Sunday Night Live

In our dizzying world of text messages and virtually constant electronic connections, people still crave live human contact. Perhaps now more than ever. And that’s an important lesson for marketers.

My wife, Ellen, and I spent the afternoon in Ann Arbor, Michigan enjoying a paddleboat ride on the Huron River and working up an appetite. So, we headed to South Main Street for a meal at a sidewalk café. Afterward we strolled over to Kilwin’s so Ellen could grab an ice cream. I would only taste it, of course. And to our surprise, there was a show in the window. One young woman crafting waffle cones and the other making caramel and peanut butter fudge on a chilly slab of white marble. It was quite entertaining to watch scrumptious delights handmade the old fashioned way. And people stopped on the sidewalk to enjoy the artisans at work.

We went off looking for a cup of coffee and stumbled across two street entertainers near the corner of South Main and East Liberty. On the east side of Main, a mime performed, a delightfully cute woman in a white bobbed wig and white face mesmerized pedestrians. People stared and then dropped a buck or two in her beaded basket.

But across the street in front of the now shuttered Parthenon Restaurant was the main attraction. Twenty or thirty people formed a semicircle around a willowy character, a tall, dark Ichabod Crane of magic man. His name is Alexander the Magician and he says he’s performed his street show around the world, from France and Italy to Tunisia in the Arab Spring and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Alexander captivated families, young couples, toddlers and seniors with his slight of hand. His close-up magic was flawless and he involved a number of volunteers including kids. At the end of his 45-minute act he passed a hat.

“How much money do you typically get?” I asked.

“Enough,” Alexander replied. Enough for him to work about two days a week and make a living. He’s been plying his craft as a street performer for 10 years. After attending Central Michigan University and the University of Michigan, Alexander earned degrees in Philosophy and Drama. And he’s proud to work for himself.

“So, you’re an entrepreneur,” I declared.

“I’m a free man,” he replied.

Besides his magic, which is genuinely impressive, Alexander’s ability to grab audience attention and hold it in the midst of a bustling urban community speaks volumes. No microphone, no lighting, no set or staging other than a few props like coins, handkerchiefs, playing cards and dollar bills. He had people smiling, laughing, gawking, clapping and cheering for 45 minutes. The audience was eating out of his hand. And then they dug into their pockets and paid him for a show they never planned to see. One guy came by five minutes after the act ended to drop a couple bucks in the hat because he had stepped away to take a phone call.  

Alexander’s act occurs spontaneously when he finds an open corner where merchants and proprietors will allow him to perform in front of their establishments. He calls out to people as they pass and the show begins. Soon the crowd gathers.

For a few minutes, the pressures of the world melt away. No signs of a bad economy. Just priceless moments with awestruck little kids and parents laughing out loud. Not via text, but real belly laughs.

You can find this talented guy at alexanderthemagician.com and you might stumble across a video of him on YouTube. But it’s nothing like the real thing. He’s available for hire.

Ironically, amidst the explosion of Web advertising, marketers have discovered that the best way to really reach people is through experiences. And experiential and guerilla marketing are gaining importance. Market research demonstrates that people will spend 15 to 30 minutes engaged in a brand when their invited to participate in an experience. It’s the value of a test drive, a taste test or an open house or plant tour.

So, if you’re looking for a little magic in your marketing, get up close and personal with your audience and put on a show. They just might fill your hat with dough.

Face it

What made Facebook a crazy success was that college kids had a place to hang out virtually, free of adult supervision. It played right into endless connectivity, a trend that began with Gen Y using e-mail, instant messaging and Napster. Shared experiences, 24/7. Eventually, their parents, little brothers and sisters and even grandma and grandpa joined the party.

Now, Mark Zuckerberg has gone and spoiled all the fun by taking his billion-member social network public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The reportedly greedy guru may have cashed out, because now he’s taken his cool idea corporate.

Ironically, when Zuckerberg and his partners first launched Facebook, while at Harvard University, he adamantly opposed the idea of selling advertising to monetize the burgeoning social media experiment. He didn’t want to prostitute the “coolness” of the concept until it became more viable. It was an online global village that belonged exclusively to college students.

But as the number of Facebook members grew to astronomical proportions, comparable to half the population of China, the urge to cannibalize it became too great. Now, you get to see ads next to photos of your friends and what they’re eating for lunch. Zuckerberg had built a village square for people and groups to gather for free. Now he sells electronic billboards around the perimeter and fills the air above with blimps and skywriters.

General Motors announced this week that it’s dropping Facebook ads, because the carmaker believes they’re ineffective. This went down as Facebook launched its IPO and later kicked off trading. But GM still says brands can build relationships through social media. It’s just that the ads don’t measure up. They’ve tasted the milk for free and don’t think it’s worth paying for.

I wonder if Zuckerberg’s future plans for generating profits will include a premium paid model. We’ll call it Facebook 3D. It could offer special features like chat rooms with celebrities and virtual backstage passes to concerts or events. Don’t laugh. LinkedIn and IMDb both have professional grade versions that you can access only if you buy a monthly subscription.

My sense is, people desire a commercial-free environment for the social lives. We always tolerated ads with free TV and radio. It was a small price to pay for all that programming. But the more we pay for cable and Internet access, the less it seems we should have to endure an endless stream of marketing.

Don’t get me wrong. Ads are very appropriate on the Web. For example, Google provides an amazing service free of charge. Type in a word or phrase and miraculously you receive hundreds and even thousands of related links, articles, images, videos and news stories. You name it. Anyone who is old enough to have done library research the old fashioned way and cranked through miles of microfilm should shed a tear every time Google spits out a list of links in seconds. The ads are a small price to pay for all that free knowledge. In fact, the ads are often exactly what we want to discover.

But there’s something particularly eerie about targeted ads showing up next to a photo of your little nephew’s birthday party. Or a snapshot at your brother’s wedding. We’ve reached the point where reality TV has become viewers broadcasting themselves and corporations selling that content without sharing the profits with the creators. Sounds kind of like what pimps do, doesn’t it?

Enter Dish Network and The Hopper. The satellite TV provider now offers a digital video recorder (DVR) that will automatically zap the commercials so you don't have to watch them during playback. Only seems appropriate since we all pony up so much for cable and satellite and still have to buy Web access. The networks are screaming about the editing technology.

Zuckerberg and his team will be under intense pressure to show a profit right away, since he’s got lots of investors now. Facebook may be tempted to snoop your posts and pics and offer ads that connect to your life. You post a photo of your new Chevy Camaro and Facebook ads for State Farm and Shell gasoline pop up. Maybe even a promo for a local detail shop and Auto Zone. How’s that sound?

The quickest way for Zuckergberg to raise profits is to sell a portion of his mammoth membership a subscription to Facebook on steroids. Let’s say, only 10% of current members buy in at 50 cents a month or five dollars a year for premium access. That would be 500 million bucks without selling a single ad. Ten bucks a year or about three cents a day is a billion dollars, and so on.

And the paid, premium version of Facebook could offer an ad-free environment, just like when the social network started.

Then Zuckerberg could charge corporations like GM big bucks to join as members and post their status. That’s what Facebook should sell, not your private life.

Anchors away.

This week, the New York Times reported that CNN US is a brand in trouble. All but one of its news shows, “Anderson Cooper 360” are experiencing double-digit ratings losses.  Cooper’s losses are single digit. Although, worldwide, CNN will generate a record $600 million in operating profits this year, for it’s parent Time Warner.

But declining audiences directly impact future earnings. So, why is CNN in decline? FOX News and MSNBC audiences have also dropped, during the current lull in the presidential campaign, as candidates like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich bowed out. But those networks should recover as the political machine gains steam during convention season.

On the other hand, CNN viewers tune in for breaking news. That’s the backbone and lifeblood of the news brand that captures 57 cents per cable viewer. When there are oil gushers in the Gulf of Mexico, war stories, twisters in tornado alley or plane crashes and railroad disasters, people instinctively tune in to CNN. Once a crisis or big story dies down, they’re free to channel surf, and that leaves CNN struggling to recoup ratings.

FOX and MSNBC offer political red meat for conservatives and liberals, respectively. Since, CNN is somewhere between those two on the political spectrum, they’re viewers are neither as passionate nor as loyal. That’s why interviewers like Larry King were anchors of the network. King was key to filling the gaps between news spikes. Once he retired, CNN went adrift.

Anderson Cooper is an intriguing fellow. A little like a hairless cat, he’s worth a look or two, but has no real gravitas based on essential experience toiling in the field. That’s not due to a lack of travel. I’d love to have his frequent flyer miles he’s piled up, jetting from story to story. But being somewhere to witness a happening, doesn’t mean you’re in the trenches, day in and day out. The late Peter Jennings lived in Beirut and London for years earning his stripes by really covering watershed events like the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes. Cooper leapfrogged to the anchor desk on his mother’s family name. That’s fashion icon Gloria Vanderbilt, as in the Vanderbilts. It’s not uncommon to see Cooper reporting on silly topics looking for laughs at the end of his broadcasts.

Soledad O’Brien, Erin Burnett and Piers Morgan are CNN’s latest efforts to boost their prime time viewership when there’s no news to break. As for O’Brien and Burnett, they’re competent, but too young and inexperienced to command authority. Morgan was a judge on “Britain’s Got Talent”, the UK version of “American Idol”. He also had a career with Rupert Murdoch’s British media machine. Not exactly a Walter Cronkite or David Brinkley.

CNN is continuing to grow its network of international bureaus, which builds on their core newsgathering strength, and should make them even tougher to beat to breaking news.

These days, there are few real network news anchors who can draw an audience on their own merit. Maybe Brian Williams at NBC. Maybe.

CBS tried to make Katie Couric a newswoman. She sank like an anchor, but the similarity ended there. An anchorwoman or anchorman’s credibility doesn’t come from a furrowed brow or even grey hair. A 35-year-old can be a legitimate news source if he or she works hard enough while climbing the ladder.

My advice to CNN is to mine their team of correspondents and develop primetime programming around them. Give Piers Morgan an extended vacation and try some real news people in the anchor chair. Rotate reporters in and out according to the topic or the specialty. Middle East reporters interviewing terrorism experts. Financial gurus covering economic analysts. And Anderson Cooper probing fashion, Hollywood and high society. He’s comfortable in that arena and could probably break an actual story or two.

Anchors aren’t made; they’re tempered by the heat of life in the trenches. And they’re only as heavy as the news they cover, day after day after day.