Like everyone else, I am getting tired of hearing about the Tiger Woods saga.  But, I feel like I owe it to our readers to write a follow-up to my previous post found here.  Earlier, I talked about how Tiger needed to come out and say something asap.  It turns out he waited because he knew what was going to be revealed.  I still think that Tiger should have come out earlier, to say something and potentially calm the future blaze.  Who knows what would have happened had he talked to police right away and made a public statement saying he had a little car accident.  That’s all in the past now.  But, now that he has said his piece, I do think it is time to leave him alone.

He made some very solid points while addressing the media about our society, and I agree with him.  He came out, said what he wanted to say, and that should be good enough.  It is sad that a private family matter has to also include constant press releases and press conferences by everyone that has ever had a conversation with Tiger Woods.  Tiger and his family now should have a right to privacy so they can handle their personal issues and not have to worry about keeping the press and American public happy.  But hey, this is the price you pay for celebrity, we all know that.

1 billion dollars and no privacy, or your current income and current privacy?  It’s an interesting debate.

On to the marketing side.  When all the rumors first came out, Tiger’s sponsors said they would stick by him.  This was the right thing to do. Now that’s he’s “guilty” to something, how should they react?

I see dropping Tiger Woods as an endorser as a big mistake for any company.  Yes, Tiger plays a sport which is based on integrity and honesty; but let’s face it, the only Integrity and honesty that truly matter are on the course.  Every year we see five or so big named celebrities either cheat on their spouses (recently Shaq allegedly)  or get in trouble with the law (Charles Barkley, Michael Vick).  These celebrities and more specifically athletes, always recover.  America is the land of second chances… and third chances… and fourth chances…

Here’s Tiger’s formula for a reputation fix (and potentially more wealth than he has now):

• Lay low and stay out of the spotlight  for a while
• Slowly work his way back into the public eye, showing a new focus and devotion to his family
• Come back and play golf like he does, and win.  This will all be forgotten by this time next year.  I mean come on, this is America WIN BABY!
• In 12-18 months have an exclusive interview with Barbara Walters or Johnny Miller (interesting duo huh?) explaining your “previous immaturity and personal growth you have achieved and voila! Image cleared

This happens regularly and as long as you stay out of trouble, and you win it is amazing how quickly everyone forgets (see Kobe Bryant).  Tiger even has the potential to have even more publicity upside than before. He can now triumph off the course as well as on the course.  The public loves improvement.

Tiger’s sponsors should and probably will stick with him through this.  Tiger is a once in a lifetime athlete who transcends time and geography and is followed by so many worldwide.  You may have to phase him out for a while, but he will come blazing back with vengeance.

What will be interesting is when it becomes negotiation time for Tiger and his sponsors.  Historically, after a PR flub like Tiger’s, sponsors will use it against them at the bargaining table hoping for a cheeper contract.  Just think sponsors, you can hang around now, stand behind Tiger during his rough time and potentially save millions of dollars when you renegotiate his contract.  Sounds like a good idea to me.

So Tiger… Just win baby! and it will all be fine.

Follow Todd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

In the new world of web 2.0 (and soon web 3.0) the era of one way communication is over.  No longer can companies, news outlets, celebrities, or anyone for that matter have a one way communication strategy.  This is something we have gone over many times on wwwwY.  Along with this is the fact that entities (in this case Tiger) needs to be responsive to the masses as they can turn on him as quickly as they joined him.

Companies and brands have been doing a good job of engaging in “conversations” with their consumers and reacting to questions/ideas.  Most athletes have done a great job of this as well.  Twitter has been a very good medium for athletes to connect with their fans and vice versa (ex: Chad Ochocinco).  Tiger has not done any of this.

With all the controversy surrounding the car accident and now what seems like dozens of people coming out, claiming to be his mistress; now has never been a better time for Tiger to come out and set things straight.

(On a side note, I just turned to 3 news stations back to back with the head story being Tiger having an affair with an Escondido girl.  With President Obama speaking on Afghanistan tonight, should it really be the top story?)

Tiger needs to respond.  Tiger didn’t release a statement on his web site until days after his crash and after he and his family turned down police efforts to interview him.  Whether Tiger did or is doing something wrong, it is always important to remember that America is the land of the forgiving, especially for celebrities and athletes (just ask: Kobe, Michael Jordan, Shaq, Mike Tyson, Martha Stewart, Michael Jackson, R Kelly, Hugh Grant, Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Phelps, Charlie Sheen, Bill Clinton…)  As long as you apologize, mean it, and show remorse America will forgive you.

I don’t know what Tiger did and didn’t do.  I don’t know what went on during the crash, I don’t know what his relationship is like with his wife and I don’t know anything about his mistresses.  The one thing I do know that his prolonged silence is only hurting him and his reputation.

People do say ‘It’s his private life, he doesn’t need to answer to anyone”.  In the past this has been true, but in todays world of high levels of proliferation media and obsession with stars, Tiger (and stars in general) owe a great deal to the public for their fame and fortune.  If consumers didn’t like Tiger Woods, his sponsorships wouldn’t mean nearly as much as they do currently.  So yes it is his private life, but one pays a price for fame and fortune; they lose a certain level of personal privacy.  It’s sad, but true.

As of now Tiger’s sponsors have said they will stick by him.  We all know that this isn’t always the case, just ask Michael Phelps.  If conformation comes out about rampant cheating and scandals it will be interesting to see if his sponsorships stick to their current stance.  When that day comes, you can bet there will be analysis here on wwwwY.

So Tiger, where are you?  Maybe if you hadn’t been so silent through this whole process you could have prevented this firestorm of media attention.

Follow Todd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

So what did everyone think of Shopping Weekend 2009?  What did everyone get?  Here’s my take.

I participated (although lightly) in both Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year and have a few opinions on the weekend.  Black Friday wasn’t really anything special this year.  Yes, it was interesting for Amazon to drop down in price and compete with the Big Box Stores (Like Walmart) and this added a new story line to keep an eye on.  Target, Best Buy and Walmart (The Big 3 in my opinion) all offered very similar deals; none of which were very impressive.  It seemed that the deals were positioned as great deals, but nevertheless disappointed shoppers.  For the most part, the everyday prices were as impressive as the sales, and this may have confused shoppers.

None of the major stores had that sale item that made you say, “WOW, I have to go there.”  In years past, these were a regular occurrence.  Obviously the poor economy and lower inventory levels made sales harder to come by for retailers.  If they had offered those couple, “Oh my god!” prices, retailers would have done a lot better this past weekend.

The same was true for cyber monday.  There were lots of deals (free shipping was popular) but none of them really stood out to me.  Another thing to note is that this year online sales started as early as Thursday for some retailers.  This could impact Cyber Monday’s sales levels.  Although the deals were not that great today (Monday) or Friday; if consumers wanted to find a deal, because of shear volume (amount of sales) they could find something they liked.

It will be interesting to see the traffic and sales report numbers as they come out.  I predict that because of the whole weekend being full of online sales, and the lackluster deals that sales may not be as high as retailers would like.  We should know more in the days to come.

So how did I make out this weekend?  Well, a LCD HDTV, Blue Ray Movies, and Blue Ray Planet Earth made this weekend a good one for me.  Coincidentally, the TV I got wasn’t even a Black Friday special.  It was a Best Buy Holiday price.

Now excuse me when I go watch Gladiator on Blue Ray

Follow Todd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

It’s that time of year.
“Black Friday” ads are being “leaked” left and right, and every time I turn on the Food Network I see another new recipe for stuffing.  Boy do I love Thanksgiving.

I love everything about the holiday; I love the football, the food, the family, the trip home and the sales.  It’s my favorite holiday.

This year at wwwwY we’re going to do our own take on a Thanksgiving tradition.  The act of “giving thanks” is common, and Devin and I have decided to give thanks to that which we are thankful for this year.

Yes, I am thankful for my friends, thankful for my health and thankful for my wonderful family; but this isn’t that kind of “thanks”.  I want to give thanks wwwwY style.  Give thanks to those things that I as a member of Gen Y use and appreciate every day, that we may now take for granted.

So here it goes: I am thankful for…

Apple – When I custom ordered my Mac Book Pro two years ago it would be an understatement to say I was excited.  I couldn’t wait to ditch windows, its freezing, crashing and slowness.  I felt like my personal efficiency would be increased ten-fold.  I had no idea how right I would be.  My Mac is by far the best computer I have ever used.  To be able to have four programs open and not have to worry about the computer crashing, is nice piece of mind to have.  It’s sleek, it’s sexy, it’s productivity in a nutshell, it’s a Mac.  No wonder why half of all computer owning college students own Macs.

Mashable – I want to dub them the king of social media; the king of the internet; the king of technology… I’ll just call them the king of everything Gen Y.  Mashable is one of the most informative, entertaining, cutting edge sites out there.  Chances are, if you have any sort of interest in social media, you know and visit Mashable regularly.  If you don’t, you should probably crawl out from under your rock and go there now and catch up on what you have been missing.  Hats off to the staff at Mashable.  Way to be the best source of internet information on the internet.

Tivo/Netflix – I am thankful for my two main forms of consumption of media.  I have been a devoted Tivo’er for years.  I constantly see others with cable companys’ DVRs and it frankly they just don’t cut it.  Tivo is a far simpler and easier product.  It makes it so I can watch TV on my own time; and when you’re busy, it’s a great freedom to have.  Netflix is another great entertainment service which has become a major player in the entertainment game.  In the past couple of years they have really stepped up their service and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves TV and movies. 

No longer is Netflix just about the well run home delivery.  They have evolved into an instant form of entertainment.  With their highly reliable online streaming option you always have the opportunity to watch something good, and they’re always adding new content.  Within the last month Netflix has taken their “instant” capabilities to the next level by adding their service to the PS3 and making their other streaming compatible devices much more available.  Netflix has done a lot to not only improve their service, but their branding as well.  They have done a great job advertising over all sorts of different mediums and been entertaining while doing it. 

Commercials that Think Outside the Box – I’m so tired of the same old product based commercial formula: introduce the product, show the product, talk about it’s advantages, and sign off the product.  This formula, although effective at times, can be so boring.  We’ve seen it a hundred times.  I want commercials to SHOW ME SOMETHING.  I appreciate when commercials take a risk.  Call someone out like Carl’s Junior is calling out McDonalds or Droid called out the iPhone.  Make a bold claim like the new salad mix commercials with no dressing necessary, or push the envelope like Reebok.  Clutter and overstimulation are something that Gen Y has learned to overcome.  Push the envelope and pull us in, you’ll be rewarded.

GPS – I thought Mapquest was an amazing invention, but thats so 2004.  Since GPS is easily available and affordable (like on my cell phone), there is no excuse to be lost ever again.  With turn-by-turn live directions, I always know where I’m going.  This has saved me from more potential headaches than any other product.  I would recommend everyone, young and old, get a GPS system – you’ll never get lost and never need a map again.  This I am very thankful for

Texting (SMS) – The tried and true method of communication for Gen Y. Texting is the form of communication which became popular because of Gen Y and will stay popular because of Gen Y.  It’s our medium.  Sometimes I don’t need to have a full phone conversation.  Sometimes I need a quick question answered.  Sometimes I need to talk to someone when a phone call isn’t appropriate.  Text messaging solves all these problems.  Gotta love it.

I am a very thankful person, I am very grateful for all I have.  To my friends and family I love you all and you are the reason I am who I am today.  Thank you for being the most important part of my life.  To all the things I mentioned above, thank you for being innovative and making my life a little better and easier.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Follow Todd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

MW2 had the biggest release ever

Just a followup on our Modern Warfare 2 extravaganza last week.  It was said that the pre orders broke every record for a video game.  Well the official numbers were just released.

In the first 24 hours of its release Modern Warfare 2 sold 4.7 million copies.  A total of $310 million in the first 24 hours of sales.  Not bad for a release.

In the first week MW2 made over $550 million in sales.  This first week of sales topped the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the opening weekends for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and the opening of The Dark Night

So lets clarify this, not only was Modern Warfare 2 the biggest opening for a video game ever; BUT THE BIGGEST OPENING WEEKEND EVER!

WOW.

This is due to a great product, a devoted fan-base and an amazing marketing and launch campaign.  Infinity Ward has been rewarded for a great campaign.

Now excuse me when I log on to go play on PSN.

Follow Todd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

So, with college hoops back in season, I’m back to watching at least an hour of games per night.

And it seems like these preseason tourneys are overloaded with product sponsors. Tonight, I’m watching Louisville and Arkansas, and the court has huge Bud Light logos on each end, and apparently the 3-second area is sponsored by Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Now, I’m not a purist, and I have no problem with corporate logos and sponsorship being a part of sports.

But I don’t understand what’s in it for the companies. It seems like an odd choice of spending your sponsorship dollars. I don’t know how much the Scotttrade Center in St. Louis charges to Reese’s logo in the paint, but wouldn’t you get more out of your investment by hiring a sampling team to hand out your latest innovation?

The same is true of TV. How much more does it cost a sponsor to have their name mentioned before the show, as opposed to just running a commercial? Last night, CBS Monday Night shows were brought to us by T-Mobile. Still don’t care, not buying T-Mobile. Although my opinion of the brand is aided more by Catherine Zeta Jones then it is by sponsoring Accidentally on Purpose.

I’ve always been a much bigger fan of product samplings and product placement. One of the brands that has done the best job with product placement in the past few months is Izze, the sparkling juice brand. Izze shows up in shows like Entourage, the Big Bang Theory, and Grey’s Anatomy. And people notice the clear glass bottle, think to themselves, “hey, I saw that at Starbucks, maybe I should try it.”

Notice that Izze didn’t sponsor any of those shows. And they didn’t pay to have their logo on an already crowded court.

The one type of sponsorship that I am in favor of is when you can grab exclusive commercial sponsor. Subway has done the best job of this. Check out any ESPN Podcast (like the Bill Simmon’s Podcasts, drawing almost 1 million listeners). And it’s sponsored by Subway. Subway gets a couple of chances to plug their sandwiches before and after the podcast, and the chain is mentioned constantly. It’s a great tie-in, and more than a few times I’ve left the podcast to grab a sandwich.

The last week has been a big week for Playstation 3 owners.  At the end of last week, Streaming Netflix came to the PS3.  On Tuesday, Modern Warfare 2 released.  Naturally, I have participated in both events and here are my thoughts:

• Netflix on the PS3 is just plain awesome.  Watched my first movie as soon as I received my disk in the mail and the picture quality was great.  It looked like I had a regular DVD playing.  You can also surf the movies available, rate movies and pretty much everything else Netflix owners know and love.  The Streaming Netflix on the PS3 has great functionality along with a great picture.  A must have for all Netflix and PS3 owners.
• Modern Warfare 2 launched at midnight Tuesday morning.  With what was the biggest pre-order for a game ever for Gamestop, there were lines out the doors.  With 4200 Gamestops opening their doors at midnight, that meant for big crowds all over the country.  I attended an opening in San Diego and there were at-least 200 people there waiting to pick up their copy.  This was a pretty big attendance considering how many stores within a 10 mile radius were having midnight openings.

This was only a third of the line

• So by guestimation 200 people per store, and 4200 stores means roughly 840,000 people picked up a copy of their game at midnight.  This seems relatively accurate as almost 700,000 people were playing online on the Playstation Network at 1am pacific time.
• As for the game, it is one of the best games ever.  I’ve only played the campaign for a few minutes but the first two missions were intense and a lot of fun.  The multiplayer is somehow better than in the original Modern Warfare (which is an impressive feat)
• On a more disappointing note, on Wednesday the PS3 dedicated servers went down for a few hours (thus why I played campaign), they got them back up relatively quickly.
• The party system sucks in MW2.  You can’t meet up with friends.  This is supposed to be fixed with a patch on Friday.  I have to say the two previous problems (server being down and no partying) is quite annoying.  But, I give Activision a lot of credit for their quick response.  This is the kind of attention Gen Y wants (needs).  Way to know your target audience.
• There was another announcement this week saying that Twitter, and Facebook are coming to XBox360 and the PS3.  The two systems are clearly really trying to diversify.

So that’s about it for the PS3 update.  For all you out there who aren’t into the gaming systems remember one thing:  The days of “gaming systems” are over.  Now they are “entertainment systems”.  Marketers need to take note of the functionality of these devices and potentially how they can help them with their marketing in the future.

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

One of the biggest complaints from sports fans in the past 5-10 years is that they’ve been priced out. The price tag on professional games has skyrocketed in the 90s and 00’s (still need a better nickname for that one…)

But, the Boston Celtics think they might have found the answer.

The defending NBA Champs have launched a massive effort to engage with fans online. You can catch locker room exclusives on the team’s youtube channel, and using Twitter to offer seat upgrades during games.

This is a huge shift in the last few months. As early as the start of college football season, the SEC was trying to ban tweeting from the stands during college football games. Now? Teams, leagues and sports that embrace social networking will be helping their popularity, those that don’t will be damaging it.

So what does a Twitter and Facebook presence do for the Celtics?

Well, when they’re winning, like they are right now, it’s not going to drive a ton of revenue. But, teams go through losing streaks. And imagine being able to reach 40,000 of your die-hard fans with an offer like: “5,000 tickets still available for tonight against the Cavs. See Lebron and the C’s for just $10. Call now.”

It’s instant billboarding, instant advertising, etc. It makes life easier for your ticket sales department, since they don’t need to have projected tickets sold out weeks in advance. Unsold tickets can be promoted much faster, as can team events, etc.

And the other department it helps out is the sponsorship department. If you’re using Twitter to drive people to your home-page for exclusive footage, your traffic’s going to rocket up. And that makes it much easier to sell sponsorships. So instead of your home page featuring banner ads for Bob’s windows or a local restaurant chain, you might get Vitamin Water or Geico to buy in.

I’m interested to know if there are other sports franchises out there doing the same thing. If your team is doing this, leave us the link in the comments…

MW2 releases 11.10.09

11.10.09

This is a very exciting date for gamers.  The new Modern Warfare 2 releases for PS3, XBox 360 and PC.  The internet has been ablaze with constant updates on the game since the NBA Playoffs when Infinity Ward showed their first teaser trailer.

Modern Warfare 2 is the perfect example of a great IMC campaign, especially for a video game release.  It was a perfect storm: a highly anticipated product, marketed extremely well to the correct target market (Gen Y).

Important to point out: The game had legs to begin with.  The original Modern Warfare was touted as one of the best first person shooters ever made.  The sequel has been anticipated ever since the first one launched.

After announcing the sequel, Infinity Ward used an amazing marketing strategy to keep the hype up for months.  The MW2 team applied a slow leak formula to their communications.  Slowly giving information about the story, game changes, multiplayer, and new Special Ops mode over the matter of 8 months.  They had the internet ablaze with anticipation.

MW2 also had great relationships with video game sites (like IGN), where they would release new info, videos, trailers, and information periodically.  These sites then did a great job marketing their coverage, as it was a big draw for traffic.

MW2 also did a good job co-branding with Monster Energy Drink.  They ran a MW2 promotion of 4 packs of cans where you could win games, free map pack downloads and a viewing of a exclusive MW2 strategy webcase.  That webcast was Tuesday: (here is the link to the videos: STRATEGY).

Many independent blogs devoted to the new game started during the process, giving gamers a “best of” on MW2 news.  These blogs also distributed lots of information that the MW2 team didn’t want releasing.  A premature release of a couple copies of the games happened last week and lots of extra footage was released to the internet; creating more buzz than there was originally.  Infinity Ward might actually want to thank that French Guy that first put his gameplay videos on Justin.tv.

Gamestop also teamed with MW2 to release their Pre-Order contest Surprise Attack.  Usually, gamespot gives away something for pre-ordering a game like a: demo, extra download or perk etc.  This time they teamed with MW2 to launch Surprise Attack, their sister contest site which customers would enter their pre order code to enter in bi-daily raffles for 1000s of prizes.  Prizes ranged anywhere from dog tags or shirts to a snowmobile or hummer.  They did a great job promoting this contest with their co-branded Gamestop MW2 commercial for the pre order:

The proof of the success of the  launch campaign for MW2 is in the industry and market reactions.  Industry wise, most major games decided to push back their releases until 2010.  Other games just couldn’t keep up with the hype, expectations and what will be sales of MW2.  An industry writer wrote something months back saying something like, “It’s not a matter of what game will be game of the year, it a matter of what games could possibly challeneg MW2 for the title.”  How can the industry battle a juggernaut like that?  Well in this case, most couldn’t.

Market wise, Gamestop just reported that Modern Warfare 2 broke every record they had for pre-orders of a game.  More copies have been pre ordered than any game before it.  This means HUGE profits for Gamestop.  Yes, most stores did pre-orders but Gamestop received most of them.  This guarantees them $60 x [However many millions of pre-orders they took].  Not a bad profit that will come 11.10.09.

This massive industry and market wise success is because of the careful planning and strategy that was used for MW2.  It was a marketing campaign on a scale that no video game had ever seen.  Boy did it pay off.  It will be interesting to see if other big release games can try and emulate the success of this campaign in the future?

In case you were wondering, yes I did pre-order it and yes I’ll be picking it up at midnight.  And no I’m not a nerd, I only do it for Madden and COD.

Now I’m wondering; who preordered? Who didn’t? and who’s not going to buy the game

Follow Todd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss

Just a quick update:

Just received an email saying that they started shipping the first batch of Netflix PS3 disks and that users will receive them this coming Friday.  I was lucky enough to receive an email so I have a busy weekend ahead of me.  I’ll be posting my review of the new service next week.

Follow Todd on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/toddliss