Questionable at Best

Your ad here: Cop cars as the next billboards | csmonitor.com

These aren't traditional "black and white" police cars. Instead, each cruiser will be emblazoned with advertisements that could vary from local services ("Minnie's Beauty Salon" and "Bert's Radiators") to, say, national doughnut or burger chains. Dozens of cash-strapped towns are also considering the idea, an offer made by a marketing company.

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Wacky Package of the Day

Courtesy of Kevin Porter's Wacky Packages
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Can't Anyone Talk For Themselves Anymore?

Does anyone actually talk like this in real life? You know some PR person wrote this statement:

Avaya Picks McCann-Erickson

In a statement, Avaya vp and CMO Yvonne Curl said, "McCann clearly understands Avaya's business and our vision. They offer great strategic insights, as well as a comprehensive plan to drive Avaya's brand to the next level."

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VOD: 29% of all TV by 2007 Will be Watched on the Viewer's Schedule

This according to a recently released study by Forrester. But, here's what this old school media dude had to say about that:

TV viewing on demand poised to take off

One critic (of the study) is Turner Broadcasting Chairman Jamie Kellner, who recently charged that those who watch TV without watching the ads are stealing.

If that's your attitude towards the fast adoption rate of video on demand services, you might as well pack it up Jamie and call it a day. Consumers will have what they want. And they want their TV the way they want their TV and nothing you say or do will change that. It is you that will have to change. So, start thinking how you are going to make money in this new world rather then moaning about the old world.

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This is Beautiful

Jaffe Juice: Willy Wonka & the Net Factory

How does one explain the surreal elements of the Internet bubble? How did we get ourselves into a mess? Joseph finds a good explanation from Roald Dahl�s �Charlie and the Chocolate Factory�. By Joseph Jaffe

Joseph is as inciteful as ever here with his analogy between the Internet Bubble and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

At the end of his article, he asks:

"What�s the Golden Ticket that will help us get to the next level � in terms of continuing to build our industry, legitimizing the medium and helping to grow the overall pie? Realistic expectations, integration, smarter metrics or interactivity? Creativity, brand studies or research? No more pop-ups, money back guarantees, solving the branding conundrum or education?"

Personally, I think the answer has a lot to do with patience. Stop the build to flip attitude. Stop the incessant reliance on stock price as an indicator of success or failure and the fickleness by which we all react to it.

Stay the course. Have a vision. Count on MANY years of actual hard work before you see your million dollar reward. Do some actual work. Have respect for your fellow employees and the business partners with whom your work. LISTEN to your customer. Have actual conversations with them. Don't rely completely on impersonal research.

Realize that most of the successful companies here today took decades to build. We don't seem to have the attention span for that today. It's always on to the next thing. Oh sure, life is faster today but it doesn't mean you have to change your vision everyday to suit the fickle whims of your investors.

I don't know where I am going with this other then to say have some commitment. Have some dedication. Build something you are proud enough to want to own and operate not build and sell.

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Access Speed Not Related to Propensity to Pay

I don't really know if this is all that earth shattering. It's really common sense. Just because you can get something easier (i.e. faster) does not mean you are more likely to want to pay for it. Quality is quality no matter how you pull it in. So we should all stop with the "Just wait till broadband has higher penetration" or the "we can make more money off broadband" excuses for not being more creative with our content.

Tom Hespos deals with this topic in his OnlineSpin article.

And a new Forrester study covers this too as reported in eMarketer

Value of Online Content Not Related to Bandwidth

Greater bandwidth on the PC and the mobile phone will open up greater opportunities for content providers, but it would be perilous to look at broadband as the panacea for online content. Bad content is no more interesting, just because we can see it in moving pictures. Internet users will pay for quality content and services that are unique, have few free alternatives and are tailored to particular users and particular platforms.

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