Strategy of the Week

DYING TO DEBATE

admin — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:41:27 +0000

Political candidates often have trouble getting their opponents to debate. When you’re ahead, why debate? At least that’s how the conventional wisdom goes. But in California’s 52^nd Congressional district, two candidates had had enough. To eat anyway! Democrat Ray Lutz and Libertarian Mike Benoit both went on hunger strikes to get Republican Duncan Hunter to debate, which he was refusing to do. Lutz went two weeks, losing 15 pounds and said he would go until Hunter agreed to debate. Did it work? Well, after huge media attention, Hunter gave in and granted one debate, in October. Lutz wanted more, but he wanted to live too, so he gave in and started eating. This past weekend he went back to food, starting with salad and fruit juice, sort of like Gandhi after his fasts. Wherever Hunter goes, there are signs that say, “Hungry for Debate.” Hunter is going to win, given that he’s in a safe Republican district, but Lutz and Benoit really turned up the heat. “Without the hunger strike, I don’t think we would have even this single debate,” said Lutz. No word yet on Benoit, but he’s probably at IN-N-OUT Burger right now making up for lost time.

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING!

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:16:54 +0000

Right in front of our eyes the media is changing. It used to be the Washington Post or New York Times uncovering Watergate or The Pentagon Papers. Not much anymore. Those media outlets don’t do much investigative reporting anymore, and rarely break real news. Into the void steps WikiLeaks, the online invention from a convicted Australian hacker named Julian Assange, who has made a venture out of publishing top secret documents. He’s a muckraker using modern technology, doing work the mainstream media won’t do anymore. This week WikiLeaks published dozens of documents from the U.S. government about the war in Afghanistan. That after the Obama administration tried to find him and arrest him for pilfering, to stop him from publishing. They couldn’t find him. But try as they might, there’s no stopping the “new champions of media freedom,” according to the Chicago Tribune. As the traditional media falters, someone on the Internet is going to publish the docs. That’s the way it goes in the new media world. Now every government document, no matter how incriminating, may end up on our laptops. This, as I said, changes everything.

SING-A-LONG: AT THE MOVIES!

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:45:30 +0000

According to market research, movies in a theatre can be a bore for young people practiced in the art of texting, talking, facebooking – and watching a movie at home, all at the same time! So in order to lure young people back into the theaters, Paramount Pictures has a new idea – sing along movies. Just recently, “Grease: Sing-A-Long,” a re-release of the 1978 movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, premiered in cities around the country. By adding lyric subtitles to the screen, audiences can sing along with the songs as they are being sung on the silver screen. Audiences (yes, young) are flocking to the shows, dressed in costume, of course, making it a “true event” movie, according to Adam Goodman, President of Paramount. Sing-A-Long movies are the strategy of the week. No more “Shhhh” at the movies. Now it’s “Belt it Out!”

LANCE DODGES THE BULLET

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:08:05 +0000

As the Tour de France started last week, Floyd Landis, who won the 2006 Tour but had it stripped away after it was confirmed he was doping for the races, took dead aim at Lance Armstrong, the winner of six Tours, claiming that Lance has been doping all along. Now Lance is the most tested man on earth, and agents barge into his house at all hours demanding instant urine tests. In all the years they have been trying, they have found absolutely nothing. Now that doesn’t mean that Lance has never doped, or that he’s not doing it without being detected. But most people don’t think he’s done anything, at least since he started winning ten years ago. He’s just a remarkable athlete. But that hasn’t stopped Landis, who lied for two years before admitting his doping. If he’s going down, Lance is too. But last week all of Lance’s endorsers, RadioShack, Anheuser-Busch, 24 Hour Fitness, and Nike, said they were sticking with him, saying the charges are not substantiated. They did, however, say they will take a wait and see approach, meaning that if the smoking gun appears, they’re out of here! Landis probably doesn’t have anything on Lance, or it would be out by now. But last week’s Strategy has the big advertisers sticking with Lance, at least till tomorrow.

POPCORN PREDICTIONS

admin — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:02:07 +0000

Talk about a horror movie. This week’s Strategy of the Week comes from the movie business. Last week regulators in Washington, D.C. approved the establishment of a Hollywood futures exchange. Now you can buy derivatives for movies. Like the A-Team? Bet on it. Like the new Tom Cruise movie? Bet on it. Don’t like the new Toy Story 3? Bet against it. The idea is that betting on the movies lowers the risk for the movie studios and offsets the risk of putting money into big productions. The Motion Picture Association of America hates the idea. Others call it popcorn predictions. But they lost the battle. Pretty soon you’ll be able to bet on the box office and make a little money if your horse – I mean movie – comes in.

BP NEEDS A SAINT TO HELP IT THROUGH

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:27:00 +0000

The oil giant BP, now smack in the middle of a PR disaster with the oil blowout in the gulf, could take a page out of the playbook of the New Orleans Saints. Last week the team, fresh off its Super Bowl win in February, stopped by a bird sanctuary in Louisiana to raise awareness of the effects on wildlife. In order to raise money, the Saints are raffling off a Super Bowl ring and hope to raise $1 million from the raffle to go to wildlife and Gulf Coast restoration. Tickets are $2. And in case you were wondering, the ring is real, an authentic Saints ring from Super Bowl XLIV. This is a clear, simple, straightforward strategy to show the community the team cares. It will demonstrate its commitment to Louisiana and actually do some good for the hard-hit Gulf communities and wildlife. The winner of the raffle will be announced at the team’s home opener in New Orleans on September 9^th.

The Battle of the Credit Reports

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:47:42 +0000

Who knew? There’s a major battle raging between credit reporting companies and the federal government. You’ll remember the commercial company, freecreditreport.com, and its funky band with tunes you can’t get out of your head. You know, they played at a Renaissance Faire because their credit score was so low they couldn’t work anywhere else. Their band became real famous, for an ad band anyway. Up against them is the federal government’s agency, annualcreditreport.com. The gov’s site has created a mock band, to spoof the ads from freecreditreport.com. They’ve launched themselves as a free alternative – and pitched itself as a way to avoid the fees. But Experian, the company that owns freecreditreport.com, has hit back. It’s holding auditions for its next band, and the winner gets to go on the MTV awards to perform its new song. It’s hard to compete with a free site from the federal government, but Experian’s got a good strategy for prevailing.

BP CEO Spins Out of Control

admin — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:21:41 +0000

BP started off saying the right things about the catastrophic oil spill from the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico – we’re taking responsibility, we’ll pay all claims, we’re an environmental oil company. Then the fast-talking CEO, Tony Hayward, let slip what he really thinks about the spill. First, he said the spill was “relatively tiny” compared to a “very big ocean.” The idea was that the 5,000 to 50,000 barrels a day of oil would be dispersed into the ocean. Then he said that his company would pay only “legitimate” claims from the U.S. “Come on, this is America,” he said. “Of course there are going to be a lot of illegitimate claims.” Do we all know that there are shysters out there who hope to make a buck off the spill? Yes. Did he need to belittle the entire Gulf Coast region? No. His company now looks like it’s not the environmental company it said it was. He made his comments overseas. Perhaps he didn’t know we are in a global media village. And the media has taken BP on. Fox News’s Shepherd Smith took the company apart for the CEO’s words, calling them “snotty.” A word to the CEO: Actions matter, but words matter too.

OMG – A Newspaper War!

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 15:41:12 +0000

Well, today’s the day that the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) tries to stick a knife in the back of the venerable “grey old lady,” the New York Times (NYT). The fight is on. The WSJ today launches the New York City metro section, to compete directly with the NYT. The WSJ was purchased in 2007 by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, also home to Fox News. It became the national circulation leader, overtaking USA Today, last year and now wants to bury the Times in New York. Murdoch says the Times is overly liberal and no longer provides good local coverage. The Times was on the verge of going out of business last year and had to get a bailout from a private investor. This fight is something it doesn’t need. But a war is a war and it must be fought. Murdoch is going after the critical ad revenue from Bergdorf Goodman and all the other retailers, and he’s getting it. This could mean the end of the NYTimes, or it could mean a very expensive experiment for Rupert. Either way, it will be fun to watch. Rupert’s new WSJ is this week’s Strategy of the Week.

DUNKIRK THE SEQUEL

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:01:16 +0000

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in a tough re-election campaign, fighting to stave off a Labour defeat in the polls for the first time since Tony Blair took over from the Conservatives. Despite being down in the polls, he’s been creeping back against the Tories. But he’s still behind. So, what to do? Well, call in the Royal Navy! And that’s what Brown has done. He’s dispatching (I think that’s the right word) navy ships to the continent to pick up stranded Brits who are grounded by the volcanic ash that has closed most major airports. The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and HMS Ocean are heading across the channel to pick up the passengers and bring them home. It’s reminiscent of the great Dunkirk rescue, in 1940, when the British Army was rescued by hundreds of naval craft and small boats, and 300,000 soldiers were saved. In this case Brown wants to bring home 150,000. It’s Churchillian. And reminding people of Churchill just before an election can’t hurt.