Boondoggie of Find-The-Boots gave us a lot of help during Save Jericho. Here's a look back at some of the inspiration he provided.
"I'm going to go out on a limb and make a prediction.
The Save Jericho campaign will change the way Old Media interacts with the internet.
Google for "Save Jericho" and you get 48,000 hits as of this morning. Think of the amount of time and money it would take a public relations agency to put up 48,000 pages with your message, all with unique and clearly human content.
This absolutely dwarfs the famous Star Trek letter writing campaign. Today marks the 1 week anniversary since the cancellation of the show. Things move at a different speed on the internet.
And all because executives at CBS were told by the Nielson ratings that the show didn't have much support. They're only 10 years behind the times, so I guess that's not too bad for corporate America. My experience has been that even "high tech" companies trail by about 10 years from what's available in their IT capabilities. That's why the power company has to ask me my account number instead of just looking at the caller id, and why I have to repeat it every time they transfer me. Hmm, make that 20 years. CBS is making its decisions based upon an old model, and sometimes that collides with the New Media and the result isn't pretty for the old guys.
CBS is under the impression that the old technology of set top boxes and personal diaries from Nielson families controls their business model. In some ways, it still does, because advertisers go along with it. The viewers aren't CBS's customers, the advertisers are. But when the advertisers figure out that the old measurements are pretty much useless, they'll start to change their models. Spending $500K for 30 seconds of prime time advertising won't seem like such a smart idea when that same $500K could be spent elsewhere.
And when that happens, we'll look back at the Save Jericho campaign and say that's where it started."
"But the real lesson to be learned is that the monster isn't controllable. The NY Times ran an interesting article on "The High Price of Creating Free Ads." They tell the story of how Heinz has had so much difficulty controlling what they hoped would be a viral marketing strategy. Read the article and you'll see another example of how foolish it is to think that you can control something like fans that don't work for you."
"In the past several years, TV fans have taken to the internet to launch campaigns in support of the shows they love. There was "Save Farscape," that lead to a resurrection in the form of a series of TV movies. There was the effort to save Firefly that ultimately lead Universal to believe that there was enough interest in the franchise to greenlight the Serenity movie. Most recently was the resurrection of CBS's apocalyptic drama Jericho. The campaign to save Jericho involved thousands of peanuts being sent to CBS in a symbolic gesture from the shows fans. In what seemed an almost impossible development, the network agreed to bring Jericho back for a shortened 7 episode season."
"While striking writers and Hollywood studios are still negotiating a contract, CBS Corp. Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves has a honey of a new one.
Here's what Moonves, 58, is getting in the agreement that runs through October 2011:
A base salary of $3.5 million.
A target bonus of $10.5 million, three times his salary. That's what Moonves gets essentially for showing up. There could be more if he performs, though nothing is specified.
An option covering 5 million shares.
An annual grant of free shares worth $7.6 million on each of four grant dates during his contract. To earn them, Moonves will have to achieve a performance target for budgeted free-cash flow.
A make-whole provision so Moonves doesn't face the higher income tax that New York state and New York City levy compared with California. That allows Moonves to spend whatever time he wants at his company's New York headquarters and not suffer any monetary consequences compared with spending all his time at CBS in California.
For this, Moonves isn't required to work more than five days a month and eight hours a day. Assuming he works the maximum hours, his pay rate, including cash and the current stock price, would be a lovely $9,800 an hour."
"Man, CBS owes Jericho fans a huge thank-you. Not only are they responsible for bringing the show back from cancellation — making sure the network has another series to show this winter during the ongoing writers' strike — but they also gave the network the perfect tool for marketing the show's return: nuts! Ever since fans inundated CBS headquarters with literally tons of peanuts this spring in an effort to bring the show back, CBS has adopted the nut theme as its own. The network gave out gift bags of nuts during the Jericho panel at this summer's TV press tour, and here's the latest: a tour through the show's first season as hosted by a talking, animated peanut."
"The networks publicly have been insisting that their ratings will not be much hurt by the upcoming glut of reality programming in the wake of the writers' strike. Do you think the public will embrace reality, because that's all there is, or will we see a backlash against this much unscripted programming?"
"Just last week, there was a sense that talks in the Writers Guild of America strike were moving in the direction of a settlement.
This week, the outlook is as bleak as the weather Milwaukeeans have been facing this December: icy, cold and unending.
Talks broke down Friday night, and there's no date set for a new round.
The fallout won't really start to hit viewers until after the holiday season ends. The word out of Hollywood is that the last of the dramas still in production will wrap up this week, so fresh episodes will become increasingly sparse once the December rerun / holiday specials season wraps up after the ball drops in Times Square."
"The writers' strike is about to make the 2007-08 TV schedule look like a really boring week in July. So let's look at some of the more intriguing numbers from Nielsen about prime-time viewing this fall before first-run episodes of your favorite shows go away.
45.2 — The median age for NBC's prime-time audience, down almost two years from last season, making it the youngest of the four major networks. CBS is still the oldest, with half of its viewers aged 52.6 or older. But ABC, thanks to Dancing with the Stars, has seen its audience age the most, going from last season's 47.4 to 49.5.
39 — The median age for viewers who playback ABC shows on their DVRs. That's 11 years younger then the age of those who watch them live. The median age of viewers watching NBC and CBS on their DVRs is 10 years younger then those who watch live. Fox's median age is eight years younger among DVR viewers (35 compared to 43 for those who watch live. The CW fans playing back shows are actually a year older (33) then those who watch live."
"Here is the fifth video of the behind-the-scenes from the CW’s SUPERNATURAL. Jared and Jensen."
"On December 3rd 2007, Hey! Nielsen started the Most Valuable Poster Sweepstakes in which the “most valuable poster” can will a $1,000 prize. You could be a winner if you are willing to offer valuable content so head over to Hey! Nielsen and check it out."
Once again Rich of Copywrite Ink hits the CBS nail on the head. I find the article to be quite revealing as well as interesting.
"Buddy TV has been running an online poll that reveals the fan base fractures over the decision. Only 10 percent of Jericho fans like the new time slot, 67 percent don’t care (they’ll watch anytime), and 23 percent think it is a mistake."
It's evident fans are not voting like we once did. Since the return was announced I haven't even seen any major promotional efforts underway. Are we burned out ? Probably. Have we done all the marketing while CBS did nothing ? Yes.
"A mere 145 people voted, which is indicative of CBS giving up its engagement with the thousands of fans that convinced them to bring it back. Equally telling is that the Jericho Season One DVD sales did not measure up, hindered by the network’s lack of the commitment to the cause. We cautioned fans to promote the DVD heavily, as if CBS would not market it."
CBS should be ashamed of the non-marketing they did for the DVD. Is it that they want to see Jericho fail this time?
"CBS primarily made four promises to Jericho fans when they reinstated the series in June:
• Re-broadcast “Jericho” on CBS, which they did with an odd order, until the series was pre-empted by football. • Stream online episodes and clips online, but without much marketing support for the varied platforms where you can find it. • Release the first season to DVD on Sept. 25, which was postponed and lacked any substantial marketing support. • Continue the story of Jericho in digital media, which they almost did but not in any real tangible sort of way."
And, Rich, don't forget that CBS gave us the most insane chat room for Jericho known to man. Porn, threats, you name it. They haven't even tried to moderate it just as they let the Jericho message board go downhill.
So we have all this plus the fact that few bloggers are blogging Jericho, the message board is dead, and CBS is sitting back watching. Personally, I don't think we can blame the holidays for the apathy I see.
If Jericho fails again the blame lays in the lap of CBS. And, I doubt they even care.
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