A few thoughts, musings, ramblings and other things from MediaCom people...

Major advertisers realise the value of content

Over the last few years, media and digital agencies have attempted to move into the content arena, producing content at arguably lower prices than their traditional creative agency counterparts. This content has generally found its way online via social media seeding strategies hoping to pull in views, or landed on a clients web site never to be seen again.

An article posted on Advertising Age yesterday explained that  Sony US have recently done something that will have creative agencies shaking in their boots. They have aired a 30-second ad simply cut down from a long form web video created by Break Media for Sony in the series finale of "Jersey Shore"

Sony liked the original, long form web video, that portrays the hazards of running out of "skips" on your music subscription service and got Break Media to create a 30-second cut.

Critically, they  failed to inform their creative agency they were going to swap it in as a TV spot during the finale of "Jersey Shore," so 6.6 million viewers saw a shorter verison of this video a few weeks ago.

Proposal Fail - Watch MoreFunny Videos 

This is by no means the first time this has happened, but it's refreshing to see a global player like Sony look at the assets they have, and leverage the best of them to communicate a key consumer benefit.

 

You, me, Ross and Rachel

 

“One example of the Savanna Principle in action is the fact that individuals who watch certain types of TV shows are more satisfied with their friendships, just as they are if they had more friends or socialized with them more frequently.”Satoshi Kanazawa, evolutionary psychologist in Psychology Today.

Astonishing but true. Evolutionary psychology has discovered that our brains have difficulty distinguishing between “TV friends” – characters they see repeatedly on shows and their real friends. It’s called the Savanna principle and you can read more on it here.

It’s yet another example of the incredible power and influence that media holds over peoples’ lives and of the redundancy of ideas like real and virtual worlds. I’m sure there are loads of clever things people could do with this idea that could bring real benefits to peoples’ lives. I just thought it was really interesting and validated my lack of actual friends.   

The Future of TV?

Since the B grade movies of the 50’s people have talked about 3D being the future of cinema and television.   Over the last couple of years interest has grown as technology has moved past the archaic red and blue to polarised and shutter based glasses.

The technology sat at the periphery until the release of Avatar last December where studios and other content creators started to see the financial benefit of compelling 3D content.  So now that everybody is seeing dollar signs the next stage of the evolution will be 3D at home.  In fact Samsung, Panasonic, LG and Sony are spending over £15M over the English summer to promote their new range.

Which gets me to my point, there have been a couple of articles recently outlining why 3D TV is dead before it has started, one from a health and one from a usage perspective.

Mark Pesce worked at Sega in the 90’s developing VR Headgear and says that there are long term health implications to 3D.  Depth perception is based on the brain interpreting 10 different cues (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depth_perception) to figure out how far away anything is.  3D whether  through a headset, cinema or TV is based around delivering a different image to each eye which is only one cue (parallax) ,meaning your brain has to ignore the other nine. 

The problem is your brain is still ignoring those nine other cues after you have taken your glasses off, some people will snap right back others will take a few hours they may have a few issues driving home.  So that’s fine you say, see an awesome movie have a small prang in the carpark and then you’re back to normal. 

But what happens when you are watch 2, 3, 4 hours a day everyday and your brain starts ignoring those nine cues permanently?  You get the a whole generation walking around and bumping into things followed by the largest class action lawsuit as millions vent their rage against the entertainment and consumer electronics industries. This is why Sega abandoned the VR headsets.

So you’ve decided that you like padded clothing and don’t bruise easily and pay a $800-$1500 premium to buy a 3D capable TV plus at least $150 per pair for glasses, which will mean putting your 12 month old HDTV out for council cleanup.

Now you’re really excited as you’re going to watch Masterchef in 3D while you cook dinner/read/knit, while you are wearing your 3D glasses, while talking to your partner/flatmate or alternatively having your mates over to watch the footy you have a BYOG condition (assuming that they have the same brand as you) of entry because nobody wants to give play by play commentary to the poor SOB without a pair.  So you decide to do those things anyway but just in 2D as it’s easier.

Because of how we consume TV (i.e. while we do other stuff) 3D will be relegated to the occasional movie on Saturday night via either a blu-ray player or a dedicated pay TV channel.  Otherwise it’s just too hard.

 So what is the future of TV?  My vote is for ‘smell-o-vision’, it will certainly add an extra dimension to CSI.

 

By Pistol Pete Stewart

Moving to Ramsey St...

Its often said that us media folk grossly underestimate the consumer – despite the fact we too are consumers. I’m here to tell you that in the Australian TV market – this is not the case. When the highest rating program for an evenings entertainment can be the unintelligible drivel that is Today Tonight, closely followed in the number 2 spot by the story book ‘journalism’ of A Current Affair – there is no such thing as an underestimation of our societies ability for independent thought.

 

I understand that documentaries on war and starving children in the Congo have their place and it is not at the top spot on viewership lists, and for good reason. People want to be entertained not informed, and while 2 and a Half Men might be a continuous half hour cycle of the same penis and fart jokes every episode, at least it doesn’t pretend to be anything but just that. Similarly, The Simpsons has been using the same successful formula to get laughs for the past 2 decades but no one complains, because when you sit down to watch it you know exactly what you’re getting – this is where my beef lies.

 

ACA and TT are not factual, hard hitting, investigatory journalist programs. They do not uncover hidden truths about our society, nor delve deeply into the worlds current issues. Exploitation of the underprivileged and sensationalised stories about your local corrupt dry cleaner is about all you can expect from these low-class pinnacles of Australian TV.

 

It’s time for a change. In a country where Tracy Grimshaw is often described as our ‘Most Respected Journalist”, I plead to every individual brain cell we have as a nation, at 18:30, Monday – Friday pick up the remote, free your mind, and switch over to Neighbours.

 

Sam