Wolf Tracking

When Julius Caesar was summoned by the Roman Senate to Pompey’s Theater on the March 15, 44 BC, he had no idea it would be the last power struggle of his life. The now infamous warning by soothsayer Titus to Caesar, “Beware the Ides of March,” may always have a place in cocktail trivia, but the modern, main event in Mid-March is all about the “Madness.” 

On Thursday the NCAA men’s basketball tournament shot to the media forefront and is one of the best examples of creating killer content appropriate for any medium. 

Whether you’re a die hard college hoops fan with skin in the game, or the casual sports fan trying your luck at “that fun office pool with the bracket,” the NCAA Tournament dubbed “March Madness” is a major media event a kin to Caesar’s glory days. It draws you in with passionate players fighting for victory and keeps you there until the final basket has been cast.    

For the public and media – new and old – it is a content tornado that whips across network television, the Internet, radio, college campuses, office water coolers, and connected devices everywhere. And it is a great opportunity for marketers to leverage the power of “new media” and for consumers to experience it first-hand. 

I am a huge professional sports fan, but I don’t really follow college sports beyond the occasional inquiry to learn if my alma mater, Seton Hall, is doing well. Come March however, I become transfixed in highlights and updates morning, noon and night! I keep my bracket taped to my office door, another copy at home, and a third in my bag in case someone happens to bring up tournament updates and I need to account for new results. For me, it has all the excitement and suspense of playoff baseball when the Red Sox and Yankees are fighting for every win. 

March Madness also demonstrates the media madness possible when the right content is made available to consumers in a compelling way.  This year, even more tournament content is expected to appear online and viewed over mobile devices than ever before.  As a result, it is a great opportunity for marketers not currently tied to the annual tournament to explore and experience the power of “new media,” and its potential for their brand and products.  From viral videos of winning plays and at-the-buzzer reactions from local fans offline, to blow-by-blow blogging about the day’s battles, consumer promotions and contests, there is a swell of media opportunity. 

The “News Analysis & Commentary” section of the March 13 issue of BusinessWeek focuses on plans by CBS to attract millions of consumers to its “March Madness On Demand” for free tournament coverage online. BusinessWeek surmises that this year’s tournament could be a turning point for online video with the potential to attract the largest online audience ever for a sporting event. It also discusses the tournament as an opportunity for the Internet to showcase its advantages over television, including instant access to information, simultaneous viewing of games taking place at the same time and the opportunity to customize content to meet the consumers’ needs, from fair-weather fans to fiery fanatics.  

Regardless of your feelings about college basketball, March Madness is a valuable way to take in and weigh in on new ways technology is impacting how we experience this historical tournament that began back in 1939. While college players do battle on the court, it’s worth reflecting on brand marketing and the experiences and mediums that can be leveraged to communicate with broad or highly targeted consumer audiences. 

• Are you embracing interactive content and the viral nature of the Internet? 
• Are there communications assets not being leveraged across new mediums to reach new audiences?  
• In what ways can we as marketers create new dialogs with consumers?   

I believe the results and feedback to the media presenting tournament content will dramatically shape the expectations of consumer content delivery, and offer fair warning for marketers that even more innovative brand experiences will be required to effectively reach consumers in the future. It will be interesting to see if the madness leads to even more online video demand, and of course, the games are exciting too.  Here are some of the places I’m mad about for experiencing the NCAA Tourney… 

• http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/index
• http://sportsline.com/collegebasketball 
• http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab
• http://www.ncaasports.com
• http://www.aolsportsblog.com/category/march-madness
• http://digg.com/basketball/Watch_NCAA_March_Madness_Basketball_Online_FREE   
• http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1004668 
• http://www.bizreport.com/2007/03/march_madness_takes_advertisers_online.html  
• http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/default.htm    
• ESPN Radio 1050 AM (NY Metro Area) 
• Sirius Satellite Radio (the first radio broadcaster to provide national coverage of March Madness in its entirety) 

At the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco earlier this week, Nokia announced a new initiative to connect with gamers, and put cell phones on par with Nintendo’s DS and Sony’s PSP as a go-to mobile gaming device. Their head of game publishing, Gregg Sauter, promised a new delivery platform, a solid lineup of games from recognized publishers like EA and THQ, and a new site to support developers, complete with a blog.

What I found particularly interesting from Gregg’s announcement is that Nokia’s platform, dubbed N-Gage, will be compatible with tens of millions of devices that are already in the hands of users- even phones made by competitors LG and Motorola. Why wouldn’t Nokia, the world’s largest cell phone manufacturer, try to own the mobile gaming space by themselves? Couldn’t they build a killer handheld console that doubles as a phone?

The truth is, Nokia already tried that. And failed. In late 2003 Nokia released a dedicated gaming phone, also called N-Gage, to a disappointed and largely puzzled gaming community. The price point was twice as high as the day’s leading handheld system, GameBoy Advance. The graphics looked muddy, the user interface was terrible, and users had to hold the device sideways to talk on the phone (which earned N-Gage the nickname “taco”). To make matters worse, N-Gage games couldn’t be delivered wirelessly, and had to be purchased as separate cartridges—a huge no-no when it comes to mobile content. The combined crummy phone and sub-par gaming device shuffled off this mortal coil in 2005.

Similarly, Disney launched Mobile ESPN in November 2005, exclusive handsets and all. While we all remember the “guy at a wedding cheers loudly in reaction to the sports clip on his phone” commercials, I’ve never met anyone that actually owned one of these. It was taken out behind the barn in December ’06. Just like N-Gage, Mobile ESPN was resurrected last month as a subscription-based service for Verizon Wireless subscribers.

Clearly, these two companies have wised up after their embarrassing attempts at hardware. Content is king, and if the media machine behind the mouse can’t build a better phone, other media companies should take their cue and explore their options on bringing their IP to mobile devices as a third party. I’m interested to see how big media companies will deliver content to the next generation of mobile phones. Open-ended, smart interfaces, like Apple’s iPhone, coupled with a constantly growing wireless infrastructure, should open up the third screen in ways we’ve only dreamed of.

By now, we’ve all heard about JetBlue’s recent debacle. Yes, it was messy and, at worst, an example of what not to do in customer relations. However, I was quite impressed with their attempt at brand restoration.

Just like one of those foxy doctors on Grey’s Anatomy, JetBlue CEO David Neeleman wouldn’t quit trying to save his brand’s life. He apologized in print: full-page ads in the country’s most popular newspapers read like a Hallmark card from the “in the doghouse” selection (yeah, they make cards for that). Just in case you missed it, Neeleman also emailed the apology to everyone in its frequent flyer program, along with a link to a video apology hosted on JetBlue’s site. And, channeling his inner Kramer, Neeleman appeared on David Letterman’s Late Show a few days after the incident to make sure everyone in the country got the message of JetBlue’s shame and embarrassment. I’m actually a bit surprised Neeleman didn’t drop me a comment on MySpace too. Something like, “You like Van Halen?! I Like Van Halen! Good times. Hey, sorry about that ‘trapping people inside planes on Valentine’s Day’ thing. Won’t happen again.”

JetBlue’s apology covered a ton of ground quickly, and reached today’s connected consumers through a variety of media. At their desks, leafing through the paper over coffee, even zipping through Letterman DVR’d from the night before, everyone got the same message: JetBlue’s sorry, and will do their best to not let it happen again. This effective use of multimedia probably saved more than a few customer relationships. I know plenty of people that will still happily fly JetBlue.

Time will tell if JetBlue can rebuild its quirky, “airline for the common man” image, but all media professionals can learn from the way they handled the apology. Just spending a few minutes in front of a camera won’t do the trick anymore. Nor will a simple email blast. Because consumers have an unprecedented level of choice in their media consumption, we have an unprecedented number of options to reach them—and more competition for their attention than ever before.

JetBlue found a winning combination of media vehicles to tell a very important message. It’ll be interesting to see how many companies were taking notes, and use a similar tactic to introduce a new product or service.

How many times have you looked at your pay stub and thought, “How can I make the most of my paycheck?” Tackling all of the options and understanding the jargon can be confusing. In order to help employees optimize the money they make, ADP® Employer Services (ES) partnered with the American Payroll Association (APA) to educate employees through National Payroll Week.

Each year, the APA hosts National Payroll Week in honor of America’s wage earners, their companies, and the payroll professionals who ensure that America’s workers are paid accurately and on time. As a payroll and human resources outsourcing partner to thousands of organizations, National Payroll Week is one way ADP helps to support its client’s most valued resource - their employees. As a partner in this event, ADP, for the past several years, has developed a joint public relations program with the APA to support America’s workers. In 2002, ADP and the APA developed a Web site, called MyPaycheck which provides workers with information on how they can more effectively manage their income. For the past four years, Cohn & Wolfe has been charged with the task of promoting the Web site during National Payroll Week and positioning ADP and APA spokespeople as authorities on payroll issues.

The 2006 National Payroll Week campaign provided America’s workers with tips on Payroll 101: What to Know When You’re Entering the Workforce. There were two primary drivers for determining the success of this campaign.

• First, audience reach for the ANR and the VNR. The ANR posted impressions of 6,134,405 with 926 airing. As of the end of October 2006, the VNR has reached more than 3 million viewers [3,666,218] in 307 markets including Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Houston. The VNR also was shown on the Pax Network, a 24- hour cable and satellite network that delivers Pax network programming to local stations.

• The second measure of success was page hits to the MyPaycheck Web site and the National Payroll Week Web site. From August 30, 2006 to September 13, 2006, the MyPaycheck Web site attracted 17,991 visitors. For the week of September 4, 2006 (National Payroll Week), the National Payroll Week Web site received 102,909 page views [2,084,158 hits]. This is an increase of approximately 52% from National Payroll Week in 2005.