ReFramous

Reframous.com wants to give a second shout out to Sarah Fischer and the Axios Media Trends  this week. Rarely do political junkies like us get such a clear quick look through the world of the big media holding companies. Fischer writes: "WPP's stock was down close to 5% at market close Monday after news broke over the weekend that its longtime CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell, is leaving the company...Some analysts are suggesting that whomever replaces Sorrell at WPP might consider a break-up of WPP’s complex structure, which Sorrell created after more than three decades as CEO. “The chances of significant chunks of the business being sold off have dramatically increased,” Liberum analyst Ian Whittaker wrote Monday." Let me offer this reframe: Usually Madison Avenue, the world of 'Madmen' and the big dollars in the international holding companies don't mean much for the friends of reframous.com who run small independent consultancies. However, I took a quick look...

Reframous.com strongly recommends the Axios Media Trends newsletter by Sarah Fischer. If you sign up for it you can get great insights without our pedantic reframes. One thing that struck me from Today's newsletter was her take on the strength of Netflix. Fischer writes: "Netflix stock beat Wall Street expectations for user growth and revenue in the first quarter of 2018, adding 7.41 million new subscribers to bring its total worldwide to 125 million." What's more interesting to us here at Reframous.com is the accompanying chart on the relative size of streaming services: Let me offer a quick reframe: Time and time again I've seen political campaigns (usually Democrats) claim that they are checking the digital box because they are buying ads on full screen players like Hulu. Let me be clear: We here are Reframous.com would be thrilled to have 17 million subscribers, but noone thinks advertising on our blog constitutes a digital strategy. A couple po...

If you are interested in RI politics please check out the great data visualization work happening at SeeVotesRI.org Here's how they describe their project: "It can be hard to understand how state government works and why policies can be slow to change. See Votes RI is using maps to explore issues important to Rhode Islanders by visualizing endorsements, rankings and votes by RI state senators and representatives. Get to know your elected officials."

If you run progressive campaigns you shouldn't make another decision until you have read this great guide to the science of influence. https://www.scienceofinfluence.org Description from their site: "The Science of Influence is intended for Democratic political campaigns and progressive grassroots groups who want to make their communications and outreach strategies more effective: whether at messaging, turnout, persuasion, volunteer mobilization, or other aspects of campaign strategy."

The digital age was supposed to be a hopeful one for Democracy. Voters would have unlimited on-demand information about every candidate for office. More information was going to lead to better decisions. Easier access to the campaigns was going to replace overly partisan politics. The future was bright. We took a quick look at the websites for the leading candidates for Governor in 2018 (linked for your convenience) https://ginaraimondo.com https://www.patriciaforri.com https://www.mattbrownforgovernor.com https://www.allanfung.com http://www.trilloforgovernor.com https://feroceforgovernor.nationbuilder.com In 2018 a candidate's website is  the most important self-presentation a campaign has. It should be interactive, attractive, and give the voter the information they want, when they want. It's pretty shocking how little information is available on all of these sites. I think Patricia Morgan is the only candidate even trying to update the public on her actual campai...

Arike Ogunbowale is Bryce Drew and Christian Laettner in the same tournament  -- except both shots were game-winners in the final four. Let me offer a reframe: Noone will ever have two better buzzer beaters to end a tournament in our lifetimes.

Matt Brown, the Independent candidate for Governor made an interesting play today. Rather than weigh in on the dominant issue of the day -- UHIP, the the state government's favorite 500 million technical glitch. Instead of commenting on what is by every estimation an issue of the utmost interest in the 2018 Governor's race took an opportunity to write about the proposed natural gas plant in Burrillville. I don't want to diminish the Invenergy issue, but the timing was strange to to us here at Reframous.com. While it is really mild by RI political standards Brown, notably, started making his case against Gov Raimondo in his op-ed for the first time: "Since August 2015, when Gov. Gina Raimondo stood beside Invenergy CEO Michael Polski and announced her support for the plant, it has been sold to Rhode Islanders as necessary to avoid electricity shortfalls in the coming years. That myth was laid to rest last year, when ISO-NE, our regional grid operator, determined th...

How in the world can Governor's in New England buck the more usual partisan trends in their states so overwhelmingly? I have nothing against Charlie Baker, but his numbers are just stratospheric. What's of even more specific interest here in RI is Governor Raimondo's continued bottom 10 ranking. Her numbers have never been strong in the morning consult poll, but the numbers are starting to get worse than the plurality she won with in 2014 (40.7%) despite the much more positive electoral environment for Democrats nationally. But as Ian Donnis notes , " Previous Morning Consult surveys put Raimondo's approval at 41 percent in May 2016, 38 percent in September 2016, 48 percent in April 2017, 43 percent in July 2017, and 40 percent in February."

Today's AdExchanger article,  Who Wins And Loses As Brands Flee The Long Tail? by Alison Weiss brings together a couple trends immediately salient to the mission of Reframous.com. The core narrative of her piece seems right: there is a Techlash going on, and it is making the biggest advertisers more nervous about how they are using technology.  I think a bunch of aspects of the so called "Techlash" get conflated for some advertisers,  but across the industry I agree with the premise that big advertisers are more 'brand sensitive' when it comes to where ads get placed. Weiss notes, " Marketers taking a conservative approach to brand safety are pulling back from buying the long tail to minimize their exposure to fraudulent, non-viewable and brand-unsafe inventory." Naturally trying to limit ad placement to the most clean well-it areas of the web disadvantages small publishers like Reframous.com, because it forces some consolidation. Without any deep...