Drinking my Starbuck latte here in my cubicle, I came accross this story on Starbucks’ latest brilliant marketing strategy. You know it’s smart when it seems obvious. Like Starbucks selling books and bringing in authors for live readings. If Starbucks works in book stores, why not book stores in Starbucks?
Traditional TV Pressure Groups Losing Ground
A media critique by Wayne Friedman, Monday, August 7, 2006
WILL THE PLETHORA OF NEW digital platforms make TV pressure groups obsolete? Maybe not. But, in the wake of more entertainment choices, advertisers certainly are not scared to publicly talk back to those who seemingly position themselves as the arbiters of TV morality.
Two advertisers, Toyota Motor Sales and DaimlerChrysler, basically told one prominent TV pressure group, the Parents Television Council, where to go, in reference to recent media buys on FX’s “Rescue Me.”
“Rescue Me,” with rough language and drama about New York City firefighters, targets adults. PTC says there are kid viewers too, and has Nielsen data to back that up.
The reality is, you could do this exercise with virtually any TV show–broadcast, cable, syndication, pay-cable. You could show some kids watching everything – perhaps just one. In that regard, you would need to take off all shows, like “Two and A Half Men,” “The Sopranos” and “Lost.”
Networks will defend themselves by saying 90 percent or 70 percent of its audiences for specific adult-language shows comes from adults. And that makes sense for its advertisers. Toyota and Chrysler would be wasting their money if 70 percent of the audience were 12-year-old boys and girls.
TV pressure groups think these shows wouldn’t exist without these topnotch TV advertisers. They’ve actually got it backwards. Audiences already exist for established shows like “Rescue Me.” In this fractionalized video and TV age, advertisers like to see proof of performance. Otherwise, why bother?
TV pressure groups are in the business of finding TV shows to protest. Then they ask for money because they are protecting people from the evils of entertainments. To tout their businesses, they love to make crazy claims that they force advertisers from specific shows. In fact, by the time any of them see the spot, those advertisers may already be gone–and not because of any pressure. Media plans are as such that advertisers don’t buy all time in all shows all year round. They go in and out of shows, as their plans–and budgets–allow.
Case in point: The PTC sent a letter asking Chrysler to pull ads from “Rescue Me.” Chrysler’s brands Dodge and Jeep had advertised during the show, but aren’t in those shows for their near-term media plans. Still, the company hinted it could start up again.
“We do this not with the intent to offend but with an appreciation for diversity in consumer viewing preferences,” wrote a Chrysler spokesman to the PTC, according to Advertising Age. “It is also important to remember the American consumer has the ability to turn on or off TV shows, as do PTC members.”
Or turn off his TV, and turn on Google or YouTube. In a vast and multiplying democratic entertainment world, users, advertisers, parents, children, and TV producers have tens of thousand of choices for video content.
TV decency laws are surely gaining strength. But advertisers and users have other places to turn to. And that means TV pressure groups will have pneumatically less air.
Today’s NYTimes asks a good question. Since the Web has helped make concert ticket lines all but obsolete, why are people still waiting around the block to buy movie tickets?
The answer is as simple as a one dollar bill.
The reason people are still not inclined to buy their movie tickets over the web is because we don’t want to pay the $1 surcharge, especially when there’s no customer incentive to do so.
With concert tickets, the sooner you buy, the better your seats. But with movie tickets, since there’s not assigned seating (except in select theaters like The Arclight in Los Angeles) there’s also no incentive to buy tickets early, on-line. Since movie seats are on a first come first serve basis, the early bird gets the seat. And if you’re early enough to get a good seat, then you’re early enough to buy the ticket.
However, there is incentive for theater owners. On-line ticketing would benefit theaters in two obvious ways:
1. As with airlines where customers can go on-line and buy tickets, theaters could cut down on staff by allowing customers to pre-buy movie tickets on-line. If customers buy tickets on-line and print them at a kiosk in the theater, fewer staff are needed behind the counters selling tickets.
2. The time customers waste waiting in long lines to buy the tickets at the theater could be better spent cruising the snack bar. More people would purchase beverages and snacks before the show if they didn’t feel rushed upon entering the theater. The customer’s average snack bill would also increase since customers would have more time before the show to wait for higher priced, longer to prepare items such as hotdogs, which you have to dress with condiments, nachos, which can seem messy and overwhelming to the time pressed customer, or high-end coffee drinks such as lattes or cappuccinos.
With the on-line ticketing option, theaters would be giving customers an added value
of convenience, and the option to custimize the movie going expierence to suit our busy schedules. And if we can buy the tickets when and where it is convenient for us, we will surely buy more tickets.
The lost dollar surcharge fee for on-line tickets would more than pay for itself.
PABE 