SEXMoney.com has launched it's own version of a reality series called JoePornStar. The series will follow a regular guy as he becomes a real life porn star. The winner gets paid $250 per scene to have sex with 25 women, a pay scale obviously based on a guy's ability to "perform" on command over and over and over. Interested guys can register at JoePornStar.com. Entrants will be narrowed down to three who will then be voted upon by site visitors. The finished product will be produced and viewable by members of the site.
Guaranteed Short Life Span
Recovering tech publisher Ziff Davis Media will launch a new magazine called Synch in June. The gadget-focused title hopes to serve young men who are entrenched in the digital lifestyle. Everything from cell phones to HDTV to the networked home will be covered. Ziff will have a tough time competing with other male gadget/shopping focused magazines such as Primedia's "Connected Living," an upcoming gadget magazine from IDG, "Best," Conde Naste's "Cargo," Fairchild Publication's "Vitals," and other titles such as "Wired," "Esquire" and "Stuff," all of which also cover gadgetry.
What all these publishers have failed to notice in their attempt to cover the fast moving world of gadgets with a monthly frequency, is a not so little website called Gizmodo which pumps out 5-10 gadget reviews every day. That's every day, not every month. Gizmodo is a weblog written by Peter Rojas and published by Nick Denton. Denton and Rojas manage to provide readers with more gadget reviews with their "thin media" approach to publishing than an entire bloated team of old school publishers could ever hope to do. I give Sync eighteen months.
You know an industry is in trouble when members of said industry can't grasp the concept that change is a constant. Sanford Bernstein & Co. media analyst Tom Wolzien thinks DVRs (TiVo) should be regulated in a way that make it impossible for consumers to skip commercials because it threatens to kill the $60 billion television advertising industry.
There are two very important things Wolzien should realize and he spews this idiocy: people hate commercials and they hate to be forced to do anything. A far better approach to the inevitable growth of DVRs is to adapt to the change. Don't force old models down new throats. That will cause failure quicker than if the television did nothing to combat the growth of DVRs. There are far better ways to preserve the advertising model than to force consumer's hands. TiVo already has an interesting model with is Showcase product and interactive television will see the light of again if marketers gain consumer's trust so that a beneficial swap of demographic information for razor sharp advertising messaging can be achieved. New forms of advertising such as "headvertising" and other forms of viral marketing have been proven successful.
The possibilities for future advertising models are endless. To think the current television model will be around forever is ludicrous and makes me cringe whenever I hear blowhards like this spew this dinasauric blather-speak.
Variety gives us several predictions on what we can expect to see with television this year. Quickly, "Joey won't suck, CBS will take over Thursday night, FOX will launch another cable news net, the much maligned half hour sitcom will return thanks to Paris Hilton's "The Simple Life," advertisers will control and produce more programming content, FOX will deliver even more reality shows and possibly a reality cable channel, and people meters will change sweeps.
Rather than spend $1 million on advertising, USA Networks has decided to simply give it away. However, the cable network couldn't do it without a bit of marketing thrown in. USA Network will hand out one million one dollar bills in New York and Los Angeles nightclubs with a sticker on the face of the bill promoting its January 26 premiere of is "Traffic: The Miniseries." The promotion was cooked up and will be implemented by GoGORILLA Media, a guerilla marketing firm which is doing some of the coolest marketing you've ever seen.
Miles Copeland is capitalizing on America's lust for the bare belly and a lust we don't even know we have yet - Arabic music. He has launched two troupes of Arabic-style belly dancers, Belly Dance Superstars and Desert Roses, and has, naturally, offered up the troupes for advertiser sponsorship. Motorola, Capezio and Estee Lauder jumped on board when the troupes appeared at Lollapalooza last Summer. The troupes will begin again this February with a 54-city tour along with a documentary. Copeland hopes interest gains momentum and would like the troupes to tour continuously saying, "It definitely has an exotic flavor, but it's not a girlie show. It's a lifestyle." Lust for bare bellys and undulating booty is, apparently, not the draw.
GM has launched the largest ever automotive promotion spending half of it's $50 million budget on the effort. The sweepstakes, in which consumers will be coerced, I mean encouraged, to visit dealer showrooms and enter the sweep using GM's OnStar system, is called "Hot Button" and will provide the opportunity to win 1,000 free GM vehicles. Prizes include a Hummer H2 sport utility, Cadillac CTS sedan, Saturn Vue SUV, Chevrolet SSR hardtop convertible pickup and Saab 9-3 convertible.
