CBS yesterday announced that Jericho has been canceled.
The show was canceled because it failed to take into account the Gen Y viewer and the fact that while they watch the program, they don’t do it in a way a major network understands. I’ll be writing more about this in the coming days.
CBS isn’t alone. Banks don’t understand Gen Y — a group also labeled "milennials" — either. A recent report from Forrester blunty titled Consumers don’t enjoy financial services made this really clear. Banks cater to boomers and run their banking processes the same way they did 30 years ago, minus the free toaster.
Some tidbits from the report:
– "35% of consumers fall into a segment that we call “at-risk” because of their low level of enjoyment with their bank. Compared to other segments these “at-risk” consumers are the youngest and have the highest income."
– "Young females (Gen X and Gen Y) report the most problems with their banks."
My own observations on Gen Y:
- They have much more refined self-marketing skills than their older counterparts.
- They can hold important day jobs and build/run small web businesses at night.
- They have money. Many still live at home, saving, and don’t feel bad about it.
- They are open, transparent and have nothing to hide.
- They don’t "Learn" or "adapt to" technologies. They take them for granted.
- They bounce between media like pinballs.
Growing up, I remember mom and dad sitting in front of the tube together at night, on a couch covered in plastic, watching their favorite shows while eating cake and drinking coffee — then going to bed.
Millennials work out. They socialize. They gather at Starbucks and dig into their school or work projects. If there’s a TV program they like they Tivo it. Watch it on their time. Not someone else’s. They record it. Download it. Rent it on Netflix.
Trying to evaluate this huge and powerful demographic using standard methods like Nielsen ratings, or trying to penetrate their social consciousness using old fashioned messaging will serve to cancel your own program, regardless of how big of a hit it once was.
What can you do? Take a different measure of your business. Start by assessing who your customers are. The facts are everywhere – yet the greater real estate population ignores them. Your customer is 10-20 years younger than you, the average agent. You cannot force them down your old chute. You need to build new chutes. And start sliding down theirs.
In the spirit of Jericho, I am advocating the nuking of your marketing plans. Nuking your current website. Your photos. Your message. Your tag-line. Your flyers. Your post cards. Those self indulgent press releases.
Gen Y is not reading, watching or viewing them.
It’s slow now. You can sit all day mulling over the good old days or stuck in the "where to should I start mode". Start anywhere. But start on the things that matter.
- Davison
For anyone interested, use this Petition to let the Sci-Fi channel know you want to see this program live another day.
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Not that it's the point of this post (which is great BTW), but I loved that show…
Same here. Watched every episode but could never do it at air time. Had to Tivo it.
That's what we "Jericho" fans have been trying to tell CBS for the past year. Unfortunately it has fallen on very deaf ears – hence "Jericho's" present demise.
CBS is blind by how truly powerful online viewership is. Godin talks about building an empire with 1000 diehard fans. CBS had a chance to create 10,000,000 of them. What is happening here is a powerful example of how not t build a brand.
Great post! And great to see the issue shift from the show to the 21st century viewer to the extent that it did, at least in the blogosphere.
Another dinosaur I see breathing its last is old school PR. In the last couple of days, I've read three Washington Post articles in which the authors went after the fans, either blaming them (the sorry fistful of losers) for not recruiting more viewers or just generally being very bent on using a dismissive tone.
With TWP being a Nielsen publication, it's not really a surprise, but I somehow can't shake off the impression that the old monster is feeling threatened by the crazy computer geeks with big television eyes.
They'll beat us all into flippin' Rangers by the end of the week, eh?
Cheers,
Fanshawe
(who wrote a couple of similar articles at)
http://www.cinemarealm.com
My TV Guide is my TiVO.
Does it even MATTER that Lost is on a new 10/9 Central time slot this week?
Or that Saturday Night Live is on at 11:30 P.M. — long past my bedhour?
And is it any wonder that Chicago's #1 real estate agent is known for how speedy he is on his Blackberry?
It's an on-demand world and if you're the provider the information, you better be ready when your clients are or else somebody else will provide instead.
Ack, make that Hollywood Reporter = owned by Nielsen, TWP = just plain mean.
I'm confusing my mainstream media. Unforgivable, really.
Exactly Dan. It doesn't matter and shouldn't. Millions of voices are telling CBS that they want the content but on new terms. Their terms. Why can't networks consider an ATM model where programming is available 24/7 for anyone anytime? Would this not benefit the advertising sponsors as well?
I will miss Jericho. Categorically, it was the reason why I turned my TV back on and the most compelling drama plot since Lost.
Nuts.
Davison,your observations, spot on as they are, have some gaping ommissions. These same people have a sense of entitlement,
They also generally want value, service and anything else available without paying for same.
They seem to be ammoral and even immoral. They will lie, cheat and steal more so than any generation in modern times.
For all of the oooh and ahh over gen y, there is much that is simply not being said by those who fawn. Something about the emperor and clothes…
Thanks
Firstly, there is little to no documentation regarding these accusations towards Gen Y.
Second, this is what I would call a wanton stereotype that 40 some odd years ago was used to describe the young generation in the 60's.
However, say you are right. What then? What are you advocating?
Marc,
Fantastic article as usual. I especially like this article because I -am- Gen Y, at 23, and have been in real estate since I turned 18. I've watched this business tumble, pick itself up and tumble again.
Now everyone is looking to Gen Y to figure out what we want and who we are. I almost feel like an insider by being apart of this generation.
Who we are explains what we want. We're social and mobile so every aspect of our life reflects that. I download tv shows & movies from iTunes (and other sources) to play on my iPhone while I'm at the gym.
Out in the field I use my phone to look up properties, share school reviews and reply to emails out of the office.
I text message (and receive text messages from) clients almost as often as emails.
But here's where you really hit the nail on the head:
My parents work, come home, eat, watch tv and go to bed.
I work from home, eat, follow up with clients, go out, come home and finish work later. There are no "work hours" for me.
To missing: We're not stealing, we're sharing. Generations before ours did it too. Surely we cannot forget recording tv shows and movies to VHS and songs from the radio on cassettes.
Open source software has never been more popular. You can thank Gen X/Y for that.
Generation Y doesn't want everything for free but we do have much higher expectations of the quality of products and services we spend money on.
The way the majority of agents conduct and market their business is tragic and real estate in its current form is as good as dead 10 years from now.
It's all about efficiency, reasonable cost and quality service. I'm not afraid of paying BMW prices to get BMW service but I'm absolutely not going to pay BMW prices for KIA quality and service.
I think missing is missing the point and might be thinking of a different generation – the one previous to Gen Y that has left Gen Y – The Reagan generation that very much took the notion of "me" and packaged, signed, sealed and delivered it.
It's Gen Y that drives Prius. It's Gen Y that is spearheading Green and focused on our environment. It's Gen Y who wants us out of Iraq. It's Gen Y who is the next major consumer group.
Boomers need to stand up and take this very seriously.
Congratulations! I agree with your findings 100%-
Now for my rant!
As far as these findings relate to the Real Estate market -It is difficult if not impossible to have realtors understand the situations your write about, let alone change their business model. Many realtors are in a 1950's paradigm around how they understand their product and their audience. I am in Denver, I am an investor and I do design/build- The vast majority of realtors I deal with advertise virtually all of their product for sale over and over and over again as if it is the very same piece of property they have always sold. Also, they behave as if they are always selling the same property to the very same proto-typical couple or family they have always sold to. They are doing exactly the same with their audience that CBS did with their audience for Jericho- totally mis – reading them. (Perhaps this is one of many reasons that recent pols show the American public trusts Realtors about as much as they trust Lawyers. )
This outdated business model practiced by most realtors hurts the market and it shorts buyers and sellers. There are tremendous tools to use to change this outdated model and the Realtors who get this will be the leaders in tomorrow's market.
Amen.
Same ads on properties but also, same ads about themselves.
Open any weekend section of any paper and carbon copy advertising based on unsupported claims of bravado and ego.
Real estate is a service. The agent is not the service. They are facilitator of a service.
Readers – what do you think is easier to sell yourself or a list of ten amazing things your firm can do for me?
I don't stay at the W Hotel because their receptionists are pretty. Or kind.
I stay because the beds are amazing. Because the Bathroom supplies are Bliss products. Because W's feel like apartment buildings rather than high traffic hotels. Because when they say, they can get me whatever I want whenever I want…they can.
I stay because each time I do, I get points. Lot's of them. And as a result, my upcoming vacation in Hawaii will include a suite for 7 days paid for entirely by points.
Who offers points in real estate? Who delivers me Bliss products? Who caters to my needs wherever, whenever? Who has the tools, the technology, the goods to make my experience amazing?
These are the things that matter. They didn't teach this in the 50's. the 60's. The 70's. 80's. 90's or now. Most of your real estate gurus coaches are teaching the same simple things they did in the 80's.
My advice – Fire em. Done. They can do you no good.
Hire someone with a degree in the field. Who care if they never sold real estate. Trust me, you do not need to be an agent or broker to know how to market, advertise and brand. In fact, by my observation, the less you know about real estate, the better.
- Read books.
- Subscribe to Brand Autopsy.
- Read Ad Age.
- Work with people who have worked at Ad Agencies.
- Google. You can learn more in one night of reading.
- Click the branding section of 1000wattblog.
It's time to destroy what doesn't work and tap into what does.
Interesting discussion. As a Gen X agent I am excited about a changing dynamic. It's not a matter of being afraid to change – it's a matter of the ROI to make changes. Gen Y has not yet become a blip on my real estate radar yet. Certainly that will change, but in a vacation market, it will be another 5-10 years until they come. My buyers may be tech savvy Gen X folks, but my sellers are Boomers. They want me to sell their property in the same way they are used to. I know that print ads and open houses are a waste of time and money, but the client needs to be right and will hire someone else who plays the game as they expect it to be played.
For gen x , gen y consumers- What are your 5 hot button issues? This agent is listening.
Geordie, explain what it is exactly you that you looking for regarding the 5 hot button issues?
Sure-
How about the top 5 things a real estate agent can do differently to knock your socks off?
The top 5 things you would change about your current real estate agent?
The top 5 things your agent could do to make your life easier?
The top 5 things tech companies are doing that real estate agents haven't figured out yet?
Depends on your niche. Catch-all agents are a thing of the past.
Geordie,
Sorry for the delay – been away in Boston all weekend.
To your questions:
Top 5 thinks I change about my
agent.
Well, I use a few different agents and since I aim high, I feel there is nothing I would change about my agents. Individually, they represent the epitome of professionalism.
The top 5 things an agent can do to knock my socks off.
1. Stop telling me this is a great time a to buy. I don't care if its true or not, it just seems cheesy and a bit callous considering all the folks currently losing their homes to foreclosure.
2. Provide me with monthly market reports (ala Altos Research) that are simple and easy to understand and offer me a full understanding of what's happening locally in a glance.
3. Contact me every time there is a major shift in real estate and inform me of what that shift is and how it can positively or negatively affect my holdings. The agent who sold me the home I live in has not contacted me once in the last 3 years.
4. Get rid of their old websites. The real estate online superhighway looks more like a Cuban back alley. Agents need new sites with a good UI and a killer search tool (Terabitz or Diverse Solutions) and include gobs of local data.
5. Shoot video for their entire area and post it to a blog in an effort to segue the real estate conversation beyond search and get down to the real nitty gritty and answer the bigger question – Is this the place I want to live?
The five things my agent can do to make my life easier.
I actually don't think it's the agent job to make my life easier. But there are things they can do to make the transaction easier. That list would include:
1. Respond to my emails and phone calls immediately
2. Stop marketing themselves and spend more time learning how to market the home. I'd like to see my future listing agent build a blog around my home and allow me access to the back end so I can post content to it as well as get involved in any conversation that takes please.
3. Become better briefed on where all the opportunities are to post my home for sale and build a strong case why spending marketing dollars in print makes no sense.
4. When marketing my home, take photos of my neighbors homes as well so viewers online don't have to wonder if my place is situated next to a pig farm or crack den.
5. Prepare a very clear and distinctive presentation and explain to me how they are different from all the other agents out there in ways that really make sense otherwise, be very willing to negotiate their commission.
Top 5 things tech companies have figured out that agents have not:
1. How to create a brand
2. How to think outside the herd mentality
3. How to address simple needs through technology
4. How to use data and content properly
5. How engage the consumer
Marc-
Thanks for your insight. I think that much of what you said is "common" sense, but I think there are some good nuggets in there for me to explore further. I think the difference between a Gen X / Y agent (or consumer) and an older agent is that the younger generations realize that real estate technology is constantly evolving. There is no off the shelf solution. You can't take a class, get the "certification" and call it good. Knowing that, I'm always game for tweaking the program so that I get a little closer all the time.