Wolf Tracking

Yesterday, Merv Griffin passed away at 82 years old.

Known as the “inventor” of television games shows, Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune were Mr. Griffin’s brainchild. His death comes at an interesting time…some many are calling a television game show revival.

What traditionally was TV “fluff” geared towards the early bird dinner audience, TV game shows have experienced a renaissance period in the past few years starting with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which averaged a jaw-dropping 27.9 million viewers during its 2000 heyday.

Today, there are an abundance of game shows appearing on primetime TV. NBC’s Deal or No Deal and Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? averaged 14.8 million and 12.5 million viewers, respectively, last season. This summer has already spawned two more breakout hits: NBC’s The Singing Bee and Fox’s similarly themed Don’t Forget the Lyrics! And there’s more to come, with the Power of 10 and Crosswords set to debut.

All of these shows are cash cows for the TV networks. Taking very little money to produce, they can be geared to a very specific demographic – mainly 25-45 years old household purchasers.

According to Ellen Seiter, author of Television and New Media Audiences, people simply like watching others win, and love watching them lose. Also, she adds, game shows are universally accessible, meaning you don’t need to be invested in the program every week or day, making them “ideal for group or workplace” viewing.

Of course, today’s game shows also include audience feedback – polls, contests and enter to be applications available via social media – further bringing viewers into the show. For example, on Deal on No Deal, you can text in your choice of lucky cases to win $10,000. You can also play the game online.

Ultimately, with the death of Merv Griffin and traditional TV game show production, the door opens for the next generation.

I’ve never been as obsessive about video games as most of my friends, in fact I’ve never bought a video game console. It’s not that I don’t like playing video games, I can get as addicted as the next guy once you hand me a controller or Wiimote. I just haven’t seen the need to spend hundreds of dollars to get a console and library of games that I’ll probably ignore within five years.

There are millions of people just like me who haven’t seen the need to keep up with latest video game consoles, particularly as the competition to attract hardcore gamers with graphics and elaborate roleplaying scenarios made the games too complicated for casual players to enjoy. That’s why Nintendo’s strategy to get out of the graphics rat race and simplify their games was such a brilliant stroke - rather than compete directly with Sony and Microsoft for a limited market, they broke down the walls of that market and went after all the neglected fans like me who prefer simplicity.

Last week at E3, the premier video game event of the year, Microsoft made a few announcements that show they’re not going to let the Wii keep all the unconventional gamers for themselves. This includes adding family-focused games like “Scene It?”, complete with less intimidating controllers. But the announcement that caused the most chatter was their partnership with Disney to offer 35 movies for download through the Xbox.

It’s no secret that the Xbox’s endgame is to become the central item of a full entertainment system in the digital home, and in that quest Microsoft will find itself butting heads with numerous media heavyweights. Cable giants such as Comcast and Time Warner are currently the main source of television entertainment in the home, and will fight tooth and nail to squash “over-the-top” threats to their position from Xbox, Apple TV and Vudu.

And what is there left to say about the PS3? It’s been a rapid fall from grace for Sony, who had astounding successes with the first two Playstation consoles but now can’t seem to find customers outside of the diehards who waited in line for over a week to get their calloused thumbs on a $600 monstrosity. As with the Xbox, the PS3 had a higher purpose for its parent company: tipping the scales of consumer favorability towards their Blu-Ray standard for hi-def DVDs. Yawn.

So do any of these changes make a skeptic like me actually want to buy my first video game console? I’m actually more intrigued by the news that there’s a new version of Mariokart on the way, complete with a wireless “Wii Wheel” to play the game, than the prospect of adding a third device into my home that can play movies. In other words, Nintendo is the only console manufacturer that doesn’t see their device as a stepping stone to larger media ambitions, so it’s no surprise that the Wii has proven to be most popular with today’s consumers. I hope it’s not too late to add it to my wedding registry.

On a typical NBC airing of Fear Factor back in the heyday of snacking on roaches and swimming with eels, everyone had and knew their role. Contestants grossed us out, the host initiated a sense of competition and the audience was grossed out. It got me thinking that a stint on reality TV would have been a better fate for Katie and the Couric Factor because she’d have a clear role.

This week, New York Times reporter Bill Carter penned the article; “Is It the Woman Thing, or Is It Katie Couric?” that examined Couric’s contributions eight months on the job. The headline was no doubt a softer jab than others have taken because of Couric’s first-mover status as a female network anchor, but a jab nonetheless when splashed in a headline.

I don’t really know why it troubled me enough to write, as I’m not a big fan of Couric, but it did. For years, I’ve been disappointed (like many) by the quality and focus of network and cable news. Somehow over the past two decades, it became way too ok to blur the boundaries between news and entertainment, making it much more difficult to hear or tell relevant news stories.

It also felt like a much bigger deal in years past when a journalist or producer made factual errors. I’ll never forget watching the network and cable coverage of Richard Jewel, the security guard that aided victims of the Atlanta Olympic bombing. He was crucified on national television, as anchors and morning news hosts alike cited the National Enquirer in their reports of his involvement in the bombings. That was a sad week for people in the news business.

How about a more recent example, the 2000 election? Gore won Florida!…No Bush won Florida!…No wait, we don’t know who won! Jayson Blair beat the plagiarizing drum at the New York Times and Dan the Man would have rather not served as the reminder about verifying sources. Those incidents only left bruises that faded over time.

As media scrutiny continues to center on Couric and the CBS News team, its worth noting that there are a lot of reasons why people no longer choose network news that have very little to do with casting. I happened to have recorded Couric’s first couple of nights as anchor and it reminded me of those live episodes of NBC’s ER and The West Wing. Nothing about the broadcasts felt sure-footed. I don’t think it was a “woman thing” and as a viewer the impression I was left with was that a ton of effort and fanfare was put into a party neither Couric nor the audience could enjoy.

If CBS really wants to catapult to number two, or fight for the top spot, it is well within reach. Consumers have way too much choice these days to ever be more than fair-weather fans of network and cable news. Just like social media, it is content that is king. Why do you think we love those minute-by-minute reminders about when the weather report will begin during the local news? I like to catch all three network reports and compare them. As viewers, we want what we want, when we want it.

What CBS and newsies should do is focus more on being better journalists and telling richer stories, and less on touting an anchor’s star power. It would be incredibly refreshing to see CBS to take a team approach like the New England Patriots. No one really likes coach Belichick, but everyone knows where he stands — and that if you’re standing with him you’re part of a team with a common goal. If CBS deepened its lineup with talented journalists like Cynthia McFaddon, Brian Ross, John Seigenthaler or John Quiñones, there would be more reason to watch because better stories would be told. Lose the gimmicks, set aside the splashy sets. If sets mattered, YouTube would not be nearly as popular as it is today. They can also better leverage technology, content and talent to strengthen local news lead-ins. Look at how quickly PerezHilton took off; personality and content go a long way locally and globally.

Couric’s most memorable moments occur when she’s truly committed to the story. Ironically, when you’re anchor those high-touch interviews that create real, appealing moments are often reserved for arms-length guests. With so many stories to tell, all networks can do a better job of prioritizing stories that matter. It is an exciting time to be a journalist. It is also an incredibly difficult time to be a journalist! The biggest turn-on as a viewer is seeing reporters passionate about telling worthwhile stories and getting them right. It’s the biggest rush we as media professionals get working with journalists.

Good stories create moments that can live online and in offline conversations. There was some great reporting during the coverage of Hurricane Katrina and it brought people back to network news. There are plenty more stories left to tell and journalists like Couric have a responsibility to pursue and share them. CBS and other news sources can do better job regardless of if there is a man or women at the helm. An anchor can keep a team grounded, but it takes a whole crew working together to man or wo-man the ship.

Here’s an interesting perspective on the role of media watchdogs and the company they keep; http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itgic/0401/ijge/gj05.htm

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.

As the widely hyped and attended 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) comes to an end, I, like just about every other PR guy, sifted through the week’s tech press to read about the exciting new gizmos and gadgets I can add to my wish list of toys. I was surprised to find that the highlight of this year’s show wasn’t at the show at all – it was at Macworld!

After years of widespread rumors, Steve Jobs finally unveiled Apple’s iPhone on Tuesday – a device he touts as 3-in-1.

“Today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products,” Jobs said. “The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. The third is a breakthrough Internet communications device. These are not three separate devices. This is one device and we are calling it iPhone.”

iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and new software, enabling users to control everything with their fingers.

“Today Apple is reinventing the phone,” Jobs added.

According to CES attendees, “iPhone-mania” rocked the show as the implications of a mobile device, combining portable internet access, an iPod and a ground-breaking phone, were digested by industry players and quickly realized as a cause for concern.

According to traditionally conservative TIME, the industry’s fear is well founded. “Apple’s new iPhone could do to the cellphone market what the iPod did to the portable music player market: crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority.”

Two versions of the iPhone will be released in June, a 4GB version priced at $499 and an 8GB version priced at $599, available exclusively from Cingular.

My wish list is short this year, but boy am I excited for June.

Twenty-three years after the Justice Department broke up AT&T into seven regional bell operating companies, Ma Bell is back. Thanks to the FCC’s approval of AT&T’s $85.5 billion takeover of BellSouth, the largest ever in U.S. telecommunications history, AT&T is once again the world’s largest telecom company. This approval coupled with Forbes naming AT&T Company of the Year was a tremendous way to end an extraordinary year for AT&T.

The Commission got it right when they concluded that the merger most likely will not result in any anti-competitive effects. Thanks to the power of social media consumers have the ability to voice their displeasure with corporate policies. Any company that attempts to block access to desired services and content will experience a very harsh backlash. Need proof? Ask Cox Communications.

A lot has been written about the concessions AT&T made to gain approval with Net-Neutrality topping the list. Some reports speculate that Congress may take up Net-Neutrality as an issue this year. While this issue may gain some traction with the Democratic leadership, we should not expect any legislation for two main reasons. First, the new Congressional leadership will be focused on the following priorities in the first 100 hours of their leadership – minimum wage, affordable school loans, Medicare and protecting social security.

Second, there is no need for draconian regulation since there is no evidence of problems. Market competition is working, providing more and exciting choices to consumers. Putting the reins on risk-taking is not only shortsighted but also wildly out of sync with our collective identity. Entrepreneurship and innovation have not only driven the technology and business advances, but they also define our national character. If we regulate emerging competitive markets such as VoIP and IPTV, we risk reduced capital investments, delayed or canceled deployment of new convenient services, limited choice and increased costs for consumers.

So don’t fear Ma Bell, welcome her back!

Season’s greetings from the Corporate & Technology practices at Cohn & Wolfe and welcome to Wolf Tracking, where we follow the ever-evolving media landscape.

2006 has been a very eventful and exciting year. We’ve seen dramatic shifts in the corporate, telecom, media and tech arenas, all of which continue to drive a changing marketplace. While the media play an ever important role in shaping society’s opinions and actions, new technologies and evolving consumer preferences are creating new opportunities as we head into the New Year.

On the technology and media front, we saw, as research group Stifel Nicolaus reported, increased disruption of the telecom and media sectors due to greater broadband penetration and a new and exciting set of voice and video applications.

Network TV had its lowest weekly ratings ever in July. CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox averaged 20.8 million viewers during the average prime-time minute the week of July 4th, according to Nielsen Media Research. That sunk below the previous record of 21.5 million, set during the last week of July in 2005. The music radio listening audience continued its multi-decade decline, dropping 8.5% this year alone, and newspaper circulation, which peaked in 1987, is declining faster than ever and is down another 2.6% so far this year.

YouTube announced in July that viewers are now watching more than 100 million videos daily on its site creating an enticing lure that resulted in Google’s $1.65B acquisition. eBay’s Skype service has 136 million users and grew by 122% in North America in 2006.

This market disruption fueled additional consolidation among telecom and media behemoths. AT&T merged with BellSouth. Time Warner and Comcast absorbed Adelphia’s assets and as recently as December 5, Time Warner confirmed that the company is actively exploring new Internet content and ad technology deals. Not to be left out of the party, major newspaper consortiums entered into agreements with Google and Yahoo! looking for ways to remain relevant to today’s consumers.

Business was far from usual for corporate America in 2006. Changes in communications, product demand, partner liability and ethics grew exponentially faster. In the beginning of the year, most corporations did not have the words “pretexting” and “option backdating” written into their crisis plans. As a result, well-recognized global brands publicly struggled to adapt to the power of the social media landscape.

Now, anyone can self-publish their own stories, anecdotes, and recommendations online in the form of blogs, videos, and forums. This is the emergence of social media and it’s spawning a new set of influencers. In fact, Time magazine’s 2006 Person of the Year is “You” – meaning “You,” the self-publisher, are responsible for the explosion of content on the Internet. Now people have more information on topics that interest them. This shift in power has produced a fragmented network of influence for both corporations and traditional media outlets as consumers and professionals turn to the Internet as the primary source of information intake and output.

Dell realized the power of social media when its faulty laptop batteries became an unwieldy crisis this summer. In November 2005, Dell knew about the faulty batteries but believed that the problem was limited. By spring 2006, an army of bloggers pointed to Dell’s battery situation but the company failed to address the issue in time. In June 2006, a video surfaced online showing a Dell laptop exploding into flames. It quickly became the number one topic in the blogosphere and resulted in reporters jumping on the story leading to thousands of negative media reports. Shortly there after, Dell begins the largest battery recall in history – 4.1M – which was estimated to cost $200M-$400M.

At Cohn & Wolfe, we help leading brands navigate this ultra-competitive environment to build lasting and meaningful connections with their core audiences. This has been a banner year for our team marking a renewed spirit and enhanced credibility evidenced through industry leading campaigns. We have been working tirelessly to grow the practice while delivering outstanding client service and this success is a testament to our talented group of professionals that has grown significantly this year. We have pioneered new ways to leverage social media to form relationships with consumers and stakeholders. In addition, working with The Venice Project, the latest venture from serial entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis – aka, the guys behind Skype, has put us at the forefront of the evolving video entertainment market.

We hope that your 2006 was as exciting and successful. 2007 holds a great deal of promise with all indications that we are in the midst of a “Goldilocks” economy; not too hot, not too cold.

We encourage you to explore ways that your business can monitor and leverage social media tools and platforms. If you are a public company here are some rules to consider:

Monitor Information Disclosure
- Set up a policy on blogging immediately and align it with compliance laws/corporate rules
- Search the depth and breadth of the blogosphere to uncover nuggets of information not found among key online influencers

Be Transparent in Online Communications
- As Wal-Mart has shown us, it never pays to produce fake blogs to promote a corporate brand
- Avoid marketing speak and communicate in a conversational matter
Consider Outsourcing the Blog Function
- The Blogosphere is changing every minute and its nuances and protocols are continually redefined
- Companies have started to outsource blogging/social media functions to PR experts who can optimize online content and navigate the blog universe
- New technology solutions, such as Cohn & Wolfe’s TruCast system, are helping companies monitor, analyze and act upon information that appears in blogs. Please let us know if we can answer any questions or help you navigate the evolving media and influencer landscape. We wish you the best during the Holiday Season and look forward to an even more fulfilling year in 2007.Happy Holidays!

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) may not be a company you’re familiar with, but there’s a good chance you get a paycheck with their name on it. ADP is the top provider of payroll services in the U.S., processing 24 million paychecks domestically and 32 million worldwide. Despite its enviable market share, ADP faces growing competition and challenges to its leadership. According to analysts, the company’s current problems are rooted in its more successful past. Until 2002, ADP boasted 165 consecutive quarters of double-digit earnings growth, a Wall Street record. Cohn & Wolfe created a communications strategy to take this media-shy Fortune 300 company and embark on its most strategic communications initiative to date, leveraging the company’s greatest asset—its wealth of payroll data—to build awareness of ADP, its brand and its leadership.The ADP National Employment Report (NER) officially launched May 3, 2006, providing an alternative measure of private employment in the United States.

To develop and maintain the report, ADP partnered with Macroeconomic Advisers, LLC (MA), one of the nation’s leading economic consultancies founded by former Governor of the Fed, Larry Meyers. In less than eight months, C&W has generated enormous awareness of ADP’s brand and positioned the company as the leading provider of employment services and meaningful employment data on Wall Street.

“The methodology that they [ADP] use is probably the best that we’ve ever seen.”
—Mark Vitner, senior economist, Wachovia from CNBC, July 11, 2006

Since the NER’s launch on May 3, 2006, media coverage has been the sole vehicle supporting this index, which has garnered coverage in more than 2,000 news stories, driven more than 100,000 unique visitors to the Report’s Web site and has been directly attributed to generating significant new sales leads for ADP. The Report is covered each month on CNBC’s Squawk Box and talked about on nearly every CNBC news show on release day. The NER receives consistent print media coverage in outlets such as Associated Press, Bloomberg, BusinessWeek, CNBC, Dow Jones, Financial Times, Forbes, Investor’s Business Daily, Marketwatch, New York Times, Reuters, U.S. News & World Report, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal. The Report receives regular coverage in many of Wall Street’s most influential blogs, including Wall Street Journal’s MarketBeat, Financial Watch, Econbrowser, First Draft and The Big Picture.

We successfully established credibility among key influencers – chief economists at virtually all major financial institutions regularly revise employment forecasts on the heels of our monthly release. As evidence, an NER consensus has been established by key influencers and can be accessed through any Bloomberg Terminal. The NER has become an important data point each month that is included in nearly all market stories and virtually every financial institution’s internal and client reports.

In 2006, we played an instrumental role in helping to grow Digicel’s business and support the company’s expansion efforts outside of the Caribbean. Executing a bold media relations campaign, we helped drive critical brand awareness for the Caribbean-based telecom provider by evolving their positioning to an emerging International telecom player poised for tremendous success in key global markets, such as Haiti, Guyana and El Salvador.In fact, we generated numerous business feature stories in prestigious outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Time Magazine (please see headlines below).· USA Today: “Digicel Makes Cellphone Connection in Jamaica: No-frills style takes island by storm,” by Leslie Cauley, Aug. 28, 2006

· Wall Street Journal: “Cellphone Start-Up’s Aggressive Expansion: After Growth in the Caribbean, Digicel Group Moves into Latin America, Has Eye on the U.S.,” by Shawn Young, Sept. 21, 2006

· Time Global Business: “The Cell Islands: Phone Upstart has taken the Caribbean by storm,” by Kathleen Kingsbury, Nov. 20, 2006