New Spots and other revalations

I've got to stop neglecting this blog. I guess I've been working too hard, yeah that's it. Well I have been working on my new site with most of my recent work, it's temporarily at http://langetv.webhop.org/resume/index.html.

Sweeps is over, and I think I set a new promo record for TSR's in a book. The news department schedules way too many stories, with no hope of ever getting enough promo GRP's for people to know they exist. On top of that they change the schedule so many times It'll make a person crazy, but hey that's news.

I'm excited to see this November's book. We ran a big promo campaign for our morning show Wake Up Wisconsin. It was a complete turnaround from our previous promotion. This one was completely talent based. Check it out below. Needless to say, I'm anxiously waiting to see if it's had an effect.

Sweeps.

So, sweeps are over on Wednesday, finally, and I couldn't be more happy. What sweeps means for those of you who don't work in tv: 4 months a year, the company that measures ratings(Neilson) sends diaries to a few hundred people in our viewing area. Those people get those diaries, forget what they watched on tv all week, then quickly fill it out on Thursday, as fast as you can.

It's kinda like making patterns on those multiple choice test forms in college. When you're done you feel bad about not knowing the answers, but at least the smiley face you created out of all those little bubbles is kinda funny.

The difference between making patterns in college and randomly filling out a Nielson diary is that people's jobs are affected by Nielson. I find it funny that the tv industry is at the whim of the average person's short term memory. Hell, I can't remember what I ate for breakfast most of the time, let alone remember what channel I was watching at 6pm on Tuesday.

I guess we'll wait and see how the numbers turn out, in the meantime, I've got to decide what to eat for breakfast.

15 Minutes of Fame

These guys are my heros. It's something I would love to do, start with nothing, and end up with a commercial, or any of my work, on the super bowl. Read their blog for the full story, but basically they developed, wrote, shot, and edited a Super Bowl commercial for Doritos on a budget of $12.

Talk about getting your name out there, eh?
Their spot is funny, the editing is spot-on, and the message is very clear. I have no doubt that this spot will be seen during the Super Bowl.

When you work in television or advertising, this is the absolute best thing that can happen to you. I would love to start my own production company and do exactly as they did. The hardest part is quitting the full-time jobs (that pays the bills) and trying to make it out on your own.

I have to say reading their story, really inspires me. Instead of wasting years working for the man, I could be out on my own, free to be creative. At this very moment, starting my own production company sounds like a great idea. I'll have the Doritos Story to inspire me every time I entertain the idea.

The official first post.

Well, everyone's doing it so here's my change to become a journalis..err...I mean blogger. I figure this way, when I have random and useless thoughts to share, I might as well put them online, that way I don't have to bore others with questions like: "How do you keep your beard so even?" and "Did you ever wonder why pickles aren't individually wrapped?"

Well, I'll try to keep the stream of conciousness stuff to a very minimum...but that's the kind of thing that goes through my head every day. My hopes are if someone else understands or finds some value in my randomness, then it's not all that bad.

Anyway, keep checking back for updates, and watch out for spambots.