EVEN OPRAH CAN GET IT WRONG

In my marketing book (www.powershiftmarketingbook.com) I mention that often when a company is highly successful they stop listening to their customers and start reading their own news releases. No one was more successful in daytime TV than Oprah Winfrey. Looking at her ratings over the years and honors, you would think that her own cable channel (OWN – Oprah Winfrey Network) would certainly be successful, especially replacing DISCOVERY HEALTH, a seldom watched cable channel owned by DISCOVERY. But you would be wrong.

According to data pulled from the “TV by the Numbers” website (a great site for quickly checking rating info), when you compare OWN’S 2011 3rd Quarter ratings (July-Sept), with the old Discovery Health in 2010 3rd Quarter numbers), it’s not pretty for the Queen of Daytime.  Daily average viewership: Down 20%. Women 18-34 viewership: Down 32%. Women 18-49 viewership: Down 24%. Women 25-54 viewership: Down 15%. Adults 18-49 viewership: Down 25%.

What went wrong? Not sure, but I bet everyone involved was so convinced this network would be a slam dunk, they didn’t ask their target audience (women) what they wanted all day and night on a network. Oprah was wonderful in delivering an escape for a couple of hours a day. But living with her and her friends 24/7 is another story. As I tell my clients all the time, past success doesn’t indicate future success. That’s why you need to be constantly talking to your customers.

 

BETTING ON A DISAPEARING 1.5 BILLION MARKET

According to a CBS News Poll, 1.5 billion Americans are sending out traditional holiday cards this year the old-fashioned way, by snail mail. But if you look behind the numbers, if you are a card company you are in trouble. Only 47% of Americans are now sending out cards and 65% of those individuals are over 65 years old. I point this out to show how if you focus on the business you have, you may miss the trends that will impact you in the future.

Of course, the U.S. Post Office noticed a trend, fewer people using their mail service, but their reaction was unique. Instead of trying to make snail mail more competitive or looking for new services that could support their network of offices, they decided to make snail mail even slower by closing sorting centers. Now that’s a great idea. When your product is not really competitive, take actions to make it even less competitive.

As you review your 2011 results, look for trends that you need to be ahead of, but please, don’t act like our government.

28 MILLION VIEWERS FOR FREE

If you read this blog, you know that I am a big believer in YouTube. Making and posting simple videos that relate to your business should be a no brainer. The big boys know this. That’s why the online video data-gatherer Visible Measures, via All Things D, has rated a five-minute ad introducing the new iPhone as the Number One viewed video in 2011 at 28 million views.

Coming in second was a Google Chrome spot featuring Lady Gaga that had 22 million views. Is it surprising that Chrome is now the second most popular internet browser next to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer? The point is that with smartphones and cheap video cameras almost anyone can post a video.

To make my point, I just spent 30 minutes creating a simple video of a recent golf game when a real duck decided to join our group:   http://youtu.be/pIO3m4_g4Tw … stupid, perhaps, but that’s my point. You never know if your video will be the one that goes viral Make using YouTube one of your marketing goals for 2012.

HAVE $400,000 TO SPEND?

As I’ve pointed out in my book and in this blog, mobile advertising is on the verge of becoming very big. The problem is that most people offering it don’t really understand who will buy the ads. This was made even more clear by a story in the Wall St. Journal by Emily Steel and Jessica E. Vascellaro.

According to their story, Apple’s iAd mobile advertising service, which sells ads within mobile apps on iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, has been a dud. They report that marketers have been turned off by the price tag, hard-charging sales tactics, and Apple’s control over creative. Advertisers pay a $10 CPM (cost per thousand) and $2 for every click-thru. Apple has decided to reduce the minimum annual commitment of $1 million to just $400,000!

Apple’s major competitor, Google’s AdMob service, which is available on all mobile devices, charges a $4 to $12 CPM. The reports states that Apple is running training programs to teach the ad firms and clients about the mobile marketing landscape. Good idea, perhaps, but who is teaching Apple and Google?

By its very nature, mobile advertising’s greatest advantage will be for smaller local firms that can target info to people within a few miles of their place of business. Mobile will become a powerful retail tool, not a traditional branding tool. When people offering mobile ads understand this and price it for smaller advertisers it will boom.