The ‘Mass Transiting’ of the Airline Industry

As I contemplate a trip to visit family, I eye the airline and ticketing industry with more trepidation than ever before. Big deal right! Some backstory. I am a fearless flyer. Been flying by myself since age 8. Visited my father in a distant city every summer as I grew up. I have been on the last plane out of blizzards while they shut down the airport etc. I even remember the palpable tension when flying less than 2 weeks after 911. So, I have seen the gamut of the flight game. Very little fazes this traveler. Until recently that is.

Okay, since that fateful day, the industry has done what it can to deal with the new reality of US air travel. As the rest of the world sympathized with us back then, today they look on dumbfounded at how far we have gone to alienate travel and of course the government sanctioned air Gestapo has gone out of its way to make the process as horrid as it can be. And even with the affronts to our personal space I can trudge security lines with the best of them. The only thing I ask is get me there in a reasonable amount of time and in the event of a problem do your level best to find a solution.

Well, as the horror stories proliferate, tarmac delays lengthen and the security nazi’s start dressing up like real cops, I hate to surrender my fortitude and admit to dreading air travel, but they give me no choice. Not only can they target you for any perceived ‘Orwellian’ slight, they can treat you like a criminal until proven innocent.

If that weren’t bad enough, the airlines complete the raping of the customer by providing subpar service while figuring out ways to ding us for escalating prices instead of being forthright about increasing prices and explain it as the new cost of doing business. So, now not only do you have airlines playing musical chairs in bankruptcy court the ones that can still do business are finding ways to give the consumer less, while charging more to keep their head above water. Many of these airlines would be closing doors if they were in any other business, and rightfully so. Natural selection being a good process in this case.

But alas, not only are there more crap airlines clogging the airports and the skies offering less for more. But that’s not the worst of it. Even the good guys are following suite. I recently mentioned to a friend – who hasn’t flown in 2 years – how you get charged for any checked baggage with some airlines and how others are charging ‘customers’ for anything served to them during a flight and she was shocked! What struck me is the difference in our attitude in the moment. Her outrage that it got that bad and my desensitized resignation of ‘what are you going to do.’

In the moment I wanted to say ‘welcome to the new lowered standard of air travel’ but didn’t as it was probably too close to the truth and a depressing thought. What the moment did generate was this diatribe and a dawning realization. Air travel is the latest in a long line of public transportation systems that America is trying to kill. First one to be discarded was the railways. In a country so large they initially held promise until no one wanted to invest in the next round of technology to keep it relevant, like the Japanese did with their state of the art high-speed maglev systems. Next up is mass transit around the country’s metropolitan areas. Half developed or very efficient in its tiny market, there is no in between and often little or no interface to public transit outside the city.

So, in the case of air travel we have gone from the express train to the cross-town bus. Its like we’ll get you where you are going, we just cant say when or in what shape you will be once you get there. I think if an airline had the balls to step up and say “Fuel has gone way up for you and obviously for us to, but since we believe in maintaining good airline service and some profitability, here is how much more it will cost us to get you where you are going without the extra charges for baggage, hidden fees and the refreshments we have always provided.” The day an airline advertises old school service for a realistic price, guess who will be the first guy in line to avoid being the packed in like a sardine on the cross town bus!

As I step down from my creaky soapbox, wish me luck on my flight to a Midwest city that feels more like I am charting a tortuous passage to Istanbul!

Tech and Today’s Big Brother – No Internet, No Spies, No problem

Recent news items got me thinking about this topic I had covered several times in past years. As the voracious public keeps driveing tech, telecomm, wireless and palm of the hand portability, new vistas are being opened for keeping an eye on you. In practice, this familiar Orwellian theme as it was written years ago, may seem more of an optimistic cautionary tale, than a viable blueprint to controlling the masses. However, the literary realm of science fiction often spins a believable and much scarier version of this tale where the central character is technology. With so much of what was once tech fiction becoming fact, the potential for big brother to snoop around your business is much greater than ever before. The biggest culprit is wireless communications of all sorts

Of course, the most obvious tech to exploit is mobile phone communications. As DOT driven traffic monitoring continues to grow from the early days of the Missouri Department of Transportation ‘just’ wanting to monitor cell phones movements to map real-time traffic conditions statewide. To Google using its maps software to evolve from just satellite mapping to show street views and their GPS locations. While cell monitoring has long been able to detect the speed and movement pattern of mobile phones by network signal as long as the phone is turned on. DOT’s indicate their aim is to more intelligently manage traffic flow through wireless data collection and stress that the data will remain anonymous with no possibility to track specific people from their driveway to their destination. But privacy advocates are uneasy nonetheless.

It doesn’t stop with just monitoring the mobile phones themselves. The rising popularity of short-range blue tooth technology, particularly in mobile hands free headsets, opens up another avenue for listening into mobile conversations. The New York Times recently covered the increasing phenomenon of consumers that use blue tooth technology to easily overhear snippets of conversations that aren’t their own as they roam around the city.

Mobile tech isn’t the only avenue. Our wireless appetites extend extensively throughout the home and business. The enabler in these environments is the unregulated and heavily utilized 2.4 and 5.8 ghz frequency bands, which encompasses devices from home telephones to wireless video monitoring equipment – much of it not using encryption. The ease of monitoring this common band was demonstrated recently by an experiment conducted in a Canadian city where with a little bit of know how and some commonly available equipment, allowed whole range of images and conversations to be easily monitored just by wandering the city streets with equipment in tow.

For the tech savvy or long time gadget geek such as myself, this wireless risk may all be disconcerting but is hardly surprising. However, the tech that scares me the most and that could wind up being Big Brothers device of choice is a range of tiny chip devices referred to as RFID (radio frequency identification). RFID has quietly revolutionized the industrial, manufacturing and logistical transportation industries. It is a key link in the chain that moves products and raw materials to business and products from business to the consumer. This is reliable big tech that comes in a relatively unsophisticated form and often in very small packages.

It can be as small as half the size of a grain of sand, respond with a readable signal for years and carry a wide range of digital information. Though its not new tech, it continues to evolve and demonstrate a vast applicability to any situation where tracking, monitoring or identifying is required. A well-known use of RFID in the consumer sector that has spawned much debate, is the chips embedded in the family pet that carry information on the animals owners. With pure breed and rare animals worth thousands of dollars RFID chips have been embraced by the veterinarian and animal shelter communities nationwide as a sure fire way of lost pet identification, wherein small chips are injected under the skin of the animal to be read by electronic readers confirming the animals identification.

Of course the subsequent discussions of using the technology in the human populace might be the worst scenario but it is not the only ominous development.

Manufacturers and marketers are exploring the role of using RFID in durable goods such as apparel for numerous purposes such as linking a person’s identity with the clothes they buy and wear. Even worse, by coupling RFID to a knowledgebase about individual consumers, advertisers can target messages consumers see in a wide range of environments, just by tracking their spending habits or by product data attached to RFID chips on their person. The myriad number of uses becomes staggering. Even the European Central Bank is considering imbedding RFID in bank notes. Should this sound like something to only consider for the future, RFID availability for use as the global passport standard has been circulating for years.

It’s easy to see how quickly the implications get dizzying. My suggestion, be aware, choose and use your tech wisely and oh yeah, if you thought I forgot to mention the Internet, that was intentional! The Web is becoming less anonymous all the time and that topic is a Pandora’s box all its own.

Smart PR and The Evolution of Blog Relations Part 3

While I wrap up my ruminations on the recent glimpse top bloggers gave PR people into their world today, I am struck more by the implications of trends and practices they propose for the future of relations with the blog world and the media at large. As all of the members of the panel highlighted, personal attention to detail is now mandatory with
this medium. Not only does that encompass knowing the blog intimately, it also includes knowing how to contact bloggers to get their attention. Yes! The pitch is back! Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily mean you ‘get to’ (or in the case of the pitching challenged ‘have to’) pick up the phone as in days of yore. And, be forewarned, with those that did prefer a phone pitch, they quickly made it clear that they weren’t interested in the stale, the scripted or the boring. Even the ones that chided those listening to get away from the voice mentality didn’t negate the pitch and quickly pointed out all kinds of alternative vehicles are used to show up on a bloggers radar.

The Epitch

The entire panel quickly confirmed that the pitch needs to make the transition to email with same attention to quality, creativity and brevity the industry once put into the phone pitch. As with all the suggestions for the future the panel kept reiterating that the pro’s in the trenches had to start thinking outside the box. Some underscored that point by mentioning how the people who took the time to text message, IM and twitter them per their stated preference were obviously the people that got their attention first! Some even indicated they were ONLY open to a pitch via this alternative contact
method. Just like the traditional media in the past, do the leg work, find out what their preferences are and make sure to know ‘when’ its best to contact them.

Content

Leave the conventional press releases and article vehicles to the media that want them. When PR professionals think blogging, they need to think post proposals. Pitch interviews, have something original to say that steps beyond the ‘if its new to you, its news to you’ syndrome. The entire panel quickly reminded those listening that Blogsphere thought leadership is quickly leaving traditional PR and media behind. So keep this in mind when you step up with your industry expert client. Make sure they bring their A game. They also stressed that the quickest way to alienate bloggers was to treat them as a lesser media.

The panel also discussed the convenience of the one stop Webshop for collateral information. It is pretty amazing with all old school PR going on and all the attempts to be way out there and tap the viral juggernaut, few corporate PR pro’s try to make media’s job easier by hosting a one stop site for everything pertaining to a particular release or campaign. The panel speculated that perhaps the PR world doesn’t see the benefits of the web presence because they are so conditioned to set-up the “follow-up” process with bloggers like they do traditional media.

What they are missing however, is a next-step opportunity to not only provide a venue for media to get the information they need, but to create a whole information environment that supports, sells, and expands the brand of the product or service that they PR vehicle is trying promote. Just like in the old days when you painstakingly built hardcopy media kits because they were important to the story, ‘Webkits’, per se, can offer the same kind of slick support that their predecessors did and make your campaign stand out with important one click access.

Future Trends

As I wind this down and squint at the crystal ball, trying to glimpse through the muck, there are a few things I can see and a few I can surmise. As mentioned above the webkit will catch hold and the smart PR folk will start utilizing tools of the blogging trade such as RSS feeds and more effective push techniques with email. Particularly in the case of ongoing brand processes and multi-vehicle campaigns. Smart PR folk will also increasingly plot and pursue their social network prescence. Just like LinkedIn has helped the individual business network prosper for all professionals, so to, will the smart pro carve and nurture either their corporate brand or personal brand as it relates to what they do. Bloggers of course have built their whole process on this premise and it will be up to the rest of media relations industry to get onboard. Done well and often it allows for a blending of lines between blog and promotion that will serve both sides equally well and establish such things as thought leader tracking and commentary clout for the savvy PR Pro. Branding will move from a reasonable objective to the attainment of the holy grail as the media evolution continues. This is where the water muddys worst of all. As lines delineating media types blur, the requirements to maintain or achieve branding in popular media will increase in complexity and throw equal parts customer service and crisis management into the ‘relations’ mix. As marketing and PR combine in new ways, understanding the role media realtions holds in the bigger scheme of things is where the smart PR pro will thrive instead of just survive.

Smart PR and The Evolution of Blog Relations Part 2

Last week I started a diatribe about the state of PR from my little corner of the media world and listened to prominent bloggers try to school PR folk in the best way to work with them in their environment. As those that read part one know, it was eye opening to say the least. What resonated with me the most is that all the bloggers I listened to reiterated over and over that PR pros need to do their homework. It sounded like they wanted those in the trenches to BE creative, not just PUSH creative through the usual channels. Do the legwork!

Unfortunately, doing your homework these days seems to be mostly focused on getting the generic word out and tracking down where the spaghetti stuck to the internet and traditional media wall. The later being a daunting task, granted. Of course, if you work on the media team for a major corporate brand, you can probably focus on more than those basics, but if you are tied to an agency, you’re hard pressed. Unfortunately, if you want to do business with bloggers, they make it clear going the extra mile to reach them is mandatory.

What’s that entail? Well first off, knowing how blogs work. What kind of blog is it? Spend time there and find out. If it’s a news source don’t send them white papers for Christ sakes. Conversely, if it’s a razor’s edge, niche oriented, issue-based blog, don’t send them your damn corporate press releases. (Sorry about the crusty grumble.) Find out if they post outside contributed content. If they don’t, does the blogger(s) interview appropriate thought leaders. All of these, and many more seemingly simple components contribute to doing the legwork to be a valuable resource to a blogger. I can almost hear any PR folks reading this chime in with ‘screw that I wont mess with bloggers if they’re that much trouble.’ Well as the panel I listened to underscored, that train has left the station. Where do you think traditional journalists are going as conventional media shrinks, transforms and evolves? Yes, that’s right, and no, they’re not going away.

To give you an idea of what I am talking about, they offered some perspective on the traditional vehicles that are in the PR repertoire. Press releases, when mentioned generated considerable disdain and unless its earth-shaking and discussion worthy in the topicsphere for that particular blog, make sure to only bother news bloggers with the really important stuff. Know what needs to go out en-masse to traditional spaghetti media and what is issue worthy to generate blog perspective. Another pet peeve, if you do send press release to a blog, make sure you give them all the parts they need to cover it. Don’t make them hunt you down to get components such as art. Best of all, as far as they were concerned, is the PR pro that could write and submit a release that read like a blog post.

For commentaries and guest columns most agree that PR folk still try to slip them content that is to rah rah and much to advertorial. Don’t forget the golden rules of editorial in conventional media and make sure that your clients are thought leaders and have thought leading things to say. Also, stay away from the rambling op-ed that strays into the bloggers domain. If you want to blog, start your own. Better yet, don’t just drop articles into the inbox drop ideas, start dialogues about issues, make sure the canned stories are solid and based on those issues and once again offer collateral.

Editorial practices was another thing many of the panel chimed in about. Timeliness was a big deal to many of the bloggers on the panel. They couldn’t stress enough how important quick response was and that they be accorded equally responsive access to the senior people they need to talk to. If news is breaking, don’t deal them the kind of embargos you would for print or even broadcast since being competitive for them can run on a near real-time basis. All one has to do is witness the past year at CES and all the exclusivity hijinks between Engadget and Boing Boing. As enlightening as all this is, the he last point the panel makes is I think the most important. Many even used these exact words; create relationships. Now I can just imagine all the old boys pumping their fists in the air and yes you’re tenets are relevant again. But is it all the same tactics the traditional media moved away from? Not by any means. Sure you can approach bloggers with long-term relationships in mind but once you get beyond that foundation, is where the similarities to old school, end. My apologies for rambling enough to warrant a part three but I promise to wrap it up into a pretty little package next week.

The De-Evolution of Media Relations? – Or More Like Smart PR is Once Again in Demand

I have wanted to take a look at the state of the PR out in the wilds for some time, but was moved to action recently after listening in on a conference call seminar discussion that talked PR and the PR process with some prominent bloggers. The mix was interesting and included some traditional journalists that have joined us on the dark side. Now, being an old PR workhorse like I am, I was interested in hearing about some prevailing opinion on the Blog/PR interface. I obviously had my own preconceived notions of what good PR is and isn’t and being an expert on dealing with journalists, I was eager to see what the requirements were, directly from the horses mouth.

Before I cover that let me step back and talk about some of the processes I used to use to create successful PR. When I started with one of the very first performance-based firms back in the mid-nineties, the old boys club still held sway. That brand of media relations was all about the relationship, and relationship was king. No body made promises for PR performance prior to this time. It was conditioned into the corporate mentality that it was unethical to make promises for PR results. So, for most in the industry, who you knew in media represented your PR clout and thus your position in the public relations pecking order. Of course, the media played right along! They supported this elitist attitude and propagated it widely throughout it the industry.

Well, the PR visionary I worked with built a business on thumbing his nose at the old boy conventions and offered a performance guarantee in writing. Crazy huh! But by working hard, generating the highest quality editorial possible, he generated success and met those guarantees. Also, by giving editors what they wanted, when they wanted and by becoming master of the pitch, he also negated the ‘need’ for the old boys relationship. Story was king and we developed a new brand of media relationship that straddled the old with something new. We didn’t call on favors, we offered content, provided go to resources, knew journalists beats intimately! We became topic and brand experts and an extension of the knowledge leaders that were our clients. Our elbow grease and disdain for the old boys approach was embraced by the tech and manufacturing media we dealt with and generated a great deal of PR for our clients. In the case of me and my team, over 5000 placements as both an in the trenches AE and as an account director in less than a decade, a feat to which few in the industry could lay claim, particularly at the boutique firm level.

So, obviously I generated a ton of PR! Over my tenure, I clearly saw the shift in media relations move inexorably toward the current faceless, voiceless, spamalicious email orgy of spaghetti sticking to the wall. Ironically, and at the time unknowingly, I even helped propagate the trend of E-PR. That work may have even paved the way to my current position with one of the leading companies generating this automated paradigm shift in media relations interaction. Nowadays, a PR exec in the trenches may rarely pick up a telephone. They will often look at and work in outlook all day. They will craft the next stale press release and hunt the Web for new mentions tied to their clients. Actually, (wink wink) many even have the benefit of the latest on-demand software tools to make their job even easier. So, why the lengthy digression? Why the disdain? It’s necessary back-story, trust me.

Alright, so I’m listening to the bloggers talking about what they do and whom they serve and what’s different about the space compared to more mainstream media and many of the responses were expected. Of course, the fragmentation of the topics they handle, the niche nature of their readers and the real-time scale that they report they’re content on were all covered. But what I started noticing with surprise was the disdain and even contempt that these bloggers had when discussing how to deal with PR people and the PR process. As many of these bloggers had once been traditional journalists I couldn’t really attribute most of this attitude to lack of experience with PR nor the holier-than-thou mentality that many pure bloggers possess.

As the seminar continued the bloggers kept reiterating that PR people needed to do their homework, they needed to spend time at the bloggers site, understand their readers, not spam them off topic content or advertorial content and do all the things a PR pro worth their salt would do. But apparently they kept stressing that they needed to do all the things they WERE’NT doing. I kept listening with incomprehension until we got to the Q&A portion of the conference call and the questions rolled in from the professionals listening in, and then I had my light bulb epiphany. These PR people weren’t asking blog specific questions, they were asking fundamental and rudimentary questions about how to do non-spamalicious, strategic, conventional PR! I was floored! I laughed out loud which garnered quizzical looks from my co-workers who were sitting in on the show.

For those of you that have those big picture revelations, you know the simplest answers and connections are often the truest. Laid on in front of me was the progression PR has taken in the last 15 years and it was a FUNNY progression. Obviously, the paradigm away from the old boys network that the information age and PR people like myself helped propagate had swung the pendulum too far the other way and became the defacto norm long before blogging came along. Now the bloggers were highlighting why it was broken. When I was in the trenches and it got to the point where journalists could get, generate, research, compile content and in many instances pay lip service to NO ONE! ‘Just send me an e-mail’ soon became the cry of media across the board. It was a blow to the hybrid process we created. The days of relying on us PR types for a great deal of content, mostly came to an end. I remember fondly the obsolete days of last minute calls from desperate editors with pages to fill and begging for top tier content. Hah! But soon, the Internet was the teat from whence all media milk flowed. Between the journalist defection from the PR camp and the development of software tools to make their jobs more effecient, it seems the “dumbing down” of PR began.

As spaghetti PR continued to evolve and media kept pushing us to arms length, the blogsphere developed its own voice and ironically it was a voice of individuals, much like conventional media used to be. As thought leadership never dies, it just migrates and evolves, blogging eventually took the baton pass from conventional media and exploded on the scene and so what was old is new again. Everybody was a journalist and for many, a journalist with cloutin the real world as well as on the Internets. As with all media, blogs became a big blip on the PR radar, but unlike the current paradigm traditional media enjoyed and cultivated with its faceless spaghetti process, blogs were the quintessential one-man razor niche shop and as such demanded by necessity the old ‘attention to detail’ PR days. Ironically, bloggers said to PR what traditional media was trying to suppress in recent years – You have value, but you need to demonstrate that value.

They were clear, to hear me is to know me, and the more you read, the more you comment and the more you study, the more you’ll reach them and the more they will listen. The irony of it all is that the bloggers aren’t asking for anything new, difficult or revolutionary … just a little more creativity, attention to detail and stories they could really use. It warms the cockles of this old PR heart to see the craft of creative media relations being kept alive by the budding new guard of media. Next week I will cover the future of PR.

Is There an Online Ad Bubble Building? Part 2

Specifics could get too long winded and since I started this in broad brushstrokes I will finish like that. (Questions can be posted in comments.) The seed of the issue is based on a human quotient that many might not factor into to the issue at all – The capacity of the consumer brain and in the modern day, the naturally dwindling attention span facilitated by instant Internet information overload.

Back in the day, (commensurate old timey music) when exposed to advertising, you expected it and it was delivered. You not only expected it to have a certain look and format, but the brain attached a whole set of conditions recognizing it was advertising and that someone was trying to sell you something. There was almost a mental anticipation. What this means, is that you were conditioned to recognize a marketing message and considering you didn’t see a whole lot of them, Ads could actually create a lasting impact with the consumers that saw them. Particularly when viewing the same ad over and over.

Most people equate that consumer recognition to branding, if exposed to enough Ad messages. Did this work? Absolutely. Has advertising changed since then? Immeasurably!

Today, branding doesn’t function the same in a conventional sense, it actually exists on a very different plane. A present day corporate brand often functions near real-time on a global level whether physical or virtual, or both. This brand also endures a cacophony of competitive messages trying to make impact with its targets in an expanding universe of message content. Is advertising still relevant? Yes, with considerable qualifications and a great deal of media blending. Corporate advertising still pays the bills for the old school media distributors, but less so and rightfully so. TV for example is becoming less influential in the global market these days. It has to compete with a myriad of other clever content messengers. It also has to deal with the “no impression” technology that co-opts its ad investment. Enter the mighty TIVO paradigm shift that changes not only the viewing experience but also provides the easiest way to fast forward past the captive audience part the advertisers pay for. I see a few nods out there now. But that’s just a tip of the iceberg example as consumers become more sophisticated and entertainment content delivery diversifies.

With such an explosion of content types, fragmentation of media venues and a near anti-branding consumer message environment, I’m afraid the Ad industry currently faces a crossroad moment in the way it does business. Unfortunately, if the industry it doesn’t realize this, it could very well be missing the boat every bit as much as the Music industry does, who cant see its “demise forest” for all the trees. Okay I hear you saying, it cant be that bad! Well, as the landscape becomes more unrecognizable everyday and even though our ability to absorb more information is evolving due to the influence of the web, the ability for it to make an impact on us is dwindling. Good old brain function and human nature. We are now inundated with more information today than ever in the history of our race and it’s been such an exponential increase that our brains will take a while to evolve the ability to handle it.

How this applies to advertising is interesting. Sure, you CAN bombard us with a great deal more conventional short form Ad impressions over an even shorter period of time, and, when it comes to the Web, for a lot less money. But as the old saying goes you get what you pay for. Also, the delivery method these days requires just as much creativity as the actual message. Lastly, understanding the target customer is obviously more important than ever before, but how best to reach them is the “It” issue that I believe, will show Ads no longer can stand alone. So unless Ads are partnering with marketing, media, publicity and customer relations, I’m afraid, conventional advertising is just quickly lost in the shuffle.

Is There an Online Ad Bubble Building? And What Could Cause it To Burst Part 1

As most boomer’s can attest, the advances in media and expansion of ad messages all around us has grown exponentially, in just our generation. Even though I am at the young side of boomer, I have lived at the forefront of diverse technology and consumerism ALL my life and I would describe the difference by using the term ‘magnitude of order,’ which for those less scientific in the audience is 10 times the previous standard.

I actually think it’s more than that, but I digress. Now, for the ubiquitous, “When I was a Kid,” and media was the classic three network channels and the radio dial, ad or marketing impressions where counted by the handful. Often, a single corporate entity sponsored a whole prime-time, hour-long show. And, back in the day prime-time wasn’t 24/7 like it is now, You really only had a three short hours before The Tonight Show and that was it.

Okay, I know you’re rolling your eyes wondering what my point is in visiting the past, (some of you may actually be remembering your media youth,) but I do have one. What I am aiming to do is offer a dramatic comparison of what the Ad industry was built on and what it has become and how they might not be precepts that agree with each other in the modern day. Back in the day, there really was such a thing as a captive audience and the popularity of the time slot and creative content drove the ad value. Today, captive audience is a quaint archaic reference to the pre-Internets age of no Tivo, itunes or bittorrent! It even predates the VCR, can you imagine!

Crazy huh! Yet true. The ironic thing is the Ad world still envisions its product carrying the same value now, as it did in the golden age of advertising. Now I can hear your eyes rolling in your head and the pfft spitting unconsciously from your mouth! Yes, they do and the Super bowl serves as a prime bloated modern day example. The biggest truth is that their conventional product in and of itself, currently possesses very little value to make impact with consumers, by way of comparison to the olden days. Think of the CD analogy in the current music marketplace … just because the industry wants you to consume their product in the format they dictate to you, doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy the disc to get the product. Or even that you have to buy the product at all. Isn’t technology grand!

Blasphemy you say. Actually, no. Understanding the basic paradigms of advertising will underscore my point. For example, a key advertising analytic is impressions. Lets see how things have changed since the golden era:

Olden Days impressions: television, radio, newspaper and print periodicals. If you were an adult it was what you saw in the prime time TV slots, the Radio spots to and from work and print in the paper and occasional magazine. If you saw more than a few dozen impressions a day during the golden era, you were a stay at home mom. Dad saw fewer and junior fewer still. This was the branding heyday! If you threw enough money and creative talent at the ad scene, chances were good you could make a name like for yourself like any of the familiar, old school corporate Fortune 100 still around today.

Internet Age Impressions: With digital capability came the opening of Pandora’s entertainment box! Lets take a look at the media sources available today. All the media from the previous era still exists but lets add all the ADDITIONAL impressions from surfing online and I am being conservative by saying depending on where you go or what you do for a living, you can see a full “olden days” impression quota before you get to work in the morning. If you work in any conventional cubical farm at all, you have constant Internet access during the day and lets not kid ourselves, you use it! If that’s the case, total daily impressions can be way more than that mythical ‘magnitude of order’ of the total impressions that consumers were exposed to in the olden days. I, as you know, work in media research and my impression exposure in a standard day is easily 3 to 5 HUNDRED impressions from the internet alone. This doesn’t include my drive time radio (which I’m convinced is the last remaining effective olden day ad venue,) and I don’t even watch conventional television! So, when you look at it that way, it adds up doesn’t it!

But wait! There’s more! Lets not forget the PR factor, which adds a whole new dimension in the modern age! Back in the golden age it was easy for the consumer to discern between ads and PR. The media itself helped keep the defining line clear. Back then PR didn’t step on the toes of its advertising brethren and consumer confusion wasn’t nearly the issue it would become. In the Internet age PR competes more directly for the dwindling consumer attention span and it muddies the marketing water even more by the very nature of its evolution into a chameleon that has no problem delivering brilliantly executed mixed messages in formats that were once the hallowed ground of advertising only. In other words, PR is not just for magazines anymore and everything is fair game! Welcome to the viral buzz world and even more competition for your dwindling impression time. (used car salesman grin.)

What’s it all mean?
It means the ad industry will have to adjust a changing consumer landscape, just like the music and entertainment industry does. Stay tuned next week for part two.

Anatomy of an Internet PR Suicide

In this day and age of marketing savvy and unbridled media opportunity, you would think understanding of crisis PR management and the ability to avoid the customer media fiasco would prevent the following, but alas.

Creative Labs is a computer hardware manufacturer that has built a modern day monopoly brand around their peripheral computer sound cards and consumer digital music equipment. Though the company has diversified the company brand in recent years, its core customer base remains the geek and gamer enthusiasts. These customers could be rightfully called fanboys and contribute mightily to the company’s market monopoly.

That’s why it’s even more baffling why the company would snub its core audience. Here’s the lowdown:

Creative, like many hardware makers had certain difficulties dealing with the New Microsoft Operating Beast, Vista. Driver development for current past and new products to work on the new platform became a bit of a headache. So you would think they would buckle down and take care of business? No, certainly not! We are mighty Creative and can do as we please. And that’s exactly what they did. Here’s where it gets good.

While Creative shipped all their new products over a period of months with a shiny new “Vista Certified” sticker on all its packaging, the truth is the firmware drivers the company developed wouldn’t work on the new bloated platform. So like many community driven hardware, in stepped a very talented fanboy and respected community member Daniel_K. Not only did he figure out HOW to make drivers and firmware that allowed Creative devices to work with Vista, he went ahead and DEVELOPED THEM! (This is where Creative coders hang their head in shame) So, suffice it to say a giant hurray went up all over Creativeland and once again soundcards worked with the systems to which they were attached. But alas again!

No, unfortunately they didn’t live happily ever after. As it turned out this one man driver genus continued to provide to the community an ever expanding catalog of firmware and to cover his time and energy he asked for donations from those who felt compelled to do so. Well, here is where it gets ugly very quickly. Since the firmware the company bases it hardware on is made by other than themselves, Creative decided what Danile_K was doing violated legal arrangements. So, instead of contacting this hardworking enthusiast to discuss ways to keep the love flowing, they just decided to send out the Cease and Desist order and shut down the little guy that was SAVING THEIR LAZY CORPORATE AZZ! Instead of offering this guy a position on their team for 6 figures along with some shiny new sleek expensive auto that includes stock options in the glove box … They just shut him down and made him go the pirate route by posting his drivers to bittorrent. As you would imagine the outcry is immense. The Creative forum had to be edited by the company and monster tech enthusiast site Digg.com posted 2 massive stories, on successive days, that outlined the Creative community implosion.

Is it just me or does Corporate stupidity continue to evolve, when by every right it should have learned? It appears so. Creative will survive their current debacle, but they wont get out unscathed and as in my case and a lot of others … they lost a long time customer, to never return. Hello competition!

Why the MPAA isnt a Raving Lunatic like the RIAA – Or How Movies Still Work

Since my last post covered the music world, I think it only fitting to turn my skewed perspective onto the movie industry. The differences between them are pretty big. They of course, are not as heavy handed as their maniacal audio brethren, but they also are not watching their cash cow crash and burn like the music industry. Rest in peace CD. No, the movie industry and its MPAA are dare I say it, a little wiser. Do they have pirates? Absolutely! Do they have competition? For sure! When TV and cable programming is good these days, it’s very good! And games? They’re always fighting movies for the consumer’s attention and there are only so many hours in the day.

So why are they in such a better position than music? Well, I believe the movie experience still has some appeal! Big screen plasma’s not withstanding. Sure, home theater is growing without doubt, but it’s still mostly in the “we need to take out an equity loan,” expense range when competing with the local multiplex. So, why aren’t they big a-holes like the RIAA?

Okay, no more suspense, the biggest reason I see is they have some breathing room and can take the long view. The quality of their product hasn’t declined like the pabulum that the music industry thinks it can still foster on the public. Movie blockbusters are still being made and the box office is still adding up to pretty huge numbers! Okay, they have to thank Stan Lee and a few other content legends A LOT more than they used to, but I digress. Also, the good ‘old DVD – unlike the CD – still gets the job done and works for a lot of consumers, me included. That’s why I think the recent Blu-ray victory will end up a minor media footnote (like many Sony formats.) But more importantly, the ability to take the long view without the stress of fleeing a sinking ship is creating interesting possibilities.

One recent theater addition holding a great deal of promise is the latest evolution of 3D technology. And trust me, this is not your grandpa’s red, blue, green 3D. This a whole different animal and after personally seeing Beowulf with the new technology, it’s nothing short of amazing! Yes, it’s that good. What it bodes for the future of movies is a masterstroke in two ways! Not only will it add value to “must sees” in the theaters with a much more immersive experience, it will also create a major obstacle to in theater cam piracy as the tech is rolled out into broader distribution to the tune of 12 to 20 major releases done in 3D every year by 2010. Aside from the reduction in early release piracy, this could keep the box office and the theater experience viable for quite some time.

Let’s also not forget the filmmakers that continue to make the compelling big screen “must sees” that are always so highly anticipated! I doubt theaters will expel its last gasp and die until were so advanced we get to the point where we can project movies into our brain. The most important point however, is the breathing room this gives the industry. I allows them to keep their reliable revenue streams, while it develops ways to meet consumers needs in the future. And obviously a big part of that future will entail innovative and new content delivery methods in the new media landscape.

Ultimately, even though I doubt they believe it themselves, movies will be seen in the future as the pioneers of the no physical media paradigm shift in rich media entertainment and will as a result, be that much further ahead of the entertainment competition. We as humans have only so many hours in the day to devote to entertainment in an ever-expanding world of content and as the MP3 has demonstrated, our desire for a familiar form will continue and content providers that can deliver the most flexible and compelling entertainment experience as the digital lifestyle evolves, will still be standing when the next technology crossroad is reached.

The RIAA – Forefathers of the Media Revolution

The industry association that launched a billion blog vents seems to never evolve or adapt its approach and processes to push its agenda even when the legal systems says ‘Look numbnuts – the court systems isn’t going to do your work for you.’ Recent court rulings have re-examined the burden of proof and supported defendants with motions against intent to distribute and other cut corners in the RIAA cookie cutter suits. Perhaps its becoming as obvious to the courts, as it is to alienated consumers everywhere that the whole point behind the work of this misguided org is to prop up the obsolete current business model of the recording industry. To do that, it requires they serve as a new revenue stream that the industry can get behind. Unfortunately for them, their MO, namely, trying to extort money from college kids, grandma’s and loyal past customers doesnt sit well the the public at large. I know, I use broad blanket statements in that assessment … bad me (hand slap.) But my intent isn’t to lament the current treatment of the music consumer. No, I want to salute the brains behind the RIAA corporate idiocy and yell bravo! Keep it up!

I can hear the eyebrows raise and some may think I have lost it, but I think the RIAA buffoonery serves a two great purposes. It pisses off the consumer and drives innovation.

Think about it, all but the copyright fundamentalists and the highly insulated executive branch of the music industry already know it’s over. But no one in power cares, just like no one cared about ripping consumers off when the system worked. So, of course the industry mucky mucks are going to ride it out to the bitter, crash and burn grinding end. Instead of developing ways to give a newly evolved customer what it wants, they have decided to wring every drop of blood out of them that they can through the RIAA evangelists. With that kind of arrogance coupled to an insulting business model they still have the audacity to wonder why a majority of the music loyalty is taking the same stance I already have; ‘Im done and Im getting off here thank you very much.’

Think about it, when you are a long time music fan and start to estimate the cost of supporting a music listening passion over time and calculate how much you have already been fleeced for, anger comes quickly! For you youngsters out there, I am not even talking about the current music scene. I am solely referring to a long time back catalog collection. When one realizes the blood sucking industry has milked us middle aged music consumers 2, 3 and sometimes 4 separate times for the same piece of music, served on a new and better media, its easy to see how world of music sharing got started. The twist of the knife in our back came when they continued to charge us a premium for what we already bought the rights to, and figured replacing your personal catalog with the latest and greatest format, for an arm and leg was more than fair. What they didn’t figure on was the long-term resentment that would build. What they also didn’t count on was a young consumer that quickly jumped to the dark side of music sharing before they could be ripped off. Plain and simple, the industry is not giving them what they want. As a recent LA times article highlighted, about half of all teens didn’t buy a single CD in 2007, but by comparison digital sales were so strong that itunes was pushed past Best Buy as the new second biggest music sales outlet in the US. Also, ironically the increase in digital sales was primarily driven by the reliable 36 to 50 demographic. So it looks like the consumer is done with the CD and the industry’s attempts to control how they enjoy media.

With that in mind, I would like to thank a few key players beyond the RIAA that contributed to the state of the media revolution. Of course foremost is Microsoft. Digitization to the masses is the foundation on which are based. Sony, ironically for blazing the trails of both success and failure while contributing to the media revolution. Its hard to believe they created the awesome walkman and later format catastrophes that were such textbook cases, they stood as a beacon for innovators not to follow. Palm, yes Palm, for demonstrating that third party partnering and a small application footprint were the way to approach designing a digital music platform. The list could go on obviously and of course the ultimate hat tip goes to the MP3 codec developers that understood a small sized lossy format system would offer the perfect balance of audio quality and storage portability.

Bravo to all contributors past and present! And RIAA, your mission should you choose to accept it is to continue your reprehensible ways until you;

· kill off and cull all the fat in the industry

· drive away even your staunchest corporate fans

· force the major labels to distance and divorce from supporting your crazy self

Finally, fading into an impotent entity that is viewed as a cautionary historical tale that
reaffirms the new media evolution and the balanced triumvirate of artist, industry, consumer in a world of supply, demand and consumption.