At The End Of The Day

Take Your $500 Million And...

The consolidation of media takes odd turns. The latest is that Yelp, the internet review site, has turned down $500 million to be acquired by Google. First read about on Tech Crunch here.

The natural question is why? The juicy part that starts now is the speculation that there must be a better offer, since no one turns down $500 million without a better offer, except maybe Arthur Bach.

With consolidation, and emerging technologies that can't seem to find a foothold (Bing), the $500 million options don't appear so farfetched. Other potential partners could be Apple or even Yahoo!

We'll wait and see here.

Association nation

Duck, it's another association!

The Association for Downloadable Media, believe that? It's true. Their mission is to capitalize and monetize on podcasting.

The first step is to provide standards for advertising and measuring audience. They have an interesting term for podcasting, "episodic and downloadable media." I like that "episodic" part.

My thoughts?

Go for it.

I also think if people think about slotting ads in along with podcasts, think again. The best work will be such that people don't care that it's an ad. They'll care about entertainment and talk value (or blog or IM or viral value or whatever equivalent you like).

Vaulting into unwanted celebrity

At 18 years old, Allison Stokke's an accomplished pole vaulter and straight-A high school student in Newport Beach.

But Allison is also very attractive. And an innocent photo of Allison adjusting her hair at a track meet has made her the new "It Girl" on the Internet.

(We decided not to post that photo on "At The End of the Day." Allison has enough bloggers circulating the above-mentioned photo. We don't need to pile on.)

The Washington Post provides a cautionary tale about the Internet's lewd track record and the unnecessary price of being, well...pretty.

More on Joost

Joost is now something that's fun to follow, if not watch.

They have a new CEO, who appears to come from the tech side.

I'm not sure if Joost's challenge is technical as much as strategic. That content will still drive it. But, looking at where they want to move, how will they be more than another network? Especially if it's something in my living room that I see on TV? If it's on TV, is it not TV?

Sidebar note, the new CEO, Mike Volpi was at Cisco and worked with Scientific Atlanta on tech projects.

Scientific Atlanta is most well known for? Cable boxes and remote controls. See "How I can make TV relevant."

This is getting highly philosophical.

In need of a turbo Joost

I am on Joost.

If you don't know Joost, the party line is: Combining the best features of TV with the powerful social features of the internet, Joost will give TV viewers, advertisers and content owners more choice, control and creativity than ever before.

You download the software and start watching. I have found it easy to download and start. Right now, it's in beta format. So, you need an invitation to download and try Joost.

How do you get one? Read the right blogs or discussion boards...like this one. Comment or e-mail me and I'll send you an invite. Or, read below to find out how I got one.

My concern, as I expected, is content. It's a beta, but right now, it's lacking.

What would make me watch this over regular TV? What would make me watch this over scanning through the many potentially better entries on YouTube?

There is some stuff I'd watch, but no better than what I get now on my 175+ cable channels. Such as Indy 500 highlights for the last 15 years. Or, swimsuit models on demand.

There is a chat feature that tries to create the social aspect. However, what if no one else is watching what you want? Do I watch what others want just to be with them? Do I ever give up the remote at home? I still like my idea of accessing social features on regular TV with your remote (why wouldn't I like my idea?).

Anyway, thanks to Daisy Whitney of TVWeek.com for the invite.

I'm not sure if you can access it as well. If not, let me know and I'll send you one.

Google is not the answer

Yesterday's news out of Mountain View hit me like a punch to the gut: Google Answers is closing its doors.

As someone who researches relentlessly on the Web, I was saddened to hear that one of my main research tools will no longer be in my arsenal.

Perhaps it's time to revisit AnswerBag.com.

Let's call it "man-scaping"

Here are two key snippets I learned at the Mixx Expo today:

1. How to convince a male audience "not to quit shaving just because you run out of face."
2. "If you trim the hedges, the house looks bigger."

Actual words from a presentation and from the creative brief for this site. That must have been one inspired brief. I wish I wrote it.

Ingenious use of new media to create viral buzz and sales that exceeded expectations. This is not consumer generated media. Although, the reaction to this site created loads of additional consumer comment, blog entries and buzz that ensured the success of the product.

What this site, and its content did, was activate social networks, wherein people started talking about the information, the site, and the product. This all came about with a budget far less than that for a network TV campaign. Activating the social networks enabled the many micro-audiences of the web to become mass media, and work as effectively as network TV, for less than that budget.

It also helps that many men (as the sales results indicate), really do want to trim hedges, and do additional landscaping, so the house does look bigger.

How's your garden?

Executives on a panel

Executives on a panel can be dangerous, boring, self-important, or, well, pick another thing that makes you want to fall asleep.  So, I sat in on an executive panel discussion expecting only so much.  Topic: Engaging the now-in-control consumer.

Great snippets, but not as much detail as I would have liked. One, Jack Haber from Colgate Palmolive, talked about engaging toothpaste consumers on line. That would be a neat trick, and one that would apply to some of our current clients. I'll need to check out what he's talking about, but he did say that he could prove that online media activity, built off a base of TV, built sales of toothpaste.

A key point I thought was made by Jerri DeVard, from Verizon Communications. Seems Verizon always allocates a percentage of their marketing budget towards new media, podcasting, and things like that. Her point, the attidude, "Because you can't measure it, you don't do it," locks advertisers out of anything that's new By the time the measurement methodologies are devised, the new-ness and cutting edge are gone. You're locked out of new ideas and new ways to communicate if you follow this belief. Instead, think of how you can connect ideas with the consumer.  That way, your brand evolves with the consumer.

Sounds engaging.

Day 1 at MIXX

Live from the MIXX expo in New York, which is one of the official events of Advertising Week, which in itself is a mishmosh of things that are supposed to be advertising-related, but also deal with new media and all kinds of marketing stuff.

The agenda for the expo is packed with interesting seminars and subjects, and I'm sure I'll come out of here knowing more than I did when I went in. The opening keynote was delivered by Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal Television Group. While his speech was interesting, it reminded me of something I'll need to stay aware of here: Agendas. Everyone is here with an agenda.

Zucker's speech was supposed to be about telling stories, and how to make content relevant. And did he tell a story. Zucker spent an awful lot of time presenting the case as to why Network TV remains the best place to build brands, for content and for quality.

I have no argument with the idea that a 30-second network schedule can build brands and sales for companies. I've seen it happen and executed this for clients. But, he went further.

He said that great writing, plus production values that only a multi-million dollar product budget can deliver, equals quality content. How many of you have seen a viral video, passed around via e-mail or on YouTube, that you considered great?I have. And it didn't come from a network.

Zucker made many valuable points. I'm just picking that one because it stuck out and is counter to where content and media are going today. There are places for great network shows, blockbusters, etc. But there is too much good content that isn't driven by multi million dollar budgets.

Meet Chad Vader

"Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager--Episode 1" has been viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube.

It's a hilarious series depicting Darth Vader's cousin, Chad, as a day shift manager at a grocery store. The brains behind the buzz are Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda, founders of Blame Society Productions.

If you like "Episode 1," be sure to check out "Episode 2" and "Episode 3."