Think Forward

CBS to advertise on Eggs - Seriously

I honestly thought this was a joke when I first read it blogged about but after some searching I have found it to be legitimate. CBS is going to be advertising it's fall lineup of TV shows on actual eggs you buy at the grocery store. It is part of a campaign for CBS to reach people in their every day lives. I'm not sure I am comfortable with the level of intrusiveness that is so appealing to CBS with the campaign. Maybe all the egg companies will offer a significant discount on eggs branded by CBS then we may have a new subsidised egg model on our hands. I am anxious to see how the public responds to this. I am glad my brother in law has chickens and supplies me with eggs so I don't have to crack a CBS logo the next time I want scrambled eggs. I can't wait to see what they advertise on next, toilet paper perhaps...

Day and Date movies to the Living Room

I’m taking the opportunity to vent some on this post as well as to explain why it is taking so long for us to get movies digitally into the living room. A lot of people from different industries including movies read my blog so I am hoping someone’s light goes on with this post. What is the most frustrating about the motion picture industry is that they are stuck in old ways. In all three of their tiers of distribution they get money up front. The theatre chains pay them up front to get movies in their theatre’s, the retailers pay them up front to sell their movies in the store and the rental shops pay them up front to keep a movie on their shelf. The studios make money on these movies whether or not anyone every pays a dime to see them, buy them or rent them. So they take this mindset into the digital age. In their mind it does not behoove them to put their entire content library up on the Internet for purchase or rental where they only make money if someone actually buys it. The feel there is a chance this model can potentially cannibalize existing methods where they make money no matter what. That may or may not be true but the way I look at it is that there are a ton of people not going to movies, not buying DVD’s and not renting movies. So if I were the studios I would be figuring how to maximize my cash inflow by allowing consumers as many convenient ways to buy my content as possible. In my mind by far the most convenient method is digital and straight to my living room. day and date to the living room is the holy grail in my opinion. Day and date with DVD to start but with theatre in the future would be amazing. I can honestly say at the stage of my life I am in with small kids at home getting to see movies is incredibly difficult. If my wife and I could put the kids to bed and watch a movie we have been wanting so see by ordering it in Hi-Def from my TV we would watch 100% more movies. Thus all in the value chain make money from me were before my consuming habits denied them money. I know this is true of many other consumers as well who don’t go do movies, buy movies or rent as many as they would like. I still believe MovieBeam is the closest to getting here but the cost of the hardware turns consumers off. If a service like MovieBeam was built into my Comcast DVR then we would have a winner. So studio CTO’s please think outside the box with all the amazing technologies entering the home get straight to the consumer and you will make more money.