The Evolution of Our Data-Driven Ecosystem by Darren Herman

Hi all, from time to time, I contribute articles to different industry websites and today, my piece on the Evolution of the Data-Driven Ecosystem was posted on AdExchanger.com. The link to the story is here: http://goo.gl/1bFZD

We think this is very important because we created Varick Media Management (VMM) for this vision. The importance of VMM for our go-to-market strategies and execution is key as the world adapts data-driven approaches.

Enjoy reading.

Darren

TMK's Battle of the Bands - VOTE for us!

Friends of TMK,

Our band, Whiskey Weekend, representing The Media Kitchen has made it past the audition to the voting round to perform and compete against other agencies at Advertising Week’s Battle of the Bands on 28 September. To get there we need your vote! Go to the link below to our video and give us the thumbs up. Then send the link to your friends and family, and then the next day (you can vote every day) go vote again, go home sleep, the next day vote, make sure your friends have voted and then vote again and then…well you get the idea.


http://www.videoegg.com/battle-of-the-ad-bands/

Google Instant Search: Advertisers Be Warned! by Justin Terry

All the internets are abuzz with news of Google’s recently unveiled Instant Search. This new feature for their flagship search service streams search results as you type in your search query (http://www.google.com/instant). Just about every letter you type generates an entirely new set of relevant search results and paid search ads. In addition to lightning fast results, Instant Search auto-populates a list of “smart predictions” that change as you type… in real time! The word from the Twitterverse and the rest of the internets in general on this most recent innovation is a resounding “sweet!” It will certainly shave precious milliseconds off your search time (although collectively Google claims that it will save over 3.5 billion seconds a day).

But, as users rejoice, what are the implications for advertisers?

Sadly this innovation serves a dual purpose: to bolster search efficiency for the user and the put the squeeze on advertisers. How so, you might ask? Well, Google now offers users smart search “predictions” based on what’s being entered into the search bar. That’s certainly nice of them to give users options, but the harsh reality for advertisers is that Google is selling them advertising space for every search query someone types into their unassuming little box and Google now has a direct influence of what queries will be “searched” for.

There are some major implications here that advertisers should be aware of.

The number of unique search queries is going to drop… significantly. Since Google’s “smart” predictions will likely prove to be exactly what they claim to be, searches will likely become more concentrated into Google-predicted query silos. Simply put, most people are going to start typing and let Google do the rest: Submit to the hive mind! This will unquestionably lead to increased competition for Google’s most “predicted” search queries. Less queries = more competition. More competition = higher CPCs. Higher CPC = billions of dollars flowing into the already-overflowing Google coffers.

While the immanent drop in the number of unique search queries drives up costs for more Google-predicted queries, at the same time Instant Search expands the marketplace for medium-to-long tail search queries. For example, prior to Instant Search a hypothetical user would have normally typed in “travel to the Caribbean” into the search box and received ads accordingly. Post-Instant Search that same hypothetical users is presented with a list of query predictions from Google including the following longer tail terms: “travel to the Caribbean islands,” “travel to the Caribbean cheap,” “best time to travel to the Caribbean,” and “when to travel to the Caribbean.” The outcome here is that Google with be diverting click traffic to longer tail terms now that they are a visible and highly-relevant option. For advertisers, that means the competition on medium-to-long tail keywords will increase significantly. Advertisers are going to have to reevaluate their account structures, budgeting, and bid optimizations accordingly. This is no small feat for major players in the paid search game. The consequences for smaller advertisers are even greater as competitors with deep pockets will surely begin expanding their search offering into traditionally-niche markets. This may have already begun in certain verticals but the worldwide rollout of Instant Search will certainly accelerate the process.

Speaking of niche-markets, Instant Search further erodes the marketplace for “non -smart” long tail search queries. Seriously, who’s going to keep typing or get inventive when Google’s smart predictions are providing highly-relevant search suggestions in real time? The answer is likely to be very few. For years, savvy advertisers have mined data from search query reports to expand their keyword offering with rarely-searched, less competitive and, needless to say, less expensive keywords. Let’s not even mention the money companies have been saving on misspelled keywords, which are obviously primed for extinction. Simply put, those days are drawing to a close, at least on Google.com. I should mention that the impact is slightly mitigated by changes in search patterns over the last few years. I mean, how often do you actually go to Google.com for searches? More and more people are growing accustomed to simply typing search queries into browser search bars, not to mention mobile and tablet devices.

Alternative methods of search aside, the impact of Google’s Instant Search goes beyond the throttling of unique search queries, expansion of the medium tail, and the erosion of long tail search queries. Instant Search will exponentially increase ad-serving impressions. Let’s take a look at this from Google’s perspective. The primary metric Google uses to judge whether or not you ad is being displayed for relevant search queries is Impression Share. Anyone who has worked with Google knows how much they love to tell advertisers how much Impression Share they’re losing due to Budget, Rank, or Quality Score. Essentially, Impression Share is what Google call’s Share of Voice. Google’s go-to remedy for increasing Impression share: increase budgets! You don’t have to be a Google Engineer to figure out the strategy here. There’s going to be a whole lot more inventory of advertising space for Google to sell. The problem with this inventory is that it’s an inflated inventory of diminishing relevance for advertisers. Let’s see what happens on another tropical-themed search “renting a house in the Caribbean.” Here are the ads I’m served as I type in my search query:

1^st word typed: “Rent”

Ads generating impressions: Rent.com, ForRent.com, RentedSpace.com, various other “general property rental” sites.

2^nd word typed: “Rent a”

Ads generating impressions: Avis.com, expedia.com, dollar.com, various other “car rental” sites.

3^rd word typed: “Rent a house”

Ads generating impressions: Rent.com, ForRent.com, RentedSpace.com, various other “house rental” sites.

4 & 5^th words typed: “Rent a House in the”

Ads generating impressions: hamptonhideaway.com, and various other “house rental in the Hamptons” sites.

Final query: “Rent a House in the Caribbean”

Ads generating impressions: villascaribe.com, and various other “house rental in the caribbean” sites… bingo!

You can see the potential for superfluous impressions, which are damaging to CTR and more importantly to Google’s CPC & Rank-determining Quality Score. Google is trying to minimize these “bad” impressions by not counting impressions unless the person stops typing for at least 3 seconds. It’s hard to imagine that flickering real time results won’t cause curious searchers to take pause, survey the area, and then move on. Not to mention the likelihood of bad impressions that will occur due to outside distractions (dogs barking, kids running through the house, taking a bite of a sandwich, etc). Combine this with the other issues mentioned in this article and it becomes pretty clear that advertisers are going to have much to think about in the coming months.

So while the users rejoice, advertisers should brace themselves for a significant shift to the dynamics of their paid search marketing strategies.

I’m Never Going to a Bank Again by Craig Stein

In the time it took me to go down in the elevator, I deposited two checks into my Chase bank account today with my iPhone and their mobile banking app. Basically all I had to do was take a quick picture of the front and back of each check with my phone’s camera and then voila, my lovely KBS+P expense checks were, well, money in the bank.

If the ATM wasn’t the death of the bank teller, this type of technology very well may be. It’s amazing how technologies are revolutionizing functions we thought would never change, like waiting on line forever for an ATM or a teller.

Now if only if my iPhone could spit some cash out for me, that’d be awesome. Then again, I’m sure I’ll just be able to swipe it soon to pay for everything anyway.

The Media Kitchen University - History of Social Media

Below is a link to "The History of Social Media" by Andre Woolery, part of The Media Kitchen University.

http://bit.ly/b6cS54

Enjoy!

American Idol Auditions at Mohegan Sun - Monday 7/26 by Craig Stein

Are you just biding your time with this whole advertising thing as you wait for your big break? Do you dream of following in the footsteps of great stars like Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, and that guy who won last year? Well Monday 7/26 could be your lucky day!

Agency client, Mohegan Sun, will be hosting American Idol auditions on property this coming Monday in an event we are calling “Connecticut Idol.” The Media Kitchen developed this event with Mohegan Sun and FOX, and we are thrilled to share this good news and opportunity with you.

Full details here: http://bit.ly/9rxR7x

So take that personal day on Monday, brush up on your “I believe I can fly,” and maybe we’ll see you in Hollywood this winter.

Happy singing!

Review/Recap of Daniel Pink’s, Drive by Monique Lemus- Sr. Media Strategist, The Media Kitchen/KBS+P

Recap
Throughout Drive, Pink uses history, psychology experiments and real life, modern workplace examples to push the reader to rethink the way we motivate each other and ourselves. He uses the psychology claim that humans are not only driven by survival (hunger, thirst, procreation) and rewards and punishments as originally thought, but also by an intrinsic motivation; or more so, the desire for a sense of purpose and self-satisfaction. The past changes in industry- like the diversion from routine, left-brain tasks- and overall society, have allowed this third drive to prevail as the new way to motivate and push for success. Drive dives into the ways we can make these changes and officially convert the world into a “Motivation 3.0” world.

Pink first begins his discussion by discounting the traditional rewards and punishments method that’s dominated society for the past century or so. While he agrees that rewards and punishments serve as strong motivators for routine tasks, such as stuffing envelopes, in most cases, this system actually stunts creativity, out-of-the-box thinking and overall innovation. People get too caught up on finishing a task in hopes of a reward or to avoid punishment, so much so that they loose sight of the goal and only focus on the unrelated extrinsic outcome. Pink believes that in order for companies and society to become more successful, we need to step away from our traditional modes of motivation for achievement, and instead, mold a new worker and work environment that feeds human’s intrinsic drive.

This new worker is called a Type I. Traditionally, workplaces have pushed people to be Type X workers- meaning, extrinsically driven employees, who work only for external outcomes like raises, sales, bonuses, promotions, etc. Alternatively, Type I workers are driven by intrinsic factors such as self-fulfillment, knowledge, enduring accomplishments, etc, on top of the traditional extrinsic motivators. Pink highlights the important, and honest fact, that these new type of workers still need extrinsic rewards- like raises, competitive pay, etc- but the real driver of strong performance and innovative thinking comes from a sense of purpose in their duties.


So how do we mold these workers and make our companies and work environments more productive? That’s the question Pink expected, and luckily explains in the last half of the book.
Essentially, Type I workers can be created by providing them with work environments that allow them to be self directed, expand their abilities and most importantly, live a life of purpose:

• Allowing workers to be self directed means providing them with autonomy and allowing workers to work they way they want to work- on their own schedules, in their own methods, etc. Google adheres to this sort of management and apparently it was during these “free play/work” periods, when workers were just fooling around with peers, that some of the most innovative Google products- like Gmail and G-Chat- came about.

• Work environments should also provide employees with room to grow and achieve mastery of their duties or become better at something that matters. In order for this to happen employees need to be engaged with their work, feel challenged to the extent of their ability and be pushed to work hard (but not too sternly). The beauty behind this concept is it keeps on working- mastery always appears attainable if workers have clear goals, objectives and examples, but at the same time, mastery is never attainable (like an asymptote- think back to high school math!)- workers will always work towards mastery and thereby constantly evolve! Pink suggests that employers conduct more frequent one-on-one reviews with employees, in order to assure that workers feel challenged and fully engaged- this should help lead workers towards mastery.

• Finally, companies and employers need to give their workers a sense of purpose. Without this, autonomy and mastery can’t flourish. Managers can help instill a sense of purpose in their employees by tying in companies’ profits with larger scope, more intrinsic goals, creating a company environment where workers consider themselves part of the overall objective- we vs. them idea- and, finally, involving employees in policy making decisions. Some ideas that Pink suggests to achieve this include: tying profits into a charitable goal, like TOMS shoe brand (every time a customer buys a pair of shoes, the company donates a pair to a child in Africa) or giving employees outlets to help others/do things that promote intrinsic motivation on behalf of the company.

Analysis/Review

Overall, Pink proves his point and delivers a persuasive, yet idealistic, argument for the new sort of motivation. Turning all employees at worldwide, enormous corporations like Coco-Cola or P&G, into Type I workers would be extremely difficult and nearly impossible. These companies are too large and have too many routine oriented positions (packaging, factory lines, etc) to fully embrace this workplace revolution any time soon- that’s not to say that their management can’t stand to incorporate portions of Pink’s message into their companies.

Lucky for us at KBS+P, we are just big enough to be able to take on most of Pink’s ideas. Majority of our book club discussion focused around what we’re currently doing at The Media Kitchen and KBS+P to create a Type I work environment- perhaps the agency work model naturally lends itself towards this sort of work ethic, but many of Pink’s ideas are already integrated into our work environment (or recently have been...perhaps someone in management just read this!):

- We are reminded to do things that matter, which taps into the “purpose” side of things
- We are allowed to mold our days the way we wish as long as we’re still delivering and adhering to all our clients’ requests (like watching World Cup games in the Test Kitchen as long as we keep up with work)
- We’ve even been given the opportunity to speak to management about ways we’d like to change the company
- We’re even getting driven to help our clients’ businesses grow (intrinsic drive), by gaining financial rewards (extrinsic reward) from their profits via the KBS+P stock index.

Maybe Pink can use our agency as an example in his next book- until then, everyone at KBS+P and MDC can continue to follow his mode of thinking and hopefully reap the rewards of his insight into this new form of motivation.

I consolidated. 100% Blackberry. Amazing.

I care how I look and I care how things I use and own look. I even have a particular aesthetic. And I’ve always thought of myself as stylish. But I’ve given up the iPhone.

I was an early adopter. I loved having one and I certainly thought having one made a touch cooler. It certainly screamed ‘technology sophisticate’. But I’ve given it up and I couldn’t be happier.

Sure I miss Genius and I miss zipping through thousands of pictures. I even miss some of the cooler apps. But I’m a super heavy emailer and a super heavy texter and I hated both of those functions on the iPhone.

I always hated the touch screen keyboard. Typing never became easy, even though EVERTYONE said I was going to get use to it. I started feeling bad about myself because I never got the hang of the keyboard. But I’m done with it. I’ve given it up and I never felt freer. Technology is supposed to liberate and I never felt liberated by the iPhone. I felt trapped.

I used a Blackberry for work email and I used my iPhone as a phone and to get my personal email. On the weekends, when I didn’t have the pockets for two devices, I also used the iPhone for work email. Another complaint I had was the iPhone couldn’t accommodate my contacts, which number 3,500+, so I was always copying the most frequently used numbers by hand. Technology was becoming very complicated and cumbersome.

Finally I decided I needed one device. I wanted one device to email, text and make calls. I cared far less about music and photos. I bought a Blackberry Bold 9700 and I couldn’t be happier. I was even surprised (and delighted) when I figured out I could drag pictures and songs from iTunes directly into the Bold’s media player. I’m even satisfied with Blackberry’s apps. While the iPhone’s versions are sexier, I’m perfectly content with Blackberry’s Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, New York Times, and Weather Channel, which are the ones I use most often.

Technology is supposed to be easy. The iPhone wasn’t for me. I bought into the Apple aesthetic and cool quotient. But at the end of the day form wins over style. Lesson learned.

The Fridge Officially Goes Digital by Craig Stein

Friends, I am thrilled to announce that The Fridge, the official newsletter / blog of The Media Kitchen, has officially migrated online at http://www.tmkthefridge.tv/

Our migration to the digital space allows TMK to share and dialogue with each other, partner

agencies, clients, and the world about our ideas, insights, creativity, and culture in real time.

I encourage all of you to check out http://www.tmkthefridge.tv/ regularly and subscribe to our RSS feed (click the follow button on the right).

We welcome any ideas and feedback.

All the best,

Craig

cstein@mediakitchen.tv

TODAY'S RANT: Brand Vs. Response: Wrong question

I recently sat through a presentation by IAB and, shortly thereafter, another presentation from an online video player. During both presentations they were lamenting that ‘brand’ dollars (as opposed to DR $$$) were not moving quickly enough online.

I agree. They’re not moving quick enough, and sadly to the detriment of those brands.

The folks from the IAB were saying how they heard from marketers that the online advertising industry needed more standards and measurement before brand $$$ migrated. They went so far as to say we needed reach and frequency metrics to be able to compare media channels.

I think these are the wrong conversations.

I do not think there is a difference between brand advertising and response advertising. I think that all response advertising helps build brands and any ad that doesn’t ask consumers to take an action is a waste of money.

I also think that the industry is too young to force it to adapt to legacy media metrics like reach and frequency. Reach and frequency models are exposure-based metrics and developed because that was the best we could find at the time. Now that I can measure actual individuals as well as those individuals performance, why wouldn’t I?

Instead of forcing a medium that’s not optimized for reach and frequency, why not force a medium that’s exposure based to deliver better performance data.

I believe money should flow to the media that’s most measureable and most effective. Smart brands are migrating quickly to online. Good for them.

Barry Lowenthal's Opinion Piece in Mediaweek

Now There's Nowhere to Hide

http://bit.ly/9V8gce

World Laughter Day Meets Laughing Yoga by Marc Hartzmann

Check out this article on AOL news about World Laughter Day written by our very own Marc Hartzman. It includes a quote from Barry Lowenthal about ...wait for it...Laughing Yoga!

http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/world-laughter-day-looks-to-achieve-world-peace/19458301

Weekly Digital Exploration by Andre Woolery

Per usual, a few random sites that I have played around with this week:

Poll Everywhere – I haven’t tested it out yet but this allows for simple mobile SMS polling. It positions itself as well suited for polling in presentation but it may be an easy solution for clients. Imagine doing a simple text poll that doesn’t require dealing with vendors, shortcodes, licensing, etc. Definitely worth an exploration.
http://www.polleverywhere.com/

Instapaper – Greg Hills introduced this to me a few months back and it has quickly changed the way I consume web content. I never have time to read all the interesting articles I stumble upon throughout the day so this allows me to “read later”. I have also synced it to my Kindle and iPhone so it sends a digest of content I’ve bookmarked to read offline on these devices. Not the sexiest but highly functional.
http://www.instapaper.com/

Twitter Times – If you use Twitter as an RSS feed and have too many links to keep up with...use this to create an easily digestable digest of links streamed through your Twitter account.
http://www.twittertim.es/

Fiverr – Fun way to outsource things to be done for $5. Pretty self explanatory.
http://www.fiverr.com/

Teambox – A collaboration tool that seems much more straightforward than lets say a Google Wave and uses a Twitter-esque interface. Watch the video for a better picture.
http://www.teambox.com/tour

Enjoy your weekends.

Andre

Audience Buying: The biggest news to happen in media since the postal service by Barry Lowenthal

The dirty little secret that was never talked about, but always understood, is waste tolerance. A client with a hard to reach target (e.g. CEO’s who hated golf) or really high margin products (e.g. automobiles and yachts) often had a high tolerance for waste. These clients were willing to buy media with low target compositions because they had a hard time finding their product audience efficiently.

For these kinds of clients, buying a magazine that delivered 500,000 readers was still a ‘good’ buy even if only 10,000 readers were likely to be customers.

It’s no wonder John Wannamaker famously said ‘I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half.’ When you’re buying media with low audience compositions you’re probably wasting a lot more than half your media budget.

For years direct mail was the media channel with the lowest waste. DM was the best media channel to deliver one-to-one communication. Marketers around the world owe a great debt to the United States Postal Service and our neighborhood mail carriers. But there were still deficiencies with DM. We were not reaching customers close to purchase (we were reaching them in their homes), audience segmentation was limited and purchase behaviors were still not easily assigned to individual household residents. But it was still a lot more precise than a primetime TV buy.

But the Internet is fully disrupting yet another industry and this time it’s media buying.

Now, using the latest cookie technology media buyers can separate a digital media impression into two parts: the media placement (e.g. a banner on Forbes.com) and the audience. For instance I can now easily capture the cookies of people who visit my Client #1’s website, use those cookies to find prospects and customers when they request a web page while surfing, and serve them an ad. I can do all of this in near real time. I can also use those same cookies to find people who look my customers or who are part of their social network. I can even buy data and append those cookies to learn more about the folks that have visited my Client #1’s website.

I can now serve an ad to just the people I want based on actions they’ve taken that indicate where they are in the purchase funnel. This is a major development and will revolutionize the way media is bought.

Now when we buy display we no longer have to worry about waste. 100% of our media investment is working hard. Instead of buying media placements we will buy audiences. And just the audiences we want.

Once all media is digitized there will be no waste. While I hope that budgets remain intact, I can easily imagine that client’s budgets will shrink as the wasted investments are used to fund other business needs. Clearly this will wreck even more havoc in the agency business since billings are directly tied to revenue.

In the meantime, more and more money should and will flow to media that are entirely addressable and precisely targetable, i.e. search and display. No longer will we have to buy media as a proxy for a particular audience. Now we’ll know exactly whom we’re reaching and where we can find them.

We are finally moving to a world of audience buying. We will no longer need to use a media vehicle like Elle to reach the fashionista. Now I can find the fashionista wherever he or she appears online. And probably pay a lot less for her.

Facebook - f8 Thoughts by Andre Woolery

If are not aware, last week Facebook expressed future plans at their f8 conference. Here is a relatively quick and easy synopsis of the major announcements:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1623277/crib-sheet-facebooks-f8-keynote

The most interesting announcement in my opinion is Open Graph.
Facebook’s success thus far can be attributed to many factors but the main element that makes it effective is the ease of socializing. Everything comes to you without much effort. You get tagged in photos, you see everyone’s status updates, you know when its someone’s bday, relationship changes... all achieved by just signing in. What Open Graph has the potential to do is make your web experience just as easy. Similar to how Twitter aggregates the conversations in real time, Facebook can now more holistically aggregate the content being recommended in real time and at a large scale while being socially relevant.

What does this mean for Facebook?
Crazy data. They will not only have the data of user behavior within their walls but also what you like outside of their network. This allows an interesting vantage point that ties social behavior, content consumption preferences, and how our social network interacts in the midst of all this. Imagine if you logged onto Facebook and there was an additional news feed that brought you web content that you behaviorally ‘liked’ ...it could make rss feeds, social sharing, and maybe even search less important.

What does this mean for consumers?
Your web experience may slowly be guided by your social networks recommendations. You will visit websites and see who and how many ‘like’ certain content (see attachment). Whether that’s good or bad is another debate.
You can visually see how this data can play it out with all the content your social network has ‘liked’ or ‘recommended’ here: http://likebutton.me/

What does this mean for your brands?
Implementing Facebook API’s into their site which may create more visibility for their content.
Potential behavioral targeting data that can offer stronger audiences.
Brands playing a stronger role in ‘recommending’ web content to their FB fanbase

Music, Barbeque, and Digital: A recap of SXSW 2010 by Darren Herman

I was the lucky chef down in Austin, Texas during this year’s South By Southwest conference/festival/boondoggle. In between consuming massive amounts of barbeque at Iron Works and The Salt Lick (arguably the best in the US) with founders/CEOs of some of the hottest digital media companies like FourSquare, Twitter, and Mint/Quicken, I spent quite a bit of time at the actual conference in the different digital sessions ranging from real-time data thru the future of TV. While I won’t recap every little detail in this article, I’d like to point out some highlights:

· LBS: Location Based Services such as FourSquare or Gowalla are becoming increasingly popular. During SXSW, they were used less about where you actually were, but whom you were with. LBS plays not only into creating efficiencies in tracking/finding people, but with playing into the world of “status” as you can talk about how you are with.

· QR Codes: First off, QR codes are not new, though they may finally become popular in the near future here in the US. While very popular in Japan because the cellphones have QR readers installed, QR code adoption has lacked here in the US. In the SXSW schwag bag, there were plenty of QR codes from different companies and one of the most interesting companies were Stickybits, which essentially are barcodes on individual stickers that can be placed anywhere and when someone scans it with a QR reader, it delivers additional information. Another level of augmented reality.

· Privacy: With the web becoming increasingly real-time, privacy becomes an issue as there is no central body policing it. There was lots of talk about the privacy debate and whether or not there should be a central force governing. Think about Chatroulette, Facebook, and Google Buzz – how much is posted there that you do not want everyone reading? Danah Boyd from MSFT research talked about this and more. If you Google her name and “SXSW,” you’re bound to come across quite a few posts about her keynote.


All-in-all, SXSW was solid this year. Attendance was up 40% over last year for the Interactive portion which diluted the crowd (IMHO) but the who’s who was down there and had many productive conversations.

The $44 Million Dollar Mistake by Jillian Rosaly

They say everything happens for a reason, and around NBC, that reason is Jay Leno. Despite being America’s blandest comedian, Leno is considered a god among NBC Executives. Now, better known for his powerful abilities to attack, conquer and defend his title as The Tonight Show host, his most recent actions supported and promoted by NBC, are just a peek at Leno’s evil alter ego, or are they?

While Leno has taken the blame and become the face of TV terrorism (i.e., destroying good and innocent shows), his persona has taken a serious hit for NBC’s shortfalls and their overconfidence in him. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was the number one late night show for years, consistently beating out David Letterman with its kitschy monologues and caricature-like clips of dumb Americans. Yet Leno is somewhat of an anomaly, only succeeding during the 11:35 time slot, because no one exactly cared if he was funny. At the time of his retirement from The Tonight Show in May 2009, Leno’s ratings were at their peak, most likely from the buzz surrounding his imminent departure. Nonetheless, Leno had proven his relevance with the 18-49 crowd, an important demographic for ratings and subsequent advertising dollars for the network. At a time when NBC was struggling more than ever, as host of The Tonight Show, Leno was actually helping the network.

Six years ago in 2004, Leno announced his future retirement and passing of the keys to Conan O’Brien. The philosophy was that as Leno grew older with his key boomer audience, ratings would ultimately wane and O’Brien would step in to maintain a younger and sustainable audience. This turnover, at the time, seemed to be forward thinking; however, this really was a strategic move to keep O’Brien rather than lose him to another network. Five years later in May 2009, Leno was nowhere near ready to leave the show or NBC, and once again eager to hold on to talent, NBC Universal President & CEO, Jeff Zucker, decided once again to force the network into a format the public wasn’t quite ready for.

When the time came for O’Brien to take over, Zucker had nowhere to put Leno except where he could financially afford. Instead of giving Leno a weekly comedy/variety show that could slowly grow into a required destination for viewers, Zucker forced the daily late-night format into a prime-time slot. By broadcasting Leno at such a high frequency, NBC saved millions of dollars in production and promotional costs that would have (and should have) been used to develop and market five new shows. Instead of pumping $3 million each into those shows, NBC decided to push Jay Leno five nights a week at 10pm to lead into the news and, hopefully The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.

By failing to produce a proportionate number of pilots for the 2009-2010 TV season, NBC was overconfident in Leno’s abilities to stay relevant and bring in ratings at the 10pm hour. Leno did not help local news ratings nor did he help O’Brien, whose ratings were far below Letterman’s. However, NBC failed to do anything to help O’Brien. Subsequently, when NBC couldn’t hold out for Leno any longer, NBC canceled The Jay Leno Show, and as a reward for his failings, NBC pushed Leno back to his 11:35 time slot, a slap in the face to O’Brien.

As the story unfolded, O’Brien refused to be pushed back to make way for a 30- minute comedy show for Leno, who would ultimately steal viewers away. Surprising to many, NBC said O.K., letting O’Brien walk away and paid, in favor of Jay Leno.

Now, with its upfront presentation scheduled for May 17^th, NBC will have to double up on pilots, convince buyers (with enough arm twisting and Neilsen ratings) that reinstating Leno was a wise decision, all the while sitting on a $44-million dollar check, payable to a Mr. Conan O’Brien. That check is not just a monetary supplement for a void contract, but symbolic of NBC’s lack of support behind O’Brien and a step backwards for the network. After attempting to save money, by pushing Leno five nights a week and keeping him around as talent to hold on to meager advertising dollars, NBC was willing to give up O’Brien and $44 million they didn’t have in favor of Jay Leno. Yes, he must be a god!

O’Brien, luckily enough, has found a new home at TBS. His new, untitled program will air four nights a week at 11pm. While many may view a switch from network to cable TV as a downgrade, this move will allow O’Brien creative freedom he otherwise wouldn’t have had with The Tonight Show. With less focus on ratings and the bottom line, O’Brien can work to focus on his core audience and loyal followers.

The move may finally be retribution for the disappointment and embarrassment O’Brien has faced, although quite gracefully, these past few months. Putting the large payout aside, there now seems to have much more value in NBC’s mistake. For someone as young as he is, to have the sizable career that he does, O’Brien is better off as a free agent, self-sustaining his own career rather than relying on a failing and bankrupt network to decide his fate.

Leno, whose ratings admittedly are decent and have beaten Letterman in recent weeks, now must use what’s left of his old (and old-aged) audience. Unfortunately, Leno, who was doing what he could in order to salvage his own career hurt his friend and took most of the blame for it. While Leno is certainly not a victim or the villain in this drama, he walked away with the short end of the stick. As his core audience matures and subsequently shrinks, Leno will once again be deemed irrelevant by NBC. History will repeat itself, and when it does, Leno should be prepared to back out gracefully.

The Fridge Turns 1!

It is my absolute pleasure to announce The Fridge had a birthday recently, and is now officially a one year old. It's grown up before our very eyes. Isn't it cute?

We look forward to even more exciting, informative, and insightful postings to be added to The Fridge as it continues to grow into it's new digital format.

Do I really want people to know where I am?! by Barry Lowenthal

Lately I’ve been a keen participant on FourSquare, a mobile GPS-enabled social network that launched last year at SXSW. I was late to the game and downloaded the mobile app to my iPhone at the start of this year. In the beginning I was checking in everywhere and encouraging all my friends to sign up. I had visions of planning my nights out based on where my friends were congregating, hoping for big meet ups. Currently Foursqure has about 750,000 members, picking up about 120,000 at this year’s SXSW festival. Only about 30 of my friends are signed up.

According to FourSquare I check in about 65 times per month or about twice each day. Currently I’m the mayor of The Lite Choice on 8^th Avenue and 22^nd street. I was enticed to go there by a FourSquare promotion, which I’ll expand on later. Sadly, despite my daily check-ins, I hold only one mayorship.

I am not the mayor of The Media Kitchen. Jessica W has that distinction. She dethroned Andre W. I’m not even the mayor of my co-op. But at least I’m the mayor of The Lite Choice.

At first I was checking in, FourSquare parlance for telling the system where I am and immediately broadcasting to all my friends my whereabouts, everywhere I went. When I arrived at work, I’d check in. When I left for lunch, I’d check in. Much to everyone’s surprise I am not the mayor of Aquagrill (my favorite Soho eatery and right around the corner from my office). Jennifer M, the owner has that distinction. I should probably talk to her about the promotional opportunities of letting customers become the mayor, but I digress. When I left work, I’d check in on the subway platform (I get service on the platform at Houston and Varick). When I was waiting in line at The Garden of Eden on 23^rd Street, my favorite take out place, I’d check in, and finally when I got home I’d check in.

Then I decided I didn’t want people knowing where I was lunching and what time I was leaving work or whether I had nighttime plans. Sine I have a doorman I wasn’t worried about the perils of over-sharing as highlighted by pleaserobme.com.

My issue was I just wasn’t sure that my real whereabouts where reinforcing the image I wanted the world to conjure up when they thought of me. I started checking in less and less and I only started checking in when I was some place really cool, the kinds of places that reinforced my brand.

I know a lot of people don’t think that their whereabouts help shape their ‘brand’, but being actively involved in the communications business for over 20 years, I do. Remember that seminal piece in Fast Company called ‘The Brand Called You’? In fact I tell my clients all the time that where consumers encounter their brands will help shape a brand’s meaning and value. Why should my personal brand be any different?

Since I suspect a lot of people are just like me, what’s the long-term utility of these types of mobile platforms when people won’t use them truthfully? Maybe people don’t have to use them truthfully for them to succeed? Maybe they will be just one more way to manage my brand in social media, just like my Facebook status has long ago become.

I had one particularly encouraging moment on FourSquare some weeks back that I referenced earlier and will expand on now. When I checked into the Spice, a new restaurant on 8^th Ave and 22^nd, I got a promotional note saying if I went to the Lite Choice one block away I could super size my order. I ordered a small and got a medium, which made me very happy. When I became the mayor I got the same offer. I was still even happier.

While I may not want everyone knowing my whereabouts, I will check in to FourSquare whenever I go out to eat because I like getting promotional offers that are relevant and close by. For me FourSquare, and sites like it, are becoming the modern day version of the coupon clipping, something I thought I’d never do. And I like it.

The brilliance of Foursquare, and many other location-based apps, is that they satisfiy many of my narcissistic primeval urges, afterall doesn’t everyone I know really care where I am and what I’m thinking right now? That is until I loose interest and become bored checking in or just don’t want them to figure out how boring my life really is. But that’s when marketing kicks in with location-based coupons. Then I’m hooked all over again.

I just got an offer to dethrone the mayor of The Mermaid Inn and get a free lobster sandwich. I may even try and move my business from Aquagrill.