Dec 09, 2008, Posted by Mike in the category, 0 Comments

Say Goodnight Gracie – No More NJ Money Directly to Films

The Good News: the New Jersey Economic Development Authority will not loose money during the current recession because of bad investments on mediocre films.

The Bad News: They already lost $2,000,000.00 on Gracie.

According to this article on the Star Ledger website:

At their regular meeting today, members of the state Economic Development Authority wrote off $2 million in loans and loan guarantees they had extended four years ago to help bankroll production of “Gracie,” a feel-good movie about a Central Jersey soccer player.

Apparently they made direct “loans” to the film’s financiers, a first in NJ… and well, the rest of the story kind of writes itself, doesn’t it?

Best quote:

“We realized we’re not good at financing movies,” said Caren Franzini, the authority’s chief executive.

While this is a bad day for the big studios, who can always look to other funding sources, it’s a day of smug satisfaction for us little video guys. The State already provides a 20% Tax Credit for filmakers who meet certain criteria: 60% of the total expenses used or consumed in New Jersey, Principal photography commences within 150 days after the approval, and directly from the Definitions section of their application:

Film – a feature film, a television series or a television show of 15 minutes or more in length, intended for a national audience. “Film” shall not include a production featuring news, current events, weather and market reports or public programming, talk show, game show, sports event, award show or other gala event, a production that solicits funds, a production containing obscene material as defined under N.J.S.2C:34-2 and N.J.S.2C:34-3, or a production primarily for private, industrial, corporate or institutional purposes.

The $2M in Gracie was above and beyond this tax credit.

There are no (Zero, Zilch, Nada) tax incentives available for smaller films, videos, web-based video projects, internal training videos, corporate promotional videos, or any of the other thousands of video/film projects that might, you know, cause economic development to actually happen!

Sorry to the folks at Picturehouse (aka TimeWarner), but you already got your money. Hey New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission: it might be time to overhaul your definitions and guidelines to help us non-feature-film makers out a bit, we know you’re not going to be investing in any movies anytime soon.

Any other NJ film/video pros have any thoughts?

Aug 27, 2006, Posted by Mike in the category, 0 Comments

Good Old-fashioned Sales

Came across this piece in the Sunday business section of the local paper (The Home News Tribune.) Apparently the title of the piece is Headline here. Well, actually, I haven’t checked the print version, so I’m going to assume that this is one of those, “ooops, we slipped up” hings that plague the web. But this post isn’t about a headline screwup.

The story is about a local (Edison, NJ) business that’s been around forever (well, OK, since 1932); Miller’s Rentals. Miller’s is one of those business that’s always been there, and hopefully will continue to be, but until you’re planning a big event, you never really think about them. They don’t have a big, fancy website, they don’t do flashy advertising all over the place, yet if you watch the MTV Video Music Awards on 8/31/06, you’ll see Miller’s red carpet out in front of Radio City.

How did they do it? Good, old-fasioned sales. Miller’s owner Stuart Kohn explained it:

“I just remember one day a few years ago that I decided I wanted to do the carpet for the VMA’s, so I started calling everyone I could find at MTV,” Kohn said. “Next thing I know it’s our job.”

A couple of phone calls, a little networking, and (excuse the Jerseyism) badda-bing, you’re laying the red carpet for the VMA’s, nice. Do yourself a favor, print out that article, and take a look at it whenever sales slow down, and you need a reminder: sometimes it just takes a phone call.

Congratulations to Stuart Kohn for the killer sales strategy, and the article. As a business owner, I know you don’t hear this often enough: Good work!

Aug 22, 2006, Posted by Mike in the category, 1 Comments

Does Podcasting Make You a Member of the Media?

Just read John Jantsch’s latest post on his blog Duct Tape Marketing called Podcasting Makes You a Member of the Media

And while I usually find his posts useful and/or informative, I have to take him to task on this one. My immediate reaction is to mentally add the following subtitle:
“In the Same Way that Saying Your Bedtime Prayers Makes You a Member of the Clergy”.

His basic premise being that having a podcast gives you a foot in the door with “industry insiders” or potential clients by requesting an interview for your podcast.

Let me get this straight John, I want to meet with Joe Blow of JBlow Industries, and sell him a couple of hundred gross of my higglepips. Mr. Blow, being the egotistical boob that he is, can’t resist being a guest on The Higglepipodcast, so he agrees to the interview. Then I pull the old switcheroo and spring my sales pitch on him? Seems a little… umm… how you say… deceptive, no?

I’m not picking on John though, Jeffrey Gitomer suggest a similar ploy (Answer #21 on page 43) in the Little Red Book of Sales Answers. Except, in his case, he suggests the interview for an “Ezine” (What a quaint, 2005 term, huh?). In Jeffrey’s case, he suggests that this ezine be sent to a list, which he warns, you should actually have, and actually mail to. In John’s case, he makes a point of saying:

People can’t resist interview requests. No matter how small the audience.

Again, it seems a little… umm… how you say… deceptive, no?

Anyway, back to the title of this post:

In this Web2.0 world we find ourselves in, it’s pretty easy to convince ourselves that if we throw enough technology in people’s hands, they’ll be able to do what the professionals do. In this case, give some schmuck in the higglepip business an MP3 recorder, and suddenly he’s Chet Huntley. It’s just not true, sorry, I said it, and I’ll say it again, It’s Just Not True.

Self-appointing yourself a Member of the Media is fine, as long as you don’t go around actually believing it, and trying to convince others that it’s true. Mr. Jantsch has forgotten that the full name of “the Media” is “the Mass Media” in that you reach a significant population and (most importantly) maintain some semblance of responsibility in doing so. Just having a “podcast” available and claiming to be a member of the media is pretty sketchy at best.

Follow their advice if you’d like, it’s not my company you work for, I’ll continue making connections, networking, getting meetings the old fashioned way: not relying on a half-truth to get a foot in the door, thank you very much.

And I haven’t even gotten into the whole “quality of the sound” problem that pervades the web2.0 world we live in… I’ll save that for another post (I can hear your shouts of joy already).

Author’s Note: You’ll notice that there’s a link to John’s blog over on the right, it’s been there for the whole existence of this blog, and will be staying there. I still read Duct Tape Marketing almost daily, you should too. And I’m also still a fan of Jeffrey Gitomer’s books, it’s just that I don’t happen to agree with this particular tactic. So lay off all you Duct Tape maniacs, it’s not total blasphemy.

Jan 05, 2006, Posted by Mike in the category, 0 Comments

Dude, It's Just the Yellow Pages

So we’re 5 days into 2006, and this is my first post for the new year, and I used the word “Dude” in the title… quite an auspicious start, huh?

The title of this post is actually my response to an over-zealous “canary-colored paper directory of services and businesses” salesperson’s request for a fifth (5th !) meeting trying to sell me advertising space in his publication. Now his persistence has to be admired, but at the time, I was in the middle of the busiest season for the company I was working for, and I had already had 4 meetings with the guy. He knew my budget was shot, and there was really no getting blood from that stone, so when he started with a high-pressure sales push to increase the size (and cost) of the ads he had already sold me (I hadn’t signed a contract yet, because he was trying to maximize the size of the ads I was buying), I cancelled the ads altogether with the line in the title.

What brings this up? I just saw a piece in MediaDailyNews titled Yellow Pages Get Their ‘Nielsens,’ Unveil New Ratings Service, which reminded me of that incident, and how the whole world of directory and “canary-colored paper directories of services and businesses” is changing these days.

Here’s my take on it all:

There are VERY few businesses these days that use these directories as their primary marketing vehicle; plumbers, florists, pizza places, general contractors maybe, but the off-line world of paper directories is loosing ground quickly to on-line search. I can’t tell you the last time I used one, and neither can most of the people I know (I know, very scientific data, huh?). What will be interesting to see from the new Yellow Pages Market Reporter is just how broad a reach these directories still have. Businessweek had a piece on December 8, 2005 with an interestingly unsubstantiated claim on their effectiveness:

So as the market crowds and ads shift to the Web, how long can the business of selling ad space in fat yellow books stay profitable? And which players will ultimately win?

The short answer is that the traditional yellow pages business is expected to remain profitable for at least five more years. Although they seem like relics, the paper-bound tomes are still an effective advertising tool.

So if you’re currently spending thousands of dollars on Yellow Page advertising, what are you to do? Well… adapt. When I canceled the ads in the “canary-colored paper directory”, I was a little leary of what might happen to sales, but I learned over the following year, that not being in that directory had absolutely no effect on sales for that year. What was happening was that the company that I worked for, while still fairly reliant on off-line media, was targeting a highly web savvy market group, so as we ramped down on yellow page advertising, our web search and web marketing filled the gap, and then some. Traffic for the site was steadily growing, and prospective clients who found us on the web, were not even looking at a paper directory for the information.

The next year we pulled all non-phone company directory advertising, and again, it had no effect on sales. So why didn’t we pull ads from the phone company Yellow Pages as well? Being in a highly mobile part of the country, new prospects were moving in all the time, and the phone company directory was always delivered to new phone customers when they moved in. The other directories are only delivered once a year, and if a new prospect moved in after their delivery, they don’t get a directory until the next year’s edition.

So if you’re looking for some place to find a few extra thousand dollars in next year’s marketing budget, take a long, hard look at the money you’re spending on “canary-colored paper directory of services and businesses” advertising, after all, Dude, It’s Just the Yellow Pages.

Aug 04, 2005, Posted by Mike in the category, 0 Comments

Trade you 2 Free Presses for a Tom Seaver Rookie Card

If the title didn’t tip you off, it’s been well over 30 years or so since I spent recess flipping baseball cards (for keepsies), but an article in today’s New York Times has all of the intricate rules and subtleties running through my mind again.