Friday, July 22, 2011

Mobile Use Exceeds the Demand for Advertising

There is a very interesting news piece in AdAge today, which states that Pandora Media Inc. is becoming so popular that it is struggling to sell all of the available time for advertising spots – which means it is actually losing money.

This is truly an interesting dilemma to be in: something so popular is becoming too popular to keep up with the demand for advertising time, something probably difficult to fathom for many ad execs in light of the down-turn in the traditional television and radio markets.

The article reports that, in spite of this concern - when one takes a big-picture approach to the situation - it is realized that Pandora’s online radio business will likely gain from the increased advertiser interest.  They have a tremendous amount of experience in handling the big brands, but they will need to improve their local and smaller market sales processes to see the increase and stability.

I found it very interesting that in the marketing industry, there was all this worry about the decline in advertising dollars being spent on traditional media, and the broadcasters were not sure about the annual “up fronts” being successful.  Yet here I read that brands such as Anheuser-Busch, Taco Bell and The History Channel are running ads focusing on Pandora’s mobile users – very targeted – adding to the total marketing dollars spent on 2014 campaigns of $2.55 billion on mobile alone (more than double the current amount spent).  This doesn’t seem like a downturn in advertising at all – just a little shift in the focus.

The article does point out that among the challenges Pandora must tackle are the increased licensing fees for rights to music; the increased competition looming from Apple and other tech companies who are venturing into the online music market (as well as Sirius XM Radio, Sacker Radio and Rdio Inc.); and the lack of a dedicated sales force for the local advertisers.  It looks like they have a lot to focus on in order to turn their popularity into dollars.

To read the article, go to Pandora Mobile Exceeding Demand 

Monday, July 11, 2011

Project Management in Independent Films

I came across an interview between a blogger, Elizabeth Harrin, and an independent film producer, Michael Savva, and I found it to be an interesting read; though it is regarding a film produced in the UK, it is still relevant to project management anywhere.


Michael Savva states in the interview that one of the key things he learned from producing his independent film, Still Waters Run Deep, is that - even with a plan and management, things will always go wrong; the unexpected will happen.  One example he gave was that of the lead male actor he had cast: at 3:00 a.m. the morning of the first day of shooting, the actor called up Savva and informed him that there had been a death in the family and he would not be able to do the film.  In spite of this, Savva was able to get another actor by the afternoon of the shooting day and things continued as planned.  Savva stated that the way he was able to resolve this dilemma was to acknowledge that he did not have the contacts he needed to find another actor, but he had five other actors signed on who knew other actors, so he turned to them to reach out to their contacts and found someone who worked out great. (Harrin, 2011).


This is an important aspect to keep in mind when managing projects, regardless of the type; too often I think we may have a very difficult time maintaining control and realizing that we don't need to know everything, but we do need to know where to turn to find the solution.  Even though, as a project manager, we are in charge and responsible, we can - and should - turn to others to find the answers we need.  And this is exactly what Savva did - he needed an actor, so he turned to the other actors he had, since he knew they already had those contacts, and this immediately increased his ability to resolve the problem in a timely manner.  Had he relied solely on the actors he personally knew or had auditioned, he would have had to postpone shooting by days if not weeks.


Savva demonstrated the concept that managing a project, and staying on task, requires more clear and level-headed thinking, rather than a large ego demanding control over every detail without asking for help.


Harrin, E. (January 17, 2011) http://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/2011/01/managing-a-film-project/.  Retrieved 11 July 2011.