TV on Your Phone ... Coming After Jan 08

MediaPost Publications - Google, Verizon, AT&T Vie For 700MHz Spectrum - 12/20/2007

Google, Verizon, AT&T Vie For 700MHz Spectrum
Thursday, Dec 20, 2007 7:00 AM ET
GOOGLE, VERIZON WIRELESS AND AT&T are among 266 companies competing to bid for the 700MHz spectrum auction set for January. The field of potential bidders, released late Tuesday night by the FCC, so far has accepted 96 applicants--and another 170 have until Jan. 4 to complete their paperwork. Verizon and AT&T were among the bidders whose applications were marked as "incomplete" by the FCC. Other companies bidding for a chunk of spectrum include Cablevision Systems Corp., Cox, Qualcomm, Towerstream and Frontline Wireless. Paul Allen is also planning to bid through his Vulcan Ventures investment firm, as is a Guam-based phone company backed by an investment firm run by Roy Disney. The auction could raise up to $15 million for the government.

Advergaming for QSR

Thought you might be interested in checking this out. I like the countdown aspect ...and the play on hungry as a ....

http://hungryasa.com/ I stink at the game but it is interesting....

Checkers Launches Virtual Game to Promote Double Value Menu

Checker's/Rally's is running an online game to promote its Double Value menu.

Checkers Drive-In Restaurants has rolled out an online game to promote its new Double Value menu.

A microsite at http://hungryasa.com/ teases the new menu, which launches Dec. 31. On the site, visitors can play a virtual eating game for a chance to win Checkers/Rally’s coupons.

In “Hungry As A,” players select from a dog, a bear or dinosaur icons and use their keyboard arrow keys to grab, eat and fend off competitors. At the end of the game, players receive a printable coupon offer based on their score for a discount off Checker’s Spicy Chicken Combo meal, a Big Buford combo or a free Loaded Fry upgrade.

The promotion runs through Jan. 31.

The online game supports Checkers/Rally’s’ new value menu. It will offer 17 items, 10 of which start at $1 and seven double burgers and chicken and fish sandwiches offered at “2 For” prices ranging from $3 to $5. It’s the first time the company is adding a permanent value menu to its restaurants, spokesperson Elizabeth Sheridan said.

Checkers/Rally’s is promoting the game online, on its bags and through blog sites. ML Rogers is handling the campaign.

The Minorty of Time Shifters Do The Most Time Shifting

MediaPost Publications - Interpublic Unit Finds 28/72 Rule For DVRs: Minority Represent Majority Of Time-Shifting - 12/18/2007

"A small group accounts for a dominant share of DVR usage: Applying conservative assumptions, it appears that slightly more than a quarter (28%) of DVR users account for almost three quarters (72%) of total marketplace time shifting -implying that the vast majority of consumers with DVRs use them on a limited basis, and continue to watch most TV in real-time," Wieser wrote

MEDIA>> interviews the Long Tail guy

MediaPost Publications - Free Thinker - 12/18/2007

How does Chris Anderson chase his own Long Tail? Last year, the editor-in-chief of Wired gave us such a compelling name and a theory for the digital economy that hardly a business plan goes by this year without dropping the term. After showing us how the Internet helps empower and monetize niche markets and tastes, Anderson will explore what he calls "the radical price of zero." Free, planned for late 2008, suggests that the new economies of abundance that he outlined in The Long Tail make it possible for companies to succeed by charging consumers little or nothing. After reviewing some of Anderson's preliminary musings on the topic at conferences and on his longtail.com blog, we put his model to the test. We asked for a free preview.

Older dude from Forbes finally likes LinkedIn

Why you'll finally use LinkedIn - Dec. 14, 2007

For years, I've been befuddled by LinkedIn. I knew it was supposed to be the social network for work, but to me it was like war. "What is it good for?" I asked myself repeatedly, even as I occasionally poked around and accepted requests to link with people. I belonged to it, but I really didn't know why.

Sent from my iPhone. So what.

The Convergence backslides ... Momentarily ...

Online Video Traffic Drops 6 % | WebProNews

The top five online video sites switched their ranking order and site traffic in October, according to Compete

Frustrating news for mobile internet freaks

Mobile Web: So Close Yet So Far - New York Times

Similarly, surveys by Yankee Group, a Boston research firm, show that only 13 percent of cellphone users in North America use their phones to surf the Web more than once a month, while 70 percent of computer users view Web sites every day.

“The user experience has been a disaster,” says Tony Davis, managing partner of Brightspark, a Toronto venture capital firm that has invested in two mobile Web companies.



While many phones have some form of Web access, most are hard to use — just finding a place to type in a Web address can be a challenge. And once you find it, most Web content doesn’t look very good on cellphone screens.

Social bookmarking's effect on rankings

Ben Cook created a blog with a single post
and submitted it to Digg. The post reached Digg's front page, a deluge
of visitors ensued, but what's next? High search engine rankings and a
continuous trickle of visitors, Ben Cook explains



MIT Adverlab links to a recent experiment by some guy who claims to be trying to "make it" as a blogger or quit. He documents how he's used Digg to grow his audience, and we can learn a thing or two about social bookmarking for brands by association.

Emerging media meets sports

Sports Marketing Gets Digital Boost

One emerging area of opportunity is targeting fans on TV and the Web simultaneously. About 58% of fans watching a game on TV are also using their mobile devices for instant messaging, e-mailing, text messaging or talking on the phone, the study found. In addition, research shows that these multitaskers are more engaged and have better recall of the ads they see than the viewers who are only watching the game, the report said. This provides an opportunity to engage fans using multiple media at the same time.

- This is real. It's happening now. And we know how to take full advantage of the emerging media within target consumers' lives.

The End Game is Upon Us ...

Use Of Broadband Service To Overtake TV Viewing

Tuesday, Nov 20, 2007 7:01 AM ET

WITHIN THE NEXT THREE YEARS, more than 16 million U.S. households with televisions will use their broadband service more than they use their TV sets today, says technology consulting firm In-Stat. Up to 30% of viewers will drop subscription TV and use the Internet for watching TV, according to a recent survey by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based In-Stat. More than 40% say they aren't getting enough international news and information from their current TV service, despite having hundreds of channels to choose from. Respondents had a broadband connection, a TV, and were 18 or older. --Mark Walsh

In-Game Ads ... Still Emerging

Google Optimistic About In-Game Ads, Dabbles Lightly with AdSense - MarketingVOX
n July, Microsoft and EA developed a dynamic in-game ad platform for the Xbox 360. Google's budding interest in in-game advertising will likely bode badly at Steve Ballmer's breakfast table.

MediaPost Publications - Wal-Mart to Reveal Holiday Promotions Online - 11/08/2007

Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez estimates many of the 10 million people who visit Walmart.com on Thanksgiving Day will end up in the store on Friday. "The same behavior driving Google's growth reflects the increase in visitors we see on our Web site traffic," he tells MediaPost.

BullsEye BBQ Drummer

Drummer rocks the kettles brandishing brushsticks and barbeque sauce. Featuring David Suycott from the indie rock band Stabbing Westward, who wrote and performed the drum solo.

read more | digg story

Mobile video still growing but still small ...

MediaPost Publications - Mobile Video Audience Grew To 8 Million: MMetrics - 10/25/2007

THE U.S. MOBILE VIDEO AUDIENCE has grown by more than one-third this year to eight million, according to a new study by mobile market research firm MMetrics. With 6.8 million viewers, viral clips have proven to be the most popular category of mobile video.

Search Marketing Vital for Brand Building and Driving Offline Sales for Consumer Packaged Goods Companies

“While search marketing has long been recognized as an effective direct response vehicle, it’s been largely overlooked by CPG companies who focus on brand advertising and promotional efforts to drive in-store purchasing,” commented Gord Hotchkiss, Chairman of SEMPO. “This study seeks to demonstrate the potential brand-building impact of search for CPG marketers.”

Millions of Consumers Use Search to Learn About CPG Products
Search appears to represent a significant marketing opportunity for CPG brands. The study found that a majority of U.S. consumers visited Web sites for CPG product categories during the three months ending April 2007, with search driving a significant percentage of visitors in all the categories. Food products represented the largest search marketing opportunity with nearly 44 million category site visitors searching. Baby products attracted 15.7 million searchers, followed by personal care products with 9.8 million and household products with 1.7 million.

The study also found that a substantial percentage of the visitors to category Web sites arrived as a result of a search query. Among visitors to baby products sites, 60 percent arrived via search, followed by 47 percent in food products, 27 percent in personal care products, and 23 percent in household products.

TV Viewing Habits - A Long March Uphill ...

Advertising Lab: future of advertising and advertising technology: TV Viewing, 1952-2007

Historical TV viewing activity among households, from about 4hr 48min a day in 1952-53 to 8.14 in 2006-07.

Bring on the IPTV Device Wars ...

SanDisk to debut USB drive, video service - Yahoo! News

Similar to using a USB drive to store and move data files, users of TakeTV can drag-and-drop video files stored on their computer — Fanfare downloads, home videos or other unrestricted video content from the Web — onto the device. Users can then plug it into the cradle connected to a TV.

A simple menu appears on the TV to scroll through the files for playback.

The TakeTV player is $99.99 for a 4 gigabyte model and $149.99 for an 8 GB one that can hold up to 10 hours of video. Fanfare, in a test stage, offers premium TV shows for $1.99 per download — roughly the same price as rival services, but SanDisk says it hopes to ultimately provide a broad mixture of free and ad-supported content as well as pay-per-download videos.



Fanfare's catalog at launch is small, with about 85 titles. It features TV shows from CBS, including "CSI" and "Survivor," Showtime, TV Guide, and Smithsonian Networks. Dozens of titles are being added each week, SanDisk said.

Convergence ... Was: Weird, Is: Strangely Normal

TV Wonder Combo 650 USB from ATI - New York Times

"For computer owners who want to see what convergence is all about, the TV Wonder Combo 650 USB from ATI, out this week for $150, will pump lots of television into a PC."

So let's get this straight: You plug this doo-hickey into your PC's USB port, and it gets over-the-air HDTV which you can watch live or record in a Tivo-like manner onto your PC's hard drive.

You plug it in. And it works.

Plug. And play.

Plug and play. No pay.

You think people are going to mind seeing commercials with that? (Maybe not.)