Message from Michael - September 8, 2009

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        September 8, 2009                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

      ROGER RABBIT AND BRER RABBIT IN THE 21^st CENTURY

      HARRY POTTER’S PAPER COMES TO LIFE

      TODAY’S WORD IS SIMULTANEOUS

      TALKING ABOUT MOBILE DEVICES

      THE ADVERTISING BATTLE FIELD

      SERGEANT PEPPER ISN’T LONELY

 

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      ROGER RABBIT AND BRER RABBIT IN THE 21^ST CENTURY.  The live action/ animated film concept of yesterday has become the reality of today.  It’s something called Augmented Reality which is sort of a half-way point between the real world and the virtual world.  You or your children may never sing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah with a bluebird on your shoulder, or run amok in Toontown, but you will be seeing and doing things in a whole different light… and soon.  Augmented reality is defined (by Wikipedia) as a view of the physical real world whose elements are merged with, or augmented by, virtual computer-generated imagery.  The Augmented Environments Laboratory at Georgia Tech says it’s a matter of building Interactive computing environments that “augment a user’s senses with computer generated material.”  AR (as it is referred to) runs the gamut.  From iPhone applications that allow you to point your phone at a restaurant and get a menu along with reviews, to retail stores allowing you to step into an environment in which you can pick your furniture virtually.  Electronics store Best Buy recently put out a Sunday newspaper circular that allowed users to ‘see’ a computer in action by simply holding the circular in front of their computer webcam.  The user appeared on their computer screen with the device apparently in front of them.  ABC meanwhile has created a 3-D ‘augmented reality’ ad for its show Flash Forward.  The network is putting ‘bizarre’ codes into its print ads, according to Variety magazine, which features photos from the series and even plays clips from the show when you hold the codes in front of your webcam.  To see what the Flash Forward video is like, go to website jointhemosaic.com to get a taste of the Web and TV experience.

Want to see AR for yourself?  First go to video.google.com and put ‘augmented reality’ in the search bar.  Ignore the first one that comes up, called augmented reality magic 1.0.  Instead, click on Total immersions Augmented Reality Demo.  It runs 6 minutes and after seeing it, you will probably agree with the cut line that says, “quite simply, this is the future.”  But if you really, really want to be WOW’d, (or at least, say ‘way cool’) go to plugintothesmartgrid.com.  It’s an eco-imagination development by GE that will soon have you holding a wind turbine in your hand.  And while the live action/ animated films cost millions to make, augmented reality is becoming less and less expensive.  One of the M.I.T. Technology Review’s innovators under 35 has developed a device that you can wear around the neck and which merges “the real world with digital information” for under $350.

      HARRY POTTER’S PAPER COMES TO LIFE.  Kindle better beware, and I’m not talking about the new Wi-Fi enhanced Sony Reader. In an even more interesting twist on ABC’s augmented reality ploy, CBS is embedding a video chip into a print ad that will be running in Entertainment Weekly in mid-September.  The mini-battery-powered ads can run up to 40 minutes of video, according to maker Americhip, making it look somewhat like the video newspapers you see in the Harry Potter movie series.  The paper-thin ads will promote CBS’s Monday Night prime time line-up and Pepsi.   Unfortunately you have to be in Los Angeles or New York to see the limited distribution ads… but not for long.  Meanwhile, I should note that Esquire magazine tried something similar using the same kind of E-ink technology used by Kindle.  Critics dubbed that effort a flop with Wired calling it ‘little more than ink mashed up with some underutilized circuitry’ --  sort of like those singing birthday cards friends used to give you.

      TODAY’S WORD IS SIMULTANEOUS.  And more and more, it is being used to describe Television and Internet use.  The latest study by Nielsen says more than half (57%) of TV viewers in the use WITH Internet access (an important point) use both mediums at the same time at least once a month.  The Nielsen study found that TV viewers using the Internet average 2 hours and 40 minutes a month; and that a quarter of the time (28%) they are on the Web, they are also watching television.  This is similar to last year’s report by Nielsen.  Astute readers of The Message will recall the original study on concurrent viewing titled the Middletown Media Studies that showed simultaneous use among ALL media, and the on-going studies by BigResearch on simultaneous use.  Also as noted before, the Nielsen report confirmed that TV consumption continues to grow along with video use on the Internet and on mobile devices.  Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes makes the point that while Americans still prefer to watch video on their television, “the rule of thumb is that you watch it on the best screen.” 

      TALKING ABOUT MOBILE DEVICES.  Yeah, I know that is a lousy headline transition, but you can only be so creative.  In any case, research by Knowledge Networks shows that two-thirds of Americans use mobile devices that are video-enabled.  Cell phones with video service have nearly doubled in ownership since 2006 while video iPods have grown ‘by a factor of nearly five’ (from 5% in 2006 to 23% this year).    Add laptops to the equation and the use of mobile technologies to view video has more than doubled in two years (21% to 43%).  Online marketing site Marketing Vox also notes a study by the Gartner group which says mobile advertising has jumped 74% this year to $913.5 Million and will reach $13 Billion in four years, by 2013.

 

      THE ADVERTISING BATTLE FIELD:  Several articles have been written recently about the advertising war being waged between Apple and Microsoft with both sides trying to be ‘cool’ while attacking the other.  Let me add an observation.  The August 30^th edition of The New York Times business section contained a graph, citing TNS Media Intelligence that showed Apple spent about $300 Million in 2008 while Microsoft spent about $340 Million.  That’s not what’s interesting.  What’s interesting is that when you look at the graph -- both spent far, far more on television than they did on their home turf – the Internet.  Apple spent about $280 Million on Television and only $10 Million on the Internet, roughly the same as what it spent on Print advertising.  Microsoft spent about $150 Million on Television, almost the same on Print but ‘only’ about $40 Million on the Internet.  What does that say?

As a side note to this, I tried to research the TNS figures so I could verify the Times graph.  (I do this with all the stories I report.)   I found about 30-plus articles citing the Apple-Microsoft ad war and virtually every one of them was just a re-hash of the Times article.  What does that say?

      SERGEANT PEPPER ISN’T LONELY:  According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, The Beatles are the most popular musical performers, and that popularity cuts across all generations.  Half of those surveyed (49%) say they like The Beatles not just a little but A LOT.  Another third (32%) liked them ‘a little.”  Not so coincidentally that survey came out just as two new major developments in Beatle Mania are about to hit.  As noted in previous Messages, the newly remastered CD’s of the group’s original albums are being released this Wednesday.  The digital remastering took four years.  Interestingly there is a stereo and a mono set of releases.  Even more interesting, reviewer Allan Kozinn indicates in his New York Times article on the release that the mono version is in some ways better than the stereo version.  Maybe that’s why the mono set costs $300 while the stereo set costs $260.  Even more noteworthy is the release of the video game, The Beatles: Rock Band.  It also was reviewed in the Sunday edition of the New York Times and to say the review was ‘gushing’ would be like saying Niagara Falls is a water fountain.  Reviewer Seth Schiesel calls it “a cultural watershed… a transformative entertainment experience… the most important video game yet made.”

In case you’re wondering, the second most popular ‘musical performers’ after the Beatles was The Eagles whose ‘lot popularity’ (42%) was not that far behind the Beatles.  Johnny Cash and Michael Jackson basically tied for the next spot in the popularity contest with more than a third (39%) liking them a lot, while another third (37%) liked them a little.  After that, but just slightly was Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones and Aretha Franklin (38%). Rounding out the top ten list after that was Frank Sinatra and Carrie Underwood (34%), Garth Brooks (33%) and then Jimi Hendrix (32%).

As a further footnote, the Pew Study which looked at the Generation Gap says Rock is the most listened to music genre (35%), followed by Country (27%), Rhythm and Blues (22%), Rap or hip-hop (16%), Classical (15%), Jazz (12%) and Salsa (6%).

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