adthropology

Entertainment Industry is Being Outrun by a Technological Snail

"Tom Coates's 2006 rant about the pace of change and the TV industry is as fantastic today as it was two years ago: in it, he takes issue with the entertainment execs who say that they can't be blamed for their failure to come to grips with new technology -- after all, everything is changing so quickly!"

"I'm completely bored of this rhetoric of endless insane change at a ludicrous rate, and cannot actually believe that people are taking it seriously. We've had iPods and digital media players for what - five years now? We've had Tivo for a similar amount of time, computers that can play DVDs for longer, music and video held in digital form since the eighties, an internet that members of the public have been building and creating upon for almost fifteen years. TV only got colour forty odd years ago, but somehow we're expected to think that it's built up a tradition and way of operating that's unable to deal with technological shifts that happen over decades!? This is too fast for TV!? That's ridiculous! This isn't traditional media versus a rebellious newcomer, this is a fairly reasonable and incremental technology change that anyone involved in it could have seen coming from miles away."

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via BoingBoing!

TV Viewers' Average Age Hits 50

"The broadcast networks have grown older than ever -- if they were a person, they wouldn't even be a part of TV's target demo anymore.

According to a study released by Magna Global's Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets' average live median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That's the oldest ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade ago -- and the first time the nets' median age was outside of the vaunted 18-49 demo."

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via Variety

Has Google Changed the Ad Network Landscape - Again?

"Last night Google announced that they would be distributing webisodes from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane via their AdSense publisher network, but as a news item it didn’t strike a particular chord with me at the time. Then I read a post this morning by Eric Berlin over at Online Media Cultist.

As I read Eric’s piece bells started going off in my head; and no I was not suffering from auditory hallucinations, but if you have read the same post then you should have been hearing the same thing. The idea that Google would be making available content that is unique and something that people will want to watch — after all who doesn’t like watching cartoons — via their AdSense network, is in my opinion something of a game changer for the ad business. These 30 second spots are supposed to come with pre-roll ads and given who is creating them, you almost have to be assured they will be popular, even if only because they are something new."

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via Mashable!

We're Connecting - And Wasting Time - On Twitter

"Some have called Twitter "the 'Seinfeld' of the Internet - a Web site about nothing." And at first glance, this micro-blogging tool that connects users around the world through short bursts of real-time text messages can seem mindlessly superficial.

"just ate a great burrito," types one Twitterer.

"time for a nap," says another.

But drill down a bit, its fans say, and the San Francisco-based network has all the makings of an Internet phenomenon with vast potential for social, business, political and cultural applications. Critics say Twitter, which can be accessed by computer, instant messaging, PDAs and cell phones, is prone to system crashes, has yet to show how it will turn a profit, and seduces its addicted users into unproductive dead zones - "a time-suck" says one critic, "for those not able to stay away."

But don't tell that to the users - 1.2 million unique visitors in May, by one account - who have embraced the 2-year-old tool and use it to trade sports scores, organize protests and even hire new employees. Many who try Twitter are smitten."

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via Mercury News

A Brand Paying Attention? Say It Ain’t So.

"Saw this over on laboratory101. Basically, the Cadbury drumming gorilla vid spawned a ton of remixes. If you haven’t seen them, now you can. They may be the first major brand I can think of that didn’t just watch YouTube nation take control of where their spot went. Instead, they gathered all the best clips into one location: brand releases video, fans mash it up, brand says thanks.

There’s also a point made in the subsequent articles about how brands will do more of this type of aggregation in the future rather than create original material. They might. But you still need cool ads in the first place to parody, no? Otherwise, there’s going to be a lot of creative inbreeding going on. And last time I looked, YouTube nation has trouble creating a halfway decent spot with supplied artwork. Somehow, I don’t see them as the future, (Diet Coke and Mentos notwithstanding). Unless of course, we keep lowering the bar as far as what’s acceptable quality-wise and cellphone street mosh becomes the new black."

via Make The Logo Biger

Here's The Future Of Advertising. Now Go Do It

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"Stop what you are doing and check out Paul Isakson's excellent sideshow which nearly perfectly captures the change that many Ad guys & gals are no doubt feeling both in traditional, tradigital and digital shops."

continue reading at Logic+Emotion...

Form + Function

"It isn't a viral hit like Subservient Chicken, but Domino's pizza builder might be equally important. The application, built by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, lets users craft their own pizza online, name it, then have it delivered to their door.

For Jeff Benjamin, interactive cd at Crispin, the Web application that debuted early this year is a sign of where digital design is headed. Rather than craft a one-off Web site, he said, advertisers want to build brand loyalty by providing utilities that both improve people's lives in some small way -- even if it's simply a tool for customizing pizza -- and directly pad corporate bottom lines.

"The new 'viral' is going to be a business solution for clients," Benjamin said.

Funny microsites are giving way to useful, sometimes entertaining applications; the showing off of flashy technology is yielding to design geared towards generating sales; and crafting for social interaction is replacing one-way experiences. Now that digital points exist far outside the browser, designing for the Web is passe, with digital design chasing the elusive goal of designing experiences that wrap all of the above together."

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via Adweek

Decapitator Hacks London Ads

" Renegade artist and head-hunter the Decapitator has been bombarding the streets of London with a signature style of graffiti tag - eerily removing the heads from major adverts around town, replacing them with ghastly, gory stumps. (Before and after images of a gruesomely guillotined model in a print ad, right).
Based on the images uploaded to his/her Flickr stream, "The East London Decapitator" as he/she has been dubbed, is largely striking mainstream advertisements..."

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via Underwire

The Demise of Network Prime

"...'The network model is starting to break,' said Gary Carr, the director of national broadcast with TargetCast, a firm that buys and places ads for clients.

'What's going to happen is lower quality programming, lower ratings and more competition,'  said Barry Lowenthal, president of Media Kitchen the media planning arm of ad agency Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners.

The comments come days after ratings-challenged NBC was forced to do the unthinkable - give cash back to advertisers because it couldn't deliver the ratings points it promised during the "upfront" sales season in May.

The move rattled Madison Avenue, which for years has depended on the major networks to bring the big audiences they couldn't get in cable or online.

'How do you go to your board and say you didn't deliver the advertising, but the good news is you didn't spend the money,' said Gene DeWitt, the chairman of DeWitt Media Strategies.

'The industry is in a quandary,' he said."

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via Influx

Ad Age: Five Reasons 'Mobile Marketing Will Explode' In 2008

"...Bryon Morrison, the president of San Francisco-based Omnicom mobile shop ipsh, on his prognostications for the top trends in mobile marketing in 2008. They include:

1. The cellphone will become more personal: Consumers will do more - download widgets, movies, music and videos  - than ever before as Yahoo, Google, MobiTV, Warner Bros and others make major investments in mobile.

2. The cellphone will become a remote control for reality: Think mobile scheduling, coordinating and managing events, concerts, vacations and trips.

3. Mobile brand leaders will emerge in 2008: That's why 89% of major U.S. brands plan to engage in mobile marketing over the next year. The ones that do it right will own the channel.

4. Next year, the consumer is in charge: Forget CRM. It's CMR - customer managed relationships - managed via devices like the mobile phone.

5. Brands are "in the know": We've moved past "what is mobile marketing?" to "We have a little extra budget, can we do it so we can say we did," to "How do we do this right?"

Read all about it here. And for in-depth insights from Nihal Mehta, the founder of ipsh, pick up a copy for BRANDING UNBOUND the book today."

via Branding Unbound