I’ve been meaning to bring this up for awhile. I don’t know who really is better in this Verizon vs AT&T 3G face-off, but I love that ad agencies and marketing firms can go to war with each other so quickly. What I love more, is that people get to go to the YouTube Comments Boards to fight it out as well…
Yes, I’ve succumbed to the Tiger Woods scandal. I think there are a few items of this story that make it different than the ordinary tabloid affair.
1) The effect this will have on golf: Golfers didn’t become multi-millionaires for consistently finishing 13th until Tiger got to town. A huge percentage of golf fans are simply Tiger fans. Phil vs Tiger is completely different than Phil vs “That other guy.” Sponsors were paying big money for Tiger, which meant TV networks could charge more money to Golf advertisers, which more money was going into the Prize Pool of each tournament. Companies are already having to trim marketing costs. This is a great excuse for companies to pull money out of Golf. If you were the 45th ranked player in the world, you may have found this funny when the story broke, but your check for finishing 13th just got smaller.
2) Why the Tabloid Web sites are crushing the Sports sites: I can’t think of a better example of the power of search driving news consumption. For the reasons listed in Section 1, the sports sites like ESPN.com have been loathe to dig too deeply into the story. There’s a lot of hand waving and things like, “Yeah, Tiger’s in some controversy over there, but let us tell you all about the upcoming Alabama vs Texas game.” ESPN needs this to go away, so they can get back to the business of reporting on Golf and Tiger’s domination in the sport. To the sports sites, Tiger taking time out of competing in Golf is comparable to the New York Yankees deciding to sit out one season. Or having the the entire rosters of both 2009 NBA All-Star teams take a year off to travel the globe. But, ESPN’s decision to pretend it’s not a “big deal” is not fooling anyone. People are just going to their favorite search engine, typing in “Tiger Woods,” and getting the juicy stories from other sources, like TMZ. It’s another example of why in the news aggregation business, we really need to ensure all web sites get a level playing field to broadcast across. You can’t trust news sources if they are in the pockets of the people paying the bills.
3) Seeing the Inside Mechanics of Tiger’s Spin Machine: I don’t know about you, but I’ve been shocked at what seems to be near PR incompetence from Team Tiger. Now, it’s possible that his transgressions are so monumental that cutting them down to 2 porn stars, a pseudo-madame, a reality show wanna-be and a few other random floozies, is actually a big win because they’ve managed to keep the other 90 quiet. If that’s the case, then all of Team Tiger should be ashamed for not reigning him in earlier. It’s also possible that their whole strategy of keeping him away from cameras for the last 10 years was specifically designed because they knew he’s been an eventual PR nightmare ready to explode. But it does seem like all of the companies with money invested in Tiger should have been able to assemble a PR “Dream Team” to handle this better.
4) The Unfortunate Duck and Cover Strategy: With some regard to number 3 above, I think it’s incredibly sad that Team Tiger’s best exit plan is to throw Elin under the bus. According to some web sites, there’s a claim that Elin is demanding, “Your family or your golf.” This would be a convenient excuse for Tiger to disappear to Dubai for 12 months and avoid having to discuss this issue with anyone. The public perception would be that he “loves his family so much,” that he’s giving up golf to make it right by them. The reality would be that the wife would be placed in the position of “Bad Guy” to anyone who watches golf. Plus, sponsors, other golfers, advertisers and golf fans would all be cheated by having a year without the best player in the world. The great thing about team sports, is that no matter what mess you find yourself in, you have an obligation to the rest of your team. Alex Rodriguez couldn’t take a year off. He had to go out every day and get heckled by fans, because he was ONE of 25 New York Yankees. Kobe Bryant was ONE of 12 LA Lakers. Those guys had to stick their pride in their back pockets and still compete against the best athletes in the world. It would be sad if Tiger used the excuse of “My wife doesn’t want me to play” as a way to duck the criticism he deserves.
Those are the thoughts of the top of my head.
This seems so easy, I still don’t get why they don’t do it. The day after the MLB All-Star Game is the only day during the calendar year in which there are no sports on TV.
This should be the MLS’ biggest TV spectacle of the year.
Every rivalry game should be being played today, all at the same time, all at the stadiums that will have the most fans. Joe Fan should tune into a pre-game show, then see 90+ minutes of high intensity soccer programming. With 8 games going on, at an average of 2 goals per game, there should be about 16 goals, or one every 6 minutes. You can pick one or two games to feature, and then cut in to the other games whenever a goal is scored. There would be so many highlights, you wouldn’t even have time to go to the fridge.
In fact, if you needed to, you should pay ESPN so you can be on both ESPN and ESPN2 at the same time with different programming, so there is an East Coast game and West Coast Game on live on each channel, so by switching between channels, you get access to 4 games, and highlights from the other 4.
Once that framework is set up, there is really no end to the fun you can have with it.
I have 2 requests.
1) The broadcast crew would NOT be made up of the Fox National Crew. Fans, press, players or some combination of the three would vote on 3 local crews, each who would do 3 innings of the game. Or maybe it’s 2 crews that get voted in, and the host team crew. Or maybe one current crew, a crew of retired guys and the host crew. You can toy with the details. But get me a couple of innings of Vin Scully.
2) On each league roster, the longest tenured MLB player who has never mad an All-Star game makes the team. If you’ve been a backup catcher since 1996, or are a 43 year old left-handed middle relief curveball specialist, well you deserve one chance to see the big stage in your career.
That’s all I’m really asking for.
So this is a time sensitive topic, and I’m already a day late, so this quick stream of consciousness will probably not be very well thought out and hence cause people to vehemently comment about how wrong I am. Oh well.
So Oprah has joined the Twittierverse with the appropriately chosen moniker @oprah. She was basically dragged kicking and screaming into it by Ashton Kutcher on his race with CNN to One Million followers. (BTW, different topic, but you will never hear me say anything negative about Ashton Kutcher. He is very high on my list of business minded entertainers that I hope to meet someday, not for the star power or Hollywood “glow,” but for the business and marketing insights I could learn.)
Now the social media world has fallen into a few camps on this.
– Predictably, there is the camp who feels like their baby is being exploited now that Oprah has gotten involved. These are the same type of people who listened to Pearl Jam at a dive bar in downtown Seattle in 1990 and then got mad when they showed up on David Letterman and sold out Madison Square Garden.
– There’s a camp who thinks Oprah is late to Social Media, and shouldn’t be given any credit at all.
– There’s a group of people who have never heard of Twitter who are about to sign up for accounts just so they can follow Oprah.
– And finally, there’s a bunch of people in mainstream media who are going to be calling the “Social Media Expert” in their city to do a 90 second interview on this “blossoming company called Twitter.”
So here’s my synthesis:
Oprah never has and never will need Social Media. She has the most popular syndicated television program in the history of mankind. Combine all the impressions from the top 100 “social media superstars,” and I bet that number doesn’t even sniff the kind of eyeballs Oprah generates in TV and print. And let’s not even begin to joke about revenue. Take Harpo’s annual revenue in one hand. Start counting up all the revenue generated by Social Media Superstars in the other. And let me know when you get to an even balance.
I work in Social Media, so this may seem like blasphemy, but honestly, Social Media is what you do when you can”t get on Oprah. If I build the world’s first economical and reliable jet pack, and post videos on YouTube of me flying back and forth to work all day, guys like Michael Arrington and Guy Kawaskai are going to cover it. But if I get on Oprah, or even 60 Minutes, I better have an army of telephone operators ready to take orders. It’s a subtle but distinct difference.
Said more succinctly, Social Media is what we do to get NOTICED by Oprah’s producers. It’s not what Oprah needs to do to get noticed by us.
That being said, Oprah, as a teacher and educator, please use proper capitalization on your Twitter page. There’s no reason to join the Twitterverse and then show 50 million kids that the only reason to ever use the “Shift” key on their laptop is to create a smiley face.
So Oprah, welcome to our world here in Social Media-ville. This is what has been created by all of us with lots to say, but nowhere to previously say it. So come hang out for a while, and then remember us fondly when you are in front of your camera, in your studio, talking to 200 million people.
Well, I finally succumbed to the pressure.
Since it launched, I’ve seen proud and cheerful owners of the iPhone gleefully show off thier little toy. In bars, in meetings, in lines at Starbucks, they tauntingly stick it into your face, showing you all the magical things it can do.
I resisted.
I stayed true to my core Blackberry. I like the Blackberry. It’s easy to use. I don’t need real time stock ticket updates or the best way to walk from the Space Needle to Palace Kitchen. I need a phone and text, and maybe some Internet.
Saturday, something snapped.
Suddenly I realized that the phone had changed. I knew it before, but I finally admitted to the analogy that we’re in the mobile version of the shift from VCR to DVD, and I still owned a VCR. And there is no reason to buy another souped up VCR. It is no longer an issue of iPhone vs Blackberry. It’s become an issue of mobile devices in 2009 and beyond, vs mobile devices in 2008 and prior. I knew all of this already, but some light piece of straw finally made that camel’s back break. And the camel asked for an iPhone.
Now I’m simply a junior member of the cult. I look for and will listen to the teachings of those original iPhone disciples. And I have to admit to myself that I’m more than a little excited to play with all the toys and gimmicks.
Now, I haven’t yet stood in line and condescendingly scoffed at those simple “iNots” walking around with their pedestrian devices. But I’m sure one day, as I breeze through Google Maps or order a video before boarding a plane, I’ll have that smug look of a full fledged cult member.
If you are an iPhone Davidian and have a favorite “must-have” application, please let me know.
Inauguration day – Tears of joy, hope renewed and a feeling that we will all succeed.
Well, maybe that sentiment was felt by the general public as well, but anyone running a Social Media Marketing agency was even more pleased when the President of the United States proclaimed transparency was king and announced the White House would have a blog, communicating directly with its consumers/constituents in a conversational manner.
The news made waves around the Seattle Social Media community as well. “Will he Twitter?” “Will there be a White House YouTube Channel?” “What new platforms will the White House use for Social Media?”
Any marketing effort that is being undertaken by the leader of the free world basically trumps every argument from any CEO rejecting Social Media as a valuable part of the marketing mix. So thank you Mr. President. You have already provided stimulus to one industry.
We know that a number of companies are going to have to radically change their practices to survive this year. In what could be the first “re-invention” of 2009, AOL appears to have split itself in two, blowing up the AOL brand in the process.
The new divisions are called MediaGlow and PeopleNetworks. According to AdWeek, “MediaGlow encompasses a collection of 70 niche content sites launched in recent years, ranging from AOL Health to nonbranded properties like TMZ.com.” it appears to be similar to Federated Media, a collection of web sites all served by a single ad network.
Meanwhile, “People Networks focuses on social media properties like Bebo and AOL Instant Messenger.”
The AOL portal is effectively gone, an acknowldgement that people are using search to land in their destination of choice, rather than having a single home page they visit every day.
There are a number of other features that you can read about in the article. Basically though, the old AOL is finally done. It will be interesting to see if the new AOL properties become leaders in their new markets.
So the blog world is all a-buzz with speculation about the rumored Microsoft cutbacks, layoffs, reductions, pruning, shearing or whatever other verb you want to use. A lot of commenting is going on over at a blog called Mini-Microsoft, written by an insider.
There are a ton of ways this could play out. But at the end of the day, if Redmond makes either substantial cuts in one category, or small cuts across all full time heads, contractors, vendors and agencies, Seattle is going to feel a pretty big effect.
To the average Joe, it really doesn’t matter if Microsft makes formal layoffs, or just slows down the amount of contractors it brings on oard, or culls back some of its agencies. In some shape or form, Steve Ballmer is writing checks to a bunch of people in this town. Furthermore, if they do slash what they call the “10% ers,” those folks are going to come out with a tainted brand name on their resume. If you are an employer, how do you justify hiring someone that was let go for being repeatedly on the “underperform” list?
Anyway, the point of this post is that it doesn’t matter what you call it. Microsoft employing less people globally, means they will be hiring less people in Seattle. And that causes not just full-time cutbacks, but also across agencies and temp firms. And that’s bad for the city overall. Let’s hope these rumors are disproven.
This morning I listened to Dave Ross interview Ravi Batra, a professor of Economics and author of The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos. Mr. Batra had what I think is a fabulous idea for the automaker bailout.
To summarize, the automakers want $50 Billion to save them. Batra explains that for about $1 Billion, you could buy 60% of General Motors. Then you could give all those shares to the UAW to distribute amongst their workers, making every union employee of GM a significant shareholder in the company. Then, they could decide what woul dbe the best courses of action for the company to take.
It’s brilliant. It’s not socialism, because the people would get paid if they created value, and lose their jobs if they wouldn’t. Plus, it would force the UAW to come to grips and decide whether their policies are good for the companies that employee their members. I think it’s a great idea. Too bad it will never be considered…