Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Go get 'LOST'

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1859671179/bctid1877562253

Many of us enjoy getting ‘LOST’ on Wednesday nights at 9:00 on ABC, but apparently not as much as we did last year. According to the LA Times on January 22, ‘LOST’ had received record-low premiere ratings. It captured 11.4 million viewers for last years season four premiere and it is sadly down 26% this year. I guess it’s hard to battle with Fox’s new drama ‘Lie to Me’ with its ever so popular lead in, American Idol. However, the ratings weren’t too shabby with a 5.2 verses a 5.1 rating for ‘LOST’.

ABC’s Television Group President Anne Sweeney reported plans to develop a “widget powered by Intel for the final season of ‘LOST’ next year to bring the show to additional devices.” Interestingly enough, ABC was the first network to set up a deal with iTunes “to seek out alterative distribution venues for its show…” I personally love that you can watch shows on online form ABC.com. Sometimes, I think its even better than watching it when it originally airs because the commercials are only 30 seconds and I can conveniently watch on Mac while I’m cozy in my bed. iTunes is also great though because when I was studying abroad in South Africa I had no television and ABC.com wouldn’t work outside the country, so I had to resort to buying shows online. I loved the fact that after I bought each show they were saved in my library and I could watch them whenever I liked, without any commercials. The convenience of watching shows online has to have made Americans much happier people. Our 8:00 Monday night shows have now turned into our Tuesday morning subway riding ipod shows or perhaps our Saturday afternoon TIVO or DVR shows.

TV Week even had some exciting news to report that ‘LOST’ was the most popular show watched online ahead of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Saturday Night Live’. Maybe Wednesday night really isn’t a good time for many of the viewers and it is simply more convenient to watch it at a later date on some other electronic device. Perhaps these viewers need more than just that one time viewing and they feel the need to purchases their favorite episodes from iTunes or even wait until the DVD of the season comes out. Whatever way you choose to watch ‘LOST’ is fine with me as long as you watch it some way or another!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Annoying Expired Car Warranty!

So, I’m sure a handful of us have received those awful annoying calls from mysterious numbers explaining that our car warranties have expired and we are in desperate need of renewing them. Well, I'd just like to share that I HATE them! My initial reaction to my first call lead me to believe there was actually something wrong with my car and I did need to take action. However, I explained the call to a friend and they told me that the phone call was total BS and my car is too old anyways. Of course the warranty is expired, silly me. I later decided to add the number of the mysterious warranty caller into my contacts, so next time I simply just wouldn’t answer, but of course, they called from a different number! This is what really sent me over the edge.

I even did some research on the topic and read an article saying that the numbers that they call from aren’t really even real. Someone tried to trace the number back and it went to a disconnected phone line in Nebraska. Strange, I know! So, this of course, brought up the question of why this expired car warranty message is using fake numbers? They clearly need some help with their marketing skills, if they actually plan on getting anyone to buy into their calls. Secondly, any good marketing campaign knows that if they want results, they must provide at least a call back number, a name, an email, or perhaps a website…but no. Not these guys.

The article I read also talked about how attorneys are even getting involved.

Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal says his office has received a "huge number" of complaints about the highly annoying and possibly illegal sales calls. Illegal because many of them blatantly violate the Federal Do Not Call Registry. Annoying because not only do they waste people's time, the extended warranties the companies are selling are almost always impossible to use, according to one attorney general. Connecticut, New Jersey and Iowa have teamed up to look into the sales pitches.

However, I would like to share some good news. So my roommate was of course, also getting the stupid calls and she had the bright idea to actually listen to the entire message. I always hung up right as the message began, but that was obviously my mistake. At the very end of the recording it tells you that if you’d like to be removed from this list you simply just need to press 2! That’s it, just press 2! This instantly made my day better and I patiently waited until I received my next stupid; annoying, warranty call and I simply listened to the end, and pressed 2!

Poor expired car warranty people, they just need some new marketing strategies!