Shatner launches online sci-fi contest - Yahoo! News: "Shatner will pick the winner, who will be named spokesperson for the William Shatner Science Fiction DVD Club. The winner also will receive 'a large cash award,' according to the contest announcement.
Entrants must create a short video clip that shows why they have what it takes and submit it to http://shatner.blip.tv/. Deadline for entries is Sept. 30.
Aspiring actors, young filmmakers and budding film critics are encouraged to enter.
'This is an opportunity for new faces and new voices in the science fiction world to be seen and heard,' Shatner said in a statement Thursday."
First hotel for 'Second Life' | CNET News.com
"Starwood Hotels & Resorts is launching its new Aloft Hotel in the virtual land of Second Life in September, months before the chain of hotels opens in real life. The brick-and-mortar version of the hotel, which caters to active, urban 30- to 50-year-olds, is set to roll out the red carpet sometime in 2008. The folks at Starwood are hoping the hotel attracts a lively bunch of avatars who like to mingle in the lobby and give feedback about the hotel. In this way, Second Life will help guide the earthbound hotel's operations.
Credit: The Electric Sheep Company"
Going to Work for SUBWAY: Part 1
For any of you who've missed it; here's the Agency.com (an Omnicom interactive shop, btw) pitch "viral" (intentional misuse of quote marks) video on YouTube.
And here are some of our favorite spoofs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qArfluhDzeE&NR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkFitDdRzVU&NR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJyMEP_AGjQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qJ2Gz0q984
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE0SsmAWI5k
MINI Mail™
Here's a lame Web 2.0 app/site that's nothing more than a Web card wrapped in lots and lots of Flash. Ecchhh. One saving grace is a free font download. That's nice. And ... free.
E-tracking through your cell phone | Perspectives | CNET News.com
Read this for background on how your cell phone is - by default - a device that beams your location to anyone with the technology to track it (namely telecoms and, er, the government). Now, how many brainstorming sessions have YOU attended in which someone offers up the wish to "beam" offers to consumers via their cell phones based on the owner's location (near a store, mall, etc.). Well, the technology certainly exists. But the government has been using it secretly; and the press (and public who aren't living in denial) is creeped out by it. So ... don't plan on tracking consumers via mobile phone anytime soon. It's, um, creepy.
On Advertising: Putting Tube in the picture - Technology - International Herald Tribune: "Viacom Outdoor, a billboard operator, is preparing what it calls the biggest deployment yet of digital video technology in the service of 'out of home' advertising, investing 72 million pounds, or $136 million, over the next two and a half years to install 2,200 screens in the subway network.
The screens will be placed alongside escalators and in hallways and other high-traffic areas of the Underground. Starting next year, Viacom plans to install devices that can project billboard-size moving video onto the curved walls of the 'Tube,' so passengers will be able to see the ads as they wait for their trains."
Girls Just Want to Be Plugged In -- to Everything - Los Angeles Times: "Julia's voracious appetite for all types of entertainment — and the tech-savvy ways she consumes it — is typical of girls her age, according to a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll that surveyed the habits of 12- to 24-year-olds. Girls ages 12 to 14 are the most deeply motivated by TV: 65% say they are influenced by a TV show or network, are more likely to multi-task than boys of their age group and are easily bored — 41% say there are too few choices of entertainment."
Read on ... girls are also very, very much using instant messaging, e-mail, their iPods and ... yes ... even the Web. While they track with their boy peers in turning "multimedia" into "polymedia," they're still into the ol' idiot box. Worth the time to read ...
R.I.P. "Easy Tech/Gadget Shop for 'Mom'"
Best Buy to Close Studio D: "Best Buy Co., Richfield, Minn., plans to close its Studio D concept store in Naperville, Ill., when the lease expires at the end of the month, according to the Chicago Tribune. Best Buy opened the 5,000-sq.-ft. specialty store in 2004 in an attempt to capture middle-income to upper-income female customers. The female-friendly environment was created to educate its customers on how to use everyday gadgets like camcorders, digital cameras and MP3 players, or how to enhance photos with digital scrapbooking. It was the only such store in the country."
A Wake Up Call ... or Click?!?
MediaPost Publications - Web Spending In U.K. Surpasses Magazines, Outdoor - 08/14/2006: "ONLINE AD SPENDING IN THE United Kingdom came to approximately ?1.3 billion pounds (or $2.5 billion) last year, according to Ofcom, which regulates the U.K. communications industries. The agency also reported that Web spending surpassed outdoor advertising and consumer and business magazines last year, coming in fourth to newspapers, TV and direct mail."
Macworld: Music video made entirely from 16,000 digital pics
"Over 16,000 digital photographs were taken in the making of this stop animation music video. The video was shot entirely on a Canon EOS 5D digital stills camera. The result is an intriguing and strange fairy tale where nothing is what it seems. Tale of life, death and the infinite." - Australian singer-songwriter-digital artist Yunyu
No Big Demand for Small Screen - Los Angeles Times: "Entertainment purveyors may be scrambling to package their content into mobisodes, video downloads and podcasts, but a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found that teens and young adults — the generation most likely to be the early adopters of this new technology — have yet to fully embrace it.
About half of young adults and 4 in 10 teenagers said they were uninterested in watching television shows or movies on computers, cellphones or hand-held devices such as video iPods, the poll found.
While more than 2 out of 5 teens and young adults indicated they were open to viewing this kind of content online, only 14% of teenagers said they wanted to watch television on a cellphone, and 17% said they would view programs on an iPod.
The findings suggest that networks are rushing to package content for these new platforms before even tech-savvy young consumers are hankering for the 'third screen' experience."
Viacom to buy Atom Entertainment - Yahoo! News: "Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks on Wednesday said it would buy Internet video and games company Atom Entertainment Inc. for $200 million as big media companies move to compete with online upstarts such as video leader YouTube.com."
MediaPost Publications - Oneupweb Launches Podcast Tracking - 08/08/2006: "Oneupweb on Monday unveiled a new podcast tracking service that will run on its servers rather than through metering technology linked to a panel of users.
Geared toward the corporate market, the PodTractor technology will provide data such as the top podcasts and episodes, the top referring podcast directories, and subscriber versus non-subscriber downloads. It will also include weekly and monthly trend graphs and audience loyalty tracking."
Vodafone Mobile Viral - Coolz0r - Marketing Thoughts
Almost forgot this one. It's a great site, but it's NOT viral. It's video. Word of mouth is in effect. But this is a great Web site with great Web site content. Viral means content that engages people by entertaining them and persuading them to pass that content along to others who trust them.
Poor Customer Service Drives Consumers Elsewhere: "Retailers suffered the greatest number of customer service defections due to poor service, which was selected by 18 percent of respondents, followed by Internet service providers (15 percent), banks (14 percent), home telephone service providers (12 percent), wireless/cell phone companies (11 percent) and cable/satellite TV companies (10 percent). Utility companies and life insurers suffered the least at 3 percent. Other interesting findings showed that 57 percent of consumers said customer service technologies such as automated phone service and live online chat had not done anything to improve service levels. Satisfaction was lowest for automated phone service and highest for in-person services. Additionally, women were more likely than men to ask to speak with a supervisor when dealing with a bad customer service experience over the phone, while men were more likely to hang up the phone and call back. Consumers were most frustrated by being kept on hold too long (72 percent), having to repeat information to multiple service representatives (70 percent), the inability of agents to answer questions (66 percent) and customer service representatives marketing more services or products (60 percent). Younger consumers--those under 40--were the least loyal and significantly more likely to change providers because of poor service (54 percent versus 37 percent)."
Founder of BitTorrent unlocks the secrets of online file sharing / He figured out how to break up video into small pieces that can quickly be sent over the Net: "BitTorrent has become the most popular peer-to-peer tool on the Web, more so than the music file-sharing site Napster in its heyday, according to BigChampagne, a research firm. It has nearly 70 million users and takes up 30 to 40 percent of the world's Internet traffic, according to CacheLogic, a technology company that measures bandwidth use."
MediaPost Publications - Online Video Market To Surge Tenfold by 2010 - 08/03/2006: "THE GLOBAL MARKET FOR ONLINE video content will expand tenfold by 2010--topping 130 million households, according to a new report released Wednesday by market research company In-Stat.
The report, titled 'Online Content Aggregators--AOL, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Apple--Slowly Defining the Future of Television,' asserts that consumers will very soon be able to access on demand a vast store of video programs. In-Stat predicts that this consumer-controlled delivery will be dominated by major content aggregators like AOL, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Apple."
Toyota Readies Comedy Series for Mobile Phones: "Toyota is spending more than $10 million to create and promote a comedy series designed specifically for multimedia mobile phones. "
How the Web Was Won: "While dot-coms came and went, and the Internet passed through periods of boom, bust and rebirth, the trends I wrote about in 1998 are surprisingly alive and intact today. The Web is still empowering individuals to be more creative , spawning new electronic middlemen and struggling to make advertising more personal."
This is a MUST read article !!!
ADFLOW Networks - Digital Signage - Dynamic P.O.P. With Zero I.T: "ADFLOW Networks provides dynamic digital signage solutions that leading retailers are using to deliver messaging to their customers where it matters most: right at the point-of-purchase."
DVR Users Watch More TV: Nielsen - 08/02/2006: "A NEW NIELSEN CLIENT ADVISORY on DVR usage gives some credence to the broadcast networks' contention that DVR users watch more television, perhaps as much as 29 percent more in prime time among the key 18-to-49 demo.
Adults with a DVR in the demo watched on average 6 hours and 14 minutes of live prime-time content per week, and an additional 1 hour and 49 minutes in playback mode with the device--a 29 percent increase. In total-day viewing, the Nielsen report shows that 18- to-49-year-olds averaged 25 hours and 9 minutes a week of live viewing, and an additional 3 hours and 54 minutes in time-shifted mode--a 16 percent increase."
MarketWatch: More companies trying to profit from online video - MarketWatch: "There is no doubt that 2006 will become known as the year online video became a hit."
These are among the results of the Girls Gone Wired survey by market researcher TRU for Oxygen. TRU surveyed 1,400 women and 700 men 15 to 49 years old to compare tech attitudes among the sexes.
The findings suggest advertisers need to address a broad audience and not talk down to women. Advertisers are best served communicating lifestyle benefits of tech products by showing what's useful about them, rather than focusing on specifications, Oxygen says."
About VoiceIndigo: "If they exist as a podcast, you can use VoiceIndigo to organize them into your own personal channels, listen on your Mobile Phone or PC, and share them with your Friends."
Listen Live!: "LISTEN LIVE NOW! is the call in connection that allows you to experience a music event anywhere in the world! Starting at just $1.99 USD for 7 minutes through LISTEN LIVE NOW! you can access a concert by your favorite artist at venues around the world."
MIT Advertising Lab comments on this story here
The Rolling Stones' European concerts will be audiocast via Listen Live Now for the $1.99 fee per 7 minutes fed directly from the soundboard. Bandwidth limits the service to 1 million simultaneous streams. (Are there a million suckers ... er I mean consumers with cell phones ... lined up for this?)
Spot Runner : Here's how it works.:
"We make it fast, easy, and affordable to advertise on TV. Welcome to Spot Runner, the world's first Internet-based advertising agency. Now you can harness the power of professional television advertising to reach your local customers and sell your products and services."
Spot Runner promises a turn-key local TV advertising service. JWT announced a partnership today to offer Spot Runner services on emerging platforms including online video, IPTV and VOD. Details are sketchy.
Maven Networks | Direct to Consumer Video-on-Demand Services: "Maven Media System's proven video publishing, management and delivery system maximizes online revenue by enabling the most interactive, highest quality Internet TV viewer experience across multiple platforms and devices. "
METRO Group Future Store Initiative
The virtual tour through the Future Store explains the use of the innovative technologies.
MediaPost Publications: "VoIP Firm Launches New Ad Platform
INTERNET TELEPHONY FIRM GLOBE7 TODAY will launch a new version of its downloadable VoIP and video service that will include an ad platform with geo-targeting. The company's new application, Globe7 Plus (click to view a demo), combines voice-over-IP service with a video library of news, sports, and entertainment content; users can earn free credits on the VoIP service by watching the ad-supported videos.
Advertisers that have signed on to sponsor the videos include WalMart, American Express, Ford Direct, Sony BMG, Amazon, Ameriquest, Target, Shopping.com, and Disney. With the launch of the new platform, marketers can target to users based not only on demographic and psychograhic data--offered by the company's previous platform--but also based on the countries or regions users place calls to and the content they view. -- Shankar Gupta"
--
The design of the Globe7 VOIP client is doofy. Really ... And it forces you to click three times just to make a call (vs. Skype or AIM ease-of-use). The company site displays a counter of downloads that is greater than 17 million to date. Still, this smells like a gimmick to me.
USATODAY.com - Mania strikes Web again: Video 'madness' takes off
If you read only one article about viral advertising on the Web, this is the one. The author fears that online video mania is just another Dot Com Fad. He may be right.
Pepsi Transit Poster with Embedded Headphone Jack
I'm not one to call out a missed opportunity, but I recall proposing this idea on a unit of in-store point-of-sale more than a year ago.
VideoClix interactive video software | Hypervideo | Clickable Video | Video Hotspotting: "VideoClix is the premier and only commercial tool for creating clickable videos. It simply allows your viewers to click on objects in your video and purchase products, cast votes or get more information about the clicked items... all without having to stop the video."
Intelligent carpet can autodiscriminate - Engadget
A new kind of floor covering has been invented at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan that determines the weight, age, and sex of the individuals strolling across ... the team hopes to use it in less dodgy scenarios such as analyzing shopping patterns or audience demographics at various entertainment venues.
Reach captive audiences outdoor at the pump through digital media advertising with Gas Station TV
Our counterparts in emerging media and emerging platforms have been talking about this launch for some time. Here it comes. Former WPP are among the founders of this start up. It's one more example of the so-called mass media moving out of home.
Ram Rash Home
After dipping its toe with the admittedly lame "7 Inches" Durango spot on YouTube.com et al, DaimlerChrylsler's Dodge has just launched Ram Rash with a series of videos plus a microsite at http://www.ramrash.com/. It turns out the effort is for the European launch of the Dodge world car currently badged "Kaliber" here in the USA.
FingerSkilz
Wow ... HP (aka Hewlett-Packard for you old timers) is supporting its big re-branding effort "Personal Again" with viral videos and a blog called FingerSlilz, featuring a guy who plays soccer tricks with his anthropomophized hand. How this connects to the campaign is ... errrrr ... ummmmmm ... well ... there's a hand in the ads. Yeah ... that's it ... a hand. Sure. Branding. Got it. Er. Yeah. In all fairness, it is a ton of fun. The overall look is homemade even though HP is clearly and repeatedly called out as the sponsor and originator of the whole lot.
Competition Heats Up For Viral Video Advertisers
Business Week
Advertisers are creating and distributing videos on sites like YouTube and Google Video, hoping they'll be distributed by thousands of Web users, reports Business Week. For that powerful chain of events to take place, marketers have to create something compelling enough for a legion of anonymous users to want to share it with friends. "If you entertain your audience, they will get it, and the viral mechanism will make the audience come to watch you," says Ed Robinson, an ad executive and Web site owner who attracted more than 60,000 people in one week to his Web site with a 12-second spot. Within three months, he had 500,000 visitors. Video could be advertising's holy grail. It reaches millions of consumers without spending millions of dollars. The big lure, according to research estimates--it's a $100 million to $150 million industry. Just think of Crispin Porter + Bogusky's "Subservient Chicken" video for Burger King; it's still one of the most popular viral video ads in history, with 400 million hits. And it didn't cost millions to make. CPB says after that success, it found competition on the Web to be fresh, different, and fierce. After all, advertisers are competing with content created by millions of amateurs, too. Plus, Web users are an ad-saturated audience, so anything that lacks irony or a little sophistication and smacks of cheap marketing ploys won't get very far. To be successful, viral video needs high entertainment value. That's right, advertisers--you're creating content, too.
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Here's a quick commentary from another adverblogger - Coolz0r - with quick clip excerpts from the article. It's the Cliff's Notes version for those of you who choose to skim.
Jessica Simpson Sings Your Name, Pop Star Offers Personalized Version Of Her Single 'A Public Affair' - CBS News: "The sexy singer is inviting fans to purchase a personalized version of her song 'A Public Affair' by logging on to Yahoo! Music beginning July 18 or www.jessicasimpson.com a week later.
After making their choice from a list of 500 names [Note: Jessica ... or a robot ... pre-recorded the names in a studio.], fans will be able to immediately download a song that contains three personalized shout outs. If the person's name is very unique, songs will be delivered in approximately 1-3 weeks. "
YouTube - VH-1 Flavor of Love Season 2 Preview
Warning: The content in this video is sexist and tacky; though it remains (barely) within the bounds of acceptability for workplace viewing. But ...
In-video user controls on YouTube ... very cool! While this video plays you simply hover your mouse pointer over the lower right corner of the video to see a navigation icon pop up. Click it and you can select more videos while seeing some stats such as ratings and number of views.
eMarketer.com - Blogs, Blogs and More Blogs: "comScore reports that the traffic to blogs continues to grow, up 56% over the past year to 58.7 million visitors, and that represents 34% of the total Internet audience.
Perhaps more importantly, in a very real way blogs are an indication of how the Internet is shifting from a medium where users gather information into a medium where they disperse information. "
(Not so ironically, this blog was originally conceived as a blog about blogging.)
Advertising Age - Digital - Wal-Mart Tries to Be MySpace. Seriously: "Desperate to appeal to teens with something other than pencils and backpacks during the crucial back-to-school season, Wal-Mart is launching a highly sanitized, controlled and rather unhip site at walmart.com/schoolyourway. Teens are invited to create their own page, 'show it to the world and win some fab prizes,' including a chance to have their videos appear in a Wal-Mart TV commercial. Wal-Mart's agency is GSD&M, Austin, Texas. "
Yahoo invites its users to shoot ads - Yahoo! News: "On Monday, Yahoo touts a new look for its front page by asking people to pull out the video camera, open up the editing software and create 12-second commercials for Yahoo. There is no cash reward, nor even a prize for best ad. But Yahoo hopes the enthusiasm of its customers will result in great work. The ads will be shown at video.yahoo.com."
MediaPost Publications - Direct Marketers Eye Satellite Radio - 07/17/2006: "Although it's touted as 'ad-free,' satellite radio may provide a perfect vehicle for a new generation of direct marketers, according to Jordis Rosenquest, senior vice president of communications strategy for Targetbase, part of Omnicom Group's Diversified Agency Services division. On the surface, this conclusion is at odds with the chief finding of a study recently completed by Targetbase, which found that consumers value its 'commercial-free' aspect above all others. But the reality is more nuanced."
YouTube serves up 100 million videos daily online - Yahoo! News: "YouTube, the leader in Internet video search, said on Sunday viewers have are now watching more than 100 million videos per day on its site, marking the surge in demand for its 'snack-sized' video fare."
Cingular launches mini HBO series for cellphones - Yahoo! News: "Cingular said its mini 'Entourage' series, with episodes that last 4 minutes each, will follow one story line based on 'Entourage' character Johnny Drama and not distract from the regular series.
Cingular customers who wish to watch "Entourage" must sign up for Cingular's $14.99 monthly media plan and its HBO premium service which costs another $4.99 a month."
CNN.com - Cashing in on casual games - Jul 11, 2006: "'You're seeing that there's a big audience for it. The challenge has really been monetizing that audience and getting them to pay for it,' said David Cole, president of market research firm DFC Intelligence.
Casual games -- generally defined as easy-to-learn, one-player games that you can play for five minutes or five hours -- are alluring to companies in part because they tend to attract women and people over 35. That's quite a different audience than the young men traditionally associated with video game consoles and other types of computer games."
A Little Bit Rude
"Charmin Takes A Dump, Pinches A Loaf, Lays Cable
... Publicis UK-created Charmin clip called A Little Bit Rude which has great fun highlighting the many names we give to a certain bodily function. To accompany the video, Charmin has made, perhaps, the best use of a blog to date: encouraging people to submit their favorite euphemism for taking a dump ... such as 'Backing the big brown motor home out of the garage" and "Releasing the chocolate hostages.'" - Adrants
George W. Bush - Sunday Bloody Sunday
I smell a "hit" ... let's see if this weird music video mashup of "W" delivering U2's hit song takes off.
USATODAY.com - Marketers aim for 'engaged' consumers: "Much of the ad industry has been converted to the belief that engagement — adspeak for getting consumers to spend time with brand messages — is what gets results from advertising. One way to do that is to send the consumer — often with a traditional TV ad — to a website to interact with or sometimes create the ad. Such interaction can extend a consumer's time spent with a brand to minutes or longer vs. 30 seconds for TV ads."
Tolerate Mornings
This new-ish Folger's viral campaign just got big press in the NY Times today. Big lotta hype. Produced by Saatchi & Saatchi for Proctor & Gamble. Big lotta ampersands.
Double Fusion - In-Game Advertising. Putting Advertising in Play - Home Page
Massive is not the only game in town for In-Game Advertising.
Zixxo - Homepage
Small business owners can create and manage coupons via this "Web 2.0" site. Consumers simply search for and print the coupons they want.
- View a demo movie here
Internet advertising | The ultimate marketing machine | Economist.com: "IN TERMS of efficiency, if not size, the advertising industry is only now starting to grow out of its century-long infancy, which might be called “the Wanamaker era”. It was John Wanamaker, a devoutly Christian merchant from Philadelphia, who in the 1870s not only invented department stores and price tags (to eliminate haggling, since everybody should be equal before God and price), but also became the first modern advertiser when he bought space in newspapers to promote his stores. He went about it in a Christian way, neither advertising on Sundays nor fibbing (thus minting the concept of “truth in advertising”). And, with his precise business mind, he expounded a witticism that has ever since seemed like an economic law: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted,” he said. “The trouble is, I don't know which half.”"
Users of the MyPump Soundtrack service could go online to check out its library of original music and digitally synchronize a tune to their videos — all with the permission of the copyright holders. Users could search the catalog by genre, mood or speed, then edit a song to match their video before dubbing it."
MarketingBlurb: Look Up in the Sky—TV Commercials!: "The Lightship Group just launched a 170 foot blimp which sports an enormous 70 by 30 foot LED screen. This puppy will run television commercials visible from 1000 feet in the air. We’re not talking scrolling headlines, but full commercials, movie trailers, or what an advertiser decides. Of course that advertiser will need $ 5 million for a year-long campaign. The blimp features new aviation and LED technology. The screen is actually a series of hundreds of light-weight small video shingles, carefully mounted on the curved surface of the blimp to be visible from any angle."
- Another article with more detail is here
- The Lightship Group Web site is here
adfreak: The meaning behind ‘I pooted’
My kids spent a good deal of the recent holiday weekend watching Boomerang and Cartoon Network, so I got to see this one particularly funny spot that this billboard references. Of course, the intent of the OOH is to drive folks to Google (search) the work "pooted," which CN already bought so the answer leads consumers to CN's site. Oh and the spot. Here's a great interlocking use of current media. Simple, not too slick. And most likely effective.
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