“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-16 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Program scripts from week of March 28, 2016
Last week’s programs didn’t post for some unknown reason. My apology.
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Commercial Success
A quick quiz today. What’s the litmus test for whether or not a commercial succeeds? It’s whether or not you remember who the commercial was for after it’s over. Just that simple. Remember the advertiser and the commercial worked. But how do you achieve that oh so simple goal?
I wrote commercial copy four different radio stations over twenty years. I was taught all kinds of things that you “had to do”. You had to mention the sponsor about every ten seconds, never mention a phone number because no one remembers them, street addresses are less memorable than a description. 116 East Third Street is less memorable than “next door to the old Swanson Pharmacy downtown”. Oh, and you must never, EVER forget the “call to action”. That’s the “stop in today”, “sale ends on Thursday” kind of statement. They were believed to be a vital link in getting people through the door.
Recently, a group of neuroscientists were asked to do their science thing on what REALLY makes ads (specifically television ads) memorable. Their results aren’t really surprising but they put a lot of the old “conventional wisdom” to bed once and for all.
I will admit that I was perfectly happy to see “storytelling” at the top of their list. We remember stories better than facts, figures, and splashy graphics. You are nine percent more likely to remember the important stuff with good storytelling over bad. This is why I can never remember which car brand commercial was just on, they virtually never tell a story. Except for the Matthew McConnaghey Lincoln ones. They have a story I remember. Add a little intrigue or change of pace in your storytelling and retention goes up twenty percent. Add in some music that supports the story and gain another thirteen percent. Best music to use? Classic rock. Humor helps retention as well.
What did they discover didn’t really work? Snappy dialogue, puppies, and cute kids. You may remember the cute but you fail that primal challenge, what was the advertiser or product? Tricky, surprise endings can work against you as well. Some ads like to drag out who they are really talking about, then hit you with it at the end. Problem is the science shows that the surprise can actually keep you from retaining the brand information that follows. The better bet is to give a beat, that’s a second or two pause, and then do the branding.
Trying to do advertising by formula is always a bad idea. You just end up sounding like everyone else. But it doesn’t hurt to be aware of what makes things stick with the audience.
Oh, and the “call to action”? The scientists say it’s not really worth worrying about.
Home Viewing Numbers
So how do you count the media users in your house? For years it was easy. There was the household and whatever they watched on TV. The demographics within the house may change as years go by or based on what was being viewed, but it was a pretty simple bit of math for the audience tracking companies.
Today, that math isn’t nearly as simple. According to comScore, one of the leading companies in this business, they are now starting with a baseline number of 10 to 12 for every household. The reality is that it isn’t just about people anymore. It’s about devices. Companies like comScore and Nielsen are in the process of trying to figure out how to count all those different sources of media.
Think about this. Once upon a time, most houses only had one TV. When I was growing up we had a couple, but the majority of the TV watching was done together, so effectively still just one. The advent of recording programs and “time-shifting” created new issues for audience measurement. Today, for example, teenagers only watch about 20% of their television live. The rest is on some form of delay.
Even that barely scratches the surface of the issue. More and more of us, me included, are not watching TV exclusively, while we’re watching TV. I can drive Mrs. Phlipside a little crazy because I have my smartphone out while we’re watching. I’m checking IMDB for trivia about the movies we watch, or looking up who a particular actor is, or, to be perfectly honest, checking on a hockey score or whatever. From the measurement point of view, I’m now one person consuming media on two separate devices. Plus we may be recording something on our DVR. If Mrs. Phlipside is also checking something on her smartphone, plus my kid is doing likewise, suddenly there are a minimum of six measurable media consumptions going on. The industry term for this is “fragmentation”.
Online it’s isn’t getting any easier for the measurement industry either. While there is lots of advertising out there, how many eyeballs are actually seeing it? The growing use of adblocker software complicates the issue. Yes, the ad appeared on that page but did anyone actually see it?
The sheer volume of data available on media usage is the final mountain to climb. Trying to draw the appropriate information out for clients is very much the challenge of trying to take a sip from a fire hose. The media companies have been working hard to try and keep up.
What all this really means is that the days of thinking about “mass audience” have come to a close. Just inside your house, you may represent a half a dozen different audience groupings. Kind of makes me feel a little crowded.
Toonz For All
Now that we are almost to the end of it I guess I can come clean.
I hate March.
It’s not the weather, or the time of year or anything like that.
It’s March Madness. I truly, deeply, profoundly hate March Madness.
And I always feel bad about saying that. A long time friend is deeply involved as part of the team at the NCAA who puts the whole thing together. I know she puts a huge effort into it. But it doesn’t stop me from hating it.
My hatred begins with the fact that I’m not a basketball fan. Hoops is not a big sport in Pittsburgh, where I grew up. We haven’t had a pro team since the Pittsburgh Condors of the old ABA folded in 1972. Pittsburgh prides itself on being the City of Champions and we had a basketball champion in the 1967 Pittsburgh Pipers (the original name of the Condors), who won the very first ABA championship. But basketball has just never really taken off. Baseball, Football, Hockey and now Soccer are all doing nicely.
But it’s not really the basketball that makes me hate March Madness. I’m fine with people loving hoops. What really bugs me about March Madness is that it pretty much takes over the world. For an entire month! Games are broadcast on CBS, TBS, TNT, TruTV and the CBS Sports Network. But of course, it doesn’t end there. ESPN may not carry any of the games but they are wall to wall discussion of basketball. Not just during March but in the week or two prior to that as well. The other sports networks are much the same. And don’t even get me started on the whole “brackets” thing.
It’s like the whole world comes to a halt, for an entire month. It’s crazy. The Super Bowl has gotten ridiculous with its coverage as well, but that lasts barely two weeks. March never seems to end. Given that both the NBA and the NHL are in the final struggles to see who makes the playoffs, it’s amazing how they get the leftover air time. Put it to you this way, they get the kind of time soccer usually gets.
I’m not sure anything, including the NFL playoffs, gets the kind of tunnel vision coverage that the NCAA Basketball Championship gets. Which is really amazing to me since college basketball gets only marginal media coverage during the regular season. In fact, TBS and TNT don’t cover a single regular season college hoops game.
So for me, the month of March is inexplicable. I can hardly wait for it to end.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2016
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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