Want to sharpen your media mind while getting loaded at the same time? Of course you do (you raging alcoholic)
So being the super-nerd that I am I’ve come up with a drinking game that’s both fun and informative
All you need to play is a laptop, lots of booze and perhaps a barf bucket.
The game involves Google insights. If you don’t know about Google insights than you really need to learn.
Here’s how you play…
You start by having one player pick a person, category, movie, anything at all! (the randomness of it is part of what makes it fun). Then the second player has to pick something semi-related that they think has more search volume
Example: Player A picks music and player B picks movies. A quick searcharoo on Google insights and viola! You have your answer (and chugger) in micro seconds. The winner determines how long the loser chugs for. Of course you need to exercise caution as payback can be a gag-inducing bitch
Another variation could be that player B (the loser of the last round) can pick absolutely anything that they think might beat Music (provided it hasn’t been said earlier that night). This avoids people from choosing ‘sex’ whenever they want a guaranteed win. Be warned though, if player B selects the ‘anything option’ than they are forced to drink double time should they lose.
Wondering what’s a hot search topic?
Well as mentioned sex is extremely tough to beat. It destroys TV, Music, Movies and Obama. What out-searches sex? Good old Crackbook believe it or not (aka Facebook). At first this was surprising but when you think about it this makes total sense. People are searching it not for information, but to actually log on and Crackbook away. Piecing together these little psychological intricacies of search / the game is all part of the liver-rotting fun! Although why these people don’t just go to facebook.com and insisting on searching for it is still beyond me?
This doesn’t sound that fun to you (well eff you). Let’s try one…
I’ll take Batman and since you can’t speak to me, you’ll take Superman. Who wins? Batman by about a 3 to 1 ratio…
SHIT. I can't paste the chart for some reason. Trust me Batman wins (now drink for 3 seconds)
Have fun and happy drinking. Oh and learning.
Patent pending!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Is Anyone Else Scared of the Information Age?
No you say? You will be now...
You may have already seen this (or at least parts of it) but some of the numbers are truly staggering (and by staggering I mean shit-your-pants-terrifying)
Check it out. I actually made this video. Didn't even take that long to be honest. Okay I'm lying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8&feature=fvst
You want to know the scariest effing part? This videos is like a year old now...YIKES
You may have already seen this (or at least parts of it) but some of the numbers are truly staggering (and by staggering I mean shit-your-pants-terrifying)
Check it out. I actually made this video. Didn't even take that long to be honest. Okay I'm lying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8&feature=fvst
You want to know the scariest effing part? This videos is like a year old now...YIKES
Some Brands Just Get it
As far as equity ads go, this is one of the coolest ones out there. Sure the budget was probably huge as I highly doubt that David Beckham and Kevin Garnett just randomly showed up. But with the amount views on YouTube this thing has gotten I’m sure it’s paid for itself 1000 times over.
Not to mention it gets a 10 on a scale of 1-10 in the badass-ness category. I think I would have been an excellent addition to the party. Probably would have started by kicking it with KG on the couch, and then moved on to expressing myself by laying down some awesome graffiti before taking my turn on the tables and really tearing the roof off that bitch. Okay, so I probably would have stood in the corner giggling at how cool the party was the whole time. So what? I still would have had an awesome time
Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMI-3DAX-3I
P.S. Could they have picked a cooler song? No. No they couldn’t have.
P.P.S Pretty jacked up for UFC 100 tonight
That is all
Not to mention it gets a 10 on a scale of 1-10 in the badass-ness category. I think I would have been an excellent addition to the party. Probably would have started by kicking it with KG on the couch, and then moved on to expressing myself by laying down some awesome graffiti before taking my turn on the tables and really tearing the roof off that bitch. Okay, so I probably would have stood in the corner giggling at how cool the party was the whole time. So what? I still would have had an awesome time
Check it out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMI-3DAX-3I
P.S. Could they have picked a cooler song? No. No they couldn’t have.
P.P.S Pretty jacked up for UFC 100 tonight
That is all
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Is TV dead?
Ahh good old TV! You know those media plans you throw together in 5 minutes after your client says ‘we like all these other ideas, but we’re just looking for a meat and potatoes plan’ (insert what your client calls 100% TV plans here). So you die a little inside and whip something up so you can get the hell out of there and go for a drink. After all, you’ve been staying until midnight every night this week working on some really cool, innovative plan that’s never been done before. That by the way was still 70% TV (because you just know they’ll never go for anything that didn’t at least include some TV).
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate TV. I still think it plays a role within certain media plans. It’s mass, it delivers a cheap cost-per-thousand and it is a great way to build quick awareness (although by no means the only way)
Now what I don’t like about TV…
TV and media in general have changed so much in the past 10 – 15 years (and this is just the beginning) but we still continue to buy the shit on the same archaic model (which is crumbling before our very eyes). The current model in which advertisers buy TV is the same as the very OLD model built around a few key facts…
- One: Inventory is scarce! This isn’t the case anymore is it? There was a day when you could reach 90% of Canadian Households by buying 2 or 3 stations. It was a monopoly in every sense of the word. Today there are over 100+ channels in Canada. What happened? The emergence of specialty channels, digitals and out of market viewing (who doesn’t like Intervention)? And really, how much ad recall are we losing based on the fact that consumers are seeing thousands of ads a day instead of hundreds? But alas, price did not come down did it?
- Two: Consumers are forced to watch the ads. This seemed like a fair trade off most people were willing to live with. People get free TV but for 14 out of every 60 minutes we have to watch commercials. Commercials suck but what can you do?
Today people do lots of shit…they channel-surf during commercials, time-shift, watch online and oh yeah…fast forward. I mean people literally fast-forward the commercials! Why are we still buying the shit under the same model as before there were remote controls for fuck’s sakes?
Consumers LOVE PVRs! And why the hell wouldn't they? You get to record stuff you don’t want to miss, and better yet, you don’t have to sit there like a chump watching tampon ads between the 2nd and 3rd period
Now TV people will say things like ‘PVR penetration is still very low in Canada’. Okay fine, for now. Have you ever met anyone with a PVR who was thinking of getting rid of it? No, you haven’t. You haven’t because they rock and you feel like a douche for waiting so long to get one.
The latest numbers in Canada have PVR household penetration at 13.5%. Does that not seem a little low to anyone else? Ask 10 random people if they own a PVR and if only 1 of them says yes I’ll buy the other 9 their very own. From my experience it’s almost half of the people I've asked. Okay that’s only a sample of one but I have some broke ass friends and i guarantee it’s certainly a shit-load more that 13.5%
Okay, I’ll bite. Let’s assume that it is 13.5% nationally (even though it’s not). You keep hearing that penetration is higher in larger urban markets. Interesting…so you’re saying that more people in Toronto have PVRs than in Saskatoon? Makes sense when you think about it.
Okay has anyone working in the industry ever gotten a brief where Toronto isn’t a ‘priority market’? Don’t forget that Ontario CPPs (cost per points) are almost 60% of a national CPP. So we’re paying the most to reach people in a market where PVR penetration is the highest?? Way to think it through!
Let’s assume that Toronto is at 30% penetration (no clue what it actually is but seems like a safe estimate), on my $1MM TV buy that means that $300M is going straight down the shitter? That’s assuming that everyone with a PVR is skipping the ads, cuz why the hell wouldn’t they if they could?
Let’s take it another step further, 13% of all TV is now watched out of market (published numbers vary but shut up for arguments sake). If I want to watch the Office do I care that I’m watching it on the Global Toronto or the Global Vancouver feed? No, cuz why the hell would I? In fact, I’ve come to learn that if I miss the office at 9 no big deal, I can just watch it at 12 on the Vancouver feed
Alright so let’s do the math…30% + 13%= 43%! Almost half! So now my $1MM Ontario buy is really only a $570M buy? Shit! What if the Ontario number is at 40% or even 50%. I know it feels like monopoly money when it's not yours but $400,000!!! Fuck me! I would kill a man with my bare hands for $400,000 and I piss it away every day at work?
Oh yeah, what about all the on-demands of the world. Have you seen TMN on demand? The shows on that thing put our shows to shame. Is anyone really going to watch ‘I’m a celebrity get me outta here’ on CTV (or wherever the hell it runs) when TMN on demand has all the bad-ass, commercial free HBO shows. Shows like Dexter and Entourage and probably 100 other awesome shows that I don’t even know exist.
So PVRs + time-shifting + on demand = Ontario TV buyers & clients are getting fucked up the ass by suppliers
Let’s not forget that at some point soon digital boxes will be mandatory! Don’t we think that if people who don’t already have one (people in Saskatoon I imagine) will upgrade to the PVR if they’re forced to get a digital box anyways? What will that put the number at?
Oh yeah, the 13.5% number is from last August…pretty safe to assume that they’ve sold a PVR or two in 10 months no? Oh yeah, the study was from the ‘Television bureau of Canada’ safe to assume that it’s in their best interest to conduct a study that makes the numbers come out as low as possible no?
Oh yeah- I’ve only barely touched on broadband (watching the shit online). Did you know that more teens watch the Hills on mtv.ca than watch on MTV? Fucked huh?
My theory is that people in the TV industry (suppliers, buyers and clients) don’t want the model change because it’s all they know it and love it!
TV is not totally dead (yet) but the model NEEDS TO CHANGE! People are always going to need to consume content…we’ll just be getting it (already are for that matter) from different touch points.
Gone are the days where stations put 70 cents of every dollar on their bottom line so gone should be the days where we still pay for shit like that
Yes, the stations are struggling and no I’m not saying we choke the life out of the bastards until they go broke. But nowadays advertisers need partners, not suppliers (there’s a difference). All I’m saying is that if half the ads aren’t being seen, than meet us half way (that was a crappy closing line but whatevs).
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate TV. I still think it plays a role within certain media plans. It’s mass, it delivers a cheap cost-per-thousand and it is a great way to build quick awareness (although by no means the only way)
Now what I don’t like about TV…
TV and media in general have changed so much in the past 10 – 15 years (and this is just the beginning) but we still continue to buy the shit on the same archaic model (which is crumbling before our very eyes). The current model in which advertisers buy TV is the same as the very OLD model built around a few key facts…
- One: Inventory is scarce! This isn’t the case anymore is it? There was a day when you could reach 90% of Canadian Households by buying 2 or 3 stations. It was a monopoly in every sense of the word. Today there are over 100+ channels in Canada. What happened? The emergence of specialty channels, digitals and out of market viewing (who doesn’t like Intervention)? And really, how much ad recall are we losing based on the fact that consumers are seeing thousands of ads a day instead of hundreds? But alas, price did not come down did it?
- Two: Consumers are forced to watch the ads. This seemed like a fair trade off most people were willing to live with. People get free TV but for 14 out of every 60 minutes we have to watch commercials. Commercials suck but what can you do?
Today people do lots of shit…they channel-surf during commercials, time-shift, watch online and oh yeah…fast forward. I mean people literally fast-forward the commercials! Why are we still buying the shit under the same model as before there were remote controls for fuck’s sakes?
Consumers LOVE PVRs! And why the hell wouldn't they? You get to record stuff you don’t want to miss, and better yet, you don’t have to sit there like a chump watching tampon ads between the 2nd and 3rd period
Now TV people will say things like ‘PVR penetration is still very low in Canada’. Okay fine, for now. Have you ever met anyone with a PVR who was thinking of getting rid of it? No, you haven’t. You haven’t because they rock and you feel like a douche for waiting so long to get one.
The latest numbers in Canada have PVR household penetration at 13.5%. Does that not seem a little low to anyone else? Ask 10 random people if they own a PVR and if only 1 of them says yes I’ll buy the other 9 their very own. From my experience it’s almost half of the people I've asked. Okay that’s only a sample of one but I have some broke ass friends and i guarantee it’s certainly a shit-load more that 13.5%
Okay, I’ll bite. Let’s assume that it is 13.5% nationally (even though it’s not). You keep hearing that penetration is higher in larger urban markets. Interesting…so you’re saying that more people in Toronto have PVRs than in Saskatoon? Makes sense when you think about it.
Okay has anyone working in the industry ever gotten a brief where Toronto isn’t a ‘priority market’? Don’t forget that Ontario CPPs (cost per points) are almost 60% of a national CPP. So we’re paying the most to reach people in a market where PVR penetration is the highest?? Way to think it through!
Let’s assume that Toronto is at 30% penetration (no clue what it actually is but seems like a safe estimate), on my $1MM TV buy that means that $300M is going straight down the shitter? That’s assuming that everyone with a PVR is skipping the ads, cuz why the hell wouldn’t they if they could?
Let’s take it another step further, 13% of all TV is now watched out of market (published numbers vary but shut up for arguments sake). If I want to watch the Office do I care that I’m watching it on the Global Toronto or the Global Vancouver feed? No, cuz why the hell would I? In fact, I’ve come to learn that if I miss the office at 9 no big deal, I can just watch it at 12 on the Vancouver feed
Alright so let’s do the math…30% + 13%= 43%! Almost half! So now my $1MM Ontario buy is really only a $570M buy? Shit! What if the Ontario number is at 40% or even 50%. I know it feels like monopoly money when it's not yours but $400,000!!! Fuck me! I would kill a man with my bare hands for $400,000 and I piss it away every day at work?
Oh yeah, what about all the on-demands of the world. Have you seen TMN on demand? The shows on that thing put our shows to shame. Is anyone really going to watch ‘I’m a celebrity get me outta here’ on CTV (or wherever the hell it runs) when TMN on demand has all the bad-ass, commercial free HBO shows. Shows like Dexter and Entourage and probably 100 other awesome shows that I don’t even know exist.
So PVRs + time-shifting + on demand = Ontario TV buyers & clients are getting fucked up the ass by suppliers
Let’s not forget that at some point soon digital boxes will be mandatory! Don’t we think that if people who don’t already have one (people in Saskatoon I imagine) will upgrade to the PVR if they’re forced to get a digital box anyways? What will that put the number at?
Oh yeah, the 13.5% number is from last August…pretty safe to assume that they’ve sold a PVR or two in 10 months no? Oh yeah, the study was from the ‘Television bureau of Canada’ safe to assume that it’s in their best interest to conduct a study that makes the numbers come out as low as possible no?
Oh yeah- I’ve only barely touched on broadband (watching the shit online). Did you know that more teens watch the Hills on mtv.ca than watch on MTV? Fucked huh?
My theory is that people in the TV industry (suppliers, buyers and clients) don’t want the model change because it’s all they know it and love it!
TV is not totally dead (yet) but the model NEEDS TO CHANGE! People are always going to need to consume content…we’ll just be getting it (already are for that matter) from different touch points.
Gone are the days where stations put 70 cents of every dollar on their bottom line so gone should be the days where we still pay for shit like that
Yes, the stations are struggling and no I’m not saying we choke the life out of the bastards until they go broke. But nowadays advertisers need partners, not suppliers (there’s a difference). All I’m saying is that if half the ads aren’t being seen, than meet us half way (that was a crappy closing line but whatevs).
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
A Really Stupid Campaign
I need to rant about a commercial that I think is so stupid I honestly thought it was a joke the first time I saw it. It's for Thrive, the miracle 'quit smoking gum'. I have many issues with the ad...the cheap Angelina Jolie knock off, the length of the campaign, and the fact that the commercial has actually been re-edited to launch Thrive Lozenge. That’s right, this piece of shit actually ran for months and someone thought it was so good they simply had to keep using it! Either that or it was cheaper than paying faux-Angelina to make another brilliant spot.
As someone who works in advertising and feels consumer insights are essential to a campaign's success, I feel I need to point out how shitty this ad really is.
It all lies in the ad's tagline- 'Lose the Smoke, Keep the Fire'. Are they seriously building off the insight that smokers are filling their lungs with nicotine, tar, and cancer because it makes them feel cool??? Its 2009, not the 1970's. James Dean is dead! (He smoked right?). This offends me both as a smoker, and as someone who works in the industry.
People don't smoke because they think it makes them feel cool, we're not 12 anymore! And for all those 12 year-olds that think they're cool but don't wanna 'lose the smoke' because they wanna 'keep the fire', they’re probably too young/broke to buy the product anyways.
There are a million reasons to quit smoking (health, money, being a social outcast, it's cold and I don't want to go outside and freeze my ass off), all of which would have been a better insight to build your campaign around then 'stay cool'. Did they honestly gather a focus group of smokers and come up with this garbage?
Anyways you be the judge...sorry the link isn't the best quality but it's the only one I could find
Be warned though...I'm told that every time someone watches it a baby cries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY4SEn0JZDM
As someone who works in advertising and feels consumer insights are essential to a campaign's success, I feel I need to point out how shitty this ad really is.
It all lies in the ad's tagline- 'Lose the Smoke, Keep the Fire'. Are they seriously building off the insight that smokers are filling their lungs with nicotine, tar, and cancer because it makes them feel cool??? Its 2009, not the 1970's. James Dean is dead! (He smoked right?). This offends me both as a smoker, and as someone who works in the industry.
People don't smoke because they think it makes them feel cool, we're not 12 anymore! And for all those 12 year-olds that think they're cool but don't wanna 'lose the smoke' because they wanna 'keep the fire', they’re probably too young/broke to buy the product anyways.
There are a million reasons to quit smoking (health, money, being a social outcast, it's cold and I don't want to go outside and freeze my ass off), all of which would have been a better insight to build your campaign around then 'stay cool'. Did they honestly gather a focus group of smokers and come up with this garbage?
Anyways you be the judge...sorry the link isn't the best quality but it's the only one I could find
Be warned though...I'm told that every time someone watches it a baby cries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY4SEn0JZDM
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Burger Cologne!!!
I love this...
firemeetsdesire.com
As if BK came out with a cologne? How randomly stupid / brilliant! I mean jerks like me are posting about it on their blog right?
What I want to know is who thought of this monstrosity and how the hell did they sell it to their clients? Well done sir or madame, you're a better man (or woman) then I
firemeetsdesire.com
As if BK came out with a cologne? How randomly stupid / brilliant! I mean jerks like me are posting about it on their blog right?
What I want to know is who thought of this monstrosity and how the hell did they sell it to their clients? Well done sir or madame, you're a better man (or woman) then I
Bitter Rant #1- Search Engine Marketing
Seeing how we're on holidays, I'm not as pissy as I'd normally be had I not been off work for the last couple weeks. That said, I've thought of my first rant! This REALLY pisses me off as it's happened to me more than once on the account I work on.
SEM (aka search)...I still have clients who refuse to get on board with this. Like really??? What effing year is this??? Here you have consumers who are ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR YOUR BRAND/PRODUCT and you don't want to be there??? And I'm not talking about vauge category keywords either...we have research that shows exactly how many people are searching for their brand name. Some of our competitors have even been buying our key words for the last couple years and these morons still don't want to spend 1% of their budget on SEM! Their reasons are gems like 'we have a lot of other initiatives we'd like to pursue, or our website isn't up to date'. Well then maybe you should re-think your priorities!
As if not owning your own keywords isn't ridiculous enough, there's also the matter of all the insights SEM offers your brand. Ever wonder what the key periods for your business are? Or if having activity in the marketplace is creating consumer response? Search Engine Marketing tells you exactly that and shit-loads more!
On that note I'm in the middle of reading a great book on the subject called 'Click...Unexpected Insights for Business and Life' by Bill Tancer. I'd post a link to a book review or something but I'm still 'bloggingly challenged'
You'll just have to Google it
SEM (aka search)...I still have clients who refuse to get on board with this. Like really??? What effing year is this??? Here you have consumers who are ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR YOUR BRAND/PRODUCT and you don't want to be there??? And I'm not talking about vauge category keywords either...we have research that shows exactly how many people are searching for their brand name. Some of our competitors have even been buying our key words for the last couple years and these morons still don't want to spend 1% of their budget on SEM! Their reasons are gems like 'we have a lot of other initiatives we'd like to pursue, or our website isn't up to date'. Well then maybe you should re-think your priorities!
As if not owning your own keywords isn't ridiculous enough, there's also the matter of all the insights SEM offers your brand. Ever wonder what the key periods for your business are? Or if having activity in the marketplace is creating consumer response? Search Engine Marketing tells you exactly that and shit-loads more!
On that note I'm in the middle of reading a great book on the subject called 'Click...Unexpected Insights for Business and Life' by Bill Tancer. I'd post a link to a book review or something but I'm still 'bloggingly challenged'
You'll just have to Google it
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