Selling with Content

The failed content strategy of CNN

Hurricane Irene was bearing down on New York City, where I live, so I was clicking through the cable channels looking for news.

A CNN meteorologist said the path of the storm was heading for New York. Great, tell me something I didn’t know.

Click. An MSNBC meteorologist had the same information but was in a storm center surrounded by a lot of hi-tech monitors. He must know his stuff.

Click. A local TV station had a guy I had never seen introduced as, “the weather man you have trusted all these years.” I’m not sure I’ve ever trusted a weather man.

Click. The Fox station had a reporter broadcasting from a New York City subway station which had been just closed because of the approaching hurricane. She was interviewing a British family who were heartbroken to have their family vacation cut short. Their disbelief that the legendary subway system of New York, one of the greatest cities on earth, could be humbled by a storm was palpable. As a New York City resident I could totally relate. I sympathized with the tourists who had had their lives disrupted, just as mine was.

By realizing that television is fundamentally emotional medium Fox had created content that got to me on an emotional level. As the other news organizations fought out over which meteorologist had the best credentials, the most gear, or longevity, Fox was broadcasting the emotional side of the story. In case anyone has not noticed, Fox is winning the cable news ratings wars.

Here is a list of the number of people who watched the top 10 cable news shows in August 2011 as compiled by Nielsen. The top five shows are from Fox. In addition:
• MSNBC’s top performer, The Rachel Maddow Show, trails at #15, behind 12 Fox shows.
• CNN’s top performer, Anderson Cooper 360, trails at #25 behind 14 Fox news shows.

Here the top 10 watched cable news shows for July 2011:
1. The O'Reilly Factor Fox News -- 2.793 million total viewers
2. Hannity Fox News -- 2.059 million total viewers
3. Special Report with Bret Baier Fox News -- 1.815 million total viewers
4. On the Record with Greta van Susteren-- Fox News -- 1.658 million total viewers
5. Fox Report with Shepard Smith Fox News -- 1.576 million total viewers
6. Nancy Grace HLN -- 1.350 million total viewers
7. The Five/Glenn Beck Fox News -- 1.325 million total viewers
8. Your World with Neil Cavuto Fox News -- 1.231 million total viewers
9. The O'Reilly Factor (11PM Repeat) Fox News -- 1.179 million total viewers
10. Dr Drew HLN -- 1.140 million total viewers

In addition...
15. The Rachel Maddow Show MSNBC -- 974,000 total viewers
25. Anderson Copper 360--CNN -- 760,000 total viewers

With Fox’s right leading commentators and Republican connections the political implications of this, cannot be underestimated.

At trade conferences I have heard heard CNN spokespeople defend their low ratings compared to Fox in the following ways:
“Right wing issues are more black and white and are more easily dramatized.”
Ridiculous! A content strategy first attracts an audience, persuasion comes second.

“Offering a balanced approached is naturally is going to be less dramatic.”
Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! One of the most interesting things a news organization can do is to contrast opposing points of view.

In case anyone from CNN sill cares about ratings, it is easy to understand Fox’s content strategy because Roger Ailes, the man who build Fox from the ground up, wrote a book where he explains it. The parts of the book about television have nothing to do with left vs. right wing politics and everything to do with attracting audiences, gaining attention, and persuading.

Ailes recognizes that TV is an emotional medium and human beings, are emotional creatures. Here are some quotes from Ailes’ book, You are the message.

“Emotion is the double-edged sword of communication. When emotion is positive and genuine, there is no more constructive and powerful force of persuasion. But when emotion is negative or insincere, it creates a wall between the person sending the message and those receiving it.”

“People want to see a communicator have a range of emotions.”

“… facts provide the information and emotion provides the interpretation. You’ve got to bring something personal to the communication process. Otherwise, you’re wasting people’s time. You’re wasting your own time. To be a really good communicator, you have to start by knowing how you feel personally about what’s going on. Then, once you’re aware of your own emotions, you can more easily communicate in the right tone to others.”

CNN takes pride in not being politically left or right leaning and tries to run stories right down the middle of the political spectrum. Yawn. There is a huge difference between analytically balancing the left and right perspective versus passionately seeking the greater truth that supersede them both. Where is the passion CNN? It's all around and you ignore it. Go to any journalism school and hire the young passionate journalists desperate to fight for the greater truth that supersedes the left and right political agenda. Hire investigative journalists willing to risk it all to find stories that people can believe in. Are there any Woodward and Bernsteins at CNN today? I don't think so. There is no passion in mitigating between left an right. Go back to your journalism roots and fight for the truth.

TV is an emotional media. A successful content strategy must take that into consideration. To win the ratings war CNN will need to rediscover its passion.

The news experts who say that Fox is winning the ratings war because they have a right wing bias are simply wrong. Fox has found its passion, and that attracts an audience. CNN has not.

Wake up CNN!

See the top 30 cable news shows of July 2011

 

As social media saves the broadcast market, can it help yours?

As younger TV viewers watch a program, many of them chat about it on social media. Is this a big deal? Watching this happen as the parent of a teenager, I'd say maybe not. But it is actually proving to be important for the economic health of the broadcast industry.   

      All media companies are fighting ad commoditization because new digital media are being created every day. For example, this is happening with banner ads on consumer websites. In 2005, Bain & Company reported that there were over 200 million ad impressions offered to media buyers in the US. Three years later, in 2008, there were four times as many, or about 800 million offered. Why? Because the number of websites offering consumer advertising increased proportionally. During this same time, the cost of these website banners (as measured in CPM) dropped by half. It is simple supply and demand.  

     The television organizations are in the same boat. As more ways to view television become available, more ad inventory is added and ad prices drop. With an oversupply of digital media, media buyers have stopped putting as much value on "eyeballs" and instead now focus on finding media that delivers more "engagement."

     Media buyers are interested in social media, not because it is cool, but because it is highly engaging. Television programs with a social media trail have a certain proof of media engagement. If a TV viewer likes a program enough to watch it, that's good. But if a viewer likes a show enough to watch it and chat about it to friends on social media, it proves a higher level of engagement.

     Last May at the "Upfront Market" an event where broadcasters showcase their new fall programs and can sell up to 70% of their ad inventory for the year, social media was center stage. As reported in The New York Times:  

"At almost every turn this week, television networks are talking about being liked - not only in the ratings, but also on Facebook and Twitter. Social media have been an integral part of the sales pitch at the "upfront" presentations held by Fox on Monday, ABC on Tuesday and CBS on Wednesday."

    A TV show that can prove engagement can often keep ad pricing at a higher level despite lower ratings. A recent study by TV Guide measured the top ten "social shows" of the 2010-2011 season, and many were not the top rated shows. They are: 
 
 1. NCIS
 2. American Idol
 3. Criminal Minds
 4. Glee
 5. House
 6. Fringe
 7. Bones
 8. Castle
 9. Smallville
10. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

     As the TV world becomes more fragmented and broadcasters struggle against the commoditization of their ad inventory, social TV may be a big help in proving engagement and keeping their prices from sliding. 

OK, now let's talk about social media as part of the marketing at your company. The real value of social media is not that is "cool" but because it generates customer engagement. If social media has the power to create enough engagement to save the broadcast market ...think it can with yours? 
 
     Read The New York Times account of social media at the Upfront event:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/business/media/19adco.html

     Read the TV Guide social media study:
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Most-Social-NCIS-Idol-1033024.aspx         

Lady Gaga,CMO

Brian Anthony Hernandez posting on Mashable runs the numbers on Lady Gaga's astonishing rise to the top of the web marketing stats:

In the past year, Lady Gaga was the first artist to reach 1 billion views on YouTube; she beat President Barack Obama to 10 million Facebook fans (she’s now closing in on 35 million); and most recently, she was the first Twitter user to acquire 10 million followers.

But web contact programs work best when they are combined within person contact programs. Charles Schwab became one of the top on-line financial organizations by combining web service and service from physical offices. Mashable pulled ahead of their web competitors when they launched a nation wide series of meet ups.

Here is recent account of a Lady Gaga meeting with fans at a local Best Buy:

This past Monday night I had the pleasure of hosting Lady Gaga's street date signing event at Best Buy Union Square in New York City. I have hosted hundreds of events like this for Best Buy and I can tell you without hesitation that Lady Gaga was the most fan friendly artist I've ever worked with.

Bob Lefsetz — the blogger on the music industry I frequently mention here — posted various emails he had recently received from his readers. Through the comments of an employee of Best Buy, I discovered the essential component to Lady Gaga’s fame. Here’s what he wrote:

Lady Gaga insisted that there be no table on the stage so she could hug and kiss each and every fan. She personalized each autograph and ensured that every fan got a picture with her.
She listened to all of their stories and actually kept and appreciated the gifts she received. Gaga stayed on stage for four and a half hours without taking a single break and had as much fun as any fan in attendance. She even bought Subway sandwiches for all 500 fans while they waited on line outside.

Afterwards, when the event ended at 2:30 in the morning, she was totally exhausted but still took the time to pose for pictures and sign autographs for the store team.

She was polite and professional and it was an absolute pleasure to have her in the store. The amount of enthusiasm she showed for her fans was something that I won't soon forget. She genuinely cares about her Little Monsters and absolutely puts them first. In that regard, I believe, Lady Gaga has set the standard.

Glenn Feinberg, Program Director, LIVE @ Best Buy

Google: Want better SEO? Improve your content.

Early this year Google initiated its “Panda” algorithm change which affected the rank of millions of websites. In a February post on “The Official Google Blog” they explained their motivation:

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites, or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on...

We can’t make a major improvement without affecting rankings for many sites. It has to be that some sites will go up and some will go down. Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem. Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.”

Read the whole post: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html

The “Panda” changes created so much interest that Google offered more advice two months later, on their "Webmaster Central Blog":

“Some publishers have fixated on our prior Panda algorithm change, but Panda was just one of roughly 500 search improvements we expect to roll out to search this year. In fact, since we launched Panda, we've rolled out over a dozen additional tweaks to our ranking algorithms, and some sites have incorrectly assumed that changes in their rankings were related to Panda. Search is a complicated and evolving art and science, so rather than focusing on specific algorithmic tweaks, we encourage you to focus on delivering the best possible experience for users.”

Read the whole post:http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

You can read the entire posts from Google on the links I've provided above. But it is not hard to see what Google is looking for. As they see it, their job is to find the best and most relevant content locations, rank them, and present them to their users. Through this process sites with higher quality content will rank higher.

In their their words, websites that create "original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on" are bound to come out ahead. This is why many companies are making original content creation part of their search engine optimization program.

Search is first source for company news, then online news, then print

The British PR company Edelman has been doing an international survey on the topic of "trust" for eleven years now. Because they are a communications company some of the questions always drift over into media topics. This year's study (2011) was no different. With 5,075 responses from 23 countries the study offers an international perspective often hard to find. One finding answers a questions many in the B to B world ask a lot these days: how do people now find out information about companies? This is an important question ask because as potential buyers begin searching for information, understanding where they are looking helps marketers know how to reach them at this critical time.    

When respondent were asked where they "generally go first" for information about a company, search was the top choice (29%), followed by on-line news sites (19%), and then print sources (15%). Going to the company website received only 11%, and social media only 5%.
Some observations:

• When people want news about a company, the perspective of a 3rd party seems very important, otherwise why wouldn't they just go to the website of the company in question?
• With all the consumer buzz over social media, it does not seem to hold up well as a business news source. Great place to keep up with friends? Yes. Place to find information about companies? Not so much.
• For those who say that print is finished as a communications medium, think again. While a third place finish may not be great compared to a few years ago, it is still prominently on the map.  

Download the entire Edelman study HERE.