Here are the most interesting articles that came across this week…
Ogilvy's Scott: Brands Should Own Entertainment
Mr. Scott added, "When you look at what the traditional marketer spends, the average 30-second spot in the industry is probably pushing $1 million or more. But the shelf life of that is roughly six months."
The shelf life of short-form branded content, however, can be several years. "The ownership of that content allows you to really mold the message you're looking to carry out there. There are a lot of co-investments taking place right now between brands and production companies. The movement you're seeing takes place on both coasts, from a brand and content standpoint."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/technology/10online.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
New Metrics for Media
In this increasingly dynamic environment, new outcome-focused metrics will shift the focal point of all advertising measurement from exposure to results. These metrics will include:
- Commercial Ratings: Viewership of advertisements rather than programming, consumer retention of commercial messages, the impact of positions in pods (sequences of commercials that air during a single programming break), and the overall design of pods.
- Session Quality and Engagement: The ads recalled per session or visit, time spent per session or visit, average sessions per user, and strength of brand recall.
- Total Viewing Behavior: The number of consumers and their total time spent accessing media brands via both offline and online platforms (a metric that is especially relevant for traditional media companies trying to increase their digital presence and for marketers who want to compare digital to traditional consumer behavior).
- Opt-in Activity: Online registrations, open rates, toll-free calls, and online and offline requests for more information.
- Consumer Participation: Indicators of viral activity, such as pass-along and referral rates; levels of interaction with branded content, such as uploads of brand content to personal sites; and length of branded interaction.
- Sales Impact: Leads generated, store traffic, and volume lift at retail stores.
http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/08114?pg=all
The Moral Economy of Web 2.0 (Part Two)
Henry Jenkins (2006a) describes many of these changes in Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. The book's argument might be reduced to the following core claims - that convergence is a cultural, rather than technological, process; that networking computing encourages collective intelligence; that a new form of participatory culture is emerging; and that skills acquired through 'leisure' activities are increasingly being applied in more "serious" contexts.
1. Convergence is a cultural rather than a technological process. We now live in a world where every story, image, sound, idea, brand, and relationship will play itself out across all possible media platforms.
2. In a networked society, people are increasingly forming knowledge communities to pool information and work together to solve problems they could not confront individually. We call that collective intelligence.
3. We are seeing the emergence of a new form of participatory culture (a contemporary version of folk culture) as consumers take media in their own hands, reworking its content to serve their personal and collective interests.
4. We are acquiring skills now through our play and recreational lives which we will later apply towards more serious ends.
http://henryjenkins.org/2008/03/the_moral_economy_of_web_20_pa_1.html
Starbucks listens - at last
Following Dell’s Ideastorm, Starbucks has no opened a forum — also powered by Salesforce.com — where customers can make suggestions then discuss and vote on them. Starbucks, of all companies, with its loyal and opinionated customers, should have been doing this years ago. Every company should be doing it now.
If auto companies had this five years ago, we’d all have told them to force their radio manufacturers to include a damned 39-cent plug so we could hook up our iPods. If airlines had it today, we’d tell them how to get out of their customer-service mess. Why does listening to your customers sound like a web 2.0 idea? It should be a business 1.0 necessity.
Already, there are clear themes coming out in the Starbucks discussion. Many customers are suggesting — and many more are agreeing — that our frequent-sipper cards should have our regular orders embedded in them so we could swipe the card at the door, make the order, pay for it, and avoid that damned line (making that damned line shorter for everyone else). Others are also suggesting they want to do the same with their iPhones. This genius comes not from MBAs or executives but from customers. If you’ll just listen.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/03/20/starbucks-listens-at-last/
I Don't Want My Web TV
What's "everyone" doing? Delivering free, ad-supported, professionally produced video over the internet in a way that protects copyrights, pays people for their work, and serves up something akin to traditional TV advertising. In other words, network television on the Web—C.S.I. via WiFi. The content, delivered on demand, looks great—not like some pixelated YouTube clip, but as good as or better than cable television. When Joost started, nobody could do that. Today, a bucketful of companies, ranging from ABC and Microsoft to Blinkx and Brightcove, can—and a newcomer, Hulu, can do it really, really well.
Something else unexpected happened to Joost. Or rather, didn't happen. While more than 10 million people are swarming to YouTube's user-posted videos every day, consumers are not yet falling in love with high-end internet television. Only 10 percent of internet users watch full-length shows on the Web. Fewer than 6 million people have downloaded the software that allows Joost to run on a computer—which gives Volpi a total potential audience smaller than that of Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl IV.
Still, nearly everyone in television and the tech industry believes that internet TV will be a multibillion-dollar business. Market research firm iSupply says advertisers will spend $3.3 billion on it by 2010, and the major networks are placing their bets. CBS has its money on Joost. NBC and Fox have pledged money and content to back Hulu. ABC is attempting to turn ABC.com into a destination video site. Even former Disney C.E.O. Michael Eisner is on the bandwidth bandwagon, investing in Veoh. Network executives all know that internet TV will reshape their business, even if they don't yet know how—or how the sites will make a profit, since none are even close to doing that now.
Sci Fi Channel Expands Web Offerings
The network announced plans for stand-alone gaming and tech sites, original scripted and unscripted shows and a new social game at its upfront presentation to advertisers in
As it continues to position itself as the home of all things science-fiction, not just a linear cable network, SciFi.com is an increasingly important part of the channel’s portfolio. The site averaged about 3 million unique visitors each month in 2007, according to Sci Fi.
“Our growing network of sites -- starting with the incredibly successful launch of DVICE and continuing next with gaming -- is designed to tap into our audience’s insatiable appetite for technology, games and entertainment,” said Craig Engler, senior vice president of SciFi.com.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6542336.html
What Strike? Viewers Stick With OldTeeVee
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. A new survey from marketing services firm Carat revealed that a mere 5 percent of TV watchers will abandon their favorite TV shows when those shows return to air. A quick bit of math (and a tip of the hat to Silicon Alley Insider), and that means a whopping 95 percent of TV watchers are ready to come back to their living rooms to roost. No strike harm, no foul.
There’s one stat the web video industry can cling to: Of those 5 percent not returning to their favorite oldteevee programming, 11 percent said they’ll watch TV shows online.
So is there anything those in web video could have done to better take eyeballs away from TV? For an industry that prides itself on immediacy and nimbleness, new media studios had four months to pillage wayward television watchers, and couldn’t capitalize. Is web video over before it began? It could get worse before it gets better for online video as this will be a big year for oldteeve. Respondents to the Carat survey said they are excited about events like the riveting presidential election, upcoming Olympics, and the American Idol finale.
http://newteevee.com/2008/03/18/what-strike-viewers-stick-with-oldteevee/
CBS Exec Wants Combined TV, Internet Ratings
BIG VIDEO content producers need to come up with aggregate ratings that combine television viewing with online video consumption, says Patrick Keane, vice president and chief marketing officer for CBS Interactive, speaking Monday at MediaPost's OMMA Global conference in
Using CBS as an example, Keane said the online video audience for one episode of "
Citing another example from CBS, Keane said that while the Grammys attracted 16.9 million TV viewers--down 15% from the previous year--it also generated 7.9 million online video streams and 4.9 million page views.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=78684
Online games by the hundreds, with tie-ins
Tapping into this desire, media companies are increasingly entering the marketplace for online games--called casual games--and treating them as new programming, not just online add-ons to their television properties.
In addition to building brands, one of the big lures in casual games is the opportunity to attract advertising, including from food companies that have gradually agreed to limit the nature and volume of television advertisements aimed at children. But those agreements have not always extended to the Internet.
Viacom, the parent company of Nickelodeon and MTV, may be moving the most aggressively. On Tuesday, Nickelodeon is expected to announce the first of 600 original and exclusive games for its network of Web sites, as part of a $100 million investment in game development.
http://www.news.com/Online-games-by-the-hundreds,-with-tie-ins/2100-1024_3-6234690.html
G4 'Hunts' Men 18-34
COMCAST'S G4 NETWORK IS LAUNCHING a year-long study on the male 18-to-34 demo, looking to boost appeal among advertisers targeting this hard-to-reach, technologically focused group. The hope is that research findings will allow G4 to claim its brand and programming meshes with the psychographics and lifestyles of this key demo.
Unlike some banal-titled industry studies, the G4 initiative carries the moniker "Hunting with Lightsabers." The study involves a carefully recruited 1,200-person sample; the research is conducted online. There will be an effort to determine a profile of a G4 viewer as well as those in the network's competitive set.
The research will also include in-home video ethnographics in three markets, examining consumer mindsets and groups of friends, among other things. There will also be multiple interviews with experts who study and market to males ages 18-to-34.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=78552&Nid=40525&p=334375
Yahoo Makes Case For Bigger Takeover Bid
The company also addresses head-on why it deems Microsoft’s bid insufficient. “Yahoo provides meaningful strategic value and warrants a significant acquisition premium above its equity value in a potential change of control transaction.”
Yahoo further says its acquisition would move “Microsoft from sub-scale position to strong positions in search and display.” Yahoo also argues a Microsoft tie-up would give the company a stronger stake in
Still, despite Yahoo’s stance that $31 a share is too low, the report doesn’t argue against a merger in principle. If anything, when combined with reports that Yahoo and Microsoft are in negotiations, it seems to signal that Yahoo’s leadership realizes its acquisition is likely inevitable.
http://blogs.mediapost.com/online_minute/?p=1695
The Music Industry: Lost in the Shuffle
To ease the pressure on their revenues, record companies may paradoxically have to offer more for free. Today's music consumers shell out hundreds of dollars on MP3 players, but they spend an average of just $20 a year on downloads. To the crucial teenage market, paying for music is as outdated as picking up a newspaper. But companies can get something in return for giving them music. Advertising-supported free music services such as Last.fm pay the major record companies from ad revenue; in return, their users can stream the companies' music for nothing. Such outlets offer record companies the chance to build a relationship with younger fans in the hope those users will later migrate to more lucrative products such as music dvds. Cell-phone users can also expect to get months of free access to a catalogue of songs. Nokia will launch its Comes With Music service later this year, reimbursing artists and their labels from expected new sales of its music-compatible phones; a similar service, available through Korean giant LG, will come out in the summer. The first record company to offer its music for both these services? Universal, led by the once skeptical Morris.
Innovation like that could also help to strangle music piracy; some 20 billion files were downloaded illegally in 2006. The music business has called on Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which host that traffic, to do more to choke it off, and an agreement was reached in
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1723689-2,00.html
We Tell Stories - Literature Meets Gaming
Already known for their digital innovation, the
The first story is ‘The 21 Steps’ by Charles Cumming has been published and uses Google Maps technology.
The press release tells us more - plus, news of a hidden story:
http://www.psfk.com/2008/03/we-tell-stories-literature-meets-gaming.html
Storming the Campuses
Eleven thousand Ivy League students and alumni have played out these scenarios as part of an online computer game called GoCrossCampus, or GXC. The game, a riff on classic territorial-conquest board games like Risk, may be the next Internet phenomenon to emerge from the computers of college students.
GXC more closely resembles an intramural or interscholastic sport than the typical online video game, where individuals or small groups are pitted against each other. GXC teams, made up of hundreds and sometimes thousands of players, play on behalf of real-world dorms or schools — even presidential candidates — by jostling for hegemony on maps of their campus or locale and conducting their campaigns as much in the real world as online.
“This kind of game is a product of how people live and interact today, with the offline aspect as part of the draw,” said Jonathan Rochelle, a
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/technology/21ivygame.html?ref=business
Q&A: ABC Family's Paul Lee
Paul Lee, ABC Family president, deserves much of the credit. Since taking the reigns in 2004, the London-born executive has transformed the channel from a home for bland family fare and reruns to a destination for original series television. Powered by both original programming like Greek and Kyle XY as well as reruns like Gilmore Girls and 7th Heaven, the young-skewing cable network is coming off its highest-rated year to date.
Lee spoke to Forbes.com about courting a fickle demographic, why the Hannah Montana tween audience isn't of interest and what's driving his cable channel's success.
Forbes.com: ABC Family is coming off its best year to date. What's working?
Paul Lee: It does feel like ABC Family is really starting to fire on all cylinders. The reality is we picked a key demo and we've gotten to know them very well. We call them the millennials: 14-to-28-year-olds. Not only did we acquire shows that they love like Gilmore Girls, but we started to make shows and series that really resonate with them. First it was Wildfire, then Kyle XY and then Greek last year, and each one of them grew in that core audience both in buzz and in ratings. And then our creative guys wrapped it in this really optimistic, great story-telling brand.
http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/03/19/disney-abc-television-biz-media-cx_lr_0319abc.html
