Kudos to Arby's for making the best of a bad situation and turning it around into a win for their marketing team and their brand. Arby's Restaurants have been the butt of numerous jokes and jabs at the hands of The Daily Show's Jon Stewart.
The finale for Jon Stewart's run on The Daily Show is coming soon, and Comedy Central's working on selling out the available inventory. Estimates are the :30 spots are going for $230k each which is a nice boost from the typical $46.2k per spot earlier this year.
Arby's is buying a spot on the show, despite hundreds of lampoons by the writers of the satire show. The TV spot from Arby's features a collage of the comments made by Stewart with the tune "Thank You For Being A Friend" playing in the background. "Not sure why, but we'll miss you" is on the screen as the commercial ends.
This isn't the first time the Arby's marketing department has gained free publicity and positive brand awareness off of The Daily Show. When Stewart announced he was leaving The Daily Show, the Twitter feed for Arby's offered him a job. That message was retweeted over 2,000 times.
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Does Jared still have marketing power for the Subway brand after recent allegations?
Having a celebrity endorser has a lot of upside potential. Look no further than NIKE and their relationship with Michael Jordan. The Air Jordan shoe model was a good shoe, but made great through its association with #23.
But even Jordan has some rough waters, when he had some accusations for gambling issues. Jordan righted that ship and, even now years after retirement, is a prolific commercial pitchman.
Which leads to the question of Jared Fogel from Subway. Jared is a well known guy internationally as the person that lost a lot of weight eating Subway. For me living in Indiana, he is also a local guy that is pretty well known too.
This last week has been tough on Jared. Police raided his home in suburban Indianapolis in connection with a child porn investigation. As of today, no one is directly connecting Fogel to child porn, but rather an associate of his and the Jared Foundation. But not all of the information is out yet.
Gawker.com reported this week that Fogel allegedly ran a lending library for porn while a student at Indiana University. In fact, according to their article, that side business was a part of what led him to start eating Subway sandwiches all of the time.
How Subway handles this image crisis with their spokesman will be very interesting to watch. Jared has meant a lot to that brand. Remember a few years ago, he had a diminished role as spokesman and their sales dropped prompting his return. Suspending him as spokesman is the smart choice for Subway, and if they find any link to illegal activities by Fogel rest assured he will be completed dropped.
If they find no wrong-doings by Fogel, can the brand still associate with him? I think that is a tough reality that Subway and Jared are facing. Right or wrong, newscasts, Facebook posts, news stories and blog posts (like this one) are casting a conversation about child pornography and a brand spokesman. That is bad for Jared, and thus very bad for his ability to be a pitchman for any product.
Jared's hometown newspaper, The Indianapolis Star has a good story in today's edition about whether the image of Jared and the brand of Subway can be repaired.
But even Jordan has some rough waters, when he had some accusations for gambling issues. Jordan righted that ship and, even now years after retirement, is a prolific commercial pitchman.
Which leads to the question of Jared Fogel from Subway. Jared is a well known guy internationally as the person that lost a lot of weight eating Subway. For me living in Indiana, he is also a local guy that is pretty well known too.
This last week has been tough on Jared. Police raided his home in suburban Indianapolis in connection with a child porn investigation. As of today, no one is directly connecting Fogel to child porn, but rather an associate of his and the Jared Foundation. But not all of the information is out yet.
Gawker.com reported this week that Fogel allegedly ran a lending library for porn while a student at Indiana University. In fact, according to their article, that side business was a part of what led him to start eating Subway sandwiches all of the time.
How Subway handles this image crisis with their spokesman will be very interesting to watch. Jared has meant a lot to that brand. Remember a few years ago, he had a diminished role as spokesman and their sales dropped prompting his return. Suspending him as spokesman is the smart choice for Subway, and if they find any link to illegal activities by Fogel rest assured he will be completed dropped.
If they find no wrong-doings by Fogel, can the brand still associate with him? I think that is a tough reality that Subway and Jared are facing. Right or wrong, newscasts, Facebook posts, news stories and blog posts (like this one) are casting a conversation about child pornography and a brand spokesman. That is bad for Jared, and thus very bad for his ability to be a pitchman for any product.
Jared's hometown newspaper, The Indianapolis Star has a good story in today's edition about whether the image of Jared and the brand of Subway can be repaired.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Gannett's stand alone newspaper company launches June 29
Did you notice anything different yesterday in the media world? Probably not, but it was a new day at least for Gannett. The long awaited split between broadcast and print occurred yesterday, June 29. Despite clearly defined plans for digital transformation, how this impacts the two companies long term remains very much in question.
The newspaper side of the business retains the Gannett name, while the broadcast side takes on the name TEGNA. TEGNA is an anagram for Gannett without the double letters. Gannett's revenue growth has come from their broadcast side, which many says have helped prop up the print side of their business.
With broadcast gone, how will Gannett whether upcoming storms? First quarter advertising revenue was off 9%, with projections for second quarter not fairing any better on the print side. Programmatic ad buying for online publications impacts larger markets and national websites most, and that is the segment where most of Gannett's websites would fall. This leaves a lot of questions yet to be answered.
Rick Edmonds wrote yesterday on www.poynter.org that "Gannett shares were down 5.2percent for the day (with stocks generally off 2 percent because of the Greek and Puerto Rican debt crisis) TEGNA's shares were up 5.1 percent."
Granted, that is only one day of trading but something definitely worth watching to see if Wall Street is buying what the new Gannett is selling. Locally, Gannett titles are spinning this as a way to build up community journalism.
In Indianapolis, publisher Karen Ferguson penned a nice column about the changes and how it strengthens Gannett and specifically the Indianapolis Star. And while Indianapolis celebrated Gannett Day with a mayoral proclamation, no one is proclaiming this is a successful model. At least not yet.
The newspaper side of the business retains the Gannett name, while the broadcast side takes on the name TEGNA. TEGNA is an anagram for Gannett without the double letters. Gannett's revenue growth has come from their broadcast side, which many says have helped prop up the print side of their business.
With broadcast gone, how will Gannett whether upcoming storms? First quarter advertising revenue was off 9%, with projections for second quarter not fairing any better on the print side. Programmatic ad buying for online publications impacts larger markets and national websites most, and that is the segment where most of Gannett's websites would fall. This leaves a lot of questions yet to be answered.
Rick Edmonds wrote yesterday on www.poynter.org that "Gannett shares were down 5.2percent for the day (with stocks generally off 2 percent because of the Greek and Puerto Rican debt crisis) TEGNA's shares were up 5.1 percent."
Granted, that is only one day of trading but something definitely worth watching to see if Wall Street is buying what the new Gannett is selling. Locally, Gannett titles are spinning this as a way to build up community journalism.
In Indianapolis, publisher Karen Ferguson penned a nice column about the changes and how it strengthens Gannett and specifically the Indianapolis Star. And while Indianapolis celebrated Gannett Day with a mayoral proclamation, no one is proclaiming this is a successful model. At least not yet.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Future of USA Today could be linked to future of entire newspaper industry
I don't think it is breaking news to anyone to say that newspapers have been struggling. Shocker, right? Clearly that isn't a surprise, but I have to say I was a little surprised to hear the comment this week by USA editor in chief David Callaway.
Speculating on the future, Callaway said that he could foresee that USA Today could end in the next five or six years. I understand and actually agree, but I was surprised that he said it; out loud; to a reporter.
But the rest of the story is where I think the future actually is for USA Today. The product will still be around in some form, and I believe that will be a printed format as well as digital. Gannett has started offering their product as a daily supplement to Gannett properties. The first to do this supplemental approach was the Indianapolis Star.
Using national and feature sections from USA Today allows a newspaper to have a wide scope of content with no reporters, editors or page designers. It costs them newsprint, but they have saved on newsprint through other cuts. While I don't know if any newspaper has done this yet, they could also drop or significantly reduce the AP contract, if they are relying on USA Today for national coverage.
USA Today still have the reach with their content, and I'm sure there is some sort of advertising revenue share. So the advertising department has an increasingly bigger audience to sell.
Gannett started shopping around the supplemental content to non-Gannett properties a while ago. Schurz Communications is one example of a company that is adapting the new USA Today format to their daily products. They are not the first newspaper company to add this USA Today product, and I don't suspect the last.
While USA Today as a stand alone product might be short lived, the product will evolve and be around. For some newspapers, it could be a unique revenue stream and expense reducer which will continue to be important in the future of all newspapers.
Speculating on the future, Callaway said that he could foresee that USA Today could end in the next five or six years. I understand and actually agree, but I was surprised that he said it; out loud; to a reporter.
But the rest of the story is where I think the future actually is for USA Today. The product will still be around in some form, and I believe that will be a printed format as well as digital. Gannett has started offering their product as a daily supplement to Gannett properties. The first to do this supplemental approach was the Indianapolis Star.
Using national and feature sections from USA Today allows a newspaper to have a wide scope of content with no reporters, editors or page designers. It costs them newsprint, but they have saved on newsprint through other cuts. While I don't know if any newspaper has done this yet, they could also drop or significantly reduce the AP contract, if they are relying on USA Today for national coverage.
USA Today still have the reach with their content, and I'm sure there is some sort of advertising revenue share. So the advertising department has an increasingly bigger audience to sell.
Gannett started shopping around the supplemental content to non-Gannett properties a while ago. Schurz Communications is one example of a company that is adapting the new USA Today format to their daily products. They are not the first newspaper company to add this USA Today product, and I don't suspect the last.
While USA Today as a stand alone product might be short lived, the product will evolve and be around. For some newspapers, it could be a unique revenue stream and expense reducer which will continue to be important in the future of all newspapers.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Phantom update from Google is real, and having impact on website rankings
Have you noticed that your Google ranking and thus your site traffic has dropped? Well, you're not alone!
Google has finally come out acknowledged that they have tweaked their quality score, and as a result that change has altered search engine ranking since roughly the first of May. According to an article on Search Engine Land, the change was to its "core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals."
This change apparently had nothing to do with the 'Panda' or 'Penguin' filters. Informational sites and "How To" sites are potential targets for this change according to Hubpages.
Check out Search Engine Land's post from earlier today on the changes and possible impacts at http://searchengineland.com/the-quality-update-google-confirms-changing-how-quality-is-assessed-resulting-in-rankings-shake-up-221118.
Google has finally come out acknowledged that they have tweaked their quality score, and as a result that change has altered search engine ranking since roughly the first of May. According to an article on Search Engine Land, the change was to its "core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals."
This change apparently had nothing to do with the 'Panda' or 'Penguin' filters. Informational sites and "How To" sites are potential targets for this change according to Hubpages.
Check out Search Engine Land's post from earlier today on the changes and possible impacts at http://searchengineland.com/the-quality-update-google-confirms-changing-how-quality-is-assessed-resulting-in-rankings-shake-up-221118.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Lessons learned on how social media works in 2015 from Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price
Every business is trying to adjust to the new era of media, instant access through Twitter and other social media outlets. Major League Baseball is an entity that has actually done a very good job of harnessing the power of the internet.
Their MLB At-Bat app is the number one sports streaming site. That success has added to the already rich coffers of baseball team owners. But Major League Baseball's oldest franchise, the Cincinnat Reds might still be struggling on the uses of digital media. Well, at least their second year manager Bryan Price.
Price blew up at 'beat writers' for his baseball club, upset that they were reporting on personnel changes. In one case, the reporters were announcing a change in the roster even before Price had a chance to break the bad news to the player being sent back to the minors.
The five minute and thirty four second rant featured several f-bombs and some creative ways to describe animal waste. While this rant was very good, it wasn't the best in baseball history. That still belongs to former Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia.
While we can laugh at a crazy baseball guy who was frustrated by poor performances from his team, I do believe there is a media lesson to learned here. If a reporter is talking to you, even if they are really friendly, remember they have a job to do. And that job is to find out information that people want to know about you and your organization, and report it.
Perhaps someone should tell that to Price. Here is one of his quotes from the rant: "Your job is not to sniff out every f****** thing is about the Reds and f****** put it out there for every other f****** guy to hear. It's not your job."
Actually Bryan, it is.
Long gone are the days of beat reporters not telling all they see. Babe Ruth got away with that, President Kennedy got a way with that too. But that was long before social media made everyone a reporter, and breaking news 24 hours a day.
Being combative with the media is rarely successful. Partner with them, and while they won't bury news for you they will often work with you to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. Any company spokesperson needs to be trained on the latest in social media; how it works but also why things happen the way they do.
Their MLB At-Bat app is the number one sports streaming site. That success has added to the already rich coffers of baseball team owners. But Major League Baseball's oldest franchise, the Cincinnat Reds might still be struggling on the uses of digital media. Well, at least their second year manager Bryan Price.
Price blew up at 'beat writers' for his baseball club, upset that they were reporting on personnel changes. In one case, the reporters were announcing a change in the roster even before Price had a chance to break the bad news to the player being sent back to the minors.
The five minute and thirty four second rant featured several f-bombs and some creative ways to describe animal waste. While this rant was very good, it wasn't the best in baseball history. That still belongs to former Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia.
While we can laugh at a crazy baseball guy who was frustrated by poor performances from his team, I do believe there is a media lesson to learned here. If a reporter is talking to you, even if they are really friendly, remember they have a job to do. And that job is to find out information that people want to know about you and your organization, and report it.
Perhaps someone should tell that to Price. Here is one of his quotes from the rant: "Your job is not to sniff out every f****** thing is about the Reds and f****** put it out there for every other f****** guy to hear. It's not your job."
Actually Bryan, it is.
Long gone are the days of beat reporters not telling all they see. Babe Ruth got away with that, President Kennedy got a way with that too. But that was long before social media made everyone a reporter, and breaking news 24 hours a day.
Being combative with the media is rarely successful. Partner with them, and while they won't bury news for you they will often work with you to make sure things run as smoothly as possible. Any company spokesperson needs to be trained on the latest in social media; how it works but also why things happen the way they do.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
How did the newspaper industry lose its classified advertising business to such an ugly, scam filled site like craigslist?
In sports, there are times when the underdog wins the game and you can't help but wonder, "How in the world did they ever win?" In the newspaper world, I sometimes can't help but say that very phrase when it comes to craigslist.
craigslist.com is the absolute leader when it comes to private party classified advertising, items for sale by an individual. Look at any newspaper today at the classifieds section, if they have a section and you'll see a mere fraction of what it use to be. Those tiny classified ads were great revenue for the newspaper industry, but maybe more importantly great readership for the publications.
The free option of craigslist came along, offered immediate publication and often times immediate sales for those items. Not to be hypocritical, I have used this outlet several times with mixed results. I'm not saying it doesn't work, or that there isn't a place for it either. I am still shaking my head that the newspaper lost that segment of business to such an ugly site, filled with scams, escorts and murderers.
Recently, I purchased tickets for Spring Training baseball games in Florida. We had extra tickets, so we decided to sell them at face value online. We used eBay and craigslist to get the word out in the markets that would have interest in those tickets (New York, Detroit and Philadelphia). It took a few days, but we received an offer for one of the sets of tickets via craigslist.
They were sending a money order for the amount requested. All seemed OK until they emailed back, saying they send the wrong amount. They were requesting that I cash the money order and they send them back the difference in another money order. Red flags were flying for me that this was a scam, so I tried to get them to use PayPal. They refused, yet another red flag. This continued on and became apparent to me that this was fraud. The money order arrived, and I took it to the bank asking them to confirm that it was not real. They did, to no ones surprise.
We have since sold the tickets via eBay, and we have a happy ending. But for so many people, craigslist fraud ends with them losing hundreds and thousands of dollars. The internet is filled with stories of people losing money through scammers. The bank I took the check to told me they see people on a regular basis trying to cash bad checks through craigslist deals.
I was dealing with tickets for a baseball game hundreds of miles away. If you're selling locally, you have a much greater chance of not getting taken. Local police agencies, like Boone County Indiana are setting up craigslist Safety Zones to help avoid scams.
Newspapers out priced themselves out of the private party market, showed arrogance thinking that a site like craigslist could come in a take hundreds of millions of revenue away. There are things a local newspaper can do to stay relevant in this part of the business, but it is very very tough.
How in the world did the newspaper industry ever lose to craigslist?
There are things you can do to protect yourself from fraud on craigslist. Check out http://www.infoworld.com/article/2875832/security/how-to-stick-it-to-craigslist-scammers.html for information on how to fight back.
And for the record, avoid transactions with someone calling themselves Matthew Peterson, stigaloom23@gmail.com, phone numbers (609) 447-1278 and (480) 448-8421.
craigslist.com is the absolute leader when it comes to private party classified advertising, items for sale by an individual. Look at any newspaper today at the classifieds section, if they have a section and you'll see a mere fraction of what it use to be. Those tiny classified ads were great revenue for the newspaper industry, but maybe more importantly great readership for the publications.
The free option of craigslist came along, offered immediate publication and often times immediate sales for those items. Not to be hypocritical, I have used this outlet several times with mixed results. I'm not saying it doesn't work, or that there isn't a place for it either. I am still shaking my head that the newspaper lost that segment of business to such an ugly site, filled with scams, escorts and murderers.
Recently, I purchased tickets for Spring Training baseball games in Florida. We had extra tickets, so we decided to sell them at face value online. We used eBay and craigslist to get the word out in the markets that would have interest in those tickets (New York, Detroit and Philadelphia). It took a few days, but we received an offer for one of the sets of tickets via craigslist.
They were sending a money order for the amount requested. All seemed OK until they emailed back, saying they send the wrong amount. They were requesting that I cash the money order and they send them back the difference in another money order. Red flags were flying for me that this was a scam, so I tried to get them to use PayPal. They refused, yet another red flag. This continued on and became apparent to me that this was fraud. The money order arrived, and I took it to the bank asking them to confirm that it was not real. They did, to no ones surprise.
We have since sold the tickets via eBay, and we have a happy ending. But for so many people, craigslist fraud ends with them losing hundreds and thousands of dollars. The internet is filled with stories of people losing money through scammers. The bank I took the check to told me they see people on a regular basis trying to cash bad checks through craigslist deals.
I was dealing with tickets for a baseball game hundreds of miles away. If you're selling locally, you have a much greater chance of not getting taken. Local police agencies, like Boone County Indiana are setting up craigslist Safety Zones to help avoid scams.
Newspapers out priced themselves out of the private party market, showed arrogance thinking that a site like craigslist could come in a take hundreds of millions of revenue away. There are things a local newspaper can do to stay relevant in this part of the business, but it is very very tough.
How in the world did the newspaper industry ever lose to craigslist?
There are things you can do to protect yourself from fraud on craigslist. Check out http://www.infoworld.com/article/2875832/security/how-to-stick-it-to-craigslist-scammers.html for information on how to fight back.
And for the record, avoid transactions with someone calling themselves Matthew Peterson, stigaloom23@gmail.com, phone numbers (609) 447-1278 and (480) 448-8421.
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