TGIF...after a very busy week that included the Youth Marketing Mega Event and CTIA we thought it was time for a little decompressed fun and procrastination...so here are a few topics that grabbed our attention longer than they probably should have, but hey, it's Friday:
- Today is opening day for Will Ferrell's latest flick, "Blades of Glory," which should easily move to the top spot in weekend box office receipts. Ferrell is the eighth ranked celebrity according to our most recent Top Ten List Report.
- MTV Mobile announced some headline grabbing wireless ad deals at CTIA with Pepsi and Intel signing on as charter sponsors.
- A recent analysis of Nielsen's college viewing data essentially mirrors the majority of our television related data from our two main reports, bet our stuff is a boatload cheaper than Nielsen's, after all they are reportedly paying their new CEO $100 million...
- Michael Eisner, former Disney Chairman/CEO is looking a lot like a Web 2.0 superstar these days...His investment company has been on a tear lately pouring money into web video technology and media start ups, a baseball card company and even a web content production company...His first effort from the web production company he owns, dubbed "Prom Queen," is a video webisode series that will premiere on MySpace next week. Other than content distribution revenues the show is securing, it looks like they are doing branded entertainment product placement deals, with Fiji water, Teleflora and Victoria's Secret Pink signing on.
- Scouring through the trades for good, actionable news stories, we noticed a recurring theme similar to that of the cable news net's non-stop coverage of everything Anna Nicole...the whole Wal-Mart vs. Julie Roehm battle/conflict/future court case. I guess everyone must be really interested in this, because everyone from the NY Times to AdAge to Adweek have published multiple pieces on the drama. Personally, I would rather read more more market centric news and leave the drama and gossip for the Gawkers of the world. One story fine, two stories I'm still ok, but enough already...actually met Julie Roehm a couple of times when we working closely with Ford, she was the original brand manager for the Ford Focus when it hit the market in the late 90s. That was like three lives ago for her...
Finally, and this is personal more than anything newsworthy as it relates to the youth market, but as I mentioned at the start, it's Friday and we're changing things up a bit today (just for today)...got a new computer last week, brand of the computer is the same we've all had for a while, actually have no problem with the brand of computer, it's the operating system. Yes, it is a PC and I am not not following the market we cover who has transitioned successfully and happily over to the Mac...because it is a new computer it came loaded with Vista which, excuse my language, has a shit load of bugs that need to be worked out...every freakin time I open my Outlook I get the same annoying message that three very smart and very experienced IT managers can't figure out...The operating system has more pop-ups and permission windows than AOL did three years ago. I just don't get it really, may be I am extraordinarily naive, but shit, how could they ship something out (and they've already sold millions of copies) that has so many unresolved issues. My advice, hold out until that first service pack comes out, because it will be a big one, they have a lot of problems that need to be fixed...on that note, Happy Friday!