtual)

We've launched simultaneously in the real and virtual worlds. At precisely 12noon EST...our traditional and social media press releases hit the wires, our site and press room went live and our event began in Second Life on our Island, crayonville (same name as our dot com site)

I am so happy and relieved, but most importantly energized by the possibilities that lie ahead and by the future.

A big thank you to the amazing folks at MillionsOfUs (Reuben, Versu and the rest of the team) for EVERYTHING today - including juggling a waiting list and 57 avatars at the same time. The audio track/synching was fantastic...and save the teensiest of white noise (which CC covered for), it went off without a hitch. We have audio and hopefully video and will also most likely release a transcript as well.

I'll update this post regularly today with other posts...from other crayon members, attendees (including this from Ewan Spence) and press (including this from Adrants)

In the interim, here are a few notable links from today:

- our Flickr site (expanding as we speak)

- our press room with links to crayonCast - our collaborative weekly podcast - and Matthew Ebel's Every Color (YOU ROCK!)

- our new blog: www.crayonville.com/blog

I love this response from Coke the Diet-Coke Mentos meme which raises a few interesting talking points:

1) A late response is better than no response at all

2) Large corporations absolutely can "fight back" (and I say this completely light-heartedly) and join the conversation...as long as they talk with (as opposed to at or down to) the comunity

Not sure how the challenge will work out, but moreover it makes for great storytelling and humanizes the brand in new and bold ways.

PS An anal reminder that The Coca-Cola Company is a client (of which I am very proud)

The past 5 episodes of Across the Sound are stuck in RSS Limbo right now. If you're subscribed through iTunes or any podcatcher, you'd be fine...but for some reason, iTunes isn't displaying the 5 most recent episodes for ala carte download/listening.

I'm wondering whether this is Apple's way of unleashing revenge on me as these 5 episodes are coincidentally the same ones which replaced PodCast with a bunch of other names...if I promise to go back to Podcast, will you guys back off?

I've had numerous chats with Feedburner and RadioTail, but we've come up empty handed. This leaves the fine folk at Apple who for some reason choose to ignore all customer service requests as part of their image MO. I've sent 3+ e-mails to Apple to ask them to help and I haven't as much as received a 24-hour autoresponder.

I'm fed up and I'm going to keep a running tally now of my attempts to get this matter resolved. Every day, I'll send another inquiry/request to iTunes and report back on my progress.

From what I understand, the problem might be with Apple's caching system, although I am getting an error message from Feed Validator to the effect of: length attribute of enclosure must be a positive integer

<enclosure url="http://ripple.radiotail.com/102/ats_60_the_new_marketing_crayoncast.mp3" type="text/html" length="unknown" />

Anyway, for those wondering where they went or wanting to catch up, here are the direct links:

ATS #56 - The New Marketing ZuneCast

ATS #57 - The New Marketing KaraokeCast

ATS #58 - The New MarketingCast

ATS #59 - The New Marketing SEPCast

ATS #60 - The New Marketing CrayonCast

We are a day away from official launch. Last night I dropped by crayonville Island with Cleon Goff (CC Chapman) to meet with our events management team from Millions of Us for a sound check and some preliminary testing.

We are pretty much at capacity right now, but for those of you who are planning on attending, please IM Rodica MillionsofUs or email rodica AT millionsofus.com (please include your SL name in the email)

Update: The launch is at 12noon EST (that's 9am Linden) on Thursday, 10/26

So far I have the following avatars on my list:

• Ariel Spoonhammer
• Deelo Ohtobide
• Sheva Weeks
• EZ Rawley
• Pete Bossy
• Kumar Kotobide
• Joker Nephilim
• Quay Lime

The outpouring of support and warm wishes for crayon has been overwhelming. Thank you to everyone.

I had to enjoy this post from Luke Armour at the Observations of Public Relations Blog:

• Holtz says to me a fuzzy wuzzy brown
• Hobson is nothing less than a burnt sienna
• CC Chapman couldn’t be anything other than atomic tangerine
• Jaffe is a toss-up between razzmatazz and purple pizzazz

Are some of those colors even legal?

PS As you know, we launch on Thursday and the crayon:new marketing ratio will inevitably drop for anyone concerned. I'm just rather excited right now...

Drew Neisser, CEO of Renegade Marketing, wrote this piece in The Wise Marketer. In it he outlines the following trends:

1. Corporate honesty at all costs
2. Transparent customer satisfaction   
3. Net Promoter Scores
4. Blog monitors   
5. Niche market mining
6. Eco-everything
7. More user-generated content
8. No more lines
9. Daring to be digital
10. Innovation triumphs

What can I add to this other than, I totally agree.

It is with great pride, excitement and anticipation that I get to share the news that I've started a new company called "crayon"

In short, crayon is a different kind of company that specializing in new marketing: new marketing for a new consumer.

You could say crayon is the embodiment and natural extension of "Life after the 30-second spot," but in truth it's much much more. Consider the fact I didn't even have a blog, let alone a podcast before the book came out.

crayon is a mash-up of the best of the agency, consulting, advisory, thought leadership and education worlds rolled into one shape-shifting package.

Our motto or mantra is: "Conversation and Transformation above Communication," which I think answers David Weinberger's question.

Instead of expanding on crayon myself, I'm going to direct you to three of the new crayons, my good friends Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz, who as you probably know are co-hosts of the popular PR podcast For Immediate Release, and podcasting music pioneer and all-around good guy, C.C. Chapman. They do a pretty damn fine job explaining everything on their own blogs.

Are you sensing a pattern here?

We launch officially on Thursday at an undisclosed Island...more info and surprises to follow this entire week. In the interim, if you have any questions, comments, would like to chat etc., drop me an e-mail at my new home: jaffe at crayonville dot com

"Don't forget the music" - don't break the rules; use the world of Independent music (Podsafe music)

"How long is the perfect show?" - It's a myth; doesn't matter

CC is getting quizzed on "metrics" (sigh) and education

How can you do it right?

• focus on the content
• plan for the long haul. Podfading isn't cool
• Start slow and build momentum - don't go for the big splash
• don't go it alone
• embrace the podosphere
• find a great host (it's all about the voice too)

Be the Expert

• YOU can be the expert on any given topic
• YOUR brand can be the leader in its space

All in all...very actionable/prescriptive and focused on making it real. Nice one.

I'm at the CMA Digital Conference in Toronto watching my new colleague, C.C. Chapman Keynote.

Also just heard in conversation that TV Guide in Canada has ditched its paper guide in favor of all online all the time. Here's a report which speaks to this momentous anouncement.

Not sure to what extent this will cover the US...but it's a biggie.

It also follows hot on the heels of NBC's restructing announcement yesterday.

Very interesting piece via Business 2.0/CNN Money, which dissects the failure of ESPN Mobile - Disney pulled the plug on this venture after just 8 months.

This is such a massive "I told you so" for so many reasons, not the least of which was the fact it was one hell of an ugly-looking product (think anti-iPod) I get the fact ESPN has a good idea of its typical consumer, but somewhere along the line of throwing stones at network television and getting drunk on their own self-importance, someone lost the plot...thinking that savvy males (predominently) would run around with a gimmicky giant turd of a branded mobile phone.

As a side story, ESPN promoted the crap out of this...with a tidal wave of house advertising on ESPN, not to mention a Super Bowl ad.

Scorecard update: +1 for product over brand and -1 for efficacy of TV advertising

Actually just me...literally that is.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending David Armano's Blog Eye's View presentation at Digitas.

It was the first time we'd met, but as usual it felt like we'd known each other our whole lives.

In this pic, is BuzzMetric's Max Kalehoff, Christina Kerley AKA CK (her post), myself, L+E's Armano and Greg Verdino, who also heads up Digitas' Emerging/Futures practice.

Note that all 5 of us have our own blogs. How about you?

As I arrived at the railway station today, there was a table where people where handing out bottled water. I took a bottle and hopped on the train.

At a moment of boredom, I took a gander at the bottle. This is what I saw:

"In the last nine years, we've conserved enough water to fill 11 billion bottles like this"

The company in question was United Technologies.

I loved the content and context of this message.

Now I can't say I know too much about this company, but I'm probably not their audience anyway (although arguably as a blogger, I most surely am).

Parting thought...a pity they never provided a URL on the bottle.

I'm heading into NYC today for a double-serving of social media.

First is Logic + Emotion's David Armano's presentation (blog's eye view) on social networking/media etc.

Second is a a fancy-schmancy OMD event, in which recently crowned billionnaire, Chad Hurley, some podcasting hack called Adam Curry :) and a bunch of other pretenders from start-ups like MySpace and Federated Media will wax on their respective specialities.

I will report back later on both events.

So Richard Edelman has apologized via the Wall Street Journal for the Wal-Marting across America Kerfuffle

So why do I still feel empty? I guess it's because the apology is coming through MSM and to date (and to my knowledge), nothing has been done formally or otherwise through the blogosphere.

I'm still pretty intrigued as to where/when this will happen. I think the blogosphere will give the folks at Edelman quite a bit more rope (leeway), but that said...every day of silence is helping turn that rope into a noose.

Hat tip to Russ for the update

It's the best craze since virtual reality. Just ask Versu Richelieu who is performing a dual-core experiment in both Second Life and Datavision in NYC in association with Intel's Core Duo Processors.

It's a pretty cool tie-in and you can see a RL vs SL web-cam side-by-side look-see here.

Ask again later.

Actually, ask now. And to get you started, here's a really detailed assessment from Merrill Lynch and in short, it's oogly.

Here's your cliff notes version:

• In a break from historical patterns, the equities research team at Merrill Lynch says the rate of advertising price inflation now trails the overall rate of economic inflation.
• "This supports our belief that media no longer enjoys the benefit of above average rate inflation, rather the opposite where increased competition & measurement is putting pressure on rates."
• ...at least part of the change may be due to the increasing efficiencies of digital media, which may be taking pressure off overall media inflation, especially in the traditional media, as marketers begin shifting budgets to lower priced online inventory.
• In fact, ML described the Internet as "the bright spot" within its downgraded overall advertising outlook..."the law of large Numbers" is starting to impact advertisers' budget allocations towards the Internet.
• There are "some indications that advertisers are putting some money towards new digital initiatives (i.e., mobile advertising, games, video on demand) rather than just online"

Viva Internet. Viva New Marketing. As for traditional media, "'er why don't we just raise our rates. That'll teach 'em."

(er, I think I've used that post title before)

Companies - big and small - are jumping on the SL bandwagon. Sun recently announced they're coming in...

It got me to thinking:

1) This is really proof that size doesn't matter. After all, the SL universe (of residents) is a blip on the reach radar. It's really encouraging to see so many diverse companies experimenting in a small, but concentrated environment

2) That said...it is most certainly not a reach play...but rather all about buzz/pr. This is a little more troubling on a few levels: from a motivation/intention perspective, but also with respect to a very tight window of opportunity with short-lived gains. In other words, once this window of publicity is closed, what then?

3) A more interesting question: why is it that SL has been embraced so quickly/intensely versus many other new marketing alternatives such as blogs or podcasting or wikis? Worth a thought I think.

I ran across this story today on MediaPost. The story concerns a pro-Wal-mart blog (Wal-marting Across America) being pulled down. It supposedly chronicled two average Americans RV'ing their way across America (and parking - or pit-stopping - their RV in the Wal-mart lots, which is something many do), but turned out to be a:

...promotional tactic engineered by Working Families for Wal-Mart (WFWM), an organization launched by Wal-Mart's public relations firm Edelman.

If it were true, it would be a terrific story and a pretty good use of blogs. But it's not.

This post is not about Wal-Mart. They'll figure out social media sooner or later.

This post is about Edelman. I'm kind of surprised and a bit amazed quite frankly...as this is the SECOND time they've been outed for lack of transparency with the SAME client.

I'm pretty sure there are enough people who work for Edelman monitoring this blog, so come on guys...please explain why, as a so-called leader in this field, this is the second time you've (how shall I put this) acted like an advertising agency?

Disclosure: I do not work on Wal-mart, however I have been collaborating lately with a third party on the business. But like I said...this post has nothing to do with Wal-mart.

GooTube, as its affectionately being called, got me to thinking.

The direction of the corporate/organizational world continues to contradict and oppose the flow of the world of the consumer.

• Google's acquisition of YouTube is being heralded for its "size" - the built-in traffic - the REACH.
• Large corporations gobble up their competitors
• Marketers continue to consolidate their business with "large" "global" media agencies
• Holding companies continue to swallow up independents and specialists

...and yet consumers continue to fragment, to splinter, to follow a SliverCasting meets Long Tail paradigm in a completely non-linear and fluid approach. Demographics are being replaced with passions, where one-size-fits-all becomes need-to-know; where consumers "schizophrenic" (out of choice), morphing on-demand and in-control based on their own predetermined set of criteria or demand.

The world continues to get larger and larger in response to audiences...humans...THE WORLD getting smaller and smaller.

Makes no sense. Makes no sense.

AdJab reports on the ChiSox changing the start times of their ball games to 7:11 and the tie-in from 7-Eleven to be the "name behind the time"

I actually like it a lot.

From Jakob Nielsen (who incidentally shares the same name as my brother-in-law-to-be), a piece on participation which follows a 90:9:1 rule:

• 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute).
• 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.
• 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs. 

Which segment do you think is more valuable? The answer I guess is all of them at different times for different reasons.

I'm not sure I would agree with the rationale behind the 1%, but then again I'm not sure that's what Jakob is saying.

btw....this is quite similar evidence to my post on the 1% rule.

Via MicroPersuasion

I wasn't there...but from reading this article on Linda Kaplan-Thaler's presentation at the ANA conference, I'm glad I wasn't.

Come on Linda (editor's note: Linda is a metaphor for agency execs who refuse to move forward and think that by making fun of the situation, we can all feel good about ourselves and delude ourselves that everything's gonna be just fine and dandy), you can do better than this...

So Google purchased YouTube....not Disney, not AOL, not IPG.

YouTube sold out...a little quicker than I had thought they would and certainly for a good price given yet but a twinkling of a proven track record in the business model category (that would be advertising)

(Congrats to Chad and the gang - you guys are the embodiment of the power of new marketing)

I'm no deal-maker and certainly no financial authority, but this has me feeling rather empty.

My only reactions were, "oh" and "so what?"

Somehow I'm left thinking, "what's in it for me?" as a consumer and as a marketer.

Just how big can Google get before it either disintegrates (forced or otherwise), becomes the Matrix or just gets lonely 'cos there's no one left to play with.

Somehow, I'm not convinced. How about you?

Update: Here's a video from Chad and Steve which sums it all up

Is that TGIF in the background?

My presentation at PICNIC (Cross Media Week) is available here.

Extra points for the first person who puts it on Google Video and YouTube :)

Today, tonight - or whenever - I want you to pick an hour of television watching (assuming you do watch television at all)

I want you to watch EVERY SINGLE 30-SECOND SPOT.

Don't take notes and don't overly concentrate or do anything that you wouldn't normally do when watching e.g. if you normally have your computer open in front of you, then keep it open.

The next morning or perhaps I should say 24 hours later, I want you to report back on the following:

- how many commercials in totality do you think you watched?

- how many commercials did you remember?

- of these commercials, how many brands did you remember (as opposed to "the one with the bunnies"

- of these commercials, how many do you think told you something you didn't know, offered up something of value, made you think differently about the brand and/or made you want to buy (or consider to buy) that particular brand/product/service

- Bonus assignment: did any one or more commercials strike you as being particularly original, progressive, innovative in terms of message, call-to-action etc.?

I have no preconceptions as to what will happen, but I thought it would be an interesting exercise to put all the clutter, creativity and conversation to the test - especially amongst marketing folk like us.

...or maybe they just understand their consumer better than most brands do.

I just became the proud owner of a set of Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Dunno why it took me so long...hmmm, maybe Bose should be using a bit more new marketing in their mix.

Maybe so, BUT this really caught my eye: when I opened my carrycase, I found a set of "courtesy" business cards which are designed to be passed on to eager onlookers.

For your convenience, this courtesy card is yours to pass along

It's a terrific example of the power of context/mindset. The product gets used in environments like on a plane and anticipates a combination of curious neighbors asking questions as well as passionate/blabbermouths bragging about how awesome their headphones are.

There are quite a number of places to take this...

Forget "Just do it"; it's now "Just Let Go" or so says P&G Chief, A.G. Lafley at the ANA Conference (Ad Age reports here)

As the article astutely points out, "Mr. Lafley's address is probably better understood as a strong articulation of well-known marketing realities than anything groundbreaking... still, if P&G is starting to preach the gospel of letting go, even the world's more conservative marketers are bound to sit up and take notice"

I'm going to challenge P&G to come good on the rhetoric. You talk a great game...now walk it. Make no mistake, you're moving forward gradually and cautiously, but now is the time to release the shackles and move from a limp to a sprint.

At the end of the day, "just letting go" is actually less about the consumer and more about YOU (the marketer); it means getting out of your own way and letting things take their rightful course.

And when you do, the results will be refreshing and liberating.

Just do it :)

Nikon did what every major brand should be doing...it got out of its own way and let the real people that counted do the talking: their own consumers.

Here's the frame-by-frame:

• Nikon sent a bunch of their D80 cameras to a group of Flickr users and let them snap to their heart's content
• They took a bunch of submissions and used them as part of a 3-page spread, which ran in places like BusinessWeek (see PDF)

Download 3_page_ad_2.pdf

For what seems like centuries now, I've been pleading with marketers to use the original creations from their own consumers as actual content (advertising if you must) It's great to finally see this in aciton...

What I really love about this campaign is the following:

• This is CGC with a purpose. No "do our jobs for us", but rather "meet us halfway"
• Speaking of which, the agency found a great balance here in terms of working with consumers
• This speaks to all 3 new marketing roles for advertising, namely "to involve", "to empower" and "to demonstrate"
• It further speaks to the rise of product (or product as brand). In this campaign, the brand experience is all about the product in action and therefore in context.

Personally, I think they could have done a little more with the individual profiles e.g. stunningnikon.com/heather versus stunningnikon.com/joe, but perhaps that's what the countdown is all about (in which case, where's the RSS/e-mail opt-in?)

All in all, terrific.

This week's Ad Age headlines an upbeat piece on broadcast television with the following headline: "Comeback trail" and "cancel the funeral: broadcast TV is alive and kicking harder than it has in years"

The article highlights strong season premiere numbers, with Grey's Anatomy for example boasting numbers which would have put it in the top 5, 10 years ago.

That said, it also shows a side-by-side comparison of the 2006 season versus 2005-2006, 2000-2001 and 1994-1995 and it doesn't take a genius to infer that all is not as rosy as the article suggests. One just has to look at exactly a year ago to see sharp drops across the board.

For example:

• 2006 #1: Grey's @ 25.4 Million Viewers vs '05-'06 #1: American Idol @ 31 Million
• 2006 #5: CSI Miami @ 17.6 Million vs '05-'06 #5: Grey's Anatomy @ 19.7 Million

...and 10 years ago (1994-1995), the #5 show (Monday Night Football) had 24.4 Million viewers which would narrowly have placed it in second position this year.

Here's a quote which I think sums up the article nicely:

At least one beleaguered buyer said the effort and cost involved in keeping on top of new media has his agency questioning whether its just simpler and cheaper to target the mass audience and live with the waste.

The article raises some key points, such as:

1) Often times, innovation occurs when the stakes are higher and the players in question have the most to lose. Innovation within the broadcast industry is at an all time high...and yet it is still woefully too little (and arguably too late)

2) Content is King. Investing in content (and talent) is always going to be a solid and superior strategy. The dearth of quality content in favor of a reality TV glut opened up the networks to tremendous competitive (or cannibalistic) inroads. This imbalance is being addressed.

3) Industry participants inability and/or reluctance to weather the storm

4) The difference between content and commercials

Here's the thing...Grey's Anatomy is a great show (I don't watch it for some reason, but many do); American Idol is a pop-culture phenomenon. Desperate Housewives is hanging in there. No one disputes the value and merits of these programs, BUT they are few and far between...and are diminishing in terms of numbers. I wonder how the side by side comparisons would look if shows 6-10 or better yet, 11-20 were listed. Ad Age, care to oblige?

Furthermore, and I'm going to be a stickler here....the numbers mentioned and the positions represented are still focused on POTENTIAL REACH i.e. the opportunity or possibility for any given advertising message to be able to be seen by a viewer (intended or otherwise) It's still all about exposure; mass reach and ultimately awareness.

Where's the engagement factor? Where's the proof of view? Where's the ROI activation component which proves that consumers are watching, remembering, internalizing AND acting on said communication?

My fear is that the marginal (read: mediocre) marketers out there and the incremental (read: lazy) agencies are going to take this article as a huge sigh of relief that all is well in TV Land.

But it's not. Not by a long shot.

What we need to see is proof that TV as an advertising medium (interruptive commercials, product placement and brand entertainment), is worth its weight in increased CPM's (efficiency) and total dollar investment. We need to see proof that advertising still works (effectiveness) against marketing and business objectives.

Where's the research (not commissioned by an agency or broadcast/cable network) to prove and demonstrate that more (or enough) people are watching advertising, as opposed to CONTENT, AND that there is clear follow-through (cognition, investigate, intent, action) as a result?

I love "The Amazing Race", but I couldn't tell you one single advertisement EVER to have been placed in the show. The only advertiser I am aware of is the solid show integration by Travelocity...but I will never visit Travelocity as I am a pretty loyal (not sure why) patron of Orbitz.

Les(lie) and Dave - please share with Jaffe Juice readers your proof of concept with respect to Travelocity's traffic and business spikes as a result of their investment.

And even so, I come back to a key point raised earlier: even if Travelocity's involvement = a home run for the travel brand, how many others are there quite like this one? The Amazing Race is a cut above its reality counterparts...even Survivor cannot compete anymore (GM recently pulled out of the series)

Bottom line: 5 hits do not a medium make or at least indicate a renaissance.

Marketers (or at least the ones I talk to) are not convinced anymore. They are - pretty much - unanimous in their discontent with the status quo and resolute on their efforts to discover "Life after the 30-second spot".

They are not going to abandon television (nor should they), BUT they are disgruntled and dissatisfied with "paying more for less". They will continue to shift dollars away from television in favor of alternatives, including the burgeoning suite of approaches under the new marketing umbrella, as well as experimentation in general (including television itself)

One thing is for certain, the picture in 5 years' time will look VERY different from today's snapshot.