YOU CAN'T PUT THE TOOTHPASTE BACK IN THE TUBE

For many, many years the newspaper industry got it right. They were making tons of money, much of it coming from a cash cow called classifieds. The Internet came along and with it a chance to post a classified ad at no charge .... free. It was the loss leader to attract the currency of the web ... traffic and eyeballs.

As the newspapers held ground for paid placements, the cash cow began to go dry.

Today, the drama is focusing on content. What exactly is content? And what exactly are readers willing to pay for?

When the New York Times decided to provide their content to web readers for free, they let the toothpaste out of the tube. What will it take to get the toothpaste back in?

My commentary in today's Media Life Magazine sets the stage for a discussion that has already begun to heat up in the press.

Your comments and thoughts are encouraged.

WHAT YOU CANNOT SEE ON THE iPHONE

Are your client's using Google AdWords? Chances are that you are also running those ads on mobile devices and the iPhone with not-so-pretty results.

It appears that the user experience for the iPhone delivered ads by Goggle is not properly configured for the device. At a $.20 Cost Per Click advertisers would be spending their marketing dollars to irritate the customer.

Many agencies and marketers are not aware of the problem. But their is a solution. "Simply" opt out of the user experience for AdWords delivered to the iPhone.

Google does not make it easy. But the good folks at Silicon Alley Insider put together a quick step-by-step guide for opting out of the negative iPhone experience.

Click here for the opt out guide.

GAMES PEOPLE PLAY

The gaming industry has experienced a business boom in spite of the economic recession. According to Nielsen, the number of hours that gamers are playing has hit an "all time high." In addition, used game sales have increased to "record-breaking totals," while video game rentals have increased exponentially.

The top selling video games command prices ranging from $34.99 to $59.99 … not an easy pill to swallow during a recession. It is also the reason for the explosive popularity of used video games with retailers like Wal-Mart looking to step into the lucrative secondary market.

While gamers are playing more and paying less, possibly as an escape from the real world recession blues, the industry has witnessed a softening of the market with a 6 percent downturn in sales during the first half of 2009.

The all time top seller as of this week with 135 weeks on the charts is Nintendo’s Wii Sports selling over 23.6 million copies to date.

The increase in the use of the smart phone for gaming is also on a positive upswing with initial game sales in the 8 million plus unit range with multi-player capabilities.

Are your marketing efforts addressing gaming as part of your social marketing mix?

Click on the chart to enlarge it

GOT iPHONE? GOT TWITTER?

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and are a Twitter user, get yourself over to TweetMic. It’s an application that allows you to record a tweet with no limits on recording time. The app effectively eliminates the frustrating 140 character limit on a Twitter posting.

The app works flawlessly with a high quality recording and playback. A list of features from their home page follows:

• Incredibly simple and intuitive interface
• Quickly record audio and publish to Twitter
• Review your recordings before publishing
• Easily overwrite old recordings by hitting "record" again
• Create unique and engaging Tweetcasts in no time
• Ultra high recording sound quality
• Unlimited recording time
• Uses your existing Twitter account, no additional signup
• Navigate and listen to your published audio tweets
• Your tweets stay live unless you delete them
• Easy management of your audio tweets at tweetmic.com

A ZEN MOMENT

With no intentions to rain on your parade this holiday weekend (yes, we’ve all had enough rain, thank you) today’s post offers up a moment of Zen before the start of the holiday.

The group you’ll see and hear in the video that follows is Perpetuum Jazzile, from Slovenia, performing an amazing rendition of Toto’s Africa. Thunderstorm simulation effects were inspired by Kearsney Choir (South Africa).

Turn up your volume to HIGH, close your eyes and for the first two minutes, listen…. then go back to see how this was accomplished.

Happy (Dry) Fourth!

GONE TO THE DOGS?

“Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder's consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.’

This quote by University of Chicago economist, Gary Becker and U.S. Appeals Court Judge, Richard Posner, has set the stage for a an argument that will likely never see a positive outcome in any courtroom in America.

The issue is not the ownership of content manufactured by journalists and recast across thousands of sites on the web. The issue is about the inability of newspapers to grasp the new ideology that has permeated the web and penetrated its users into the belief that “free” is the new “paid subscription”, even for the likes of journalistic powerhouses like the New York Times.

The evidence is in and the jury is out … how odd, however, that circulation among the printed media that is distributed as “free” or “comp” is either discounted or not counted at all and considered to be readership “not engaged” enough to be counted. Yet we jump at the chance of counting any free traffic on a site as evidence of its worth.

Metrics have changed …. evolved to accommodate a new communications pipeline that we have not as yet come to fully understand. or manage. Nor are we holding it to the standards we hold high in traditional media.

The real battleground for print media is the agency, where education is the weapon. The trade associations that make up the “old” media have not done a good job of convincing the digitally focused marketers that as the old media dissipates so will the digital counterparts as content generation dries up, becoming less important for the sake of “fast media”.

ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA BEHAVIOUR

Are the social networks barking up the wrong tree?

MySpace, Facebook and Twitter have a long way to go before any one of them will see a return on investment, if at all.

Here's my POV on the topic as posted in Media Life Magazine today.

MEDIA MUSICAL CHAIRS

The video that follows, courtesy of its maker, LMcDuff08, exhibits massive movement among media executives as reflected in his Mad Ave Blues video.

We just can't keep track any more! Enjoy the video....

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING ??

At the heels of the MySpace announcement that they are cutting 30 percent of their staff to accommodate a more efficient view of the site's future and to bring staffing in line with its Facebook rival, I had to sit back and think .... WTF!?

Where was Rupert? Has he been that distanced from the business of running a business that the oversight of News Corp's major investment ran away with itself?

To suggest, as Jon Miller, the new Digital Officer for News Corp does that their labor pool was "too big considering the realities of today's marketplace" is nothing short of a lame excuse for his predecessor's lack of vision and a complete misread of the fickle markets that make up their user base.

Blame Rupert. By contrast, Miller is a brilliant strategist supported by his turnaround of AOL.

It will be tough sledding, if not impossible, for Miller and the new CEO, Owen Van Natta (39) as they learn to scale the business to meet the falling demand for their network.

And as MySpace fortunes decline, a reciprocal increase in users for Facebook and Twitter take the stage,front and center. Never mind that neither has come up with a business model that turns a profit. They will continue to pile on the users until they become so top heavy with unchecked expenses and debt that the cash burn will ignite the house that Facebook and Twitter built.

These social networks, built in an instant, are the "course du jour" .... until the kids in the garage down the street launch yet another version of the same game by any other name.

CONNECTIONS

Early this afternoon, one of the staffers at Agency Spy, a member of the MediaBistro empire, Twittered to ask about a recent Chivas commercial. His interest was the background music in the spot.

The music was “driving him crazy”…. He couldn’t recall where he heard it before.

This is where the artist, the album, the commercial, YouTube, an Apple iPhone App, Grooveshark (a free music sight) and Twitter all came together in a few short minutes to make our friend at Agency Spy a bit less crazed.

It’s a classic example of how ordered digital forensics can make a difference.

1-Search YouTube for “Chivas Commercial” and rank by date.

2-Play the clip and confirm it’s the right commercial

3-Use the iPhone Shazam application which “listens” to the song and plays back its title, artist and, in some cases lyrics, with a link to iTunes for potential purchase. Granted, I did hunt for a few seconds in the commercial with no voice-over to capture the music.

4-Jump to Grooveshark (www.grooveshark.com), search for the album and pick the music track that matches the commercial. While on the site, you can also create a widget that can be embedded in a blog.

5-Capture the URL link to the music and forward back to Agency Spy on Twitter.

Bliss

Here’s the widget with the soundtrack … sometimes it all comes together neatly, with potential for monetization and data capture along the way.