D S Simon Productions syndicated special “The Best of CES” will be airing in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and nationally on DirecTV in early March. The Best of CES is hosted by Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert and 2011 Emmy Award winner for “Best TV Show Host.” “I’m really excited to host the show. CES is an incredible event. It’s great to be able to take viewers behind the curtain and give them an early look at great new technology,” said Armstrong.
VLOGVIEWS:
The 30-minute long celebrity-packed special features segments covering the big stories of CES and was sponsored by Intel and Lowe’s who were featured within the program. “High-quality syndicated program is a unique opportunity for organizations to not only get the distribution in key markets but take advantage of significant opportunities to extend their brands through social media,” said Douglas Simon, President & CEO at video communications firm D S Simon Productions which developed the program.
In this segment, Mario Armstrong features key innovations from Intel including a broad new range of Ultrabook convertibles, detachables and tablets with all-day battery life. Intel Ambassador Mike Fard was featured. “This is an exciting time at Intel and in the world of technology in general. The landscape is evolving rapidly and the new technologies we highlighted at CES showcase some of the new ways in which people can interact with their PCs and mobile devices. Whether by touch, voice, facial recognition, and hand gestures, there are new and innovative ways in which to get work done and to have fun.”
The Best of CES will air on March 9, 2013 nationally on DirecTV, channel 224 at 10:00pm; WWOR in New York at 6:00am and WCIU in Chicago at 6:00am. The show will air in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 6 at 6:30am.
“This presents a unique opportunity for brands to participate in high quality programming in an affordable way,” said Simon. “We are already seeing a dramatic upturn in requests for this type of programming.
Doug Simon, President and CEO of D S Simon Productions, shares his 2011 predictions for the economy, politics, entertainment, sports, and the PR industry. This is his third year doing so and even we have to admit, he’s been pretty spot on. To view Doug’s 2010 predictions, go to http://bit.ly/dExdZz. To view his 2009 predictions, go to http://bit.ly/gGWWhH.
Doug’s Predictions:
“Let’s get started on the economy: I think we’re going to see a continued slow improvement in the economy during the course of 2011. Unemployment is also going to be dropping but at a slower level than would be hoped for given the state of the recession that we just experienced. One little bump in the road, gas prices are going to increase. I think the stock market, after correctly predicting it’s rise two consecutive years, is going to stay relatively flat, probably up a little bit but still remain in the 11,000’s. I think toward the end of the year, we’re going to see corporate profits, which had an awesome 2010, take a slight hit as they begin to have to expand their employee to meet with the increasing demand.”
“Here are my predictions for U.S. politics in 2011. President Obama will maintain a stronger approval rating then he had last year before the election, in part because he’ll now have the Republican led House of Representatives to use as a counterpoint. I think because of that, no major Democratic liberal candidate will oppose him in the Democratic primary. Healthcare will continue to be talked about and focused on resolutions, potential legislation, etc. but not a lot is going to change to the law that was passed last year, in 2010. Now I have two predictions that are related to Sarah Palin. One is that a second office holder who is on Sarah Palin’s “hit list” on her website will be targeted for assassination this year. Second, and I think this is because Sarah Palin is a lot smarter than a lot of people think she is, is that she’ll decide not to run for the Presidency in 2012 despite the fact that she could easily win the Republican nomination. She’s going to hold off for 2016 when her chances will be better.”
“Media and Entertainment: We’ll continue to see the trend where an increased number of folks get their news information online compared to TV stations as that gap will be closed even further. However, most of that information online will be coming from traditional news sources. We’ll also see what I call the media bias gap, and an example after the recent assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the New York Times said many cite extremism on both sides for the uptick in violence. It would be like saying that it was the right that was responsible for the anti-government violence in the 60’s, not true, it was the left. Right now, it’s the right that’s generating this violence not the left, period. In the entertainment world, I think The Social Network is going to win the Oscar for Best Picture and Natalie Portman’s going to take it for Best Actress (for Black Swan). This prediction comes from my two teenage sons who say that Idol’s (American Idol) going to see a drop in ratings and relevance and that this will be it’s second to last year.”
“In the world of sports, the big story is going to be labor problems in both the NBA and the NFL. I think they’re going to play out a bit differently. I think for the NBA there is going to be a lockout and the big reason for that is many of the players have enough money not to take a hit if they sit out, even for an entire season. The NFL, with far more money at stake and more players who don’t make huge salaries and have shorter careers, I think that’s going to get settled more quickly. It will be moving eventually to an 18 game season but not necessarily next year. I also, unfortunately as a Knicks fan, do think that the Heat is going to win the NBA championship. The Mets I’m not holding out any hopes for buying playoff tickets this year.”
“I’m going to wrap up my predictions for 2011 with a look at the Public Relations and communications industry. Here I see five things that I’m pretty confident will be happening. One is a move of senior executives from the Advertising world to the Public Relations world as authentic content has become more important, you can’t just buy your way on anymore. It’s got to be relevant to consumers. That’s something that PR has excelled at and that’s where there is going to be the action. News for agencies will be okay, they’ll continue to grow but increasingly corporate communicators are going to be looking to hire people for project assignments and those assignments increasingly are going to be about creating content and also distributing them via social media. Two services that will grow in popularity in the broadcast PR industry are Internet Media Tours as well as Internet Interview Tours. Finally, for D S Simon Productions specifically, I predict that we’ll be celebrating our 25th anniversary this year and to do that we’re going to be moving to larger headquarter offices as well.”
Doug Simon, President and CEO of D S Simon Productions, met with Tim Towster, Vice President of Marketing for BlueAnt, at Barbounia Restaurant in NYC to discuss the launch of the S4, a car speaker phone, and the Q2, a wireless Bluetooth headset. BlueAnt chose not to seek out traditional advertising avenues and instead is launching two viral videos showcasing the products in action. The highly anticipated second video will be launched and available to the media in coming weeks. See the first video here.
Some of Tim’s VlogViews:
“What makes our approach really unique is we’re not doing traditional advertising. So in a sense we’re not going to be doing radio, television, and print. We’re actually going and utilizing PR, grassroots, and viral videos and doing a lot of media tours to really attract attention and showcase the technology and how it can help a person in their everyday life.”
“With print or radio, you can’t really see the product in action. So with a video, we’re able to showcase it in a real life scenario where you’ve got a lot of things going on and the product can really help you in those things. So we really thought that was one of the important ways to portray the benefits of the product because seeing really is believing, especially with these types of products.”
“The response has been extremely positive. All the media that we’ve been showing it over the last couple of days have really liked it because it really portrays the product in a real life scenario. They get the chance to talk to all the product guys, like myself, and we talk about the techs and specs but this helps them translate those techs and specs into meaningful things.”
“We really believe in trying to showcase technology and humanize technology. A print campaign or a strictly in-store type campaign really can’t accomplish that. You really have to get face-to-face with people and show them how it benefits them. So, that’s why we’re doing the media tour, that’s why we’ve done these viral videos, so people can actually feel and see for themselves the product in action.”
When I was producing the videos I thought there was some great info for my sales team that I wanted to share. You can check it out here, or learn more from the specific experts below.
Doug Simon Makes His Predictions for 2011
To Link To Post: http://bit.ly/dWgJZP
Doug Simon, President and CEO of D S Simon Productions, shares his 2011 predictions for the economy, politics, entertainment, sports, and the PR industry. This is his third year doing so and even we have to admit, he’s been pretty spot on. To view Doug’s 2010 predictions, go to http://bit.ly/dExdZz. To view his 2009 predictions, go to http://bit.ly/gGWWhH.
Doug’s Predictions:
“Let’s get started on the economy: I think we’re going to see a continued slow improvement in the economy during the course of 2011. Unemployment is also going to be dropping but at a slower level than would be hoped for given the state of the recession that we just experienced. One little bump in the road, gas prices are going to increase. I think the stock market, after correctly predicting it’s rise two consecutive years, is going to stay relatively flat, probably up a little bit but still remain in the 11,000’s. I think toward the end of the year, we’re going to see corporate profits, which had an awesome 2010, take a slight hit as they begin to have to expand their employee to meet with the increasing demand.”
“Here are my predictions for U.S. politics in 2011. President Obama will maintain a stronger approval rating then he had last year before the election, in part because he’ll now have the Republican led House of Representatives to use as a counterpoint. I think because of that, no major Democratic liberal candidate will oppose him in the Democratic primary. Healthcare will continue to be talked about and focused on resolutions, potential legislation, etc. but not a lot is going to change to the law that was passed last year, in 2010. Now I have two predictions that are related to Sarah Palin. One is that a second office holder who is on Sarah Palin’s “hit list” on her website will be targeted for assassination this year. Second, and I think this is because Sarah Palin is a lot smarter than a lot of people think she is, is that she’ll decide not to run for the Presidency in 2012 despite the fact that she could easily win the Republican nomination. She’s going to hold off for 2016 when her chances will be better.”
“Media and Entertainment: We’ll continue to see the trend where an increased number of folks get their news information online compared to TV stations as that gap will be closed even further. However, most of that information online will be coming from traditional news sources. We’ll also see what I call the media bias gap, and an example after the recent assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the New York Times said many cite extremism on both sides for the uptick in violence. It would be like saying that it was the right that was responsible for the anti-government violence in the 60’s, not true, it was the left. Right now, it’s the right that’s generating this violence not the left, period. In the entertainment world, I think The Social Network is going to win the Oscar for Best Picture and Natalie Portman’s going to take it for Best Actress (for Black Swan). This prediction comes from my two teenage sons who say that Idol’s (American Idol) going to see a drop in ratings and relevance and that this will be it’s second to last year.”
“In the world of sports, the big story is going to be labor problems in both the NBA and the NFL. I think they’re going to play out a bit differently. I think for the NBA there is going to be a lockout and the big reason for that is many of the players have enough money not to take a hit if they sit out, even for an entire season. The NFL, with far more money at stake and more players who don’t make huge salaries and have shorter careers, I think that’s going to get settled more quickly. It will be moving eventually to an 18 game season but not necessarily next year. I also, unfortunately as a Knicks fan, do think that the Heat is going to win the NBA championship. The Mets I’m not holding out any hopes for buying playoff tickets this year.”
“I’m going to wrap up my predictions for 2011 with a look at the Public Relations and communications industry. Here I see five things that I’m pretty confident will be happening. One is a move of senior executives from the Advertising world to the Public Relations world as authentic content has become more important, you can’t just buy your way on anymore. It’s got to be relevant to consumers. That’s something that PR has excelled at and that’s where there is going to be the action. News for agencies will be okay, they’ll continue to grow but increasingly corporate communicators are going to be looking to hire people for project assignments and those assignments increasingly are going to be about creating content and also distributing them via social media. Two services that will grow in popularity in the broadcast PR industry are Internet Media Tours as well as Internet Interview Tours. Finally, for D S Simon Productions specifically, I predict that we’ll be celebrating our 25th anniversary this year and to do that we’re going to be moving to larger headquarter offices as well.”
Links: New York Times Article on the Attempted Assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords
Tags: 25th Anniversary, D S Simon Productions, Democrats, Doug Simon, economy, Entertainment, Gabrielle Giffords, Healthcare, Miami Heat, Natalie Portman, NBA assassination, New York Mets, NFL, Obama, Oscars, Politics, PR Industry, Predictions 2011, Republicans, Sarah Palin, sports, The Social Network, vv
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