01/13/08 Report

---- Media Reports ----
401 total media reports
Of those,
19 were TV
217 were non-TV major media
165 were blogs or internet mentions

---- Sources ----
194 total separate media sources
Of those,
11 were TV
129 were non-TV major media
54 were blogs or internet sources

---- Estimated Value ----
Using an estimated average major media value of $2500
and an estimated blog mention value of $100,
and an estimated cost of:
$20000 for a 30 second prime-time FOX TV ad ($3500 non-prime-time)
$30000 for a 30 second prime-time CNN TV ad ($6500 non-prime-time)
$2400 for a 30 second general prime-time TV ad ($600 non-prime-time)
(reference: NY Times, see http://tinyurl.com/2zb9lx)
Estimated TV media value: $161266
(CNN: $122633, Fox: $13333, other: $25300)
[CNN airtime secs: 0 primetime, 566 non-prime-time]
[FOX airtime secs: 20 primetime, 0 non-prime-time]
[Other airtime secs: 0 primetime, 1265 non-prime-time]
Estimated non-TV major media value: $542500
Estimated blog media value: $16500
Estimated total media value: $720266

Explanation:

The media value:
The total media value is the total value of what the media has written about the blimp so far (if we had to buy it as advertising). It uses a very conservative estimation. An article in major print media is scored at $2,500 dollars. Now, the full-page ad in USA Today cost $85k, but it was full page and the paper has very broad reach. Sometimes the major media mentions may be in newspaper blogs, sometimes they may be very quick mentions, they may be in
regional or local papers, etc. So we're saying that we count any mention in the major media, be it a huge blimp article or a quick comment in another article, as worth $2500, which is a rough estimate.

For internet media like blogs, we rate each media reference (each article they post about or that mentions the Blimp) as worth $100 - again, an average, but very conservative. For television, we actually score it by the length of the TV feature, considering a national prime-time 30-second ad as $2400, and a regional or non-prime time ad as $600 for a 30-second spot. Again, there's a huge averaging going on, but the Blimp generally shows up at news-time, which is prime. If the segment plays multiple times, we should count each one (but we generally don't know that very well).

If they show a TV segment multiple times, we miss that. If people talk about it on the radio, we miss that. And, of course, we don't find every print mention or blog article. It might be, say, twice that. But the current estimated value is a rock-solid minimum; no one can reasonably argue with it.

The stats report:
The summary from the stats report counts the total number of media sources, by type, tracked so far. It does the
same for number of media mentions (the same media tends to mention the Blimp repeatedly).