March 2008

I recently had the opportunity to take a 4-year-old to a playground. I don’t have any kids of my own, so I hadn’t actually been to a playground for years. Things had changed … drastically.

In my day, if someone fell down playing tag, they had to dig the pieces of gravel out from the palms of their hands. These days, if a kid falls down, they just bounce right back up – the ground is made of this soft, springy material that looks kind of like burnt angel hair pasta up close.

The 4-year-old I was hanging out with was building a sand castle. He was having the time of his life running back and forth between the sandbox and the water fountain to get water for the moat. His castle was getting HUGE … There was just one problem – it was right next to a row of ½ buried tires.

Some older kids who were probably around 6-years-old started playing a rousing game of Hot Lava – that game where you can’t touch the ground because it’s actually burning lava that will melt you upon contact – and suddenly, my 4-year-old’s castle was in a precarious position.

One of the big kids met with lava doom right in the second story of the castle.

Stuff like that happens all the time, right? It did even when I was a kid. What struck me as so odd about this encounter was the big kid’s response. He stopped, pointed at the tires near the sand castle remains and said, “Location, location, location.”

What?!!! I almost let an expletive fly. A mantra usually reserved for adults used with such ease and appropriateness – coming from a child? This 6-year-old might just have a future as a PlattForm media buyer. Who else focuses on placement like that?

At PlattForm, no one knows the importance of ad placement like Media Buyers. They’re responsible for buying air time on television and radio stations, and space in newspapers and publications or inserts, line ads, display ads and advertorials for our clients. So, they have to know what works.

They track every ad, down to the minute it runs. And they know which commercials perform the best, and which time slot gets the best results. So, they can tell you exactly which commercial should be run and the approximate time it should air.

They’re constantly building relationships with the media reps they purchase advertising space from. And, they occasionally have to play hardball with those reps to negotiate better rates for our clients.

In a way, it’s kind of like PlattForm Media Buyers make sure our client’s sandcastles don’t drown in a sea of hot lava. And, everyone who was once a child knows how important that is.

Recently I was watching a program on the Discovery Science Channel about what life will be like 50 years from now. It looks like there will be invisible suits for our troops and magic elevators to space stations. Also: we will be wearing those futuristic jumpsuits that seem to be in every bad sci-fi movie. (Which I don’t believe with happen. In the past 50 years, the only major breakthrough in what we wear just may be the hoodie.)

It got me wondering… what will the Media landscape look like 50 years from now? So with my apologies to Conan O’Brien, I now present my glimpse of the future of Media. A glimpse all the way to the year 2058:

• Daytime television programming will consist of shows about schools and lawyers, while commercials will be brief court rulings, thirty seconds of catfights on Jerry Springer, and Barbara Walters and whoever the new panel consists of on “The View.”
• In an effort to become a “greener” industry, paper companies will start using 98% post-consumer waste when printing inserts. However, a detective starts digging in too deep and discovers that the inserts are made…of people!
• After the XM-Sirius Satellite radio merger, terrestrial radio couldn’t compete and eventually became a thing of the past. Instead of live deejays for remotes at open houses, lifeless robots now handle announcing duties. Or Spencer Pratt from “The Hills,” if you can’t afford the robots.
• Because most news is obtained on the Internet, local papers are only printed for wrapping things to be packed for moving and used in hamster cages. As a result advertising for moving science schools and hamster care schools skyrocket.

My point? There’s a lot of change predicted for how traditional media will operate in the future. To predict too far out would be almost an exercise in futility, because so many things can change. Who would have expected the Internet to become such a prevalent way to search for qualified leads? What I do know is that there will always be an audience for those who need to learn and develop their careers. Whether we get their attention though the Internet, High-Def TV, or writing on the moon, we’re ready to face what the future holds.

Just call me Joe East Coast – as I’ve been on the road the last few weeks traveling for PlattForm. One of my first stops was in Washington, DC to mingle with muckety-mucks from various career colleges for “Hill Day”. Hill Day is kind of like a meet-and-greet for education industry professionals. Each year around this time everyone who’s anyone converges upon our nation’s capitol to dazzle their local legislators about pertinent things pertaining to the career college sector.

While I was there I had mentioned to several mucketys and/or mucks that I was going from DC to NY to visit Trump University. Did you know “The Donald” has his own career col … er, check that, entrepreneurial college? Well, neither did I. And neither did 95% of the people I chatted up at Hill Day.

Turns out Trump University is a little hidden gem. And while no one I’d talked to had ever heard of it — clearly the school is doing well for itself. According to Trump University President Michael Sexton, the college has been open a little over three years and to date has had over 250,000 graduates. Yes, you read right. A quarter of a million people have either taken classes via Trump’s online classes or at his school located in the heart of Wall Street.

Here are a few more facts about Trump U:
30% of students are from outside the U.S — a majority from Asia. (Apparently, “The Apprentice” is HOT from Bejing to Bangkok. Go figure.)
Their most popular curricula is — duh! — Real Estate Moguling 101. (No, that’s not the program’s real name … but it is close enough.)
Due to incredible market demand, Trump University is rapidly expanding its curricula to include Personal Finance. (Suze Orman better watch her back! Girlfriend’s got competition.)

Read more on my Day at Trump University in Career College Central’s upcoming May edition. In the meantime, keep watching “The Apprentice” … The Donald needs all the viewers he can get now that Omarosa has (mercifully) been voted off.

“Does anyone want half of a sandwich? It’s really yummy!” These are actual words that rang out across PlattForm’s intercom system. They came as no surprise to the people who work here. It’s pretty common for the agency’s VP of Client Services, Joy Booth, to offer snacks over the loudspeakers.

That’s because Joy is constantly reaching out to people, whether she’s touting tasty burritos, mentoring an account executive or advising a long-time client. She’s in the business of building relationships – something Joy says she loves.

Joy began working at PlattForm about 9 ½ years ago as a Media Analyst. She quickly found that her strength lay in building solid relationships with stations and media representatives.

Since then, Joy has provided a wide spectrum of services to PlattForm. But, whether she was acting as Assistant to the CEO or as Chief Marketing Officer, she has always veered toward her talent: fostering solid relationships.

As VP of Client Services, Joy isn’t just responsible for the relationships she has with PlattForm account executives and coordinators. She also works to promote excellent communication between her team members and oversees the relationships they build with clients.

“Hands down – what I love about my job is developing people’s strengths and watching them grow. It’s what gets me excited,” says Booth. “It’s what makes me love coming to work.”

Joy also strives to maintain the high level of service provided by the Client Service department. That’s why every member of her department, including Booth, participates regularly in coaching sessions.

“We have a close-knit, warm environment despite our size,” says Booth. PlattForm totes the largest employee base in terms of Kansas City agencies.

If asked, PlattFormers will tell you the thing that sets the agency apart is the fun, creative environment. And, most PlattFormers will also tell you that Joy Booth has a lot to do with creating that environment.

As a professional Web Developer, it’s always important for me to keep in mind that when building any web site, you have to posses the foresight to know how users will interact with the web site. There are lots of things to think about on any web project, such as:

Overall usability - We must remember that the average user has to be able to successfully interact with the web site and use all features implemented with little or no instruction.

Accessibility - This is a big issue. With more disabled people using the Internet all the time, we must reasonably accommodate them by using plain text, not just images, to explain any valuable message on the web site. It is important to also include equivalent alternatives to audio and visual content such as Flash objects, videos and/or audio files such as pod casts. You’ll also want to make the navigation clear and concise in a format detectable by audio readers and similar software used by disabled persons. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is very clear on these guidlines and is a very good resource for any developer.

Web standards - We also need to know what coding standards are being used across the Web and unless it is a situation which fully warrants the use of uncommon technology, don’t use it. In other words, the need to use uncommon technology and practices has to outweigh the need to conform to standards. This is another area where World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a very good resource for professional web developers.

Design - We are required to think about and implement practical architecture in a way which will convey the designer’s message while keeping in mind all of the other important aspects of the development.

Timelines - Deadlines or timelines are one of the most important factors in web projects. Don’t over promise. I can’t stress this enough. If you’re crunched for time, it’s very hard to put out the same quality of product which you would otherwise provide if given a more reasonable timeline. When we over promise, we under deliver.

This brings me to another important issue, which is the web site’s code or architecture if you will. A web site is much like any home. In order to build a practical and comfortable home that you will enjoy for years to come is to have a solid foundation and strong architecture.

Without a solid foundation and strong architecture, your new home will not stand the test-of-time and you won’t be happy and comfortable in your home for years as you had planned. Quality is the key here. If you build a quality home with a solid foundation and strong architecture, your home will last a lifetime and the resale value will hold strong. You’ll also have the confidence to know that you can add on to your home, thus making it more comfortable and more valuable in the future.

The same principles go into every web site I build. Even if the client doesn’t keep the web site for a lifetime, I want them to know they have a solid foundation so that they may be happy with their investment for years to come and have the confidence to know that they can add on to the web site at any time because they have strong architecture. The key to being a successful developer is to always keep these key factors in view while producing the highest quality product you can produce.