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The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. We are a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and marketing skills. Check out thousands of cutting edge examples at our web site. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Sent via TVSpy's email servers. Visit TV Spy's Marketing Matters.
Graeme Newell
602 Communications
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In This Issue
Don't Slacken the Pace During Show-to-Show Transitions
Olympics Dethrone 'Idol'
'Nightly News' Hits 5 Year High
NBC Catches Up to ABC in Viewers
Yahoo Besting NBC in Olympics Web Audience
FNC, ESPN, Golf Channel Draw Big Numbers for Apology
Conan Plans Stage Show
CBS Greenlights 'Shit My Dad Says'
PBS Most Trusted Name in News: Poll
Internet Will Aid Intelligence, Experts Say
Addressable System Cuts Ad Skipping, Test Finds
Leonardo da Vinci's Resume
Quotes
"Creative power is that receptive attitude of expectancy which makes a mold into which the plastic and as yet undifferentiated substance can flow and take the desired form."
- Thomas Troward
"The quality of the imagination is to flow and not to freeze."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe."
- Winston Churchill
Don't Slacken the Pace During Show-to-Show Transitions
by Graeme Newell
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http://www.602communications.com
Twitter: gnewell
Facebook: facebook.com/gnewell
When going directly from one news show to another, make sure you keep the pace rolling with no break in the intensity. Many times, this is the place we transition from one anchor team to another. Typically, we will toss to the newsroom for a "preview" of what's coming up in the next show.
This is where most anchors make a critical mistake - spending too much time greeting each other. Hellos, goodbyes and how-ya-doings abound. The pace of the newscast makes a palpable downshift while anchors discuss everything from the weather to vacation plans. The precious few minutes when a show is ending, and another is beginning, are big tune-out points. You want to avoid any lessening of the pace. Give no clues your show is coming to a close. Folksy anchor hand-offs are notorious for killing any sense of excitement or immediacy.
Often times the anchors will “tease their teases.” "Now here's Bob Newshound with a look at what's coming up at five." Who wants to stick around for a promo? Instead, you should be teasing the specific contents of the best story, not "what's coming up at six." For example, "Bob is in the newsroom to tell us how police used artichoke dip to catch the robber."
During these show-to-show transitions, do not mention the specific time of the upcoming newscast. Avoid, "a look at what's coming up at six." This only accentuates that one half-hour of news is over and another is beginning. Instead, all stories should be referred to as "next." In Las Vegas, the casinos have carefully removed all time references from the gambling floor. The goal is to remove all clues there is a world outside the casino. They want your total focus on gambling, nothing else. We want the same thing with news programs.
Viewers are not tuning in to learn the time. They're tuning in for great stories. Unnecessary time references serve as a reminder that viewers may need to leave. Telling viewers "it's time for the 6 o'clock news," brings them back into their regimented daily schedule. Most viewers know they should be doing something more productive than watching TV, like getting dinner on the table. In the TV news world, we want viewer so enthralled by the coverage that dinner is late, they get out the door late in the morning, and they stay up too late at night.
The soon-to-be-arriving anchor should have some solid content to convey in the first sentence of the show-to-show promo. There should be some real meat here. After conveying this pithy fact, he can then easily transition into a tease of the more specific points in the coming newscast. A great show-to-show handoff will build the momentum, creating anticipation for interesting video, sound and information in the minutes to come. Long anchor greetings and goodbyes slow down the newscast at the very point when viewers have a natural tendency to wander.
Graeme Newell is a broadcast and new media marketer who specializes in core emotional drivers. He guarantees that his teasing seminar will immediately increase your news ratings or his workshop is free. Find out more here.
Olympics Dethrone 'Idol'
NBC's coverage of the Vancouver Winter Olympics beat "American Idol" on Wednesday, ending a six-year unbeaten streak for the Fox television ratings juggernaut, according to early audience figures on Thursday. Nielsen Media figures showed that 30.1 million Americans watched the NBC action from Vancouver in the 9-10 pm hour on Wednesday, compared to 18.4 million who watched the "American Idol" TV singing competition on Fox at that time. It's the first time that "American Idol", now in its 9th season, has been beaten in U.S. TV audience ratings since May 2004. Wednesday's Olympic action saw Americans capture six medals and featured top favorites such as skier Lindsey Vonn, snow boarder Shaun White and speed skater Shani Davis who all won gold.
Rueters
'Nightly News' Hits 5 Year High
The blizzard that buried the East Coast and the start of the Olympics gave all the newscasts a lift last week, most notably NBC. Broadcasting from Vancouver last Friday and staying in Canada for the duration of the Olympics, "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" scored its best week among total viewers in five years, including its best single-day delivery since January 2006. "Nightly News" averaged 11.05 million total viewers for the week ended Feb. 14, its best since the week of Jan. 17, 2005. ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer" trailed well behind at 9.2 million, though that also was above her season average. CBS's "Evening News with Katie Couric" averaged 7.09 million, also up from her season average. Last Wednesday, when the second major snowstorm in less than a week hit much of the East Coast, "Nightly News" had its best single-night viewership in four years, averaging 11.9 million. Those strong numbers should continue at least for the next couple weeks, with interest in the Olympics very high. The weekend news programs from Vancouver both drew huge numbers, boosted by Olympic lead-ins, with 12.36 million watching Saturday's edition and 13.9 million tuning in on Sunday.
MediaLife Magazine
NBC Catches Up to ABC in Viewers
NBC, the least-watched major U.S. network for the past four years, has caught up to Walt Disney Co.’s ABC in the viewers targeted by advertisers, as the Winter Olympics boost ratings. The Vancouver Games lifted New York-based NBC’s average to 3.51 million nightly viewers in the 18-to-49-year-old age group, according to data from Nielsen Co. ABC is averaging 3.55 million for the season that started in September. Through Feb. 14, the two networks’ ratings in the age group are an identical 2.7. With the Olympics in prime time, NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., stands to dominate rival U.S. networks in viewers ages 18-to-49 and in total audience during the games’ 17 days. NBC’s ability to maintain its Olympics momentum will hinge on the performance of programs returning to 10 p.m. after the network jettisoned Jay Leno’s prime-time talk show.
Bloomberg
Yahoo Besting NBC in Olympics Web Audience
NBC is cleaning up in the ratings department for the Winter Olympics. But once again, the network is losing out on the Web to Yahoo. From Feb. 8 through Feb. 14, which encompassed the opening ceremonies and first two days of Olympic competition, Yahoo’s dedicated Olympics site drew 9.3 million unique users according to comScore—nearly 3 million more unique users than NBCOlympics.com, which attracted 6.5 million unique users during that time period. ESPN.com also outdrew NBC online during the early days of the Games, coming in second with 8.4 million unique users. Yahoo’s audience victory echoed the Summer Olympics from 2008, when the site also beat NBCOlympics.com and set traffic records for the month of August. This time around NBC scaled back considerably on the number of live events it is streaming on the site—showcasing only hockey and curling. To be fair, both Yahoo Sports and ESPN.com are a daily sports destinations for millions of users, and those sites likely benefited from post-Super Bowl traffic, as well as interest in many other sports (overall Yahoo Sports drew over 17.5 million unique users from Feb. 8 through Feb. 14). However, NBCOlympics.com is being featured prominently on Microsoft’s MSN portal and has been promoted constantly during NBC’s Olympic broadcasts. The network argues that while its site trails in total audience, it dominates when it comes to audience engagement—and the early numbers from comScore appear to bear that out. Over the first two days of competition, NBCOlympics.com generated over 177.4 million pageviews, over five times as many as Yahoo’ s 34.5 million pageviews. In the early days of the games, NBCOlympics.com also bested Yahoo in time spent, averaging 8.2 minutes per visit versus Yahoo’s five-plus minutes per visit, according to NBC officials. NBC is also putting forth the argument that its visitors are consuming far more pages when they log onto the site: an average of 27.5 pages per visit versus just 3.8 average pages per visitor for Yahoo.
MediaWeek
FNC, ESPN, Golf Channel Draw Big Numbers for Apology
To nobody’s surprise, Tiger Woods’s televised apology Friday morning was well watched on ESPN and The Golf Channel. From 11am-11:20pm ET Woods’ apology averaged:
- Fox News: 1.7 household rating, 2.06 Million average viewers
- ESPN: 1.5 HH rating, 1.7 million viewers (that was about 4 times the average viewing for the 11am SportsCenter the previous week)
- CNN: 0.8 Household Ratings, 833,000
- Golf Channel: a 0.67 household rating and 745,000 – additional coverage between 10:30a-Noon averaged 521,000 viewers. The combined coverage ranked as Golf Channel’s best non-tournament coverage numbers since August 2009. Golf Channel’s coverage came in ahead of CNBC, MSNBC and ESPN2 according to MultiChannel News (though no data for those networks was available at that link). We also have not yet seen the numbers for ABC, CBS and NBC which all televised the apology live on Friday morning, hopefully Nielsen will publish a combined rating for all the networks carrying the address on Monday.
TV By The Numbers Conan Plans Stage Show
Conan O'Brien can't appear on TV until September, but he has a plan that would keep him in front of audiences: putting on a series of live theatrical shows. The late-night host, whose $33 million NBC payoff deal signed a month ago includes a clause forbidding him to appear on TV until Sept. 1, is eager to keep his name in lights, sources tell us. One insider said, "There's nothing to stop him doing his show in front of an audience at venues like Radio City. It will build more buzz for him as he negotiates his next television contract. It will also keep Conan happy because he doesn't want to be out of the public consciousness for too long." O'Brien is keen on moving to Fox, but no official negotiations have yet taken place, the source added. A rep for O'Brien, who's vacationing in Hawaii, declined to comment on the theater buzz. Fox also declined to comment. NY Post
CBS Greenlights 'Shit My Dad Says'
Twitter sensation Shit My Dad Says is becoming a TV pilot with William Shatner set to play the larger-than-life dad at the center of it. The casting of Shatner lifts the contingency on CBS' multicamera family comedy project based on the Twitter account, which has enlisted more than 1.16 million followers since launching in August and has made its creator, Justin Halpern, an Internet star. The pilot, executive produced by "Will & Grace" creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, was originally set up at CBS with a script commitment in November. Now, with Shatner on board, it has been greenlighted to pilot. Halpern, 29, had moved back in with his parents in San Diego, and on Aug. 3 he launched Shit My Dad Says, a Twitter feed featuring colorful -- often profane -- comments made by his 73-year-old father during their daily conversations. Shatner was an early favorite for the role because of his comedic acting chops as well as his successful spoken word renditions that fit the style of the Shit My Dad Says zingers. Last year, he did spoken word interpretations of Sarah Palin's farewell address and her best-selling book on "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien."
Hollywood Reporter
PBS Most Trusted Name in News: Poll
A new poll finds PBS among the most trusted institutions in America and the most trusted name in news. According to an annual poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, 40% of Americans trust PBS' news and public affairs programs a "great deal." Fox News was second at 29% and CNN was third at 27%. Additionally, when asked to chose whether news coverage, investigations and discussions of major issues on PBS programs was "liberal," "mostly fair" or "conservative," 40% chose "mostly fair." NBC and ABC were second with 33% each followed by CNN (31%), NPR (29%), Fox News (25%) and MSNBC (24%). PBS Kids also earned high marks from the public with 67% of respondents rating children's programming "very important" compared to 49% for children's programming on cable and 44% on broadcast television. The public broadcaster's public funding also got high approval ratings with 80% of respondents saying funding for PBS is money "well spent" and an "excellent" use of tax dollars, second only to military defense. Additionally, when informed that public broadcasting receives 15% of its funding from the government - coming out to about $1 per person per year - 46% said this amount is "too little," 39% said it's "about right" and 11% said it's "too much."
Broadcasting & Cable
Internet Will Aid Intelligence, Experts Say
An online survey of 895 Web users and experts found more than three-quarters believe the Internet will make people smarter in the next 10 years, according to results released on Friday. Most of the respondents also said the Internet would improve reading and writing by 2020, according to the study, conducted by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon University in North Carolina and the Pew Internet and American Life project. "Three out of four experts said our use of the Internet enhances and augments human intelligence, and two-thirds said use of the Internet has improved reading, writing and the rendering of knowledge," said study co-author Janna Anderson, director of the Imagining the Internet Center. But 21 percent said the Internet would have the opposite effect and could even lower the IQs of some who use it a lot. "There are still many people ... who are critics of the impact of Google, Wikipedia and other online tools," she said. The Web-based survey gathered opinions from scientists, business leaders, consultants, writers and technology developers, along with Internet users screened by the authors. Of the 895 people surveyed, 371 were considered "experts." It was prompted in part by an August 2008 cover story in the Atlantic Monthly by technology writer Nicholas Carr headlined: "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Carr suggested in the article that heavy use of the Web was chipping away at users' capacity for concentration and deep thinking. Carr, who participated in the survey, told the authors he still agreed with the piece. "What the 'Net does is shift the emphasis of our intelligence away from what might be called a meditative or contemplative intelligence and more toward what might be called a utilitarian intelligence," Carr said in a release accompanying the study. "The price of zipping among lots of bits of information is a loss of depth in our thinking." The survey also found that 42 percent of experts believed that anonymous online activity would be "sharply curtailed" by 2020, thanks to tighter security and identification systems, while 55 percent thought it would still be relatively easy to browse the Internet anonymously in 10 years.
Rueters
Addressable System Cuts Ad Skipping, Test Finds
Addressable TV ads reduced commercial skipping by almost a third (32 percent) compared to homes that didn’t receive such targeted spots during a recent test in Baltimore conducted by Publicis Groupe’s Starcom MediaVest Group and Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable. The trial used technology from Invidi to deliver different ads within the same cable network commercial breaks to different household groupings, based on segmentation data provided by data-management firm Experian. Five advertisers participated in the trial, two of which were identified: Walmart and Walgreens. While viewers zapped fewer ads, advertisers gained 65 percent efficiency from the addressable spot buys compared to traditional spot purchases, the trial participants said. According to Michael Kubin, evp, Invidi, “It was 65 percent more efficient to buy an addressable spot to reach the advertiser's true audience, even factoring into the calculation a premium for the seller.” And that efficiency, he said, “on a national basis creates billions of dollars in the TV marketplace per year.” Rex Conklin, senior director of media at Walmart, said the company “remains committed to challenging the marketplace to improve our ability to deliver the right message at the right time and place to our shoppers. Our addressability work with the Comcast and SMG trials today will result in more effective and efficient advertising tomorrow." Said Kubin: “In our view, this is a ‘proof of technology’ stage, meaning that it takes our software out of the lab and into the real marketplace with 60,000 households. So now we know that works.” The next steps, he said, include pitching the technology to additional distributors such as satellite and telecommunications providers, as well as “continuing to add features that make broadcast advertising more targeted, more precise and more effective.”
AdWeek
Leonardo da Vinci's Resume
Before he was famous, before he painted the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, before he invented the helicopter, before he drew the most famous image of man, before he was all of these things, Leonardo da Vinci was an artificer, an armorer, a maker of things that go "boom".
And, like you, he had to put together a resume to get his next gig. So in 1482, at the age of 30, he wrote out a letter and a list of his capabilities and sent it off to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan.
Well, we at TheLadders.com have tracked down that resume, and you can click here to see the full-size version.
The translation of this letter is quite remarkable:
"Most Illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said instruments are nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Excellency, showing your Lordship my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune moments on all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted below.
1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by fire and battle, easy and convenient to lift and place. Also methods of burning and destroying those of the enemy.
2. I know how, when a place is besieged, to take the water out of the trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions.
3. If, by reason of the height of the banks, or the strength of the place and its position, it is impossible, when besieging a place, to avail oneself of the plan of bombardment, I have methods for destroying every rock or other fortress, even if it were founded on a rock, etc.
4. Again, I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry; and with these I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these cause great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion.
5. And if the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many machines most efficient for offense and defense; and vessels which will resist the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.
6. I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a trench or a river.
7. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.
8. In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type.
9. Where the operation of bombardment might fail, I would contrive catapults, mangonels, trabocchi, and other machines of marvelous efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the variety of cases, I can contrive various and endless means of offense and defense.
10. In times of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to another.
11. I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and also I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.
Again, the bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal glory and eternal honor of the prince your father of happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.
And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency - to whom I comment myself with the utmost humility, etc."
What a fantastic piece of personal marketing! There's none of his famous backwards-mirror writing here — this letter was intended to be read and to persuade.
I'm a hopeless pedant, so of course I'm going to take this opportunity to let you know what you can learn from Leonardo's resume ...
You'll notice he doesn't recite past achievements. He doesn't mention the painting of the altarpiece for the Chapel of St Bernard; he doesn't provide a laundry list of past bombs he's built; he doesn't cite his prior employment in artist Andrea di Cione's studio.
No, he does none of these things, because those would be about his achievements, not the Duke's needs.
Instead, he sells his prospective employer on what Leonardo can do for him.
Now imagine being the Duke of Milan and receiving this magnificent letter / resume from the young Wunderkind of Florence. The specific descriptives paint a wonderful picture (that is, if you're a Renaissance Duke) of siege engines and bombardments and mortars and trench-draining and bridges to defeat the enemy. You can almost imagine the scenes that ran through the Duke's head as he held this letter in his hands and read through Leonardo da Vinci's bold statements of capabilities.
I mean, at that time, who wouldn't want "kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry; [that] can fling small stones almost resembling a storm"? Sounds pretty enticing.
And that's exactly what your resume needs to do, too. Not the laundry list / standard bio that talks about you, but the marketing piece that talks about the benefits to your future employer and how you fit into his or her needs and desires.
So it turns out that even 500 years later, this remarkable fellow, Leonardo da Vinci, can even teach us something about the modern job hunt. What a genius. ..
TheLadders.com
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The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. We are a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and marketing skills. Check out thousands of cutting edge examples at our web site. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Sent via TVSpy's email servers. Visit TV Spy's Marketing Matters.
Graeme Newell
602 Communications
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(919) 217-4438
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