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Network With Randall
cinema advertising industry revenues of CAC membership grew by 15 percent
You may already know this…but the best place to find commercials these days is at the local movie theatre!
The Cinema Advertising Council www.cinemaadcouncil.org released a report a couple weeks ago (that I missed and…did you miss it too?) showing the increase in revenue.
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 15, 2007 — The Cinema Advertising Council (CAC), today unveiled its 2006 report on cinema advertising revenues. According to the association’s report, cinema advertising industry revenues of CAC membership grew by 15 percent to $455,661,000 in 2006 as compared to a total of $394,830,000 in 2005. Cinema remains among the fastest-growing advertising mediums for 2006. The announcement of the report – which was independently tabulated by Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. LLP – was made today by Clifford E. Marks, president and chairman of the CAC. (Read full press release HERE)
The more people acquire TiVo and the more people that sign up for DVR service, the more lucrative advertising on the “big screen” is going to be. It’s a captive audience. Totally captive. Sure they can get up and go to the restroom, get a refill on popcorn, or buy some candy - but the odds are they won’t. Because most people get candy, etc. before they go in and sit down. Not after.
I’m wondering if they’ll go back to having “Intermission” like they do between the movies at the double-play drive-in movie theatre. That would give them a chance to air fifteen straight minutes of commercials. Ones that would be heard and most likely seen by over half of the audience.
Thanks movie theatres. Because of you, I can now indulge my propensity for arriving places 7 minutes late…knowing full well I won’t miss a minute of the movie…or the previews. But I will probably miss a couple Coca Cola commercials, a car commercial, some self promotion for the theatre company, and a reminder to turn off my cell phone. (Don’t worry, I never forget to turn off my cell phone in the movie theatre!)
Social Networking - Still not convinced?
I was watching my most guilty-ist of pleasures a little bit ago and it just hit me that it’s really a new breed of television show.
We all have TV shows we watch now, or used to watch, that we’re not particularly proud of…so I’m just saying…don’t judge *laugh*
I’ve been watching Gossip Girl on the CW - I *think* it’s a “tweener” show. But I’m not entirely sure. I know that they’re mostly supposed to be high school seniors, but there is a pretty intricate backstory (and plots!) for all the adults as well. They’re not just “wah wah wah” characters like Charlie Brown used to have. That’s what I tell myself when I’m watching it and thinking about how darn young most of the main characters look!
So, enough about my tawdry TV habits - the point here is that the entire premise of Gossip Girl is a blog. A blog about the “elite of New York” (more specifically Manhattan’s Upper East Side) with all the posts signed (you guessed it) Gossip Girl. The intro and out-tro are both voiced by “Gossip Girl” as well. It’s used very subtly in the show, they don’t say blog or talk about Gossip Girl…it’s just something that “is” in this world of excess on the CW.
Seriously. A blog.
If you visit the site you’ll see even more bells and whistles. An interactive menu, fashions available at Victoria’s Secret, complete with picking a character and getting specific item suggestions (if you want to see how to execute a cross promotion in a world where commercials are mostly optional…this is a good site to check out.) There’s even a video game where you can pretend to be one of the characters. Wait, I’m not sure on that…in the interest of research I’ll have to check it out right quick.
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Ok, I’m back. OH MY GOSH! If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll see that I’ve blogged about the online video game Second Life a couple of times - well guess where the Gossip Girl’s hometown is located in cyberspace?? You guessed it again! Second Life!
Second life had some problems recently, but it really seems to be making a resurgence - this time among the masses instead of geeky gamers (like me) and other Internet snobs that found it a while ago.
I just saw Second life in CSI:NY a while ago (I know, my DVR is filled with shows you’d call [sardonically] “nuttin but class”.) There’s a CSI:NY section in Second Life as well - or so I was told by the eight thousand commercials telling me to go solve the crime now! Wow. Last time I went there were no people (except those trying to get naked - for journalistic purposes I tried to get a job in Second Life but all that was available that I could find was stripper or escort…not my style…so you haven’t seen a blog post about it.)
Maybe I need to log back in and see what’s going on in the world of the Lindens. It seems they may have lost a lot of gamers…but wow…they may just capture the world instead. Interesting, indeed!
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Last but not least, in searching for an image to use for this entry, I stumbled upon something I think is amazing. The show Gossip Girl is based on a series of bestselling novels (written for teens) - and I think we all know how I feel about books…
My guilty TV pleasure may turn into a guilty book pleasure. Strictly for research purposes…of course…
Tech Cocktail - Chicago
Go HERE for more information!
If you’re going to be attending, drop me a line and let me know. We can hang. Or something.
Testing Utterz!
Does smoking make a difference?
Sometimes the simple answer is the best answer.
The other day I went to lunch with a friend of mine. I like diners. It’s no secret how much I like diners. From way back in the day when there just wasn’t anywhere else to go and hang out with your friends at two in the morning, the diner gave us a place to have coffee and continue the conversation. Some of my best memories of friends will always contain a backdrop of awful vinyl booths and those disgusting cakes and pies in the rotating glass case.
One of the things that made these establishments so popular with the young’uns is that they could smoke there. No one checked for ID, and I had a great number of friends who smoke (and some still do) - smoking was always an integral part of the ritual. They’d have coffee, soup, and smoke while we all talked until sunrise.
There were two very large competing diners (and a third which remains open…but doesn’t get special mention) along a strip of well travelled highway. What made one better than the other? I have no idea…but some people swore by Around the Clock, and some swore by The Purple Steer. We, of course, had our own nicknames for the places…but this is a family blog…
Our favorite was always Around the Clock, because they had the “famous” lemon rice soup. Really, if you’ve never had lemon rice soup you might want to give it a try. It’s a cream soup…with lemon. Other than being a chemistry experiment (why doesn’t the lemon curdle the milk?) it also tastes really good. It’s what kept us going to Around the Clock when The Purple Steer was just down the street.
Recently Around the Clock went through a renovation - into something that looks vaguely like a Cracker Barrel or something out of a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. I have no idea what they were thinking, but it really looks quite awful. Dark, lots of wood and metal objects-de-art on the walls. It’s supposed to be a “down home on the farm” kind of remodel, I think, but what it accomplishes is being claustrophobic.
Oh yeah, and they changed to non-smoking.
So what are the young, angsty smokers going to do? Forego their cherished lemon rice soup to go down the street to the renamed “The Steer” restaurant (seems the Purple was no longer necessary…) in order to smoke?
Which is more important? A favorite food….or the ability to smoke?
And then on a trip to The Steer with my smokin’ friend I saw this picture…
Looks like there isn’t a difficult choice to make after all.
The Steer looked at what it’s customers wanted, lemon rice soup and a smoking section…and gave it to them. Also, there is now a new place to go if you DON’T want to deal with any smokers at all…I think both businesses will find they have increased their niche market share based on these decisions. The non-smokers will put up (gladly!) with the darker interior of the refurbished Around the Clock in order to eat and relax in a smoke-free environment. The smokers will flock to The Steer for the soup, coffee, and socialization that has always been the hallmark of the young, angsty “diner crowd” - and everyone has someplace to go when they’re hungry that they feel caters specifically to them.
Good job, diner owners….good job!
(I’d love to see how the receipts play out after a year of no smoking at Around the Clock and lemon rice soup at The Steer, my guess is both diners will see an increase in profits…but there is no way to know for sure.)
Blogging, Tagging, and Memes
When you’re blogging…even for business…you will occasionally cross the line into the personal. But it’s your choice how personal you want to get. (Your branding plays a part in this!)
Memes are fun little questionnaires, and when someone fills one out they have to pick three people to fill them out as well. That’s called tagging…and the people who are picked have been “tagged” - make sense?
Well this all came out because Tammy Munson over at New Media VA tagged me for a Meme. This gives me exposure on her blog, because she has my name with a link back to my page…and when I talk about her I’ll link back to her webpage…giving her a link and exposure on my blog.
It’s a very non-intrusive way to do the whole “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” thing.
The subject of this Meme is “Seven things you may not know about me”
So here goes:
- My favorite sound is the one a 2400 baud modem makes.
- I’ve been blogging since November 10th, 1999.
- I LOVE football (Go Bears!)
- My local microbrewery was named Best Small Brewpub at the Great American Beer Festival.
- I was raised by my great-grandmother.
- I love planes. I especially love take-offs and landings when I’m on a plane.
- My favorite color is pink.
The reason Memes are great is that when you find one on a blog where you know the author, if you then end up at a conference or networking event together…you have something to talk about beyond the weather and the food. This is valuable information that can enable you to make a personal connection with someone much sooner, and the faster you can make that connection, the more likely they are to remember your name when they have a need for your services (or are looking for someone to invite to the Bears game with an extra ticket.)
This is how friends are made.
I’d like to tag:
Kelly McCausey
Tishia Lee
Patty Dost
Now you wait a few…and they should have their responses up. (That’s how it works in a perfect world. You will find that people won’t always post your Meme…but that’s okay…)
Edited to add: And sometimes you’ll have smarty-pants comments that people have already been tagged and you’re a little too late….so you add someone that you should have thought of in the first place and should IN NO WAY feel like a second choice. In my case, that awesome person is:
LaTara Ham-Ying of Vegan Family Living
1-800-GOOG-411
Are you part of Google Local Listings yet?
If you are, then you too can be found when someone calls 1-800-GOOG-411 to find you!
411 must be a little worried about this…I mean…1-800-GOOG-411 is free, after all…and even if there’s not a real live operator on the other end of the line…that means I’m not paying for one.
And we all know that I streamline wherever possible.
Now my mission is to figure out how to get higher up in the results list.
My other mission is to figure out what GOOG-411 is saying half the time. It has some communication issues. But I’m sure those will improve with time. It’s just such a fun/cool tool!
Social Networking in Person?!
I’d like to introduce you to my little friend.
While I’m not 100% certain why, when you type my name into the search engine, all these damn meetup groups pop up first. Even before my website.
You know what that means? You need to be on Meetup.com too.
If you’re selling your product or service, there are meetup groups that can help you hone your skills. When looking for groups of people to sell your wares, however, you need to remember that it’s the WHY people buy, not the WHAT.
For example, if you’re selling aspirin…don’t join an aspirin Meetup.com group…join a headache group. Or a migrane group. Or a post-heart-attack-blood-thinning group. I know that’s overkill, but you get my point right?
Because if you don’t already know the ailment or need that brings people to your door now, you won’t get a bunch more clients online that you would have never found offline. Your business online is like a needle in a haystack, and you as a businessowner need to be able to differentiate your business from the rest of the entire Internet.
I know, it’s a daunting task. But not near as daunting if you have the tools and knowlege about your customers! Don’t fret, you wouldn’t have a business if you didn’t have a customer with a problem. You know why they buy. Just take a few minutes and write it down - that will help bring you some clarity as to what groups may be helpful for you to join.
Because not only is it great for the search engine to list you first as a part of Meetup.com, you may want to attend some local meetings and see what they have to offer! From a supportive community of your peers to potential sales for your business…Meetup.com is a great place to spend some time.
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