The New York Jets have
been good to HBO. Aside from
the positive reviews for Hard
Knocks, the reality show based
on the National Football League
team and their sometimes foulmouthed
head coach, Rex Ryan,
the New Meadowlands Stadium
has become a great place for a
captive audience.
At the Jets opener Monday
night (Sept. 13) in the brand-new
East Rutherford, N.J., arena, HBO
and Verizon Communications
flooded the zone with advertising
and signage for Maxgo.com,
Cinemax’s online video site offered
through Verizon. Similar
to HBO Go, which launched with
FiOS in February, Max Go offers
free, unlimited online access to
Cinemax programming for Verizon
subscribers.
Fans couldn’t help notice
throughout the game promotions
on the thin layer of bright digital
signs between the top levels of the
stadium.
At halftime, Billie Joe Armstrong
of Green Day (pictured)
got team spirit ,
cheering mid-song
as the group performed
“Last of the
American Girls.”
Runners car r ying
“Max Go” placards
circled the
band and the small
stage.
All that energy
didn’t help Gang
Green, though:
they lost to the
Baltimore Ravens,
10-9.
Premium-channel rival Showtime,
meanwhile, chose an indoor
venue in midtown Manhattan for
a marketing maneuver with the
third year of “Showtime House.”
Top designers took over the
top three penthouses at the
Cassa Hotel and Residences,
making rooms inspired by series
on the network.
In the United States of Tara loft
(pictured), for example, Brooks
Atwood and Daniel Perlin used
video tracking technology to create
a digital mirror wall that lets
visitors merge their identities
with one of “Tara’s” alternate personalities.
During a preview opening on
Sept. 7, The Wire liked the Laura
Bohn-designed Nurse Jackie
master bedroom, featuring a
hospital-style bed with IV drips
of tequila.
Showtime House 2010 (70 West
45th St.) is open to the public
through Oct. 24. Tickets cost $15
and proceeds benefit the nonprofit
Harlem Children’s Zone.
See Showt imehouse.com for
more info.
Diversity Debate: Might Targeted Ads
Eliminate Need for Ethnic Marketing?
Television advertising has
pretty much worked like
this for more than half
a century: Marketers
reach a desired demographic
target by proxy,
placing ads adjacent
to content that group
finds appealing.
But new addressable
technologies, taken to
their logical conclusion,
could serve ads purely
based on the identity of
the (presumed) viewer.
And that could make
racial and ethnic distinctions
less relevant to
advertisers than other
factors.
“The fact I was born
in the Philippines is part
of who I am, but it’s really
just one facet of who
I am,” Canoe Ventures
chief technology officer Arthur Orduña observed
during a panel
at the 24th annual National
Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications conference
in New York last week. His point: It might be more effective
to deliver ads based on someone’s personal interests and other
psychographic data.
Clearly Orduña, in ruminating on technologies Canoe and its
member MSOs are developing, was trying to spice up the discussion
(moderated bys Multichannel News’ Todd Spangler).
It worked: The notion that ethnic-targeted ads are destined for
obsolescence was quickly rebutted by other speakers on the panel,
including Charlie Echeverry, Univision’s senior vice president of
digital sales, and Meredith Hispanic Ventures executive director
Ruth Gaviria. They emphasized the unique cultural aspects of reaching
ethnic audiences, not the least of which would be crafting Spanish-
language messages for Latino viewers.
Meanwhile, it’s also worth pointing out that some consumers will
opt out of getting marked with a marketing bull’s eye. So to reach
that audience, advertising will probably always still have to work the
old-fashioned way.
TWC, ESPN PR Teams
Meet at the 21 Club
To Toast Their Deal
Not all carriage negotiations end in smoldering acrimony.
Two weeks after the Sept. 2 announcement of the sweeping deal
struck by Time Warner Cable, ESPN and Disney/ABC Television
Group, the public-relations teams from the MSO and ESPN met up
at Manhattan’s famed 21 Club for a celebratory drink. Unlike some
recent negotiations, those between Time Warner Cable and Disney/
ABC never got too nasty — but it did mean a couple of long nights
in the office.
The chummy group, which met last Wednesday before the Kaitz
dinner, included Ellen East, Alex Dudley, Maureen Huff and Justin
Venech from Time Warner Cable, and Chris LaPlaca, Katina Arnold
and Amy Phillips from ESPN.
The Wire notes that Fox’s retrans deal for WNYW with Cablevision
Systems is due for renewal in October — may we recommend
McSorley’s after that deal’s done, then?
