Joe Queenan has a terrific idea in his WSJ column: a DVR that keeps the commercials and skips some of the idiotic TV programs.
Queenan explains how he loves some of the commercials on TV these days. He includes the Dos Equis' "Most Interesting Man in the World" and the E*Trade talking baby.
"If I could only fast-forward cliche-spouting actors, lying politicos, Wolf Blitzer, and college softball", he moans.
I'm not sure I agree with him about what to skip (I like Wolf Blitzer), but I do agree that there seems to be a lot more thinking in some 30-second TV commercials than in some 30-minute programs.
It's an important concern for us in advertising. As the TV shows go, so go our media plans and our work. If there's little worthwhile to turn on the TV set for, advertising will suffer. Just as the television networks can't produce programs without advertising to pay for them, so too our advertising can't produce results without audiences.
And another thing. Why can't a network like NBC boost itself out of last place? My hunch is that it keeps trying to do what it did last year, only better, instead of trying to do something nobody did last year, only great.
Is the greatest amount of creativity in television in the commercials these days? That's pretty sad. Then maybe we should go back to the way it used to be, where sponsors would buy the time on TV and ad agencies would produce the shows. (That's how I got to meet Groucho Marx. He was hired to do a Christmas show for a cosmetics client.)
Maybe all the creativity in the media business has been siphoned into social media. People are really good at cellphone apps and a little sluggish on the sit-coms.
What if a TV network biggie said, "No sit-coms next year. And that goes for you hospital dramas, reality shows, and courtroom shows as well!" Would we get whole new genres of shows --- or would NBC simply rack up the reruns and go on vacation?
I've got an idea. Why don't we just take a TV commercial like "The Most Interesting Man in the World" and turn it into a new television series. By definition it can't be boring.
Showing posts with label media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label media. Show all posts
Monday, May 21, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
If the shoe fits...
Walking down Piedmont Avenue in Oakland after lunch one afternoon, I noticed something out of place in the window of a store called "My Home Sweet Country Home". This almost-antique store had three pairs of brand-new running shoes there, along with a camera, books about the movies, and some china.
The little sign by the shoes said "size 10- 1/2 only". They were my size and my favorite brand, New Balance. I did not go in.
That is, until a week later when curiosity got the best of me and I went back. The owner, an older gentleman who told me he was the cousin of President Obama's press secretary, told me the story of the shoes.
He said a friend of his ordered a pair a month --- but never wore them. When there got to be too many, he put them in the store for sale. I bought a black pair for 25 bucks. Then I went back a month later and bought a grey pair.
There's something odd about finding something where you least expect it. I was skeptical at first. Were they forgeries? Factory seconds? Defective in some crucial way that I'll find out when I'm crossing a boulevard? I really don't know. They seem fine.
The transaction made me think of all the ads we see in all the wrong places. Ads for kitchen ranges in airline magazines. Travel ads in fashion magazines. Ads for face-lifts in city magazines. Are these where they should be?
From a demographic and psychographic point of view, they're probably right on target. But is teeth-whitening in our thoughts as we read about improving our golf game? I'd much rather follow the Willie Sutton strategy. Sutton was a notorious bank robber, and when he was asked why he robs banks, he said "Because that's where the money is".
Simple, but sensible. The money for golf clubs is in golf magazines. Sell a boat when they're thinking boats. Sell clothes when they're thinking fashion. Sell a hotel package when they're contemplating vacations.
Those New Balance shoes would've moved much faster for $15 more in a shoe store.
Media, like everything else in marketing, involves big helpings of common sense. Standing out can sometimes make things invisible.
The little sign by the shoes said "size 10- 1/2 only". They were my size and my favorite brand, New Balance. I did not go in.
That is, until a week later when curiosity got the best of me and I went back. The owner, an older gentleman who told me he was the cousin of President Obama's press secretary, told me the story of the shoes.
He said a friend of his ordered a pair a month --- but never wore them. When there got to be too many, he put them in the store for sale. I bought a black pair for 25 bucks. Then I went back a month later and bought a grey pair.
There's something odd about finding something where you least expect it. I was skeptical at first. Were they forgeries? Factory seconds? Defective in some crucial way that I'll find out when I'm crossing a boulevard? I really don't know. They seem fine.
The transaction made me think of all the ads we see in all the wrong places. Ads for kitchen ranges in airline magazines. Travel ads in fashion magazines. Ads for face-lifts in city magazines. Are these where they should be?
From a demographic and psychographic point of view, they're probably right on target. But is teeth-whitening in our thoughts as we read about improving our golf game? I'd much rather follow the Willie Sutton strategy. Sutton was a notorious bank robber, and when he was asked why he robs banks, he said "Because that's where the money is".
Simple, but sensible. The money for golf clubs is in golf magazines. Sell a boat when they're thinking boats. Sell clothes when they're thinking fashion. Sell a hotel package when they're contemplating vacations.
Those New Balance shoes would've moved much faster for $15 more in a shoe store.
Media, like everything else in marketing, involves big helpings of common sense. Standing out can sometimes make things invisible.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
If the medium is the message, what's this?
Yesterday morning on BART, the rapid transit system here in San Francisco, I noticed a poster for safeway.com. That's the home delivery department of the supermarket chain. What a good idea!
It seems like the perfect way to reach an audience that either doesn't own cars or prefers not to drive. Except for the fact that the poster was so bad most riders won't notice it.
Using the right media at the right time is always a challenge. When I supervised the advertising for General Motors' Delco batteries, we had ads ready and on standby at about 650 Northern newspapers. We scheduled them to run on the first morning the temperature would go down to 20 degrees. Sold a ton of batteries at the end of a tow rope.
A few years later I got Gatorade to try the same thing, only on the first day the temperature was predicted to go over 90 degrees. The supermarkets got on board and put up case stackers that morning, and loved the results.
When I was teaching a special graduate advertising course at Michigan State (I was the V.A.P. --- the visiting advertising professional), I ran into this media challenge again. A student was upset because in another class, the professor trashed her media idea.
Her assignment was to promote an all-rock radio station that had an ad budget of only $2,000. Her idea was to promote a poster contest on the station, and spend the budget posting the winning design wherever rock music was sold. Her professor said she should've spread the budget around. I said she was brilliant. She went right to where the potential listeners are.
Today, of course, social media plays a major role, and that student could've been doing things on fan groups and creating an inexpensive viral video that would have created free publicity that would snowball. Example: Lady Gaga's fans sending in videos of themselves singing her latest hit, and the best edited together on YouTube.
Of course, you have to do everything well. No one responds to a bad ad. And as I point out to my classes, a bad ad costs as much as a good ad.
A cool media plan can make the results multiply. Have some Gatorade and go at it.
It seems like the perfect way to reach an audience that either doesn't own cars or prefers not to drive. Except for the fact that the poster was so bad most riders won't notice it.
Using the right media at the right time is always a challenge. When I supervised the advertising for General Motors' Delco batteries, we had ads ready and on standby at about 650 Northern newspapers. We scheduled them to run on the first morning the temperature would go down to 20 degrees. Sold a ton of batteries at the end of a tow rope.
A few years later I got Gatorade to try the same thing, only on the first day the temperature was predicted to go over 90 degrees. The supermarkets got on board and put up case stackers that morning, and loved the results.
When I was teaching a special graduate advertising course at Michigan State (I was the V.A.P. --- the visiting advertising professional), I ran into this media challenge again. A student was upset because in another class, the professor trashed her media idea.
Her assignment was to promote an all-rock radio station that had an ad budget of only $2,000. Her idea was to promote a poster contest on the station, and spend the budget posting the winning design wherever rock music was sold. Her professor said she should've spread the budget around. I said she was brilliant. She went right to where the potential listeners are.
Today, of course, social media plays a major role, and that student could've been doing things on fan groups and creating an inexpensive viral video that would have created free publicity that would snowball. Example: Lady Gaga's fans sending in videos of themselves singing her latest hit, and the best edited together on YouTube.
Of course, you have to do everything well. No one responds to a bad ad. And as I point out to my classes, a bad ad costs as much as a good ad.
A cool media plan can make the results multiply. Have some Gatorade and go at it.
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