H-B-O Loves J-E-T-S In Meadowlands Move As Showtime Designs ‘House’ in Midtown

By Kent Gibbons and Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 9/20/2010 12:01:00 AM

The New York Jets have been good to HBO. Aside from the positive reviews for Hard Knocks, the reality show based on the National Football League team and their sometimes foulmouthed head coach, Rex Ryan, the New Meadowlands Stadium has become a great place for a captive audience.

At the Jets opener Monday night (Sept. 13) in the brand-new East Rutherford, N.J., arena, HBO and Verizon Communications flooded the zone with advertising and signage for Maxgo.com, Cinemax’s online video site offered through Verizon. Similar to HBO Go, which launched with FiOS in February, Max Go offers free, unlimited online access to Cinemax programming for Verizon subscribers.

Fans couldn’t help notice throughout the game promotions on the thin layer of bright digital signs between the top levels of the stadium.

At halftime, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day (pictured) got team spirit , cheering mid-song as the group performed “Last of the American Girls.” Runners car r ying “Max Go” placards circled the band and the small stage.

All that energy didn’t help Gang Green, though: they lost to the Baltimore Ravens, 10-9.

Premium-channel rival Showtime, meanwhile, chose an indoor venue in midtown Manhattan for a marketing maneuver with the third year of “Showtime House.”

Top designers took over the top three penthouses at the Cassa Hotel and Residences, making rooms inspired by series on the network.

In the United States of Tara loft (pictured), for example, Brooks Atwood and Daniel Perlin used video tracking technology to create a digital mirror wall that lets visitors merge their identities with one of “Tara’s” alternate personalities.

During a preview opening on Sept. 7, The Wire liked the Laura Bohn-designed Nurse Jackie master bedroom, featuring a hospital-style bed with IV drips of tequila.

Showtime House 2010 (70 West 45th St.) is open to the public through Oct. 24. Tickets cost $15 and proceeds benefit the nonprofit Harlem Children’s Zone. See Showt imehouse.com for more info.

Diversity Debate: Might Targeted Ads Eliminate Need for Ethnic Marketing?
Television advertising has pretty much worked like this for more than half a century: Marketers reach a desired demographic target by proxy, placing ads adjacent to content that group finds appealing.

But new addressable technologies, taken to their logical conclusion, could serve ads purely based on the identity of the (presumed) viewer. And that could make racial and ethnic distinctions less relevant to advertisers than other factors.

“The fact I was born in the Philippines is part of who I am, but it’s really just one facet of who I am,” Canoe Ventures chief technology officer Arthur Orduña observed during a panel at the 24th annual National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications conference in New York last week. His point: It might be more effective to deliver ads based on someone’s personal interests and other psychographic data.

Clearly Orduña, in ruminating on technologies Canoe and its member MSOs are developing, was trying to spice up the discussion (moderated bys Multichannel News’ Todd Spangler).

It worked: The notion that ethnic-targeted ads are destined for obsolescence was quickly rebutted by other speakers on the panel, including Charlie Echeverry, Univision’s senior vice president of digital sales, and Meredith Hispanic Ventures executive director Ruth Gaviria. They emphasized the unique cultural aspects of reaching ethnic audiences, not the least of which would be crafting Spanish- language messages for Latino viewers.

Meanwhile, it’s also worth pointing out that some consumers will opt out of getting marked with a marketing bull’s eye. So to reach that audience, advertising will probably always still have to work the old-fashioned way.

TWC, ESPN PR Teams Meet at the 21 Club To Toast Their Deal
Not all carriage negotiations end in smoldering acrimony.

Two weeks after the Sept. 2 announcement of the sweeping deal struck by Time Warner Cable, ESPN and Disney/ABC Television Group, the public-relations teams from the MSO and ESPN met up at Manhattan’s famed 21 Club for a celebratory drink. Unlike some recent negotiations, those between Time Warner Cable and Disney/ ABC never got too nasty — but it did mean a couple of long nights in the office.

The chummy group, which met last Wednesday before the Kaitz dinner, included Ellen East, Alex Dudley, Maureen Huff and Justin Venech from Time Warner Cable, and Chris LaPlaca, Katina Arnold and Amy Phillips from ESPN.

The Wire notes that Fox’s retrans deal for WNYW with Cablevision Systems is due for renewal in October — may we recommend McSorley’s after that deal’s done, then?