Jaffe Juice

crayon on ABC's World News Tonight!

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.

Heavy D and the boys sing the TV Blues

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.

ATS #89 - A 3-way conversation on movie marketing with Kirk Skodis and Chris Thilk

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

Direct download here

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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

 

http://www.filmplug.com

http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com

Red-Band Trailers

My winner Mark Cuban's post

MPAA's 2006 U.S. Theatrical Market Statistics (didn't attribute, but stat resource used)

Evan Almighty/Die Hard 4 case study

Linkety-Link August 24th

• 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.

194: Think I'm well and truly back in sync

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?)

BooTube - A Giant (and Dumb) Leap Backwards

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..

 

To be sure, there are positive comments as well...but for the most part the comment negative:positive sentiment certainly exceeds a 1:10 ratio.

Oh well, this will be the day YouTube moved from the conversation to the communication business. One small step for Google, one giant leap backwards for YouTube and its customer relationships.

Experimenting with Facebook

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?

Man versus Woman - The Shower

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...

High School Musical - A False Prophet?

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.

ATS #88 - Including a discussion with David Erickson on the Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

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