August 14, 2006

Message From Michael                    
                                                  August 14, 2006                                                            

• GETTING MORE NEWS BOOTS ON THE GROUND


• VIEWERS READY FOR THEIR CLOSE-UP, MR. DEMILLE


• VIRAL AND VIRILE VIDEO


• BROADER THAN A DOLLAR


• THE U.S. VS. CHINA FOR NEWS


• LONELY, I’M MR. LONELY


• COCKTAIL CHATTER

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• GETTING MORE NEWS BOOTS ON THE GROUND:  Two phenomenon are coming together.  The first you’ve already read about because of your MfM newsletter.  (Okay, so, some other publications have covered it, too.)  And that’s the increasing use of ‘citizen journalists’ by various news organizations.  The latest one to join in this trend is CNN which has created CNN Exchange where people can post news videos, but it’s not the only one by a long shot.  ABC News Now has launched a weekly program incorporating video from viewers commenting about news and entertainment.  NBC plans to add a video-sharing service to the websites of its local TV stations with WCAU already in the consumer video business.  Reporter Louis Hau in an article titled YouWitness News  in Forbes.com says MSNBC.com and Reuters are expected to introduce viewer shot video into their reports by the end of the year.  As we’ve noted before, the BBC has also launched a similar project.  Several local stations are also joining in the movement which is receiving several different interpretations – it’s either involving viewers in the process; doing news on the cheap; or getting more news boots on the ground.  We liked the last one.  


• VIEWERS READY FOR THEIR CLOSE-UP, MR DEMILLE:  The second phenomenon is an approach being taken by a number of advertisers, who are enlisting tech-savvy, creative consumers to produce commercials for them.  You know the concept has moved from fad to trend when one of the 600-pound gorillas of advertising jumps on the bandwagon.  Coca-Cola has re-launched its website to encourage visitors to “create material supporting its brand.”  A spokesman for the company says basically that now people everywhere can do their own Andy Warhol impression.  The International Herald Tribune reports that several of the world’s largest advertising agencies, including WPP Group and Interpublic Group, have started ventures or partnerships focusing on user-generated content.  An Atlanta-based company, ViTrue, bills itself as “the world’s first user-created advertising platform.”   The article says some ad execs believe that user-generated content will “wane” once the novelty wears off, while others see it as the first step in the extinction of ‘creatives’ although the reality may be somewhere in between, according to the article, with agencies acting as orchestral conductors blending the two.


• VIRAL AND VIRILE VIDEO:  There is actually a third leg to this – viral video.  In actual fact, it’s the viral video from websites like YouTube.com which is probably responsible for the two phenomenon, according to some.  Understandable when you consider YouTube is the fastest growing site among the top 25 brands quadrupling its audience in the first six months of this year, according to Nielsen NetRatings.  Business Week reports that many businesses are trying to build on the phenomenon exemplified by the Subservient Chicken video which scores 400 million hits.  (I have to brag that I was one of the first trend watchers to talk about the subservient chicken video.)  The article notes that viral video can get millions of views and not cost millions to make, although it has grown into a $100 Million to $150 Million industry.  Now, rival online video sites are lining up major partners with Revver.com picking up major marketers like Microsoft, Warner Bros., and American Apparel.  Website Gotuit.com says it is trying to maintain “professional standards.”  Another, Stickam.com, is focusing on live video.


• BROADER THAN A DOLLAR:  Okay, so my headline doesn’t make sense.  It’s a play on words from the song “Wider Than A Mile.”  Anyway, it turns out that we pay more in the U.S. for broadband connections than just about anybody in the world.  According to eMarketers Broadband Prices and Bundles, people in the U.S. pay an average $6.10 for 1 Mbps of broadband per month.  The only ones paying more than us are the Germans ($6.29), people in Hong Kong ($7.69) and the Spanish ($13.44) although the Canadians only beat us by a penny ($6.09).  The cheapest broadband connection is in South Korea (73 cents per 1Mbps) and Japan (75 cents per 1Mbps).  In the U.K., it’s $2.86, Italy ($2.34), France ($1.51), and Australia ($3.79).The good news is that it’s getting cheaper, more accessible and faster.  The Federal Communications Commission reports there were 50.2 Million homes and businesses connected online via broadband by the end of last year.  That’s a 33% increase over the previous year.  Reports on some of the cable services say the advertised broadband speeds are reaching 15Mbps to 30Mbps downstream.  Meanwhile the FCC has adopted rules and procedures to encourage broadband access over power lines as an alternative to cable modems and DSL.


• THE U.S. VS. CHINA FOR NEWS:  In their latest news release on the Internet, executives with comScore Media Metrix say they find it “interesting” that five of the top ten general news websites are American.  The British score only one in the top ten and of course it’s the BBC.  But what I found even more interesting was that the other four websites in the top ten are all Chinese news websites.  You wouldn’t know it if you didn’t take the effort to check out the sites… as your anal retentive consultant (that’s me) did, because their domain names wouldn’t give you a clue.  The sites are 163.com (which reached 9%), QQ.com (8%), Sina.com (8%) and TOM.com (4%).  In total, the four reach 28% of the worldwide Internet audience.  That’s only half of the five U.S. sites which reached 54%.    The five U.S. sites are Yahoo News which on its own reached a quarter (24%) of the worldwide audience, followed by CNN (10%),  MSNBC (9%), AOL News (7%) and the New York Times “brand” (4%).  As a side note, it’s interesting to note that those five websites reached 110% of the total U-S-only Internet audience, obviously because of overlap.  More than half (54%) of all Internet users in the U.S. visit a general news website.  Worldwide the percentage is slightly lower (45%), but considering that’s 320 Million unique visitors, it’s a staggering number.  By the way, only the Sina.com website has an English version, in case you’re curious about the Chinese news perspective.The same news release further emphasized the value of such news websites, noting that general news visitors tend to have higher incomes, with 58% reporting incomes over $60,000.  They are also 11% more likely than the average to have incomes over $75,000 and 16% more likely to have incomes over $100,000.  As long as we’re talking demographics, visitors to general news sites are almost exactly divided between men (50.2%) and women (49.8%).  The report also emphasizes a point we’ve often made, and that is that the Internet is an important way to “get inside the walls,” a phrase we use to mean reaching people at work.  Nearly a third (32.6%) of the visitors say they look at news websites during the work day.  That’s higher than weekends (30.3%), evenings (27.8%) and mornings (23.9%).  


• LONELY, I’M MR. LONELY:  It seems that the old Bobby Vinton song may be the theme song for Americans.  According to a study published in the American Sociological Review, Americans have fewer close friends than they did two decades ago.  And twice as many Americans now, compared to twenty years ago, say they have no one with whom they discuss important matters.  Despite Dr. Phil and Oprah, despite MySpace and YouTube, one in four Americans (24.6%) say they have no one that they discuss “matters important to you.”  The study in the June 2006 issue also found that people on average have only two close “confidants” compared to three such close friends in 1985.  The change is so dramatic that even the researchers admit to some skepticism, saying it may be a matter of how people interpret the word ‘important’ and that the word ‘discuss’, for example, may be interpreted as face to face rather than Internet discussions.  They even note studies by Gallup and Pew indicating less dramatic numbers, although they also note studies that show a general decline in “socializing among neighbors” and involvement in civic and neighborhood associations.  Even so, the study authors from Duke University and the University of Arizona suggest that the “shifts in work, geographic and recreational patterns may have combined to create a larger demarcation between a smaller core of very close confidant ties and a much larger array of less interconnected, more geographically dispersed, more unidimensional relationships.”   Or put another way, there may be more “weak ties” on the Internet and elsewhere that expose people to a wide range of information, but fewer “strong ties” that offer stronger emotional support.  “Whatever the reason, it appears that Americans are connected far less tightly now than they were 19 years ago.  Furthermore, ties with local neighborhoods and groups have suffered at a higher rate than others.”        


• COCKTAIL CHATTER:  More than three-quarters of Americans have registered their primary phone numbers on the do-not-call registry, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s annual report to Congress.  The World Cup had 5.9 Billion viewers for its month of matches.  According to Kiplinger’s magazine, Americans spend an average of six nights away from home on vacation and spend an average of $261 a day for food and lodging.  An 18-year-old Puerto Rican student and model was crowned Miss Universe.  Okay, so that doesn’t qualify as ‘cocktail chatter’ except that Puerto Rican contestants have won the title four times; only U.S. contestants have won more (7).  As a further bit of trivia, the Miss Universe contest is now run by Donald Trump’s organization.  Four out of five pet owners admit to having called in sick so that they could take care of a sick pet, according to a survey by Cosmopolitan magazine.  And if my boss is reading this, I have not done that.      


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