Monday, October 16, 2006

Super Bowl Count Down

The Pittsburgh Steelers will take on the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday in Detroit. I've come across some interesting Super bowl news during this week leading up to the game...Being in Detroit, Windsor is expecting to see $80 million in business over the weekend (I'm sure Ye Olde Steak House will be packed!).One of the 'Super Bowl' Stories is "Jerome Betis's coming home party. He's from Detroit and he's got family there... we know get over it.As always if the game sucks, you can still pay attention to the commercials... over and over again as NFL.com will rebroadcast the commercials on Monday and Tuesday.I guess what I'm getting at is... who do you think's gonna win?

Friday, August 25, 2006

Super Ads




Sunday, February 5th, was "Super Bowl Sunday", of course so like other devout followers of the religion of football I attended a party in my housing association's club house. Let me begin by congratulating the Pittsburgh Steelers on their victory over the Seattle Seahawks.

What I most noticed -- beyond the poor quality of the NFL referees -- was that the party attendees were very talkative during the game but became quiet when the advertisements were running. Based on the post-Super Bowl news articles I read it appears that at least 8 to 10% of game watchers tune in JUST to watch the commercials.

My second observation on the game is a question to the NFL -- what demographic group are you trying to focus on? One year you have Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake as the half-time performers and another year you give us the Rolling Stones. Perhaps there are a lot of cross-over fans for these artists but I doubt it. Since most Super Bowl-related newspaper articles cite that a growing segment of NFL fans are women perhaps Mick and the Boys are considered sexual icons despite Keith Richards' corpse-like appearance.

Overall my love of American football continues despite all the sideshows such as -- half time performers and TV commercials -- but would love to see the NFL focus Super Bowl 2007 on FOOTBALL so here are some suggestions (DISCLAIMER -- granted these might have been tried already and I missed them but then again I am not sending an invoice to the NFL for the ideas, I am just a football purist trying to promote the game.):

Punt, Pass, and Kick -- showcase the PPK champions at the beginning of the game to help reach the youth market by creating some "youth rock stars" in football to counter the gains made by soccer. Arena Football -- the NFL signed a deal with the AFL years ago but do you ever see Arena Football highlighted during the Super Bowl? High Schools -- I always see the Top 25 high school football team rankings in USA Today but why not give the top team at the end of the season some recognition at the Super Bowl?

Ready................break,

Todd

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Why I Resigned From The City of Oakland - Zennie Abraham

Monday, July 17, 2006

Answering Questions Directed Towards Somebody Else The NFL season ...

Answering Questions Directed Towards Somebody Else

The NFL season kicks off in 54 days and, to commerate the event, Scouts.com analyst Gary Horton took questions this morning on ESPN.com. This afternoon, I will answer some questions as if they were directed towards me.

Justin (NJ): Is this the year that Peyton and CO. finally get over the hump in Indy and get to the Super Bowl?
Chris: My, we're setting our sights quite low, aren't we Justin? Has Peyton's rep taken such a hit that we now have to ask if the Colts will merely make the Super Bowl instead of winning the whole thing?
But to answer your question, I think Peyton and Co. will get over a hump this year, and by over I mean under and by hump I mean the Jaguars. Since 1999 the Colts have finished with 10 wins or more every year except for in 2001 when they went 6-10. In 2001, you might remember, Edgerrin James was lost for the season with a torn ACL. I'm probably treading on next month's 15-part NFL Preview but, needless to say, the Colts won't be a featured pick.

John ( New York ): Hey Gary why is everyone so down on the Raiders? They have tons of talent on offense and their defense is younger and fast and I think they will surprise some people.
Chris: Younger and fast are the way I like my women, not my defenses.

Gary (NY): How does Eli fare this year? Does he join the ranks of his brother finally?
Chris: Yes, Eli will continue to be a non-time Super Bowl champion quarterback this season, just like his brother. To answer the first part second, Eli will perform just as well as he has to date, which is to say, not very well at all.
By the way, this is the third consecutive question from New York and New Jersey. Who's moderating this chat, Paul Tagliabue?

Richard, Tampa FL: What is your prediction for Nick Saban's second year? How close is he to how he wants it?
Chris: Looks like we got our subconsciously homoerotic question out of the way. Thanks, Richard!

Dan S (Washington DC): Gary, are you buying Alex Smith in SF? Always thought he was the #1 pick by circumstance. Is this guy a gamer at this level on any other team...besides Houston of course?
Chris: He has Norv Turner by his side now. What could possibly go wrong?!

Mark (Richmond, VA): Gary, I'm a huge Redskins Fan, but I am disappointed in the receivers we obtained this offseason. Yes, they are better than what we had, but there is still no HEIGHT!!! With Sam Madison, Will Peterson, Terrance Newman, Anthony Henry, Lito Sheppard, and Sheldon Brown twice a year, do you think the 06-07 Smurfs can get the job done??? I feel this is the weakest spot on the team!!!
Chris: Mark, you deserve to be hit in the throat and the stomach. First of all, Santana Moss was the second-best receiver in the NFL last season with David Freakin' Patten lining up beside him. A blind mute could play receiver better than Patten did in '05, so anybody is an improvement. With Antwaan Randle-El and Brandon Lloyd aboard, the Redskins make automatic improvements to the receiving corps, improvements which will free up Moss from all the attention he drew last season. My main worry is that the Redskins don't have a prototypical possession receiver; but Chris Cooley can fill that role quite nicely.
Height at receiver is overrated anyway. T.O. is considered a tall receiver yet he's "only" 6'3 (just three inches taller than Brandon Lloyd). Jerry Rice was listed at 6'2, but that's about as reliable as the 5'11 that's on my license. Gary Horton makes a very good point in the actual chat about this topic:
I think we've seen that with the new contact rules in the NFL, small receivers are very much en vogue again. I love cornerbacks that like to bump and run, but the rules don't allow them to push receivers all over the field. And these little guys will get off the jam and separate, and this will be a great Redskins passing attack, in my opinion. Second of all, Mark, you just listed Sam Madison, Anythony Henry, Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard as cornerbacks to be afraid of. I wouldn't be afraid of Lito Sheppard if we had to fight to the death and he had a gun and I had a spork; so I don't think Santana Moss is going to lose sleep over Lito Sheppard. Lito Sheppard! Ha! That's laughable, man!

Fritz (New Brunswick NJ): Will the Chargers make the playoffs even with Rivers at the Helm?
Chris: Is "the Helm" a nickname for the Chargers? Because i'm not understanding the capitalization, Fritz. I'm really, really not.

Jason (ATX): Hey Gary thanks for taking time to answer my question. Who do you think will have the Best D in the NFL this year? Do you think Steve Smith can/will put up numbers like last year (since teams will have to keep an eye on KJ)? If so shouldnt he be the leagues MVP?
Chris: Don't you think it's pretty presumptuous to thank Gary for answering your question before he actually answers it? It's like writing a thank you note for a gift you haven't received. Maybe that's the custom in ATX, I don't know. I just don't know anything, except that it's lunch time.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Knicks v. Pacers

Gerade gewannen die New York Rangers in Overtime gegen die Boston Bruins und halten ihren Vorsprung in der Division. Warum ist das wichtig? Weil ich gestern beim Knicks Spiel war. Hä? Ach Egal.

Der gestrige Tag war wettertechnisch sehr seltsam. Vormittag regnete es und ich lief mit Jacke herum, am Nachmittag, als ich mich in Richtung Garden begab, schien die Sonne und es war warm. Ich ging aus dem Haus, blieb stehen, drehte herum und ließ meine Jacke im Zimmer.

Ich ging zur 40. Straße in ein Hochhaus und ging auf den Doorman zu. "Ich will Tickets abholen" - "7. Stock" Also fuhr ich hoch in den siebten, öffnete die Tür des Büros und erkannte den Typen, den ich vor zwei Wochen in der Brauerei kennengelernt hatte. Er meinte noch, dass ich die erste Person sei, die hier vorbeikommt, die er kennt.

Mit den Tickets in der Hand Richtung 31. und 7th wo ich mich um 7:30 mit Anna traf. Wir gingen gleich rein und natürlich rannte mir der Holländer über den Weg. Das gibt es nicht. In dieser großen Stadt begegne ich ihm in Grand Central Station, sehe ich ihn aus dem Busfenster und treffe ihn im Madison Square Garden. Ich hab mit ihm eigentlich überhaupt nichts mehr zu tun aber ständig rennt er mir über den Weg. Er hatte Tickets über die NYU gekauft und während er sich auf dem Weg nach oben machte, gingen wir zu unsere super Sitzen auf der Höhe der Mittellinie.

Es war so geil im Garden Platz zu nehmen. So oft hatte ich Rangers, Knicks, und College Spiele aus der berühmtesten Arena gesehen, hier hatte Jordan regelmäßig 50 Punkte für seine Bulls geworfen, hier hatte Gretzky für die Rangers Tore geschossen und hier wurde Messiers Trikot in die Decke gehängt, und ich saß nun in dieser Arena. Ein toller Moment für einen Sportsfan.

Was natürlich umso besser war, war der Fakt dass ich eine wunderbare Begleitung an meiner Seite hatte.
Wir hofften auf ein spannendes Spiel und das bekamen wir auch. Der größte Lead waren glaub ich mal 5 Punkte für die Pacers und am Schluss gewannen die Knicks mit 0.5 Sekunden auf der Uhr.

Hier ein paar Bilder des Abends und hier und da ein paar Videos.


Oben: Anna ist ein großer Rangers Fan und während des Spiels unterhielten wir uns mehr über Eishockey als über Basketball. Ich wusste gar nicht, dass sie so ein großer Fan ist und als wir uns in der ersten Pause Bier holten stellte sie sich neben ihrer großen Held.


Oben: Ich sollte mich dann auch noch hinstellen, wobei ich bei Jagr nur an den Typ denke, der regelmäßig bei Olympiaden die Deutschen deklassiert. Aber als Rangers Fan bin ich natürlich Pro-Jagr.


Oben: Wir spielten dann mehrere Szenarien durch und wie wohl unsere Reaktion ausfallen würde. Hier ist es, dass die Knicks verlieren, oder das die Arena kein Bier mehr hat...


Oben: Der Rapper Fat Joe war im Publikum und im 3. Viertel war er so wütend, dass er auf das Feld rannte, und Nate Robinson von der Mittellinie warf. Ich muss nicht erähnen, dass er den Wurf machte.


Oben: Ja es war ein knappes Spiel. Die Pacers machten das 96-96 mit 8 Sek. im Spiel. Die Knicks nahmen keinen Auszeit und rannten direkt in die andere Richtung und Jamal Crawford war mit einem Buzzer Beater den Korb. Wir fielen uns um die Arme und gaben High Fives zu den anderen Knicks Fans als der Sprecher meinte, dass noch 0.5 Sek auf der Uhr waren als der Ball den Korb traf. Also hatten die Pacers noch eine Chance, schafften es aber nicht.
Es saßen vier Pacers Fans hinter uns (schwarz, groß) und bei einer Entscheidung gegen die Pacers riefen sie laut, bis der Ref den Call änderte und er nun gegen die Knicks ging. "Oh he must have heard us, he changed the call." Ich drehte mich herum und meinte "yea, and that's you shouldn't talk anymore." Ich lachte dabei und gott sei dank verstanden sie, dass es ein Witz war denn ich merkte es nachdem ich es ausgesprochen hatte, dass es wirklich große Typen waren.

Oben: "Auus, auus. Das Spiel ist auuus." War ein wirklich toller Abend und er sollte noch weitergehen. Video 1 | Video 2 | Video 3

Ich trennte mich von Anna und ging nach Haus wo ich beim betreten des Flurs laute Musik hörte. Umso näher ich meinem Apartment kam, umso mehr realisierte ich, dass die Musik aus unserem Wohnzimmer kam.

Darin saßen Tusar, Steve und ein paar Leute und tranken. Ich holte Joey und alle zusammen machten wir uns richtung East Village zu einer Privat-Party.

Beim betreten des Raums viel mir gleich eine Blondine auf die ein unglaubliches Lächeln hatte. Nach all dem vorstellen und einem beinahe Kuss des betrunkenen Typen der sich als Gastgeber ausgab, aber keinen dort so richtig kannte, stelle ich mich ihr vor und musste gleich erklären wo ich herkam. Das Wort "Germany" hat mich hier wirklich noch nicht im Stich gelassen und auch dieses Mal kam wahre Beigeisterung auf. Sie sprach fast perfekt deutsch und wollte anscheinend auch unbedingt deutsch sprechen.
So genug mit den Ladies.

Pete scheint mich wirklich zu mögen ( Video ) und da er bei Saturday Night Live für die Tickets verantwortlich ist lädt er mich heut abend auf die After Party ein. Das ist ein rießen Deal, da alle Stars der Show da sein werden und man als normal sterblicher da nie hinkommt.

Wir erfahren er kurz vor Party Beginn wo sie ist (denn sie ist jedes Mal woanders und wird geheimgehalten) und gegen 3 Uhr morgens geht es dann los (mit der Party). Ich muss mir heut abend unbedingt die Show ansehen damit ich dann weiß er was zu sagen hat und wer nicht.

Mal schauen. Ich will heut noch was mit Tara machen, aber ich kann ja schlecht das SNL Ding saußen lassen. Diese Entscheidungen... okay, ich höre auf.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Another good article on Google

The New York Times
July 5, 2006
David Leonhardt
The Internet Knows What You'll Do Next

A FEW years back, a technology writer named John Battelle began talking about how the Internet had made it possible to predict the future. When people went to the home page of Google or Yahoo and entered a few words into a search engine, what they were really doing, he realized, was announcing their intentions.

They typed in "Alaskan cruise" because they were thinking about taking one or "baby names" because they were planning on needing one. If somebody were to add up all this information, it would produce a pretty good notion of where the world was headed, of what was about to get hot and what was going out of style.

Mr. Battelle, a founder of Wired magazine and the Industry Standard, wasn't the first person to figure this out. But he did find a way to describe the digital crystal ball better than anyone else had. He called it "the database of intentions."

The collective history of Web searches, he wrote on his blog in late 2003, was "a place holder for the intentions of humankind — a massive database of desires, needs, wants, and likes that can be discovered, subpoenaed, archived, tracked, and exploited to all sorts of ends."

"Such a beast has never before existed in the history of culture, but is almost guaranteed to grow exponentially from this day forward," he wrote. It was a nice idea, but for most of us it was just an abstraction. The search companies did offer glimpses into the data with bare-bones (and sanitized) rankings of the most popular search terms, and Yahoo sold more detailed information to advertisers who wanted to do a better job of selling their products online. But there was no way for most people to dig into the data themselves.

A few weeks ago, Google took a big step toward changing this — toward making the database of intentions visible to the world — by creating a product called Google Trends. It allows you to check the relative popularity of any search term, to look at how it has changed over the last couple years and to see the cities where the term is most popular. And it's totally addictive.

YOU can see, for example, that the volume of Google searches would have done an excellent job predicting this year's "American Idol," with Taylor Hicks (the champion) being searched more often than Katharine McPhee (second place), who in turn was searched more often than Elliot Yamin (third place). Then you can compare Hillary Clinton and Al Gore and discover that she was more popular than he for almost all of the last two years, until he surged past her in April and stayed there.

Thanks to Google Trends, the mayor of Elmhurst, Ill., a Chicago suburb, has had to explain why his city devotes more of its Web searches to "sex" than any other in the United States (because it doesn't have strip clubs or pornography shops, he gamely told The Chicago Sun-Times). On Mr. Battelle's blog, somebody claiming to own an apparel store posted a message saying that it was stocking less Von Dutch clothing and more Ed Hardy because of recent search trends.(A disclosure: The New York Times Company owns a stake in Mr. Battelle's latest Internet company, Federated Media Publishing.)

It's the connection to marketing that turns the database of intentions from a curiosity into a real economic phenomenon. For now, Google Trends is still a blunt tool. It shows only graphs, not actual numbers, and its data is always about a month out of date. The company will never fully pull back the curtain, I'm sure, because the data is a valuable competitive tool that helps Google decide which online ads should appear at the top of your computer screen, among other things.

But Google does plan to keep adding to Trends, and other companies will probably come up with their own versions as well. Already, more than a million analyses are being done some days on Google Trends, said Marissa Mayer, the vice president for search at Google.

When these tools get good enough, you can see how the business of marketing may start to change. As soon as a company begins an advertising campaign, it will be able to get feedback from an enormous online focus group and then tweak its message accordingly.

I've found Pepsi's recent Super Bowl commercials — the ones centered around P. Diddy — to be nearly devoid of wit, but that just shows you how good my marketing instincts are. As it turns out, the only recent times that Pepsi has been a more popular search term in this country than Coke have been right after a Super Bowl. This year's well-reviewed Burger King paean to Busby Berkeley, on the other hand, barely moved the needle inside the database of intentions.

Hal R. Varian, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who advises Google, predicts that online metrics like this one have put Madison Avenue on the verge of a quantitative revolution, similar to the one Wall Street went through in the 1970's when it began parsing market data much more finely. "People have hunches, people have prejudices, people have ideas," said Mr. Varian, who also writes for this newspaper about once a month. "Once you have data, you can test them out and make informed decisions going forward."

There are certainly limitations to this kind of analysis. It's most telling for products that are bought, or at least researched, online, a category that does not include Coke, Pepsi or Whoppers. And even with clothing or cars, interest doesn't always translate into sales. But there is no such thing as a perfect yardstick in marketing, and the database of intentions clearly offers something new.

In the 19th century, a government engineer whose work became the seed of I.B.M. designed a punched-card machine that allowed for a mechanically run Census, which eventually told companies who their customers were. The 20th century brought public opinion polls that showed what those customers were thinking. This century's great technology can give companies, and anyone else, a window into what people are actually doing, in real time or even ahead of time.

You might find that a little creepy, but I bet that you'll also check it out sometime.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

NEWS AND NOTES FROM AROUND COLLEGE FOOTBALL FOR MAY 1, 2006