Jaffe Juice

Thank goodness for PST...I just landed in LA and headed to the hotel to catch the segment on Charlie Gibson's World News Tonight on ABC on the workplace of the future.

The video is in the top right hand corner...and you'll have to watch a 30-second ad first, but I'm feeling generous today so will give a hall pass this time round :)

The video is already on YouTube:

I think it turned out great and couldn't be more proud of the crayonistas, crayonville and our friends and supporters - from those who hang out with us every Thursday morning at 9am EST for coffee with crayon to our clients to our community - readers, listeners and muses.

Building the workplace of the future isn't PR spin. It's a commitment. We strongly feel that there is a revolution-a-coming and "employees" are going to revolt against companies who control and restrict their web access time, visit virtual worlds, ability to upload and/or download, share, blog and/or podcast. Perhaps that's why so many people want to work at crayon!

On a less intense note, we believe in the remote model and think companies do themselves a disservice by mandating people exist in a physical building in order to be considered valuable and/or productive. In addition, when people are recruited who live elsewhere, in order to be hired, they are asked to uproot themselves from their home, friends, network and community. That's just wrong and is a recipe for disaster.

Don't get me wrong...the remote and virtual models are not without their challenges. I believe we're still scratching the surface of collaborative potential in Second Life. With the addition of voice, we've taken context and communication to the next level, but I want more...I want to see collaborate white boards linked to tablets...I want to see Powerpoint presentations that animate with multimedia...I think any of these elements will further propel and validate the Virtual value proposition.

Finally, kudos to ABC for their vision to report on this. We're very grateful they chose us to cover.

Television usage/viewership continues to take a beating. This time from Nielsen, confirming that declines in usage are "real and not methodological".

Adding more misery to the heap is the fact that the biggest impact was felt amongst....drum roll please...TV's heaviest viewing households.

I would also suspect if you cross-tabbed this against growth in DVR consumption, you'd find another juicy budding relationship.

Scanning down the article confirms that indeed, DVR usage is a (not "the") driver in this decline amongst heavy-viewing households as quality TV watching takes over from quantity.

This busts open a pretty widely held myth that DVR "users" watch more TV than ever before. At the most, this assertion can only be made to lighter viewing households.

With the continued proliferation of choice and fragmentation of audiences and outlets, the cat seems to be out the bag that TV's best days are over. The fact is simply that there are way too many cannibalistic, attractive and viable choices nowadays and when this begins to make inroads into the last line of defense, it would appear that victory (or defeat) is imminent.

This episode is sponsored by Real Pie Media and is a continuation of the month-long celebration of experimentation in (new) marketing. Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Case studies to acrossthesound@gmail.com. Join my Jaffe Juice Facebook Group. And if you still have strength...twitter.com/jaffejuice

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2m15 - I am addicted to Facebook. Become my friend on Facebook and also join the "Jaffe Juice" group. In doing so, you'll help me best Mitch Joel and his illustrious 6POS group. I'm using Facebook to activate call-ins, so you definitely want to be a part of this. I'm also bringing every 100th member of Jaffe Juice onto the show.

6m15 - Project "House" Update #3 from Tim Coyne. Be sure to subscribe to his podcast, The Hollywood Podcast. Don't miss the episode titled, "The Friend"

11m55 - Welcome back Kirk Skodis from Real Pie Media and Chris Thilk from the Movie Marketing Madness Blog...but first a quick word about the Experiment Case Study Challenge

19m onwards...we discuss the Entertainment Industry and Change, video ubiquity, choice, rights, transparency, word-of-mouth, the new influencers, Snakes on a Plane, Arctic Tale,

30m - Overnight success (3-day opening weekend) versus The Long Tail; The Industry's obsession with opening weekend...

38m30 - Vince Lombardi and the movie business - revisiting SoaP in context of experimentation; Success is often measured - instead of thinking in absolutes, consider relative disproportionate victories (examples: Evan Almighty versus Die Hard with a Vengeance), especially when it comes to independent movies

46m - A brief discussion on "platforming" and the difference between big-budget (big stunts) versus small-budget campaigns (nurture conversations from the inside-outwards)

52m20 - It almost seems like a no-brainer that conversational activation is mandatory in movie-marketing...but if that was the case, the studios would be all over it, right?

56m30 - A lot of studio blogger outreach looks very much like mainstream "journalist" outreach. There's also a lot of 30-second repurposing. We discuss (sigh) the 30-second spot.

1h01 - We talk about Poseidon and a great example of influencer outreach...but at the end of the day, the product has to be able to save the day.

1h06 - A summary of our conversation, touching on two categories which make a lot of sense for new marketing experimentation...to be continued

Links:

http://www.realpie.com

My winner Mark Cuban's post

• UPDATE: Perez Hilton breaks story about Fidel Castro's death (File this under: WTF - hat tip to Karl Long) Story comes right after "Yup, he's gay", referencing Brit's mystery man (now THAT my friend is journalistic integrity social media style)
• iJustine frets over her 400 page iPhone bill (wait until she travels abroad and gets hit with her roaming data bill)

• ...and the response (attributable to iJustine? Probably...)

• Web Strategy by Jeremiah deconstructs Wal-mart's latest new marketing attempt on Facebook. Question for you to think about is whether to laud the 8000-pound gorilla on grinning and bearing all the negativity on the wall...or to lambaste them because they probably didn't even know they were on Facebook or just went out back with paint remover...
• Web video is the new 30-second spot - 'er does that mean I need to write a book called "Life after web video"? Damn, can't I just focus on "Join the Conversation"
• The "If 100,000 people join, my wife will let me name my second child, Spiderpig" group on Facebook - What would I do if I got 100,000 members of Jaffe Juice on Facebook?
• Best Buy gets into hot water over a defective product (hat tip to Abrahams-Harrison)
• The Death of Television report from IBM. Comfort Food.

Nothing radical to report in terms of fat revelations...just trying to eat less of the bad stuff (would this have been better as a Tweet?)

Doctor to Patient: I have good news and bad news
Patient: What's the bad news?
Doctor: You have 1 month to live, give or take 4 weeks
Patient: What's the good news?
Doctor: I just saved a bunch on my car insurance

This week YouTube announced that they would be giving in to the pressure to turn their consumer-friendly platform into just another typical intrusive ad vehicle. Perhaps it was pressure from the Google vultures or perhaps it was just the inevitability of time (I'm facing similar debate with my recent podcast monetization efforts, albeit on a scale of 1:1000000000000000)

It's funny...a while back, I had a breakfast meeting with Chad Hurley, which was set up by their then head of ad-sales (ex-Yahoo). We chatting about a few advanced ad models and I gave my vote of confidence to some of their efforts, such as channels and also their less intrusive video-based ads that were 100% "user" initiated. Then, unceremoniously, their head of ad sales promptly left and I never heard from Chad et al again. Pity, as I would have counseled them categorically AGAINST this dumb effort.

Somehow their (read: Google's) spinmeisters managed to convince the press and trades that this story was all about shunning pre-roll ads. Certainly, when I saw the headline my heart soared. Sadly, this was in fact just a front to mask an overlay ad (interactive folk: can you say Eyeblaster, Shoshkeles, etc.?) which IS NOT INITIATED BY THE "USER". What a giant step backwards! What a cop-out! What next? Uninitiated audio as well?

While some bloggers and commentators have react positively, I am not amused.

In fact I am stunned by this blatant anti-consumer stance as this quote from YouTube's product manager suggests:

A 15-second spot placed before YouTube videos resulted in a 75 percent abandonment rate. The overlay style generated just a 10 percent drop-off.

Why should this ever have to be about lesser of evils? Why would YouTube basically admit to shunning 10% of their audience and consumer base? Beware. Beware. Today's 10% is tomorrow's 50%, especially if they are influencers and especially if you give your competitors (can you say broadcast networks?) half a chance to go for the jugular based on any exposed nerves.

Here's a thought: less intrusive is still intrusive AKA if it looks like an ad, feels like an ad, smells (stinks) like an ad...then chances are, it's probably an ad.

...but don't take my word for it. Why not just let your own customers do the talking as is evidenced by the comments on your own blog post:

Mainyard48 (posted Aug 22, 2007, 06:59 PM)

Worst idea ever. When I start to see that crap, it'll be time to unsubscribe. I have no problem with sitting through a pre-roll . At least that won't obscure the actual content I wish to see.

crowcity (posted Aug 22, 2007, 10:01 PM)

That sounds TERRIBLE!!!!

b33p (posted Aug 22, 2007, 09:19 PM)

no thanks.

theestranger (posted Aug 22, 2007, 07:19 PM)

When television started adding ads like this to their shows, I thought "And these people wonder why ratings are constantly down...". There are better ways to make money Google.

tompty (posted Aug 22, 2007, 04:51 PM)

please dont do this google. its a really really bad idea, as you can probably tell from 99% of the comments below. we are constantly bombarded with companies trying to cram their advertising into our heads. youtube is currently a true sanctuary for original and unadultered entertainment. with many hollywood "blockbusters" having their scripts changed around a company for product placement ( McDonalds in "The Weather Man" etc etc etc etc!! ) why take away the truly first and revolutionary form of independent media that youtube has so far allowed! Is it not obvious simply why YouTube has had so much success until now? Anyways, i would hate to use so far lesser media content sites as i really like it here. But Whatever, Maybe you could get Daxflame to wear a Pepsi tie or something..

Ad Age just featured a piece along the lines of "would you buy a used car from this man/woman?" regarding marketers' use of Facebook.

I absolutely support any and every marketer "trying Facebook before they buy". The only way to get to understand a new tool, medium, approach or idea is to immerse oneself in it. That said, I also think it's important to move from toe-dipping to anywhere on the continuum of platform diving to belly-flopping. It's all good...

I joined Facebook (admittedly late) just over 3 weeks ago as of this post, I have 402 friends and my Jaffe Juice group has 2982 members.

I think I'm going to try a few experiments with Facebook (to cross-promote between my profile, blog and podcast) such as the following:

• Every 100th friend on my main profile will get a punt on either Facebook, Twitter, Jaffe Juice and/or Across the Sound - such as Eric Had from Microsoft who was my 400th friend (PS Do you know there's an Eric Hadley at Microsoft as well?)
• Every milestone on Jaffe Juice will be invited to either guest blog a post and/or come on Across the Sound for 5-10 minutes to introduce themselves and chat about a topic of interest - let's try 300th (hint: that's 2 8 away), 400th and 500th members of Jaffe Juice as the next 3 milestones and see where that leads...

Update: Hold on a second...how do you view groups by recency of membership?

OK, no clue what the new marketing implication is here. Figure it out and I'll maybe give you an iPhone. Or just sit back and have a good laugh at how true this actually is...

Friday night was a big night for most kids in this nation. I'm not sure what the universe of kids, aged 9-14 are, but I'm pretty sure many - if not most - were watching the much anticipated High School Musical 2. My older kids are 6 and 4, and as of 7.36am on Tuesday morning, they watched more or less about 20 times since Friday night (including right now)

Worse still, my daughter doesn't even want to fast forward all the ads. Of course I immediately grounded her and gave her a stern talking to about the dangers of 30-second spots.

My kids were not alone. In fact, according to early estimates from the Disney channel (we'll take their word for it), an incredible 17.2 million watched HSM2 (HSM1 was watched by 7.8 MM when it aired in January 2006), making it the most-watched television program of the week for both cable and network - and the most-watched show of any kind in basic cable history.

[including one particular Dad who claimed he was feeding the baby and there was nothing else to watch]

Here's where we start going off the rails...

A fairly misleading MediaPlannerBuyer headline reads, "Disney's Ross: High School Musical 2 proves strength of TV movie biz", but drilling down a bit deeper into the source article from the New York Times reflects that Rich Ross, President of Disney Channel Worldwide is in fact referring to the channel's movie biz model (coupled with attempts to reposition the channel amongst an older audience)

According to Ross, “People talk about ‘High School Musical’ as a franchise,” he said. “The franchise is the Disney Channel original movie.”

No Rich. High School Musical is the franchise. The Disney Channel is its fortunate beneficiary. Whilst an attempt to do an HBO on the Disney Channel (along the same lines of what The Sopranos did for the premium pay TV channel) certainly has precedent, it smacks of insular hubris.

For starters, just how far do you think Disney will be able to milk the HSM franchise? Like Police Academy perhaps? Maybe even into the teens? Even so, it will fall into the same danger zone that our friend Harry Potter did (hint: girls don't stay girls forever and boys voices aren't pure like Troy Bolton for an eternity)

Personally, I wondered why Disney didn't take HSM2 to the big screens. Maybe one of the media mavens can do a rough side by side comparison between 30-second spot ad revenue and no doubt a healthy $150MM+ that this could have racked up on the silver screen.

I take nothing away from this momentous moment in cable television history, but I remind all TV hopefuls that moments like these are nowadays like Hailey's Comet in terms of frequency, originality and impact. I certainly will wait with baited breath to see how quickly and effectively Disney can fill its TV movie mall with stores to support its anchor tenant, HSM, and in doing so, scale and fulfill against its business model.

Then again I might not exactly hold my breath for fear of losing conscious.

What team? Wildcats! What team? Wildcats.

Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Join the Jaffe Juice group on Facebook or www.twitter.com/jaffejuice. Included in this episode, a discussion with David Erickson from e-Strategy.com on the Minneapolis Bridge collapse

Direct download here

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3m08 - Update #2 from Tim Coyne on Project House

5m09 - Mitch Joel gives some feedback on Project House and a suggestion for Tim

8m30 - At the risk of incurring the wrath of an entire country, what's up with the pushback from Canadians?

10m04 - An audio comment from Jay Moonah who wonders how this experiment will scale across other podcasts and also to what extent podcast sponsorships will become either "traditional sponsorship" or worse still, payola

26m50 - A thought about corporate passive aggressive culture and its social media equivalent. Why do we shy away from conversation confrontation?

30m20 - My conversation with e-Strategy's David Erickson on the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse as it related to citizen journalism and also a tangent on the political industry

I like this idea from Bryan Person. He's put together a social media top 10, which I think could really have some staying power in terms of listing a weekly Zeitgeist of stories making the news as it where.

Looks like I made the list in 9th position this week for my iPhone/Macbook barter experiment. Here's the full list:

1. Twitter
   I challenge you to find me a social media event where Twitter isn’t a topic of conversation.
2. iJustine - iPhone bill video
   Here’s what you do when AT&T sends you a 300-page bill.
3. PodCamp Pittsburgh 2
   Justin Kownacki & Co. are ready to go.
4. MobaTalk beta launch
   Michael Bailey has put plenty of blood, sweat, and tears into this project. Can’t wait to see the results.
5. Perth to host first PodCamp Australia
   The WA capital city will host the event in October.
6. 31 Days to Building a Better Blog - 2007
   Daily tips throughout August from ProBlogger Darren Rowse and his readers
7. Voxci
   A new audio social-bookmarking site from Jack Hodgson.
8. David.Finch
   Thought-provoking blogging on “media, productivity, technology, and …”
9. Joe Jaffe’s sponsored iPhones and laptop
   Whether you like his idea or not, there’s no denying that Joseph Jaffe has people talking.
10. Full-vs.-partial RSS feed debate
    I agree with Neville Hobson: full feeds are the no-brainer choice.

I guess I'd probably add "Skype Out" to this list BIG TIME.

Reading through an old Ad Age (July 9th) and I stumbled upon this blurb:

Mitt Romney leads the 2008 presidential candidates in TV ad spending, shelling out for 4,549 spots in local markets

...what a great opportunity to compare this spend to its ultimate ROI. So, if Mitt Romney is President of the United States of America come November 2008, I'll write a new book titled, "I was just kidding...the 30-second spot rocks" and if not, I'll just re-tag this post under "I told you so"

One more thing...should this not work out, we can always fall back on blaming the creative :)

Bryan Eisenberg was over last night with his family for a Jaffe BBQ (ask CC...I'm not half bad) and we were chatting about blog marketing.

Along the vanes of UNM2PNM, I was thinking about which specific bloggers have really done the best job of marketing their blogs (and therefore themselves) along the way.

What I'm talking about specifically is someone like Hugh Macleod, who differentiated himself and build a following via his incredible cartoons/doodles or Seth Godin, who used a combination of his book platform plus a trackbacking only rule (one way link love), or Mack Collier with his Top 25 Marketing Blog list.

I thought it would be cool to get a list going of various bloggers and their specific strategies and tactics deployed to help establish, position and ultimately growth their audience, community and influence.

So "nominate" yourself or your favorite blog(ger) by highlighting a specific practice they used along the way. At the end, we should have a pretty good list which can be used or referenced by those starting out and looking to build their blog brands.

Who knows, maybe I'll even give away an iPhone to the most innovative blogmarketer :)

Nothing going on but the calories. I've been between 193.5 and 197.5 for just under 2 months (not coincidentally the same time since Jack was born)

Not disillusioned but definitely need to pick things up ahead of the end of the year when I'll attempt to get back into my wedding Armani suit for my brother and sister's weddings (not to each other)

I have to rant. I just read an article citing the release of a new Toilet & Douche study against the headline, "Old Media still resonate".

I could write an entire post on the headline alone...beginning with the fact that the new name for traditional media is now "old" media. Gee, how sexy does that sound? Well the good news is that your billions of dollars of legacy investment still has some value and that you're not throwing it away in its entirety. At least you can sleep with a tiny bit of conscience that you're not completely incompetent and negligent in your responsibilities (or lack thereof)

The study was conducted amongst 13-75 year olds, which already is ridiculous. These days, there are seas of difference between 13 and 17 year olds, let alone comparing practically 3 generations in 1 study.

...consistent across all generational segments—millennials (13-24), Gen Xers (25-41), boomers, (42-60) and matures (61-75)—nearly three-quarters of consumers said they enjoy magazines even though they acknowledge being able to read the same publications online.

WTF? I'm surprised 25% of people don't enjoy reading magazines. Let's talk about incidence shall we? Or how about whether people enjoy paying versus reading free magazines? And while we're at it, how about making the distinction between content and advertising?

...the "resilience of old media" remains a prominent feature of the landscape. "And one of the main activities online is going to a television Web site," he said. The survey found that 46 percent of consumers do that regularly, including over half (52 percent) of all Gen Xers.

This is what you want to focus on and use as your poster child for the resilience of old media i.e. the fact consumers go to websites of their favorite TV shows (most of which are embarrassingly lousy) How about focusing on the resiliency of all the magazines that are shutting down or the continued hemorrhaging of newspaper readership.

"Television is still a core activity...even though we see the expected amounts of online, text messaging, cellphone use [and] games—consumers are doing more things, but still watching television. It is always on."

Television is BACKGROUND noise. The Web is always on. TV is comfort food that just makes you fat and lazy. Come on...when every legitimate organization and study is reflected on cataclysmic change with respect to the demise of old media and the rise of new media, how can we be talking about TV as the rock and grounding force of media?

...there was also an unexpected result regarding digital video recording devices such as TiVo. "It's the Xers and boomers that rely on DVRs for television use," he said. "But the number-one use for DVR is not commercial skipping."

What's unexpected about this? DVR's are not purchased to skip ads, but to give their owners a more evolved holistic viewing experience. Lofty words I know, but it's more about digital versus analog, as opposed to illegal downloading of music versus purchasing a CD if you get my drift.

The rest of the piece is unreadable, including nuggets such as "overall there was more receptivity to print ads than to Internet advertising"...er that's because it's so easy just to ignore a static ad that's been around for as long as the people responsible for this survey (ok, maybe not as long)

Look. If you're desperate for some validation that the status quo is still hunky dory, then maybe this blog isn't for you. At the end of the day, I've never said "old media is dead" and/or "you should invest everything into new media or even new marketing", but I do get rather pissy when people are so intent on perpetuating a failing business model, as opposed to figuring out how to evolve it.

On Tuesday, I decided to take my 6-year old daughter to work with me. She had a nasty fall at camp a week earlier and this was one way of treating her to a bit of Daddy time.

We had a blast...taking the train, attending a breakfast meeting at my "Cheers", Pershing Square and coming in to the office.

We also visited Alice's Tea Cup in Manhattan (Upper West Side) - think Serendipity meets Alice in Wonderland.

Alice's was actually Derek Mehraban's (his post is here) idea. Derek is a reader, listener and fellow new marketing brother-in-arms. We meet in Ann Arbor last year for the first time.

He's also a Twitterer and it was my early morning tweet which brought us together. I also received several other e-mails and direct messages to meet that day. Unfortunately, Derek won out due to his secret weapon: 2 lovely daughters for Amber to play with!

It's just another demonstration of SOCIAL media in work...connecting people; putting the humanity back in media.

A Frank Magid Associates Millennial study conducted on behalf of ABC Family shows unequivocal validation in favor of word-of-mouth above all forms of paid media when it comes to finding out about "cool, hot and latest" products/services etc.

Combining the top 2 boxes (i.e. important and very important) reveals a landslide of support behind conversation:

• Friends: 71%
• My Kids (Millennials are growing up): 54%

The next tier of influence comes from content itself (which I guess justifies the ABC Family investment) - for example, programs on cable TV: 35%

TV commercials weigh in at just 29%.

3 interesting insights here:

1. No mention of "online ads"; just "websites" @ 38%. Not sure what to make of that
2. Social networking sites comes in at 28% (in line with TV advertising). I'm wondering how this differs from the "my friends" category. From a methodology standpoint, is the distinction here between "fun wall" and "skyscraper"
3. Blogs prop up the list at pretty much the same level as billboards. Personally, I think that's pretty remarkable, given both category's tenures.

I wonder what would happen if marketers invested their dollars relative to this chart.

I'm sure there are many variations on the story, but the way I remember it, legendary NFL coach, Vince Lombardi, was once questioned after losing a game and he said something to the effect of, "in my entire career, I never lost a single game...I just ran out of time"

It struck me as a sublime way to help us (as businesspeople) cope with the whole notion of "failure" versus "success".

As we discuss on the latest episode of Across the Sound, what seems like today's failure is often times tomorrow's delayed success.

Being quick to judge is bad enough, but in today's volatile climate, where job tenure is as fickle as ever; where both mainstream media and bloggers suffer from either schizophrenic journalism or premature speculation (there are drugs to treat this disorder), it is incumbent upon us to think big picture, long term and stay the course - especially with naysayers jump on the bandwagon and try to derail innovation and progress.

Vince Lombardi was a visionary in that he was both optimistic and pragmatic. He realized that failure is only failure when it is seen as an end unto itself and/or when there are no learnings or insights which can be addressed the next time round.

It is not that dissimilar with new marketing experimentation.

This episode is sponsored by Real Pie Media, led by Kirk Skodis, a long time listener of ATS. Audio comments and suggestions to +1 206 203-3255. Join me and Jaffe Juice on Facebook.

Direct download here

iTunes Subscription here

R.S.S. Feed here

1m15 - An update from Tim Coyne on his progress to get an audition on HOUSE!

5m30 - Welcome Real Pie Media's, Kirk Skodis. We chat about how we came to know each other and how/why Kirk decided to take me up on my computer for a month's sponsorship barter offer

13m30 - Kirk feels like he owes me a laptop for 2+ years of "free" ATS. I think that's a great idea and am appealing to all listeners to pay up or shut up :)

17m - What comes next after a laptop? A second one? A HD Flat Screen TV with Surround Sound? How about a mini-cooper or a house? Where will this end? Ultimately it's all about value. We discuss new marketing sponsorships and the resulting conversation.

20m30 - Whilst we've been chatting for 15 minutes, has this been an "ad" yet or has this been a 15-minute conversation? That said, I now ask Kirk to introduce himself, his company and why he chose to participate in this particular experiment.

25m15 - The Long Tail of New Marketing ROI - from UNM2PNM to this. Why Failure is often just delayed Success.

33m - Getting bored with new media versus waiting for the next big thing.  Echo chamber serial criticism without the constructive part. We discuss Second Life as the poster child for misunderstanding the value of experimentation.

42m40 - We finally reveal what I'm getting...Vaio or Macbook Pro??? Brand loyalty just went out the window as I cede an entire operating system to Kirk.

48m - An invitation to a geekfest in Westport - details TBD

49m20 - Final details of the sponsorship: The charity angle, an upcoming 3-way discussion about innovation and experimentation in movie marketing with Chris Thilk and finally the "Experimentation Case Study Challenge" with a good-cause prize (offsetting carbon emissions for 1 year) Here's my first submission. Send in your MP3 submissions to acrossthesound@gmail.com or  call +1 206 203-3255

56m45 - Recapping the month-long "Celebration of Experimentation" sponsorship courtesy of Real Pie Media, which will include a 3-way conversation with myself, Kirk and Chris on movie marketing, the "Experimentation Case Study Challenge" and of course continued conversation on where this ATS experiment goes and ends up...

Additional links:

Real Pie Media -  http://www.realpie.com

Kirk Skodis' Blog - http://www.filmplug.com/blog

Chris Thilk's blog - http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com

Real Pie Media Art Director, Long Tran's blog - http://www.tranism.com/weblog

So I'm sitting at Orlando airport and supposed to fly back at 6.20pm. Only I'm now leaving at 10.30pm. So instead of getting home around 10.15pm, it's going to be around 2.15am.

I'm obviously pissed and the only thing that is somewhat redeeming is that my kids would have been asleep anyway (I can't tell you how often these incessant delays end up meaning I miss the kids bedtimes).

My beef is three-fold:
1) Why are more people not recognizing or exposing the fact that LaGuardia (in particular) and the other NYC airports are hopelessly inept, with technology, systems and processes that are woefully out of date and in need of refurbishment? Just come out and admit it already. When I take a wrong turn on my car's GPS route, it adjusts. How hard is that?
2) Why are the airlines not stepping up and taking this battle to the FAA?
3) From a marketing perspective, why are airlines not turning this huge negative into a positive. Take my current experience with Delta today. As a Platinum customer, I expect to be treated a little differently (I just do). Instead of taking some responsibility, they just shrug their shoulders and say, "not our problem. It's the weather"

WEATHER IS YOUR PROBLEM. You fly. You fly in weather. It's your problem, not mine.

Excuse me? Aren't you the airline that's supposed to be changing? So change already. Change the status quo by putting me up in a hotel for the night. How hard is that, especially if you have (and if you don't, go get one) a relationship with a hotel chain. Why not give me a choice? Instead of spending 4+ hours which tick over into the wee hours of the morning, give me the ability to get a good night's sleep and start afresh tomorrow.

Most likely, I'll still elect to get home and get my trip over and done with.

And then they send an apologetic e-mail with the following verbiage:

We apologize for the inconvenience. We realize you have a choice in airlines and we're working hard to ensure that Delta meets all your travel needs

This is like Cingular advertising itself as the network with the least amount of dropped calls. Come on, why be content being part of the pack instead of trying to pull away from it? There is this unspoken belief - both on the part of marketers and consumers - that ALL airlines, telco's etc are equally bad, so why bother switching or taking a stand.

I find that to be incredibly risky and perhaps it's time to call the bluff of lip-service-service.

It's time to stop sitting on the sidelines and avoiding the conversation.

New Marketing in action. The power of podcasting - at least in my neck of the woods - is showing itself worthy of value (no selling short here) and scale.

I have my new computer, but will it be a MacBook Pro or Vaio? Who will get the free ride? Apple or Sony? All will be revealed next week on ATS #87.

PS I didn't say I wouldn't accept a second computer. Perhaps I'll even give it back to you guys like the second iPhone...

Who's having fun now?

1. Alternative Media is becoming a tradition
2. Internet Ad Spending set to overtake all other media by 2011
3. Time spent with media falters, digital spawns shorter attention spans

Here's the keeper quote: "For the first time in recent memory, the amount of time consumers spend with media has declined"

All 3 quotes reference a newly released Veronis Suhler Stevenson report, which pretty much lays out the writing on the wall for y'all to read.

Who's cheering for the 30-second spot now?

Congrats to fellow blogger, Todd And, who just got his Power 150 list picked up by Ad Age.

Todd's linkbaitapalooza was truly sublime and it's a terrific way for everyone from newbies to outreach companies to get a leg-up on an aggregated list of playas. I'm sitting at 22nd on the list btw...

I have but one question about the methodology, which combines Google Page Rank, Bloglines subscribers, Technorati Ranking and Todd Points :) - shouldn't Bloglines be replaced with a more inclusive measure of TOTAL subscriptions i.e. by including Feedburner stats for example? I know it's a relative measure across the board, but what if a blog has a disproportionate number of RSS subscribers elsewhere, for example Feedblitz (as I do)

Just wonderin'

Life after the 30-second spot just came in 7th in the latest CEO-READ monthly Top 25 chart.

Chris Anderson was 9th...guess he was too busy giving up on Second Life to worry about book sales this month. I'm sure he'll bounce back soon.

Giddy with how popular I am in such a short period of time. Wonder if any of my newly acquired friends are interested in sponsoring a month of ATS in exchange for a Macbook Pro or Vaio?

Become my friend why don't you. Perhaps I'll give the iPhone to my 1000th friend.

I even have a Jaffe Juice group, which I'd love for you to join.

PS I think Facebook is worth a kagillion dollars (Linden)

After 2 week's hiatus (due to traveling and over-eating), I have to report that I'm back to 197.5. I feel this is an invisible threshold that - if crossed - could start a slide towards Jerry Springer airlift or Randy Jackson or Al Roker stomach-stapling status...so I'm going to do my best to bite the bullet (not literally, as gunpowder is loaded with calories) and work my way back to breaking the 190 barrier.

After 2 iPhones from Custom Scoop's Chip Griffin and actor 2.0, Tim Coyne, I've now set my sights on the Macbook Pro or Vaio, partly responding to Leesa Barnes' challenge and partly because I think this is a scalable.

Now it seems that Media Circus' Ringleader (couldn't resist), Adam Broitman, is looking to make this a reality.

Hurry up Adam...you might be too late :)

It's been almost a week since Tim Coyne and I co-launched a UNM2PNM initiative, involving 2 podcasts, an audition and an iPhone.

I'm a little surprised the coverage has been so light. I seemed to get more feedback on whether to get a Vaio or MacBook than this LIVE case-study, which - if we get stuck in - could become an open-sourced case study for marketers abound.

I still need to touch base with Tim to gauge feedback on his end, but from what I've seen the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I'm aware of a few high-level introductions which are in the pipeline...any one of which could result in success.

Come on Technorati, get off your asses and support something different and worthwhile. For those of you who read Jaffe Juice or listen to Across the Sound regularly, you'll know that I have somewhat of a beef with the blogosphere for being a combination of competitive, apathetic, contrarian and decidedly navel-gazing.

This is an opportune moment for us to prove our collective tide-rising wisdom and moreover influence.

AND don't forget there's an iPhone in it for the person that ultimately is responsible for getting Tim his audition. And if there's nothing to report by Labor Day, I'm going to pocket the iPhone for myself, SO THERE! :)

Let me spoon-feed the process to get it kick-started. I have a press release if anyone would like to seed to the wires etc. Just ping me at jaffe [at] getthejuice [dot] com and I'll forward it to you.

You can still Digg the post here.

David Erickson posts this incredibly detailed synopsis and summary of the tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse from a "citizen journalism" perspective.

It's really quite an incredible account of social media in action.