A study in contrasts: Time, Inc recently unveiled its response to the Conde corporate advertising blitz. Conde's campaign is called "The Point of Passion" and leverages their celebrity access to emphasize the luxe yet familiar feel of its titles and how they form an intimate bond with their readerships. Time, Inc.'s response? "Trusted Connections", an orange nightmare of creative leveraging what Time, Inc. does best - write boring memos and pander to a faceless mass audience. "We don't sell pages," they brag, "we sell influence." They certainly got that first part right. With the luxury market moving further and further into Conde's nest, and the mass tabs/gossip blogs outflanking the People mothership by being even more bawdy, cutthroat, and let's face it - British, there's less and less solid ground for Time, Inc. to stand on. For a company that survives by growing its audience, not merely struggling to keep the one they already have, these are tough times indeed. One would think a bolder, sexier campaign that focused on our much-touted digital revolution and found a way to connect with ad people (ad people!) with more acumen than this would be in order. It's pathetic.
I would so fire your ass if I were your boss and read this.
Posted by: Scott | Thursday, August 02, 2007 at 12:04 PM
working for you would be punishment enough.
Posted by: Aatom | Thursday, August 02, 2007 at 01:15 PM
I think you be fired too.
You're fired.
Posted by: eatit | Friday, August 03, 2007 at 03:57 PM
On the other hand, a semi-enlightened manager would see the post for what it is -- an expression of frustration by an employee who cares enough about his company to be upset over the direction it's taking...
I think it's going to take a generational change before media companies really leverage digital platforms effectively -- Conde included, who were notoriously late to the game in putting content online. People are still wedded to offline-style business models, because they know them and they worked well for so long. And that goes for the ad side, too.
Posted by: SpragueD | Saturday, August 04, 2007 at 10:17 AM
Le snore. Is this blog dead?
Posted by: Tina K | Tuesday, September 04, 2007 at 08:24 AM
Still nothing? Married life sure ties you up, huh.
Posted by: Yuck Yuck | Friday, September 14, 2007 at 09:05 AM
Only when we're feeling frisky. More TK, kids, don't worry!
Posted by: Aatom | Friday, September 14, 2007 at 09:19 AM
Aatombomb is a real human. Wow. And I thought you were just a figment of someone's hateful imagination.
Posted by: Matt Sanchez | Saturday, September 15, 2007 at 10:14 PM
?
Posted by: Aatom | Monday, September 17, 2007 at 10:22 AM
I'm not fond of comments that don't pertain to the content of my posts. So goodbye.
Posted by: Aatom | Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Your loss, it's most traffic this crappy blog will ever see.
Posted by: JimBob | Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 06:42 PM
If I was doing it for the traffic, I would post more often!
Posted by: Aatom | Friday, September 28, 2007 at 10:31 AM
Fair enough.
Posted by: JimBob | Friday, September 28, 2007 at 10:07 PM