BlueLithium Launches Behaviorally-Targeted Video

on ClickZ News
by Kevin Newcomb , June 13, 2006

BlueLithium today launched AdRoll, a new video ad network with behavioral targeting (BT) capabilities.

"To date, it's been difficult for advertisers to get enough video inventory, and what they can find is usually spread out across smaller granular sites," Dakota Sullivan, BlueLithium's CMO, told ClickZ News. "AdRoll brings a new level of sophistication to video ads, and it gives advertisers the convenience and price sanity of buying from an ad network."

AdRoll aggregates video on its network of more than 1,200 publisher Web sites, offering advertisers both in-stream and in-banner placements. In-stream ads include both pre- and post-roll :15 units. In-banner video ads can be placed in standard leader-board or skyscraper spots, and the advertiser can choose to fill the unit with video content or put video in a window inside the unit.

AdRoll will use a technique known as remarketing, which allows advertisers to target ads to people who have visited their Web site as they travel across other sites in the BlueLithium network. The ad can either be designed to drive them back to the advertiser's site for up-sell or cross-sell opportunities, or to complete an unfinished purchase.

"It's still relatively expensive to buy video ads, so advertisers want to be sure they're targeting the right people. With remarketing, they only show ads to the people who have been to their site and are familiar with their product," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said that behavioral remarketing, when used on its display ads and in beta tests for video, has been shown to improve click-through and conversion rates by as much as 300 percent.

On BlueLithium's display ads, unveiled in April, advertisers can also choose behavioral segmentation, which targets an audience based on how closely their online behavior matches up with the subject addressed by an advertiser's product or service. Once the user is identified as belonging to a certain segment, advertisers can show them relevant ads when they visit any site in the network. There is not enough video inventory available to make it worthwhile to do segmentation on video ads yet, Sullivan said.

Advertising.com expects to have a behaviorally-targeted video offering this summer, with both remarketing and segmentation, once it completes the integration of its technology with Lightningcast's, which it acquired in May.

BT specialist Tacoda teamed up with both video ad network Tremor Network and rich media company Klipmart in May to offer behavioral segmentation on video ads.

Besides behavioral targeting, BlueLithium offers contextual, demographic, and geographic targeting, as well as dayparting on both its display and video ads. Those various modalities can be combined to refine audience targeting.

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• Advertising

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Measuring the Video-on-Demand Audience

on eMarketer
by Ben Macklin, June 19, 2006

I Know What You Watched Last Night

The emergence of video-on-demand (VOD) and digital video recorder (DVR) functionality means that TV viewers are more likely to watch TV outside of scheduled times and to avoid commercials in increasing numbers.

Recent announcements from Nielsen Media Research on their ability to measure on-demand, time-shifted and Internet TV viewing, indicates that advertisers may now have the tools to take advantage of the changing TV consumption patterns.

eMarketer predicts that by the end of this decade over half of all US households will be using advanced TV services such as video-on-demand and digital video recording.



This implies that, by 2010, 50% of households will avoid 50% of all TV commercials, equating to tens of billions of dollars worth of TV advertising. A recent survey conducted by ANA and Forrester Research reveals that advertisers are aware of the changing TV environment, but are yet to fully embrace alternative advertising mediums.

Key findings from the survey:

• Almost 70% of advertisers think that DVRs and video-on-demand will reduce or destroy the effectiveness of traditional 30-second commercials


• When DVRs spread to 30 million homes, close to 60% of advertisers say that they will spend less on conventional TV advertising; of those, 24% will cut their TV budgets by at least 25%


• While 55% say that their top executives are closely watching changes in TV advertising, most advertisers have not experimented with advertising on DVRs (49%) or video-on-demand (44%)


• Eighty percent of advertisers will spend more of their advertising budget on Web advertising and 68% of advertisers will look to search engine marketing


• Advertisers are also looking at alternatives to traditional TV advertising and will spend more of their advertising budgets on: branded entertainment within TV programs (61%); TV program sponsorships (55%); interactive advertising during TV programs (48%); online video ads (45%); and product placement (44%)


• Ninety-seven percent of advertisers agree that the TV industry will need new audience metrics, other than reach and frequency, to report commercial ratings, not just program ratings to effectively measure TV advertising


• Better tools to measure the VOD audience, targeting ads to specific VOD households, and the addition of "unskippable" ads in VOD programs, are two advertising possibilities that have emerged as a result of the new medium

While increased use of VOD and DVRs undoubtedly pose challenges to TV advertisers, the new digital TV platform also provides a host of targeting and real-time measurement possibilities that present significant new opportunities for advertisers.

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• TV
• Advertising

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A How-to Social Media Wiki for Marketers

on AdAge
by Gavin O'Malley , June 20, 2006

Cymfony's Jim Nail Starts E-book to Demystify Consumer Control

For some time, Jim Nail has seen the need for a playbook on social media for marketers. As chief marketing and strategy officer for the word-of-mouth analytics firm Cymfony, he might have just written it himself. But in the spirit of web 2.0 Mr. Nail has released a social media e-book as a "wiki" for industry thought leaders -- and anyone else -- to detail consumers' newfound influence over the marketing process.

The threats created by social media and technology, from content/publisher overload to online critics inciting consumer mobs, are familiar to any marketer or public relations professional. The mission of Cymfony's "Influence 2.0" initiative, led by Mr. Nail, is to help them "understand the macro changes that are diminishing their ability to drive revenue and profit for their companies" and adjust accordingly.

Ad Age Digital: How did you arrive at the idea and execution for the "Influence 2.0" e-book?

Mr. Nail: It came from a lengthy thought process: how to frame a fundamental and complex change in the relationship between marketers and consumers without oversimplifying it. The idea of social media and people participating in media and marketing is too big and complex for any one person to handle. It made sense to create the book using the same web 2.0 systems that it explores; wikis are very good at organizing many voices to create one coherent message.

Ad Age Digital: Why is understanding social media so vital for marketers?

Mr. Nail: The importance of social media in people's lives just becomes greater and greater, while other established forms of media become less important. This is creating a dramatic shift in the relationships between companies, media outlets and audiences. We're trying to give marketers the bigger picture here --- a more holistic framework -- so they can find the best way to adapt to all the new technologies and how people use them to control media.

Ad Age Digital: You've already outlined the first four chapters. What are they?

Mr. Nail: The first chapter, "The Dawn of the Age of Influence," is already written. It's a general overview of our mission, defining what the idea of word-of-mouth, consumer-generated media has come to mean. The second chapter is about proving to companies that this is real, providing evidence of how much control consumers have now. The third will show how [the new media] drives business successes and failures. The fourth is about getting started, showing professionals how to begin to apply the lessons we've already learned.

Ad Age Digital: Most marketers associate the issues a brand can have with consumer-generated media with the case of the Kryptonite lock, which in 2004 failed to calm customer fears after a video detailing a product malfunction began circulating online. Today, what companies or brands best use and respond to consumer-generated media as part of their marketing efforts?

Mr. Nail: I'm excited about companies that are being very smart about it. My poster child right now is [tax preparation software designer] Intuit. They have blogs for all of their products that are monitored and mined for ideas by product managers. Intuit's CEO, Steve Bennett, is very aggressive about being open to consumer feedback. Roomba -- iRobot's robot vacuum -- is another interesting example, because it lets consumers actually hack its programming to make it compatible with Bluetooth.

Ad Age Digital: So you're talking about way more than brand messaging here.

Mr. Nail: Oh, absolutely. When it comes to the power consumers have over marketing, people only think about communications. But it's the four P's: products, price, placement and promotion. I hope people will learn from the e-book that consumers are exerting their power in all these core areas.

Ad Age Digital: Which company in particular is successfully controlling their brand image today?

Mr. Nail: I hate to use the word "control." It's really about successful participation. There're a number of them, but I think Lego is brilliantly communicating with its most loyal customers who act as ambassadors for the brand. What companies need to understand is that their most loyal fans can't ever really do them damage. They can do something different and unexpected, but that can turn out to be a company's greatest asset.

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• SocialNetworks
• Marketing

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Apple iTunes Movie Plans

on iMedia Connection
by Roger Park , June 21,2006

Apple Computer Inc. is said to be in talks with major Hollywood studios about offering downloadable movies on its iTunes Music Store later this year, the Daily Variety reported. Microsoft Corp. has also been holding talks with studios about licensing movies and television shows for download on Microsoft portable video devices, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Microsoft Corp.'s talks are seen as a way to compete with the highly successful Apple Video iPod.

The companies did not disclose when the services or products would be available but it is speculated that the Apple iTunes Music Store would sell downloadable movies for $9.99.

Apple is currently in talks with Walt Disney Co., Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, Sony Corp's Sony Pictures Entertainment, General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios and Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures.

"As the entertainment audience is steadily becoming more fragmented, it's time for studios to diverge from traditional release windows and viewing platforms. It's an important step that innovators like Apple are enabling more flexible, viable and profitable ways to meet consumer demand for entertainment that fits into their busy lifestyles," says Jodi Harris, editor, Entertainment Spot, iMedia.

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Study: The Longer the Video, The Longer People Watch

on ClickZ News
by Pamela Parker and Enid Burns , June 21, 2006

When people view long-form video on an on-demand cable platform, they tend to watch a greater percentage of the longer creative executions. That's the conclusion of an Atlas Digital Marketing Insight study that's expected to be released today.

For the report, "On Demand Digital Video Duration," Atlas measured what it calls brand exposure duration (BXD) over campaigns that ran across six major MSO operators including Charter, Time Warner, Cox, Adelphia and Comcast. The company calculates brand exposure duration by looking at the number of views, the percentage of the segment that is viewed and the length of the segment. Campaigns Atlas studied varied in length between :60 and 2:30.

Though researchers had expected viewership to drop off with longer creatives, in fact, the longest-running asset proved the most engaging, compelling people to watch 115 percent of it. That percentage reflects repeat viewings through rewinding the video.

The creative that achieved 115 percent was from a national retailer. "The retailer found a niche target to go after and put together content relative to that audience," said John Chandler-Pepelnjak, senior analyst at Atlas. "Ultimately it's still a commercial, you don't expect people to watch repeatedly, and it was over two minutes long."

The response to shorter assets, which ran between :60 and :75, was variable. People watched between 70 and 110 percent of the shorter creatives. The one execution that ran 2:00 was worst at keeping viewers' attention. It only got 58 percent viewership.

In general, however, brand exposure was increased by the length of the execution. "When working with short-form video [commercials embedded in other content], push for :30 over :15, :60 over :30. The number of people who will drop-off because of the greater length will be outweighed by the increased time that most spend with your segment," the report advises. "In long-form advertising on VOD or Webisodes, strive to lengthen shorter segments with relevant content."

Despite this recommendation, the researchers noted that performance still varied even among videos of the same length. The report said this indicated the important role quality creative can play in keeping users involved.

The report also tackled the issue of whether users should be allowed to fast forward through creative. Though users' ability to fast-forward through commercials on TiVo and DVR devices makes most advertisers cringe, the report advises against blocking the fast-forward function in an on-demand situation. "We have seen creative assets for some advertisers that were viewed up to five times longer than other creative assets of the same length for the same advertiser in the same campaign. If these campaigns ran in streams that did not allow fast-forwarding, this learning would have been lost as would the opportunity for creative optimization," said the report.

According to Chandler-Pepelnjak, many advertisers don't want to pay for the impression of an ad that was fast-forwarded through. But he counters, "[blocking fast-forwarding] is giving away data in favor of the unknown. Let the ads be fast-forwarded so you can see the behavior."

The company expects to present the study today at the Advertising Research Foundation's Audience Measurement Symposium in New York.

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• Broadcating
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Lycos To Broadcast PermissionTV

on WebPro News
by David A. Utter, June 21, 2006

The portal site will use the PermissionTV platform to deliver DVD quality video content to its visitors over broadband connections.

Lycos plans to jump into the online video fray with the help of PermissionTV, an online TV distribution and marketing platform.

At the start of the World Cup, Lycos quietly debuted the full screen capabilities of PermissionTV. The "Soccer From The Fringe" feature on the Lycos main page launches the PermissionTV player when clicked.

Lycos said it plans to acquire a variety of video content, from episodic television to longer films, for the on-demand viewing of its visitors. The potential for offering some content at a premium exists, as episodes of their World Cup coverage has been listed as "free."

Content providers will be able to provide their programming as an on-demand, subscription, or advertising-supported model. Lycos touted the ability to target web advertising with the platform, which could help the brand building of its advertisers.

In the coming weeks, Lycos should supplement its online video with more mainstream oriented content. Branded TV and movie-related programming has been announced, though no details of that programming have been made available yet.

PermissionTV received a high profile boost among the heavily tech-oriented audience that visited the E3 Insider conference page for this year's version of the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. A free download of the PermissionTV player provided access to the press conferences held by the three major game console makers: Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, along with other content.

The move by Lycos brings it into a market crowded with YouTube, Google Video, AOL, and other companies all looking for ways to attract a streaming video audience. Growing broadband adoption in the US has fueled the demand for richer media content.

Now those providers, like Lycos, have to convince brand marketers that the video efforts of online portals merit the investment of advertising dollars. More importantly, the providers have to deliver a quality viewing experience to their users, and that's what Lycos and PermissionTV will try to accomplish with their partnership.

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• Advertising
• Broadcasting
• TV

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YouTube ‘bigger than MTV’ for advertisers

on Financial Times
by Carlos Grande, June 22 2006

One of the world’s biggest advertising agencies has urged marketers to learn from consumer-created content on websites such as YouTube.com, which now has greater reach among some US audiences than MTV, the music broadcaster.

The Leo Burnett agency, whose clients include McDonald’s, General Motors, Heinz and Samsung, said commercials would work on YouTube, which publishes video clips and has greater US reach than MTV, according to Carat, a leading media buying group.

But successful future campaigns would need to imitate viral content - so-called because of its rapid spread online - by being easy to consume repeatedly and to forward on, said Mark Tutssel, worldwide chief creative officer at Leo Burnett.

Advertisers would also have to invite consumer interaction, by allowing people to create their own commercials and comment, even negatively, on brands, Mr Tutssel said.

Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, he said: “Marketers must learn to let go of the control they think they have over their brand.... Once consumers have interacted with brands they will not go back to being shouted at by marketers.”

The speech, a joint presentation with Contagious, an industry magazine, came as the festival, the leading awards for the $400bn a year advertising industry, awarded a Grand Prix to a campaign designed to look like a homemade internet video.

The advertisement appears to show Mark Ecko, a graffiti artist, defacing Air Force One, the US president’s jet. It claims to have reached 135m people via the internet and subsequent free press coverage.

All week at Cannes, advertising and media executives have grappled with the implications of virals which have reached millions of people via the internet, often by-passing traditional media. A few have involved no spend on media, offline or online.

Industry executives are also worried that the fastest growing part of internet advertising, namely paid-for search, could turn brands into commodities.

But arguing that digital media can tap consumer enthusiasm for brands the Leo Burnett presentation, dubbed Wildfire, cited examples including the Chevy-Tahoe car brand which invited consumer to create their own web commercials. This attracted 5.5m people to a website and produced 22,000 entries, of which only 16 per cent were negative. A VW Golf advertisment shown on YouTube.com also drew 1.9m people.

In an FT interview, Paul Kemp-Robertson, editor-in-chief of Contagious, said: “On sites like YouTube, advertising can be an acceptable part of the landscape, sitting alongside music or films. People may not be interested in advertising but they are interested in brands.Provided you offer them something entertaining and useful, allow them to interact and reward themfor their interest, they will accept you.”

Other successful “virals” have included a clip created for the John West fish brand. This was voted the most popular US commercial even though it has not aired on US television. True to their interactive ambitions, the presentation speakers asked delegates to keep their phones on during the talk and to text their views, which will be published online.

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• YouTube
• SharingSites'News
• UGC
• Advertising

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Production - Rough cut - User content is king.

on Broadcast, June 23, 2006

Some broadcasters are piling into user-generated content, others remain sceptical. Andy Bell asks what will set the winners apart.

Back in April when Mark Thompson set out his creative vision for the BBC, one of the key themes that the director general thought would future-proof the broadcaster was user-generated content. He's not alone. Over the last month a whole raft of user-generated TV initiatives have been announced. Flextech has launched Trouble Homegrown. MTV is launching an "audience-controlled channel brand" and both the BBC and Channel 4 have discussed their plans for user-generated comedy sites. Recently, I heard a C4 Interactive commissioner saying he hated the term "user-generated". But he admitted that of the eight projects he was most excited about, every one had a user-generated element. So, why has everyone gone user-generated crazy?

Perhaps the first reason is because the internet is about participation. What it does best is get people involved. The second reason is that these sites put the user's creativity at the heart of the process. MySpace is now the second most popular site on the web (after Yahoo). Launched in February 2005, YouTube now gets 50,000 clips uploaded and 55 million viewers a day. It's also a good snare for broadcasters hoping to hang on to youngsters between the ages of 12 and 16. Last November the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 57% of American teenagers have created content for the internet. Hanging out online - and creating material that showcases your digital identity - are increasingly part of the teen experience.

Yet some producers and execs take fright at the rise of user-generated content. If users are creating great content, who'll pay the mortgage? But user-generated TV will co-exist alongside other forms of content, just as blogging lives alongside newspapers. There are also great opportunities for TV formats that harness the power of user-generated TV. We've been talking to a bunch of TV producers over the past few months and have been amazed and impressed by the range of formats they come up with once they understand the promise of user-generated content.

Mark Burnett (of The Apprentice and Survivor) put it well when he asked: "Why would anyone who's a professional content maker fear user-generated content? In the end it makes you better at your job, which is to give the advert-watching public what they want. And there are incredibly talented undiscovered film-makers out there, who are using YouTube to get things out."

And this is the real battle in the world of user-generated content. How do you frame the question to spark the user's interest? With so many channels launching user-generated initiatives, it will be the ideas that engage the user to create (as well as consume) media that will be the massive hits.

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• UGC

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Who Needs a Network?

on Forbes
by Scott Woolley, July 3, 2006

Not Jeff Macpherson, one of the first breakout stars of the new world of Internet television.

Jeffrey Macpherson has concocted a strange recipe for TV stardom: ignore Hollywood, build a cheap set in your apartment in Vancouver and film your show with a few pals while all of you get drunk. Yet somehow the 32-year-old Canadian has emerged as an early breakout star of the dawning era of video podcasting.

Macpherson plays the puckish hero of Tiki Bar TV, a periodic series of loopy, gag-filled vignettes--each lasts only a few minutes--available only by download from his Web site, Tikibartv.com or Apple's iTunes service for the iPod. He sports a doctor's white smock, stethoscope and prescription pad, and when a character shows up for a consultation, Macpherson (a.k.a. Dr. Tiki) prescribes therapy: a potent drink with a fancy name and myriad kinds of liquor. To keep it real, Macpherson and his motley cast drink the elixir on camera and off; this is one reason it takes them six hours to shoot what gets boiled down to, say, six minutes.

Yet Tiki Bar TV has won a rabid following since its debut early last year (the 17th episode went online June 5). Each segment draws 300,000 or so viewers, rivaling the reach of many cable shows, such as CNBC's Mad Money. Macpherson and his costars get recognized on the street by fans. Viewers have posted photos of Tiki Bar TV parties, one acolyte sent in a heavy-metal version of the show's perky theme song, others dressed up as Tiki Bar characters for Halloween--and even Hollywood has come calling.

"I don't think the show I am doing at my house is going to replace a prime-time show," Macpherson allows, "but the next show I do might."

Podcasting was audio-only at its start in 2004; video popped up in October when Apple unveiled a video iPod. Podcasters rely on Internet downloads to computers and the new iPod (usually via iTunes), and viewers watch the stored shows at their leisure. Podcast shows can also can be viewed on such sites as YouTube (seeFORBES, Mar. 13), which has fueled a sudden boom in online video by hosting anyone's clips free of charge. Only a handful of video podcasts were up on iTunes in the first month; today the menu of videos has exploded.

This onslaught is cheap. Macpherson films a Tiki Bar bit for $100. Zapping it out costs less than a penny per fan; Apple even covers his Web-hosting costs. Thus old-line TV looks cumbersome and costly, with its legacy of satellites and towers, hundreds of TV stations and cable networks, million-dollar budgets and spoiled stars, and a need to reach big audiences.

Macpherson argues podcasts may transform television as profoundly as cable TV did. Some incumbents concur. NBC Chief Jeffrey Zucker decrees that all NBC shows must develop a digital distribution strategy: "No longer is content just for the TV screen," he told a group of advertisers in May. MTV, which shrank the attention spans of teens in the 1980s, now aims to do it again--it just launched MTVU Uber, an online channel for short-form shows. Yahoo and Amazon.com are in similar pursuit.

Macpherson's twisted path to Web stardom began five years ago, when he embarked on a Hollywood dream. He had put in a year at film school but detested it and worked as a production manager for car commercials. In 2000 he directed his first feature film, a well-received independent drama. Come Together was about a Scotch-guzzling, pot-smoking greeting-card writer who vows to break up his ex-girlfriend's wedding and win her back. It never got distributed; only 5,000 people saw it.

He commuted from Vancouver to Los Angeles in 2001, landed an agent at International Creative Management and signed a movie deal with MTV. Quickly it all fell apart. MTV had wanted a film on ecstasy, the euphoria drug; then it switched to methamphetamine--newsier, but far uglier. "A meth addict and an ecstasy addict are very different beasts," he says. Then it wanted a miniseries. Then MTV bailed, Macpherson's agent quit ICM, and when no one else picked him up, he packed up and slunk home to Vancouver.

Back at his small apartment, he decided, on a lark, to install a 1950s-style tiki bar, complete with palm fronds and lots of rum. Soon he invited friends over and started filming short, goofy segments.

The feel was assiduously absurd and schlocky. Props drove plot: Macpherson became Dr. Tiki after finding an old doctor's coat he had worn to a Halloween party. Soon he added a bartender, Johnny Johnny (played by a grade school pal), and a vivacious vixen named LaLa (an ex-girlfriend). Guest stars joined in (they got to make up their own characters and plotlines), and the cast would get visibly tipsier as a skit unfolded.

The real star of each episode is its special drink. "Love in the South Pacific" is laced with six liquors; it was invented by the Tiki Bar folks, though they are amateur mixologists. "People think we are the Martha Stewart of cocktails. We're not. Inauthenticity is our hallmark," Macpherson says.

Each segment has a freeze-frame of the drink recipe, often showing real brands--Beefeater and Bombay Sapphire gin, Skyy vodka, Southern Comfort. Johnny Johnny (played by Kevin Gamble) trashes lesser labels, at one point calling Sauza Gold tequila "one of the crappier blends you can get." Soon an Internet rumor had it that Tiki Bar TV was a clever front for a liquor company.

It isn't, but its potential--for good and bad--jars some spirits marketers, who fret over any fallout and trademark infringement but also grow giddy over how great this ad platform might be. One marketing chief for a high-end brand, angered by the unauthorized use of his product in a Tiki Bar bit, berated Macpherson on the phone. Minutes later he called back-- to discuss how to work out a sponsorship.

That will be tough, Dr. Tiki concedes, given the proud-to-imbibe ethos of his show. "On TV liquor doesn't make you drunk, it just makes you popular at clubs," he says with a snort. But he believes that one day he may be able to exact a fat premium for clever product placements. "Imagine if you could put a product in the 'dead parrot' sketch," Macpherson says, referring to a famous Monty Python bit. "Imagine what that would be worth."

Until then he relishes the creative latitude of podcasting and his ability to reach legions of viewers without having to kowtow to the meddlesome, unhip Hollywood suits who once nagged him. Some TV sitcoms air flubbed outtakes as the credits roll at the end, but he blithely runs them smack in the middle of an episode. And he revels in his freedom to offend: TV needs the widest possible audience, while Macpherson need lure only the few who "get it."

"We got a lot of hate mail saying, 'You guys think you're funny?'" he says happily.

Macpherson foresees a day when thousands of new-guard filmmakers, aspiring pros with basic editing, lighting and cinematography skills, will be able to sidestep old-line media and draw large audiences online. Hollywood will hire some of them. A Viacom network suit called him recently, hoping to enlist him to make a podcast for the Web. Leery of an overseer who would give him "program notes" on what should be revised, Macpherson declined. "It would be a step backwards. I have a show and total control--why do I want network notes?"

For now he plans to stick to his more subversive pursuits, as he has since his pithy sign-off on the very first episode of Tiki Bar TV: "Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast pilot of The Tiki Bar. If you'd like to see more of this, or even if you don't, I couldn't give a rat's ass. It's the Internet. Just try and [expletive] stop us."

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• TV
• UGC

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Big-Media Critics Needn't Worry So Much

on Wall Street Journal
by Alan Murray, June 21, 2006

For those who worry about the pernicious effects of "big media," today is a big day. The Federal Communications Commission once again is launching an effort to ease rules that restrict media concentration, including one that prohibits newspapers and broadcast stations in the same city from owning each other.

The rules were written back when "cable" was used to tow cars and "the net" went next to the fishing box.

Opponents launched a pre-emptive attack against the FCC yesterday, unveiling a new Web site, StopBigMedia.com. Backed by groups ranging from the Consumer Federation of America to the National Council of Churches, the coalition urges visitors to "fight back" and help "save your local media from corporate control."

I won't be signing up. On the list of things that keep me awake at night, "media concentration" ranks pretty low. "Media proliferation," on the other hand, ranks higher. I am perplexed by the amazing array of ways that purveyors of media have found to get inside my head and, even more so, the heads of my teenage daughters. The girls take it in over their iPods and cellphones and satellite radio, or via computer from sites such as MySpace and YouTube (where even folks my age can enjoy Connie Chung's bizarre farewell performance on cable channel MSNBC.)

Moreover, as a journalist, I sometimes feel like half the world is getting into my line of work -- which, if the laws of supply and demand hold, can't bode well for my future. Last week, I visited the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., to sample the leg of lamb and ceviche at the company's in-house cafeteria. While there, I also talked to the folks who oversee the company's "AdSense" program, which allows anyone with a URL to become a media baron. If you sign up for AdSense, at no charge, Google will find advertisers to go on your site, and send you a check that includes "most" of the proceeds. (The company won't disclose what portion it keeps for itself.)

So why should anyone worry about Big Media? "Sure, right now, you can say that anybody can be a start-up, and there's an incredible cacophony of voices," says Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, one of the leading worriers. "But I believe what will happen is, we'll see a raft of mergers."

Maybe. But a few years ago, the favorite bogeyman of the StopBigMedia crowd was Tribune Co., which was gobbling up newspapers and television stations and boasting of "synergies" between the two. Today, the company is contemplating spinning off all its broadcast properties.

Then there was investor Carl Icahn's attack on Time Warner Inc. -- an attempt to split off the cable systems and the Internet business from the old-line media businesses. Mr. Icahn failed, but the company never successfully refuted the premise of his attack: that the business rationale for keeping these disparate media properties together -- the "synergy" -- is pretty thin.

The worriers make much of the fact that power already is concentrated in the hands of "a few" giant companies: Time Warner, News Corp. (Fox), Walt Disney Co. (ABC), Viacom Inc. (CBS), General Electric Co. (NBC), Bertelsmann AG, Sony Corp. (phew, I get winded naming them). Of course, that list of biggies doesn't even include Tribune, Gannett Co., New York Times Co. and Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Nor does it include Yahoo Inc., Google Inc. or Microsoft Corp. Or smaller companies like HDNet, Mark Cuban's high-definition-television network, which, if recent media reports are true, may rescue poor Dan Rather from an unappreciative CBS.

Bottom line: There is far more competition in the media industry than in, say, the automobile industry or the soft-drink industry or a dozen other industries that I don't have room to list here.

None of that makes the FCC's task any easier. The media-concentration issue is the most controversial one facing FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, because of the critical role media play in modern culture and in congressional elections.

"This is unadulterated hell," says Mr. Martin's predecessor, Michael Powell, who fought the same battle...and lost. "Part of the reason is that facts don't matter. The opponents are deeply emotional and reactive." They also have done a good job linking interests at opposite ends of the political spectrum, combining the gun lobby and the Christian coalition on the right with the Consumers Union and labor unions on the left. And of course, the issue hits members of Congress where they are most vulnerable -- their local press.

But at some point, rules need to reflect reality. And the reality is this: Access to the media is more open and democratic today than it ever has been in the history of the world.

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Watching YouTube on the Boob Tube

on Wall Street Journal
by Bobby White, June 21, 2006

As online video becomes increasingly popular, consumers are finding more, if tricky, options for watching Web content on their television sets.

These nascent services -- which include home-networking systems, media players and set-top boxes that access online video libraries -- aim to let consumers watch from the comfort of their living-room sofas, instead of being locked into a desk chair in front of a computer. They offer access to a wide range of Web content, from Hollywood movies to amateur video clips of pets and children. Because these technologies are still developing, the quality can vary greatly once the videos are translated to a TV screen. But as consumers' appetite for online video grows, device makers and media companies are rushing to gain a toehold in this emerging market.

Electronics maker RCA, a unit of Thomson SA, is working with content providers Akimbo Systems Inc. and Movielink LLC to introduce a set-top box in September for $199, after a $100 rebate. The box will link a television to thousands of online offerings, from animated music videos to concerts and popular feature films, for a monthly fee starting at $9.99, plus some pay-per-view charges. Digital-recorder maker TiVo Inc. recently announced deals to give its customers more access to Internet video, including game highlights from National Basketball Association and news clips from New York Times Co., as well as consumer-generated videos posted on services such as Yahoo Inc. and Brightcove Inc.

AT&T Corp. earlier this week said it will launch its Homezone service in July, combining a set-top box with satellite and Internet service to offer content from Akimbo and Movielink on televisions. And home-networking company Netgear Inc. says it plans to launch an Internet-access device that connects to a TV this fall, though no details are available yet.

Some companies already offer devices that transfer certain video content from PCs to TV screens. Akimbo, for instance, offers a $200 set-top box that delivers Internet videos from its library of video blogs and international film festivals, as part of a monthly service that starts at $9.99. Home-networking company D-Link Systems Inc. sells $149 and $249 media players that wirelessly stream music, photos and video that users have saved on their PCs to the TV.

Cisco Systems Inc. makes a media-player device called the A/G Media Center Extender, which wirelessly transfers media saved on a PC to the TV. Microsoft Corp. has also outfitted its $399 videogame console, the Xbox 360, with the ability to forward video to a TV.

Many of the new devices can't mask the inferior quality of online video when it's transferred to a TV due to often amateur production and the software used to send the signal to the computer. Some services, such as Akimbo, avoid the issue because they use set-top boxes designed to work with their own online content. But the production quality of much of the content on amateur-video sharing Web sites is so poor that if viewed on a large TV, the picture becomes nearly unrecognizable.

In addition, some popular programming that is streamed live on the Web, such as the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, is designed specifically to be showcased in a small display, like a window on a PC screen. Transferring the content to a large TV can drastically distort the picture.

"A lot of the major broadcasters are working to understand the medium [of the Internet] and the technology," says Ross Rubin, an industry analyst with research firm NPD Group. "They are experimenting, so not everything is meant to be watched on the television."

The amount of video content online is exploding. Much of it is amateur video and home movies, which users post on services such as Brightcove, Yahoo and YouTube Inc. But growing offerings from services such as Movielink and CinemaNow can include feature films and concerts. And broadcasters such as ABC, a unit of Walt Disney Co., and General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal have recently announced plans to make popular programs -- such as "The Office" -- available anytime on the Web, often for a fee.

Many consumers would prefer to watch online video on their TVs rather than their 17-inch computer screens -- if they could just figure out how to do it. It's technically possible to hook up a PC to a television to watch online content, using cables or certain types of wireless routers. But the process can still be a hassle, leading tech companies to find less-cumbersome solutions such as the set-top boxes and media players.

Steven Jones, a 37-year-old Chicago software engineer, became enamored of the amateur robot competitions broadcast on Web sites such as robot-fan.net and asurada.jp, but he wanted a way to watch the Web programming on his television. He turned to Akimbo's set-top box, which links his TV to Akimbo's online video library, which includes programming from niche Web sites and content providers like Bollywood.tv and the History Channel.

"I much prefer watching Internet content on my TV through Akimbo than my personal computer," says Mr. Jones.

The market for these devices and services remains nascent. About 43.9 million U.S. households have the broadband Internet connections necessary to watch online video, according to Jupiter Research. But in a March survey, Jupiter found that only about 57% of adults with broadband watched online video regularly, and nearly all of that viewership was on a PC.

Many of the devices available now aren't easy to use because the content is protected by copyright. Some video Web sites like CinemaNow, for example, encrypt their content. Apple Computer's iTunes has some agreements with broadcasters to offer video online, including episodes of "Desperate Housewives," but it uses proprietary software that restricts where content can be displayed. And Web services like Movielink and CinemaNow restrict the number and types of devices content can be transferred to.

Overcoming some of these technical impediments will require advances in broadband speeds and an improvement in how the video content is converted to digital format or encoded, says Joe Laszlo, a broadband analyst with Jupiter Research. He figures it will take three to five years before set-top boxes and online on-demand services go mainstream.

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Microsoft Will Catch YouTube in Consumer Generated Content

on Always On
by Andy Plesser, June 19, 2006

Declares MSN's Todd E. Herman...and "We are out Tivoing TiVo" with consumer demand for clips

Microsoft is going to launch a program to bring consumer generated content to the MSN site. As far as we can find, not much has been said about the program, code named Warhol, and the company is revealing very little.

We met Todd Herman, director of Advertising and Business Strategy at MSN, at the Manhattan offices of Microsoft, where MSN had hosted a conference organized by Third Way Brand Trainers and Business Development Institute on the topic of web video. Todd declined to tell much about Warhol, but he did share a fascinating look at this pivotal time for online video.



Todd addressed the success of YouTube, and stated that Microsoft will match their uploads of consumer generated video before too long.

He also told us that with the consumer in control, demand for video clips of the NBC News broadcasts were rocketing -- in their way of thinking they are "out Tivoing Tivo."

Here's a transcript of some of Todd's comments to Beet.TV:

"YouTube got to the party early with user generated video there's no doubt, but given the four hundred million uniques, the reach that we have, we don't think we'll have a problem finding the one percent of the people who are willing to upload."

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MySpace Plans New Restrictions for Youths

on Associated Press
by Anick Jesdanun, June 21, 2006

MySpace.com is planning new restrictions on how adults may contact its younger users in response to growing concerns about the safety of teenagers who frequent the popular online social networking site.

The site already prohibits kids 13 and under from setting up accounts and displays only partial profiles for those registered as 14 or 15 years old unless the person viewing the profile is already on the teen's list of friends.

Under the changes, expected to be announced Wednesday and taking effect next week, MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name.

Any user will still be able to get a partial profile of younger users by searching for other attributes, such as display name. The difference is that currently, adults can then request to be added to a youth's list to view the full profile; that option will disappear for adults registered as 18 and over.

However, users under 18 can still make such contact, and MySpace has no mechanism for verifying that users submit their true age when registering. That means adults can sign up as teens and request to join a 14-year-old's list of friends, which would enable the full profiles.

The partial profiles display gender, age and city. Full profiles describe hobbies, schools and any other personal details a user may provide.

Driven largely by word of mouth, MySpace has grown astronomically since its launch in January 2004 and is now second in the United States among all Web sites by total page views, behind only Yahoo Inc., according to comScore Media Metrix. The site currently has some 87 million users, about a quarter registered as minors, according to the company.

At MySpace, which was bought last year by News Corp. for $580 million, users can expand their circles of friends by exploiting existing connections, rather than meeting randomly or by keyword matches alone.

It offers a mix of features - message boards, games, Web journals - designed to keep its youth-oriented visitors clicking on its advertising-supported pages.

MySpace has recently become a target of parents, schools and law enforcement officials concerned that teens who hang out at MySpace can fall victim to sexual predators.

Just this week, a 14-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old user sued MySpace and News Corp., seeking $30 million in damages. And earlier this month, a 16-year-old girl who tricked her parents into getting her a passport flew to the Mideast to be with a 20-year-old man she met through MySpace. U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded the teen to turn around and go home.

MySpace officials say the new restrictions have been long planned and are unrelated to recent events.

Besides the contact restrictions, all users - not just those 14 and 15 - will have the option to make only partial profiles available to those not already on their friends list.

All users also will get an option to prevent contact from people outside their age group. Currently, they may only choose to require that a person know their e-mail or last name first; that will remain an option to those 16 and over, even as it becomes mandatory for those younger.

MySpace also will beef up its ad-targeting technology, so that it can avoid displaying gambling and other adult-themed sites on minors' profile pages and target special public-service announcements to them.

The changes follow a number of safety-related measures that includes the hiring of a former federal prosecutor and Microsoft Corp. executive as its online safety chief. MySpace already has developed safety tips for parents and children and devotes scores of employees to monitoring the site around the clock.

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Ads by Offering 'Safe' Content

on Wall Street Journal
by Julia Angwin, June 21, 2006


As part of the marketing effort for its big summer movie, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," Walt Disney Co. last month held a contest on the popular social networking site MySpace.com.

To publicize the contest, Disney built its own "page" on MySpace and bought an ad on MySpace's front page. But it steered clear of the profile pages created by MySpace's nearly 85 million users -- the popular but controversial part of the site where users post links to friends' pages, list their likes and dislikes and display photos, sometimes including scenes of underage drinking and sexually suggestive material.

"We would never be on a personal profile," says Jack Pan, vice president of marketing at Disney's Buena Vista Pictures. "We want to be in the official areas."

Disney is one of an increasing number of advertisers that are cautiously starting to embrace MySpace. Acquired by News Corp. last year, MySpace is one of the fastest growing and most heavily trafficked sites on the Internet, and its largely teenage membership is very attractive to advertisers. Marketers worry, though, about the site's reputation as an uncontrolled virtual community where pornographers and sexual predators are known to lurk.

To draw in advertisers, MySpace has quietly begun building an array of new sections, highlighted on the front page, that deal with subjects ranging from books and movies to games, comedy and horoscopes. The areas, which contain articles written by editors and links to related blogs and groups elsewhere on MySpace, are meant to be "safe" for advertisers that want to appear on the site but don't want to be associated with unsavory material.

The new sections are also part of a larger News Corp. effort to turn MySpace into a full-fledged portal that can compete with Yahoo Inc. Although News Corp. has been careful not to micromanage the wildly successful site, it has been quietly beefing up its features -- adding, for example, video downloads and instant messaging -- to make it look more like a regular portal.

Next up: an overhaul of MySpace's search engine. The company is talking to Google Inc., Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN to determine which would provide better search technology. Chris DeWolfe, chief executive of MySpace, says that search represents "a pretty large revenue opportunity," and that the company expects a search partner to be chosen within the next six months.

News Corp. has taken other steps to beef up MySpace's ad sales, including hyping the site to advertisers attending the annual programming presentation of a sibling division, the Fox TV network, in May. The company also recently poached AOL's top ad sales executive, Michael Barrett. He is now chief revenue officer for Fox Interactive, the News Corp. unit that oversees MySpace.

In the meantime, the site is showing promising results drawing advertisers to its so-called safe areas. In addition to advertising in the topical sections, Disney, DaimlerChrysler AG's Dodge and others are paying tens of thousands of dollars to build "profile" pages to promote their brands.

Rich Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research, estimates that MySpace generated ad revenue of $15.5 million a month in May, up from about $2.5 million a month when News Corp. announced the acquisition last July. At that rate, he estimates, MySpace will take in $200 million in ad revenue in 2006.

To be sure, MySpace remains a controversial site among parents and law-enforcement officials. Several state attorneys general are pushing MySpace to provide more safeguards for children on the site. Republican Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania recently proposed a bill -- the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 -- that would restrict minors from accessing sites such as Facebook.com and MySpace at schools and public libraries. And just yesterday, the family of a 14-year-old Texas girl that says she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on MySpace sued the company for $30 million.

In response to these concerns, MySpace has hired a chief security officer and beefed up some safety measures. The company is scheduled to announce additional steps today, including preventing members over 18 years of age from contacting 14- and 15-year-olds they don't already know without their permission, and giving all users more control over their privacy settings. Tomorrow, the company will participate in a conference in Washington, D.C., about online safety.

Marketers say they appreciate these moves. "A key condition of working with MySpace was that they were working on safety issues," says PepsiCo Inc. spokeswoman Nicole Bradley. She says the company's MySpace programs "run on screened sections of the site that are pretty mainstream." Pepsi's Aquafina has been sponsoring the MySpace Independent Filmmakers section since January. And Pepsi's Sierra Mist lemon-lime drink has sponsored the Comedy section since it launched a month ago.

Still, it isn't clear how much attention MySpace users will pay to these advertiser-friendly areas. Many users spend most of their time on their own pages and those of their friends. MySpace says its well-established music section has about 8.1 million unique visitors each month, while the video section -- which was introduced in April -- attracts about seven million visitors a month. In contrast, overall traffic to MySpace hit 51.4 million a month in May, according to comScore Media Metrix, up from 15.6 million a year ago.

Advertisers can get some sense of their success by tracking their pages' "friends" -- MySpace members who link their page to the advertiser's page, often to enter a contest or for some other benefit. A profile page built for 20th Century Fox's "X-Men III: The Last Stand" has attracted more than three million friends so far -- in part because of an offer that those who befriended X-Men would be allowed to boost the number of "top friends" permitted on their own profile pages to 16 from eight. Exit polling showed that 15% of the under-25 audience for X-Men heard about the movie on MySpace. (20th Century Fox is also owned by News Corp.)

Similarly, Disney's MySpace page for "Pirates of the Caribbean," which offered people the first look at the film's trailer, has attracted more than 70,000 friends. Another Disney film with a MySpace page, a movie about dancers called "StepUp," has attracted more than 20,000 friends, some of whom entered a dance competition to be in the movie.

"We've been able to really learn from the real fans about what they like and what they are interested in and been able to respond to them," says Mr. Pan, the Disney vice president of marketing.

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User-Generated Content Meets Profit Sharing

on Springwise, June 20, 2006

Slowly but surely, established brands are climbing aboard the customer-made bandwagon, inviting consumers to co-create. But as our sister-site trendwatching.com predicted a while ago, true co-creation can only blossom if brands share revenues resulting from consumer generated content with those same consumers. Which is why we like Vodafone Netherlands' new KijkMij TV (Look at Me TV) initiative, which not only involves customers uploading their funniest, sexiest or most informative (cameraphone) videos, but also pays these minipreneurs 10% of revenues generated when other customers download their video.*

How it works: Vodafone customers shoot their own videos, using a camera or a cameraphone, and upload them to the KijkMij TV channel. Videos will appear in one of the following categories: Erotica (Babes and Hunks), Bizarre, Holidays, Stunts, and 'I love...', and can be viewed via Vodafone's Live service. Downloads will cost 25 euro cents, meaning every viewed video will net the owner 2.5 cents. By uploading a video, participants are automatically assigned an account tied to their mobile phone number. Using PayPal's MassPay, Vodafone pays out accrued earnings when accounts surpass EUR 10 (which equals 400 downloads).

Two and a half cents may not sound overwhelming, but if online videos and their viral effects on the web are anything to go by, there is always the promise of a sudden 100,000 or even 1,000,000 downloads for the truly crazy or sexy, even if downloads aren't free. After all – we're putting our bets on KijkMij's erotica category – sex sells! Only spoiler: Vodafone won't allow 'anything naked below the belt' ;-)

* A similar program was launched in the UK last Fall, by mobile media company ''3: 'performers' get 1 pence per download.



We've said it before: the customer-made phenomenon is a dream come true for entrepreneurs: instead of having to cook up new goods, services and experiences for your customers, you let them do the work. Just make sure you share the profits, or no one will want to play with you.

For more examples, from the stingy to the generous, check out customer-made.

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MTV puts full weight behind digital strategies

on The Economic Times, June 21, 2006

MTV, once the frontrunner in music television, is now playing catch-up with the iPod generation. As its target demographic increasingly looks to mobile, broadband and video-on-demand services for its content, MTV is being forced to step up its digital activities.

At its annual sales presentation in New York earlier this month, the Viacom-owned broadcaster outlined plans to increase revenue generated by new platforms from its current $150 million to $500 million by 2008.

"With each platform we are trying to expand our reach and increase our income," Angel Gambino, the vice-president for commercial strategy and digital media at MTV Networks UK, says. "It's about extending our channels and our brands to new and other platforms, and into newer areas, such as MTV Overdrive into broadband."

In addition to mobile TV channels for the MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Comedy and Game One brands across Europe, MTV's broadband suite includes Nicke-lodeon's Turbo-Nick, VH1's V Spot, Comedy Central's Motherload, MTV U's Uber, CMT's Loaded and its newest addition, MTV Overdrive.

Launched in the UK last month, MTV Overdrive is an online free-to-view, on-demand service, offering viewers clips from MTV shows such as Pimp My Ride, as well as news, movie trailers and music videos.

Along with repackaged popular programmes from its linear channels, MTV's broadband and mobile services offer extras from original series and bespoke digital content.

"While shooting shows for our broadcast channels, our production crews are now also briefed to shoot extra footage so that it can be delivered to mobile or PC," Dan Whiley, the commercial vice-president of digital media at MTV Networks International, says.

"We release two to three original made-for-digital series per year and make one hour of made-for-mobile content and one hour of made-for-broadband content every week. We also create eight to ten mobile games and up to 300 mobile downloads, such as ringtones and graphics, every year."

Gambino believes that these media platforms could also provide MTV Networks, which attracts 1.3 billion viewers worldwide, with a useful testing ground for new programming.

"When we are unsure how something might work, it allows us to use these platforms as an incubation area to build up some critical mass and then find it the right place in the TV schedule," she says, pointing to the upcoming transition of the street-culture show Barrio 19 from mobile to network.

MTV is also fine-tuning its digital strategy to accommodate the increasing popularity of social networks and user-generated content sites such as MySpace and YouTube. Viacom has been busy creating the online music service MTV Urge for launch in the US this month. It has also acquired the online film distributor IFILM, the virtual pet community Neopets and the gaming properties Gametrailers and Xfire.

Meanwhile, MTV has been putting the finishing touches to a new crossplatform channel aimed at its web-savvy audience. "It's completely community- and user-controlled TV," Gambino says of the as-yet-unnamed service, which is due to launch later this year.

"You create your own playlist and are able to get your content up on screen. It ties together social networking, video-on-demand and user-generated content." She also maintains that the new crossplatform channel will offer advertisers a more efficient showcase. "A lot of advertisers spend a lot on TV advertising," she says. "This will give them the opportunity to take an integrated approach."

While MySpace, Google and YouTube have undoubtedly made an impact online, Whiley believes MTV has a clear advantage in this new space. "We've been entertaining youth and adult audiences for a long time," he says. "This puts us in a great position with our audiences, and we really don't view these sites as direct competitors."

It is precisely this longevity that may ultimately attract advertisers to MTV's digital offshoots. "The demographics aren't radically different from people watching the TV channels, but, if the advertising is done properly, advertisers gain premium content to associate themselves with and the benefit of targeting," Dan Cryan, an analyst at the media market research publication Screen Digest, says.

Mat Mildenhall, the chief operating officer at Proximity, agrees. "MTV will not have the scale of Yahoo!, but it will be a much narrower audience," he says. "If you are a trusted brand, you need to be careful how you operate in that space in terms of spam and intrusion, but most people will be gleeful to get MTV content."

So far, MTV has seen almost all its big sponsors, such as Adidas and Sony, advertise with it online and others are likely to follow suit. "MTV has a strong brand which will attract a decent-sized, youth, fashion-orientated audience," Julian Smith, an online advertising analyst at JupiterResearch, says.

As well as being a significant revenue source for MTV, online advertising could also help to build a social network around its digital content.

"MTV has a well-established community which is happy to contribute and participate online," Smith says. "Interactivity is a great way to generate revenue and maintain audience loyalty." MTV is also hoping that this drive into digital media will help take the brand into new territories.

With Europe already a stronghold - the region's digital activities yield the fastest growth rates for MTV's international business - Gambino is looking to push further afield. "We'll start to see a lot more digital growth in countries where our TV business is less mature," she says. "We'll use that as our lead."

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Video: Tracking Success

on iMedia Connection
by Reid Carr , June 14, 2006

Red Door Interactive's president explains how you should use video to drive interaction, and why you need to gauge it.

I want to ask you, just for a moment, to think back to the days when animated .gifs hit the web scene. You'd see little emoticon-like graphics bounce around trying to highlight "the really important content," or there would be dancing flames that would tell you that something was "hot." I also recall when Flash first allowed companies to welcome you to their website, product line and corporate tagline, all in one 15 second intro. Thankfully, the "skip" button was invented shortly thereafter.

I have to say that I am happy to see that video has started to make a home in the interactive arsenal. Sites that were once static and uninteresting have now come to life by trucking broadband content through the same old pipes. Flash, an old favorite, is the primary driver of this movement. It is now allowing commercial-quality actors point at air in front of green-screens with the knowledge that they are helping people find their way through some tricky websites.

Flash and other ad-serving technologies are also allowing advertisers to extend the life and reach of TV commercials with traditional play, pause and sound on/off controls. It is just like having the TV on the web. Where's my TiVo?

As agencies and advertisers investigate the opportunities provided by broadband, rich media and easy-to-use technology, they need to bear in mind not to forget the details that make the web so useful and addictive. We love the ability to control what content they consume and when they consume it. Intrusive experiences are shunned. Additionally, users often are consuming web content at the same time they are watching TV (which is to say that they are complementing their TV experience with online activities).

There have been some excellent creative executions lately that have garnered some great results; however, there is still a lot of "me too" that is cluttering the web. Everyone wants the viral pass-along, but that does not immediately mean that all you have to do is add video and rinse. Unfortunately, a lot of advertisers are using video just as they would in a broadcast commercial, but simply extending the length because they feel like they have the user locked in. On the web, there is more distraction than any other media for users to move on to and forget you. Creative needs to not only quickly deliver a message (which is what traditional broadcast may do), but also give users control and inspire them to pass along the good word.

Depending on the purpose of the site, the use of video should not generally drive the navigation of a site, either. In most cases, even over a broadband connection, if the navigation or content depends on a human in a video to deliver it, a user has to wait for the information they need. This is the same concept as the Flash intro. If you are an informational or transactional site, limit your use of video to navigate or interact, instead use it to complement content or ease information gathering.

Right now, rich media is hot with both consumers and advertisers. That is the "wow factor." However, that will soon become yesterday's old ad format gone the way of the 468x60. Most likely, people will click and interact with it now just to see the way things move, but not necessarily come away with the point of the message. So, that being said, metrics that measure how long users spend with your creative are not necessarily indicative of "message received." Try to find out if people are just toying with the functionality.

There are lots of ways to usefully track the success of the rich media. Right now, the popular methods appear to be using metrics, such as time spent on site or interactions with the ad. However, using qualitative methods, eye-tracking or imbedded analytics can deliver more useful findings about user confusion, message resonance and true path information. All of these things can help us to gain greater understanding of how consumers interact with the latest and greatest creative application of interactive rich media.

Advertisers and web developers need to act quickly and jump on the bandwagon now to gain the positive short-term results that are being reported in current statistics. In order to avoid taking the user for granted, the key to long-term success will be realized by taking the time to implement the appropriate tracking and testing methods in order to gain the findings needed to propel this movement forward to maturity.


Reid Carr is president of Red Door Interactive, helping clients -- such as the San Diego Convention Center, SkinMedica, Leap Wireless, Intuit and Sharp Systems of America -- to lay out business-oriented strategies for improving the success of their Internet presence.

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A Meeting of Minds in the Video Space

on ClickZ News
by Enid Burns , June 19, 2006

While video is a large component of online advertising, the interactive arms of many agencies still feel like stepchildren when it comes to budgets and collaboration. At ClickZ's Online Advertising Video Forum last Friday, discussion on the the channel's maturity ranged from agency experiences to metrics and video publisher applications.

While many marketers have ventured into video on the Web, the medium is still in an early stage, according to some industry insiders. This is a period of trial and error.

James Kim, VP of strategy at Organic, calls it a time of "fail fast-forward." "Fail when it's cheap and easy to do so, and fail when it's still below the radar."

Early "failures" for Organic, among other agencies, are discoveries such as creative or other existing assets can't simply be ported over from other channels to sites such as YouTube. "Posting to video sharing sites wasn't a good way to go," said Kim. It's important to try a few strategies and get results back to the client to make necessary adjustments to a campaign, he stressed.

That's not to say social sites such as YouTube don't work in terms of strategy. Kim cited success with a Dodge campaign tied to the auto show where the brand's site linked out to user-generated content submitted on YouTube, Flickr, blogs and other sites.

Well thought out campaigns often have degrees of interactivity that leave the consumer to decide how deep to go. "You've got to anticipate multiple levels of engagement," Kim said. "About letting the user go deeper and further, let the consumer choose options to look at and appeal to a variety of mindsets."
In other campaigns, video is just video. While online is a lean-forward medium, some opt for the simple approach. "Pull back a little bit and think about this, be OK with the fact that people will lean back and watch," said Gary Stein director of strategy at Freestyle Interactive. "You have to be OK with pure, streaming video just happening."

Prior experience can open the door to new campaigns, as was the case with Ian Schafer CEO and founder of Deep Focus. After working with Google to create a campaign using Google Maps for HBO's "The Sopranos, the search giant commissioned the agency to create its "Have a Green Summer" campaign, with video tied to the Google Map interface.

The map-based campaign is hardly standard for the agency, which just rolled out a campaign for HBO's "Entourage" in which the infamous talent agent Ari Gold, played by Jeremy Piven, has a sit-down interview with site visitors, subservient chicken-style.

While some campaigns have large enough budgets to bring in a recognized actor like Piven to film on green screen, and to broker a deal with Akamai to handle streaming, not all clients throw budget at video.

Tribal DDB Executive Creative Director Dorian Sweet discussed a recent campaign for Philips that stretched budget on a $500,000 project. Shaveeverywhere.com, built to promote Philips' Bodygroom shaver, used an unknown actor and a simple white background to minimize the load-time and jitteriness of streaming video.
The site launched with 350 million visitors in the first four days with no advertising or promotion. According to Sweet, the shaver sold out at Target and became top seller in its category at Amazon.com. While the client may view the campaign as a success, Sweet said, "If we spent double, we could have done so much better. We're still dealing with the redheaded step child for budgets."

Sometimes, a single client will assign wide-ranging budgets for different projects. For its Nike account, R/GA has developed Web sites and video-rich campaigns that run the gamut from working with a handful of video and static assets to build a Web site, to filming a glitzy music video with talent.

A recent site built for Nike Basketball was create with just a few assets, including one image to center the campaign and five or six still images, according to Richard Ting, R/GA executive creative director. In contrast, a site built to support Nike's music video workout snagged a much larger budget for producing a music video complete with a singer and back-up dancers.

Even with clients like Nike committing to large online video projects, the point at which interactive is brought into a project is often too late to allow for a successful campaign. "With interactive, [we] get treated as the stepchild and don't get invited to the table early on," said Ting. He did say the practice is starting to change.
Creatives aren't the only ones involved in advancing the medium. Publishers like ESPN, BET, Scripps Networks, Heavy.com and Atom Entertainment produce video that creates opportunities for pre-roll ad units, branded content, and other sponsorship situations. "In the past year, we've seen even more success as online video has heated up in the market," said ESPN Broadband and Interactive Television VP and GM Tanya Van Court.

Agencies, marketers and publishers needn't go it alone. Vendors are working to create new ad units that work to compliment a marketer's brand and engage consumers.

"We see the Internet become a more legitimate part of the marketing mix," said Andrew Ellenthal, SVP of global sales at PointRoll. "It's an exciting time ... there's so much more that can be leveraged using online video.

Creatives are still pushing the boundaries with ad units and microsites, but elements of video ad units are becoming part of the establishment. "There's stuff that was [new and] cool a couple years ago with video, it's becoming today's norm," observed Ellenthal.

For a campaign to be deemed a success, marketers require some form of measurement. While online arguably provides a more measurable form of reporting than other media, there's still debate over how to track data, and video is no exception. The IAB recently set broadband video advertising guidelines into play. The effectiveness of the guidelines, as with other methods, is still up for discussion. Many agree a standard must be determined.

"We don't want to be in a situation we've been in the past five years where everyone has their own terminology," said Ari Paparo, rich media product director at DoubleClick.

Video falls into the rich media category, but some feel it should be considered separately. "When it comes down to it, video is video," said Julian Zilberbrand, associate director of digital operations for MediaVest Worldwide. "From an advertiser perspective, when I think of rich media I think of banner ads on a page. Video, whether you're downloading to another device or watching in-stream, that's video. [We have to] agree on what the best term is to use."

The IAB standards focus specifically on advertising that runs within video. Nielsen//NetRatings recently announced it will provide metrics which can be used to measure impressions within video.

Not every marketer is willing to rely solely on online video to deliver brand messages, but many are putting the medium through its paces. Dan Goodman, senior partner and managing director at OgilvyInteractive, said about 50 percent of the agency's clients are doing major online video this year, and at least 5 percent of major clients will shoot interactive video alongside filming for TV. "And in some cases, [they're] bypassing TV in favor of the Internet," Goodman added.

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SonyBMG Give Fans Power to Place Music Videos Online

on Advertising Age
by Abbey Klaassen, June 19, 2006

Works With Brightcove to Create Ad-Supported Distribution Play

Record label, meet music fan. Music fan, meet record label. The one-to-one relationship between the two parties has in the past few years been nonexistent, at best, and downright ugly at its worst, thanks to reams of file-sharing lawsuits and clumsy digital-rights-management technology.


Musicbox video
But this week Sony BMG is going directly to consumers with an internet TV play it has created through Brightcove. The service, called Musicbox Video, distributes music videos from Sony BMG artists -- from Shakira to the Dixie Chicks to Nick Lachey -- across its fan sites and even down to the MySpace pages of music-obsessed fans.

"They're using syndication services to make it possible for fans to take players and put them into blogs or MySpace pages," said Adam Berrey, VP-marketing and strategy at Brightcove, which creates, distributes and sells advertising in internet TV channels for media companies and marketers.

The flash-based video player features several "channels" -- top 20, rock, pop and R&B -- and can be found at the artists' websites. Fans can e-mail a video link to a friend or copy the HTML code to post the video in blogs or on their MySpace pages.

Ad-supported
Pre-roll advertising will run before the music videos launch and another ad will load between every other video. The ads, sold by Brightcove under a revenue-sharing agreement, will be another way for the music industry to pick up some of the dollars it has lost to peer-to-peer file sharing. HP has already signed on as an advertiser.

Mr. Berry said future advertising applications might include deeper sponsorships within the player, a player takeover or some other kind of sponsorship integrated into the lineup of videos.

"It turns the video play into a revenue stream," he said.

Simon Renshaw, principal at Strategic Artist Management and manager of the Dixie Chicks, has been an outspoken advocate of a more direct-to-consumer approach in the music industry and said the increase in broadband penetration is driving the potential of such one-to-one relationships between artists and fans. The Dixie Chicks, for example, struck a deal with MSN to stream their first concert in two years -- a June 15 show at Shepherds Bush Empire in London.

'Trying to stay relevant'
"SonyBMG should be commended for at least trying to do something in the space," said Mr. Renshaw. "Right now labels are trying to find out what works and what gets traction -- they're trying to stay relevant."

That said, it might already be too late for the labels. Mr. Renshaw thinks broadband may eventually empower artists to the point where they'll be able to leave traditional record-label relationships behind in favor of their own distribution pacts.

"Physical distribution is going to become less and less important and that makes it easier for all creative people to have direct relationships with consumers," he predicted. At that point, "artists will ask, who's my better partner? Warner Bros. Records or MySpace? MTV or YouTube?"

Clearly, SonyBMG's latest step represents a hope that they can all work together.

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