For those of you pop-culture buffs, tomorrow marks a long anticipated campaign to get comedian and actress Betty White to host SNL. If I was a betting woman I would guess that this episode will be one of the highest rated for SNL in the last few years. This is actually very interesting if you think about it.
Betty White is not who you would normally think the 18-25 year old audience would relate to or even care to tune in and watch host America’s comedy hour. In fact, since 1992 when the long running Golden Girls left the airwaves she hasn’t had a long standing appearance or main character on any show. There have been bit parts here and there, movie appearances, naughty comedic roasts and let’ s not forget her Superbowl commercial. But for all intents and purposes, Betty White’s career was a burning out flame. Not someone you would think would draw record numbers for a show that is struggling with their ratings.
At the beginning of this year something happened on Facebook. A rallying cry from a group of people who just happen to love them some Betty White. This group of fans had a simple question; how could a part of comedy royalty never be asked to host SNL? Even at the top of her game, and her involvement in comedy would have at least made her a likely candidate at some point to host the show. Wayne Gretsky was asked, we know how that turned out… how could our lovable comedy granny be overlooked?
A Facebook fan group was set up to see if people shared this sentiment, and sure enough the fan group gathered large numbers. Who knew people loved Betty so much? SNL obviously didn’t. But now people were taking notice. She was booked on Larry King, and did other press junkets. She modestly laughed at the uproar and admitted that it didn’t make much sense to her, she was no lady ga-ga. But would SNL take notice? Of course, they did! How could they not?
And therein lies an important question for anyone running a business. HOW CAN YOU NOT? There are people out there gathering around interests, interests that your product, your service could help. If you find them, and listen to them and cater your product around their likes and dislikes, it can benefit you.
I know what I am saying isn’t ground-breaking or even a new concept. But with Betty hosting SNL, it doesn’t hurt to re-iterate that businesses need to get out there find the tribes and listen to what they are saying. Like SNL, you can reap the benefits.
So here at Ant Hill we have created a new Friday ritual. We thought since Monday’s around here are known as bagel day, that Friday’s should be known as breakfast sammie day. I can’t think of a better way to start your Friday then sitting around the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, consuming a homemade breakfast Egg McMuffin (while having our production meeting of course).
Jon (being a chef in his previous life) runs the kitchen as we all sit patiently waiting for the delicious sammie to arrive in front of us.
Saturday was what I would call a Win-Win-Win day. From 8:00 a.m. to midnight, Siobhan and I were at the Art Institute of Portland for their annual web raising event. For those of you who don’t know what the web raising event is — it is basically a barn raising for websites. Each year, AI schools around the country select a local non-profit organization, gathers a team of volunteer students, and develops a website in a day.
This was the first time an agency has been involved and it elevated the event to a new level, allowing students to see the brand we developed for the client and what they have to work with for the site development. Ant Hill guided AI students to build a website for our client Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Centers.
The day was long. I’m talking really long. But it was a really exciting day. The students worked so hard and developed an amazing site that will help Virginia Garcia communicate their core mission and brand. At midnight, the site was about 95 percent completed but wasn’t quite ready to go live, so we will be picking the development back up next Saturday to finish the site.
If you want to see a play-by-play of the event, just check out the twitter stream.
Here are a few photos from the day.
The schedule. (Crazy)
Morning food spread.
Teamwork in action.
Reviewing first set of designs.
Shiv chowing down on some Webraising food.
We look forward to seeing the final results next weekend!
That oh so memorable soundtrack at 10:00 p.m. tells you to hold on and get ready for the one hour adrenaline rush through the eyes of our favorite Chicago emergency room. Who knew that this one hour slot of time was to turn into a TV and cultural phenomenon? In fact, several networks passed up on the ER pilot believing its mastermind, the late (and great) Michael Crichton, to be out of his Jurassic Park. Why would anyone want to watch an hour of drama focused on what goes on in an ER? The previously successful hospital primetime program was St. Elsewhere but that was more of a sitcom mix. This was something entirely different and the networks didn’t really know (or understand) what to do with ER. In the end, NBC bit (but not at first blush) hoping for another L.A. Law or Hill Street Blues. What they got was much more.
Fast forward 15 years, 122 Emmy nominations, 22 Emmy awards, and we’re at the end of a very long (and profitable) series. ER’s developers, producers, actors, directors – the entire program team redefined the TV drama. One of the best program brands today. They didn’t take a cookie-cutter approach and try to pigeon-hole their script into an existing program format. They took risks. Were consistent. Had passion. Were courageous. And built community.
Businesses might learn from ER’s success. Think about it. Do you have a distinction in your market? Are you unique? And do you have a community that supports you both internally and externally? In today’s extremely difficult marketplace, businesses must be true to their brand. While the business and CEO mantra today is retrench, it should be step up. Now is the time to take stock in your brand, readdress it and see if it is truly the valuable asset it should be.
So CEOs, business owners and marketers alike, when you sit down tonight to watch the final episode of this 15-year run, before you flatline, ask yourself, “Is my brand dying?” And, more importantly, “What am I going to do about it.”
Teamwork in action.
Reviewing first set of designs.
Shiv chowing down on some Webraising food.
That oh so memorable soundtrack at 10:00 p.m. tells you to hold on and get ready for the one hour adrenaline rush through the eyes of our favorite Chicago emergency room. Who knew that this one hour slot of time was to turn into a TV and cultural phenomenon? In fact, several networks passed up on the