Jaffe Juice

All brawn...All brain

Just took a little stroll over to the Brawny Academy...it's certainly not BMWFilms, nor is it Survivor, however it is something...

I watched the entire first episode and actually look forward to the second.

Hat tip to David who sent this to me, and also Bob Garfield's rather negative review of the campaign, which he claims is lost in the woods and although pioneering...is idiotic.

Whereas the Chevy Tahoe campaign deserved the negative reviews, however pioneering it might have been thought to be, I'm not sure this one even remotely deserves to be given criticism, except perhaps some constructive advice.

On the New Marketing side, props for your RSS feed (although copy is a little lame, "Thanks for subscribing to the Brawny Academy RSS feed. Isn't RSS great?") and a gentle man-slap for not doing more with your e-mail update sign-up (hint: try after the episode) A slightly harder slap for not making the episodes downloadable.

I would have liked a context setting video...how did this come about? how did these guys happen to audition? Perhaps this is why Garfield comments that the contestants aren't likeable enough.

My position on judging these long form efforts is very simple and very consistent....AT THEIR VERY WORST, THEY'RE NO WORSE THAN 90% OF THE 30-SECOND CRAP ON TV. Garfield feels that no one would lean forward and watch all the episodes. I disagree and I disagree because the goal is not to "reach" tens of millions of potential consumers, but rather to engage with a smaller subset of voluntary hand-raisers in the process.

Sure, they do take the product placement a little too far at times, but at others the gratuitous placement kinda works...in a campy sort of way. I also have to compliment the very accurate personfication of the Brawny Brand through the Brawny Man. This - without question - humanizes a brand I honestly never cared about before.

Garfield's most valid claim is the alleged audience mismatch.

The target here is women -- women so disgusted with their good-for-nothing mates that they take vicarious satisfaction watching other women's good-for-nothing mates humiliated by housework.

Except who has time to watch this, when in real life you're pushing strollers and vacuuming and filling toy boxes and unloading groceries?

Bob, you know I love you like the mentor I never had, but come on: a) have you spoken to women about this? b) do you know which room in the house most stay at home moms "live" in...and how many of these rooms (hint: they have a fridge in them) have computers in them? c) did you factor in working moms? (I'm told there are a few of them left) and d) what about the guys?

I don't know about you...but there's a damn good chance I'll purchase Brawny paper towels the next time I take both kids shopping while my wife gets a pedicure...just as soon as I go and put down that toilet seat.

Reality Advertising

Reality Advertising is a term I used in Life after the 30-second spot. Taking a page out of the Reality TV genre, I use Reality Advertising to talk about efforts like Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty or even Nike.

Marc Babej and Tim Pollak drew my attention to VW's latest effort - a TV spot which features real humans having an accident as opposed to crash test dummies. They even wrote a column about it.   

Weekdays at Bernies

I just realized that I never shared this with Jaffe Juice readers. I wrote a guest column last week for Talent Zoo. I also have a distribution deal with them for Across the Sound on Radio Talent Zoo.

It's called "Weekdays at Bernies" and I think you should get what this is about in a second. But if you don't, it's about talent - both attracting and retaining - in this new social media enabled world.

Rocketboom or Rocketbust?

This post could have been called "Social Operas" as well.

This might not be as dramatic as Adam Curry leaving Podshow or perhaps Nick Denton leaving Gawker (although he has offered several staffers the opportunity to do likewise), but it's big nonetheless...

Amanda Congdon has left the building (literally). In fact, she's left the East Coast altogether.

As read on Rocketboom:

Amanda Congdon has decided to move to L.A. to pursue opportunities that have arisen for her in Hollywood.

We wanted to meet her demands to move production out to L.A., however, we are a small company and have not been able to figure out a way to make it work, financially and in many other ways at this time. While we continue to remain with open arms, Amanda has in fact quit and left Rocketboom. So sadly, we bid Amanda adieu and wish her all the best.

Rocketboom goes on.

Andrew Baron, the founder and creator of Rocketboom, will stay with the company in New York and will continue to produce and direct the show. We are in the daunting process of recruiting a replacement for Amanda.

While Amanda will be sorely missed, we have big plans for Rocketboom and are determined to make the show better than ever.

After Field Week and a week on hiatus, we know that you are hungry for the news! Rocketboom will be back with a news episode and an interim host this MONDAY, JULY 10.

And what social opera would be complete without a bit of dirty laundry being aired on Amanda's blog and via video.

...but THAT'S not half the story, THIS is. Jason Calacanis has offered her a job (or at least negotiating currency) at Netscape and he did it in full view and plain sight on his blog!

From a branding standpoint, it will be interesting to see if/how Rocketboom copes without her. It is on one hand a classic branding story (think Martha Stewart Living v Martha Stewart - not that I'm suggesting anyone's going to jail here :)) and on the other, a social media branding story (the meteoric - excuse the pun - rise of a star through a video blog!)

Also, Calacanis' move demonstrates not only social media's role in terms of elevating one's own personal stock price (getting a job), but also (and arguably more importantly) being in a position to offer a job, and thus attract talent.

Hat Tip to C.C.

Leading National Advertisers are leaders in outspending, not outsmarting

Ad Age just released their annual Leading National Advertisers report and I always scrutinize this to see who's who in the new marketing zoo.

• What caught my eye this year was this chart (you can click to view it a little clearer) which shows ad spending totals by media.

Now there are a few caveats here (see expanded post)

...but what struck me in this analysis (2005 versus 2004 and Top 100 LNA's versus all spending) was the extent to which the so-called leaders are in fact not. Take interactive for example:

• Interactive grew from 2.4% to 2.6% of budget from 2004 to 2005 amongst the Top 100 LNA's. However, "Internet" grew from 2.8% to 3.1% amongst all LNA's during the same period. The difference is somewhat more pronounced when you factor the Top 100 LNA data into the overall averages.
• Television of all shapes and forms (network, spot, syndicated, cable network, cable local spot) dropped (yes it did drop) from 35.3% to 34.5% (a 2% decrease)
• As a % of total measured media, that's 57% of total (I guess it would be "paid media")

I could have my math horribly screwed up, but ultimately what I see shows an acute lack of leadership, openness to experimentation, ability to change, both on behalf of the top 100 LNA's (our so-called blue-chip leadership), as well as from the companies that track their spending sprees.

Am I missing anything here? Do the caveats below reveal any new insights/reinforcing or contradicting evidence?

You are the community you keep

I know it's probably the first sign of a mashup between megalomania and insanity to start quoting oneself, but be that as it may I have fallen in love with a rather pithy statement I uttered on ATS #41:

You are the community you keep

It's been growing on me the whole holiday weekend and instead of writing a long post on what it means to me, I thought I would turn it over to you for blog comments and audio comments for Across the Sound (+1 206 203-3255 or an mp3 attachment to [email protected])

What does this mean to you?

Is it just another stupid consulting buzzphrase or is there something there?

How should brands interpret this and more importantly, what should they do about it?

ATS #41 - The New Marketing Podcast with guest Corbin Bernsen

Ask yourselves this...what does Corbin Bernsen know about new marketing that you don't?

Check out ATS #41 to find out or subscribe via iTunes here.

AO-Hell

By now, you may very well have heard about Vincent Ferrari, the 30-year old who tried in vain to cancel his AOL ISP service. The story is nothing new in the chronicles of sucky customer service, except for a few minor details:

• Vincent records the conversation and posts it to his blog, insignificant thoughts (as if!)
• He gets Dugg (3108 times and counting...)
• He is interviewed on NBC and the video is uploaded to YouTube

• New York Times gets in on the act (gee, I wonder what would happen if I tried to cancel my New York Times subscription, assuming I had one)
• AOL apologizes (well that settles it...all is forgiven then. PS Can I assume you've renewed your AOL membership for another zillion years?)

PS Vincent's blog (click on thumbnail for error message) is crashomundo for now (wonder if Earthlink will sponsor his increased bandwidth?)

So bottom line...this is another nail in the coffins of lazy, stubborn and arrogant corporations who pay nothing but lip service to their customers and customer service in general, opting for IVR labyrinths, cookie-cutter FAQ's and one-way mirrors. You can expect more taped calls like this to surface in an increasing fashion.

"This call may be recorded or monitored to improve customer service" has never rung so true!

Hat Tip: Clive in Oz (bad news travels fast in the social mediasphere)