In her wonderful article “The New Journalism: Goosing the Gray Lady” Emily Nussbaum reveals the genius behind the Word Train (namely Aron Pilhofer, Andrew DeVigal, Steve Duenes, Matthew Ericson, and Gabriel Dance) and boils our relationship with new media down to one, elegant sentence:
“That’s the way change happens on the web: The most startling experiments are absorbed in a day, then regarded with reflexive complacency”
As I watch with sadness as the media is dying because their advertising based business model no longer works, I've often thought to myself that while I can't imagine my morning commute without the New York Times, I also wouldn't spend money I'm responsible for on advertising — because ads don't work.
In the last few weeks, I've become hyper-tuned into the advertising all around me as we plan the campaigns for the first HarperStudio books: What works (and why), doesn't work, annoys me, makes me angry, etc. Would I be willing to pay more for the content without ads, and if so, how much?
Here are my unscientific yet completely honest observations about the advertising around me:
There was a story in the New York Times about the advertising campaign for HBO's The Big Love. They are doing a "secrets" campaign where you can walk past a kiosk and plug your headset in and hear a secret about the show. I WANT IN!!! Where's the closest kiosk? I came to work and asked everyone if they'd seen one. It passes the "tell a friend" test.
I actually like reading the New York Times with ads and can't imagine my morning commute without flipping to the page A2 Tiffany ad. There's something comforting about scanning the ads that has become part of the reading experience for me. 99% do not make me want their product though. Fashion magazine ads have the same effect — they add to the reading experience without driving me to purchase.
The ads in Time, Newsweek, People and The New Yorker do not enhance my reading experience and I'd be happy to pay a little more to read the magazines without them. Occasionally an advertorial will stand out.
Online video ads are a whole other story — especially the ones on msnbc.com. I am actually irritated by them. I feel like I've been taken hostage. Ads for Dove Bars, Tide detergent, etc. all feel like noise — and 30 seconds feels like an eternity. Even the movie trailer ads irk me. I end up feeling angry at the product and msnbc for making me sit through this annoyance. If you haven't had the pleasure, try clicking these Today Show videos and see how they make you feel.
Hulu.com ads are much less annoying because they are shorter and slightly more entertaining.
Listen Up Tide: Video Ads don't have to be irritating. This ad by 50 Cent for Body Spray is simple, entertaining, and seems like pretty low budget production.
IPod ads make me want to buy a new iPod every time I see one — and then dance.
Tropicana is spending $35 million on a new ad campaign to promote "quality and value." Nothing I've seen of their double entendre "squeeze" campaign makes me want to buy Tropicana (though I am already a regular Tropicana consumer). In fact I feel galled by the amount they are spending on this ad campaign and wish they'd put those millions toward lowering their juice price instead.
The ads on my Facebook page are odd and troubling and I would be willing to pay about $10 per month to have a Facebook without them.
And so it seems to me that advertising as it exists now may be dead, because it doesn't work, but there is room, and in fact an opportunity, for advertising to become remarkable — to entertain or inform — or as Seth Godin would say, to be a Purple Cow.
Super Man was created in 1939 on the heels of the Great
Depression. 2009 will give rise to a Super Hero of a different kind.
“The Future President’s Gonna Need Spider-Man” says Peter
Parker, Spider-Man’s alter ego in the special edition of the Amazing Spider-Man
#583. Indeed, Marvel not only features Obama in the story (which takes place on
inauguration day and apparently involves a fist bump) they put him on the
cover- a first for the comic. Obama revealed a while back that he was a
childhood fan of Spider-Man and Marvel editor in chief Joe Quesada said they
wanted to give him a “shout-out back.” [huffington post]
I have a theory that innovation is born out of hard times, as is evidenced by this marketing campaign that I stumbled across from Sterling Publishing.
To promote the book "I Can Make You Thin" by Paul McKenna, Sterling chose cities with the highest obesity rates, and then paid the tolls last Monday morning during the rush hour commute on the first day back from the holiday.
Drivers were surprised with a postcard for the book instead having to pay the toll.
Over the holidays I re-discovered my inner cook. It took just few hours of focusing on my finances for me to shed my "Cooking's Not for Me" credo, and I spent the rest of the vacation re-framing how I look at food and trying to find the joy in preparing it.
I cruised all around Cookstr.com. Love it. Really user friendly, clean, fresh, easy to use, unintimidating.
I went to Trader Joes for the first time in a decade. Couldn't believe how inspiring it was…..not to mention suspiciously inexpensive.
And I came to the conclusion that if I'm suddenly into cooking, everyone else must be also — and therefore cookbooks must be the next big thing.
Enter Mollie Katzen, famed author of The Moosewood Cookbook. I can still see my tattered, food stained copy from college. She came in for a meeting about GET COOKING, her cookbook that we'll be publishing next Fall. To get ready for the meeting I listened to her on NPR. Her string bean recipe is out of this world and outrageously simple.
Listening to her talk yesterday about beans and burgers and pilafs was so inspiring. Her voice makes it all sound so delicious and relaxing. But the part of the conversation that has really affected me is how she wants this book to bring friends and family back together to bond over food and the process of making it.
Gizmodo says Apple confirmed a deal with three big music labels (Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner) in order to sell DRM-free music on iTunes.
Is the parellel publishing move for publishers to sell DRM-free ebooks on BN.com and Amazon? But what about the single-format Kindle? How does that play in to the analogy?
I watch the music industry like a little sister who may find lessons to learn.
Here are a few take-aways to ponder:
Sales of Recorded Music fell sharply in 2008
CD's and full album downloads were down 14% from 2007
Digital music purchases grew 27% from 2007
Despite the shift of sales, CDs remain the most popular format. 84% of all album purchases were CDs (down from 90% the year before).
Record companies say they are beginning to "wring" significant profits from music Websites such as YouTube, but the money made online does not make up for the physical sales.
22% of Rihanna's revenue came from the sale of ring tones.
2 of the biggest albums of the year were by artists who are opposed to downloading (Kid Rock and AC/DC). Neither sell their music online.
A la carte downloads are less lucrative than full CDs.
The concert business is robust. Concert ticket sales rose 7% in 2008, but fewer ticket were sold for more money.
— and therefore cookbooks must be the next big thing. 
