Cable | Charlie Moger's ADmissions

Bullies, bites, and buggy whips

WEDNESDAY’S WEEKLY READER

New to adMISSIONs: a weekly sampler of tasty news morsels caught in my net as I troll the web, delivered fresh to you:

95% of customers: a waste of money

4-5% of customers account for most of your business? That’s what Daisy Whitney says in OMMA magazine. “It’s not what is most efficient, it’s what is most effective. It’s not how big your share of voice is, it’s how important your customers think you are.” Roy H. Williams developed a formula for quantifying effectiveness in his bestselling Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads. My partner David Young explains application of Roy’s Advertising Performance Equation.

SEO is killing the web

That’s the upshot of this article by John Dvorak. Rampant SEO strategies, he says, ruins the search experience for users, requiring the search engine folks to constantly work on countermeasures to minimize the impact of SEO techniques.

TV Everywhere bullies you into buying it all

Cable is like a buggy-whip giant in the early days of the car biz: Comcast’s TV Everywhere product offers shows airing on cable and over-the-air TV networks. The catch: you must subscribe to both Comcast and its Internet service. To get what you want, you gotta buy what you won’t use.

You thought we were done with Top 10′s?

Springwise has gathered what they think are the Top Ten business ideas for 2010. Take it from the source: they’re based in Amsterdam. I’m still waiting for wooden shoes to take off.

Watch your mouth: words to avoid in 2010

Word “czars” at Lake Superior State University “unfriended” 15 words and phrases and declared them “shovel-ready” for inclusion on the university’s 35th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

Cool app: Visual Thesaurus

A graphical thesaurus displaying unexpected word connections. Great brainstorming tool. Confession: I’m a word geek and love their Word of the Day. While most of the words fly the face of the “use common words uncommonly” rule, stories behind words expose new ideas. If only they had an iPhone app.

Only one thing worse than a foot in your mouth

Sporting over 145 million views, this is the most viewed clip of all time on YouTube. So simple, yet strangely compelling. Consider that next time you’re cooking up an online video: keep it simple and authentic. Unless you want to sound like this guy.

When reaching the “wrong people” is the right idea

Comcast touts their pending deal, giving them control of NBC/Universal, as good news for advertisers seeking to better target customers. It’s the same argument that no doubt gave birth to All-You-Can-Eat buffets: more is better. Truth is, quantity seldom increases quality. Strategic targeting doesn’t compensate for lack of a compelling message.

Your message is everything

What this ratchet-click of media consolidation means to you: it’s more important than ever to get your message right. Where it runs will matter less. Good ads connect. Get caught up in targeting and you’ll fall victim to one of the 12 Most Common Mistakes in Advertising. And, here’s Comcast touting it as a primary benefit of their pending union. Go figure.

Test your message: How well do your ads….

capture attention by interrupting the expected
connect with the felt-need of your customer
close loopholes that undermine your credibility
communicate an authentic call to action

Run campaigns scoring high on these four points and targeting becomes less critical.

Even if you don’t reach the so-called “target,” a well-crafted message reaches relatives, friends, associates, or others with decision-making influence. Since we tend to trust the word of a friend above advertising, that’s a big win–even bigger than Comcast’s coming one-stop targeting shop

Dark side of Comcast’s NBC deal

Unless there’s been a Saul-to-Paul conversion I’ve not read about, Comcast is a poster child of legacy media-think. That’s bad news for the likes of Hulu.

Comcast’s current online television offering, Fancast, requires you first be a cable subscriber. Unless you’re a Comcast cable subscriber, don’t try popping on Fancast to watch your favorite show. How’s that going to mix with Hulu’s current free advertising-driven model? Not a match made in media heaven. Thankfully we advertise here on earth where results matter more than calculations of consolidated reach.

Whether the consolidation of NBC/Universal content engine with Comcast’s delivery pipeline is an advertising blessing or curse will be revealed over time. Comcast’s efforts to focus our gaze at the growing platter of targeting options in its right hand leaves me wondering what lurks in their pesky left.

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It’s the content, stupid

When the facts are with you, argue the facts. When the facts are against you, argue the law. At the risk of Perry Masonizing, it seems a case of denial is playing out in the legacy media and it’s an open-shut case. The Associated Press reports:

In TV’s worst spring in recent memory, a startling number of Americans drifted away from television the past two months: More than 2.5 million fewer people were watching ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox than at the same time last year, statistics show.

Blame technology: DVRs and TiVO mess up ratings
Blame economics: people are working harder, watching less
Blame weather: daylight-savings has people outside later
Blame calendars: end of school… people are crazed.

Blame it all. Blame George Bush–just don’t fix the content.

Sitcoms. Reality TV. Dramas. News-magazines. Contrived content. Phony-baloney doesn’t cut it anymore. We’re living in an age of authenticity. Give viewers something worthy of watching and they will.

I’m not a fan of American Idol, but you can’t argue results. In a special production, American Idol Gives Back, major stars performed to benefit a charity. It was genuine and authentic and entertaining and it drew an audience almost larger than all four of the other nets COMBINED.

It’s an example of alignment, the beginning stage of attraction marketing. When you become aligned with consumer desire, you create a magnetic draw and pull business to you. Because alignment’s draw is authentic, this business don’t just buy, they bond.

Bonding is a deeper step of the process we cover soon. Till then, take stock of your messaging and see if there’s enough evidence to convict you of being aligned with your customers.

Changing faces

Broadcasting pioneer Ralph Edwards, host of the once-popular 1950′s "This Is Your Life" television show, died Wednesday. Edwards was also once the host of "Truth or Consequences," the first commercial show for NBC. Edwards said, "A ten-second commercial on the program cost $9."

Ralph Edwards represents a face of television–and how it has changed. His syrupy-sweet "This Is Your Life," held viewers spell-bound hearing life stories unfold in the space of 30 minutes. It was respectful, plodding and dripped with sincerity.

Just like TV today… uh-huh, right.

Whether media reflects us or we reflect it, changes in both since Ralph Edwards first visited our living rooms is undeniable. And yet, so many times are the practices of that era are carried forward into this one as if by habit.

There’s a new face reflecting our times from TV screens: it’s one part cynical and two parts savvy. Ralph Edwards’ "This Is Your Life" has been replaced by the E-Channel’s endless loop of slimy exposés. News is no longer sacred, but grist for sharp social commentary paraded as comedy. You may not like it, or even "get" it. But, this is the market we’re living and working in.

This isn’t a call to arms. It’s a wake-up call. In the nine miles I drive between home and office, I’m assaulted by a stream of ad-speak encrusted messages no doubt zoning out listeners quicker than an HR department slide show. Yours doesn’t have to be one of them.

Be your ad and take a hard look in the mirror. Do you reflect what your customers care about most? Are you speaking their language? Is your message genuine and credible? Unless you can absolutely say yes* to all three questions, perhaps it’s time to do some face changing of your own.

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