Topics for the 6/21/09 Show

Here are the proposed topics for this week's episode of The BeanCast. Please feel free to send in your thoughts and questions.

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This week's panel will be Jonah Bloom (Ad Age), Hal Goodtree (Goodtree ;& Co.), John Wall (Marketing Over Coffee) and Alan Wolk (Toad Stool Consultants)

TOPICS

How Do Award Shows Stay Relevant?: Garfield sparked the debate this week in light of a drop of entries and expected drop in attendance at Cannes. Why the skepticism? Is this purely economics or is the dissatisfaction something deeper? With Cannes in particular we see the same winners year after year and the winners are always obvious ahead of time (as Garfield points out). Does that affect credibility? Does it affect value? When agencies like CP+B win so much is it like a Tiger Wood effect -- a blessing to ratings but a curse to the sport? Is part of the problem the light in which these shows have been cast by the press? Will we see the same focus on parties and personalities as in the past, or will there be an increased focus on value and insight? What impact do events like Wrath of Cannes have? Are they seen as pure fun or is there an edge to them that could be bad for the show they mock? All award shows are trending down this year -- who's in danger of collapsing and going away? Which shows stand to benefit most from this pessimism? What do you think about David Lubar's rebuttal to Garfield? Does he make good points or is he highlighting the very problems with the show?

What's the Next Move for MySpace?: Layoffs this week for the once king of social networks. This was also the week that their numbers fell below Facebook's audience in the US. What do they have to do to stem the bleeding? How do they maintain and grow relevance? Some have suggested they need to focus on music. Is that a good move? How about efforts like the association with Bruno? Will this have any affect? Is it just more niche thinking when they need to be thinking mass market?

Are the Pay Walls Coming Up Too Quickly?: As newspapers and magazines begin exploring pay walls for their online content, there comes word that online revenue is poised to significantly rebound within the next 12 months. Are pay walls a good idea? Will they work? Are the anticipating what has to happen to primary source content or a reactionary response? What will be the result of these walls? What model could make pay walls work? Is the YouTube news this week any light for other online content providers? Can infrastructure benefits to other areas of the core business really offset the need for advertising/subscription revenue?

Contextual Still the Goal: Great report in Adweek about how contextual ads increased recall by 61%. But as we all know, contextual is a continued source of humor in the blog world because of the unexpected consequences. In spite of the benefits, is contextual doomed because of the risks? Is this purely a tech problem or human error? What is the future of contextual advertising? Can targeted ad systems really get off the ground in the US for all medias? It's working now on Great Britain satellite systems -- why not the US? Is the hold up privacy only? Is this better news for direct marketers or brand-oriented efforts?

"The Biggest Entertainment Launch in History": This is the marching order given to TBWA/Chiat Day by Activision for the launch of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Beside the obvious reasons of wanting to sell a lot of discs, why is this news significant? What happens if they achieve their goal? What will it take for Hollywood to acknowledge that Games are now the biggest segment of the entertainment industry? Is there something beyond money that keeps games in the secondary seat? How is game marketing changing the way all entertainment properties are being marketed? Are these changes here to stay for a while or is this similar to what happened with AOL and the entertainment companies are just being justifiably wary?