MediaCom Marketing Digest

As Sold On eBay

2005-09-15T07:58:00.000+12:00

Snipe vs Skype
This week's announcement that eBay has purchased internet VOIP telco Skype has gone largely unremarked down our way, apart from token concern that the threat to our telephone companies will increase. The disruptive side-effects of this deal are rather broader than that and deserve more informed discussion and debate.

First, some explanations may be in order. eBay, as you most likely know, is the 800lb gorilla of the online auction space, boasting some 150 million registered users worldwide and responsible for annual sales of US$40 billion. Skype, on the other hand, has 54 million members in 225 countries and territories worldwide (and, um, growing at the rate of 150,000 new customers EVERY DAY!) and provides voice communications via the internet - free for Skype-to-Skype services, at a fraction of the cost of traditional telco charges for services using the regular phone system.

eBay's official announcement of the purchase (for at least US$2.6 billion, rising to US$4.1 billion if certain performance targets are achieved) noted the following benefits through the acquisition:

"eBay buyers will gain an easy way to talk to sellers quickly and get the information they need to buy;
"eBay sellers can more easily build relationships with customers and close sales
"in addition to eBay’s current transaction-based fees, ecommerce communications could be monetized on a pay-per-call basis through Skype. Pay-per-call communications opens up new categories of ecommerce, especially for those sectors that depend on a lead-generation model such as personal and business services, travel, new cars, and real estate
"PayPal (eBay's payments subsidiary) and Skype also make a powerful combination. For example, a PayPal wallet associated with each Skype account could make it much easier for users to pay for Skype fee-based services, adding to the number of PayPal accounts and increasing payment volume."

What does that all mean? First the trivial aspects - instead of only communicating during online auctions via email, buyers and sellers can interact via internet telephone. Suddenly trading on eBay gets heaps easier, especially for technophobes. Any problems? Just talk them through.

After that, things start to get interesting. Got any big ticket item to sell - car, house, travel, whatever? You could advertise it and see who responds - or you could buy qualified leads direct from eBay/Skype. Toyota Landcruiser searchers? Got 'em. Bali-bound? $X a lead. Want to break into a new market? Click/phone here.

Is this real estate agent trustworthy? Read or listen to her Feedback. Is this the best deal around? Compare with recent eBay/Skype sales in this area.

Want to buy anything over the phone? No need to give credit card details - just feed in a PIN number and PayPal/Skype will do the rest.

It's not too outrageous to envisage a near-future where a consumer walks into a local store with a Skype-enabled mobile, keys in the barcode for a fancied product (or painlessly captures the RFID code), finds a match amongst eBay sellers, haggles via Skype-phone for a better price, reaches agreement, pays instantly via PayPal and walks out the door again. He's bought the product, alright, but not from that unfortunate retailer - and it'll be delivered before he gets home.

It's an enticing picture for consumers - and for product suppliers tied into the system. Just another step towards the perfect, frictionless market. Shame about those stuck in traditional channels.

What can you do about it? Keep it here - we'll let you know as enhanced services roll out.

New Music TV Channel For Auckland
November 18 sees the launch of Auckland's newest regional TV channel, Alt. As the name might perhaps suggest, Alt is an "alternative music and entertainment station which aims to provide a home for those viewers disenchanted with mainstream television". Actually, we doubt they've got enough room for all those folks, but nice thought.

Alt will be broadcast on UHF Channel 62, targeting a potential audience base of 981,600 viewers, and is aiming to get a test signal out from the Sky Tower in October.

Who's behind Alt? Those fine folks who bring us George FM et al, under the tutelage of head of programming Thane Kirby and station manager Ricky Newby. The station will be located along K Road, right next door to Verona.

The channel, as you might expect, will target 16-35 year olds and is promising a mix of (deep breath) rock, electronica, hip-hop, funk, soul and jazz. Alt is looking for cornerstone sponsors to take it through the first twelve months, including:

five Gold Foundation partners spending $15,000 plus GST per month for a minimum of twelve months (in return for an enticing package of goodies, details on request);
three Silver Foundation partners at $10,000 a month;
and an unspecified number of Bronze Foundation partners spending $6,000 a month.

All foundation partners are offered the opportunity of product placement within live content produced by the channel, an acknowledgement of the power of the PVR.

Music television is not exactly unknown to the citizens of Auckland - we've swayed to the sultry beat of Max and MTV in our time, and still get to sample C4, Juice and J2 along with the rest of the country - but Alt at least starts out with a definable point of difference. Given the unlikely success of George FM we'll give Alt the benefit of what would otherwise be a rather large doubt as to its likely longevity.

Where Were You In Two Thousand And Two?
Saturday night is a terrible time for an Election - or at least it's lousy for television coverage of the aftermath, as an orchestrated litany of lies emerges from the mouths of those with too much time to fill and too little tangible information to report. As we count down the hours until Saturday's triennial travesty, we amused ourselves by reviewing the events of 27 July 2002, to see if democracy was truly served last time we played Electionary.

Senior citizens were obviously keen to observe the political process as it ground on through the evening - an average of 36.9% of our elders Over 65 were tuned to TV One's Election Coverage on the night, 8.8% to TV3.
Those aged 40-64 also carried out their civic duty respectfully - 21.8% showed up on TV One, 7.3% on TV3.
The 18-39s, however, must have had a few better offers on the night and could only manage token viewing: 8.1% dragged themselved in front of TV One's coverage, 6.2% supporting TV3.

This year TV One and TV3 will again try our patience with interminable pre-results pontificating. They'll be joined (at a more respectable 9.30 start time) by Auckland's Triangle Television, evaluating the results through the viewpoint of Auckland University student mag editor-elect Ryan Sproull, aiming for "a blend of serious information and intelligent humour". Will they be the only broadcaster to attempt such a difficult task?

If only satire were still alive and well in Godzone - what fun we'd have on the night!

The Future Is In Their Hands
The entire world of free-to-air television rests on an implicit assumption - that consumers will be willing to accept an ongoing diet of advertising content in return for getting their programmes supplied for free. That particular worldview has taken a bit of a hammering in recent years, and the once and future PVR is threatening to destabilise the whole house of cards.

But wait - there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon, and it comes in the form of a handheld device called the Gizmondo. On trial in the United Kingdom since March, the Gizmondo - a combination video game console, movie & music player, web browser, text message and email sender, camera and GPS device - launches next month in the USA, in two flavours.

Flavour Number One, $400, is just what it seems - a killer handheld.
Flavour Number Two, $229, just could be the future of advertising. In return for a discounted pricetag, this Gizmondo is ad-enabled and set to receive no more than three 30-second messages a day, geo-targeted through the GPS device. A barcode or coupon will sometimes accompany the ads, along with mapping directions on the nearest location of a participating retailer. Gizmondo users can head to the retailer and redeem special offers, closing the loop between advertising and sales.

If it delivers as planned, the Gizmondo just might usher in a new world - not just for themselves but for other media as well. Dominion Post without ads? That'll be $10 please. Or get it free with the compliments of [your brand here]. Shortland Street Extended Edition, downloaded straight to your PVR, $2 ad-free, 50 cents with messages tailored for you.

Fingers crossed, adland, this Gizmondo's for you.

The Not So Remote Future

2005-09-06T17:09:00.000+12:00

Half Gallon Quarter Acre PVR Paradise
Today Sky finally unveiled their Personal Video Recorder to an eager audience of journalists and the occasional hanger-on (i.e. us). Regular readers of this newsletter are encouraged to cast their minds back to our 22 February issue, when we dished the dirt on Australia's Foxtel IQ PVR - because, as suggested at the time, Sky are rolling out the same technology.

For the record, here's all you need to know about the Sky PVR, which will be branded My Sky:

There's a one-off connection fee of $599 for the My Sky box - no extra monthly fee. However the box will remain the property of Sky, to be returned if you let your subscription lapse.
My Sky will be available from December 5 - just in time for Christmas.
My Sky only works with Sky Digital.
Sky will initially have up to 20,000 PVRs available, so the penetration won't be huge at first
My Sky has 160GB of hard-drive memory, enough capacity to record up to 60 hours of programming.
The PVR comes with two tuners - in other words, you can record up to two channels at once - or watch one and record the other. You can also watch a previously-recorded programme while you're capturing two new programmes.
In common with its electronic counterparts in Australia and the UK, the My Sky PVR doesn't skip ads but lets you fast-forward through them at up to 30 times normal speed.
Outputs on the PVR will allow you to copy programmes to other equipment - but only in analogue format. No digital-to-digital copying via My Sky.

Sky's press release notes that "My Sky currently works for all channels listed on Sky's Electronic Programme Guide". It's a carefully worded comment, with good reason - in New Zealand the copyright for television programme listings is owned by each broadcaster, so Sky can only carry guide details for broadcasters who give their permission. It would, of course, be somewhat suicidal for broadcasters to withhold that permission - their programmes would simply cease to exist for My Sky subscribers, leading to ratings oblivion as the PVRs spread through the Sky population.

And spread they will - PVR owners become enthusiastic evangelists for this new technology, which allows PVR-equipped households to:

pause live television
start watching a show while it's still being recorded
fast-forward or slo-mo through shows - live or pre-recorded!
record two channels at once
record programmes simply by clicking on a programme title
record every episode of a series just by clicking once on the Series Link button
browse shows by programme categories
pre-book up to a week in advance

The question on many lips, especially at the news conference: will PVRs kill the 30 second commercial? We've dealt with this issue a number of times in these pages, but here's our view, in a nutshell:

With only 20,000 early adopters in the first phase, PVRs aren't going to threaten any industry. However, as the movement spreads, so will the habits of PVR users, which includes pretty widespread fast-forwarding through ads, programme promotions and any other content deemed non-essential. Likeability suddenly becomes a huge, huge benefit for TV ads - if your ads are liked (especially by the kids in the household) viewers will slow down and smell the message. Those stand-up-and-shout ads, however, suitably intrusive in traditional TV advertising, will vanish without trace into well-deserved fast-forward fadeout.

Product Placement, now better known as Branded Entertainment, as also noted in the recent past, becomes a major initiative for advertisers - a chance to be seen inside programmes, not just fleetingly in commercial breaks. And sponsorship credits, once comfortably divorced from the shows at the top and tail of ad breaks, will need to be more deeply embedded to escape ad avoidance.

PVRs are also a massive challenge for broadcasters. Typically, hit shows serve as excellent lead-in vehicles for new programmes. In today's TV world, the timeslots after Desperate Housewives or CSI are the most desirable places to occupy if you're new to the schedule. In PVR households, however, time-shifted viewing is so easy with PVRs that Desperate Housewives may not be watched until later in the evening, or the next day - and the show that followed wasn't recorded, so no amount of pre-promotion during Desperate Housewives can build an audience in retrospect.

PVRs are, however, a fabulous business tool for Sky, with the potential to reduce churn dramatically - once you've got a PVR in your household you won't give it up easily.This ain't The End Of Advertising As We Know It - but it is yet another wake-up call for advertisers and their agencies. Do people actually LIKE your ads? If not - gone by lunchtime.

Local Radio To Return?

We've been known to gripe occasionally about the homogenisation of radio, with networked brands rolling out through the country at the expense of local identity.

Now there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon: last week the Ministry of Economic Development released a Discussion Paper suggesting that additional FM frequencies for at least five new radio stations could be made available in most areas of New Zealand. Up for debate: the notion that the five stations might comprise a 'not for profit' network, two licences reserved for local area broadcasting and two licences for full commercial broadcasting.

Submissions on the Discussion Paper (we have an electronic copy, yours free via an email to newsletter@mediacom.co.nz) close on the 1st of December, with further progress as a result scheduled for 2006.

Our own view: let's make all of them local - no networking allowed. The other 300 frequencies should be enough for those who must be networked. Instead of five same-old opinions repeated in every market, let a thousand florid thoughts bloom!

Sunday On Our Minds

Well, we did have fun with the Nielsen National Readership results last week. Either our calculator or our keyboard was astray, leading us to conclude that the Sunday Star-Times had shed 30,000 readers when we should have said 20,000. And then we failed to notice the results for the Herald On Sunday - which, in our defence, were listed amongst the magazine stats, not the newspaper summary.

As our penance, let's put the record straight and share some figures on the Sunday journals:

The Herald On Sunday, for the period January-June 2005, scored 335,000 readers 15+ across New Zealand, a strong debut for a new entrant; in comparison, the Sunday Star-Times remained top of the heap with 632,000 readers, the Sunday News 436,000 against the same demographic. We should note that these latter stats are for the full year, so add asterisks as appropriate.
Auckland statistics tell a slightly different tale, with the Herald On Sunday read by 217,000 Aucklanders Over 10; the Sunday Star-Times appealed to 259,000 in the same city and of the same age group, the Sunday News 146,000.

It's always tempting to engage in turf warfare - who's doing better, what bragging rights belong to whom - but, for once, we'll act as peacemakers and note that Sunday papers as a category are stacking up pretty well these days, both in terms of raw numbers and if you consider all the various inserts, onserts and magazines they contain. We're not quite in the league of the UK Sunday supplements just yet but as readers we're a whole lot better served than we were a few short years ago.

DIY TV

Fancy yourself as a broadcaster? A UK company is now offering a television station in a box solution, making it possible for local television channels to be delivered over broadband for a fraction of the cost of conventional broadcasting.

For a few thousand pounds, your organisation can provide a live or on-demand local television service, delivered over a broadband connection either to a personal computer or via a set-top box to a television set.

Global Digital Broadcast can already deliver what they describe as DVD quality video, and are currently testing high-definition at 6Mbps.

Perhaps this is a suitable solution for Parliamentary TV - toss a signal onto the internet, for any who want to tune in at their leisure.

And if your CEO always fancied himself/herself as a TV host, here's a low-cost opportunity for ThemTV - without killing your marketing budget (or ruining your reputation).

Rating Word Of Mouth

The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing by George Silverman captures the nature and intensity of word-of-mouth as it impacts on your business. How do you rate?

Minus 4: People are talking about your business and complaining about it.
Minus 3: Customers and ex-customers go out of their way to convince other people not to do business with you.
Minus 2: When asked, customers rant, although they don't go out of their way to bad mouth.
Minus 1: People are not actively complaining about your product, but when they are asked, they have relatively negative things to say.
Level 0: People use your product but are rarely asked about it. They don't volunteer their opinion.
Plus 1: When asked, people have nice things to say about your product.
Plus 2: When asked, customers rave. They go on and on about how wonderful your product is.
Plus 3: At this level, customers go out of their way to convince people to use your product.
Plus 4: Your product is being talked about continually. It's getting a considerable amount of publicity.

PS Check out the book for advice on lifting your game.

Number One After All These Years

2005-09-01T16:40:00.000+12:00

Bragging Rights
They've taken sixteen years to get to this point, so it's perhaps not best described as an overnight success - but TV3 last week managed their grandest achievement ever - the Number One peaktime share position across all three key broadcaster demographics: TV1's 25-54 target, TV2's 18-39 demographic and their own 18-49 age group. The result was powered by strong performances from CSI and the Rugby but other shows played their part as well.

In the interests of truth, justice and the Armenian way we should observe that TVNZ's shows had the edge in terms of individual programme performances - CSI could only manage second place across the selected demographics, somewhat behind TV2's Desperate Housewives, while the ABs' best performance (off the field) was in the Number Eight position with 25-54s. Most of the rest of the Top Ten positions in the three selected demographics were TV1 or TV2 shows. But last week was a watershed for TV3, demonstrating that Top Dog is no longer a position to be taken for granted by any broadcaster.

We live, as the famous curse would have it, in interesting times. Launched today: the PlayStation Portable, not just a gaming machine but also a tool for downloading TV programmes from the internet and watching them anywhere, anytime. The technosavvy are already equipped with third generation phones from Vodafone or Telecom which bring us video news, sport, music or entertainment at the touch of the inevitable button. MP3 music players are giving way to MP4 versions which also deliver the videos of your choice.

Further disruption? Sky's Personal Video Recorder is unveiled next week, to be in the hands of early adopters by Christmas. The BBC have just announced plans to launch MyBBC, a service to allow the download of their programmes (free to licence-payers) for up to a week after the initial broadcasts. Telecommunications companies are jostling with technology companies and television programme creators to be the gateway to tomorrow's consumer. The humble local broadcaster has a tough road ahead.

And what about the poor old advertiser? Is all doom and gloom, as audiences splinter and mass marketing diminishes in impact? Actually, no - there are pathways through the wilderness for the enlightened. If you'd like to know more, drop us a line at newsletter@mediacom.co.nz. Sorry, trade not supplied.

Nights In White Saturn
Unless you live in Kapiti, Wellington or Christchurch you may not be aware of TelstraClear's Saturn Cable Network, which provides cable television services to some 62,000 homes across those regions. Saturn, which began life in the early nineties as Kiwi Cable with a dream of cabling New Zealand, has represented something of a white elephant in recent years, the victim of new technologies - most specifically ADSL, the acronym behind JetStream, and the KuBand Satellite services which power Sky Digital - which make it unnecessary to dig huge trenches everywhere to deliver enhanced television and telephone services.

Saturn took a significant step forward last week, finally offering digital television to its captive subscribers. The main benefits of this enhanced service, according to the official propaganda: "high quality digital viewing, stereo sound, wide screen format and access to 92 television, radio and pay to view movie channels".

Don't fret, TV junkies, you're not missing much if you don't live in the designated coverage areas - Saturn mostly channels Sky TV, with only a smidgen of extra (international) content which some local channels in other regions also occasionally feature.

If you advertise on Sky, your ads already appear on Saturn. The cable infrastructure allows for more robust interactivity than the simple red button service currently offered by Sky, but Saturn's numbers just aren't large enough to justify the equipment investment that would be required. We'll just have to sit back and wait for TVNZ Interactive - if the politicians can stop fiddling with the remote. Keep it here, you'll be the first to know.

Food, Glorious Food
Sky's satellite transponders are currently operating at full capacity, as the network awaits the launch of their newest satellite, now scheduled for the first half of 2006. Thanks to new compression technology currently being installed at Sky's palatial Mt Wellington headquarters, however, Sky will be able to squeeze an extra four digital channels out of its existing bandwidth.

First off the block and scheduled for a 1 November debut: Food TV, a spin-off from the Living Channel.Coming to digital channel 38, Food TV will feature series hosted by celebrity chefs including Nigella Lawson, Rick Stein, Ainsley Harriott & Jamie Oliver and will also broadcast other food related programmes covering nutrition to ethnic food, wine and entertaining.

Freed from its diet, The Living Channel will move to show more travel, gardening, crafts, entertainment, woodwork, motoring magazine, real estate and housing shows.

What else lies in store for Sky digital viewers? Sky aren't saying as yet - negotiations for other channels are still ongoing. But the focus next week shifts to the long-awaited unveiling of Sky's PVR, which you can bet we'll be eagerly inspecting with our xray vision. Don't touch that dial.

Meddle To The Peddle
The story so far: Jim and Peter wanted the worm to turn for them on TV3, but the newsmeisters said No. So J&P took their righteous indignation to court and met a judge with a predilection for programming, who said yes. So Jim and Peter had their day in court and their night on telly - but will we still love them tomorrow? Meanwhile Helen and Don suddenly decided they should be seen and not heard during the Radio New Zealand debate, and said No to Sky who wanted to show them, warts and all. Sky, surprisingly, opted not to go to the courts for a second opinion but screened something interesting instead. Meanwhile United Future - perhaps realising that worms were not after all fit for viewing at dinner time - are now proposing a 9.30pm start time for adult programming. In response the New Zealand Television Broadcasters' Council says that over 90% of New Zealanders know that adult programmes start at 8.30 pm and should be allowed to decide what they want to watch in the privacy of their own homes. It's not yet known if Ian Wishart (with microphone hidden in plain sight) has interviewed anyone in relation to these burning issues. It's also not known if anyone cares. Taxes have been cut, student loans slashed, reputations sacrificed to the public trough of expediency. What a mini-series!

Watch for the season finale on September 17, when hopes are dashed, surprises sprung and coalitions cobbled.

Dead Tree Talking
The latest Nielsen National Readership Survey, covering the 12 months from July 2004 until June 2004, has come hurtling into our email inboxes in the form of a flood of news releases from publishers small and large. Hiding under our desks to escape the electronic onslaught we've scribbled down the following notes - topline results confirming last year's reading habits of those 15+, compared with their obsessions twelve months earlier.

For newspapers, significant movers & shakers:

NZ Herald down 28,000 to 563,000
Dominion Post down 19,000 to 237,000
NZ Truth down 13,000 to 89,000
Sunday News down 27,000 to 436,000
Sunday Star Times down 20,000 to 632,000

Magazine Machinations:

Auto Trader down 40,000 to 305,000 (Trade Me influence?)
Buy Sell & Exchange down 33,000 to 130,000 (and again?)
New Idea up 42,000 to 515,000
TV Guide down 41,000 to 857,000 (the Electronic Program Guide takes its toll)
NZ Woman's Weekly up 38,000 to 950,000
Australian Women's Weekly up 49,000 to 692,000I
nvestigate up 21,000 to 61,000 (Tamihere topics appeal)
NZ Gardener down 37,000 to 229,000
Trucking down 29,000 to 70,000
Foodtown Magazine up 50,000 to 261,000

No doubt there'll be squeals from those others who consider their publication worthy of note in the lists above - but we're ruthless in our editorial imperatives! If we didn't notice, it didn't happen (until the Courts force us to include other publications, in the public interest).

What does it all mean? Frankly, not a lot - gentle erosion here and there, occasional improvements when reformatting or hot topics draw a crowd.

Scanned & Deliver
New York's The Container Store has come up with an interesting retail innovation: shoppers are given a portable scanning device which they carry with them as they wander through the store. If they should come across an item they wish to buy, they simply scan the barcode and move on. At the end of their jaunt through the aisles, shoppers wander unencumbered to the checkout and pay for the selected items. Said items are subsequently gathered up by Container Store staff and delivered directly to the shopper's home.

Call it a hybrid of Clicks & Mortar, retaining the in-store experience but removing the hassle of lugging it all home. Might be a little over-the-top for grocery (for now) but would certainly improve the mall experience in the lead-up to Christmas (who says it has to be a single retailer?) Westfield, take note!

Paper Google
In a seriously weird move the lord of online advertising is moving over into the world of Charles Atlas, Franklin Mint and other classified small space magazine advertisers.

Search giant Google, which makes 99 percent of its revenue from Internet ads, is quietly testing the waters of print advertising sales, buying ad pages in US technology magazines such as PC Magazine and Maximum PC, and reselling those pages--cut into quarters or fifths--to small advertisers that already belong to its online ad network, dubbed AdWords.

Even for the notoriously quirky and experimental Google this is a lateral leap. The very things that make Google AdWords so successful - context-sensitive, highly-targeted text-only placements - are simply not the stuff of magazine classifieds.

This can only end in tears.

Slip-Sliding Away

2005-08-09T16:20:00.000+12:00

Not with a bang.

The end, when it came, was mercifully short. Terminal ratings decline and an absence of credible alternative timeslots left Prime Television little choice but to cancel the Holmes show. The wonder, perhaps, was that it lasted as long as it did - especially with the usually unsentimental Nine Network picking up the tab.

It was, however, a brave experiment in a broadcasting environment that's usually risk-averse to the point of monotony - one that obviously struck a nerve with Mr Holmes' previous employers and unfortunately allowed Campbell Live to slip in under the radar and capture some of the viewers that Prime had hoped to co-opt.

The Little Network That Could has suffered most from this unfortunate endeavour - and not just because of the oh-so-public PR disaster or even the disproportionate investment required to support the Holmesian machine. The launch of Holmes (and other scheduling changes) has coincided with declining audiences across the board at Prime.

Between 2003 and 2004 average peaktime viewership by Prime's core 25-54 grew 24%. In 2005 we've seen monthly declines for the last five months:

March down 11% year on year
April also down 11%
May down 18%
June down 15%
July down 18%

In the midst of this misery the Prime salesforce have been tasked with rolling out a 20% rate increase for the fourth quarter of the year, while its free-to-air competitors have restricted their ambition to 7%. It's a tough call and one unlikely to find favour with Prime's faithful advertisers.

It's time for a rethink. Holmes was the first change - but shouldn't be the last. Dare we suggest that such advice is, in the words of another Holmes of another time, "elementary my dear Watson"?

Spell Czech

Ten years ago, most workers didn't have an email address and didn't have to read email. Today, email is an essential work skill - and a recent survey from Information Mapping Inc. reports that 80% of today's office workers say email writing skills are "extremely" or "very important" to the effectiveness of doing their jobs.

Think of it as The Revenge Of The English Teacher. All those years splitting infinitives and dangling participles have now come back to haunt us. Consider the simplest of all email tasks - writing down the email address. If you don't get the address absolutely, totally, 100% correct you just won't get through to your dearly intended. Worse, you may be sending your message to another innocent party, potentially creating a massive security leak or leaving yourself open to a $200,000 fine for sending spam.

Perhaps that's why teens prefer Instant Messaging, which brings the illiteracy of text messaging to the desktop. According to "Teens and Technology," a report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the number of teenagers using the internet has grown by 24% in the past four years and that 87% of those between 12 and 17-years-old are online. These teens see e-mail as a tool for “formal communications,” such as corresponding with adults, teachers, schools and large groups. However, instant messaging is their favourite channel for everyday conversations with friends.

C'mon, parents, get those kids back on email. All that education has to kick in sometime.

Radio With Pictures

As we spiral downwards to September 17 and the much-awaited conclusion to the Electoral Wars, we inevitably have to suffer through interminable political posturing as party leaders strut their stuff in a series of debates. Our public broadcaster Radio New Zealand is no stranger to such sideshows but we've been traditionally spared the sights of leaders in full flight as RNZ broadcasts the sounds.

This year, alas, RNZ has partnered with Sky Television in a precedent-setting simulcast of two debates - next Friday, August 19, Prime Minister Helen Clark will lock swords with Opposition Leader Don Brash for a sixty minute stoush at 7pm, to be followed on Sunday afternoon by a ninety-minute bunfight between the leaders of the other main parties. The dirty laundry will be aired simultaneously on National Radio and Sky Digital's Channel 54, Sky News.

Contents may offend: we advise viewer discretion.

Killer Proposals

Michael W. McLaughlin of Management Consulting News (www.managementconsultingnews.com) offers this advice to create killer proposals:

The business proposal is a necessary evil. A great proposal can be decisive in winning a project; a poor one can cause you to lose a project, even if everything else in the sales process has gone flawlessly. Use these guidelines to turn an ordinary doco into a killer proposal.

Create a powerful, but concise executive summary.
Focus on results, which matter more than methods and processes. Clients buy methods and approaches only when they know you can deliver results.
Be generous with your ideas; don't hoard them. Show clients how innovatively you think.
The length of the proposal doesn't win, but quality does. Projects are not awarded because proposals pass a weight test.
The proposal content must be about the client, not about you. Take a back seat and focus on how you will solve problems.
Your liberal use of "best practices" will label you as uncreative. Find the blend of outstanding practices and innovative solutions that fit your client's needs, not answers that worked for someone else.
Accuracy is essential. Validate all data and double-check to make sure it's right before you present it.
Sweat every small proposal detail, watch for typos, use high-quality materials and make sure the right people receive the proposal on time.
Rewrite your company credentials for every proposal. Highlight the skills in your credentials that demonstrate relevant qualifications. Your boilerplate credentials are rarely up to the task.
Let your proposal sit for a day and then reread it completely before sending it out.
Let your personality shine through your proposals. Give clients a sense of the firm and your style of working.
Don't let your proposal claims outdistance your true capabilities. Write an honest proposal or you'll pay dearly in the future with blown budgets and unhappy clients.

Doom, Gloom & Newsprint

Newspaper publishers must be getting heartily sick of pundits predicting paper pestilence by now. But here's another one: "the steep growth in advertising dollars spent online during the next five years will come directly from newspapers", according to a report from the Australian arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The internet will remain Australia's fastest growing medium, doubling its share of the A$9.4 billion media advertising market from 4 per cent in 2004 to 8 per cent by 2009, when the local advertising industry will be worth A$12.5 billion, the PwC Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook predicts. However Newspapers' share will drop from 40 per cent to 36 per cent due mainly to the migration of classified advertising online, the report warns.

Such trends help to explain recent moves by global and local newspaper publishers to buy internet media and service companies, including last week's offer by News Limited to acquire the rest of Realestate.com.au and last month's purchase of dating site RSVP.com.au by rival publisher Fairfax.

Internationally newspapers recognise the threat to classified revenues from online auction sites such as eBay and free classified offerings like Craigslist.org. However, as Trade Me principal Sam Morgan observed, "the newspapers don't know what to do about us. We're all about turning a billion dollar industry into a ten million dollar industry."

Just as disintermediation has played merry havoc with travel agents and the like, it's a looming threat to newspapers as well. We're loathe to count them out - it's been tried before - but that economic model looks to be in for a shakeup before too long..

PVR = Poor eValuation of Research?

2005-08-09T10:06:00.000+12:00

We were somewhat amazed and bewildered by the spin put on the latest UK research into Personal Video Recorders by a large global media shop. We're not identifying the culprits here - although we suspect that our name surpression will be as ineffective as that offered to our errant sporting icons - but we live in hope that they've since seen the error of their ways.

So what has us so bemused? Try this for a headline: "PVRs Not Serious Threat to TV Ads Says Media Agency". In support of this glorious revelation? Again, we quote: "Although Sky+ viewers saw 30% fewer ads than digital consumers, the survey revealed only a 17% drop in ad awareness levels in Sky+ homes". [In case you wondered, Sky+ is the brand of PVR supplied by the UK's dominant Pay TV operator BSkyB]

The conclusion voiced by our media colleagues: "the fewer ads seen by consumers, the greater the impact as they are free from 'advertising clutter'."

Forgive us belabouring a few points, but:

under what circumstances might "viewers seeing 30% fewer ads" not be considered "a serious threat"?
in what ivory tower does "a 17% drop in ad awareness levels"justify the modifier "only"
how nice that those ads which survived the PVR killing fields are "free from advertising clutter" - because their ranks have been decimated by technology.

Do we take from this spinmeistering that British clients are achieving sufficient over-exposure that they can easily afford to lose 30% of their exposure and 17% of their recall? Surely not.

We put rather more credence in a recent report on UK media from Ipsos Media: nine out of ten PVR users, and almost all of the critical 16-34 year old audience, 97 per cent, fast-forward through the ads 'always' or 'almost always', an increase of six per cent in the last six months. Coupled with the fact that nearly half, 45 per cent, claim to now watch more recorded than live TV, an increase of over ten per cent from six months ago; 27 per cent to watch the same proportion of each; and only a quarter to watch less recorded than live, this looks set to have what Ipsos Media calls "an interesting impact on advertising."

David Lucas, Senior Director at Ipsos Media, commented: "As far as advertisers are concerned, flicking the channel to avoid ad breaks is one thing, but the ability the PVR presents to fast forward through them raises a far greater challenge, and advertisers will need to think even more intelligently about the nature and placement of their campaigns. "

Unless, of course, like that legendary British Admiral Lord Nelson their telescopes are resolutely clutched to unseeing eyes.

Rugby Rivals Reunited

Are we the only ones who find faintly Orwellian undertones in the news that Sky and TVNZ are reported to be jointly tendering for the rights to broadcast the 2007 Rugby World Cup? Last time we looked, Sky and TV3 were the best of rugby mates and TVNZ were the louts in the cheap seats. On the other hand, those of us with unaltered memories can hark back to the days when Sky and TVNZ co-operated and TV3 -- oh, never mind.

What sets us wondering (and mischief-mongering) is the fact that the SANZAR free-to-air rights - i.e. the rights to delayed coverage of the Super 14, NPC, Tri-Nations et. - have yet to be announced. Will TVNZ regain its rugby crown? Will TV3 re-emerge triumphant? Will Sky convert one of its UHF frequencies to free-to-air and capitalise on its rights ownership? Or will Prime dig deep into its parent's pocket and score the winning try?We'd tell you, but then we'd have to send you off to the sin bin.

Spam-Not-A-Lot

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill was last week tabled in Parliament, threatening maximum penalties of $500,000 for spamming organisations and $200,000 for individual spamsters operating from New Zealand. According to the lawmakers, about 10% of spam originates in NZ and this legislation is designed to combat such abuses.

Alas, the legislation will do nothing to dissuade the Russians, Nigerians and assorted other nationalities who have taken it upon themselves to solve our ethical, moral, financial and pharmaceutical problems with their helpful letters from offshore. Will the bill stop us winning lotteries we haven't entered, learning about the sad demise of long-lost relatives we never knew existed or being offered medicines for conditions we suffered without understanding?

Thankfully, no - our social lives will remain intact, our lives enriched by these strangers reaching out to us from foreign climes.Alas, the telemarketers survive unscathed, unaffected by these stern measures ...

TellyLearning

Earlier this week Sky Television announced the launch of its Sky In Schools package, offering New Zealand schools the opportunity to subscribe to Sky at a subsidised rate and providing access to information about selected Sky programming and classroom support material via the Sky In Schools website.

The Sky In Schools subscription includes: Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Animal Planet, The History Channel, SKY News Australia/New Zealand, CNN, BBC World, ESPN, SKY Sport 1, The Living Channel National Radio, Concert FM, Southland TV (including S.I.T's long-distance learning programme) Maori Television and nationwide free to air networks.

It's a good-corporate-citizen initiative and although we were personally disappointed that Sky1 was not included - the wrestling is so educational and some of those reality programmes could really make an impact in our universities - we applaud the move. Can't wait till Sky-watching becomes compulsory as part of the NCEA scholarship course.

Look Ma, No Ads

A commercial radio station with no ads? Yep - welcome to Core, brought to you by Orange (boy, did Apple miss an opportunity!).

A UK youth station, Core targets 16- to 24-year-olds across a mix of many music genres including R'n'B with pop, dance with drum and bass, and modern rock with techno. Mobile phone company Orange has signed up as the sole partner for the station and will sponsor three music and film programmes, including The Core Control Chart with Orange Music Player, a daily show that sees listeners text to vote for their favourite tracks. Orange is also planning to integrate its products and services into online branding, SMS activity and bespoke programme features to gain maximum exposure.

Orange gets access to an ad-free environment that is in tune with the young mobile audience and a platform for testing new forms of customer involvement ... not to mention bragging rights and street cred.

Time for a similar local initiative, please.