What You & Your Brand Can Learn From The Jay Leno Show

Advertising Age has recently spent quite a bit of time dissecting the Jay Leno effect on NBC and viewership, ratings and advertising. For instance, "A 30-second spot in "Jay Leno" costs between an average of $48,803 (Friday nights) and $65,678 (Tuesday nights)... In contrast, NBC was able to secure ad prices of between $78,000 (for "Lipstick Jungle") and $146,679 for programs that aired in its 10 p.m. slot Monday through Friday in the 2008-2009 programming season."

Those stats alone do not tell an entire story, but it is bad enough that Ad Age put together a top ten list titled: "Top 10 Lessons to Learn From NBC's Failing Leno Strategy: How a Network Shot Itself in the Foot by Cynically Cost-Cutting -- and Betraying Its Viewers and Affiliates".

While Ad Age's list is aimed at media companies and personalities - it is, for the most part, applicable to all brands, companies and entrepreneurs. So whether or not you find Jay Leno funny - and whether or not NBC finds success with The Jay Leno Show - these lessons are relevant:

10. In a morphing media marketplace, track record means nothing. 9. Longevity is not the same as brand loyalty. 8. Cutting back on quality, even in a recession, can be brand suicide. 7. It's dangerous to pretend your brand is something it's not. 6. Timing affects perception. 5. Time-shifting aside, the basic rhythms of broadcasting may have an almost biological basis. 4. If you're in media, you're in a way different business than you were even just five years ago. 3. If you're going to suddenly and radically change a large proportion of your product line-up (like, say, 33.3% of your weekday prime-time schedule), there's -- surprise! -- going to be a ripple effect on your overall brand. 2. Allowing one outsize personality to hijack your brand identity is generally not a good idea. 1. Jay Leno is a helluva lot more annoying when you're still wide awake.

Read Ad Age for the entire list with commentary about each bullet.

The Rise of New Media, Our Entitled Voices & Chuck Klosterman

In his newest book, Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman (my favorite current author) tackles reality, perception and voice. In describing the theme of the book, Klosterman says: "most of the core questions dwell on the way media perception constructs a fake reality that ends up becoming more meaningful than whatever actually happened."

His first essay Something Instead of Nothing concludes with a fitting description of "New Media", it's rise, and our voices / roles within it:

I fear that most contemporary people are answering questions not beacuse they're flattered by the attention; they're answering questions because they feel as though they *deserve* to be asked. About everything. Their opinions are special, so they are entitled to a public forum. Their voice is supposed to be heard, lest tehir life become empty.

This, in one paragraph (minus technology), explains the rise of New Media.

I include this excerpt because it speaks to questions I hear daily: Why do people blog? Why do people post so frequently to Twitter and Facebook? What do people have to say that is important? Now I do not entirely agree with Klosterman because, as he notes, technology does play a significant role in enabling the conversation and, equally importantly, connecting our voices (through relationships, experiences, relevancy, etc). As such, I believe that 'connectedness' is as much of a motivator as ego.

Modelinia's Heidi Klum Halloween Contest on Facebook

Want to spend your Halloween with Heidi Klum at her famous Halloween costume party. According to OMG on Yahoo, "Heidi Klum loves Halloween. That's why she throws a big costume party every year that all the A-listers in Hollywood attend." This year, you and a guest can join Heidi Klum at her Halloween party... thanks to Modelinia's Halloween contest on Facebook. The contest is fun, viral and quick: it ends October 25th - so submit your pictures and vote quickly.

There are three easy steps to: 1. Become a fan of Modelinia on Facebook (facebook.com/modelinia) 2. Upload a photo of your best Halloween costume 3. Share on Facebook and get your friends to vote!

Step 1: Become a fan of Modelinia on Facebook

Step 2: Upload a Photo and Vote

Step 3: Share your Photo on Facebook and Encourage Friends to Vote

When Amazon Destroys iTunes in Pricing... What Do You Do?

Consumers used to go to Apple's iTunes because it was easier, cheaper and more effecient. Now compared to Amazon, it is is neither cheaper nor easier... Now I buy my music directly through Amazon (as a cd no less!). The top selling album on iTunes is Michael Buble's latest. It costs 14.99 on iTunes as compared to 9.99 on amazon. That's a dramatic difference and there are dozens of other examples for popular and smaller titles alike. When iTunes falls behind on pricing, is it still worth the experience? It certainly satisfies the immediacy (even if amazon will arrive in 24-48 hours). But it loses on all else: the price is 50% greater, the finding experience is worse and the reviews are generally better on amazon. On the mobile front (where these screenshots are from), the experience is even more differentiated between the two.

When pricing is the same, iTunes wins on immediacy - but amazon has shown time and time again the ability to compete on pricing and find value downstream for the users / purchases. And unless iTunes adds some big value-add and compelling reason why I need to buy there (like Facebook connect), pricing remains critical.... And if you read the reviews, users agree (they are giving buble's album a poor rating because of the iTunes price).

Project Runway Overtakes PerezHilton.com for Season Premier

In preparation for Lifetime's season premier of Project Runway, PerezHilton.com ran its standard background ad unit alongside integrated, rich IAB units. The unique part of this campaign, however, was how Perez removed the blog's standard right column so as to better promote Lifetime and the TV schedule. Normally, the right column houses a collection of navigational units and advertising banners. In addition to simplifying the page's visuals - it ensures that the only advertiser on the page is Project Runway... which Perez then sells at premium:

Blue Bottle Cafe & Restaurants using Twitter & Facebook

If you live in San Francisco and love coffee, you likely know about Blue Bottle Cafe - it is arguably the best coffee in the city, has a rabid fanbase and was made famous by the New York Times piece, "At last, a $20,000 cup of coffee". Blue Bottle has started dipping its toes in social media - and why not? On any given morning, half of the shop is seen huddling over a mobile device or laptop.

It is an interesting example because social media is a natural, ideal fit for restaurants (great imagery, food is often social, and people talk about their experiences). It is also interesting because:

- Blue Bottle has a newly started presence on both Twitter and Facebook

- Facebook is about 3x as popular as Twitter: 600 fans vs. 200 followers

- Blue Bottle routinely posts to Twitter, including great photos and interesting updates... but they have not yet posted to the Facebook stream (despite having 3x the fans and Facebook being better suited for visual posts / sharing)

- Blue Bottle Cafe is actively being talked about on both Twitter and Facebook (on Twitter, there are dozens of mentions each day)

Blue Bottle is clearly experimenting with social media and, as an onlooker and a fan of their coffee / food, I find it both interesting and helpful. If I were a restaurateur, I would be watching closely and experimenting on my own. Both Twitter and Facebook are effective ways to showcase new menu items, specials / sales and interact with customers.

Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and other large chains have found success through social media (and are among the best social marketers)... local shops are starting to figure it out as well. And as mobile continues to play a growing, important role both in restaurant discovery and communication, there will be a stronger opportunity to engage with customers.

Man vs. Food Uses Facebook Ads, Video & Poll to Kick Off New Season

Last week, I wrote about Starbuck's using Facebook Polls and Facebook's Top Pages (both all-time and daily growth). Here is another example of a rich, interactive campaign through Facebook: Travel Channel's Man vs. Food. The new Man vs. Food season begins tonight - and in preparation, the Travel Channel is running a major campaign through Facebook that includes:

- Sponsored ads - RSVPs and calendaring for the season premier - Interactive polls related to the food challenge - High-quality video trailers with in-video ability to "like" I am really impressed by the video quality - which is outstanding and runs smoothly and without any interruption. It is also the first time that I have noticed an ability to "like" from within the video.

Has it worked? The Man vs. Food fan page now has ~60,000 fans and tonight's RSVP has had another ~60,000 responses.

The inclusion of friends' names who also have RSVP'd gives the advertisement a more personal, communal feel.

Not exactly an impactful, insightful poll (or set of data) - but it is engaging, grabs the eye and led me to play the video.

The video quality is fantastic.

And the ability to "like" the video while watching it makes it viral by appears within my news feed.

YouTube Immediately Boosts Sales of Chris Brown's Forever

Much has been made of YouTube's ability to monetize... but the most viewed video of the week (the JK Wedding Entrance Dance) clearly drove sales - boosting Chris Brown's 'Forever' into the seventh most purchased song on iTunes. Considering the recent public outcry against Chris Brown (who essentially went into PR hiding), the sudden popularity is even more impressive:

The video captures a wedding party's entrance dance set to Chris Brown's 'Forever'. The video is less than a week old and already has 5.6m views on YouTube - at least 5m of which occurred yesterday:

Edmund Andrews' "Personal Credit Crisis" is our National Crisis

The New York Times Edmund Andrews' "My Personal Credit Crisis" is a candid recap of how a respected economic reporter for a respected news source entered into the same world of subprime mortgages and credit trouble that our nation did. Very much worth the read - if only to get a individual understanding of the far wider problem:

The only problem was money. Having separated from my wife of 21 years, who had physical custody of our sons, I was handing over $4,000 a month in alimony and child-support payments. That left me with take-home pay of $2,777, barely enough to make ends meet in a one-bedroom rental apartment. Patty had yet to even look for a job. At any other time in history, the idea of someone like me borrowing more than $400,000 would have seemed insane.

But this was unlike any other time in history. My real estate agent gave me the number of Bob Andrews, a loan officer at American Home Mortgage Corporation. Bob wasn’t related to me, and I had never heard of his company. “Bob can be very helpful,” my agent explained. “He specializes in unusual situations.”

....

Bob called back the next morning. “Your credit scores are almost perfect,” he said happily. “Based on your income, you can qualify for a mortgage of about $500,000.”

What about my alimony and child-support obligations? No need to mention them. What would happen when they saw the automatic withholdings in my paycheck? No need to show them. If I wanted to buy a house, Bob figured, it was my job to decide whether I could afford it. His job was to make it happen.