The Affari Blog

It’s Tuesday, October 28th and I feel like I’m in TV limbo. Several weeks ago while talking with some friends I proclaimed, “This is the best time of the year for TV.” I said this, of course, because of the following [listed in no particular order]:

- The Rays are in a Championship run
- It’s both NCAA and NFL season
- The Olympics were wrapping up
- The Lightning were preparing for a breakout season
- Mad Men Season 2 was off and running
- The Office was back
- Entourage was picking up
- It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia was funnier than ever

I was on top of the world! Every night I would have something to come home to and watch on the DVR (which saved my life being that the Rays have been playing almost nightly). Football weekends. Great sitcom weeknights. It was a good time to have cable TV.

It’s Tuesday, October 28th and I feel like I’m in TV limbo. I finished up the season finale of Mad Men last night and as I expected, it was amazing, too amazing. How am I supposed to deal with the suspense and the wait until next season? As if this wasn’t enough to leave me a little distraught, I started analyzing the other programing that I had been so excited about:

- The Rays were [are] 1 game from World Series elimination
- My NCAA/NFL teams are flopping
- Olympics are 3.5+ years away
- The Lightning are still preparing for a breakout season, getting only 1 win in 7 games
- Mad Men Season 2 was over and done
- The Office was back, but dwindling
- Entourage was not meeting expectations
- It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia stopped running hour-long shows

With such a negative turn of events, I started scrambling to figure out how to fill up those free hours I devoted to watching my beloved TV programing. What are M24-35 watching these days? I realized that if worst came to worst I could go on another on my DVD binges. If you aren’t familiar, these are when I decide to take up a new show, buy the DVD of every season available, and watch them back-to-back incessantly. This is how I caught up on season 1 of Mad Men in about 2 weeks! Then I took a deep breath and thought about the future…

It’s Tuesday, October 28th and I feel like I’m in TV limbo. I looked to the future in order to avoid another one of my DVD benders. I was able to come up with the following remedy [listed in no particular order]:

- NCAA Bowl Season + Super Bowl is coming up….
- NBA season is heating up, and I’ve actually been getting more and more into it lately
- Mad Men Season 3 has not been purchased yet, hopefully somebody fronts the money soon
- The Office is still funny, at least the actors are getting movie roles now
- Entourage may have made a season-saving turn this past Sunday
- It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is still the funniest show on TV
- AND 30 Rock premiers this week, making Thursday the best night of the week for TV across the board*

*This is pretty much non-debatable: The Office, 30 Rock, Always Sunny. Don’t worry everybody else, I haven’t forgotten your shows: Grey’s Anatomy, Survivor, Life on Mars, and if anyone still watches them, there’s: ER and Ugly Betty.

In the end, there is still hope. TV still has some lures to keep me from going back to those commercial-less DVD binges. I’ll just be sure to pray every Sunday at 10pm for someone to buy Mad Men Season 3 (you know, the Emmy Award winning Best Drama series? C’mon networks!!).

Blogs, Twitter, Google Ad Words and Facebooks. These are all buzzwords in every social media conversation. Everybody is out there in cyberspace looking for ways to catch up with the digital age and the rapid impact it has made within the marketing world. The metamorphosis from email and AOL chat rooms to digital communities and electronic forums happened seemingly overnight. As new e-communications and e-publications become more and more popular in people’s lives, so too do they start to trickle into the mainstream media and business worlds.

Case 1: The Twitter Bug
Turn on CNN. It seems like every time I catch a story in the middle of the day a reporter is talking about what people are Twittering about. That’s nuts! …or is it? Is doing some active research on what people around the country are talking/sounding off about not newsworthy? If the content relates to mainstream topics (such as the economy) then maybe CNN and other similar news sources are on to something. Twitter is providing a one-stop service that allows researchers to read what people are saying across the country … and if that isn’t enough of a selling point for you, then consider the fact that Twitter is free and runs live.

Case 2: Chat it Up
Turn on ESPN. Most mornings I try to catch some sort of sports news on TV - unless one of my teams lost badly the night before. 1st & 10 is one of my favorite shows in the mornings. It provides insights from various sportswriters, news, updates and various other sporting content. Every morning there is one person on set whose sole job is to monitor what chatters are talking about in the ESPN chat room and report back to the crew. The crew then derives show content from these viewers’ chats. What ESPN has created is a simple forum to gather viewer generated content. Incorporating interactive online-polls is also a creative way ESPN has engaged the viewer and captivated them on both TV and web fronts. It’s innovative, easy and efficient. Now the production crew can sit back and watch the free storylines roll in.

Case 3: Blog for a Reporter
Turn on your computer speakers. Our office took part in a mass e-conference call today that focused on how reporters from mainstream media outlets (such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and AP) deal with story pitches. The reporters discussed methods, techniques and trends that they see on a daily basis. While the main message seemed to be that they look for stories with high-quality content, there were some trends that I noticed from all of the outlets. The reporters told horror stories of sorting through hundreds of email pitches and press releases. They complained of certain media tactics such as mass pitching (pitching to everybody) and over pitching (pitching, and pitching, and pitching some more). Each reporter mentioned the importance of the internet - especially the importance of blogs when it comes to researching popular topics and storylines. When asked, “Do you prefer receiving pitches via blogs or normal PR tactics?” a reporter answered, “Blogs are normal. Blogs are the normal PR tactics now.” That response spoke so much to the fact that blogs are changing the way news is shared and can really bolster an effective PR campaign if done correctly and strategically. It screamed: Don’t just get people talking, get people blogging!

The blog-o-sphere is so new and vast that it has become difficult for traditional companies to adapt. Look for major players to make the transition and for some of the new, up-and-coming companies to rise greatly due to strong blogging tactics.