Thursday, February 10, 2011

Comings and goings

- Remember when Guitar Hero was all the rage and folks young and old were trying to get their fingers coordinated to tunes by Aerosmith, AC DC and Kings of Leon? Now, not so much. The "casual game" segment of the videogame market has declined appreciably, meaning slowed sales for titles like "Guitar Hero," Rock Band," and games associated with Nintendo DS and Wii. In 2010, sales by videogame genre were: Action, 21.7%; Sport, 16.3%; Shooter, 15.9%; Entertainment, 14.8%; Role-playing, 7.7%; and Other, 23.6%.

- Seen on the streets of San Francisco--a street person, sitting on the sidewalk, with sign "I won't lie--I need a beer."

- The lights, sadly, are out on Friday Night Lights. The critically-acclaimed show finished its final season this week. The series, shown on DirectTV, will have the final season broadcast on NBC this spring.

- The commercial which was viewed by the most eyeballs on the Super Bowl was the Chevrolet Camaro spot, given the audience tuned into the game at that point in the broadcast.

- Hey guys, online fashion shopping is coming our way. Mr. Porter, an online luxury goods website which will launch later this month, will try to entice men to buy clothing and luxury goods online--an environment where women have felt more comfortable making purchases.

- Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay's QB, nabbed the MVP trophy for his performance at the Super Bowl, thus following the path of other guys who play this position and went on to lucrative careers as endorsers--namely, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Will Rodgers follow that path? It very easily could happen as Manning and Brady are on the backside of their on-field success. While Rodgers does not play for a major market team, he does work for a franchise which has a nationwide following and provides good season-wide visibility. Look for Rodgers to be an off-season winner in the endorsement business given his looks, on-field success, nice-guy persona, and dating relationship with Gossip Girl star Jessica Szohr, always important to maintain cross-over appeal among both men and women.

2 comments:

  1. The super Bowl commercials this year were disappointing for me, and for my friends I talked to about it. I really look forward to the funnies, and the only one that really caught my eye was the child and the VW. That was good!

    Of course, the Mercedes commercial was good, I don't think Mercedes would risk bad branding with a stupid commercial.

    But the rest - just didn't seem up to par. I don't know if they were going for a different market, or it was just me. They all seemed unbelievable, teenage 'video-gamishish'.

    I've been a GB fan all my life. I looked forward to the game. I loved the game, watched every second of it (tuned out the halftime). But the commercials . . .

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  2. I didn't know Aaron Rodgers and Jessica Szohr were an item! Thanks for the interesting tid-bit... I love Gossip Girl. :)

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