Gossip Girl, the CW’s teen drama about private school kids in NYC, has never garnered huge Neilson ratings. In fact, there were many who thought the show would be canceled after it’s first season. It turns out, though, that the power of shows like Gossip Girl might not lie is how many people watch but who watches and what they do afterward:
“Now the show’s sense of style is having a broader impact, in the retail marketplace. Merchants, designers and trend consultants say that “Gossip Girl,” which is in summer reruns on the CW network before returning Sept. 1, just in time for back-to-school shopping, is one of the biggest influences on how young women spend.
Fans stride into boutiques bearing magazine tear sheets that feature members of the cast and ask for their exact outfits. Or they order scoop-neck tops and hobo bags by following e-commerce links from the show’s Web site.” (via NYT)
In many ways, this is one possible model for how web video can succeed. While web video series may never get the kind of viewership that networks get but if they target their viewers and offer advertisers a genuine involvement that can benefit the all parties it might not matter.
Hardly a day goes by that somebody doesn’t write about the decline of the newspaper in America. Micropursuasion sees a perfect storm forming to take out newspapers once and for all due to rising fuel costs impact on distribution, environmental concerns about wasting paper and:
“Last but not least we have the growing popularity of speedy 3G-enabled smart phones, including the new iPhone 3G. The devices are declining in price while offering a lot more sophisticated experience for reading news.”
Tough to argue with their logic and tough to imagine that the kids of today will be picking up the daily paper off the front porch in the future.
Of course, the end of newpapers doesn’t mean the end of news, or journalists for that matter. I really don’t think that the dying off of newspapers is such a big deal.
The terrible tragedy is what will happen to the paperboys (and girls) of America. Lost, with no papers needing delivery, kids will no longer have that key first job experience. The domino effect will lead to a drastic decline in the value of an American worker and a massive increase in early morning, kid-related crime.
So, stop worrying about the newspapers. Worry about the paperboys!
Sometimes a scheme comes along that just ticks off every one of my “this is terrible” boxes.
Sprint’s new campaign for the Instinct (the phone that wishes it was an iPhone but it isn’t so it’s just lame) includes a contest whereby you insert a very ugly video of a hand holding an instinct phone into your YouTube video. In return, you will be entered to win $10,000.
This video explains:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfp1vRNo7Zk&hl=en]
Here’s the thing: we all hate this sort of product placement so why would we want to inflict it on our friends, the only people likely to be watching our videos in the first place?
Way to go Sprint! First your idiot CEO runs his email address at the end of all those ads and then never replies to email I send him and now you want me to make my own videos horrible for you?
I can’t wait for my iPhone!
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July 8, 2008 8:27 pm | 
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