A couple years ago I was in Hartsfield Airport buying Madea's Uninhibited Commentaries, subtitled Don't make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings. An odd title for a funny book about a funny character played by a funny man with a message. the African American woman behind the counter was a bit surprised that I, a middle aged, pudgy white guy, knew all of Perry's movies and felt the need to Madea's pearls of wi-dom. She said Tyler isn't very popular with the mainstream. Meaning, white people.
Tyler Perry, 40, had a troubled childhood, and began writing as a way of getting some of the pain and anger out of himself. The result has been a long string of highly successful plays, some moneymaking films, and now two successful sit coms on cable. Here the trailer for his latest flick:
Tyler Perry is a different sort of writer/director/actor/producer/playright than the sort of sunglass wearing La denizens that pack the business. For one, he focuses on an African American audience, though he also has millions of fans as Clorox white as me. He has a different kind of message -- one that portrays a positive message about faith and family, and deals with real world problems like drug use and adandonment, while never letting you go too many minutes with out a deep in the gut laugh.
I've bought DVDs of a lot of his plays -- I've never heard one playing in the Bay Area, though perhaps I just read the wrong papers. For me his Medea character, a giant oldish woman (Madea is a positive slang term for a wise grandmother or older woman, I think) who is brusk, has a foul mouth, and will resort to violence as a first resort to protect her own rights or the people in her life. Here are some choice Madea clips:
Tell me Madea isn't someone to listen to after you watch that third clip!
The company produces a lot more than Madea movies.
Check out this other bit of interesting, from the website:
In the fall of 2008, Perry also opened his 200,000 square foot studios in Atlanta situated on the former Delta Airlines campus on more than 30 acres. Employing hundreds of local Atlantans, his new studio consists of 5 sound stages, a post production facility, a pond, a back lot, a 400 seat screening room and designated areas for entertaining and holding events.
A massive media company. In Atlanta rather than Hwood.
I've never seen a Tyler Perry anything that didn't raise improtant issues, have phenemenally complex characters, or make me laugh a lot. And think. One can ask for no more from entertainment.
There's a tendency in the US for people of a color to watch entertainment performed by people of their color. And that's OK except there is great entertainment in all colors, and if you miss out on this African American focused entertainment, you're missing out.
So, my fellow white people, wake up to the magic of Tyler Perry's plays, movies, and TV. It really is quite a set of shows.
Get yourself to the website, buy a movie, and enter the wonderful world.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Valentine's Day Viral Video Special: Here Is The Love!
Prepare to cry tears of joy!
Special Delivery
Ring Delivery by Flipper!
Fly Her To The Moon
Yes
In any language
No he didn't!
She Said Yes!
Yes yes yes yes yes
Special Delivery
Ring Delivery by Flipper!
Fly Her To The Moon
Yes
In any language
No he didn't!
She Said Yes!
Yes yes yes yes yes
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Great Main Stage PresosToday At iMedia
I was really very pleased with both of the main stage presos this go round for iMedia.
First up was Jeff Glueck, CMO for Travelocity. I loved his presentation because here is a guy that believes in the medium and tries new things constantly, but also has that old school approach to business - making money good, losing money bad. It was great to hear from the guy that brought us the travelling gnome.
The gnome campaign is one I have always liked but was always mystified about. How ON EARTH did this get approved? Well, after seeing Jeff on stage, I get it.
He gave one great answer today about this bucketizing we do online -- DR versus branding -- as if DR is all about sales and branding is all about self indulgence. He correctly and courageously pointed out that it's ALL about sales. He also had some fascinating data about the relative effectiveness of analog versus digital media in driving sales -- several analog forms are the most efficient available, underscoring the need for digital to continue to innovate to improve results.
Travel is one of the strongest online categories -- and the result is that CPCs have been driven rather high -- so high in fact that media like DR TV can more than compete. He also showed a chart that indicated that for his company, a view through is relevant, but only for about 2 hours, not the 30 days digital companies like to use.
Great, thought provoking stuff, and delivered in a clear and entertaining way. Bravo.
Next up was a sort of presidential debate between Nick Denton at Gawker and Geoff Ramsey at eMarketer, essentially focused on how bad things are in our business. Ramsey the optimist, Denton the pessimist. I loved the energy that Brad Berens created as moderator for this event, and got a great deal of good info out of these wonderful speakers. And Ramsey was right, a lot of it is how you look at it -- half empty or half full, but I share Denton's views more than Ramsey's about the next two years.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
First up was Jeff Glueck, CMO for Travelocity. I loved his presentation because here is a guy that believes in the medium and tries new things constantly, but also has that old school approach to business - making money good, losing money bad. It was great to hear from the guy that brought us the travelling gnome.
The gnome campaign is one I have always liked but was always mystified about. How ON EARTH did this get approved? Well, after seeing Jeff on stage, I get it.
He gave one great answer today about this bucketizing we do online -- DR versus branding -- as if DR is all about sales and branding is all about self indulgence. He correctly and courageously pointed out that it's ALL about sales. He also had some fascinating data about the relative effectiveness of analog versus digital media in driving sales -- several analog forms are the most efficient available, underscoring the need for digital to continue to innovate to improve results.
Travel is one of the strongest online categories -- and the result is that CPCs have been driven rather high -- so high in fact that media like DR TV can more than compete. He also showed a chart that indicated that for his company, a view through is relevant, but only for about 2 hours, not the 30 days digital companies like to use.
Great, thought provoking stuff, and delivered in a clear and entertaining way. Bravo.
Next up was a sort of presidential debate between Nick Denton at Gawker and Geoff Ramsey at eMarketer, essentially focused on how bad things are in our business. Ramsey the optimist, Denton the pessimist. I loved the energy that Brad Berens created as moderator for this event, and got a great deal of good info out of these wonderful speakers. And Ramsey was right, a lot of it is how you look at it -- half empty or half full, but I share Denton's views more than Ramsey's about the next two years.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Digital Marketing Factoid of the Day: Soc Net User Age Breakdown
The eMarketer chart below outlines the millions of people using soc nets by age cohort, and the growth reate for each cohort. Now, it's natural that the growth rate for teens would be lower than adults. After all, teens have been on these sites for years - but look haw much of the toal user base is over 18. Makes you want to rethink the category, don't it?
Thanks for rerading, and don't forget to write.
Thanks for rerading, and don't forget to write.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Welcome New T Shirt Owners! Welcome to My Home!
If you met my business partner John Durham today at iMedia and he gave you an Oldest Living t-shirt, welcome to my home. As John probably told you during your one minute matchup, Catalyst:SF is a new sort of marketing services company -- what we call a marketing capital firm. You can get the full scoop at catalystsf.com
We provide strategic services to major brands, start-ups, and indeed to ad agencies who recognize the need for strategy but don't have internal teams to offer it. Our team has worked with well over 100 major brands, and has decades of experience in most major industries from CPG and Auto to Pharma and Travel.
We specialize in developing "digital roadmaps" that provide an overall plan for how to best use digital in the service of brand needs. These plans start by understanding your objectives, determine the current and expected future digital behaviors of your target, and use the classic Key Issues/Objectives/Strategies/Tactics framework to develop the strategies and tactics that will best serve brand needs.
If you have any interest in Catalyst:SF services, I would be delighted to send you our creds deck. And if you have team members who would relish a piece of Oldest Living haute couture, I am happy to send you a few more shirts. Just email me at olderthanthou [AT] Yahoo.com.
Check Out Our Tasty White Papers
Down in the lower right of the smaller page column you will see links to white papers we have developed on how to do digital strategy as well as how to leverage particular digital platforms in the service of brand objectives. Feel free to open and take them.
Our team also authors lots of blogs, trade articles, opinion pieces, and (in the case of John) wine recommendations. There are links to various such pieces of content in the right hand column as well.
Look Hot! Tips for wearing Oldest Living Wear
Oldest Living t shirts are best worn behind the set of The Today Show, with you flapping your arms wildly and chanting 'Oldest Living! Oldest Living!' whenever the current Willard Scott's mic is turned on. Another great place to wear Oldest Living t-shirts is to get all your friends a shirt and arrive en masse at The Tonight Show, and all sit together, periodically doing the wave and chanting Oldest Living as Charro pitches her new movie.
And really, any wearing occasion likely to generate incremental page views for this blog is a great way to sport your new look.
Many thanks for reading, welcome to Oldest Living, and don't forget to write.
And never forget: Old is the new black!
We provide strategic services to major brands, start-ups, and indeed to ad agencies who recognize the need for strategy but don't have internal teams to offer it. Our team has worked with well over 100 major brands, and has decades of experience in most major industries from CPG and Auto to Pharma and Travel.
We specialize in developing "digital roadmaps" that provide an overall plan for how to best use digital in the service of brand needs. These plans start by understanding your objectives, determine the current and expected future digital behaviors of your target, and use the classic Key Issues/Objectives/Strategies/Tactics framework to develop the strategies and tactics that will best serve brand needs.
If you have any interest in Catalyst:SF services, I would be delighted to send you our creds deck. And if you have team members who would relish a piece of Oldest Living haute couture, I am happy to send you a few more shirts. Just email me at olderthanthou [AT] Yahoo.com.
Check Out Our Tasty White Papers
Down in the lower right of the smaller page column you will see links to white papers we have developed on how to do digital strategy as well as how to leverage particular digital platforms in the service of brand objectives. Feel free to open and take them.
Our team also authors lots of blogs, trade articles, opinion pieces, and (in the case of John) wine recommendations. There are links to various such pieces of content in the right hand column as well.
Look Hot! Tips for wearing Oldest Living Wear
Oldest Living t shirts are best worn behind the set of The Today Show, with you flapping your arms wildly and chanting 'Oldest Living! Oldest Living!' whenever the current Willard Scott's mic is turned on. Another great place to wear Oldest Living t-shirts is to get all your friends a shirt and arrive en masse at The Tonight Show, and all sit together, periodically doing the wave and chanting Oldest Living as Charro pitches her new movie.
And really, any wearing occasion likely to generate incremental page views for this blog is a great way to sport your new look.
Many thanks for reading, welcome to Oldest Living, and don't forget to write.
And never forget: Old is the new black!
The Bright Side of a Recession: The Success of Real Brands And Real Businesses
Although I have been active in digital marketing for years, I have always had an issue with the way Internet "businesses" are developed and valued. Silly me, I always thought that a business was a company that sold things -- products or services -- for money, and then subtracted the cost of providing those goods or services from revenue to calculate profit.
Ultimately, business, as I understood it, was about that last bit, profit. That the success or failure of a business related to how much or indeed IF a profit materialized when costs were subtracted from revenue.
Not so in Internet "business." Witness AOL paying $850 Million for Bebo a year ago, despite the fact that the company had little if any revenue and enormous expenses. And despite the fact that the major soc nets haven't cracked the nut of profitability -- at least to the extent necessary to justify paying $850 million for the number three network.
The thing is, when revenue is smaller than costs, the result of subtracting costs from revenues is what we call a LOSS. Which, perhaps I need to remind the digitheads, is NOT as good as profit. In fact, I will go out on a limb here and say...whereas profits are good, losses are BAD.
Naturally, there are those in Internet business who would poo-poo my pedestrian notions, pointing out that platforms like Facebook have attracted 160 Million users and that that is impressive, even if money isn't being earned in prodigious quantities YET.
OK, I will accept that to a point. But let's look at it as if a real company, like say Kraft, were evaluating Facebook as a business opportunity. Let's pretend Facebook is actually the name for a block of cheese. Imagine it's got a blue wrapper and comes in a long package like Cracker Barrel.
Imagine this pitch to the division head.
"So how it works is, we give the cheese away to 160 Million people. As many times as they want it. And every quarter we make the cheese taste a little better, or make the piece a little bigger. And keep giving it away. And hopefully someone will come along and help pay for the cheese we give away. But no guarantees."
I grow weary of listening to Internet "wunderkinds" that have never generated a dime of revenue. One of the great things about being at the iMedia Brand Summit this week is that one gets to talk to people who earn revenue and profit instead of just score hype. I am sure that there are some people on Sand Hill Road who wish we had a little more old school business thinking in digital.
And while this rec(depr)ession is not at all a good thing, it may produce the side effect of having people remember that the marketers that sell things and earn profits are more worthy of big pay and recognition than folks who give away value indefinitely.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
Ultimately, business, as I understood it, was about that last bit, profit. That the success or failure of a business related to how much or indeed IF a profit materialized when costs were subtracted from revenue.
Not so in Internet "business." Witness AOL paying $850 Million for Bebo a year ago, despite the fact that the company had little if any revenue and enormous expenses. And despite the fact that the major soc nets haven't cracked the nut of profitability -- at least to the extent necessary to justify paying $850 million for the number three network.
The thing is, when revenue is smaller than costs, the result of subtracting costs from revenues is what we call a LOSS. Which, perhaps I need to remind the digitheads, is NOT as good as profit. In fact, I will go out on a limb here and say...whereas profits are good, losses are BAD.
Naturally, there are those in Internet business who would poo-poo my pedestrian notions, pointing out that platforms like Facebook have attracted 160 Million users and that that is impressive, even if money isn't being earned in prodigious quantities YET.
OK, I will accept that to a point. But let's look at it as if a real company, like say Kraft, were evaluating Facebook as a business opportunity. Let's pretend Facebook is actually the name for a block of cheese. Imagine it's got a blue wrapper and comes in a long package like Cracker Barrel.
Imagine this pitch to the division head.
"So how it works is, we give the cheese away to 160 Million people. As many times as they want it. And every quarter we make the cheese taste a little better, or make the piece a little bigger. And keep giving it away. And hopefully someone will come along and help pay for the cheese we give away. But no guarantees."
I grow weary of listening to Internet "wunderkinds" that have never generated a dime of revenue. One of the great things about being at the iMedia Brand Summit this week is that one gets to talk to people who earn revenue and profit instead of just score hype. I am sure that there are some people on Sand Hill Road who wish we had a little more old school business thinking in digital.
And while this rec(depr)ession is not at all a good thing, it may produce the side effect of having people remember that the marketers that sell things and earn profits are more worthy of big pay and recognition than folks who give away value indefinitely.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
An Exciting Week Ahead
One of the exciting things about going to iMedia's Brand Summit is that you get reconnected to what our business is all about -- pleasing the consumer. We live in positively bizarre times, and I am not just talking about the economy. Rather, the constant forming and reforming of the media landscape is cause for both excitement and trepidation.
What I love about programs like this is that these marketers are more than just the survivors, they are the succeeders, pleased with the opportunity to build and experiment and find new ways to connect and drive results -- while also driving the intangibles that are the lifeblood of what we are here to do and how we will drive stronger results in the future.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
What I love about programs like this is that these marketers are more than just the survivors, they are the succeeders, pleased with the opportunity to build and experiment and find new ways to connect and drive results -- while also driving the intangibles that are the lifeblood of what we are here to do and how we will drive stronger results in the future.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.
The UnAgency
We are creeping up precariously close to my 22 year anniversary in the ad biz, and one thing I am struck by is how the basic agency model appears to be so ill suited thtoe times. Hey, now don't get me wrong, I am not ragging on big agencies as they are currently configured, as agencies have long been on the road to figuring out how to evolve to the new times that we face.
But what's interesting to me is that what constitutes an idea has evolved from an execution-centric piece of film -- either moving or in print -- to more of a genuine concept. When I started in the biz, and especially because I started in packaged goods, an idea really meant a demo or an executional pattern that could be burned into the head of Moms through endless repetition. Getting the consumer to PROCESS a message was largely unnecessary because we could use the sledgehammer of 10+ frequency to embed the message permanently in the consumer's brain.
Now that is of course nigh on impossible. We created Catalyst:SF because we understood that getting the consumer to process a message is now the critical challenge. We may get only one exposure to her -- or indeed we may need to get her to seek out her one exposure. Engagement, process...tomato, tomahto...what' we're really tlaking baout is elective attention.
Driving elective attention was a new skill to learn for many agencies, especially the sort of strategicy/accounty agency where I cut my teeth. We didn't generally produce awe inspiring ideas, but we were adept at sinking the anvil of a `demo into the skull.
That's not what it's about at all anymore. Isn't that awesome?
But what's interesting to me is that what constitutes an idea has evolved from an execution-centric piece of film -- either moving or in print -- to more of a genuine concept. When I started in the biz, and especially because I started in packaged goods, an idea really meant a demo or an executional pattern that could be burned into the head of Moms through endless repetition. Getting the consumer to PROCESS a message was largely unnecessary because we could use the sledgehammer of 10+ frequency to embed the message permanently in the consumer's brain.
Now that is of course nigh on impossible. We created Catalyst:SF because we understood that getting the consumer to process a message is now the critical challenge. We may get only one exposure to her -- or indeed we may need to get her to seek out her one exposure. Engagement, process...tomato, tomahto...what' we're really tlaking baout is elective attention.
Driving elective attention was a new skill to learn for many agencies, especially the sort of strategicy/accounty agency where I cut my teeth. We didn't generally produce awe inspiring ideas, but we were adept at sinking the anvil of a `demo into the skull.
That's not what it's about at all anymore. Isn't that awesome?
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