Exploring Marketing Technology

Opinions are all my own

  • Progress in measuring TV viewership comes too late to help network ad sales

    As Tom Peters famously put it, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. For too many years, network television executives have relied on incomplete and inaccurate measurements of viewership of their programming. This inaccuracy — plus the emergence of other, online ways to reach the same market — has finally come back to bite them, in the form of alarmingly soft TV ad sales.

    This week the bulk of ad sales for the TV networks’ fall season has come to a close, and the reports aren’t pretty. I’m reading estimates that the major players will see a drop of 3 percent or more in sales compared to last year at this time.

    Many think this is primarily due to the fact that DVRs now filter programming in 16% of American televisions. That means millions of viewers who would otherwise be exposed to advertisers’ messages have the opportunity of fast-forwarding through commercials.

    What’s more, television viewership in general is down, regardless of whether a DVR is intervening.

    Just as with other industries such as recording labels and movies, technology is changing the rules and causing the ad-driven networks to retrench, if only belatedly and with baby steps.

    How? More technology. Nielsen Media Research, whose largest customers are these television networks, recently announced a comprehensive plan to measure electronically all TV viewers, regardless of video platform. With this initiative, called Anytime, Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2), Nielsen is developing technology that will measure viewership on the Internet, cell phones, iPods, and other personal devices — all with the intent of eventually merging this data into its Nielsen National People Meter sample.

    Other reports from last year described an even more aggressive “People Meter.” This one, the Portable People Meter, would literally be carried by participants in the sample like a PDA. It would pick up ultrasonic identifiers broadcast on television and radio, to meet the pesky challenge of measuring media consumption in taverns, gyms, airports and other public places.

    I am fascinated to watch how these huge industries are confronting their eroding markets. A final measure of the level of erosion, and desperate nature of these attempts to win back ad customers, is that avowed competitors are joining forces in the fight. In the Portable People Meter initiative, radio listenership would be measured as well as television viewership. Arbitron, a fierce competitor of Nielsen and a leader in radio audience measurement, is a partner in the technology’s development.

    Will these attempts be able to turn things around for broadcast media? It’s hard to say. Tom Peters would point out that they may be taking steps toward better measurement, but that’s only the beginning. Then these measurements must be put to use, to manage better the products being broadcast.

    They’ll have a clearer view of their customers — one that’s closer to what database markers are accustomed to seeing right now. And that means they’ll be able to see all of the dissatisfaction and the defections, as they happen. Then what will they do about it? Now that will be interesting to watch.

  • The fat end of the long tail

    In my observation about NetFlix as a purveyer of long tail media, I hinted at all of the other ways that online marketers are prospering with this new business opportunity, made possible by word-of-mouth, suggestive selling and virtual — instead of real — merchandise inventories.

    I’ve since realized that so much of marketing technology can be heaped under this category that I need to add it as a tag, along with my intentionally general tags of direct response, database marketing, etc.

    True, the term long tail has more than a whiff of a meme ready for replacement, much as how push technology in the early 1990’s crystallized into RSS, and how the overworked online communities, the other buzz of the 90’s, turned into what we’re now calling online social networks.

    Regardless of what the phrase long tail becomes, it certainly has legs (why am I thinking of a lizard?). This Google Trends graph shows that in terms of searches and news coverage, it also has a fat end.

  • The Kevin Smith DVD commentary that will change the film world forever

    In a prior post I had mused that podcasts are disruptive of established business models, but not yet an economically viable alternative to them. Since then, I have watched a favorite podcast go more mainstream. But don’t get your hopes up. This move to a better neighborhood, in terms of legitimacy and distribution, in no way guarantees a huge financial payback for its producers or the podcast advertisers supporting it. With this news, which I will get to in a moment, I was still waiting for a true breakthrough — something that will spell real, hard cash for the podcaster, in a way that cannot be ignored or discounted.

    Then I learned of an ingenious way that Kevin Smith, the writer, director and co-star of the cult movie hit Clerks and its soon-to-be-released sequel, Clerks II, has found to turn a podcast into heavy incremental box office sales.

    First, let me tell you about that first development. It’s the move of Filmspotting (formerly Cinecast), the web’s best film review podcast, to WBEZ Chicago Public Radio. Other star programming from WBEZ, such as This American Life, has already gone from a radio broadcast to a streaming audio product, sold through Audible.com and iTunes. It appears that Filmspotting will be taking a reverse path: I’m guessing it will gradually go from a free audio product to a radio broadcast and perhaps, a podcast only available by subscription through Audible.com and iTunes.

    Filmspotting has sponsors now, primarily the Honda Fit and Peerflix. What will happen to them as Filmspotting goes Public (with a capital P) is just another question I can’t answer. Can anyone comment with more information?

    The one aspect I can speak to with a reasonable level of confidence is this. As much as I respect and enjoy the programming of Public Radio, I know it is not the path to riches, either for its producers or its sponsors. As I’ve suggested earlier, though, the big wins of mass media exposure, and the hefty rates that advertisers will pay to achieve these wins, may simply be a thing of the past.

    But wait. Perhaps the riches won through podcasting will come from skillful integration with other media. Which brings me back to Kevin “Potty-mouth” Smith. Okay, that’s my nickname for him, but I introduce it with this warning: His movies can be extremely vulgar and prurient. Like John Waters before him, he pushes boundaries of taste and subject matter, and I’m sure Clerks II will be no exception.

    This film, which received a strong positive reaction from the audience attending its midnight showing at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, has two big things going for it: A built-in cult following that every film franchise needs, and a creator who has proved he can still surprise and entertain. For these reasons the film is almost certainly going to do well when it opens in theaters. What’s more, I suspect many fans of the original will come back for a second or third viewing. Did I say suspect? No, I know they’ll be back, consuming even more overpriced concessions and generating even more positive buzz and cash for its distributors.

    Clerks II will be helped significantly by a brilliant interactive ploy.

    A commentary by Mr. Smith and others close to the production will be produced in the standard DVD audio commentary format. By that I mean, it will run as long as the film, and provide real-time, behind-the-scenes color commentary. But instead of fans waiting for the DVD to come out to enjoy this narrative, they will be able download it as a podcast from iTunes, just in time for the film’s theatrical release. I can’t imagine there will be a cost to this download, but that’s not the point.

    The message to fans will be: Enjoy Clerks II the first time as you normally would, then return to the theaters with your iPod or other MP3 player, for a second viewing and a new perspective.

    I love two things about this tactic. It is both measurable and viral. Theater owners will be able to visually scan their audiences, and know exactly who has come back for the commentary. White iPod earbuds are hard to miss. Those earbuds are also the main driver of the viral aspect of this tactic.

    Let’s say I’m in the audience to see the film. If I see people listening to the commentary and enjoying the theatrical experience just as much – or more — as I am (and, I’m sure, laughing at things that don’t sync up with the film’s laugh lines, because of the podcast’s banter), I am going to find out how I can become a member of the initiated. Yes, I too will seriously consider coming back for a new way to enjoy the film. What’s most exciting is I’ll consider doing this even if I’m only a so-so fan, which is precisely what I am, as a matter of fact.

    And what was spent for this surefire sales driver? Almost nothing. Which, not surprisingly, was exactly the production budget of the original Clerks — that audacious and obscene raspberry by Mr. Smith directed at the Hollywood status quo.

  • A textbook offline / online marketing effort

    I’m coming back into the swing of things after a week of vacation. During it, I was struck by the absolutely textbook example of driving folks to a web site from a print ad. The business is Angie’s List.

    The uninitiated can read about them on their site, but what is impressive about this organization is that it is publicized by ubiquitous (and I’m sure quite pricey!) newspaper display ads. Featured in both local and national papers, they clearly are successful or they would never be continued.

    My only critiques are that I would do a better job of tracing visits back to the source, so I could see exactly which papers pull the best. This would be accomplished with unique URLs. Also, I would test other ad sizes and approaches (they may be doing this already). Overall, this is an excellent campaign supporting an outstanding service.

  • Want more people to use your tricycle? Take a wheel off.

    There was a time when a micro site designed specifically to be viral absolutely required a “Tell A Friend” link, to facilitate its contagion. Today, especially with a young audience, this rule is frequently broken. I have a couple theories.

    The obvious one is the anti-marketing factor. When you’re communicating to a jaded audience that wants to feel like they’re doing something spontaneous, make the pass-along more difficult.

    Take the recent viral campaign waged by SanDisk. It’s to promote their latest alternative to the ubiquitous iPod music player. Talk about David versus Goliath. They’ve taken a shot at felling the giant with www.iDont.com, a site that positions the act of listening to a song on anything other than an iPod as the stuff of rebels and iconoclasts.

    The campaign includes outdoor and print ads driving folks to the site. The ads appear most notably in the alternative weekly The Onion. This graphic is a screen cap from the site.

    Click to expand the cartoon

    Most of the ad units are small, and effectively intriguing and edgy. Little but the web address is on them. This cartoon ad is an exception, in that it gives a few more details about why visiting the site might be rewarding.

    And what rich rewards await you? The main one is the promise of feeling like an Apple Mac owner in 1984 (how the tides turn, with the Apple iPod being the status quo of portable listening devices!).

    Keeping with a less promotional marketing approach, there is only one link in whole site (as far as I can tell) to the SanDisk site, and that’s a link to a dealer locator tool. It allows you to investigate and perhaps buy “The Alternative” — the Sansa e200 MP3 player.

    So: To make the site feel right to the audience, take away a helpful feature.

    My other theory is that this audience — those under 30 — are far less likely to find the “Email a Friend” helpful in the first place. This market segment would just as likely pass the link along via instant messaging (IM), in the course of an online conversation, or through a personal message (PM). Less likely, it might show up on a social networking page or a personal blog (as I’ll get to in a moment).

    My point is that all of the sharing strategies mentioned above require either the typing of a simple, five-letter domain name, or more likely, the cutting and pasting of that web address. Cake.

    A youth wasted on generating content (that the press has creatively dubbed “user-generated”) has taught even the least swift of this target market to pass along something without the aid of an email form. The very use of the form may scream of yesterday’s media.

    The big question remains: Will this be passed along? And on a macro level: Can anyone not of this demographic create something compelling enough to want to share? These statistics tell the story. The site has a Google Page Rank of zero, and, although MSN has found over 5,000 links to it, Google and AOL showed zip. Goliath can sleep safely.