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New Year’s Eve Will Still Rock In Times Square, Even Without A Live Audience

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There will be no massive crowds, but plenty of music will still be on tap for New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Using a combination of television and streaming, the show will go on despite the pandemic restrictions against huge gatherings.

Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, the co-organizers of Times Square New Year’s Eve, today announced that singer-songwriterAndra Day will headline the live, commercial-free webcast and TV pool feed. 

Day will perform her Grammy Award-nominated single Rise Up, as well as her song Forever Mine. Day will also continue the New Year’s Eve tradition of singing John Lennon’s Imagine just before the Ball Drop Celebration to count down the final seconds to the new year. 

The co-organizers of the event said the official Times Square New Year’s Eve event lineup will feature live performances by Gloria Gaynor, Pitbull, Anitta, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Porter, Cyndi Lauper, Jimmie Allen, Machine Gun Kelly, The Waffle Crew, and USO Show Troupe, as well as an array of special activities and appearances that will happen throughout the evening.

The six-hour, live commercial-free webcast will begin at 6:00 PM ET with the lighting and raising of the New Year’s Eve Ball atop One Times Square. The webcast will include musical performances by Andra Day, Gloria Gaynor, Anitta, Pitbull, the USO Show Troupe, and The Waffle Crew.

Jamestown, owner of One Times Square, home of the iconic Ball Drop Celebration, has created a virtual New Year’s Eve experience. Everyone can start the festivities today and enter a virtual world of Time Square filled with games, music, and art.

Then, on December 31st, viewers can tune in for a live broadcast where they can choose from multiple camera feeds to direct their own New Year’s Eve show. Plus, viewers will also get a chance to see other celebrations from around the globe, and hear messages from local leaders and people from dozens of cities from around the world.

Visit www.VNYE.com for more information and download the NYE app to join the live celebration on New Year’s Eve.

Times Square 2021 LIVE performances on the Planet Fitness and Countdown Stages:

• Jennifer Lopez performs on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”
• Billy Porter performs on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”
• Cyndi Lauper performs on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”
• Jimmie Allen performs on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”
• Machine Gun Kelly performs on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”
• Anitta performs on Univision’s, “¡Feliz 2021!”
• Pitbull performs on Univision’s, “¡Feliz 2021!”
• Andra Day performs her hit songs “Rise Up” and “Forever Mine,” as well as John Lennon’s “Imagine” just before the Ball Drop at midnight
• Gloria Gaynor performs her hit songs “I Will Survive,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” and “Joy Comes In The Morning.”
• The Waffle Crew presented by Planet Fitness provides an amazing dance performance
• The USO Show Troupe performs “Empire State of Mind,” “Stars And Stripes” and “A Military Salute” to honor our Armed Forces

For 116 years, Times Square has been the center of worldwide attention on New Year’s Eve, ever since the owners of One Times Square began in 1904 to conduct rooftop celebrations to greet the New Year. The first Ball Lowering celebration occurred in 1907, and this tradition is now a universal symbol of welcoming the New Year.

Actor and TV personality Jonathan Bennett, star of the Hallmark Holiday film The Christmas House and Mean Girls, and host of the Food Network’s Halloween Wars and Holiday Wars, will return to the celebration as Times Square New Year’s Eve Host.

The 12^th annual webcast will cover the action and festivities in Times Square, beginning with the Ball Raising at 6 p.m. ET, plus live musical performances, hourly countdowns, behind-the-scenes stories, and star-studded interviews as anticipation builds towards the midnight countdown and the famous Ball Drop. The custom-designed embeddable video provides viewers with a full Times Square New Year’s Eve experience.

All participants will remain masked at all times except when performing and will adhere to distancing regulations throughout the production site. Additionally, all Special Guest families, who are included in the capacity limits for the production, will be staged within their personal household safety areas to ensure proper distance from other participants.

How to Watch

The Times Square 2021 Webcast will begin at 6 PM ET on December 31, 2020 and end at 12:15 a.m. ET on January 1, 2021. The show will be streamed live on multiple websites, including TimesSquareNYC.org, NewYearsEve.nyc, Livestream.com/2021, and TimesSquareBall.net.

A New World Approach to Branding

 I feel that stations have mostly had the opportunity to broaden their scope beyond brand recognition through news and local community involvement that rises above programming content.

To serve and become more than just an affiliate as an information and program provider is the best opportunity to enable personal relevance in the new world order of Branding. Share the thinking of the New World of Branding with your local-direct clients to promote their personal experience and relevance to their customers, patients and clients. May each of you and your families be blessed with a festive holiday season and an amazing, healthy, safe Happy New Year filled with patience, tolerance, compassion, understanding hope and charity! Philip Jay LeNoble, PhD.

                  A New World Approach to Branding

 

In the more relevant field of research on contemporary branding, the historical and more conventional approach had been focused on the prevalence of companies popularizing names in the acquisition of goods and services. In the field of present-day marketing and sales, we find a more applicable approach or modern understanding in the branding of consumer products presented by the CEO and founder of BrightMark Consulting, Jane Cavalier. Formerly one of Madison Avenue’s rising stars. Cavalier left to form BrightMark in 2001 in order to create powerful brands independent of advertising campaigns. Jane taught branding as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management and NYU Stern School of Business. She has led large-scale re-branding initiatives for ExxonMobil Worldwide, Samsung, U.S. Navy NAVAIR, and Boston Children’s Hospital. She has helped brands like Citibank, American Express, Sotheby’s and AT&T craft brand advantages in new markets, and brands like Johnson & Johnson to protect their brand equity. Her understanding of brand renovation offers that the pandemic has been a cocoon, bringing people, organizations and even brands through a real metamorphosis.

 

There is a shedding of the old-world view and the emergence of a fresh, new orientation. This new world perspective is shattering traditional consumerism and work behavior as buying things doesn’t matter as much as learning new skills, experiencing more of life, sharing with others, and having greater control and freedom. It is a time of epochal change for humanity where people are disoriented as they face unthinkable events and uncertainty, and where brands have a new role to play.
 
Brands that Serve Rather than Sell
In our new world, which is far too complex for human beings to understand, people need emotional stability, strength, and stamina more than ever. As they face unprecedented volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA world), people are vulnerable to fear, anxiety, distrust and despair. We need new cues within our culture that inspire, empower, enable people; cues that guide positive actions, provide comfort and unleash more human potential so people can grow. Modern brands can become these cues.
 

Unlike traditional brands which are primarily designed to drive consumption (often to the point of driving up great personal debt), modern brands can deliver value in a different way that still supports positive purchase choice. They can focus on giving people greater agency in the world and helping them to grow with the products/services they represent. In other words, instead of the brand end game simply being consumption, the new end game is empowerment and personal growth. These brands will deliver “preference” by helping people to feel: 1) their place in the world, 2) comfortable with uncertainty, and 3) what it means to be truly human.
 
Cultural Cues to Strengthen Humanity
The mind constantly tells itself stories of the future and brands can shape those stories. In a radically transforming world that can be daunting, if not terrifying, brands can positively lead people to the future even if that future is totally unclear. Because they are conceptual, brands can free the mind to safely explore newness, so people become more comfortable with novelty. They have the power to clarify the vague and help people come to grips with feelings and forces that don’t exist in concrete form e.g., estrangement, love, courage, sacrifice. If you are familiar with the power of myth, then think of brands as modern myths. If designed for the unique challenges of the new world, modern brands can become positive social forces that strengthen people at a time of great vulnerability.
 
Although a unique attribute of a product/service remains part of the credible reason-why a brand can do what it stands for, the new functional and symbolic brand purpose should focus on helping people navigate the invisible friction of the new world. Fundamentally, brands can play a big role in our uncommunicated interior mental life. By recognizing their role to serve and strengthen people amidst chaos and uncertainty, these brands will become extremely socially relevant and valuable to people and society.
 
I believe most brands have lost meaningful relevancy over the last 20 years despite the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in them. Only a few dozen e.g., Apple, Nike, Patagonia have morphed to align with the new world and stay strong. Moving into the future, brands that inspire, enable, and liberate people to expand and grow will dominate the culture.

 Brands are Important Cultural Artifacts
In an interconnected and interdependent world increasingly ruled by technology, brands are priceless artifacts of humanity that indicate what matters most to people. We are emotional, intuitive beings despite our best efforts to be rational. We are relational beings thrust into an increasingly transactional environment. If we do not work to maintain and deepen our humanness, we may very well risk losing it. Brands can touch us, pierce our consciousness, remind us and drive us to push our human potential.
 
The struggle to adapt to the new world is real with no end in sight. As people search for meaning and purpose amidst a world they cannot understand, they need development tools not rhetoric. Just as ancient peoples relied on myths, brands are the myths of today spread throughout the culture and have the ability to become part of a toolkit to re-build humanity and society. But to be relevant, they must acutely reflect what we are experiencing, especially the unspoken and the invisible. People do not need brands to sell them things anymore by promising identity or unattainable dreams, rather they need brands devoted to strengthening their resilience, enabling growth, and reminding them of what it means to be human.   

 

Philip Jay LeNoble. MBA, PhD. Senior partner in System 21©.

drphilipjay@gmail.com 303-795-3662

 

Michael Guld. Senior partner in System 21©

Michael.guld@guldresource.com 804-356-7006

 

                                                       

 

COMMENTARY

Rise Of The Underdog: Marketing Trends To Watch In 2021

• by Roxana Zadeh , December 11, 2020

What will marketing look like in 2021?

Unpredictable.

Adaptable.

Innovative.

Although it feels as if daily life is at a standstill, COVID-19 catapulted consumer behavior and the digital landscape two years ahead in a matter of months. Witnessing this rapid change from every demographic in every channel has been exciting and encouraging. Just on the horizon, 2021 will continue to deliver immense opportunities for marketers. The question is: How do marketers and brand owners prepare for and capitalize on these opportunities? Below I lay out what trends will shape 2021 and how brands can prepare.

Trends

Technological advances.  From live-stream shopping to distributed commerce on social, consumers’ willingness to embrace new content forms and ease their shopping journey fundamentally shifted in 2020. Organizations must continue to capitalize on technological advances, including AI, AR, holistic customer data systems, voice and multitouch attribution. Once revolutionary, these are now table stakes as brands make discovery and shopping easier and more personalized to compensate for shifting brick and mortar sales.

Flexible media. 2020’s challenges (COVID-19, Facebook boycotts, etc.) proved the need for flexibility.  Marketing budgets must be nimble, and media inventory must be sold flexibly with real-time marketplaces vs. pre-bought plans.

Sales-driven budgets. Uncertainty drives a desire for certainty. Brands will require data that proves marketing strategies and correlates to sales. With cookies disappearing in 2021, publishers and social networks must develop reporting to prove their impact or brands will find alternatives that provide results.

Channel? What channel? 2020 brought two fundamental shifts in consumer shopping behavior: consumers no longer see channels, and consumers no longer shift brand expectations based on purchase location. Consumers now expect seamless shopping with click and collect, in-store, curbside pickup, and/or online options, and are more likely to stick with one retailer that serves multiple needs in 2021.  Businesses that will thrive are evaluating resources, inventory and data across wholesalers, D2C and stores now to enable marketing and media to mirror the needs of the whole business vs. one channel.

Rise of the underdog:  Smaller/newer brands can now compete with larger brands to penetrate market share, thanks to an increase in available digital inventory.  Larger/established brands should expect rising acquisition and retention costs amid the competition.

Winning In 2021

Be flexible. Flexibility when adopting marketing strategies is crucial to forecasting growth and meeting business expectations. Brands must be forward-thinking, innovative and realistic, while teams, budgets, media, merchandising, and creative must be able to adjust on a whim.

Solve omnichannel. As consumers become more channel-agnostic, with shopping based on easiest and best experience, brands must connect organizational viewpoints and customer experience to a truly omnichannel view.

One data source. The influx of traffic and purchase behavior collected through ecommerce platforms will enable brands to strengthen first-party data and develop advanced relationship-building strategies.

While it’s certain that uncertainty will continue in 2021, the progress and innovation this uncertainty breeds will drive forward an entire industry.  And that should deliver the one thing we all need: hope.

NextGen TV Hits Seattle, Its Largest Market Yet

 

Broadcasting+Cable

NextGen TV Hits Seattle, Its Largest Market Yet

By Jon Lafayette 12 hours ago

Seven stations turn on ATSC 3.0 transmitters

 
 

(Image credit: NextGen TV)

NextGen TV became available in its largest market yet as seven stations in Seattle began transmitting using the ATSC 3.0 standard.

The stations participating in the launch are KOMO-TV, KIRO-TV, KCPQ, KING-TV, KONG, KZJO, and KUNS-TV.

Also Read: Comcast Testing NextGen Signal Over Cable in Portland

"As broadcasters, we must always consider ways to enhance our products for viewers to receive the best quality of our content. Working together with our fellow broadcasters to bring this new generation of innovative technology to viewers in the Seattle-Tacoma market delivers on that goal," said Richard Friedel, executive VP, Corporate Engineering, at Fox Television Stations, which owns KCPQ and KZJO. 

The stations worked with BitPath to plan the NextGen launch and coordinate their efforts. The coordination makes the stations’ programming available to all viewers, whether or not they have an ATSC 3.0 receiver.

“Our Emerald City has truly become the nation’s technological core. It’s only appropriate that we usher in the latest revolution in broadcast innovation to our tech-savvy audience. We are thrilled to introduce the myriad benefits of NextGenTV to Seattle, taking the television viewing experience to new heights,” said Mark Aitken, senior VP of advanced technology for Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of KOMO-TV and KUNS-TV.

NextGen TV offers enhanced picture and sound, along with mobile reception and other digital services. It can also interact with 5G and broadband delivered content.

“The launch of NextGenTV in Seattle-Tacoma is possible thanks to the hard work of our team at KONG and collaboration by our fellow broadcasters and stakeholders,” said Kurt Rao, senior VP and chief technology officer of Tegna, owner of KING-TV and KONG. “Tegna’s KONG is proud to serve as a lighthouse station as we begin NextGen TV broadcasts in one of the largest and most technologically innovative areas of the United States. As applications of this exciting new technology continue to develop, we look forward to utilizing the full potential of NextGen TV to create a more enriching and interactive viewing experience for our audience.”

      

Pai Calls for Reassessment of Media Marketplace

Outgoing chairman asks why broadcasters should have special rules at all

BY PAUL MCLANE ⋅
PUBLISHED: DECEMBER 15, 2020

The outgoing chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is asking why broadcasters should be covered by special media ownership rules at all.

“We need a fundamental, intellectually honest reassessment of what the media marketplace looks like now, where it’s going and what this means for consumers,” said Ajit Pai, speaking to the Media Institute Tuesday.

He noted the huge growth in ad revenue for digital platforms over the past decade compared to other media. The result, he said, is that broadcast media are subject to far more regulation “to guard against [their] supposed market power” than companies that are now far bigger than they are.

“In 2020, for example, Google and Facebook are each expected to bring in more ad revenue than every TV and radio station in the U.S. combined,” Pai said.

Pai, a Republican, has made regulatory reform and streamlining one of the themes of his tenure. But he thinks bigger changes are called for.

He said Congress should expand the FCC’s “forbearance authority” so it could eliminate outdated rules for video providers, and also consider “a top-to-bottom re-write of the Cable Act.”

More dramatically, “I also believe that the federal government needs to fundamentally rethink the very concept of media ownership regulation. … We don’t have special rules about how many social media outlets you can own. We don’t have special rules for how many streaming services you can own. We don’t have special rules limiting how many Americans your internet platform can reach. Indeed, our so-called media ownership rules don’t contain ownership rules for much of the media, and in particular those parts of the media that are growing fast. For some reason, the only ones we have are for broadcasters.”

The problem, he said, is “a fundamental refusal to grapple with today’s marketplace: what the service market is, who the competitors are and the like. When assessing competition, some in Washington are so obsessed with the numerator, so to speak — the size of a particular company, for instance — that they’ve completely ignored the explosion of the denominator — the full range of alternatives in media today, many of which didn’t exist a few years ago.”

He said when determining a company’s market share, “a candid assessment of the denominator should include far more than just broadcast networks or cable channels. From any perspective… it should include any kinds of media consumption that consumers consider to be substitutes,” Pai said.

“When you ask the intellectually honest questions, the answers raise serious doubts about whether the FCC should have media ownership regulations at all,” he concluded.

“If general competition law is good enough for other sectors of our economy, why not the broadcast industry?”