Perhaps because it's a new year, I'm mixing it up a little and changing the format of the blog yet again. Nothing major. Just trying to keep it lively and get those regular updates out to you as quickly as possible.
In order to do that, my Weekly Round-Ups will be more condensed, and I won't be providing a SciMark Seven score for these items. The way I see it, if an item needs an S7 analysis I should be writing a full review.
Speaking of which, I plan to write a lot more reviews. (That's in addition to the exclusive reviews I'm writing for Response magazine.)
But the biggest change to the blog this year is that I'm going to start making predictions. That's right, I'm actually going to make a call: hit, bomb or somewhere in between. Look for these predictions on the blog going forward.
Of course, my thoughts about a campaign will still be based on a SciMark Seven analysis, and I will be using that framework to explain why I came to a particular conclusion. But from now on, it will be crystal clear whether I think a campaign has a shot of making it onto the charts.
Finally, I'm planning to re-introduce another feature in just a few days. Rather than ask people to write guest posts this year, I've decided to conduct interviews. This will only happen when an important issue pops up in the industry, and I think an expert's perspective would be enlightening -- although I do plan to repeat certain interviews regularly. For example, I intend to ask Dick Wechsler about DRTV media every quarter, since that's a moving target.
As always, I welcome your feedback. If you don't like a change I've made, I want to know. If you love it -- well, I appreciate a pat on the back as much as the next guy.
Oh, and one last thing: Try not to send me hate mail if I predict your campaign is going to bomb! It's just my opinion based on what I know about DRTV. Ultimately, we're all trying to predict the unpredictable (i.e. how consumers will react) and if you get on the charts, I'll publicly admit I was wrong.
Of course, if you give me hell and you don't get on the charts, I may just have to blog about that as well. So beware!
