Ad Revenues & the Media

       The sky isn’t falling. However, ad revenues are a different story.  To explain this I will begin this way:

       Newspapers are in the advertising business. They sell ad space to the advertisers and they sell ads to the readers. However, customers won’t pay for a newspaper full of ads, so the newspaper gives away the news as an inducement to buy the ads. Don’t tell me no.

       Television, regardless of the format, is doing the same thing.  However, as people will not pay to watch advertising (In time or dollars), Television gives the content away as an 

inducement to watch the ads. 

       This brings us to the viewer.  What’s in it for the viewer?  What does the viewer want?

       No one, no one, my age watched more television than I did. Viewers’ tastes are changing and doing so at an accelerated rate.  

       Case in point: In only a few years, cooking channels reduced the number of cooking shows replacing them with cooking competition shows.  Home design shows have changed from interior or exterior design to shows that repeatedly show designers and homeowners repeatedly smashing walls and cabinets. Repeatedly. 

       At the end? We never have the opportunity to appreciate the results. Why not?  Cut to, Cut to.  A candlestick, a chair leg, a cuspidor a door knob, cut to, cut to cut to.  And the paradigm extends to the real cooking show: an egg yolk, a lemon slice, a pinch of salt—cut to, cut to, cut to….

        This should clue you in to something important.  Short flashes of a series of images reminiscent of MTV when music videos embraced or perhaps initiated the same paradigm.  Result?  Short attention spans and desperation to be entertained in a manner consistent with short attention spans.

        The Media-Suits are befuddled. Yes, you are.  (Disclosure: My wife and I watch CNBC all day, except for 2:00 when we watch the talk.  And we have cable. Therefore I know what I said is true because I listen to you talking about it all the time.)  Don’t be disheartened.  You are not alone.

       One of the world’s most celebrated geniuses, Thomas Edison, clutched retentively to his belief that Direct Current (DC) was the future. Others believe that Alternating Current was the future.  Edison made every effort to discredit AC.  I short, Edison tried to bully the customer into buying what he wanted to sell, instead of selling what the customer wanted to buy.

       In my review of the book, Business Results Revolution, I wrote, “If Ron Johnson had read only the first three pages of Sandy Richardson’s book, Business Results Revolution, he would still be CEO a JCP.

       Mr. Johnson tried to convince his customers to buy what he wanted to sell—everyday low pricing, instead of selling what the customers wanted to buy—discounts and coupons.

And they are not alone.  

       A very brief history.

       Talkin’ pitchers? Folks don’t want to hear all that jibber jabber. They want to see real actin’.

       Telly, vision?  Folks don’t want to squint at that tiny, little screen. They want to watch pitchers on the big screen.

       And we have the paradigm of Odious Bilgewater, the owner of the Kansachusetts Buggy Whip Company.

        The solution to competing with the motor car is mass production to cut the cost of the buggy whip.  As much as I hate to stop making custom made buggy whips, mass production will cut the cost of buggy whips and folks will flock back to buyin’ buggies. Asides, the motor car is just a noisy smelly toy for the rich. It will never replace the horse.

       But the joke is in the way I said it. Not in what I said.

       Remember 8-Tracks v. Cassettes? Then came CDs.

       How about VHS v. Beta? Then came DVDs.

  

       Remember the brouhaha over Napster?  i-pods are now the gold standard. Not just the device, but the concept of downloaded music.

       DVDs? Now? Streaming Video.

       This is why I am shocked to hear that Television stations have shifted to content that will appeal to people who don’t watch television.  

       Yep. That’s what the Media Suits are really saying. We are trying to attract [millennials] to television because that is the audience that the advertisers want. Really?  The audience that brought us the technology to “skip the ads.”

        “There are no unintended consequences. Only unwanted consequences.” From the Quotations of Slim Fairview.

        When you changed content to attract viewers who don’t watch television, you are driving away viewers who do watch television.  

        Does it occur to anyone to sell “ad time” to people who are trying to sell to Boomers instead of selling ad time to people who are trying to attract Millennials? (Who are designing technology to block or skip the ads?)

        None-the-less, the Media Suits are so fixated with trying to convince the customers to buy what they want to sell, they are not spending enough time trying to sell what the customers want to buy.

       What do they want to buy?

       It does sound like market segmentation.  

       Millennials, who may well be viewing content on an i-phone or a tablet v. Boomers who may well be sitting in front of a television set.

       But “value” in advertising is important.  And Facebook has the right idea.

       If I post a comment saying I’m looking for new tires, 

Facebook may post ads for tire dealers in my area:  Joe’s Tire and Battery on Union Blvd. in Allentown. Or Sam’s Club on Northampton Street in Easton.  Each is a good company in my shopping area. I want information. Facebook provides it.  And I am far from being a Millennial.

       Conclusion?  Stop quibbling: Cable, Cord cutting, Comcast, Direct TV, et. al.  

       The technology is changing. Direct Current lost. Buggy-wagons are no longer the preferred choice of transportation.  Get ahead of the curve.

       “You can’t stop the arrival of history, you can only delay it.  History is coming.” The Quotations of Slim Fairview.

       Warmest regards.

       Slim.

       Slimviews@gmail.com

       @slimfairview

       If you find anything here to be helpful, please don't hesitate to send me a really tricked out Mac Book and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note. Slim.

Bob Asken
Box 33
Pen Argyl, PA 18072




      Disclaimer.  Any products mentioned are done so at the author’s discretion and for the purposes of information only. There are no endorsement fees, compensation, remuneration or quid-pro-quo solicited or accepted.

        Sandy Richardson’s Book, Business Results Revolution.  I wrote a review for this book on my blog.  With all that I write, whether about China’s global and economic strategy, the EuroCrisis, or the Economic Crisis among emerging nations, my Review of Sandy Richardson’s book is the 9^th most read article on my blog—all time.

Copyright © 2015 Bob Asken,

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