Tom Green Hosts Talk TV Show From His House

Tom Green has been getting all web 2.0 social media on us with a decent enough show that he broadcasts live nightly from his house. The Tom Green channel on the web displays his real home phone number for any and all to call and ask questions on air. Celeb guests like Perez Hilton, Tony Hawk, Dr Drew and Kenny+Speny come on over to Tom's house and bring items for later resale on eBay to raise funds to keep the show on the air. Viewers get to vote on what the funds are actually spent on (necessary vid equipment or a useless stuffed bear, for instance). Podcasts on iTunes, yep. Blog, yep. Mass calls to submit user-gen YouTube vids of you watching him.

All he needs now is a groundswell of viewers and paying advertisers and he has a disruptive model for the giants to be concerned about (or mimic).

Taking It To The Streets: Obey Endorses Obama

Well known (and previously mentioned) street artist, Obey/Shepard Fairey, has made a recent endorsement of Barack Obama - and has done so in a quite intriguing way. He created 350 limited edition screen-printed posters (image above), to be sold to fund a larger street poster campaign. The profits are being used to produce stickers and large posters that will be sent to those who are willing to throw down for Obama in the streets. See communication from the Obey team below:

"Thanks for reaching out and wanting to get involved with OBEY's effort to support the OBAMA Campaign. Shepard made this image for the purpose of making pasters to be put on the street, with the money coming from prints sales to help fund the effort. For those interested, we will be sending out a care-package of the OBAMA Paster plus some OBEY stickers to be put up on the street. These pasters will be folded, not tubed, and are STRICTLY for street use. We do not expect to see them for sale on EBAY or anywhere else, so we ask that only the seriously dedicated get involved!"

There will also be non-partisan posters pushing everyone to vote:


Remember, Obey is the guy who over the past 10-15 years has decorated most major U.S. cities with the iconic Andre the Giant imagery:



Look familiar?

Honestly, I see this as a significant endorsement because street artists, in general, tend to be anti-helping-the-man. They are known for being anti-this and anti-that, but rarely, if ever do we see them promoting a politician, or a presidential candidate for that matter. Not to mention Obey has quite the following. Equally, if not more significant, is that the Obama camp appears to be embracing the endorsement.

Wonder if we will end up seeing any of these posters around?

Tooble Comes With The Goods

Tooble is a new program that allows you to download any of the content on YouTube to your computer with ease. No video editing or IT skills necessary. It's free and has a very slick and user friendly interface - it can even function as a standalone YouTube browser. Tooble downloads, converts and imports any YouTube video into MP4 format to play on your computer, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, etc., with just a few clicks. You can even take the MP4 video file and drop it into PPT - perfect for all of those times you wanted to drop that YouTube video into a deck. Finally, my one complaint about YouTube has been solved.

Currently you need a Mac. You can also sign up to be a Beta tester for the PC version.

Scrubbing Bubbles Hits The Mark On Cool Product...But Misses On Targeting

I'm probably pretty late to the game, but just saw one of these commercials (on late night TV of all times) and felt like posting about it. The Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner is quite possibly the coolest innovation in bathtub cleaning I can recall seeing (not that I pay much attention to the category...but still). What has been nagging at me though, is the fact that in their advertising (specifically the target that seems to be depicted in the spots), they position the product toward a familiar audience because it may have seemed to make the most sense or was the safest route at the time (and perhaps it does/is in some way). Check one of the spots here:



I think this is an example of a HUGE missed opportunity in reframing who your target market is. Personally, I think this product is made with- and could have been marketed with- young guys in mind (or, to steal a term from Seth, Gen GuYs). As a member of this group myself- twenty something, still getting used to this idea of being a "professional" and that having clothes strewn about the apartment and dirty bathrooms are no longer socially acceptable as they were in college- a product that allows us to achieve a reasonable level of clean, while requiring the bare minimum of effort, is a god send. Having a clean bathtub and yet not having to spend a minute with a sponge, or can of cleaning solution? Sign me up.

Yet the ads depict the type of out of touch, 1950s style, women who are oh so happy that cleaning is a part of their day that is so typical of commercials in the cleaning product category (always makes me think of the Swiffer campaign...another missed opportunity to go after young guys who would never "dust", but find no issue with grabbing a swiffer cloth and wiping down the TV).

I'd be curious to understand better what the client/agency thought process was. I really think there are plenty of guys that would go for this easy fix cleaning solution, but the company isn't trying to get to them (to my knowledge), maybe out of fear of alienating what they see as their base. Anyone else have thoughts on this (even if it is just to call me a bum for not commenting on these spots sooner)?

Age of Conversation 2.0

Age of Conversation is back with another book underway, "100 voices, one conversation". And In the true spirit of collaboration, you're invited to decide the book's topic together and vote on the topic collectively.

Topic choices are:

Marketing Manifesto
Why Don't People Get It?
My Marketing Tragedy (and what I learned)

Brand Belief System at Pazzaz Printing

While I don't know Pazzaz' prices or capabilities, I certainly know his beliefs. And I suspect Pazzaz will keep my colors true on the press. And I'm compelled to spread his print belief system across the web to all my peers about Pazzaz Printing.

Politics 2.0: Interview With Obama Girl

For all you undecided voters out there who have yet to join the Obama camp, here's some more of the inspiration you need.



Hate it or love it, it's still pretty amazing to me that something which started as a joke has managed to maintain attention for such a prolonged period of time.

And for those who missed it, peep the return of Obama Girl just before the Iowa Caucus (1.3 million hits on YouTube and counting), when she received a pep talk from none other than Truman Girl.

Likemind this Friday!

Open call for anyone (not just us ad folks) who is interested in morning coffee with Likemind. C'mon, it's early, but it's easy: you just show up any time between 8a and 10a this Friday and chat about whatever's on your mind (and we are all about the 15 minute saturation period for your coffee to sink in). Likemind cohorts at Anomaly will even pay for your coffee.

Friday January 18th
Espresso Royale Caffe on Hennepin and 12th (click for map)
8am-10am, come any time.

More info can be found here: www.likemind.us.

The De-blinging of MTV?

MTV is announcing a new program that takes the spoiled brats from My Super Sweet Sixteen and dumps them with indigenous tribes in Africa and Antarctica. It's called Exhiled! and it's a 180 turn from the ostentatious and limitless lifestyle glamorized in the original show.

The premise of this show stuck out to me, and I think it’s because it’s a demonstration of our swing away from soaking up the unattainable ultraglam world of My Super Sweet Sixteen to being more interested in “what’s right.” MTV is following that trend with Exhiled!. Over the next year, we will become more focused on what's right and what's wrong as the presidential election bears down on us. Things we haven't thought about for years are creeping back into our minds, and I think it's making us all a little more righteous. I think plenty of brands have picked up on their consumers being fed up (cashing out, as Faith Popcorn calls it) and have staked out territory as allies in “being fed up.” They’re anti-establishment; they’re rebel. But this MTV program may be going one length further to focus on life after being fed up—depicting what it’s really like out there in the world, rather than just being against what the world is not. "Our audience in the past few years has really begun to look at how they fit into the world; it's core to who young people are now," said MTV executive Dave Sirulnick. "Some of these girls had very little awareness of what was going on around them and were very self-centered. We thought, 'Here's an opportunity.'"

New Air Jordans, New Design Approach?

Nike is dropping the 'golden' pair of Jordans on Jan 25. Golden, if you will, as they are the Air Jordan XX3 – which means they are the 23rd version of the Air Jordan – and Jordan wore #23 for much of his career.

More interesting than it being the golden pair is the design approach. Nike says the AJXX3 is the first b-ball shoe as part of its Considered initiative, where all products are designed with reducing waste and utilizing environmentally friendly materials in mind. Apparently, in contrast to most kicks, the AJXX3 uses a minimal amount of environmentally harmful adhesives and instead relies on a new design system of interlocking panels. Sounds cool, however, curious to know how environmentally friendly these shoes really are?



The interlocking panels, light weight elements (in some cases made of recycled materials) and unique details (Jordan finger print inspired sole pattern) added to the productions process. Apparently a lot of people in the factories were pissed as this “wasn’t business as usual,” according to Tinker Hatfield, Nike’s vp of innovation design and special products. Tinker lead the design and was also the guy who came up with the concept for the Nike Air bubble/Air Max. Below is a video of where he found inspiration for the Air Bubble:



In Jordan brand fashion, the typical build-hysteria model is being employed behind the AJXX3 release. Only 23 Nike sanctioned stores, each with only 23 pairs will have the kicks on Jan 25. $230 will be the ticket. As expected, this initiative will be supported by a campaign appropriately titled “Become Legendary.” Jordan, Melo, Chris Paul and Ray Allen will appear in the spots which are expected to come out mid January.

*Props to Aki and Alyson for their Design for All presentation yesterday.

Hello fromo Iowa (part three)

As the nation gears up to see what N.H. has in store for us, I couldn't help but try to pull some attention back to Iowa. Although I gave you a taste of what the caucus was like from my relatively juvenile point of view, I thought my parents would provide an interesting take on the caucus that often isn’t available in the blogosphere (my parents are decidedly not bloggers). Since they are semi-retired, I was able to rope them in. Their thoughts are below:

Thoughts from my dad:
"I’ve always been an independent—although most often voting Republican rather than Democrat—so spent a lot of time reading about and listening to the candidates from both parties. With growing concern about Iraq and Pakistan and many foreign/energy relations issues, I joined my wife and daughters in supporting the Democrats—making that decision in the last 1-2 weeks.

With so many candidates and platform topics, I observed more of a ‘go with the crowd’ mentality this year versus prior presidential election years. For that reason, to aide me in my ‘winnowing many down to few’ process, I consulted a ‘selection quiz’ on the internet developed by Minnesota Public Radio. By spending just a few minutes answering 14 questions on 14 different platform issues (Iraq, taxes, abortion, immigration, stem cell research, gay marriage, line item veto, energy, death penalty, gun control, education, social security, healthcare, and environment ), the quiz helped me more easily identify those candidates more in alignment with my views.

As to the caucus itself, because of the level of dissatisfaction with our current administration and the number of highly qualified candidates, turn-out was substantially greater than prior caucuses and more than the caucus leadership was ready & equipped to handle. With initial support for 6 of the democratic candidates, ‘politicking’ and arm twisting eventually narrowed the field to 4, with a few of the 1st time caucus going becoming disillusioned with not being able to stick with your original preference and leaving the caucus rather than switching support to another.

The caucus process is more intimidating than the normal ‘closed curtain’ voting process. This creates a more knowledgeable voting public because you want to know so you can influence and defend. Unfortunately this also means that many do not participate..."

Thoughts from my mom:
"In person I found Hillary Clinton to be a surprise. She was warm and very, very informed on every issue and questions brought to her. She treated the audience as intelligent and informed citizens. She was friendly and easy with the crowd as she walk around shaking hands

I also was impressed with Obama’s speech making. He too is smart and ready. However, I didn’t find his demeanor with the crowd afterwards as comfortable and he didn’t stop to talk as much as he may have earlier in his campaign. He appeals to a b ig crowd and does it so well. I saw him several times and always in a big room where some of the other candidates were comfortable at small restaurants, and the like. It is just style each finds comfortable for him/her.

Last night was the caucus and I went to find twice to three times more people there than what was expected. Due to numbers it was chaos at first. I started at Richardson’s table but had to move to a viable candidate for delegates. I just couldn’t figure out who I wanted to get behind liking them all. Finally, I went with Hillary Clinton because I want a woman to be taken seriously for the top job in this country when she is as prepared and capable as this candidate. Early in this campaign I still want the country to know that I woman is a real possibility for this job and I am not ready to concede that it won’t happen.

However, all this said, I am a fan of Barak Obama and think he has had the best people on his team imaginable. They called daily, canvassed our home, kept on top of things very professionally. They did a terrific job. They also have a very strong candidate to promote and I feel happy that he did so well last night. His speech following the win was so strong that how can he be denied."

Hello from Iowa (part 2)

I am sure you have all seen the headlines – the big Democratic turn out, the big Obama win, the big Clinton loss, and the religious right’s single-handed miracle of a Huckabee win – but what happened in Iowa last night holds far more secrets about what is to come than those headlines.

I caucused with the Democrats so I will have to limit my comments to what I saw there, although from my understanding, the Republicans go, pledge, pray, vote, and go again -- home to watch the Orange Bowl (Kansas was playing after all). The Democratic caucus procedure is much more involved, but more on that later.

I felt as if I stepped into a time warp last night as I entered the church/precinct 1 voting center in Muscatine, Iowa, a smallish town on the Mississippi river. 261 democrats showed up to caucus, far more than they were expecting. The planning felt similar to the planning, I imagine, that goes into a Spears’ offspring, but I believe that was because of the sheer numbers. Although we were there to decide something with implications far beyond our small town, it had the feeling of caucusing over the gnawing decision of who should head up the PTA. We were in a large room with one microphone (which few people could hear), the majority of the time was spent attempting to count how many people were there to caucus. Once we managed that debacle, people were asked to separate into groups based on the candidate that they were supporting. Stickers were passed out by precinct leaders and more counting ensued, in order to be a “viable candidate” groups needed to have 15% of the attendants; this by the way was explained to us as “multiply by .15” (our family put our heads together and figured out it was 15%). Our precinct selected 5 delegates for Obama, 3 for Clinton, and 2 for Edwards.

The caucus could not have been more low-tech. It harkened to a time when town hall meetings were not orchestrated events with “don’t tase me, bro” security. The caucus was a decidedly local event. Yes, people here care about the war, but it seems they care more about the neighbor kid down the street that has been deployed in Iraq, than the details of the hows and whys of what got us there. Yes, Iowans care about national issues, but the reason I think Obama won last night, was because he understood the changes people want are not “wedge issues” but “make your life a little better” issues…

Hello from Iowa

As a very recent addition to the Fallon gang, I am returning to my home state of Iowa to do what Iowans do best, caucus.

Over the last few months, my family and I have braced ourselves against the onslaught of political ads, political rhetoric, people playing politics, political mud slinging, political polls, political reporting, and most of all, a seemingly never-ending stream of politicians. Exhausting? You begin to understand what it is to be an Iowan before the caucus.

I believe the political ad that packed the most punch in our neighborhood was the Huckabee ad that declared a cease-fire for the holidays. For those of you that missed it, this was the ad the mass media focused on due to the fact that there was a cross in the background… I didn’t hear many Iowans complaining. I am not sure if this type of gesture will move votes, but it does produce goodwill, even in my house, and lets just say, we’re NPR, not Fox News.

The most beautiful thing about the Iowa caucus is that those that wish to be engaged have a real chance to make a difference. Many of my friends and family have talked face-to-face with candidates. Seeing as in Iowa right now, politicians are as ubiquitous as corn, you can take the car for a test drive so to speak… kick the tires, look under the hood, all that. I’ll be here tomorrow to give all of you outside the great state, an Iowan’s look at the caucus. Under the hood…

And so, we caucus.

On Second Thought, How Much Should I Respect The Media Snacker?

On a recent post, I added a note about respecting media snackers. It wasn't until a few days later that I actually had the time to think a bit more about what it meant and why (or why not) I should be trying to respect snackers.

Truth is, providing content that could've been found anywhere (ie, in simply reposting a video) doesn't really make me feel like I accomplished a lot (other than ending a post drought). Sure, I do it from time to time (sometimes too often, given crazy schedules), but the posts I feel best about are the ones that took me more than 3 minutes to put up. The ones I've rewritten 10 times. The ones where I've added pictures and video simply as extras (or not at all), not as the focal point of the post itself.

I can understand the desire to respect media snackers (and admittedly, its a label that often applies to my own media habits), but specifically when it comes to blogging I don't know how much I really should. In fact, sometimes I think I give a bit too much respect to the snackers and don't dedicate enough effort to creating a more meaningful post that requires me to think about and clearly state my point of view on something (but I'm trying to get back on track).

But curious to hear what others think. What are you looking for when you come here (and to other blogs)? Quick bites of content, or posts that make you stop and think (or somewhere in between)? I'm sure it varies depending on the blog you're reading (I know it does for me), but interested to hear thoughts on the media snacker topic in general.

The Role Of A Country's Brand

Tata Motors today will be announced the winner of the bidding war over Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. The latter has been struggling to do much of anything really with the British brands and has been looking to sell them off for some much needed cash.

But, the sale has many US Jaguar dealers upset. They believe that Indian ownership will dilute their luxury brand (as if Ford was the most prestigious automaker).

Personal biases aside, the whole incident was interesting to me because, in an increasingly global world where we often like to think that country of origin has less and less impact on what a brand/product means to people (well, perhaps except China), its still a strong issue. Indian business men and women have been left feeling like they've been slapped in the face, more or less told by these US dealers that the brand of India downgrades the brand of Jaguar/Land Rover. While on one hand (if I push myself to be very understanding) I suppose I can see why these dealers have reacted this way (it's still a third world country, blah, blah), seems to me that India has done quite a bit to prove itself as a nation on the rise, and deserving of the chance.

But it also raises a broader question that I have been thinking about recently- is there another product category that has tied itself so closely to the country it is produced in? For decades American car companies have used (and continue to use) brand America (though it may not be in their favor anymore) to sell cars. It's amazing to me how strongly the brand of a nation is tied to the cars it produces, wise or not. Hell, some foreign automakers even feel like they have to defend themselves for being "foreign".

Can any of you readers think of another product or category that so heavily associates itself with the country it comes from? And is this something you see continuing (growing/declining?)- in car makers or other categories? I've been thinking that that where a product comes from will increasingly become irrelevant, but this made me pause (and, perhaps, it is yet another sign of how out of touch car makers are with what's going on in the world).

Top 10 quotes of 2007

Yale Book of Quotations compiled its list for 2007 (hope nothing memorable happens in the next ten days).

Number one was "Don't tase me bro!" It's compiled by Fred R. Shapiro, an associate librarian and lecturer in legal research at the Yale Law School.

It's interesting to consider these ten quotes in the context of a collective benchmark for our world in 2007 (and by interesting, I mean scary).

Politics 2.0: Barely Political Takes On Ann Coulter

Want to be perfected? Look to Ann Coulter.



The funniest part is how little the peeps at BP actually have to try in order to portray Coulter as quite the extremist. But frightening to me is how many people in this country listen to and actually approve of what she has to say. One of her more recent books has nearly a thousand customer reviews on Amazon, with close to 600 giving her 4 stars or more...wow.

The Whopper Freakout

This is genius.

(and in response to Seth's comments, I guess I'm doing my best to respect the Media Snacker).

"The Youth Vote"

Future Majority, a blog that reports on youth voting, put together a set of tips for reporting on "the youth vote."

Tip #1 is my favorite:

The youth vote is not synonymous with students. In fact, students make up only a small part of the eligible youth vote. Only 21% of all 18-29 year olds are currently attending a college or university. That means that when you report on "students", you are leaving out the other 79% of all the individuals that make up the "youth vote." These people serve in our military, are struggling to raise families - and yes, have very different concerns from college students. I understand that makes it difficult for you to cram them into a cookie-cutter story about student aid activism and tuition costs, but you do them and your readers and our democracy a disservice when you limit your coverage to students.

Mike Connery, one of the site's bloggers, put together the tips after the CNN debate in which a college student was forced by producers to ask Hilary Clinton whether she preferred diamonds or pearls, instead of the original question about the Yucca Mountain nuclear situation.

The woman later lambasted CNN for forcing such a fluff question. This whole mini-drama falls in line with a topic of conversation that comes up frequently at Likemind: that "youth" are more mobile, more connected and more able to voice their opinions than any generation before them. This is the only world they know, and are aghast when that right is stepped on--as in the instance of diamonds v pearls. Yes, there's a twinge of self-righteousness that every sprouting adult experiences, but this generation is more able to retaliate when they've been wronged. Are they taking full advantage? Depends on the metrics we're using to judge. If we go back to voting, 49% of 18-29 year olds voted in the last election, a higher percentage than 65+. So watch out, youth have a big stick.

Social Marketing: Tay Zonday and Dr Pepper

Looks like Dr. Pepper has tapped the star power of Tay Zonday to help promote it's Diet Cherry Chocolate soda...

The appeal of Tay continues to amaze me. When Chocolate Rain first came out I thought most people would tire out on him pretty quickly. But I find myself checking his YouTube channel weekly waiting for the latest video to drop, and continue to be entertained every time. This latest clip- posted yesterday- has already racked up +206,000 hits, so guess I'm not alone.

I particularly love this line in his intro: "The is the Web, and its gonna murder your TV"

Get some of that Cherry Chocolate Rain.

Planning For Good: Live Earth

Planning For Good (PfG) - strategists donating brain power to good causes. 1100+ members strong. Across the globe. In only a few short months, we've successfully briefed Idea Village in New Orleans, and Unicef. Now Live Earth.






Live Earth Brief- Due December 17th

Get the brief @ Facebk and @ blog.

PfG Minneapolis - standby for meeting dates and location info. Sign up for updates, or "friend" me on Facebook and I'll add u to the PfG MPLS United army.

Planners in other cities around the globe may connect with their local cells here.

Panic Button: Made in China

An activist group is pushing for the resignation of a top Consumer Product Safety Commission official for failing to take a stronger stance on toy safety and has created a YouTube video to get its message across.


The Campaign for America’s Future is calling on Nancy Nord to step down as the CPSC’s acting director, largely for her opposition to legislation to strengthen the commission’s oversight on toy safety.

Millions of Chinese-made toys containing excessive levels of lead have been recalled in recent months from a number of toy manufacturers, including Mattel.

The group, which challenges “the big money corporate agenda” by encouraging people to speak up, says the commission is failing to protect children from dangerous toys.

To garner support, the organization created an online video that shows a “toxic” encounter between Mattel-made dolls Barbie and Ken.

“We’re trying to call attention to this,” says Eric Lotke, research director for Campaign for America’s Future. “The message is these toys are unsafe and the government authority, which is duty bound to keep us safe, is failing.”

In the video, Barbie and Ken run into each other at a bar. Their post break-up reunion ends the next morning at the Barbie Dream House. A week later, Barbie begins to complain to Ken that she is “having some symptoms.” When Ken asks what’s wrong, Barbie answers, “It’s…it’s lead poisoning.” It also reminds people that accessories for Barbie dolls were among the millions of imported toys recalled this year because of toxic levels of lead paint or other safety problems.

The group is relying on people to spread word of the video virally. Since its launch last week, the video has been viewed more than 60,000 times. And so far, about 7,000 people have signed the petition.

Reps from the organization plan to deliver the petition to Nord at the end of the week, Lotke said.

via Promo

How Much "I'm Sorry" Can Actually Mean

There's been a lot of negative shit (and that's just a small taste) on the airline industry in the press recently-- and most of it deservedly so. To be honest, a good experience on a flight is something I consider a luxury these days. If it's on time, the flight attendants don't give me attitude for asking for that second beer, and my luggage gets where it needs to go, I'm ok.

But today I realized maybe I do care. Flying out of Minneapolis on NWA, our plane was delayed for an hour or so- not terrible by airline standards- but still a pain. The pilot took the time to get on the intercom multiple times to give us updates and apologize for the delay.

That in itself wasn't surprising- in fact I'd be pissed if he didn't- but what I did appreciate is that fact that he was standing at the door of the plane as we exited, personally apologizing for the delay rather than delegating the task to the flight crew.

It illustrated for me yet again a point that companies so often ignore- getting their own people on board with the company brand/mission. Maybe I'm giving him too much credit, but the fact that the pilot came out and took the time to apologize raised my views of the airline in general. Having people who stand up and admit when they've messed up, personally extending their apologies to me, was a nice surprise from an industry I didn't expect it from. And seeing an employee who believes his company/brand should be better than that was refreshing.

Now the question is, will I get a similar experience on the way back to uphold my newly found positive sentiment for the company, or will it be shot down? We'll find out soon enough...

Metrics & Measurement from Futures of Entertainment 2

Second Panel Discussion: Metrics & Measurement
This is all about measurements online and in broadcast. Discussion about moving towards qualitative over quantitative research.

Panel Members:
Maury Giles – GSD&M Idea City
Stacey Lynn Schulman – Turner Broadcasting
Bruce Leichtman – Leichtman Research Group

Moderator:
Sam Ford – Project Manager for the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT

Some opening thoughts from each of the panelists:
Maury: There is a difference between traditional creatives and those that come up from the digital side
Stacey: It is getting harder and harder to predict the upcoming television show hits, now that there are more than just 3 networks (like there were when she started), and so many cable channels.
Bruce: It is imperative to understand the present in order to research and understand the future. Also, focus on the masses, never think about you, or your social graph as representing the mass.

What do you do with new media?

We can’t apply old metrics to new media.

This leads back to the Writers Strike. They are striking about the future – looking at a hockey stick curve telling them that online content will be a huge increase in profit from online viewing. It was added that hockey stick graphs are just visual representations of someone’s opinion. Also, Bruce pointed out that when you look at the total amount of time spent watching (legal) online video, the average per online video user (NOT all online users) is only 6 minutes per month. That is VERY small to be striking over. This idea of online video needs to be viewed as an evolution, not a revolution.

(It should be noted that a lot of online TV viewing is done via illegal downloading, which was not included in this statistic)

Within this debate comes DVRs as another way to watch shows at a different time than when they are aired. What warrants an appointment event vs. non-appointment event? Sporting events, for example, you must watch before you hear the score from the news or a friend, and also you must have the game as a social currency with your friend. Another example is an anticipated event such as High School Musical 2. However, appointment is really just the time between the event airing and you needing to interact with anyone else or watch the news.

What is online success?

How do we define it? Do we continue to measure based on traditional means, such as eyeballs? What about buzz, and looking and viral information and how it travels? You can’t quantify online activity such as pass along viewership and repeat viewership. But clients want TRPs and metrics that they understand. However, if a show isn’t getting the high ratings, or a site isn’t getting a large number of hits, should it be terminated?

Look, for example, at The Office. It started as a small, loyal audience, where much of the viewing took place online. It didn’t get huge ratings, but it didn’t get kicked off the air. Eventually it became more mainstream and popular and now it has great ratings.

How do people make purchase decisions?

Research says that people get a gut reaction when the are exposed to an advertisement, then seek out additional information about the product/service, and finally make a decision about whether or not to purchase the product.

But how to you create an advertisement that will get this gut reaction? And if you do, how do you measure it?

Once again, it is something that is not quantifiable. There is a difference between the metric that you need to monetize and the metric you need to connect. How much does advertising drive sales? If you see an ad for toilet paper on TV, do you immediately run out to the store and purchase it? Or is that just branding? After all, branding DOES work.

So if branding works in traditional media, can it acceptably work in new media? Buzz is not about audience measurement, rather, it is about reputation. And there is a lot to be learned from what other people say about your brand. After all, criticism is not negative, it is important because the people care enough to publicize what is wrong in order to help you get better.

It was noted that there is an increase in consumers brand affinity scores if they got into online spaces to experience the brand vs. not. And online branding has the ability to reach the light TV viewer, who your TV likely passed over, where as the heavy TV viewer likely already caught your ad a few times on air.

Timing is important for ad consumption.

When creating advertisements, it is important to get the consumer at reachable moments, and take into account what people are doing at the time they are consuming the media. For example, at what point does TV play a relevant role in a purchase decision?

Lets look at call-in ads. These run during the day and late at night, but never during prime time. Why? During prime time, the audience is too engaged to engage in call-in ad, they want to be laid back during that time.

A few closing “think abouts:”
Bruce: Think evolution, not revolution. The technology is far ahead of the consumer behavior.

Stacey: Think about how to keep consumers involved without interrupting.

Maury: We need to study qualitatively and through ethnographic research how the consumer engages in the purchase decision making. Also, we should think about benefits of aggregating the budget into small audiences instead of just the masses.

More from Futures of Entertainment 2 at MIT

First Panel Discussion - Mobile Media
Lots of information, but if you are into mobile, it's good stuff. A bit text heavy, and a lack of who-said-what, but the ideas are there from some very smart people.


Panel Members:
Alice Kim – MTV Networks
Marc Davis – Yahoo!
Anmol Madan - MIT Media Lab
Bob Schukai – Turner Broadcasting

Moderator:
Joshua Green, Research Manager of the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT

Mobile Media

What is so important about mobile media? On a global scale, by 2010, 4 billion people (which is most of who will ever be connected) will be connected to the Internet, most by phone, according to Davis.

Unfortunately, the U.S. is falling way behind in mobile and broadband, and having trouble adapting. According to Schukai, we are 2 years behind Europe and 3-4 years behind Asia, and those are the markets we can learn the most from (specifically Korea, China, Taiwan and India are markets to watch).

What is keeping us so far behind? We are still worried about coverage, while other markets are concerned with speed and service. Also, the consumer behavior isn’t there yet. The biggest barrier is the cost of data on phones. This is where the opportunity for advertisers lies – can advertisers offset this cost to make it more accessible? Mobile platforms are a great way to collect consumer data.

What should advertisers think about when developing mobile content?

The most important thing to remember when thinking about mobile platforms is that we should develop specific content for mobile, not just try to use other media content in a mobile format, for a variety of reasons.

First, we are not at the point yet of having one device that is our phone, computer, and television all in one, so we use each device at different times and for different purposes. Content should be both time and location aware, since this data is available. Think: in the morning you are commuting, in the evening you are at a baseball game. What kind of content is useful in each situation? Historically, carriers have been the aggregators of content, but there is an opportunity for others to come in and do this better.

Second, there is no mouse on most cell phones, which changes how users can view a website (there is an exception with the new iPhone interface). Content must be made to fit the interface.

Third, since the networks in the US are all separate, (unlike Europe, for example) social programs must be based on the core Internet and phone technologies in order to connect users of separate networks (since everyone has friends who use different networks).

Another important thing to think about with mobile media is that the users are not just consuming content with the device, but also producing content, earning the name “pro-sumers.” With still camera and video camera capabilities on GPS enabled phones, there are many new technologies that combine these features. This provides an opportunity for the creation of programs that assist users in producing their own content.

New Technologies:

ZoneTag – http://zonetag.research.yahoo.com
an application built to automatically tag pictures users take on their cell phone using GPS technology. Sites such as Flickr have tag maps showing where pictures are taken.

FireEagle – http://fireeagle.research.yahoo.com
An application built to use GPS to allow others to see where a user is geographically. Users can determine who can see where they are, and then how much information they can know (ex: I am in Cambridge vs. I am in building E15 on the MIT campus).

Privacy is an issue with the new technologies, which can hinder development of mobile applications. For example, CNN attempted to partner with an insurance agency to create an emergency weather SMS notification system, based on where the user was located, but it wasn’t well received because people didn’t like the company knowing their location. (This is likely to change as consumer behaviors change, think of social networking, for example. When Microsoft first proposed the idea, it was rejected on account of invasion of privacy. However, a few years later when Friendster, MySpace and Facebook came out, the population was ready).

The Future of Mobile:

Google is attempting to purchase a frequency in the US to introduce the Google phone, which could help move along the progress of mobile in the US. This platform is referred to as “open,” but what does open really mean? It has a bit of a closed meaning, in that it is just another platform to develop on.

Mobile is already changing the way news is reported, with the first video of the London subway bombings and the Virginia Tech shootings coming from mobile devices. These geo, time, and event aware devices will continue to change news.

“Status Casting” is becoming more popular through technologies such as FireEagle and Twitter, allowing people to constantly be updating where they are and when. This will likely lead to people expecting to always know where you are, similar to how people expect to always be able to call your cell phone now. In fact, these technologies that allow you to see where your friends are located are already very popular in Asia.

Video on cell phones can be used to create social broadcasting of self, instead of just creating informational content, news or entertainment. This can change the social media landscape, as people are continuing more and more to live their real lives online. (If people are moving towards living their real lives online, is that why Second Life is becoming old news now?)

There is the possibility to create applications that comprehend user behaviors, such as walking vs. standing still. Also, a phone could recognize your geo location, and with the knowledge of the behavior of people in your contacts list, it could tell you about a restaurant to visit that many of your friends have visited and liked. It creates an opportunity for that restaurant to offer you a deal via SMS to come try it out.

As more devices are given IP addresses, communication from one device to another is allowed, opening up transfer of information between devices. For example, if you are watching TV, the channel could switch over to your mobile phone as you walk away.


Bottom line? Mobile is on the rise, the US is behind, and nobody has quite figured the whole thing out.

Documentaries for the snoop in all of us.

It's not new, but the documentary pieces by Louis Theroux are great. I think he banks on an innocent look and a British accent to gain access into some very interesting (and usually closed or secretive) groups...suburban swingers, black supremacists. I'm equally impressed with his ability to ask questions directly and elicit answers that show an honest and human snapshot of these people's lives. Aki thinks they're open because subjects might not realize that folks stateside will be able to watch the videos (thank you Internet)...any other opinions? I suspect that these guys see Theroux as a vehicle to explain (justify?) themselves to the outside world that has a lot of preconceived notions about what they're all about. And true, many of the things they expose about themselves are surprising and thought-provoking, but there's also plenty of reconfirmation of why these people are acting on the fringes.

(not so live) blogging from Futures of Entertainment 2 Conference

Due to the lack of power outlets and pathetic battery life of my iBook, my blogging from the Futures of Entertainment 2 at MIT will be rather delayed.

The day started with opening comments from Henry Jenkins, director of the MIT Program in Comparative Media Studies (CMS), and Joshua Green, research manager for the Convergence Culture Consortium (C3).

The Future of Television:


We watched this video and discussed the present state and future of television because it shows that even in the late 1940's, people were predicting this interactivity in television. Jenkins discussed interactive television not just as clicking a button to be taken into an interactive on-screen experience, but instead as any form of interaction with a television show in the physical world, e.g. the transformation of 7-11's to Kwik E. Mart's as part of the Simpsons campaign. By this definition, the Kwik E. Marts are considered an example of interactive TV because they brought television into the physical world.

Other examples include CSI's involvement in Second Life, the Nintendo Wii (which was referred to as "the most important interface development in gaming") which changes the way that users interact with the screen, and another example is Heroes use of transmedia. 2 key examples from Heroes include the use of 9th Wonder comic books in the show, and a book which is coming out that includes extra backstory and flushes out secondary characters.

Transmedia is a hot topic - the development of content that can be delivered on many mediums is being used by both television shows and advertisers. Case in advertising: The Geiko Cavemen beginning as an advertisement and becoming a sitcom.


The Writers Strike:



The writers strike has been a primary topic of discussion at the conference, and there are two writers here from Heroes who spoke last night. A big part of the strike deals with the payment for content delivered over the web. Right now, this is considered promotional content, but many people get episodes of shows by downloading them or watching them in streaming video online. In the same way that music artists get paid every time their song is played, writers want to get paid every time their episode is viewed. This is a challenge because of the debate over online metrics and measurement, which will be discussed later.


Web 2.0:
Ah the daunting topic of Web 2.0... lets skip the talk about definition and get right into some topics.

Politics: The CNN/You-Tube Democratic Debate was new this year, and there won't be a Republican one. Mitt Romney's public refusal caused some new YouTube videos:


Note: Candidates can speak to us using all kinds of cartoons, but refuse to "debate a snowman"

Niche success: The idea that mass media is giving way to niche success is negated by the global popularity Harry Potter, for example.

Grassroots: Soulja Boy. Over a year ago, a 15 year old boy used blogs, social networks and YouTube to encourage people to take his music and creatively use his original music to create content. Term used to describe this: Remixing.

This is an example of what happened:




More to come.

Brainfood: Virtuality

Fallon strategic planners Aki Spicer (Aki Octagon) and Avin Narasimhan (Desi Stoneage) have come back from the future to offer their POV about Virtuality and it’s implications for brands.

One of the hottest debates in marketing circles today is the viability of virtual worlds like Second Life. What are they? What do people do there? Why? What’s in it for me—if anything? We’ve seen companies flooding these worlds, and some are finding it difficult to translate their virtual world presence into real world gains.

The truth is, we traverse virtual dimensions every day without even thinking about it. From financial transactions, to games, to our daily Facebook interactions with friends, Virtuality is a new normal and it impacts many facets of our lives. It is through this lens that we explore what Virtuality means now and in the future, and what our agency needs to know to extract the most from it.

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*click to goto Slideshare to view the presentation FULLSCREEN.

Brainfood is an monthly digest of Fallon Planner’s strategic intelligence and bridges the gap between trends, business issues, and actionable opportunities for the agency and clients.


Companion Links:

Toyota Tacoma is the law giver!


Saatchi creatives comment on tacoma WOW spot

Ecology debate in 2L


CSI Episode features 2L integration


Please won't you stop the slaughter?

Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery

Our boys over at Fallon London must be enjoying this. The much talked about Cadbury's Gorilla spot latest spoof comes from Wonderbra. Peep both below, judge for your self.

Cadbury original:



Wonderbra spoof:

Commercial Interruption: Ball Buster, from Mego

Intuition for play and purpose

Luis Von Ahn, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University is putting the collective intelligence of internet users to good use, and he's doing it in a resonant way: games. Von Ahn devised two easy online games, The ESP Game and Phetch that put active users together in an internet version of charades. One person sees a photo and tries to give clues for the others to go out and find it.

Through these games, Von Ahn is giving people a fun way to solve a problem that cannot be solved by computers yet, called "human computation." The trick of these games is that descriptions for every image are logged--and stored as tags. The ESP site claims that every image on the web could be tagged in a matter of weeks should the game be played as much as other popular online games. And he very well could be on to something. During a speech at Google, Von Ahn pointed out the unharnessed potential of people playing games online....

Wigetization: Daft Punk Promo Widget

Daft Punk, the French electronic duo known for making music that scares your cat and using robots for live shows, have decided to promote their new live album, Alive, with an embeddable widget, which allows visitors to listen to previews of new tracks, buy the single, read Daft Punk’s biography, read the newsletter, and see a photo gallery of the band.

“Standard” promotional tools are giving way to user-syndicated web based promotion and social networking - at costs that are next to nothing.

via Mashable and Brand Republic

Makes You Think.

"Interesting Snippets" is a flickr site for Lynette Webb, a Senior Strategic Insights Manager at Google UK (previously incorrectly described (by me) as Director of Futures). In her own words, it's "my personal dumping ground for various cool quotes, the odd stat, as slides to talk around when describing how things are changing online and in media & communications generally."

It's essentially a blog that is headlined with an interesting picture and quote (often from a blog, article or speech). I would love to ask which usually comes first: inspiration from a photo, the stat or a broad idea that she finds can be articulated in one of the first two.

What's Next: The New Keyboard for the Texting Generation

Given I'm just a couple years out and, as many who know me would agree, still as prone to immature humor as ever, one of my favorite sites continues to be College Humor. While running through the RSS feeds today, caught this article on what a keyboard redesigned for the texters and IM junkies among us may look like. Silly as it might be, makes me wonder if this would actually be met with success...


The left...

and the right side...

can't forget that number pad

Trash Talk: Plastic Bag Gallery

The Photographers’ Gallery invited people to submit photographs of plastic bags spotted around London and elsewhere which can be viewed here.


[…]Reminding us of our ability to consume and dispose, this project provides the public with their own platform for visual expression and is part of the Gallery’s continued remit to encourage further audience participation and highlighting photography’s influence in everyday life.[…]

via GHAVA

Guilty Pleasure: OS Bape

Fashion appareller Bathing Ape's website is more like an Operating System that loads onto your computer, not on the web per se. Nothing dangerous happens, prob not sticky enough to leave it on forever, but an interesting approach toward maintaining Bape's "band apart" ideals. Accepting this BAPE OS is sorta like bondage games - with a brand you like.
The top left corner (consider it the safeword) exits out when you're bored with it...or gotta get work done. It actually works in the background on my MacBook, so you may never need to exit out, actually.

A great strategy for a passion brand like uber-luxe Bape...the average Wal-Mart and Meineke Mufflers prob can't roll like this, though.


thnx to Simon Law for the pointr.

Virtuality: CSI Murder Investigation Enters Second Life

Next week 10/24 CSI:NY will be taking it's mainstream audience- and a historically traditional network- into the virtual world for an hour of murder mystery. The episode will feature the detectives perusing the world for clues as they try to solve the case, and will attempt to draw people in by inviting them to CBS.com for a "live simulation" of Second Life and the chance to be virtual detectives to see if they can crack the mystery. The NY Times has more details, worth a read.

An interesting and perhaps the most mainstream play since virtual world buzz began to get people engaged with Second Life. Could potentially be a turning point for 2L: if, even after the counterintuitive and confusing process of getting started and moving around is simplified and tied to a network TV show, people still don't engage, what then? What's next in the evolution of Virtuality? On the other hand, if it's executed well and gets a strong reaction, what's the next step to deepen that engagement?

I'm not a fan of the show- truth be told I've never seen an episode- but I'm definitely eager to see how this turns out.

In the meantime, suppose we'll have to settle for the trailer while we wait a week for that virtual goodness.

Radiohead Did It Again

I thought about disclaiming off the bat that I am a diehard Radiohead fan, but then realized that's like saying I have two arms and two legs--describes nearly everyone.

Radiohead has built itself into a category of untouchables through decades of unbelievable work. It's one of the few bands ever to evolve with changing times and produce drastic evolutions from album to album.

Now, Radiohead has turned the inner workings of the music industry on its ear. Today, Radiohead released an album that you can buy for whatever price you like. On its own site--not through a record label. Name the amount and you will own a digital version of the new album. By cutting out the middleman and eliminating physical products to distribute, Radiohead keeps most of the money. In theory--the site is so overwhelmed with traffic that I can't get it to load.

Maybe the real disclosure should have been that I am predisposed to thinking anything Radiohead does is awesome. In reality, it's probably not a sustainable business model for anyone but the top artists who have a devout following of millions, but it is a signal that there are ways to distribute music outside of EMI and iTunes.

Brave New Media: How Facebook Users Spend Their Time

Compete.com blog discusses "how Facebook users spend their time".

Not unsurprisingly, people spend most of their time browsing profiles, but using applications is getting up there in terms of number of users, and the time spent is almost as long.

And speaking of Facebook Apps...Compete data show that Facebook activity grew 32% from May to August, 2007, with more than a third of the growth coming from the new applications.


And furthermore...O'Reilly released a report The Facebook Application Platform and it has good and bad news. Good: there are nearly 5000 Facebook applications, and the top applications have tens of millions of installs and millions of active users. Bad news: 87% of the usage goes to only 84 applications! Only 45 applications have more than 100,000 active users. "This is a long tail marketplace with a vengeance -- but unfortunately, the economic models (for developers at least, though not for Facebook itself) all rely on getting into the very short head."

Here's the distribution of active users among the top 200 developers. (Some developers have multiple popular applications.) As you can see, the drop-off is extremely steep:


Doh! Tim O'Reilly says: "This doesn't mean that Facebook won't become an important platform for developers, just that a throwaway Facebook app is not the ticket to quick riches. Embracing the Facebook opportunity requires more than just optimism."

via O'Reilly Radar and Compete.com Blog

Guilty Pleasure: LOL Cat Rewrites the Bible

Beloved by cat fans, humor fans, and internet-randomness fans, LOLCat has taken one more step in formalizing its language as, well, a real language. LOLCats is translating the Bible.

Excerpt from the Book of Matthew:

19. Joseph was all liek "Oh snap, dis embarrassin. I's gonna hide mah wife".

20. But when he was tihnkin, zomg, angel frm Ceiling Cat was in his dreems! Angel sayed "Hai, don't be fraided to has Mary for ur wife, cuz her baby be frm Holey Ghosty."

For more LOL Cat love: Time Magazine article from July.

Guilty Pleasure: PassiveAgressiveNotes.com

The name is self-explainatory. Not since Hot Chicks With Douchebags have I seen a more amusing display of wild humans behaving in their natural habitats.

The American Mustache Institute

In case you haven't heard, there's a Fallon Mustache Contest going on and I'm a proud participant.

It started yesterday, the same day that New York Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott wrote this feature on the American Mustache Institute (leadership pictured above).

As Elliott points out, this is more than a humor site. It's a net-roots PR effort designed to raise awareness for an annual event held in St. Louis, called 'Stache Bash, that raises money to fund a baseball league for disabled kids.

So instead of sending out a few press releases and crossing their fingers, they created a community with a fun hook that caught on with bloggers and even mainstream sports media.

According to Dan Callahan, a VP at Fleishman-Hillard in St. Louis (Omnicom) and one of the guys behind this idea (and, presumably, his mustache):

“...based on where things are headed, we thought we could do better by creating a community” through the online poll because “the idea of online community-building is the future.”

Ah yes, The Future.

The poll that launched the site last summer asked visitors to vote for the Top Sports Mustache of All Time.



Write-in candidate Keith Hernandez won.

Now they're asking us to vote on who deserves to be on Mount "Stachemore".



Are they really going to carve a memorial to the greatest mustaches of all time? I hope so, as long as the kids still get their baseball gear and everything.

And by the way, from Wikipedia: "The word is pronounced with the stress either on the first syllable or, more properly, on the second syllable."

'Stache on ya.

(Fallon Mustache Contest updates to follow. End date: Nov 1, 2007)

Social Currency: Cavemen on Primetime TV...But Does It Matter?

Peep a short clip of one of the Cavemen- of Geico fame- on the View:



Whether or not you like the campaign, got me thinking that, despite how much quirky characters can win attention from the masses, it can be a dangerous trap to fall into. Seeing it as an end (ie creating a TV show just because people "like" your characters) and not a means to an end. Attention is great, but if it doesn't translate into results, all is lost.

Example: a lot of people love commercials for Bud Light, Miller Light, and (my personal favorite) Miller High Life commercials. But, as funny as I think the latter are, do I drink it? Hmm...

Nike (and in particular Jordan) are some of my all-time favorite commercials...but I haven't bought a pair of either since I was in middle school.

Point being, it's attention getting creative, people talk about those spots, even love them...but do they act? Surely I'm inserting my own bias with these examples, so back to the point- I'm not saying the Cavemen haven't brought any results for Geico. But who is going to watch a TV show based on them? Who cares? :30 of them may be funny...but 30 minutes? Seriously? And even if people watch it...are they switching to Geico?

Anyone else have an opinion to throw in? Will you watch the show? Do you even like the Cavemen? If you're a Geico customer, what does it all do for you?