Category: Uncategorized (Page 13 of 26)

I am woefully late on paying my respects to America’s best loved broadcaster, Walter Cronkite.  So here is a link to the CBS News Tribute Page.  

You have to wonder whether a man like Cronkite would have been as successful in today’s world of lower journalism standards.  Would he have made 2009 journalism better, or would have he been passed over because of his inability to lower himself and do what it takes to get ratings?

I like to think there is a new version of Cronkite mulling around out there, who is going to reinvent broadcasting, and make it once again a place of relevance and respect, not ridicule.  As it is, I hope everyone in the industry has taken a few minutes to reflect back on Cronkite’s career, and what it looked like to report the news without being the news or injecting one’s own views.  

I’ll be attending the Sounders v Chelsea game July 18. But, if I wasn’t going to watch the most obnoxious and annoying English Premier League Club play against our beloved Sounders, I’d probably do this:

http://www.hightrekadventure.com/

Thanks to Liz’s friend Christy for the heads up on this event.

Why was this win important to Mexico fans? When the World Cup rolls around, they place all the competitors into 4 “seeding” categories, from 1-4. It’s kind of like the NCAA Tourney, where you know the Big East, ACC and Pac 10 reps will get the best seeds, while the mid majors will argue for a spot at the top of the bracket. Think of Europe as the Big East and ACC combined, South America the Big East or Pac 10, Concacaf a weak Big 10 or mid-major, and Asia and Africa the small conferences with automatic bids. Traditionally, it breaks out something like this:

• #1 seeds (8 total): 6-7 from Europe, 1-2 from South America (Brazil and Argentina)
• #2 seeds (8 total): 4-5 from Europe, 2-3 from S. Am, 1 from Concacaf
• #3 seeds (8 total): 2-3 from Europe, 2-3 from S. Am, 2-3 from Africa, 1 from Concacaf, 1 from Asia
• #4 Seeds (8 total): 1-2 from S. Am, 2-3 from Africa, 1 from Concacaf, 3-4 from Asia

Usually, Mexico gets that Concacaf entry into the #2 seeds, and the U.S. gets the #3 or #4 seed. So you get to the World Cup, and while Mexico has maybe England (#1), Paraguy (#3) and Australia (#4) in their group, the U.S. gets Italy (#1), the Czech Republic (#2) and Ghana (#3/4). Since only 2 teams go to the next round, the U.S. already needs an upset to survive, while Mexico just needs to avoid being upset.

But, a U.S. win in a sanctioned tournament over the #1 ranked team in the world, coupled with general dominance over Mexico over the last decade or so, then combined with the U.S. winning Concacaf over Mexico, may be enough to flip-flop the places in the pecking order. And if that happens, the chance to get seeded in a reasonable group becomes more likely.

Some fun pics from the game. Looking for more that I can repurpose…

I like to think of Spring Creek Group as a legitimate Marketing Services Agency that happens to specialize in Social Media.  So this site mocking Social Media Agencies makes me laugh.  Sadly, there are companies who this web site appears to be based, but I’ll be polite and not name them here…

Look how dusty this blog has gotten. I spent years getting my followers up to at least 5 a day, and now I’ll never get them all back….Next time I go on vacation, I promise to have interns write articles for me. Heck, I might start anyway.

Regardless – A quick thanks to everyone out in Iceland who made our trip such a blast. Anne-Marie from Copenhagen, Alex from Germany, Brian from Reykjavik via St. Louis, Sara from St. Louis, Tom the world traveller from Chicago, Andrew the Med student from Toronto, Sveinbjörna from the Reykjavik soccer team, and the Reykjavik crew of Gunnar, Jon and Svana, who coincidentally worked in Social Media and Small Business Incubation, respectively.

Also, thanks to the tourist information peeps in Akureyri, the bus depot folks in Reykjavik, all the hotel people who pointed us in the right direction, held our bags, and translated words with way too many J’s and K’s in them.

Stories to come, but the short version is that Iceland should get added to the top of your Vacation “To-Do” List if you enjoy stunning vistas, friendly people, incredible hiking, mind-numbing nature scenes, crazy food and a safe and clean environment.  If that’s not your cup of tea, then I suggest Cleveland.

More to come.

So I’m sitting in JFK doing a little philosophizing about Privacy with my friend Ari.  Ari is taking the stance that people will soon revolt against their inability to control their privacy – that people today are beginning to crave the privacy the had pre-Internet.  My argument is that people are just accepting the idea that privacy is an idea created by society, and not scalable or realistic anymore.

To prove the point, I’m writing a quick blog post to show that you can’t control your own privacy anymore.  Because anyone with a laptop, digital camera and internet access can snap a picture and post your whereabouts whether you want them to or not.

Your thoughts on the matter?

In a quirk of fate, I spent different parts of Memorial Day Weekend at separate social events with friends in three different segments of the TV industry; one who is currently a news anchor for a local station, one interviewing for jobs in Interactive sales, and one who is an executive for a technology company that services the TV industry.  All 3 of these folks had equally different viewpoints on how the industry needed to evolve to become relevant again.

But by the end of the weekend, a trend developed, and I think at least one station per market could copy this blueprint.  And here it is offered for free.  

To start this theorem, we need to take everything you know about local TV and throw it away.  We need to begin with the general consensus that the old model is broken, irreparable, and needs to be shot.

Now, look at what we have in local TV.  Reporters who need content, cameras and studios that can be used to shoot and edit content at breakneck speed, a giant transmitter that can reach hundreds of thousands of people on a set schedule, and an online presence that can distribute unlimited amounts of content to smaller audiences without any inventory constraints.

The current model works like this for companies large and small.  They pay a huge fee to a PR person who has “relationships” with producers.  The PR team “pitches” the producer.  Some small percentage of stories are deemed “worthy” by said producer to grace the air-waves with their presence.  The story is shot and edited, runs for 30-90 seconds to an ever shrinking and aging audience.  And then it may get a few more impressions on the web site.  That’s a lot of money and effort for 30-90 seconds of content.

Look at how backwards this model is.  You have companies who want to PROVIDE content for free.  They will drive audiences to the stations web site.  And there’s a producer standing in the way stopping that content from being generated.

So TV station 2.0 looks like this.  Take the PR person out of the process.  The Boyer Widget Factory contacts KSEA-TV directly and says, “I have a story I think your audience will find interesting.”  I schedule time at KSEA-TV, bring my supporting graphics, and sit down for a 15 min taped chat with a reporter who grills me.  The reporter puts the interview up on the web site, along with the other 10 companies she interviewed that day.  I use my blog, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook accounts to drive my fans, customers, friends, investors and others to check out the interview, whcih causes traffic to rise.  The total base of viewers decide how relevant, appealing and important my story is.  The stories generating the most audience response get elevated up to the big transmitter in the sky.  Thus, the Internet becomes the place where the station figures out what is worthy to be shown on prime time.  Forget the PR flaks, forget the producer as gatekeeper.  The station’s audience has a vested interest in watching online, and helps choose which local stories need to be broadcast over the TV waves.  

Part two of this involves corporate responsibility and accountability.  In interview one, Boyer Widgets made some claims and promises.  Well three months later, the reporter is going to sit me down again in the big chair and see how my story is taking shape.  Over time, the consumer is going to be able to watch how Boyer Widgets has evolved, and whether we are sticking to our mission on a consistent basis.   The reporter has incentive to keep up to date with us, so she can pick us apart for changing our stance or position.

So at the end of the day, we’ve lowered the marketing costs for companies by removing the PR flak, we’ve generated more content for the stations, created a way for more content to be generated inside their big expensive studios, created a larger audience for the stations online, and developed a way for their viewer base to decide what should be on the TV air-waves.

This probably only works for one station per market, and perfect for the guys in last place.  KCPQ, are you listening?  This idea is free, just let my company be one of the first to be profiled.

Here are a few fun tables comparing Attendance figures of the MLS vs MLB.  I think you can interpret these any way you’d like.  My takeaways:

1. The Sounders are definitely a significant threat to the Mariners.
2. MLS and MLB are both losing audience in a bad economy.
3. MLB better figure out a way to retrench quickly.

Table 1: 2009 vs 2008 attendance stats so far.  Sorted by 2009 Avg Attendance.  Red is MLB, Blue is MLS.

Table 2: MLS and MLB Team Attendance Figures Interlaced, sorted by 2009 Attendance.

Notes: It’s obvious MLB still dominates, with only the Seattle Sounders breaking into the Top 20.  However, notice that the Sounders outdraw the Mariners so far, 29,536 to 27,234.

Table 3: YoY Attendance Changes so Far in 2009 (sorted by largest loss of audience).

Note: In this table, MLS is not alone in losing attendance.  Notice some of the big MLB cities who are shedding ticket buyers.  Comibined, out of 45 teams, only 11 are showing an increase YoY, and 6 of those are in the MLS.