new york times
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Over a decade ago, I wrote a creative brief for Newsday, a large metropolitan newspaper covering Long Island and Queens New York, using the insight “We know where you live.” Newsday liked the notion but didn’t completely get the insight. They reframed it and turned the words into their tagline of many years “Newsday. It’s where you live.”
“We Know Where You Live” was meant to provide residents of Long Island – a diverse, but captive audience – with a reason to buy the paper in addition to The New York Times…and in place of The New York Post and The NY Daily News. Many of LI’s hundred thousand plus train commuters buy these other 3 papers every day for world news and sports and “We Know Where You Live” was intended to make them feel a bit out of touch with their local community news and home lives. (Sneaky, but true.) It was also a means to create greater loyalty among current readers.
This brand idea, if properly acculturated throughout Newsday, would have made every employee hypersensitive to providing an editorial experience that only a LI-based paper could deliver.
Fast forward to 2010 and the underperforming Newsday.com. “We Know Where You Live”, though long gone, is still a powerful rallying cry for building online readership and participation. The owners, architects and builders of the website, should be brainstorming how to deliver that experience. Instead, I submit, they are probably in brainstorming meetings chasing the latest social media twist, the next community promotion and the October program intended to build time on site. These are tactics, not strategy. “How” is tactical. “Why” is strategic. Newsday and Newsday.com need to revisit their brand strategy. And let those 34 new reporters they’re hiring in on it. Peace!
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Tags: Its where you live, long island, new york times, newsday, newsday.com, Ney York Post, NY Daily News, tactics and strategy, we know where you live, whats the idea, whatstheidea
I participated in an exercise a couple of years ago and thought it might be worth doing again. There’s a weekly report in The New York Times called the Most Wanted which cites the best read, best watched properties and programs by media type. A glaringly obvious clustering by demographic occurred when I did it the first time and it seems things haven’t changed much.
Broadcast TV is watched most heavily by Boomers and the demographic just younger. Cable TV is watched by Boomers and young kids. Kids and Millennials go to the Movies while DVDs are mostly rented by Gen X and Y, skewing males, with a little less money to spend. Magazines are read by those with higher household incomes and people who tend to be older – say 40+. And Music Albums are being purchased mostly by white kids young and Millennials, while music downloads favor youngish non-whites and whomever likes Katy Perry.
Am I a media agency’s nightmare or what? Peace.
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Tags: albums, boomers, broadcast televison, cabletelevision, demographics, downloads, DVDs, katy perry, media agency, Media consumption, millennials, new york times, whats the idea, whatstheidea
An article in yesterday’s New York Times, the headline for which read “JetBlue Asks Fliers To Keep Spreading The Word,” discusses JetBlue’s brand new social media campaign – a core component of its marketing strategy. From Firstborn (agency) in NYC, the work offers video snippets of real customers talking, unscripted, of their great experiences. Unscripted is better. The goal is for people to see these videos and weigh in about their positive experiences.
Here’s an experience a friend of mine had yesterday on JetBlue, flying from NY to California. Here are his unscripted words:
“I had a 22 hour trip to California. Ask me about sometime, and I’ll tell you all about it in great detail (as I usually do). Murphy’s Law is officially renamed as M***h’s Law (name redacted). Oh, by the way, if you happen to find my luggage, please let JetBlue know where it is, since they don’t know where it is.”
This gentleman sent the email to 21 friends. That’s word of mouth. Sounds like he might be pissed, no? Do you think JetBlue wants to give him a social platform to share his experience? While his wound is still raw? Doubt it. They’d be better off giving him a coupon for a companion ticket and a hearty apology.
There’s nothing more ornery than a wounded travel passenger. This is one business where giving a mouthpiece to a customer may do more harm than good. Pick your creative tactics carefully people. Peace!
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Tags: Firstborn, JetBlue, new york times, social media programs, whats the idea, whatstheidea
There was a fascinating quote in The New York Times today in an article on Facebook’s privacy decisions. (Facebook’s privacy actions will either create mad blowback or turn it into the world’s first trillion dollar company.)
“If I’m looking for day care for my 6-year-old, I’m going to put that in my status (Facebook) message, not do a Google Search.” (Sean Sullivan, F-Secure.)
Search, Curation, Advice.
In the world, and on the internet, there are important common behaviors: search, curation and advice. Search is a great way to find things and it’s clearly a huge business; results are organized and prioritized… by the algorithm. Curation, on the other hand, growing in importance online, is search but with a human hand. Social networks help curate in a sense because one “friends,” organized by degrees of separation, share content they care about. But advice? Many a web property was built around advice. Most have failed or languished.
Mr. Sullivan’s quote points to the need for trusted advisors, not algorithm results of independent ranking experts (e.g., Better Business Bureau, Consumer Reports, your newspaper). Mr. Sullivan’s important day care decision will be assisted by the advice of friends and respected Web friends.
As Facebook creates tools that blur the lines between search, curation and friendly advice, it will likely lose its way. People are their own best filters and Facebook needs to make sure it doesn’t cross the line. Peace!
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Tags: better business bureau, consumer reports, F-secure, facebook, friendly advice, google, new york times, sean Sullivan, search curation advice, social networking, whats the idea, whatstheidea
David Carr published an interesting piece in today’s New York Times about Nick Denton, his Gawker Media tech blog Gizmodo, and the lost next gen iPhone. According to Carr, the blog post generated 3.6 million hits on Gizmodo – a site averaging 90,000 hits a day.
(Not too long ago, during the tough economy, Mr. Denton decided to pay his staff of writers based upon hits. The more papers you sell, said the crusty old news man, the more money you make. When the pay-per-readers story hit the wire, Mr. Denton was vilified and some good writers left. Buh-bye, said he.)
The writer who broke the lost iPhone story was well paid for her/his day’s work and Gizmodo’s brand made it to Ohf-rah (Oprah). Eastman Kodak, who serendipitously bought all the ads on Gizmodo for the day, reaped mad dividends in terms of reach. (What’s the opposite of “make good?”)
Mr. Denton’s maligned approach to paying writers for audience portends things to come in social media. Media will be bought based on eyeballs. And media will be bought based on transactions. When this equation makes it to traditional ad agencies you may even find the creative output changing. That is, some of the ads won’t be built for portfolios but for consumer interest and traffic. Social media will soon be monetized based upon consumer interest and sales, not the rate card. And it will be exciting to watch. Peace!
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Tags: David Carr, Eastman Kodak, gawker media, gizmodo, iphone, new york times, Nick denton, Oprah, rate card, social media monetization
Nice article over the weekend in the New York Times on the growth of web start-ups in NYC. Silicon Valley East some might say. Other suggest the East coast is trumping the West when it comes to start-ups in the media, mobile and publishing areas.
NY is likely to be the hub of these companies not just because advertising, publishing and media companies reside in NY, and lets not forget the financiers, but because the next “haps” development area is mobile and there’s no better place on earth to test mobile apps than in a city of 8 million people — and the businesses they frequent. It’s a commercial petri dish.
Brooklyn Vs. SoHo
There seem to be two factions in NY where the action is. Brooklyn is where the gearheads and coder-savants have their businesses and SoHo is where the artsy, consumer-savvy go to work. The two areas are only a couple of subway stops away and are feeder neighborhoods, but they are different mindsets indeed. I’m not sure which one is the shark and which the pilot fish but I’m working on it.
I haven’t forgotten you Union Square and Flatiron people, but you are just a little too focused on da monies and PPT and not enough on the art and code so I’ll remove you from the fray for now. Anyway, there is something very exciting going on in these two communities and it will be a hotbed of technology innovation and seriously cool mobile growth. Ride the subway between these two communities and watch the future happen. Peace!
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Tags: Brooklyn, flatiron, mobile applications, new york times, silicon valley, SOHO, union square
Happy Friday youze all…as we like to say in NY. It’s beautiful outside with everything blanketed in pristine snow. A fitting beginning for the Winter Olympics. Tonight, on the Olympics the new GE Healthymagination campaign breaks. Knowing it’s from BBDO, I’m sure it will be heartfelt and striking…in its pieces. It will also be a time for G.E. to try and flex some integration muscle.
I’ve seen two print ads already and they are pretty but plainly messaged. Having read about the campaign in the New York Times today and piecing together bits and quotes, I’m going out on a limb here and gonna say “What’s the Idea?
What’s the Idea?
Here’s what we can expect: GE wants to humanize the technology, so no pictures of machines. GE wants to make doctors the heroes. Doc’s are very influential in technology purchases, especially when it comes to those $80,000 procedures. Innovation will be in much of the new campaign; it’s a corporate keystone. Imaging technology will be front and center, as it should be; people understand medical imaging and how it helps them. Consumers will participate because “health spreads contagiously” so expect the people to be posting on Twitter and Faceboook. “Healthymagination is saving billions in healthcare costs.” There will be How-Tos on Howcast, iPhone apps, and, and, and. Lots of ideas, lots of agencies (Big Spaceship has a chunk), lots of content contributors, yet I haven’t heard a powerful brand idea with muscle memory. Healthymagination is a word, not an idea. After seeing the body of work I’ll weigh in again. Peace!
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Tags: bbdo, bog spaceship, facebook, GE, healthymagination, howcast, iphone, new york times, twitter, whats the idea, whatstheidea, Winter Olympics
Back in the day, most great writers went to work at a newspaper, magazine or ad agencies if they didn’t write books. This is still pretty much the case but today they have a new outlet for their craft the “blog.”
Blogs can be an entrée to jobs at print properties and ad agencies but they can also be an exit. The latter route – the exit – is growing and will continue to grow. Take A.O. Scott, the film reviewer for the New York Times. Mr. Scott is a wonderful writer and movie critic. Many believe his words and spend their hard-earned based upon his reviews. But he is one lone voice in the ink and digits that is The New York Times. A.O. Scott’s content is of value…he is an important brand. Were he to focus his craft on his own blog he could make some serious (cash). Today, Mr. Scott can choose to become a personal publishing brand and do things he couldn’t think of doing while at the NYT. (Not saying he will, it’s just an example.)
Today, a percent of great writers with mass appeal are getting out of the journalism business and get into the blogging business. In the blogosphere there will be lots of dreck… but there will also be a great deal of commercial successes. Blogging is a powerful, powerful medium (my blog aside, hee hee.) Peace!
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Tags: A.O. Scott, blogging, journalism, magazine, new york times, newspaper, whats the idea, whatstheidea
AOL announced today they will be introducing a new logo. It will include a dot at the end of the letters Aol, which will appear using initial cap “A”, lower case “o” and “l”.
That’s the post. That’s all I learned. See you tomorrow.
(Okay, okay, I learned a little more than that, but had to read between the lines to do so.)
AOL has a product strategy, which I’ve known for a while thanks to new CEO Tim Armstrong. It is “AOL is the place to be for the best online content, period.” Mr. Armstrong articulated this strategy early on in his tenure. It’s tight and smart.
What they don’t have at this time is a brand strategy. Had they a brand strategy they wouldn’t have only talked tactically about the mark in their announcement. To wit (from an article by Stuart Elliot in the The New York Times today):
“The period in the logo was added to suggest confidence, completeness.”
“The AOL dot is the pivotal point for what comes after AOL.”
“An advertising campaign to promote the new look is being considered — as is the role to be played by AOL brand character known as the running man.”
You feel me? All tactics (hat) no brand strategy (cattle.)
Changing the logo was a good idea, but doing so after articulating the brand strategy and brand planks is way more sensible. Peace!
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Tags: AOL, Brand Strategy, new york times, stuart elliot, Tim Armstrong, whats the idea, whatstheidea
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