Helping The Helicopter Moms & Dads Let Go!

Here it is late-July… hotter than Hell.  Literally.

More than 35 years ago, I remember my marching band re-grouping and beginning another season. 

We would gather together early in the morning and practice no later than 9am to avoid the summer Georgia heat.

Back then the school year would begin around the third week of August. 

The newspapers right now are full of the Back-to-School ads.  The commercial breaks on cable nets from Cartoon Network to TLC to Nick at Night are filled with Back-to-School spots.

When I went over to Target to pick up some items the other day, the seasonal section of the shop had transformed from outdoor furniture and gardening supplies to notebooks, backpacks and iPad computer cases.

Soon school will be back in session and the morning rush hour traffic congestion will be back in full force… but at least the kids will be gone from the Starbucks I venture to for my morning coffee.

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a great article about how colleges are putting in programs to manage the “let go” point between new students and their helicopter parents.

The title of the article read: “Helping Mom and Dad Let Go”

It was fun reading it.

The article very directly quotes college leadership that the issue of the helicopter parents is rooted more deeply with the parent’s inability to let go than the student’s dependency on the parent.

The article features a picture of a young son smiling and a parent sobbing at an orientation gathering where the new students are being dismissed to go be students.

I would not be surprised if that son is not whistling, “free at last, free at last.” 

And if not that tune… then “100 bottles of beer on the walk, 100 bottles of beer…”

Rodney Johnson, executive director of parent services at George Washington University is quoted in the article about the challenge at-hand…

“Our job is to take the gas out of the helicopter, so that by the time their children become seniors, that helicopter is grounded, and the students can take care of themselves.”

Fascinating.

I will never forget how several students in the classes I have taught have shown up regularly with their moms tagging along. 

I also will never forget answering my cell phone one evening and having a parent demanding that I share their child’s test score before the child received the grades the next morning.

On more than a dozen occasions, I have had to explain to a parent that they have no right to know their child’s grades…their child is an adult and they have a right to privacy.

More than 90% of colleges and universities have specific staff teams designed around helping the helicopter parents cut those cords.

Twenty years ago, parent-specific programs were rare and hard-to-find.

I know for academic institutions there are little positive outcomes from this Boomer-Millennial co-dependency phenomenon.

BUT… marketers… there are opportunities for you!

(1)  Concierge service is an opportunity point of entry with Millennials groomed by their helicopter parents.  Without a question, W Hotels might have been the first ones to see the future unfold as their brand foundation support beam.

(2)  Personal, real, human assistance is driving Millennials to use travel agents.  Millennials post the highest use of travel agents of any generational group… even more than their grandparents.

(3)   Retailers should chuck the term “salesperson” and put on the hat of “personal assistant” to help the Millennials pick out everything from their wardrobe to new home décor… and just FYI… we are talking about the retail salesperson working at the Target-like retailers…not the custom tailor shops!

(4)  Healthcare players… everything from docs to doc-in-the-boxes to dieticians should be jumping at the chance to transform from care-givers to fitness coaches.  Obama-care pays for “proactive wellness” and healthcare players need to take hold of the Millennials whose helicopter moms are still making the lunches to take to work.

There are even more great opportunities and I would list them out… but then again, those ideas can be a great revenue source for EXPERIENCE over the course of the next several years!

Its hard to believe that it has now been close to 10 years ago, but my comrade Hope Schultz and I took on a project back then of a new bedding product that primarily was targeted to college students.

We went out and spoke with students at Northwestern, Vanderbilt and the University of Georgia.

While the key insight uncovered in the chat groups with the kids signaled great opportunity for our client… now that I think back about it, maybe that key insight could be used today in those university parent services program.

Those helicopter moms and dads just cannot let go. 

BUT alas, the bedding those kids sleep on each and every day and night on campus just might be a parental calling.

The key insight we uncovered?

The average male student changes the sheets on their bed… once a year.

The average female student changes the sheets on their bed… once a semester.

I am not making up what we heard.

If I were a helicopter mom right now… I would be dashing over to Target and buying up several sets of sheets, a 5 gallon jug of detergent, overnight shipping boxes and pre-paid return envelops…

Sounds like a great “back-to-school” promotional opportunity to me.

The Rise Of A New Change Wave

I post new blogs about once every 3-4 weeks now…

…But, I saw an editorial earlier this week in the Wall Street Journal and just had to carve out time this weekend and post what is the real story of what’s going on.

Just over two years ago as we were technically coming out of the Great Recession according to the Washington politicos, I cited five broad trends that I call “Change Waves” – very significant macro-trends that will challenge businesses and their brand dynamics over the course of the next 5-10 years.

One of the Change Waves is titled “High Tech And High Touch.” 

I cannot take full credit for the name.  John Naisbitt coined that phrase in his book Megatrends back in 1982. 

However with mobile media today, that change wave has taken on new meaning as technology truly goes mobile and the Cloud unites all of us together. 

I facilitated part of an off-site strategy planning session for a financial service client this past week and I highlighted the fact that technology advancement for the sake of technology advancement in and of itself, will not work.

Some of that group smiled… especially the VP of HR. 

BUT… back to why I am posting this in less than two weeks of the last posting…

There is a new “Change Wave” in the making that is surfacing quickly. 

It is something that is impacting the marketplace on a Global front… and certainly something that is influencing the Washington politicos in this election year.

The “Change Wave” is what I will title, “The Rise of the Working Class.”

Quickly, I have to qualify that this has NOTHING to do with UNIONS and ORGANIZED LABOR. 

In many ways, it also has NOTHING to do with SOCIO-ECONOMICS.

But it has A LOT to do with INDIVIDUALISM and SELF INITIATIVE.

In basic terms, the “Change Wave” is the rise of identity, mission, lifestyles and values of individuals who get up every day and go to work to earn a living… individuals taking charge and finding work… individuals placing values on earning versus taking… being active and not passive.

Yes… it shares some aspects of one of the “Change Waves” titled “Acquisition of Self”… but it moves the focus beyond “me” to “us” vs. “them”… note, not “we.”

Now to the editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

On Friday, July 13^th, an editorial ran titled, “The Middle Class Needs A Lifeline.”

The co-authors go by the names of Mr. Carville and Mr. Greenberg. 

Most of you reading this that are not part of the Millennial Generation, should know who these guys are… both were advisors to Clinton and they now have a “non-profit” group called, “Democracy Corps.”

At this point in time, I really could care less if you vote Blue or if you vote Red.

These two members of the Washington Politico simply don’t get what is rising up right in their midst.

As believers sitting high from their educational platforms, they look down upon the world beyond Manhattan and the world beyond DC and quickly conclude that those who have… not just wealth, but “educational perspective” and power… need to throw “a lifeline” of aid to keep the middle-class from drowning.

As “The Rise of the Working Class” takes shape, expertise and valued perspective will rapidly move from the halls of Harvard, Manhattan and Washington to “Joe the Plumber” and “Jean the Nurse.”

Trade organizations will evolve into a new format and what some might not even think is the same genre, but those organizations will command more power than the Senate Ways & Means Committee, the EPA and MBAs.

The Working Class will re-define “success,” “intellect” and “knowledge” with values centered around “initiative,” “dedication,” “just reward” and the simple phrase “I earned it.”

Icons of “success” are quickly moving away from import cars, private jets and hired help. 

And brands like Target, Starbucks, WalMart, KIA, Apple, Expedia and Facebook are unifying those that work to spend money wisely.

What I post in this blog is not just what I wake up in the morning expressing as opinion. 

What I post in this blog is what I observe when I get onto the elevator of my 9^th floor office in the chic shopping district of Buckhead-Atlanta and put away the keys to my Infiniti and pile in my Jeep Patriot to go out into Main Street USA and talk with people.

The “Aha” moment for me that indicated that what I describe is moving forward fast took place in a coffee house chat group I facilitated in Florence, South Carolina.

Florence, South Carolina is not only entrenched by what Carville and Greenberg term as the Middle Class, it is also populated by a true group of folks who have been tightly tied to the textile, distribution and manufacturing labor base.

In the coffee house chat group, we had a set of folks attend who currently use a credit union. 

Most of the participants were African-American and a share of the participants was not only made up of older Baby Boomers, but some were close to 70 years old.

Many of the individuals spoke about how they and their families were hit hard by the Great Recession.

But they quickly spoke about how much they valued the people working at the credit union because they took the time to sit down and put together plans with them so that they “could pull themselves out of the downturn and get back to saving money for better times.”

I was so intrigued; I probed their responses even more asking them to share more about what the credit union did for them.

One of the participants was just over 70 years old.  He was a veteran of the armed services and proudly wore a U.S. Veteran’s baseball cap. 

He shared with the group that he did not graduate from high school. 

Instead he enlisted into the army and served more than 20 years.

When he got out, he went to work in a manufacturing plant and he saved a significant share of his pay.

He literally said that he “pulled himself up by the boot straps” and worked to earn where he was today.

The rising Working Class is not comprised of just those working the 9-to-5 jobs.

It includes fast food workers, entrepreneurs, police and ER teams… it includes bank branch managers, quality control managers, accountants, attorneys, physicians and preachers.

It includes people that are standing up and saying “enough is enough” and if the government and corporate offices cannot do it, we will do it ourselves.

They not only run from any lifeline offered… and God forbid if it comes from the academic and political “elite”… they resent it.  

Brands that embrace them, recognize them, admire them, respect them, thank them and reward them will see their brand sales rise.

Here it is on a late Saturday afternoon and after saying I would NOT work this weekend, I did.

So once this posts, I will pour my Jack and Coke Zero and make a toast to my brothers, sisters and peers who strive hard, sweat a lot and stand proud… here is a toast to the Working Class…

Something tells me that Washington and academic elite are in for a wide awakening experience.

Cheers!

The Media World Is Changing Faster Than We Think!

One of my first strategy projects back in my days at Time-Warner involved projecting out just how much satellite television would gain over cable television.

Time-Warner knew at that point that the smaller-sized satellite dish was going to provide a more price-affordable option for DirecTV and Dish to market to consumers.

The big seller at that time, was that satellite was providing access to a vast array of networks that cable simply could not provide. 

The prediction was that the satellite providers were likely to take over about a third of the market… and in some cases, could take over up to 50% share.  Those higher markets being less populated more dispersed population groups. 

I presented the study at an executive meeting at the old Time-Warner building in NYC. 

Since then, a couple of interesting events took place…

(1)  Expanded broadcast access with a set of new players entering into the competitive mix… the most pronounced being AT&T with U-verse

(2)  The roll out of broadband cable

(3)  The melding of conventional television with Internet programming

As a result, many of the unique selling claims that the satellite providers touted quickly became of little differential value. 

Not only did cable expand its channel offerings, but a greater variety of high-definition channels and DirecTV’s football package were no longer unique to just satellite access.

Satellite providers also lost out big time on the marketability of their user base to local and regional advertisers.  They provided limited local access and never netted enough penetration on a local level to break out their served geography in satellite zones aka cable zones. 

There is a story about the satellite and cable providers that ran over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal. 

The article notes that the satellite provider stock is trading at 10 times forward earnings estimates versus Comcast trading at 15 times and Time-Warner at 13 times.

The article also goes on to say that the satellite business in the U.S. has reach market majority and what is keeping DirecTV and Dish afloat is expansion in less penetrated, more rural markets like Latin America and the developing nations in Asia. 

They often say that when times get tough, enemies become friends. 

A little over a year ago, I had lunch with two Comcast sales reps. Now I must qualify quickly that I paid for my lunch and they paid for their lunch. 

Listening to these two reps tell me about the new alignment of Comcast with DirecTV and Dish reminded me of listening to high school buddies the Monday after their high school football team beat out the cross-county rival.

These boys at lunch were very excited to tell me that now advertisers buying Comcast would also have coverage on DirecTV and Dish.

The media world in 2012 still lives in the mass marketing days of the past. 

These folks continue to get pumped that bigger is always better.  I sometimes wonder if they mix Viagra with their martinis they sip while lunching together.

A year ago, when I responded to the Comcast reps and said that was good that they were merging audience delivery, I also highlighted how much more effective they could make the zoned buys. 

Quickly the smiles faded from their faces. 

Zoned buys?  Why would you want to make a zoned buy?  Buying Comcast market-wide provides “better delivery” than the network affiliates.

When I asked them if they found value in targeting their media buys against niche market segments, they quickly replied “yes,” but they could much more effectively deliver “Adults 25-54” through a full market buy than by cable zone.

Okay.  Whatever.

I presented that research study to the Time-Warner executive team back in 1998. That was 14 years ago.  What was seen as a threat back then, never really materialized.

I might be going out on the ledge with this prediction, but 14 years from today… July 8^th 2026, I will put $100 on betting table that “mass marketing” cable television will be in a similar position as DirecTV and Dish today. 

It is true that when times get tough, enemies become friends. 

Problem is, new “enemies” rise up from out-of-no-where and soon the old enemies fade away.

Maybe when what we term as “Generation ZOOM”… the next generation following the Millennials who were birthed from 2000 forward… hit the business world starting about 10 years from now, they will finally revolutionize the media world in getting the sales team operating from a new marketing audience paradigm. 

I will also bet that 14 years from today, those satellite dishes will be stocked up in the back storage room of the Smithsonian along with the 8-track and cassette tapes, non-flat screen television sets, desk-top computers and CD players. 

By the way, I also read an article that it looks like Apple will be re-tooling the docking ports on the next wave of iPhones hitting the market this fall. 

Add to that Smithsonian storage room the iPhones produced since intro as well!

Pssst… the media world is changing faster than we think … literally!

Marketing Alone A Brand It Cannot Change

This blog entry is really written only for CEOs. 

If you fill a marketing slot on the client side or you work on the agency side of the business, you are welcome to read this blog entry… but it’s not been written for you.

Most of the EXPERIENCE client relationships are built with CEOs. 

Marketing people think that they are brand engineers, but in reality they are not. 

If you are moved to get out a poster board and magic marker and jot this down… do it.

Marketing alone a brand it cannot change. 

Two nights ago I saw a new Burger King television commercial.  It was for a new BBQ sandwich. 

It was airing on TruTV. 

I doubt seriously that the new investment group that now owns Burger King often gets out in the field and tours Burger King restaurants. 

Oh I am sure that they have been to a couple of their prototypes, but likely not the ones out there serving the masses.

The media person who placed the spot probably was hired away from Crispin’s media team when the account left the agency. 

Placing the Burger King spot on TruTV was right smack on target with the limited television viewership of the bulk of the Burger King customer base.

The spot however, was a trip through the world of fantasyland… and that was not the intended genre of the film crew.

Crispin and the Burger King CEO at the time got it right.

Burger King restaurants are dated.  The food is glutton tummy fillers.  Single, working class, 24/7 guys are the mainstay of their customer base. 

The new investment group owning Burger King believe that new commercials combined with some new food offerings can replace “Joe the paid-by-the-hour convenience store worker” with the “charming, white freckled-face family from the green-space, suburban home.”

I don’t think so.

My bet is that soon…

(a)  The current agency gets fired and blamed for the falling sales

(b)  Burger King goes back up on the selling block

(c)  The freckled-faced kids aren’t back on the film set doing any follow-up spots

A few Sundays ago, I purchased the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to read while sipping a Starbucks light roast. 

I had a “Tall” Starbucks light roast (that’s a small size) and I knew that the AJC would be quick read since there is truly limited text worth reading.

After 10 minutes, the coffee was gone and I had gotten through the news, but then tripped across an ad insert that caught my attention.

It was the Father’s Day ad insert for JCP… or as we have known it over the years, JC Penney. 

I knew that JC Penney had hired Michael Francis as their brand-change agent.  Michael Francis is the brand changer that propelled the Target brand to become a retail icon. 

Michael had given JC Penney a fresh new brand look including a much cleaner, more 2012 brand name and logo.  He also moved JCP from an endless stream of discounts to an everyday low price model. 

Michael Francis had served as President of JCP for six months.

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, there is an article titled, “Penney President Out in Shake-Up.”

JCP… that is probably returning soon back to being JC Penney… fired Michael Francis over sputtering sales. 

I think that Michael should pick up the phone and call Alex Bogusky and go have a drink. 

The WSJ goes on to report about how customers were just too much wedded to streams of discounts and could not handle marketing efforts that didn’t showcase price, price, price.

I would suggest that JC Penney step back and go tour its stores, review its product mix, look at its staff and the customer exchange. 

Take along with them that newspaper insert that ran a few weeks ago and hold it up in the middle of the store.

My bet is that there is a large discrepancy between what brand experience is currently being delivered in-store and what that insert conveys.

The power leadership at both JC Penney and Burger King are accountants. 

On the last page of the EXPERIENCE website, I post a simple set of key principles that we ask our partners to embrace.

I encourage CEOs to further ensure that their board, corporate leadership, operational, human resources and financial team members also embrace those core principles. 

The last principle reads, “Make a financial commitment to embark on the journey.”

Financial commitments are important. 

A commitment to embark on the journey and realize just who your brand is and what it can and cannot be is perhaps even more important.

My message to CEOs in this blog is very simple…

Marketing alone a brand it cannot change. 

(oh and p.s. accountants are not brand change agents!)

Moving A Brand Across Genre

I’ve written about it before.

Early that one morning when I received a phone call from a co-worker that said, “go turn on the TV and get a look at the new format the AOL folks created for Headline News.”

I ended up as shocked as my co-worker when we saw what the AOL folks had done to Headline News.  Clearly, they decided Headline News would be the Guinea Pig of their vision to merge the web with the broadcast nets.

I am sorry. 

It is a simple fact. 

It is really, really difficult for left-brain techies to understand the genre dynamics authored by right-brain set designers. 

The reason I bring that morning back to life is that I just received the actual rollout issue of HGTV Magazine.  The issue I received back in March was their “beta test” edition. 

In my work with home décor and design clients, I am fueling their marketing precision right now with some very cool target groups that go by nicknames like “High Society Designers,” “Blue Sky Homesteaders,” “Traditional Classics” and “Design Mavens.”

HGTV posts the highest readership with the “Design Mavens.”  This is that mix of DINKS, high-income families and trendy empty-nesters. 

When it comes to magazine readership, “Design Mavens” love to kick back with pubs like Food & Wine, Traditional Home, InStyle, Bon Appétit and Architectural Digest. 

Those pubs have their editorial text, but when you turn to the showcase section of each pub, there are lots of pictures spanning from side-to-side of the pub with some spanning across two full pages.

If you cannot picture this yet, all you need to do is hit the web and go over to Pinterest and take a look at the postings of “Design Mavens.”  Its like walking into the museum of interior design.

HGTV does a very good job with its programming… perhaps, in large part, because of the Canadian ties where it is way too cold most of the year to really care about much outside the front door of the home.

HGTV shows score well with their before-and-afters coupled with great hosts who add personality to the real estate.

 And while set-designers are right-brain driven, most marketing leadership is left-brain driven thanks to the MBA academics who craft the headsets to understand bottomline economics.

So here is where we come to the crux of the issue – literally!

Repeat after me what the consumers voice to marketers 24/7… “Don’t tell me about you… Tell me about me.”

Give me great stories in the magazine about wonderful homes, rooms and spaces that I can fantasize about and transport myself into to share the experience.

While there are some good ideas in the magazine, they are lost in what appears like the television network with uncontrollable ADHD. 

From cover-to-cover it features the personality stars, quips from the shows, featured products and ads promoting the shows. 

Literally the first story is titled “Who will be the next design star” and it features quips and quotes of each of the contestants. 

More than 75% of the articles feature a picture of one of the HGTV hosts and the stories are extensions of the television shows.

What I remember most about the Headline News fiasco is that it just might have been the springboard that got the AOL Team off the Time-Warner production sets.

In many ways, I really hope that I am wrong on this one. 

HGTV, the cable network and HGTV branded retail products are not only clients of mine, but I personally love watching HGTV.  I am addicted to watching many of the shows and craft my evenings around the schedule.

I subscribed to HGTV to add more to my times with Elle Decor, House & Home and Architectural Digest.

My subscription to this magazine is good for eleven more issues. 

To those who read this blog, I promise to provide an update of just what HGTV Magazine evolves into this fall. 

Just remember… for all the mistakes that AOL made with Headline News, that network is still airing!

The News Perspective of Good Ole Boys

How many reading this would put much trust in an article about McDonald’s coffee compared to Starbucks coffee… if Burger King wrote it?

Most every morning I grab a Wall Street Journal, a cup of coffee and a bagel to catch up on what’s all happening out there among peers and colleagues.

In this morning’s WSJ Marketplace, there is a front page article titled, “The Big Doubt Over Facebook.” 

There is also a set of illustrations of the Facebook thumbs-up icon, the American Idol logo, a drawing of People magazine and the New York Times and Yahoo! logos.

Even before reading the article, I made a bet with the guy sitting at the table next to me what the article would say…

(1) It would compare advertising on Facebook with alternative advertising options in conventional media… even with a comparative skew to print publications

(2) It would put an onus on Facebook to prove that advertising on it leads to sales… but place no comparative onus on conventional media

(3) It would feature ad agency commentary on the questionable character of Facebook advertising

Sure enough, I won the bet.

Early in the article, Michael Sprague, CMO of Kia Motors North America is quoted as saying, “if a consumer sees my ad (on Facebook) does that ultimately lead to a new vehicle sale?” 

WSJ then immediately follows the quote with…

“The concerns from Kia and other advertisers underscore the difficulties of measuring results of nascent-forms of social-media advertising.”

Ahhhh… Has the WSJ, other print publications and broadcast media players been able to produce result-producing measurement standards in what is now their post-nascent 40 years plus of being around?

The pictures adjacent to the article compare spending $1 million in generating 125 million impressions on Facebook with two, 30-second ads on American Idol, 6.5 full-page color ads in People magazine and 10 full-page color ads in the New York Times.

Course the article says nothing about the ability to post those 125 million impressions with screeners relative to very direct related behavior sets of the Facebook members. 

Perhaps the part of the article that I chuckled over the most was the set of commentary by “chief executives” from the hallowed halls of P&G, Unilever and WPP (“the world’s largest ad company”)… all of which “question the value of their investments” on Facebook.

Wow… I am sure that those are three true experts of the entrepreneurial wave of market inspiration (give me a break!)

Thanks to overseas markets, Unilever has been able to offset stale sales in the U.S. and the WSJ reported earlier this week that P&G is facing sales below projections for the first time this year. 

And perhaps, WPP can join up with the comparative analogy of the WSJ and Burger King… an ad agency group offering critique of a key player that has had pronounced impact on their declining client-sales.

My response can also be boiled down in simple statements…

(1) Show me another media vehicle that reaches 900 million readers-viewers

(2) Show me another media vehicle that provides advertisers with the ability to target their message against real-time behaviors relative to the advertisers product or service

(3) Show me another media vehicle that qualifies “reach” and “impressions” delivery against very specific audience dynamics… far more specific than gender and age

The title of the article perhaps says it all: “The Big Doubt Over Facebook” – maybe that doubt is truly focused more around whether Facebook will join up with the established “good ole boys” clan or start-up a rival gang!

The last perspective I will leave with is that in the same issue of the WSJ there is a full-page color ad for Blackberry that talks in tech talk about something the Blackberry does that “no one else can claim.”

Blackberry has a brand tagline:  “BE BOLD.”

Adjacent to the article about Facebook is a second article titled, “RIM Offers Peek At Its Next Phone” in which the first sentence states “the company is counting on the phone to stop the company’s slide” and that the event “drew a mostly tepid response that heightened concerns about whether the company’s products can compete with the iPhone.”

Ahhhh… you see any comparison in these two stories?

You Don't Reckon They're Cousins?

Two years ago I put a slide into my client “grounding sessions” titled “Rethink and Refocus.”

I call it a Change Wave – a foundation-changer that is rocking boardrooms, operational models and marketing dynamics. 

It causes businesses and brand teams to step back and question conventional models, innovate and create new ones.

There are some who call it a born-again experience. 

Those who do, often live in the shackles of the past and might voice the desire to embrace change, but in reality, unearth what they term as the “tried and true,” dust it off and believe that the past can be resurrected.

Most mornings now I read the Wall Street Journal. 

I give the newspaper a lot of credit.   

They have moved through their “grounding session” and now deliver a richer, more business dynamic news platform that is accessbile in print, online and on-air.

In this morning’s Media & Marketing section there is a story about AOL.

Before I tell you about the WSJ story, let me share a sidelight personal perspective of AOL.

More than 10 years ago, I had a first-hand experience of AOL in its acquisition of my past employer Time-Warner.

AOL acquired Time-Warner because it believed that it could transform the conventional media through the acquisition of a print and broadcast giant.  

It was only weeks after the announcement that a group of AOL techies took over CNN Headline News and unveiled a new look for the struggling news net.

I received a phone call at 5:30am that morning from a colleague who said “you’ve got to see what the (insert term here) those tech-freaks did to Headline News.”

What I saw was a junked-up website airing on the television set.

After nine more months of watching AOL attempt to “re-birth” the networks, I escaped and got out.

Today’s story about AOL is titled, “AOL Pushes To Grab TV Ad Dollars.”

On the surface, its really not a bad idea nor far-fetched venture. 

There is another article in the WSJ today about the Today Show’s winning streak ending.   

NBC and ABC are now battling it out for whatever food falls on the floor after being gobbled up by the cable nets and interactive media.

What AOL is doing is summed up in this quote from the article…

“AOL has teamed up with Nielsen to offer TV-like audience guarantees to marketers based on gross rating points.”

Gross Rating Points are… well gross. 

These are not even Target Rating Points.

Leave it to Beaver.   

Get the tech geeks married up with the historic ad media reps who for years have built their sales models around the story that the more reach and frequency, the more effective the advertising.

The more consumers you bang the message into their headset, the more the Zombies will rush out to buy the brand.

Forget the dialogue exchange and relationship dynamics of the market today. 

Forget the ability for rivals like Google and Facebook to micro-target.

Shoot… go embrace the way those aging television reps have been selling their media now for years…

“Rethink and Refocus” causes businesses and brand teams to step back and question conventional models, innovate and create new ones.

Then there are those corporate hi-rise marketing teams that get a thrill each time they look in the mirror and cannot even begin to embrace the Change Wave.

By the way, found out more details over the weekend about Arby’s teaming up with Crsipin Porter after Burger King kissed the agency … and the brand foundation… good bye. 

You don’t reckon that AOL and Burger King are being run by cousins do you?