Monthly Archives: April 2009
If you have read any of my previous posts, you know that I am a huge sports fan. As such, I have a tendency to post about ESPN a lot. As they are the self-proclaimed world-wide leader in sports, its kind of hard not too. BTW, “world-wide” is a bit much, as no one in Europe watches ESPN and last time I checked they are a big part of the world.
This morning I went to the site as I always do and went to look for the headlines. Of late I have been disappointed that this section had been shrinking and I was only getting a small amount of them. Here is what it looks like today:
So when the page loads I get absolutely zero headlines. Nothing. Zilch. Nada. In other words, I get the same amount of news headlines as the Calgary Flames get second round home games (there, I built the one jab in that I said I would in the CBC radio interview.) I have to scroll down the page to get the information I want.
As loyal ESPN.com user, I’m pissed. They have continually bastardized their site in an effort to make more room for ads and thus drive more ad sales. I keep coming back because even because the content they have is second to none. This last move, however, is a tough pill to swallow.
Now, to their defense, if you do scroll down you get 15 top headlines. That is three times the amount you got before. Also, it is possible that the Mac ad running their now is only temporary and they will go back to the old format.
Let’s assume that one of the UK’s largest broadcast networks like iTV decided to stop all advertising efforts for Britain’s Got Talent. Would they cross their fingers and hope people talked about the shows around the water cooler at work? Would they hope that enough people added the show to their DVR list while it was being promoted heavily? Or maybe, they would wish for a 47 year old woman who would sing a song that was heard by millions?
Reports from Mashable show that Susan Boyle’s video is on track to reach 100 million views (not counting replays on talk/new shows, news shows, etc). What’s the implication here? Britain’s Got Talent received the equivalent of a super bowl sized audience because they were lucky enough to host a venue with the potential for amazing content. The show didn’t even have to create it. It simply established and promoted the venue. The formula we witnessed in this situation is:
Recently, my PlayStation 3 surprised me when I found, on the XMB (XrossMediaBar), something called “Playstation Home”, a community-based environment developed by Sony Computer Entertainment’s London and Cambridge studios. The open beta service has started last December. Phil Harrison used the term “Game 3.0″ to describe it back in 2007.
It’s still a small world: users can wander their own empty harbour studio (you can customize it later), the central plaza, a bowling center, a movie theatre and a mall. There are also dedicated game spaces (Uncharted and Far Cry 2) and a Red Bull area. Red Bull? Yes, the corporations are already there. Despite the size, according to Sony, 3.4 million users already downloaded it.
Aside the energetic drink environment, users can also find Ligne Roset and Diesel stores at the mall, where they can buy, using the PlayStation Network Wallet, virtual clothing for real dollars! Activision, SEGA, Ubisoft, Atari and Midway are reportedly creating Spaces for the service. EA announced the future opening of the EA Sports Complex, with leader boards, game trailers and some multiplayer games.
On Friday Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) reached one million twitter followers. And we all care .
If there are 5 million people on twitter that means 20% of twitterers are following @aplusk. Twenty percent of everyone is a lot.
Having direct broadcast to 1mm people who’ve pledged to listen is a great deal of power. I urge @aplusk to follow Spidey’s credo “with great power comes great responsibility”. In other words, “Dude, don’t punk us”.
It reads like an early 70′s drug induced weekend, doesn’t it? The Oprah Experience. If you buy into all of her “your spirit, your soul” stuff than you have been living the Oprah Experience for some time. And clearly, that is her goal – allow her cult, eh, fans, to engage with her anywhere. And so, on the day Oprah got on Twitter, I thought it relevant to talk about how she distributes herself.
Its official. Oprah Tweets. @Oprah Stedman and I are shopping for light bulbs.
Not too many celebrities have an HBR (Harvard Business Review) case study written about them (I’d link you to it but they don’t give those away for free). It talks about her humble beginnings, her work in Chicago television and ultimately how she ended up staring down execs from massive distribution companies over the negotiation tables in an effort to maintain control over her destiny. No mention in the case of best friend Gayle (seriously, she needs a Wikipedia page?) which I found refreshing.
Her ability to maintain control of her brand has enabled her to create a distribution strategy rivaled by few. Magazine, radio, book clubs and potentially her own network. But it is less about the properties in her network and more about the message she consistently communicates. That message is simple and authentic: be strong and resilient and you can live your best life.
Over the last couple of months, Oprah has launched a Facebook page (she brought Zuckerberg onto the show for a very awkward, appearance to demonstrate how to use it) and now is on Twitter. So how will she continue to expand her experience into digital channels, specifically social, where judgment of success is tied directly to authenticity? It shouldn’t be all that different from how she has built her brand.
It’s not every day that Chris Berman is talking about Chicago on ESPN.com. They only roll his old, green sport-coated Nutri-System frame out there for the really big gigs. It’s also not every day that you want to see Chris Berman talking. He has a history of some profanity laced tirades., probably in the middle of the Nutri-System stretch. But all that changes with the launch this week of ESPNChicago.com.
I was excited that Bristol chose Chicago as the launch city instead of NY or Boston. But having worked a bit with ESPN, I know that any redesign work they do to the site is driven by one thing and one thing only – ad revenue. The architecture of the site, the overall navigation and the placement of ad units are all built in a way to maximize those ad dollars, not, as they say, the “fan” experience. Stub Hub seems to agree.
