Mainstream Convergence

I think it is a sign of the times when the NFL puts the Super Bowl ads on their own platform. The NFL announced that they will be distributing just the ads to VOD platforms and cell phones. It truly is moves like this that continues to change the playing field in how we distribute our message to the general public. How are you distributing yours?

The Big Build Up!

The only time that people truly are waiting to watch television ads is you guessed it the Super Bowl. Now I am not much of a sports enthusiast, but I will admit that I have watched the super Bowl and sometimes for the game. I do enjoy watching the commercials. It is the only time that a hush goes over a room so that you can listen to what is on the commercial. An interesting thought is how many of the viewers of the Super Bowl are just like me watching for the ads.

Watching the trades right they are filled with the buildup to their ads on the Super Bowl. In one recent trade publication I saw three press releases about upcoming ads on the Super Bowl. With this much marketing for the marketing it is no wonder people watch for the ads.

This year though I have a reason to watch because the one team I occasionally watch is the Seahawks and they made it finally this year.

The intellectual power struggle

With only days remaining to find out if my BlackBerry goes dead it strikes me that the new frontier in technology is truly the assets of knowledge. At stake for RIM (Research in Motion)is if they can continue to transmit data over cell providers. Now I will spare you the lengthy discussion of court and legaleeze, but really the future stake holders of this digital wasteland will be the knowledge barrens. So only in a half a decade we have gone from the oil barrens to the knowledge barrens. I wonder if this term is on Winkipedia? So the keys to the future may truly be in design and this knowledge mining. What does it take to be on the new frontier these days?

Planning an event

With only a few weeks to go to the 2006 Drake Awards I am excited about how many entries we have. This has been a great year with over 50 companies represented by over 380 entries. Management of this much content is definitely a team effort and it is wonderful having such an incredible board around us as we go down this road. We will again be driving the show as automated as possible with the use of two screens to showcase the work appropriately. Stay tuned for more updates as we get closer.

Features and Big Companies

This week Adobe announced an upgrade of their production bundle. What surprised me is that within Audition they have no quick way to make a podcast. I am not sure why as I have not seen the product, but it surprises me in that this is such a major trend going on. I am sure they would say that you could prepare one with it and you certainly can, but why not include and easier way to do it.

That is the secret of being the small company. The small business owner can spot these trends and adjust their strategy. In fact as a small business owner you must adapt. We do not have the ability like the big companies to just get by with status quo. Challenge the way you do things and you may find a brand new trend.

The power of customer service

The almighty buck is very much tied into the all mighty customer. I know that goes without saying, but what are you doing for your customers? What experiences are they having when you greet them or even how they feel about the service they receive? I ask this because we were at a local restaurant the other day. This restaurant has very good Mexican food and has good service also. We had finished our meal and were waiting for our check and it had not come. Some time went by and still no waiter or check. We actually were beginning to wonder what was going on as this usually never happens. Finally we asked another of the staff and within moments our waiter came over and we joked that we thought it was free the next thing out of his mouth made us a customer for a long time. He said that he was very sorry and that indeed it was on him. What a way to turn a situation. Now we were not in a hurry, but it made a difference and now we will be going back with no hesitation and will probably recommend it. SO how are you treating your customers?

Leveling of the playing field

Google has announced that it will acquire a company that specializes in radio buys in local markets. Now people are probably wondering why, and it would seem that they want to own not the production, but the distribution. What this means from a marketing standpoint is simply that once Google figures out how to do it you will be able to place an add with them that will get a spot on their video site, have links in text searches and now will be able to place your radio adds in select markets. This is some power for advertisers and gives that power to the small guy. It may be time for some entrenched agency to start listening to their clients and do work for them as opposed to for their reel. Google has the muscle to go toe to toe with the big guys and will use that muscle. Another convergent strategy to watch.

14 million

Often times we forget that simply changing a paradigm can create a huge market. Apple has done that with an over 80% market share they have created a unique market. As I posted earlier they have excelled in making the interface easy to use. They have created a new paradigm with video that now google is following. Video is a new convergence and the distribution model is changing also. What will the next change be?

Instant Information

Okay so as I posted a long time ago about mac versus pc I do enjoy using a mac and so I am reading a live transcript of the goings on. I think this is a testament at how quickly you can truly move the information about your brand if you are set up properly. Kudos to Mac Rumors.

Dreaming of convergence

Here is the link to the blog posting in regards to Google's CES announcement. Interesting to see what Steve Job's says tomorrow.

Do you think this will backfire?

Okay so just read it and tell me what you think about the fine telephone company. Message - Tell customers what they are getting and what they can't do upfront.

Traditional Media Today

I decided to let a bit of the edge of this weeks events calm down before posting. First let me say that I have all of the sympathy in the world for the miners families and I hope that the one remaining miner will continue his recovery. With those things said I find it interesting in this day and age of instant information that it is so easy to get it wrong. Before I went to bed on Tuesday I had heard that they had found the miners alive and yet only one ambulance left the scene. This puzzled me as time went by and I went to bed thinking I am not so sure that all of them are alive. I listened to NPR the next morning and heard that truly only one was alive and the families were struggling because only hours earlier they had been told they were alive. Maybe it is human nature that we seek hope in our deepest hours of despair, but why do we lead with that on the news? Even today CNN has the post from that evening still up. I just did a Google search and it was 5th on the list. The hardest thing is reading the paper and just like the Dewey wins headline there it was the next morning "Trapped Miners Found Alive". I guess if I am trying to make a point with this it is that local media should concentrate on what is around them. There are true journalistic stories waiting to be told, but aren't. Today's information society also owes something to checking facts and just because some family member hears it from someone else and then tells CNN that it is true shouldn't we make sure that it is true?

Okay stepping off my soap box now. Any thoughts?

Marketing and early adopters

Okay so I have been doing some very serious thought about convergent media and how we can cross the chasm that Geoff Moore talks about in his book Crossing the Chasm. For those that are not familiar the curve looks like this:


Already Apple is positioning itself to try to cross the chasm by deploying another unique product to an installed base that knows how to use an iPod, but there are also even more winds of change blowing. The problem is crossing the chasm and moving the technology into the hands of the middle of the curve users.

I consider myself an early adopter of as much technology as possible if it will make what I do easier, but I also am very conscious of cost associated with some early adopter technologies. The key here is how the marketing can demonstrate how easy it is to use the technology so the middle majority, as I will call them, will adopt it. My feeling is that is why experiential marketing has truly grown in recent times. This power of experience gets the product into the hands of the buyer of the technology and empowers them to use it and see how easy it is to use.

All of this talk of convergent media will mean nothing unless the tools on the final end become easy to use. iTunes certainly has made it easy as have TiVo and others, but when you go forward and look at how you can now through Slingbox get your television delivered to you at any time through the net that changes another paradigm but only if it is easy to use.

So how do we design the product to make it work with ease?