Entirely Entertaining Tidbits Worth Paying Attention To...
While working out this morning, I was watching Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip - an Aaron Sorkin (West Wing creator) written show starring Matthew Perry (Friends), Bradley Whitford (West Wing), Amanda Peet (hot), and Stephen Weber (Wings) that I'm totally into. Its a "Behind the Show" look at a Saturday Night Live-like weekly comedy thing that is just excellent. Matthew Perry is amazing on the show and while I loved Friends, it took a lot less of being an actor than it does on this one for him. He's really a terrific talent.
That's not why I'm CRMcasting (I made the word up. Let's digg it and adopt it and love it and nurture it) it, though. There's a scene in an episode called "West Coast Delay" that has Amanda Peete and Bradley Whitford talking about the audience affluence of a magazine target market. She quotes a myriad of demographics about this audience and Bradley Whitford asks her, "where'd you get that? You sound like a (what sounds like) "cred sheet." She holds up what looks to be a Treo and grins.
That's what I'm talkin' about. Mission critical data available on a mobile device. 2.0 indeed....
The Washington Post reported on October 29 that "In Teens' Web World, MySpace Is So Last Year." The article covered a trend among teens away from any loyalty at all to any type of site or online presence. In fact, they covered a study done by Nielsen-NetRatings on the most popular teen sites as of this past month or so. They were Snapvine.com; PLyrics.com; Picgames.com - none at that exalted level last year at all. Additionally, apparently, as the teens get older they are doing two things - first, spending less time on MySpace and more talking on the phone or listening to music (online or not, I don't know) and second, migrating to Facebook, the site devoted primarily to higher education students. God, the kids are just growing up so fast aren't they? Who would have thought Facebook already....?
The Sports Business Journal is sponsoring a conference in mid-November in NYC on "Sports Media & Technology" that shows the increasing importance that is being placed on the new business models for any industry - sports being among the most thoughtful about it. There are sessions at this conference on topics like "Sports Web 2.0 - Social Networking and User-Generated Content" or "Balancing Repurposed and Original Content for New Media" or even "Developing Games That Expand the Player Universe" and finally, "Mobile Devices That Put the Action in the Fans' Hands." There is NO industry that escapes the new customer and entertainment, particularly sports, often leads the way. Why? Because billions of customer dollars in a highly competitive market are at stake.
Article in USA Today last Thursday, that reflects one of the things that I teach in my classes on the Customer Experience for BPT. That would be the fact that customers are being bombarded by so many messages - 23 million by the age of 21, that they are expecting compensation to simply pay attention to your particular message. VERY smartly, a web startup, e-Miles, is now aiming at getting road warriors focused eyeballs. They are giving away mils on Delta, or Continental, Northwest or U.S. Airways if you'll watching ads online and answer followup questions about what you watched. Hilton, 1-800-Flowers - an always progressive company - are among the companies who have signed up to join this service (Rearden Commerce - add this to your stable). Very cool. But they NEED to add United to this or I can't do it. Damn. I want to do this one. The rate is 20-30 mpm (miles per minute) and quarterly add-ins to your account. I'm not a believer in the Attention Economy as you might remember, but the concept merits real thinking and actions like this one.
Another sign that user-created content has something to do with the apocalypse from the September 2006 Fast Company. "We're With The Band: The new cultural tastemakers: you--and everyone else" (not related to my Route 56 I Can't Dance That's Why I'm With The Band" segment) obsesses over iMix - a place on iTunes that allows users to provide playlists that are based on something or another and they are sequenced accordingly. So the one that the author, Howard Parnell, talks about...oh, crap, I'm too lazy to write it out, just go click on the link and read the article.
Finally, the November 6th issue of Business Week, has an article entitled "The Long Arm of the Cell Phone" which focuses on the integration of GPS and social networking via cell phones that leads to on the one hand, location based services such as finding the nearest restaurant or club or where your buddy list is congregating - given your real time location. Sites like Dodgeball.com or Plazes.com do stuff like that. Dodgeball allows your network of buds to find out within seconds where they're congregating so you can go have a beer or a brief interlude or a gab session or whatever.
But Why Is This Important or Entertaining?
Its entertaining because it is to me and its my blog. I hope you think so too. Some of this is cool but all of this is a lesson in the world of the next stage. The fact is that THIS next stage is here now, not next. I could have easily have chosen a hundred or a thousand or 10, 000 other articles or blog entries or references on the web to talk about. Note one thing in common with all of this. Which is deliberate. All of it is reported in or part of a mainstream channel or company. Every single "random" bit of reportage. It is now an indisputable fact that the new breed of customer and the new business models being designed and deliberated are pervasive, even though most businesses haven't figured it out yet. What I say is considered cutting edge, but the reality of it all is so encompassing, it really should be seen as mainstream. Though by all means, keep calling me cutting edge. Helps my business model.
I don't want to harp on these facts, just leave them with you. If you're a business-focused human, pay close attention. If you're not, cool stuff anyway, no?
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