Shall we play spot the bullshit?
I was just reading this article about how movie marketing is going to have to change in the face of people watching their TV online after it’s originally scheduled.
Apparently, the problem with this is that the carpet bombing approach Hollywood takes to get the biggest opening weekend possible gets harpooned by their Friday ads effectively running on Monday when it’s too late.
Well, far be it from me to tread on The Ad Contrarian‘s toes, or to sound like a cranky old luddite, but some of this article doesn’t ring true to me.
Let’s take a closer look:
‘A recent study for cable giant Comcast found that 62% of respondents reported using DVRs, online sites like Hulu, or VOD.’ Now that sounds scary, but gives no detail of how much they do this and to what extent it affects real-time TV. I was actually surprised the number was so low, but it’s presented with the vibe that 62% of all TV viewing is done this way. The truth and the implication are miles apart.
‘Greg Kahn, executive vp business development director at media agency Optimedia, estimates that the Web portion of film-ad budgets has doubled to about 10% during the past five years. “I expect the digital component of movies’ media budgets to increase further,” he said. No shit, Gregory. You’d have to be a blind idiotic turtle to think anything else, never mind an ‘executive vp business development director at Media agency Optimedia’. Give that man a raise. But what had this doubled from? $5 to $10 or $500m to $1bn? The article doesn’t say, which makes me think the number is low otherwise it’d be worth shouting from the rooftops to back up the tone of Greg’s incredible insight. And again, the ‘doubling in five years’ strikes me as incredibly fucking low.
“What TV was in the 1980s the Internet is now,” says Peter Sealey, marketing strategy expert and CEO of the Sausalito Group, as well as a former president of marketing at Columbia. “The time spent by many in the core 18-24 movie audience on Facebook is higher than on TV. You’ve got to follow these eyeballs.” He predicts this fall TV season might bring “a diminished role of high-profile movie spots” on TV. Peter is another genius, although he’s very good at saying meaningless things that you can’t really argue with: “What TV was in the 1980s the Internet is now” How? What does that even mean? They’re both popular? As popular as each other? Engaging? Water-cooler-y? It’s almost as vague as “The time spent by many in the core 18-24 movie audience on Facebook is higher than on TV”. How many? And does that mean we can crowbar ads into their hours on Wordscraper without pissing them off? And ‘this Fall TV season might bring “a diminished role of high-profile movie spots”‘ Way to hedge your bets. What’s that, a 50% fall or a 0.000000001% fall?
‘So Lauer is trying to get the studios he works with to spend a higher-than-usual 2%-5% of their ad budget on such alternative methods.’ Hang on. A couple of paragraphs earlier it was 10%. And are we all stunned that Lauer wants studios to up the money they spend with him?
‘The best-known DVR producer, TiVo, has during recent years promoted special solutions to studios, offering ad placements throughout its DVR pages and features.’ I bet people love that. Buy TiVo to avoid ads then TiVo will stick some ads where you can’t avoid them to make up for it. It’s like buying a special mask to shield yourself from being pelted with human excrement, only to have the mask’s makers paste some shit into the front of the mask for when you put it on. Or something.
Peter Sealey assigned his MBA students at Claremont Graduate University this year to draw up a marketing plan for Sony’s upcoming “Green Hornet.” “If they show me a TV-centric campaign, grades won’t be that good,” he said. Yes, Peter: ‘Show me a campaign that uses the medium in which studios spend the vast majority of their money (presumably because it works to some degree. I’ve heard studios aren’t overly keen on wasting cash) and I’ll fail you.’
Oddly enough, though, Peter’s quaint approach to teaching is exactly that taken by many of today’s ECDs.
I can feel my brains leaking out of my ears…
Good bullshit spotting.
tv will outlive the cockroach. preceded only by actual footage of the death of the very last cockroach on youtube.
You have once again excelled yourself in writing something no one really gives a toss about.
being the third horseman, closely followed by adcontrarian as the fourth, i have to agree. too much opinion is reported as fact. It’s self serving bullshit. sadly, even main stream journalism is effected.
I was talking to the MD of a publishing house recently and he was talking about the marketing of books but he also talked about the marketing of films and had a friend in the industry that said something like 50% of the budget is allocated to the film and 50% is allocated to the marketing.
He also went on to say that cinema releases are so expensive that they don’t as a portion make a great deal of profit for the film company, essentially the cinema release is their to create PR and get people talking about the films (as the sort of people who go to the cinema are the sort who talk about films to their friends) and that all the money is made in dvd rental and sales.
The above may be rubbish, i was drunk, what he said and what i heard might have been different.
Anon 8:52: thank you. I’m glad my efforts have not gone unappreciated.
Shit-mask analogy: bravo.
here’s another little game:
spot the frustrated and deluisonal digital expert in this comments section.
hint: they are such experts in the individuality of social media they’re using Anon nick.
I remember once, the headline story on one of the more decent daily newspapers in the country. It was a comment on the varying degrees of grip that some tarmac gives when compared to other types of tarmac. The story seemed to be ‘revealing’ this ‘exclusive’ piece of news as if Bin Laden himself had been laying roads around the country. The bottom line – they had nothing better to write about, so they came up with some mundane shit and tried to pass it off as news. Same goes for this article. It’s a load of overpaid bullshitters, making sure they are quoted saying something that could make sense if you stare at the words for long enough.
PS Nice human excrement mask metaphor.
There has never been as much bullshit in advertising. It’s fucking unbearable. People talking about how the future is going to be. Cannes was almost unbearable this year.
“Creativity’s time has truly come” said some nobhead ozzie ECD.
Yeah that’s right. The renaissance was fucking shit. A bike with sensors reporting data, that’s much better.
Soulless fucking WANKERS
Soulless Wankers???? Because the one thing advertising used to have was soul wasn’t it?
i didn’t say advertising used to have soul. i said these people are soulless wankers.
There are reports today that 86% of people that watch digitally recorded shows skip the adverts and how that’s bleak for TV. But what percentage of programmes are viewed in this way? I’m guessing it’s significant, but is it enough to warrant the panicky headlines?
Sometimes it’s hard to spot the bullshit because someone’s already pissed in your eye.
if God was real and said to me ‘everytime you let an epileptic orangutan pierce your penis through the head and down the shaft with an Aids infeasted 7 inch rusty needle i will close the windpipe of any media box ticker that has ever uttered the words “eye balls”‘, i would do it.
You’re on. See you at London Zoo at half five. Bring some kitchen roll.
Yeah, the poo mask was good but I do like “the renaissance was fucking shit”.
I tried to watch an interview with Nick Roope from Poke on the internet yesterday. He was about to tell us why “being interesting” is no longer enough. Or at least, he would’ve done if the streaming hadn’t been that fucking slow that I eventually smashed the laptop after watching him judder through the first 10seconds on a loop for 3 minutes.
The power of the interet, eh.
Hey man. Looks like all hippies got it right. Turn on, tune in, drop out, shake it all about, pull over, cock up, go down (on me man, woman). Like relax man. Adverts are so, like, unimportant. Peace, love, and having a bit of a sit down is where it’s at. Man. Get with it.
I’m getting a lynch mob together to kill all hippies. Who wants in?
I’m in as long as it’s done “spontaneously” and people film it on their phones.
I think somebody just invented the flash-lynch-mob. Aces. I might use that in my new campaign for 3-orange-mobile-T-Phones. Or Bokia.
What did I ever do to you?
I don’t know about you guys, but I think I’ve been wearing the shit mask ever since the Internet was invented. The problem is, I’m starting to like it. It smells better than all the other shit out there. Flash lynch mob. Someday I’ll be able to say “I was there.”