Local TV Now!

June 26, 2012 Leave a comment

Localism creates a strong climate for local original programmingEverywhere you turn TV and video original content is being produced – except locally. Local original programming still is dominated by news programming, business talk, and a smattering of sports.  Local original programming has the advantage of being more relevant to advertisers and the potential of more ad dollars from owning all the inventory to re-purposing the product via the internet.

Original content production appears to be the evolution for most every TV or video distribution channel.  National entities achieved the critical mass of audience necessary to underwrite the development of original programming either through anticipated advertising or subscription.

Live or time constrained programming such as sports and news is a staple for local TV as well as national cable franchises like CNN, Headline and ESPN.

For ad and subscriber supported cable channels their first non live programming efforts relied on the reruns of network programming as in the case of TBS or TNT or available music videos as in MTV.  Over time and against all odds  the TBS, USA and TNT cable channels have developed their own franchised original programming ranging from the Jersey Shores of MTV to The Closer of TNT.

Advertisers understand the strength of local market relevancy.  As a result focus on local markets continues to grow with CBS combining all radio and TV properties into one portal, AOL’s Patch working hyperlocal news and every app in the market integrating location-based targeting.  Mark Fratrik, VP BIA/Kelsey was quoted in Ad Age in (Nov 2010) as saying that the owners of local TV have discovered that “ they are local media companies, as opposed to TV stations,..”.

Now is the time to start a revolution in locally produced original programming – particularly in the top 30 markets where the audience size can capture ad dollars both on TV and online.

Room for discussion

What kinds of original programming could be produced locally? Brainstorm ideas, choose one, then take a shot at determining what the costs and expected returns could be.

Filed under Content Development, TV Tagged with ,

Spotify is to TV as Engagement is to Interruption

June 12, 2012 Leave a comment

The battle between interruption and engagement is being waged on the front line with Spotify on the leading edge.  Forbes quotes  Spotify’s Chief Revenue Officer, Jeff Levick, in a recent interview with Digiday:

Each TV hour has about 15 minutes of ads

“We don’t really want to offer just straight advertising. If our CEO had his way you wouldn’t see ads at all. The way we think about advertising on Spotify is communicating through content, whether that’s an audio experience, or a great app. That’s where we see the future of ads on Spotify – understanding the content itself in order to successfully message to consumers.”

Contrast that approach with the TV – the current king of ad revenue and time spent with American consumers.  According to Kantor media “… an average hour of monitored prime time network programming contained ten minutes, fifty five seconds (10:55) of in-show Brand Appearances and 14:20 of network commercial messages. The combined total of 25:15 of marketing content represents 42 percent of a prime-time hour.” (Kantar Media, 2010)

15 minutes an hour of advertising assault on their own fans.  No engagement there.  Contrast that to the approach taken by Spotify – the Reebok workout mix, the Coke partnership.  Spotify gets it and gives it back to their connected and engaged consumers. My bet is in the long run Spotify will be leading  ad  engagement  victory way into the future.

 

Room for discussion: How can TV content becoming infused with engagement by advertisers?  Select a show /channel and develop two strategies that combine potential advertisers with the content in a fashion that engages their fans.

Filed under Advertising, Content Development, TV Tagged with , , ,

Idol’s first decade-multi media /multi revenue stream

June 5, 2012 Leave a comment

A lot has been said about the ratings decline of American Idol  over the years.  It seems there’s nothing we like more than a groundbreaking show than the demise of that show.  However, the is much to be said for the continuity of a franchise that has developed phenomenal  live, digital and social impact.  Here are some highlights of that impact from May of last year when the The Hollywood Reporter did a 10 year snapshot of  American Idol.American Idol's phenomenal revenue stream

Although the ratings are undeniable leading indicators, the American Idol franchise has done an impressive job of building out numerous revenue tentacles.  Can those tentacles of digital downloads, live concerts, merchandise, and more survive the decline of the mother ship program?  That remains to be seen.

Filed under Content Development, SocialTV, TV Tagged with , , ,

New engagement with old stuff

May 1, 2012 Leave a comment

Museum content development provides new look at old stuff

An unlikely leader in content development, museums point the way with engaging tactics.

Content development is priority for anyone in social media and marketing these days.  But undoubtedly museums have one of the most challenging content scenarios; to make old stuff new again.  Colleen Dilenschneider from IMPACTS and author of the blog “Know your own bone”  (an exploration of creative engagement in museums and cultural centers) was recently in town sharing more than a dozen examples of effective engagement – an inspiration for more examples in the creative museum genre:

The Effie awards has honored The Field Museum for several campaigns, the most recent was a delightful and successful rebirth of “Sue” the 67 million year old T Rex fossil.  The resulting 10 year anniversary launch spanned traditional and new media and drove over 450,000 tickets – breaking all goals set for the campaign.  The Effie site showcases  this work with a succinct video presentation and a well written/documented  pdf case study.

Colleen inspired these Pittsburgh examples with her sharing of the Museum Analytics site – lots of data from museums across the globe with the ability to parse by city.  As you can see by the Pittsburgh page the top online activity is led by the Warhol Museum  and by The Mattress Factory.  The Warhol twitter feed showcases everything Andy from time capsules to the BMW in a lively conversation with a stunning following of close to a half million followers.  “MF I Confess”  allows visitors to confess their reactions to the Mattress Factory installation art in quick, fun and irreverent videos.

The Field Museum, Warhol and Mattress Factory -very different venues –  yet each with inspiring content development that transforms the old into new engagement.

Room for discussion:

Look to your market for a museum to use as a “client” for to brainstorm content development.  What guides the process of content development for that museum?  What content ideas can you come up with that would meet the limited resource criteria of a non profit and still create engagement?

Filed under Content Development, SocialMedia, Ticketed Events Tagged with , , , , ,

Man hours versus metrics

April 24, 2012 Leave a comment

Marketing's online data diving; a delicate balance of benefits versus timeThe good news is that the internet provides ample data for measuring entertainment marketing success.  The bad news is the same.  Data – scads of it, can drown a marketer (and even an experienced researcher) as they make infinite dives into metrics that can end up alternately with game changing discoveries, minor improvements or just an inactionable dead end.  Therein is arguably one the biggest challenges facing today’s marketers –that of achieving the fine balance of man-hours to metrics.

Enter the next stage of making analytics simple and functional.  An emerging industry of simplified analytics is personified by  Splunk named appropriately for the phonetics cousin “spelunking” or cave diving.  Only now it’s data mining!   Splunk’s success is glaringly evident by the reported $3 Billion IPO achieved this month.  They are a poster child for the natural progression of simplification that we have seen repeated over and over again on the web.

As exciting as this trend may be, it still is not a feasible fix for the smaller companies that struggle even with the free helpful hand of Google Analytics and/or easy graphic nature of Facebook Insights.   The reality is that in a small to medium size company the successful use of this data is more than likely driven by the self discipline of the marketer crunching the analytics.  So for now, until a Splunk like option is affordable, marketers need to set realistic metric analysis goals that are actionable.  Page views, bounce rates, in page content analysis are simple metric checks that can provide ample direction.  When man hours are tight, a good disciplined metric analysis strategy is critical.

Room for discussion:

Choose a local entertainment company.  Discuss and identify the essential analytics to be followed for an average  1) website  2) facebook page.   What actionable information will be created?  How often should this be reviewed?  How many hours per week/month should/would this take?

 

Filed under Content Development, Digital, Marketing, SocialMedia Tagged with , ,

For the love of money – be good to your fans!

January 17, 2012 Leave a comment

“In planning a new picture, we don’t think of grownups and we don’t think of children, but just of that fine, clean, unspoiled spot down deep in every one of us that maybe the world has made us forget and that maybe our picture can help recall.” - Walt Disney

Valuing fan love is a sustainable revenue strategy - and the right thing to do.

Valuing fan love is a sustainable revenue strategy - and the right thing to do.

Disney’s perspective of product development and fan respect offers great clarity to the commitment Disney (and Pixar) makes to its fans.  It’s a commitment that continues resounds in a entertainment business where the power of fanship and fandom (the emotional connection consumers make in defining their self concept and in socially connecting around any given entertainment) is often manhandled.

Celebrity and sports marketing is an easy area to illustrate fan manhandling. Be it the bad boy behavior of the overt addict in Charlie Sheen, or the illegal behavior of athletes like Michael Vick or the cheating done by Patriot’s coach Bill Belichick.   Still, those very celebrities thrive and the legalized monopoly of our major league teams continues to flourish and raise prices even in a recessionary period.

Contrast this to the positive effect of an athlete like Tim Tebow and an organization like Disney. They demonstrate just how eager fans are to connect to people and companies that respect the adoration of their fans and show it by how they act in a social responsible fashion.

Entertainment marketers make daily ethical choices that play on the “love” of their core fans who demonstrate their affection with hard-earned dollars.  Just like in a relationship between two people, that love needs to be treated respectfully.  Sure monetization has to happen to sustain sport, music, movies, art and all entertainment.  But ethical consideration and social responsibility in marketing decisions and behavior can go a long way to creating value and insuring sustainable revenue from your fans.  Disney and Tim Tebow  are great examples of the of creating value by valuing fanship and fandom.

Room for discussion:

The CBS Evening News reported in this video on the results of a probe that found 1 in 14 college football players had a criminal record.  If you were the marketing director for the University of Pittsburgh Panther football team under the conditions in the video, what affect would the high presence of criminal records have on your marketing of the team?  How would it affect your position as marketing director? What would you do about it?

Filed under Content Development, Film, Marketing, Sports Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Content Packaging for 2012 Holidays

November 8, 2011 Leave a comment

November is full of content announcements that mean consumers will have some interesting gift giving for the holidays!  Recent announcements by several major players underscore the myriad of options yet to come in content monetization.

Content Gifting for the Holidays brings Lots of Choices

Content for the 2012 holidays- in all kinds of packages

You Tube looks to become more like your local cable company with their talk about multiple channels.  The most recent announcement of a Disney partnership speaks to their efforts to create professional targeted content channels

In a move that signals their view of broadband as a critical content conduit, Charter Communications is reported by Multichannel News to connect subscribers to popular free online video.  The description given explains “…Charter.net will provide embedded playback of Hulu’s free-to-consumer content, alongside its own authenticated video services…   The website also displays listings from Charter’s linear TV and VOD services with information on how to access that content on TV.”  It’s a marriage of unlikely bedfellows that acknowledges the consumer desire to navigate ALL video content in one place.

Amazon continues to break out surprising bundles that mimic and potentially exceed the current cable content options.  Amazon Prime just added a library of Kindles books to their free standard shipping and select video streaming package.  This along with the reasonably priced Kindle Fire tablet could prove to be the break out holiday gift for 2012.

All good.  All mean competition and positive packaging for the consumer.  The Long Tail of content options just gets longer.

 

Filed under Content Development, Digital, TV Tagged with , , , , ,

Self Publishing is No Fantasy

April 15, 2011 Leave a comment

Amanda Hocking BlogAmanda Hocking is the poster child for meteoric opportunity in an online world and a lesson plan for self publishing and self promoting with social media.  Her story is simple.  Spring of 2010 this 25year old college dropout who loves to write decides to self publish her manuscripts for The Trylle Trilogy on Amazon as a hopefull gamble to earn enough money to go see a Jim Henson exhibit.  One year later she is reportedly signed to a four book deal on her Watersong series worth $2million and has optioned film rights for the The Trylle Trilogy with Terri Tatchell (District 9) set to adapt.

How did she do it?  Looks like a winning recipe of writing talent, entrepreneurship and social media savvy. A heaping spoonful of social media savvy. Even her blog is a skillful weaving of her writing and her own story.  In her own words one of the keys to her success: “…accessibility – I’m on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, KB. I’m anywhere I can be.” Amanda is transparent in her blog, offering perspective, tools and advice to any aspiring self publisher.

Though some may liken her rags to riches success to that of Harry Potter’s JK Rowling, she clearly is differentiated by her accessibility: internet savvy, transparency, and audience engagement with a clarity unmuddled by the traditional publishing middle men.   It’s a differentiation that resounds with promise.

Filed under Content Development, Digital Tagged with ,

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