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Week of January 19, 2010

Home / Blog / Week of January 19, 2010

January 22, 2010 By Stephen Harvill Leave a Comment

Hey everyone, here we go. . . . . .

IN OUR WORLD

A fortuitous quirk in scheduling gave me a whole week in the office!  Boy, did I need it.  I have 6 completely different custom programs to design and produce for delivery starting next week in the winter wonderland of Minneapolis.

My design and production process is time consuming and takes a ton of focus.

I create a series of storyboards, followed by a master deck of images and content.  I then engage the critical mind, the editor, and thoughtfully reduce the content to core connection points that meet the time frame allocated.  This process is for a “presentation”, but I use similar approaches to the development of a strategic platform or an education course.

Tonight I am hosting a Creative Ventures strategic roundtable where a group of trusted advisors will meet to help me look at new ideas for the future of Creative Ventures.  This is a great process to add to your planning strategies.  It provides a reboot of your thinking and opens the door for new ideas!

THE ANNUAL TOP 10 AND BOTTOM 5 MOVIES OF 2009 LIST IS READY TO ROLL.  SEND ME A NOTE AND I WILL GET YOU A COPY

HEY, YOU CAN FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER –CREATIVEVENTURE

AND ON FACEBOOK – STEPHEN HARVILL!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

There certainly has been a huge emphasis on change as a core element of strategic planning and process design.  I am honored to be working on a wide variety of “change initiatives” while also studying the trends that will be “real and true” players in 2010.

With the talk show wars currently being waged, I thought I would use TV as a good example of the chaotic environment we all find ourselves in.

Recently Fox decided to draw a huge line in the television sand in its dealings with Time Warner Cable.  This stance may well be painting a very clear future of our boob tube future.

For 60 years network TV has broadcast news, sports and entertainment for free, making money on advertising (those damn pesky commercials).  This model is the foundation of the big 4, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

But, as change is consuming our entertainment choices, the traditional model may well be on the way out.  The choices available have fractured audiences siphoning traditional ad revenue that with a recession driven economy has potentially doomed free TV.

It’s pretty simple.  Cable, and satellite TV have two avenues of revenue, traditional advertising and user fee’s.  This is a HUGE factor in the profitability for the network.  Not rocket science right?

These user fees vary from about $.26 to as much as $4.00 for a channel like ESPN.  To give you a feel, ESPN saw revenues grow from $1.4 billion to $6.3 billion in less than 10 years!

Fox illustrates this trend perfectly.  Their standard broadcast operations dropped 54% in operating revenue but the cable side of Fox, Fox News for example grew operating revenue by 41%.

With advertisers dropping their ad sales to network TV while they search for the best bang for their buck, the traditional networks are left with a real problem.

This is a great example of the impact of change and how its ripple effects are felt through a wider and wider section of business.

Think simple but flexible planning and you will be prepared for both the potential benefits and random craziness that is bound to happen.

ENTERTAINMENT

MOVIES: :  There are lots of choices out there this week, The Lonely Bones,  Youth in Revolt, Daybreakers, but none of them will get me into the theater this weekend.  The Lonely Bones got a good review from my oldest son (the product of a movie family and thus has an experts eye for cinema.

NetFlix Fans:  Moon: A one man show with Sam Rockwell (whom I love) about an isolated worker on the moon.  A wonderful psychological sci-fi thriller.

TV: Despite the looming temptation of only watching the Australian Open (my tennis addiction knows no boundaries) I did manage to watch the new Fox show The Human Target.  It was fantastic and will be added to my DVR list.  Great characters and fun plot lines.

BOOKS:  10 Laws of Career Reinvention – Mitchell:  This book gives you a vision of your career life and provides tools for you to evaluate your work future.

MUSIC: Bottom line is that I am a singer/songwriter fan and John Gorka is one of my favorites.  This is a great video that gives you TWO high sound and video quality songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b42BEduQbOk

WEB SITES: A reminder of a good site.

http://www.trendhunter.com/

SOUTH OF NORMAL

The disaster in Haiti has brought about an outpouring of international support.  The need for aid is also a mother of invention for the wide variety of fundraisers that are going on:

  • World’s tennis #1 Roger Federer did a quickly organized tennis exhibition at the Australian Open that raised over $100,000.  In addition to the ticket revenue many of the players opened their personal wallets and chunked in an average of more than $10,000 each.
  • Now, here is a fundraiser that is right there with sports ideas.  Supermodels are playing a ping pong marathon in New York.
  • Not to be outdone in out there ideas, the former Long Island Lolita, Amy Fisher will strip for Haiti.  I kid you not!

As odd as they may seem, they speak a world about the true nature of our species.  We are quick to help.

Drop me a note with your comments at steve@creativeventures.com

Thanks for stopping by and until next time, Adios and Aloha.

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