Author: John Ayers

@RedHourBen REALLY GETS IT!

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment
Ben Stiller gets it!
He jumped into social media feet first, started swimming and never stopped.

As you may recall, I have spoken about the amazing value of celebrity personal brands, http://tinyurl.com/krep56 and yet so few seem to utilize this opportunity.
Ben Stiller does. Joining his comedic expertise, and leveraging his high-profile personal brand (not to mention his celebrity relationships) he is doing a solid job, and seems to be having fun in the process.  
Fans are enjoying it too.
@redhourben has 187,000+ followers and 1,2 mil facebook fans…http://www.facebook.com/BenStiller

Hope @redhourben and other industry tweeple (did I just use that term) join the next #entsm tweetchat. 
Tuesdays, 8PM PDT.  http://pitch.pe/21628 
John

Stiller: There’s Something About Twitter

Ben recruits pals for videos that mock – and embrace – social media

By JERE HESTER
Updated 1:34 AM PDT, Fri, Aug 28, 2009

 

BUZZ UP!TWITTERFACEBOOK

 

Stiller-640

Getty Images
In Mickey Rooney‘s hey day as the nation’s biggest box office star some 70 years ago, his most famous movies centered around him rallying pals to put on a show, usually in a barn.
Rooney, who is pushing 90, recently was recruited for another kind of impromptu let’s-put-on-a-show production – by Ben Stiller, who is churning out homemade videos satirizing social media.
In a hilarious YouTube short posted a couple weeks ago, Stiller tries to explain Twitter to a dumbfounded Rooney. “You find this fun and interesting?” he asks Stiller. “It’s not wholesome.”
On Tuesday, Stiller debuted a new video in which he lures Ryan Seacrest to a meeting under the pretense of discussing co-starring in a “bromance” movie – and instead asks for a “shoutout” to help him get more Twitter followers.

082709johnmayermugshot

Famous Mug Shots: John Mayer Tweets His Crime

Reunited

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041809ashtonkutchertwittercnn

Twitter Heads: Celebrities Who Tweet
“I don’t even talk to anybody that has less than 900,000 followers,” the “American Idol” host and popular tweeter snaps. “Call Al Yankovic.”
Stiller, who also chronicled the debut of his Facebook page in a video, is among the comic stars of his generation who are mocking – yet tacitly embracing – social media.
Conan O’Brien’s “Twitter Tracker” gag, which lampoons celebrity tweets, is one of the breakout bits from his nascent “Tonight Show” reign. Stephen Colbert tweets in the voice of his blowhard conservative character. “The amount of Twitter followers is directly proportional to your patriotic manliness,” reads one typical post.
The efforts show a sharp and timely comic sensibility, as well as a grudging respect for the power and reach of social media.
No less an authority than Sean (Diddy) Combs preaches that cultivating fans through social media is crucial to celebrity success. “The game has changed,” Combs told Reuters this month. “You have to understand how to be able to brand yourself… you need to have a great Facebook page”
While Twitter has proven a valuable source of serious information, most notably in distributing reports about the political turmoil in Iran, it’s content is increasingly entertainment driven, judging from the trending topics, Mashable notes. There’s also a growing belief in Hollywood that instant word of mouth on Twitter can determine whether some movies sink or swim at the box office.
Stiller’s videos mark an attempt to forge a direct connection with the fans he’s hoping will keep buying tickets for his movies, by giving them a few free laughs. The folks at Twitter are in on the joke, and are perhaps laughing hardest. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone posted the Stiller-Seacrest short on the site’s blog Wednesday.
Rooney, meanwhile, is riding the social media wave into entertainment history: His mass media career has taken him from silent movies to YouTube stardom. “There’s always more to learn,” he told Stiller.
Check out Stiller’s videos and see what the all the twittering’s about.

http://tinyurl.com/n9gcfw

 

Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Aug 27, 2009 8:13 PM PDT

TV entertainment channels double online promo spending

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

At this week’s #entsm tweetchat we briefly discussed the budgets of online spending for entertainment content as it relates to traditional media spending. This article speaks to the topic, which we will address again in future #entsm tweetchats. Join us Tuesdays, 8PM PDT.

TV entertainment channels double online promo spending
Upasana Kaur / Mumbai August 27, 2009, 1:08 IST

Online promotion spending by general entertainment television channels (GECs) have risen by around five percentage points as compared to the previous year — from 3-4 per cent to 8-10 per cent this year of the total marketing budget. Typically, this total amount for a GEC ranges between Rs 40 crore and Rs 90 crore, depending upon the channel.

“There has been more than a 100 per cent jump in the spends. All GECs are spending on the digital medium, as it is the only one from where you can get responses well and fast. It is a crucial strategy for creating brand awareness and reaching out to the young. It also has the advantage of becoming interactive. For channels like Colors and MTV, the online medium is playing a bigger role than it used to do earlier,” said Maneesh Mathur, Chief Operating Officer of P9 Integrated, a film entertainment marketing company.

“Although there are other established media like print and TV, there is a problem in terms of buying spots to promote a channel. For instance, Colors cannot buy a spot on STAR Plus to promote itself because they are competitors. So, they buy spots on AajTak and other news channels, where the basic reach is small. But to overcome this problem, the effectiveness of social networking sites have been realised, adds Mathur.

Viacom 18, for instance — which is promoting its channels MTV, Colors, Nick and Vh1 on the web — is spending almost 10 per cent of its marketing budget on online promotion. “Along with this, we have tied up with Orkut and Facebook in a non-commercial agreement, wherein both sides see a certain mutual benefit and value in the association. There have been certain other tie-ups (with the likes of MSN, Ibibo) wherein we have parted with our content and/or offered them tremendous branding and visibility and hence earned revenues for that,” said Anuj Poddar, Senior Vice President.

“GECs seldom use online platforms for marketing fiction shows, but for non-fiction shows, 10 per cent of the spends could be towards online promotions. I believe there’s scope for more,” adds Poddar.

When asked if there has been an increase in the investments by GECs, Poddar says: “Traditionally, GECs did not use the digital platforms much for their marketing activities, but we are starting to see this evolve. As shows themselves get hippier and the target group younger, marketing spends, too, will follow towards younger media. We have gone from zero to spending about 10-20 per cent for non-fiction shows.”

Channels like MTV, NDTV Imagine, Sony and Colors have also come with interesting content on the web like MTV’s Facebook Connect — Facebook users can post who they think their Celebrity Look-Alike is. If the judges on MTV Connected feel so, you get a chance to be featured on the show. On Roadies Battleground 2, watch MTV, note down the tasks, go to the website MTVindia.in and upload the video of yourself performing the task. If you impress the judges, they’ll let you participate!

Also, recently for the show Rakhi Ka Swayamvar they came out with a game where you can kiss Rakhi online. Around 81 per cent of the online Indian population, according to a report by Hungama Digital Media, engages in some kind of social interactivity on the web, making it an ideal place for the GECs to draw young crowds.

“For us, we see the net as a core platform to engage and entertain our audiences. The only difference is that in India, entertainment through the internet has yet some distance to go before catching up with TV. However, this catch-up is happening much more rapidly amongst the youth. Hence, out of our four brands, MTV right now is the most evolved online and by default, we now have a multi-platform approach to most MTV shows. Similarly for Colors, we do things online more with the non-fiction shows than the fiction shows, due to the differing TG. Interestingly, kids’ online presence is growing exponentially and hence we have created a very vibrant site for them at nickindia.com. Just like its TV avatar, nickindia.com now enjoys the highest time-spent per kid amongst all the kids’ channel sites,” says Poddar.

The online promotion for Sony’s Bhaskar Bharti and Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao is carried out by Ignitee Digital Solutions, a digital marketing company. Danish Khan, marketing head of Sony Entertainment, says: “We are spending 8 per cent from our total marketing budget on online promotions.”

Atul Hegde, Chief Executive Officer of Ignitee Digital Solutions, is also not surprised by the increase in spending. “I see a lot of viability for this trend to grow, as the target audience the GECs are targeting through social media are mostly in the age groups of 15-25 years and online is the best way to attract that target group.”

Posted via email from johnayers’s posterous

Brand Marketers Embrace Social Media – eMarketer

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

Brand Marketers Embrace Social Media

AUGUST 26, 2009

Measurement remains a challenge

The social media marketing bandwagon is filling up, according to the “2009 Marketing Industry Trends Report” from Equation Research. The survey of US brand marketers found the majority already using social media.

Some marketers were planning on adding social media activities over the next year, including 15% of respondents in businesses with fewer than 50 employees and 24% of those whose companies had at least 500 workers. But most brand marketers interested in social media were already using it.

US Brand Marketers Who Use Social Media Marketing, June-July 2009 (% of respondents)

via emarketer.com

Social media has changed (correction-is changing) the way we live, work and play. Therefore marketing strategies are also evolving… the difficulty is how, where, when, why.

The bottom line? FAST.

Thats what you need to know. Social media is changing fast… and statistics help us get a small grip on this massive/global communication surge.
Take a look at the full article and further graphs/stats at http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007246#

John

Posted via web from johnayers’s posterous

TV entertainment channels double online promo spending

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment
At this week’s #entsm tweetchat we briefly discussed the budgets of online spending for entertainment content as it relates to traditional media spending. This article speaks to the topic, which we will address again in future #entsm tweetchats. Join us Tuesdays, 8PM PDT.

TV entertainment channels double online promo spending
Upasana Kaur / Mumbai August 27, 2009, 1:08 IST

Online promotion spending by general entertainment television channels (GECs) have risen by around five percentage points as compared to the previous year ? from 3-4 per cent to 8-10 per cent this year of the total marketing budget. Typically, this total amount for a GEC ranges between Rs 40 crore and Rs 90 crore, depending upon the channel.

?There has been more than a 100 per cent jump in the spends. All GECs are spending on the digital medium, as it is the only one from where you can get responses well and fast. It is a crucial strategy for creating brand awareness and reaching out to the young. It also has the advantage of becoming interactive. For channels like Colors and MTV, the online medium is playing a bigger role than it used to do earlier,? said Maneesh Mathur, Chief Operating Officer of P9 Integrated, a film entertainment marketing company.

?Although there are other established media like print and TV, there is a problem in terms of buying spots to promote a channel. For instance, Colors cannot buy a spot on STAR Plus to promote itself because they are competitors. So, they buy spots on AajTak and other news channels, where the basic reach is small. But to overcome this problem, the effectiveness of social networking sites have been realised, adds Mathur.

Viacom 18, for instance ? which is promoting its channels MTV, Colors, Nick and Vh1 on the web ? is spending almost 10 per cent of its marketing budget on online promotion. ?Along with this, we have tied up with Orkut and Facebook in a non-commercial agreement, wherein both sides see a certain mutual benefit and value in the association. There have been certain other tie-ups (with the likes of MSN, Ibibo) wherein we have parted with our content and/or offered them tremendous branding and visibility and hence earned revenues for that,? said Anuj Poddar, Senior Vice President.

?GECs seldom use online platforms for marketing fiction shows, but for non-fiction shows, 10 per cent of the spends could be towards online promotions. I believe there?s scope for more,? adds Poddar.

When asked if there has been an increase in the investments by GECs, Poddar says: ?Traditionally, GECs did not use the digital platforms much for their marketing activities, but we are starting to see this evolve. As shows themselves get hippier and the target group younger, marketing spends, too, will follow towards younger media. We have gone from zero to spending about 10-20 per cent for non-fiction shows.?

Channels like MTV, NDTV Imagine, Sony and Colors have also come with interesting content on the web like MTV?s Facebook Connect ? Facebook users can post who they think their Celebrity Look-Alike is. If the judges on MTV Connected feel so, you get a chance to be featured on the show. On Roadies Battleground 2, watch MTV, note down the tasks, go to the website MTVindia.in and upload the video of yourself performing the task. If you impress the judges, they?ll let you participate!

Also, recently for the show Rakhi Ka Swayamvar they came out with a game where you can kiss Rakhi online. Around 81 per cent of the online Indian population, according to a report by Hungama Digital Media, engages in some kind of social interactivity on the web, making it an ideal place for the GECs to draw young crowds.

?For us, we see the net as a core platform to engage and entertain our audiences. The only difference is that in India, entertainment through the internet has yet some distance to go before catching up with TV. However, this catch-up is happening much more rapidly amongst the youth. Hence, out of our four brands, MTV right now is the most evolved online and by default, we now have a multi-platform approach to most MTV shows. Similarly for Colors, we do things online more with the non-fiction shows than the fiction shows, due to the differing TG. Interestingly, kids? online presence is growing exponentially and hence we have created a very vibrant site for them at nickindia.com. Just like its TV avatar, nickindia.com now enjoys the highest time-spent per kid amongst all the kids? channel sites,? says Poddar.

The online promotion for Sony?s Bhaskar Bharti and Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao is carried out by Ignitee Digital Solutions, a digital marketing company. Danish Khan, marketing head of Sony Entertainment, says: ?We are spending 8 per cent from our total marketing budget on online promotions.?

Atul Hegde, Chief Executive Officer of Ignitee Digital Solutions, is also not surprised by the increase in spending. ?I see a lot of viability for this trend to grow, as the target audience the GECs are targeting through social media are mostly in the age groups of 15-25 years and online is the best way to attract that target group.?

Brand Marketers Embrace Social Media – eMarketer

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

Brand Marketers Embrace Social Media

AUGUST 26, 2009

Measurement remains a challenge

The social media marketing bandwagon is filling up, according to the “2009 Marketing Industry Trends Report” from Equation Research. The survey of US brand marketers found the majority already using social media.

Some marketers were planning on adding social media activities over the next year, including 15% of respondents in businesses with fewer than 50 employees and 24% of those whose companies had at least 500 workers. But most brand marketers interested in social media were already using it.

 

US Brand Marketers Who Use Social Media Marketing, June-July 2009 (% of respondents)

via emarketer.com

Social media has changed (correction-is changing) the way we live, work and play. Therefore marketing strategies are also evolving… the difficulty is how, where, when, why.

The bottom line? FAST.

Thats what you need to know. Social media is changing fast… and statistics help us get a small grip on this massive/global communication surge.
Take a look at the full article and further graphs/stats at http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007246#

John

Trend Topics Signal Twitter’s Turn Towards Entertainment

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

Most general purpose online services start as tech biased. After all, early adopters on the internet are the tech-savvy crowd, so sites such as Digg (Digg

) or Twitter (Twitter

) inevitably start out overcrowded by tech-related topics, as well as detailed examinations of the site’s own technical intricacies and issues.

If a site breaks it to the mainstream, things change. Digg admins have put in a lot of effort to remove the tech bias, and now Digg is truly a general purpose news site. On Twitter, however, things seem to be moving in a different direction.

The average Twitter user doesn’t seem to be obsessed with Twitter’s server failures or the latest gadgetry (topics such as these overwhelmed the early days of Twitter). Nope, the majority of Twitter users are talking about the latest cinema/TV premiere or sporting event.

One can easily notice this by following the recurring Twitter trends. At this moment, some of the trends are District 9, Inglorious Basterds (movie premieres) and True Blood, Miss Venezuela, and Miss Universe 2009 (TV series & events). This trend has been increasingly noticeable in the last couple of months: with Twitter truly hitting the mainstream, it reflects the views and interests of a very broad audience; an audience that is primarily interested in entertainment (at least in the absence of a major news event).

It is also noticeable in the list of top Twitter users on Twitterholic. Once populated solely by tech figures, today it’s the A-list of Hollywood celebrities. On Twitter, real-world fame has overtaken online fame, and no techie will be able to overtake Ashton Kutcher when it comes to number of followers.

Is this a bad thing? Not really; with such a wide audience, it’s only logical that Twitter’s trending topics reflect the topics seen on, for example, the front page of Yahoo.com or the cover of Entertainment Weekly. But, as its audience grows, Twitter will need to somehow make sure that all topics are equally represented in the trends, otherwise it’ll always alienate a portion of its users.

via mashable.com

In this great piece by Stan Schroeder for Mashable… the tipping point is quite evident. Twitter is now a true force in entertainment. Watch this #entsm (entertainment social media) momentum pick up as we enter the holiday season, as the economy eventually kicks in, as social media matures and as the masses take to the twitter (and all social media) community.

Discuss the Twitter Effect and other key topics at the weekly #entsm Tweetchat, Tuesdays, 8PM PDT

Follow @johnayers #entsm

Posted via web from johnayers’s posterous

Trend Topics Signal Twitter?s Turn Towards Entertainment

/ John Ayers / Leave a comment

Most general purpose online services start as tech biased. After all, early adopters on the internet are the tech-savvy crowd, so sites such as Digg (Digg

) or Twitter (Twitter

) inevitably start out overcrowded by tech-related topics, as well as detailed examinations of the site?s own technical intricacies and issues.

If a site breaks it to the mainstream, things change. Digg admins have put in a lot of effort to remove the tech bias, and now Digg is truly a general purpose news site. On Twitter, however, things seem to be moving in a different direction.

The average Twitter user doesn?t seem to be obsessed with Twitter?s server failures or the latest gadgetry (topics such as these overwhelmed the early days of Twitter). Nope, the majority of Twitter users are talking about the latest cinema/TV premiere or sporting event.

One can easily notice this by following the recurring Twitter trends. At this moment, some of the trends are District 9, Inglorious Basterds (movie premieres) and True Blood, Miss Venezuela, and Miss Universe 2009 (TV series & events). This trend has been increasingly noticeable in the last couple of months: with Twitter truly hitting the mainstream, it reflects the views and interests of a very broad audience; an audience that is primarily interested in entertainment (at least in the absence of a major news event).

It is also noticeable in the list of top Twitter users on Twitterholic. Once populated solely by tech figures, today it?s the A-list of Hollywood celebrities. On Twitter, real-world fame has overtaken online fame, and no techie will be able to overtake Ashton Kutcher when it comes to number of followers.

Is this a bad thing? Not really; with such a wide audience, it?s only logical that Twitter?s trending topics reflect the topics seen on, for example, the front page of Yahoo.com or the cover of Entertainment Weekly. But, as its audience grows, Twitter will need to somehow make sure that all topics are equally represented in the trends, otherwise it?ll always alienate a portion of its users.

via mashable.com

In this great piece by Stan Schroeder for Mashable… the tipping point is quite evident. Twitter is now a true force in entertainment. Watch this #entsm (entertainment social media) momentum pick up as we enter the holiday season, as the economy eventually kicks in, as social media matures and as the masses take to the twitter (and all social media) community.

Discuss the Twitter Effect and other key topics at the weekly #entsm Tweetchat, Tuesdays, 8PM PDT

Follow @johnayers #entsm