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I don’t know about you – but I’m excited for 2009. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been speaking with the best and brightest marketers in the industry (see below) and I have the feeling that most folks are actually more optimistic that one would think for 2009. Read More…
Over the past quarter, we ran a survey online that aimed to dive deeper into theatergoers’ behavior and preferences online. While there is a lot of information we took from the research, I pulled out two specific focuses of the research that I think many of you would find interesting. The first bit of information surrounds social networking and usage by website and age group. In short, is it just younger audiences connecting through social networks and which social network do they actually prefer – MySpace or Facebook? The second bit of information is on text messaging usage by age group. The real issue we were trying to understand here was do older audiences feel comfortable text messaging. Read More…
Here’s an interesting story about the California government issuing a bill that would ban digital billboards. I’ll shut up and just provide an excerpt from the story:
“As promised, the California assembly is considering a bill that would place a three-year moratorium on the construction of new digital billboards, including the conversion of existing billboards; it would also halt the construction of digital billboards currently underway. Assembly Bill 109 was introduced last week by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, (D-Los Angeles), close on the heels of a court victory for opponents of digital billboards in the Los Angeles area. Feuer explained the motivation behind the bill: ‘Many states and municipalities have raised concerns over the safety of electronic billboards. Common sense dictates that before we allow these displays to proliferate, we should know the results of pending safety analyses and evaluate how to respond.’ The moratorium is intended to give legislators a chance to study the potential ill effects of digital billboards more thoroughly before allowing further rollout.”
Now, maybe this is just a PR stunt and it may not get approved but, if it did, I would assume this would be a major speed bump in the growth of the rapidly growing digital outdoor industry. We are keeping a close eye on this.
When Facebook drew up its original business plan, do you think it factored in ‘customer-service’ as an expense that had to increase in time? Their number of subscribers grow by thousands daily – do you think behind the scenes they have a customer-service group that is growing proportionally to subscriber growth? I highly doubt it. As more and more people use Facebook as their hub for social networking, the more responsibility they are going to have to offer real customer service that lives up to consumer expectations. They disable pages all of the time for reasons unknown to the owner and then, to top it off, they don’t have clear directions for customer support to address their issue with your page. It’s a common problem (one that we have seen plenty of times) and I think they really need to figure out a way to address their online support. If they don’t, more and more of the stories that I have included in the link below will continue to pop-up. What could be worse for a social network brand than having your customers worried if their primary social network account could be disabled at any time without warning?
Imagine suing customers who give your show bad reviews? Well, there are companies doing just that as I type. Wow! According to the story that profiled the review website Yelp, “In the last two years, at least five lawsuits–and possibly more–have been filed against Yelp reviewers. In California alone, in addition to the chiropractor’s case, two dentists have sued reviewers and a spa owner sued an ex-employee. A fifth case was filed, but does not appear to have ever gone forward. Yelp is not notified about all cases, and lawsuits brought in state courts are not always in legal databases, so it’s difficult to determine whether other cases have been filed.” Read More…
Here is a job opportunity that was passed on to me from an innovative play publishing and licensing company based in New York City that I am now passing on to you… details below. If you have job posts you want me to share, feel free to send over. If you know someone who is interested, they can reach out to me and I will connect you with the company. Read More…
Here’s some morning trivia for your commute this week - pick up the NY Times this Wednesday and see if you can count how many active Broadway shows are no longer listed in the ABC listings. I won’t even try to give you the answer - because I don’t know the exact number - but what I can say is that some Broadway shows have decided to pull out of the ABC’s on weekdays and, furthermore, I think we may now be seeing a serious tipping point towards the demise of print advertising in the theatrical space. Some will argue the tipping point has already occurred and others will completely disagree with me saying that, for now, print isn’t going anywhere, but it’s clear as day that there has been a shift in attitude by many in the theatrical industry towards the prospect of advertising in print - particularly the NY Times. To me, it’s all very worrisome on many fronts. Read More…
When you have some time, be sure to check out the new searchwiki by Google. It’s a new tool allowing consumers using Google to rerank search results, delete them, add new ones, and maintain notes about specific sites. In short, it allows you to customize your search experiences and actively review comments from other searchers. According to the story, "while Google users cannot alter the search results for others, their notes and votes are publicly viewable. Were Google to choose to add some structure to its emerging search forum, it could leverage user reviews of sites to build a competitor to Yelp or any other site that relies on user-generated content." The wonderful, super-confusing world of search marketing just became even more mind-boggling. It’s potentially both a great opportunity if consumers like what you have to offer and, at the same time, a concerning threat if your website doesn’t meet consumers needs. We are keeping a very close eye on this and will keep you posted on how this progresses. Read More…
We’ve all seen the video clip of the bulldog skateboarding, the exploding Mentos or the audio clip of my car being stolen (yeah, it’s an authentic message left on my answering machine after my car was stolen). User-generated video clearly can drive big traffic but, to the folks at YouTube, they seem to be considering a major shift in their business strategy to put a larger focus on monetizing, long-form professional content. Read More…
So, I’ll admit that anytime the word ‘blog’ comes up I cringe. It’s one of the most overused words of 2008 and has made huge promises for many marketers that haven’t delivered the anticipated results. With that said, bloggers are real people, with real audiences and can have a major impact on your brand if you have fair expectations, offer substance that they can sink their teeth into and if you actively engaging the ones that have loyal audiences that potentially care about your brand. Here is a fantastic use of embracing bloggers in a way that directly had a positive impact on a company’s bottom line. Hewlett Packard, in an effort to announce the release of their new kick-ass computer (HDX Dragon notebook), enlisted the help of 31 bloggers who were considered influencers to their core target market. They gave each one of the bloggers the computer (worth $5,100) for them to offer contests on their blog giving away the computer to their readers. In a nutshell, it empowered the bloggers to build a connection with their readers by giving them the computer to give away – rather than HP hosting some larger sweepstakes without them. The result – “the promotion was credited with an 84 percent increase in sales on the unit, a 10 percent increase in overall PC sales, and a 14 percent increase in traffic to hpshopping.com.” I believe half of what I see and just about none of what I hear – BUT, I really like the idea of what they did here on this campaign and I think it highlights the success that marketing to blogs can have if the campaign is done with the necessary focus and attention to detail.
