Last night, I saw the premiere of MTV’s Geordie Shore – the UK equivalent to Jersey Shore.  I tuned in, with baited breath to find out whether this was going to be another gem of scripted reality (similar to The Only Way is Essex) or a return to car crash TV in the vein of Big Brother.

The programme was (as anyone who watches the US version will know) an hour of car crash TV featuring half naked women, lots of alcohol and men who fake bake so much that they could easily glow in the dark.  This was definitely a return to reality TV at its worst, but this is precisely why the audience will tune in.  The fake and artificial situations of programmes such as The Hills and Made in Chelsea has meant that TV shows have been forced to employ soap opera writers to direct real people in scripted, sensationalised storylines to get ratings.  Geordie Shore bucks this trend by bringing the brutal reality of what young twentysomethings in Newcastle get up to in their spare time without the need of a script.

There is no denying that the characters in the show could be putting on a front to get the media attention that they crave and the show is edited to highlight the most dramatic storylines, but ultimately this show depicts real people in real situations.

The recent success of the The Only Way Is Essex at the BAFTA’s has proved that there is an appetite in the TV schedules for programmes featuring scripted reality, but will this return to TV in the style of Big Brother, depicting fame hungry individuals getting up to all sorts of alcohol induced madness mean that traditional reality TV is back?

Now, I truly believe men and women should be equal in everything, sport viewing included but the one sport that doesn’t seem to have a huge female fan base is Cricket.

I like my sports but I will tell you the knowledge I, as a girl, know about cricket. It goes on FOREVER. It is slow. There’s this thing called ‘leg before wicket’ that is shortened to LBW but apart from that all I know is there is a bat and a ball involved.

Maxus, as you will be aware, have moved into a swanky new office with all new mod cons and the one thing that is an eye opener is how well received our new TV’s are. We have one everywhere. We can pick whatever we want on them but for the last week the screens have been dominated by… you’ve guessed it. The bloody cricket. Indeed, it’s the cricket world cup and I am sure it is interesting for some people but unlike other sports that have managed to get a following from both genders; cricket remains predominately male.

I understand The Cricket World Cup has grown as a media event with each tournament. The International Cricket Council has sold the rights for broadcasting of the 2011 Cricket World Cup for around US$ 2 Billion to ESPN Star Sports and Star Cricket. The tournament is being broadcasted all around the world in about 220 countries. These are massive figures and very impressive considering that only 1 in 325 (approx.) women take any interest in the sport at all.

I’m asking my girls, can any of you tell me the appeal? Please. If Maxus are anything to go by, it’s purely a male sport.

Whilst catching up on TV during the festive break I couldn’t help but notice that there was a renaissance in American adverts being used on TV.  Some of the creatives are easily transferable whilst others can leave you feeling quite cold so here’s a quick review of the one’s which I personally saw.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODB9xXLZ2oE&feature=related
Instantly transferable, George Clooney selling coffee, how could this fail. After a quick straw poll with the girls in the office this was definitely a winner in any language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knidq8QClHw
M&M’s with an American accent isn’t as engaging and I’m sure everyone would prefer a Gorilla playing the drums….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBncMqjZgsg

I understand the need for advertising to be aspirational but I’m not sure if teenagers would identify with this. Would dropping it in the toilet at a dodgy nightclub and then covering it in chilli sauce be closer to the truth…?
It’s definitely a thin line to tread, centralising creative across markets can save money in the short term but if the creative doesn’t resonate with the target audience and take into account nuances in each market then what are the long term implications for the health and sales of a brand?
I guess we’ll find out in the future but I’ll really start to worry if I start to see the Ferrero Rocher ambassadors party again or even worse the Kinder egg advert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzLoIjXcVaQ

England finally kicked off their World Cup campaign on Saturday evening with a 1-1 draw against the mighty USA. Although ITV would have been disappointed with the much publicised HD slip up, viewing on ITV1 would have pleased the broadcaster. England’s 1st game of the 2010 competition drew an average audience of 17 million during the match, a 66% share of viewing, peaking at a touch over 20 million. The programme, which ran from 18:15 to 21:45, attracted an average of 13 million, a 56% share. These numbers are the largest attracted for football since England took on Sweden in the 2006 World Cup.

The opening game of the competition, again on ITV1 saw Mexico take on host nation South Africa. Generally afternoon kick off’s attract smaller audiences, especially when none of the ‘glamour teams’ are involved. Friday’s game drew an audience of 4.2 million, the first match of the 2006 World Cup, which featured Germany and Costa Rica, attracted 5.5 million, however, this kicked off 17:00, so you would expect audiences to be larger.

The late game on Friday saw France take on Uruguay. For those who didn’t see, it was a particularly boring match, that said, the BBC’s first game of the tournament attracted an average 6.2 million, greater than the like for like match in 2006, Poland v Ecuador, which gained an audience of 5.7 million.

Sunday saw three further games, including the opening Germany match. In what was probably the pick of the competition so far, Germany demolished an Australian side, backed by some as dark horses, 4-0. ITV’s second peak game of the weekend predictably delivered a smaller audience than the England game, but was still widely viewed, with an average of 7.5 million viewers, a 31% share.

The success, or failure, of the World cup from a broadcast point of view rests heavily on the progress of England. On Saturdays showing, a quarter final exit, as many people predict may be the best we can hope for. If we can however progress further, Saturday’s viewing figures are sure to be beat….

I’ve been watching a bit too much TV recently. I get home exhausted, give a cheery wave to my wife, kick off the shoes and settle in to the telly. No recordable TV for me, so it’s a diet of whatever the channels choose to serve up. It’s an old school, passive experience punctuated by lazy flicking up and down the Freeview channel list – glorious, mindless stuff. This is TV as it’s meant to be consumed – absorbed, not chosen. I watch a lot of TV ads – and though I love it, something’s been bothering me.

There is a terrifying chart from TGI that shows how many people now find TV ads more annoying, versus 15 years ago. And it shows that Britain has steadily fallen out of love with TV advertising in a very short period of time – 40% of us now profess to finding them annoying. There are a number of mitigating factors here: TV on demand services mean that consumers don’t need to see as much advertising as they used to, and there has been a proliferation of commercialisation generally in our culture. Consumers are receiving more and more commercial messages. But I wonder if there is more to it than that.. What if TV advertising really IS getting more annoying?

Everyone remembers the glory days when most ads had a decent punchline to keep us entertained. Now many of them seem to be deliberately set up to annoy me. And it must be working, because I see more and more of them – I swear if I see that cheeky chappy from the Jobsite ad one more time I’ll throttle him. My own father  started to sing “Go Compare!” when I saw him at last week.The people who make these ads aren’t stupid, so I can only assume that these ads are helping achieve business objectives, regardless of how they tear families apart.

As an enlightened marketer I believe in building relationships between brands and consumers, but there is something refreshingly anarchic about a marketing strategy built around the platform GET everyone TO buy brand x BY making them seethingly annoyed with our communications; and since the creatives are at it – why not us media planners?

It’s actually already begun: Crazy Frog pioneered the 30 OTS optimised TV plan, and pionerring media owners are catching onto the opportunity. Last year’s annoying media gold award goes went to ITV, who forged a neat partnership with Tic Tacs whereby they cut away from their live FA Cup broadcast stream to show a minty ad while Everton scored the only goal of the match. It’s a start. I’m hoping we can all raise the bar in 2010.

Did anyone see the Guardian’s feature on the top 50 TV dramas of all time? Some classic old shows to help get through these wintry evenings if you can find them on DVD, but some controversial choices and a clear pro British bias me thinks (or maybe Americans have only learnt how to make good drama in the past 10 years) .

The top ten were:

1. The Sopranos 
2. Brideshead Revisited 
3. Our Friends in The North
4. Mad Men
5. A Very Peculiar Practice
6 .Talking Heads
7. The Singing Detective
8. Oranges are Not The Only Fruit
9.  State of Play
10. Boys From The Blackstuff

So 8 Brits and 2 from the U.S. Can’t argue with no 1,3, and 10, all of which were outstanding. But surely Hill Street Blues and The Wire should be in the top 10?

So official product placement is soon to with us.. Any thoughts on what the impact will be? Will the investment lead to better quality programming and therefore help lift overall TV spend? Or do we think we will see a downturn in standard spot advertising as advertisers move towards more contextual advertising? Or, do we think that most advertisers will be sceptical about the returns/value of such placement?

Last’s nights brilliant, albeit easy, 6-0 performance by England against Andorra pulled in 9.7 million viewers at peak time. TV viewing figures perhaps somewhat higher than predicted due to those with Wembley tickets being forced to watch from home. All this down to the RMT union leading strike action on the tube.

As we all know, the city becomes somewhat paralysed when any transport is affected, and apparently the potential collective loss to London’s business’ caused by this strike could be as much as £100 million. Who knows how much of a loss Wembley stadium made last night!

However, I think there is a good point to take from all this chaos and that is that it may have alerted the commuters and Londoners that we could save collectively, millions if we were to seek alternative modes of transport to our places of work.

I was personally baffled at the sheer number of people walking the streets last night as usually they are hidden away underground and watching the riverboats cruise by, busier than ever with commuters precariously perching on deck due to the lack of seats inside.
I read about someone considering riding their horse into town and many using scooters – the foot powered variety to get to work and personally having spotted two children hitching a ride on the back of, what I hope was, their Grandmas mobility scooter, it made me wonder how many ingenious modes of transport were actually thought up yesterday?

Whether you struggled to get to Wembley to see England thrash the Andorrans or whether you were just trying to go about your normal day, how have you been transporting yourself during the strikes?

First broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1964, the Granada Television series Seven Up!, broadcast interviews with a dozen ordinary seven-year olds from a broad cross section of society and inquired about their reactions to everyday life. Every seven years, a film documented the life of the same individuals in the intervening years. The series was structured simply as a series of interviews with no plot. However, it did have the then-new effect of turning ordinary people into celebrities.

45 years later, reality tv is a global phenomenon and most of our current celebrities have either started their career, furthered their career or ended their career as a reality tv star. The thing that baffles me is WHY anyone would NOW subject themselves to entering a reality tv show knowing that it has become a platform to show abuse, racism, bullying, homophobia, prejudice, tears, tantrums, sickness and even dying – don’t we have enough of that in our “real” worlds!

Big Brother returns this week for it 10th cycle with what I can only presume will be another set of contestants so eager for fame that they will literally make themselves hated by millions of people to get it. And is it their fault – no – it is ours. I guarantee that none of use will watch BB hoping that the contestants just sit around and laugh and chat and have lovely philosophical conversations about happiness and life. We will watch it to see who fights who, who lies the most, who is the most obnoxious and who will cause the most friction. We, the viewers have shown in our ratings figures that we are hungry for the really nasty aspects of reality, and the contestants know that. They know that they will get notoriety but at a price. That price is for them to become our personal hate figure, and they would prefer to be a disliked ‘someone’ rather than just a “no-one.”

What I want to know is who is still going to watch it or who, like me, has decided that they like no-one’s better than someone’s?

I’m a sociable kind of girl, I like my parties, I like my drinks and I love to have fun so it shocked me more than anyone when I found myself over this bank holiday with no plans from Saturday morning through to Monday night.

None.

Could I really go through one of the most popular long, work free weekends without drinking in the sun, dancing until 3am and waking up each day with a hangover?

Well, I did and it felt marvellous!!!

I cleaned, I sunbathed, I pampered, I slept, I woke early and made gourmet style breakfasts, it was bliss.

Most of all, I caught up on my favourite thing in the whole world – TV.

I watched hours and hours of the stuff;

Saturday Kitchen (someone swore on air and it added to the excitement of the omelette challenge)
House series 4 – ALL of it (the new series is starting next weekend)
The Wire – My language now contains so much profanity that I should come with an 18 cert
Home and Away omnibus – yes, people do still watch it.
Hollyoaks omnibus – so much tragedy for one small town
Britain’s Next Top Model – Is it wrong to want the recovering anorexic to win – Go Jade!
Behind Bars; The Story of women serial killers – Aileen Wournos; serial killer, or misunderstood hooker, I am yet to decide

I’m a changed women. I have realised that staying in is the new going out. “What about your friends?” you may scream at me, but I simply found new, better friends - 

Mr. Wide screen TV
Miss. Sky Plus
Sir. DVD player.

Who’s with me? Who’s going to say boo to boozy nights and yah to box sets, omnibuses and documentaries?