A Little Of The Old In And Out



(image via kiwiyogi)

In: George Soros. Today's sour market downturn suggests that financier George Soros' crystal ball may be the least opaque among the prognosticating class. From Bloomberg:

"George Soros, the billionaire hedge- fund manager who made money last year while most peers suffered losses, said the four-week rally in U.S. stocks isn’t the start of a bull market because the economy is still shrinking.

"'It’s a bear-market rally because we have not yet turned the economy around,' Soros, 78, said in an interview yesterday with Bloomberg Television, referring to the recent rebound in stock prices. 'This isn’t a financial crisis like all the other financial crises that we have experienced in our lifetime.'

"The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of largest U.S. companies has climbed 24 percent since March 9 on optimism the worst of the 16-month U.S. recession is over. The economy continues to contract, and there’s a risk the U.S. falls into a depression, Soros said."

(image via abcnews)

Out: The NCAA Championship. There was never any question as to who was going to win. Unfortunately, last night's game was not that competetive. And Tar Heels' twenty point lead that held throughout the game almost certainly led many viewers to tune out. North Carolina dominated Michigan State throuhout. From Variety:

"The NCAA men's basketball tournament championship game turned out to be a snoozer, but it still helped CBS prevail in the ratings race on Monday. The night also saw good numbers for Fox's 'House' and ho-hum results for the premiere of ABC comedy 'Surviving Suburbia.'

"According to affiliate-based preliminary nationals, CBS won Monday in key demo categories behind the North Carolina-Michigan State basketball contest, which averaged a 6.1 rating/15 share in adults 18-49 and 17.2 million viewers overall on the net's stations from 9:30 to 11 p.m. The hoops action dominated its timeslot even though North Carolina opened a big early lead and was never seriously threatened.

"Final numbers were due in Tuesday afternoon by Nielsen, but they are expected to remain below last year's championship game averages (7.3/19 in 18-49, 19.5 million viewers overall)."

In: "Earned Media." Term "earned media" -- as opposed to "paid media (ads)" -- is gathering steam online. From David Kaplan of Paidcontent:

"The popularity of a food truck that tools around LA selling gourmet Korean BBQ tacos and the success of the Jonas Brothers would seem to have little to do with each other—let alone contain any possible lessons for ad-agency execs. But in a keynote at the Ad Age Digital Conference, Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson managed to tie it all together. Wilson cited the Kogi Korean BBQ taco truck as example of the successful use of earned media—they created a community through Twitter and their blog—and now have customers lining up for an hour outside nightclubs. Meanwhile, the Jonas Brothers’ managers fought .. Columbia Records when the band wanted to spurn radio over posting videos to MySpace. In the end, the band defected to Disney and Warner Bros. lost out.

"Wilson’s point: earned media (the conversations that take place on blogs and community sites) can trump paid media (advertising); therefore, ad agencies need to refocus and understand that when everybody is a publisher, you can’t just rely on traditional media to get the word out. I spoke with Wilson after his session."

The full post here.