Morning Folks!!
I am aYogi Berra Fan for my entire life. A baseball legend that became an unwitting spokesmen for sillycommon sense in a twisted Mark Twain type of way. A guy with an 8th grade education that will be immortal for both his historical baseball career and even more so for his conflicting words. I have always been a fan of someone that has
some of the greatest quotes of all time. The most famous of which….'It ain’t
over until it’s over” and “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” is as familiar as any I know. But the one I will be using for this post is “You can
learn a lot by watching” which is also the title of one of his many books.
Let me tell you what I have learned by watching this year.
Watching TV that is. I see TV shows pushing Twitter so they can captivate their
audience. Ever notice that? Ever notice they don’t push them to Facebook? Ever
think of the reason why they do that? I already gave the answer in this paragraph.
They “Captivate” and engage their audience. Facebook is a competitor to what
they do. They can’t “Captivate” on Facebook. They would actually lose their
audience if they were to promote Facebook too much. Let me qualify that......they would lose their audience even faster than they are. Viewership on broadcast TV is down by millions. The bleeding is out of control except for certain sports events and a few hit shows. How is that 10PM time slot working out NBC? Once the most coveted hour in TV is now showing re-runs since Jay went back to 11:30. Bet you really boost those ad rates doing that!
So Twitter has become the preferred social media for TV as they fight for survival and relevance.
Facebook has emerged as an unlikely competitor to television time watched and time
focused. So they are in a catch 22 because they can't ignore Facebook and be relevant. And when folks do watch TV, then there is a commercial, less and less
watch that commercial and more and more may be checking Facebook or their
email. That lack of focus will force all their advertising models to change. Fast Fowarding the DVR and skipping the ads. That forces them to reorganize from top to bottom or they won’t survive. Results count. Less Sales = Less Advertisers = Lower Ad Cost = Losing money = Less Content = Out of business or do something differently. Will we put on the TV one day just to see that NBC has morphed into YouTube?
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Anunt
In the long run, the internet will die out faster than the tv. The tv is here to stay for the long run, not the internet. It aint over till its over!
Ace
Rick, I gave little thought about the conflict between Facebook (Social Media) and TV. Thank you for this post.
UFO
@Anunt
Sorry but you’re suffering from what appears to be a classic technology trap.
The TV and the internet are one in the same. The only real difference is currently TV can stream faster, can have higher quality programming etc whereas the Internet puts control and content in the users hands. The internet is democratising.
In terms of strategy TV is like the big and slow concept and internet is the cheap fast and nimble.
The TV if anything is migrating to the internet rather than the other way around. If you consider the likes of”teletext” being a near substitute of the internet then it’s easy to spot the migration.
TV stations are increasingly being subject to the global pressures that the internet already faces, hence huge consolidation is coming. American viewers could well prefer to watch UK documentaries produced by the BBC (State owned) rather than US (Privately owned). In effect it is easy to see a potential propaganda war developing. Russia Today is actively trying to gain viewers here in Britain.
TV will migrate into the internet, TV stations will be substantially thinned out due to global audiences (or have to become very specialised although unlikely still thinned), the not for profit model might win out threatening for profit broadcasters (Publishers are having a hard time monetising the net) and different nations can have propaganda motives.
The concept of the net is here to stay; it is just an informational channel. How we connect to that information channel is another story.
Gazzip
“So Twitter has become the preferred social media for TV as they fight for survival and relevance.”
I just saw an ad on TV last night in UK for 5 alive, the web address was http://www.dancingdodo.com and it points to a Twitter page…first time I’v seen anyone do that on TV.
here’s the TV ad http://www.youtube.com/dancingdodo
Traditional media is going the way of the Dodo :)
gary dell
i live about 3 blocks from yogi berra blvd. the street he grew up on. :) anyway, hope your well.
Morgan Linton
Great post Rick and an excellent point. I was just making a very similar point to a friend.
I noticed Twitter being used as a promotional tool in almost every show we watched.
“Broadcast media has picked Twitter as their champion” I said, and I think your point above is definitely why!
Thanks Rick and have a great weekend!
Shay
Nice post as usual Rick.
@Gazzip, I saw that FiveAlive ad a few days ago and thought that was quite strange… both the ad and the domain.
Rick Schwartz
I did not want to include this in the body of the blog post, but just an fyi…..
I gave the Yogi Berra family the domain YogiBerra.com that i registered in 1996. I asked for nothing in return, but they did send me a couple of autographed baseballs and the famous picture of him with Babe Ruth.
Logan
Rick – re: YogiBerra.com gifts — that’s awesome human interaction!!!
ScottM
Rick, that’s an excellent post on the mostly pathetic state of advertising, especially commercials on TV. I think Geico and a few select others do it mostly right and blend their advertising with Twitter to be in the old-line
ad world as well as the new media. Of course in Geico’s case it doesn’t hurt to be backed by a billionaire and one of the smartest business person’s ever, Warren of course!
The good karma you created for yourself by just giving Yogi his domain name has come back to you with great bounty, and well-deserved!
Altaf
Rick,
It is of your kindness. But may we ask you why did you register YogiBerra.com in 1996? Background history you know better.
Regards,
Anunt
Rick, i enjoy reading your blogs… but there are so many ass-kissers on here…just kissing your ass! It´s okay to have an opinion opposite of Rickś…kissing Ricks ass is not going to get you any where in life…sometimes i agree with Rick…and sometimes i dont…but you ass-kissers agree with any thing he says!
Dave Pelligrinelli
TV and the Internet are the same; rectangular glowing screens to view stuff. You can click to change what you watch on either one. You can interact more and transact commerce better on the Internet. Television is more suited to longer duration presentations, but the Internet is moving in that direction.
For an enterprise to succeed in television, it needs to offer compelling content, entertainment or commercial. The local network affiliate is a dead model, not much more than a banner farm. It presents syndicated content which makes it fependant on it’s network, and the only different commercial content it offers is local advertising, which is generally poor quality and not of great value to viewers.
Consumers will watch, or even seek out commercial content, but it needs to be of good quality. This is apparent online, Adwords is built around that premise. Even on TV there are entire shopping networks devoted entirely to commerce, and MSNBC and other channels go full infomercial on weekend AM dayparts.
TV could be a viable business model, with programming strategies developed like those used for online venues, built around the type of content which works better for television.
ron
Yogi once said”Cut the pizza into 4 slices, I’m not hungry enough for 6″
Dave Wrixon aka Rubber Duck
Now you have figured those big number out, trying putting that knowledge to work:
http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15955376&source=hptextfeature
[image]http://media.economist.com/images/images-magazine/2010/17/wb/201017wbc340.gif%5B/image%5D
nike shox tz
For an enterprise to succeed in television, it needs to offer compelling content, entertainment or commercial. The local network affiliate is a dead model, not much more than a banner farm. It presents syndicated content which makes it fependant on it’s network, and the only different commercial content it offers is local advertising, which is generally poor quality and not of great value to viewers.
Tom
I seen an oil painting I think was yogi Berra
http://www.etsy.com/listing/47298373/oil-baseball-painting
anybody know