Real life has officially gotten in the way of of my online profile. I guess that’s what happens as we get older, take on more responsibility and add more items to the Outlook calendar. But as my blog’s benrodier.com domain registration neared its expiration date I started to wonder how people with kids, highly demanding work schedules and all other kinds of responsibilities manage to maintain their lives, online that is.

After giving it some thought I realized that we really do make time for the things we love, regardless of priority or how many people are waiting for us to get to it done. For some, it’s their kids, for others it’s a spouse, pets, golf or even an online profile. Although my online life is clearly trumped by many other things in my world, I have a lot of respect for people who can balance their offline duties with their passion for feeding others with information through technology, blogs and profiles.

And on a lighter note, I can’t manage to to get this scene out of my head now that I’m a homeowner…

One (small) problem: The Pizza Turnaround was marketed in the U.S. only.

One VERY BIG problem: Canadian television viewers saw the ad! What do you think Canadians will think when they call their local Domino’s and find out they are about to order the same sucky pizza that wasn’t good enough for our U.S. neighbors? (That’s exactly what happened when I called Domino’s in Montreal, Quebec on Super Bowl Weekend.)

The spot does it all: showcases the product, demonstrates how the brand is cultural staple in our everyday lives and tells a great story. Bravo!

Click here for Time’s full list of this year’s BEST and WORST super bowl commercials.

But did NBC get this right? Will Jay Leno deliver better performance and ratings than Conan O’Brien would have in the same time slot? My guess: No.

Conan’s audience was significantly younger than Jay’s audience. Younger audiences consume more media from more devices (through TV, TiVo, on the internet, mobile phones, Kindles, Tablets and more). By going with Jay Leno, NBC sticks with what they know works – broadcast television and conventional business thinking. But in just 5 years from now, the Late Show will probably be available on any and every screen (or device) you can think of. Conan’s younger audiences would have used their iPhones to watch more NBC content, Blackberries to download more NBC downloads and any other device to simply connect more to the NBC brand than compared to Jay’s older, more broadcast-based audience.

The TV viewing experience has moved to the web and ratings on television are no longer an adequate measure of performance. New media and new devices have changed all that. Just this week, Variety reported on Nielson’s plan to finally combine online and television video ratings in a single “extended screen” rating system. I wonder if this type of metric was even a consideration for NBC when they broke Conan’s contract two weeks ago.

What do you think? Is NBC’s decision going to pay off? Feel free to drop your comments about online television too…

My NYE was a little hectic as usual. Here’s a shot from midnight last year… 

Midnight at Fluid 2009 - Club Soda

Montreal Gazette article about NYE events this year – http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/More+parties+Year/2394064/story.html

I was wrong. My younger, better looking and more connected partner Lonnie S just showed me what my European backpacking experience back in 2000 will have evolved to in 2010: “Yacht Week” (wasnt around  in 2000) looks like an “evolved version / backpacking on crack” of what I can remember of my European experience… minus the luxury yacht! Wow, these kids know how to party.

H Gregoire & Rona present live coverage of the Grey Cup Victory Parade in downtown Montreal (Weds Dec 2, 11h30 – 13h30 on Global Montreal – Videotron 008, Bell TV 234)