LB's Rambles

The Sound of Silence

There's been a fair amount of conversation, on-line and off, about Pepsi's silent ad for the Superbowl pre-game show. Pepsico, which has a special organization dedicated to improving opportunities for the physically and mentally challenged, is sponsoring an ad that uses American Sign to communicate with deaf viewers - and allows the rest of the viewers to watch and enjoy a joke that comes from the deaf community.

I'm working with a company that has done a promotional video for Pepsico that shows how the ad was set up and created, and features comments from some of the non-hearing stars of the ad itself.

Take a look - it's pretty good. Comments are welcome below (and will be passed back to the folks who created the video).

Bad Way to Do Business

My friend Peter Shankman travels a lot on business. I mean a lot: he's platinum in several airlines' and hotel chains' frequent flyer programs. So when he posts a scathing blog entry about a really bad experience at a Sheraton hotel in Miami, I tend to pay attention.

Now I don't travel nearly as much - but enough to hit silver level in some of the programs. I'm one of those customers Starwood (Sheraton's parent) tries to reach with its advertising and I even belong to their program. But the next time I'm flying into Miami - or elsewhere - which do you think I'll remember and act upon - their ad about how wonderful the Sheratons are or the first-person complaint of someone I trust?

I've been over this ground before: advertising can't and won't wipe out first-person reports from people we trust. Study after study has shown us that consumers more and more are relying on comments and recommendations from people they know. That represents a challenge - and a huge opportunity - for companies that pay attention to customer service.

I'd add that I have stayed frequently at Starwood hotels and, like Peter Shankman, rarely had reason to voice complaints. But any company that decides it doesn't need to pay attention to customer service these days probably deserves what is likely to happen to it.

Air Wi-Fi

With several airlines getting set to launch in-air Wi-Fi service, Online Media Daily is throwing some cold water on the plans. They cite a study from Orbitz for Business that says a majority of business travelers don't want or need to be connected in flight.

I don't know about that. I suspect that in-air Wi-Fi would be a terrific plus - it sure beats those dreadful movies they show in-flight. And while I can understand why travelers say they wouldn't pay extra for a flight with Wi-Fi, I'm willing to bet that the service gets a pretty good workout.

Speaking personally, the service I await with considerable dread is in-air cell phone service. How wonderful - a plane full of yammering idiots braying at the top of their lungs into their cell phones, as they do now on commuter trains, in restaurants, during movies, etc. Looks like we'll all be faced with the difficult choice between acquiring noise-cancelling headsets or buying rolls of duct tape, to be forcibly applied to the mouth of a chattering seatmate...

Crumbling Bricks and Mortar

We frequently see stories telling us how well the so-called "bricks and mortar" retailers are (or are not) doing - the retailers with actual stores, where people go to buy things. There's often a distinction between these "real" stores and the virtual, online purchases or direct-mail orders that account for an ever-increasing percentage of the retail trade these days.

Today, MediaPost's Research Brief quotes new figures from the Direct Marketing Association that show 41 percent - better than two in five - retailers do not have a "bricks and mortar" store. They do their business by direct mail, or email, or on the web.

Maybe I'm wrong (wouldn't be the first time), but that says to me that retailers who don't pay a LOT of attention to their online business are going to be in big trouble. And it also says that maybe having a "real" store, as opposed to a virtual one, is becoming less critical to success - though I think we're a long way from closing down the corner store.

Sailor Take Warning

There's nothing like an impossible murder to ruin a pleasant day in the park. That's what happens to Jeff and Haila Troy, the husband-and-wife amateur detective team featured in "Sailor Take Warning," by Kelley Roos. It's a classic mystery-comedy well worth the read. As always, a complete review is available on our weekly "Classic Mysteries" podcast. You'll find links to all the podcasts from the right hand column...or you can subscribe by pasting this into iTunes or any other podcatcher: http://classicmysteries.podbus.com/index.xml

Deadly Profession

Here's a sobering reminder today from the international group Reporters Without Borders that journalism, unfortunately, can be a dangerous profession. The group says 86 journalists were killed in 2007 - a number that has gone up steadily, year after year, since 2002 and, in fact, represents a 244% increase since that year.

I frequently join in criticism of some journalists, and I stand by those criticisms, but they do not detract from the bravery and hard work of so many reporters. They deserve a salute for their courage and dedication.

Hat tip: TrylonSMR

Pay Attention!

A new study from BIGresearch will cause headaches this morning for a lot of advertising people who still feel that TV ads are the best (if not the only) way to reach their customers. When those commercials come on:

41% of the audience channel-surfs;

33% talk with others in the room or by phone;

and 30% say they "mentally tune out."

Only 5.5% regularly "fully attend to commercials."

So, if only about 1 in 20 people in the audience really pay attention to what you're trying to tell them, what does that do to your real CPM?

Just asking...

Hat tip: MediaPost's Research Brief

Dumb PR Move

Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds notes with some amusement that a clueless PR person sent him a note complaining because Instapundit apparently fails to carry the kind of PR pap that this individual chooses to send out. Those notes are never very smart; sending them out to the people you are trying to impress is, perhaps, even dumber than just sending them to clients. And sending them out to one of the web's most-visited and read sites is just plain idiotic. There are horse's backsides in just about every profession, I suppose, but when you make this kind of gaffe, it really does make recovery kind of difficult...

Newspapers: Good News, Bad News

Good news and bad news for newspapers: the good news is that newspaper audiences are up sharply over the previous year. The bad news is, they're not reading newspapers.

According to MediaPost, the Newspaper Association of America is saying that newspaper websites can boast a 9% increase in audience in the fourth quarter, compared to the same period on 2006. The figures, compiled by Nielsen Online, show that these sites attracted record crowds in October - 63.2 million unique visitors.

The smart publications are paying ever-increasing attention to their websites. That's where the future lies. Not in dead tree journalism.

WSJ: Only Slightly Pregnant?

Remember all that speculation about how Rupert Murdoch was going to tear down the subscription wall around the Wall Street Journal? Remember all the praise from various quarters (including mine) because the larger audience would allow for a significantly higher revenue from ads?

Well, hold the celebration. According to Crain's New York Business, Murdoch says he's going to keep the subscription wall. He'll improve the access of non-subscribers to new sections of the site and expand the material available for free - but apparently large sections of the site will remain available only to subscribers - and, Murdoch hinted, probably at a higher cost.

We'll see...