Monday, July 25, 2005


Back in business

I am sure that the dozens (if not hundreds) of you who read this blog have been wondering, "Where the heck are you?" Well, vacation in Virginia Beach was really special -- my first week-long vacation with exclusively my nuclear family (no parents or in-laws allowed on this one). And, of course, when one goes on vacation for a week, there is the inevitable backlog of items to be tended to at the office. Not much time for blogging when there's "real" work to be done.

Today, I am taking this 10-minute break from the CTAM conference in Philadelphia. I am using the Tribune Media Services business center at the conference to post this report. (How cool is that?)

Anyway, I should have some interesting things to say later about some of the speakers and roundtable discussions here at the cable industry's big trade show. For starters, this morning's keynote speaker, Shelly Lazarus, of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide was ... how should I say ... phenomenal. She talked about how companies that want to survive today need to fall in love with their customers, and the love will flow back (in dollars). One amazing but true point she made (and I'll paraphrase):

Back in the early days of television, on a given night, the three major networks were able to capture 80% of the households viewing television. Today, you need to tally the top 57 broadcast and cable channels to capture that same 80% share! It's a diverse world in today's media arena.

3 Comments:

At 8:54 PM, July 25, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The three major networks captured
80% of the viewing audience at a
time when there were few other
channels to watch. In those early
days, the viewer was treated with respect by the program's sponsor
(of which there was one). I am not
sure, but I believe there were only
two thirty-second spots in a half
hour - hardly enough time to go to the bathroom. The ad creators for
Kraft Television Theatre and Lux
Video Theatre made you feel good,
even though you chuckled at some
of the Kraft recipes being offered.
Nowadays, there might be eight or
ten different products advertised
in a one minute spot. How can we
feel loved by that?

 
At 1:27 AM, July 26, 2005, Blogger Gregory Kohs said...

Good point, Aloma210 -- and it's uncanny that you mention sponsorships. Shelly Lazarus also mentioned in her keynote that perhaps it's time for advertisers to once again take up sponsorship of whole television programs. This would allow a brand to truly attach itself to the goodwill generated by a particular show with its audience segment.

 
At 10:41 PM, July 26, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It would appear that keynoter Shelly Lazarus makes good sense.
which reminds me of Admiral Grace
Hopper, who was keynote speaker
at two different conferences that
I was fortunate enough to attend
back in the sixties. Grace, among
other accomplishments, was one of
the developers of COBOL, released
in 1959. Her message was a simple
one: don't be afraid to change
the way you do things. Isn't that
what Shelly is saying? Or is she
really saying: don't be afraid to
change back to the old way of doing
things?

 

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