GenDigital

Krispy Kreme Hops on Health Kick

Long a late night snack favorite among teens and college students, especially among those in the southern portion of the country, the popularity of the highly caloric Krispy Kreme donuts have waned in recent years as the youth active and healthy lifestyle trend has kicked into high gear and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Not to be left out of the trend, even Krispy Kreme is offering alternatives to health conscious customers. The donut and coffee chain has introduced a new 100% whole wheat donut that checks in with 180 calories compared to 380 calories for their popular Caramel Kreme Krunch variety. How a donut chain can go totally healthy seems a little far fetched, but like those lame BP commercials say, "it's a start."

Oops, Another Event, More Uproar From Boston

What the heck is it about Boston and event marketing these days? At this point, if I was a brand marketer or media company exec about to execute an event marketing program, I would make sure three times over that absolutely nothing would be going in Boston, because, quite frankly, they're lame. Without going into too much detail, Cadbury Schweppes-owned Dr. Pepper was running a multi-market sweepstakes/scavenger hunt-type promotion whereby contestants using clues provided by Dr. P were searching for a coin they could then redeem for $1 million. Cool, right...wrong, in the case of Boston. As the story goes, one of the clues lead contestants to the Granary Burying Ground, the final home of some seriously important historic figures like Paul Revere and John Hancock, among others. Well, anyway, contestants started showing up at the gates (although there are conflicting reports on how many people showed up) so the city said they were forced to shut it the whole place down. Dr. Pepper reacted immediately amending the Boston portion of the sweeps and issuing a very quick statement of apology to the city. Certainly they learned something from the whole Cartoon Network debacle, but I have to think at this point, that it is just better off for marketers to stay away from Boston, it's more trouble than its worth.

Comedy Central Creates Short Form Series For PlayStation 3

How does that old saying go? Oh right, you can never get fired for buying IBM. As true a statement that was some 20 years ago, fast forward to today and when it comes to reaching 18-34 men, there isn't a more compelling media outlet out there than MTV-owned Comedy Central. South Park, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are all Top 15 television shows, and the network has been aggressively expanding its content offerings and functionality online lead by its broadband network Motherload. So, dare I say...for the struggling Sony PlayStation 3, whose core audience of 18-34 men chose the new Wii system from Nintendo or Microsoft's Xbox 360 system instead of the very pricey PlayStation 3 this past holiday season, it is crunch time. Crunch time in this case means partnering with the uber cool network to create a new short form series that will premiere online at the Comedy Central web site and then on-air beginning tonight. The on-air premiere of the short form series known as Control Fr3aks (btw, alternate spellings are so 2004...strike one) will take place during a commercial break when the number three television show among college men, South Park, airs tonight. Essentially, the shorts show a pair of early twentysomething young men who, no surprise, are video game freaks. The episodes are short and worth a look only if you have 5 minutes to kill. 

New Nielsen College Ratings Analysis Out

According to a new report released by Magna Global, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, shows likes ABC's Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty as well as Fox's juggernaut otherwise known as American Idol, showed big bumps in viewership when looking at Nielsen's new college sample. But, after reading the article one thing jumped out that made me squirm much the same way lots of people were this weekend when pictures of Britney shaving her head showed up in papers and on tv. The sample sized used for the analysis of college student viewership was only 150. Now, I am no statistician, but I would have to think using a sample size of 150 against a potential viewing audience of 2.9 million (about 47.5% of college students live in dorms on campus) seems a little out of whack. That said, I think you have to take some of the results with a few very large grains of premium salt. I think this is a good first step, but if Nielsen is serious about the 18-24 college audience is better get more sample. When we run our Top Ten List Reports, which is one of our smaller media reports, the sample size is four times as large as on the one Nielsen is using, and shows like Nip/Tuck, Entourage and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which all rate in the latter part of the Top Ten List do not get the same visibility because the numbers are too small to move anything. If you really want to know what college students are watching, you also need to look at the other half of the audience who live off campus as well. Good first step, but lots of stairs remain.

ESPN Expands Online Presence With Market-Specific Radio Stations

Realizing the potential and current draw of the Internet radio market, ESPN is wasting no time staking its claim. The company announced yesterday that it is creating online radio sites for five markets including New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Dallas and Los Angeles. Not surprisingly, probably the five most sports-crazed markets nationally, although I'm sure Boston and Indy would have something to say about that. Regardless, it is a shrewd move on the part of ESPN. The local sites will feature a combination of national and market-specific content. The planned features include podcasts, interactive calendars, and polling systems. Perhaps it was the number of young people in one of their core targets that made ESPN act. According to our latest research about one in four (22%) of teen and college aged men streamed online radio at least once in the past month. Among those who regularly listen to online radio, more than half, (56%) say they stream sports-related content.

Site Watch: Sportsvite

Another week, another sports-focused social networking site to check out. It seems like ever since we posted about Takkle.com in December (right when they announced their deal with Sports Illustrated, which was brilliant, by the way), we've been getting emails to check out a ton of niche sports sites, many of which say they have some social networking tools, but for the most part, only a couple really do. The real challenge besides unique functionality is attracting an audience. So why are we writing about another niche sports site? Although Takkle remains our favorite, Sportsvite isn't your typical sports-focused social networking site, it has a unique value proposition to its audience (that doesn't necessarily just have to be teens and young adults, I could see the service being popular in metro centers among twentysomethings as well). Essentially, Sportsvite connects like minded individuals (read: those people into the same types of sports) in local markets. The site says it is challenging for people to organize games whether it be soccer or volleyball in bigger cities or larger market areas and Sportsvite helps facilitate those connections. If anything it's closer to that shared-taxi cab online service we wrote about months ago than something like Takkle where you aren't making physical connections per se. We are going to keep tinkering around the site the rest of the week, we do think it is pretty cool and we do think it has some promise, it is more of a question if they can get an audience using its services before the money runs out.

Time, Inc Continues Strategic Push Lead By SI

I admire what Time, Inc is doing. I have a couple of friends and former colleagues who work in sales/sales management for some of the larger magazine companies and its been somewhat funny to hear them talk about how they are all trying to transform themselves from old school mag publisher relying on ad pages and merchandising credits to multimedia company of the future. Most of them say the shifts in strategy are a double edged sword. They go and pitch their clients to buy "beyond the page" (Remember beyond the banner four or five years ago? This is essentially the same thing). They talk about looking at their magazine as a multi-tiered media property with more than one channel and ultimately more than one touch point to reach the consumer. But when push comes to shove, they're still selling ad pages in magazines and lots of other extras end up getting shut out, because after all, they are magazines. When it comes to Time, Inc however, they are serious about expanding and building out some of their marquee brands. Just in the past couple of weeks they've announced an acquisition of a web-based sports technology outfit and now comes word they are expanding into the video on demand category as well as video production. First up is SI On Demand, which will be carried by sister company Time Warner Cable. Along with the foray into the VOD world, the company is also creating a video production unit dubbed Time, Inc Studios which will produce video content for its stable of magazine properties. Real smart moves coming from a company that is not just talking the talk of the digital age but actually placing real bets in the digital future of the media world. 

Technology Dominates Toy Fair Convention

As this year's American International Toy Fair gets underway today, visitors to the the annual convention will quickly notice a recurring theme: marketing high technology infused items at young, sometimes very young (like 2 and under) children. Toy manufacturers are bringing things like laptops and tablets as well as digital cameras, staples for the adult market and creating versions just for young children. According to an article in Wired, consumer electronics targeted at kids is the fastest growing segment within the $20+ billion toy industry. Toy makers cite the trend growing based on the lower costs of electronic components, and of course, the incredible savvy of the youngest generation as it relates to technology and media comprehension.

Bolt Nears Settlement With Universal; Gets Acquired by GoFish

Ok, I've read this article two and half times and am still trying to figure out all of the implications. And, the truth is, I really would like to understand. According to the New York Times, teen web site Bolt is in talks with Universal Music, the world's largest music company to come to some sort of royalty settlement based on a suit filed last year. It also marks the end of Bolt as an independent company. Apparently, in order to have the funds available to pay for this settlement, Bolt has agreed to be acquired by publicly traded GoFish.com, a similar style site to Bolt, but one that attracts about half the number of visitors. As many of you know, I worked at Bolt for the first seven years of its existence beginning in late 1996. The site since that time has gone through makeover after makeover and since 2004 always seemed to be one step behind the market leaders in terms of innovation and sales and marketing prowess. What this settlement means for other outstanding copyright suits against companies like MySpace remains unclear.

Greater Numbers of Gay Teens Coming Out

At first I thought this was just another "feel good" article in USA Today, and for the most part it is. You have to read the whole thing to actually get some additional perspective. Here's the deal. According to the article, today's generation of young adults are considerably more likely than previous generations to announce their homosexuality to peers and family members at an earlier age. The article points to several youth organizations that have formed supporting gay and lesbian teens. Thanks to the power of the Internet, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to seek one of these groups out if you're a teen from central Iowa as opposed to a major market center. The dissension on all of the openness regarding teen sexual orientation doesn't come in to the end of the article. It appears as if there is a law in the state of Georgia that requires schools to tell parents about the clubs and then allows then to cut of their child's access to the club. Some other southern states like Texas and North Carolina are lobbying to get a similar law passed. Interestingly enough, and we've spoken of the overall accepting attitude displayed by Generation Y, mainly based from their overall cultural diversity to begin with, you'll notice a sidebar in the piece where Gen Y is clearly the most accepting demographic segment nationally when it comes to homosexuality.