Life After the 30-Second Spot

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Between XM, Tivo, HBO, the nano, and the web…I don’t see or hear that many 30-second commercials anymore. So I don’t know why it should be difficult for me to imagine Life After the 30-Second Spot, the title and premise of Joseph Jaffe’s latest book. But it is. Maybe it’s because our company sells a LOT of 30-second spots.

The forward, written by Don E. Schultz, Professor Emeritus-in-Service at Northwestern University, sets the tone of the book:

Media advertising, as we have known, practiced, and worshipped it for the past 60 or so years, is in trouble. Big trouble. And it’s not going to get well. Ever.

I’m about half-way through the book and highlighting something on every other page. Jaffe might be full of shit, but just in case he’s only half-full, anyone remotely connected to advertising supported media should read this book.

Who do you resemble?

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This genealogy website compares the facial characteristics of an uploaded photo to those of celebrity photos in their database. My best match (61%) was Jean Chretien, the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. I look less like Paul Newman (44%) and bear a similar resemblance to Barbara Streisand and George W. Bush (42%). Thanks to Jeff who is the spitting image of Jack Ruby, Steven Spielberg and Christina Aguilera.

U. S. Founding Fathers

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Scott Adams insists we must look at the the actions of our Founding Fathers in order to understand their ideals:

1. Slavery – excellent source of poontang
2. Women voting? That’s crazy talk!
3. People who don’t own land suck
4. A good way to change tax policy is through violence
5. It’s not really crossdressing if you also wear manly boots.
6. Treason is okay if you have a good reason.
7. No one wants to sit next to Ben Franklin

Like Adams, I’m glad they did the whole create-a-new-country thing… just don’t go nuts with the “this country was founded on sacred ideals put forth by our Founding Fathers” riff. They were a practical lot.

Online school closing network in Nebraska

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The following item appeared in a recent RTNDA regional newslettter:

Thirty broadcasters in Nebraska have joined a network of stations sharing winter closing information. The idea started in Kearney at KRNY-FM and has grown into an on-line and on-air entity known as weatherthreat.com. The most notable feature of the service is its price—free. Schools, organizations, and the media can all use the service at no cost. On the network’s web site, creator Travis Hollman adds, “But along with being priced right, I would say weatherthreat.com is unique in that it is a non-exclusive network that is operated around the clock by local media working together for a common good.” The system works by giving accounts to all who participate, allowing them to log in and post or check closings. Hollman says he may expand to other states.

At first glance, this looks like a pretty good idea, well executed. These kinds of things almost have to be collaborative to work and getting a bunch of radio stations to cooperate is a good trick. But even if they can’t make this thing regional, it could work on a district-by-district basis. (Thanks, Kay)

High speed Internet access

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A co-worker recently announced that he could finally get high-speed Internet access (Sprint ADSL) at his appartment. The speed/price package was much better than mine, so I called the Sprint folks. Now, I’m probably jinxing myself with this post but I can’t resist.

I’m currently paying $60 per month for 1.5M download/256k upload. Beginning tomorrow, that goes up to 3M down/??? upload, for the same price (thanks to some kind of rebate). Still not up there with cable speeds but a long way from the 2400 baud dial-ups of yesteryear. I’ll let you know if access seems twice as fast.

Sheryl Crow on cover of Shape Magazine

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Shape CoverSheryl Crow will be 44 next month but it will be a smoking hot 44, based on the cover of Shape. Ms. Crow says she runs or bikes (outdoors) for at least an hour “every single day.” Doesn’t listen to music while running, but meditates and “gets her thoughts in order.” If not running, she’s biking with Lance. She cuts out early since LA typically does six or seven hours a day. When the two cook at home, they make a Mexican burrito for breakfast with cheese, salsa and Jimmy Dean sausage. She eats lots of vegetables and recently gave up caffeine. [Photo]

Christmas morning

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Cozy fire. Holiday mix on the CD (Did you know James Brown did some Christmas songs?). Dogs playing with their new toys. Good smells from the kitchen. Santa brought me some nice warm socks, a cowboy shirt and some Tired Old Ass Soak. Barb received a Netflix subscription and some motion-sensor light bulbs. We might break down and buy a new TV after the Super Bowl when prices go down.

Best Christmas post is over at the Dilbert blog: “If you’re reading The Dilbert Blog on Christmas day, your family probably hates you. But that’s okay because I still love you. Have a great holiday. Or failing in that, just hold on until January. You can make it.”

Panel: “Revolution in PR Technology”

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I’ve been invited to be on a panel at a meeting of PR professionals next month. It’s the “January Joint Meeting” of CSPRC/IABC/PRSA. I’m hoping to be able to pronounce the acronym by January 10th. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it interesting that none of these big public relations organizations are using RSS, blogs or podcasts. But they’re talking about it and that puts them ahead of the pack. Depending on the sound set-up, I’ll record it and post it here.

The Art of Demotivation

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From the folks at Despair, Inc., a business book that’s “So Dangerous We Had to Put a Lock on It.”

“Ironically, managers attempting to motivate employees by increasing their self-esteem only compound the very problem they seek to solve. Reinforcing employee delusions of grandeur only increases their irrational sense of entitlement to the wealth, stature and privilege that justice dictates be reserved for the truly accomplished and inarguably worthy: namely, Executives.”

These are the same funny kids that produce the motivational calendars and posters.

Quality: The Race for Quality Has No Finish Line – so Technically it’s More Like a Death March.

I’ll share nuggets from TAOD here.

Unbundled Media

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“The natural ability of the Internet to distribute unbundled media is disrupting broadcasting’s basic business, and that will accelerate in 2006.” (The Unbundled Awakening by Terry Heaton)

BundleAfter reading this excellent piece, I can’t get the idea of “unbundled media” out of my head. Like all broadcast media, radio stations offer a bundle of content/programming. Music, weather, sports, news, etc. We bundle it all together in something we call a format and deliver it to the audience (in a very linear manner).

I remember getting calls from frustrated listeners demanding to know when I was going to give the school closing report (I had just given it 2 minutes earlier but they had missed it.) They couldn’t get it when they wanted it because it had to be bundled up with other content/programming.

For the past 20+ years I have worked for a company that supplies content/programming to radio stations and for most of that time, a big part of my job was to insure that our “stuff” made it into the bundle.

And now the unbundling has begun. iTunes has just about any song I might want to hear. Weather.com has my forecast. Cancellations.com (or my school’s website) has the cancellations. Same for school lunch menus.

And RSS means I won’t even have to go searching for all this. It will come to me. Wherever I am.

It seems pretty clear that most people don’t want their media bundled. They like to choose. A bit of a sticky wicket for businesses dependent on being part of the bundle. Is the value shifting from being able to bundle (TV and radio stations, newspapers, magazines, etc)… to creating the content that was once part of that bundle?