April 7, 2009

Using Video Spokespeople to Increase Landing Page Conversions

When I speak on the topic of landing page optimization I am often asked about embedded video and the use of the walk-on video spokespeople that appear from the lower right corner of the page.

Of course the effectiveness of embedded video players and spokespeople depend on the offer, product, and of course the context and intent of the audience.

Do spokespeople actually increase conversion?

To readers of my column the answer should be familiar by now - test it. We often include the addition of spokespeople in our landing page tests.

Recent tests on companies using Innovative Media Group's video spokespeople suggest that dramatic gains can be realized:

- ClosetWorld added embedded video to their landing page and then a video spokesperson as well. This increased conversion rates from 0.5% to 1.0% and 2.2% respectively.

- Tanberg increased the conversion on their lead-generation page from 0.75% to 2.2% by adding a spokesperson.

Big companies are piling onto the bandwagon as well. Other recent successes include Napster, Service Magic, and Rhapsody.

Check out the DishyMix audio interview and transcript with Innovative Media's CEO John Cecil.

Posted by Tim Ash at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

September 22, 2008

Where's The 30 Rock Search?

The real Emmy story last night came near the end, when Tina Fey arrived on the stage for last time and received the 30 Rock team award. She reeled off all the places where the critical hit could be seen online, including Hulu and NBC, and then said something like "and occasionally on TV" as well.

Perhaps Fey sounded a bit promotional but it seemed, well, normal. We definitely live in a video-on-demand world and TV shows are viewed when they are convenient for viewers. In her acceptance speech, Tina was shining the light on all the online access points.

However, we're not searching with a video mindset yet. When googling "30 Rock," you first see an NBC paid ad that directs searchers to their network portal. In the organic results, the program's homepage comes up first. There's no Hulu or other video access points in the results, only information about the award-winning program.

We're still in that 500-channel universe, without an easy or standard searching mechanism. In this 30 Rock example, visitors are directed to channels containing their programs or else to the program homepage, rather than to specific episodes they might really want to see.

The TV shows aren't directly accessible unless you are consciously refining results for videos or deciding to use a video search engine. When all the results are videos, at least you can save a few clicks. Still there tends to be duplication based on the different outlets and, even then, you may not land on the exact episode that interests you most.

On the video destinations, the searching mechanisms are somewhat lacking as well. For videos, the assumption is that you will know which episodes you have missed and browse what's available until you find the right date and description.

At this point, people are trained to navigate through menus and directories, and don't really know what they are missing. With search, they would be able to find what's interesting within an episode or discover moments they want to see again. If there's social inputs, then visitors would also benefit from what others have found interesting too.

In the search world, we know there are some real opportunities ahead. Now that viewers know their programs are available online, consumption can be increased with better searching and discovery mechanisms.

Posted by at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 14, 2008

Online Olympic Traffic Soars; Mobile Viewing Habits Form

As people returned to work on Monday after the first weekend of the Beijing Olympic games, many went online to keep track of events as they unfold, according to Nielsen Online. Traffic to NBC's Olympics video site jumped a whopping 85% on the first day of the work week, while other sites enjoyed a nice boost as well.

Yahoo's unique audience nearly doubled to its Olympics site on Monday, helping it top the list of most trafficked Olympics sites for August 11. Here's the data:

Meanwhile, NBC has been observing new habits forming with mobile users, according to the AP. Many who are viewing coverge via their mobile devices are doing to for the first time. Nearly half a million people viewed Olympics video on a mobile device on both Sunday and Monday, many of which have never watched video content on their phone before.

"To some extent, the Olympics are beginning to influence how people use new technology," said Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC Universal.

Related Reading: mInfo Chosen as Official Mobile Search Provider for Beijing Olympics Google Sits Out Olympic Search Results; Microsoft , Yahoo Take Home Medals

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 1, 2008

Adobe Provides Flash Technology to Google and Yahoo for Better Indexing

For years SEOs have been about the inability of search engines to crawl flash pages. But now Adobe is making an effort to keep Flash in the web development toolbox. They've announced the provision of Flash technology to Google and Yahoo in order to facilitate the indexing of sites and pages created with Flash.

“Until now it has been extremely challenging to search the millions of RIAs and dynamic content on the Web, so we are leading the charge in improving search of content that runs in Adobe Flash Player,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “We are initially working with Google and Yahoo! to significantly improve search of this rich content on the Web, and we intend to broaden the availability of this capability to benefit all content publishers, developers and end users.”

Over at the Google Webmaster Central Blog, an FAQ was posted offering up more details about the update. Here are some highlights:

• Google will now be able to better crawl the text content of SWF files. The content includes buttons, menus, self-contained websites developed in Flash and "everything in between."
• Google can use the text it crawls to provide a descriptive "snippet" for its search results.
• Links included in Flash content will also be crawled.
• If your Flash file is loaded by JavaScript, Google won't be able to read it
• If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file or another SWF file, Google will index that separately from the original Flash file.

Google says it can't crawl images, videos or FLV files because they do not contain text content.

What do you think about search engines crawling Flash? Are you more inclined to use Flash on your sites now? Leave your reaction in the comments!

Posted by Nathania Johnson at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 24, 2008

We Still Don't Rely on Video Search

While video content continues to skyrocket, people still don't rely on video search. Over half of people, in a recent ClipBlast! survey, said they find videos through their own exploration (53%) or recommendations from others (52%).

However, a sizeable amount (40%) searched for specific videos. What's surprising are the differences based on sex, as 45% of males searched while 35% of females did so.

There was a racial divide reported too: nearly 60% of non-Whites and 35% of Whites reported search activity. It's hard to say why there's such a spread, even accounting for survey size.

Bucking the tide, the youngest adults didn't search videos the most. Some 66% of 25-34 year-olds searched more, as compared with 48% for 18-24; 39% for 35-44; and 28% for 45-54 year-olds.

Other forms of video findability were lower, including 18% following online recommendations from people they didn't know; 10% via unsolicited email; and 9% via email or RSS feeds.

For now, browsing and sharing are still more important than searching videos. As new and better approaches emerge, perhaps these behaviors will shift.

Survey Details: Synovate conducted this research for ClipBlast! between March 3-5, and reached 1,000 adults through their national online panel.

Posted by at 3:30 PM | Permalink

April 10, 2008

Video Search Is a False Messiah

"Video search is a false messiah," claimed Steven Chao at this week's Video Search Summit in San Francisco. Video search is not about words, optimization or getting into the traditional web search engines. Instead, he says we must look to video consumers and more collaborative approaches.

It's telling that Chao, who's all about our cultural zeitgeist, is currently running an online portal for How-To videos. Chao is best-known as the originator of America's Most Wanted and Cops, and later served as USA Network's president.

According to Chao, we're just at the beginning of video consumption on the web. Today, average Americans are still attached to their televisions and he believes it's only a matter of time until Americans shift and become “internet viewing zealots.” Improving findability is critical for this transformation.

Video search is more about emotions than words. That's why Chao advises to think differently and transform video search into a push rather than pull experience -- and to find ways to push relevant video results and answers before there is a query.

“There will be a place for good quality,” said Chao. “In that huge amount of video, this room has the secrets.” At the Summit, the room was filled with web video search insiders, including Blinx, CastTV, ClipBlast, Dabble, Everyzing, Pixsy, and Truveo/AOL.

Chao identified Amazon's collaborative filtering for books as a starting point. He encouraged the video searchers to develop approaches which take advantage of community interests. He wants us to incorporate consumption behaviors but not depend on popularity contests. All these insights should support video search and discovery.

Of course, I applaud Chao's statements and also acknowledge we have some work ahead. With all the video search engines, we are relying on words, tagging and textual approaches today. There's no doubt that we will have to harness people's behaviors and interests, in more implicit ways, to really improve video findability.

Posted by at 2:25 PM | Permalink

March 16, 2008

Radio Embraces Search Marketing

At last week's Radio Convergence meeting, the movers and shakers from radio's digital arena were on hand to discuss their challenges -- and their need to embrace online and search marketing.

"Radio has to start believing that the Internet is real," said Reed Bunzel, CEO of TheRadio.com. Until recently, radio management considered their station websites as complementary marketing vehicles that supported on-air listeners. That has begun to change already.

The largest radio station groups are very tuned into their online opportunities, with both traffic and ad dollars as key priorities. When it comes to radio stations, search marketing tops the list now. To grow traffic, these groups are focused on SEO and SEM rather than more limited on-air promotions. It's more than a local play, too.

Monetize Streams: Based on new listeners, these groups want to increase audio streams. Andrew Lindenauer, VP Operations at CBS Radio's Digital Media Group, declared “the player is the portal.” He showed the new player that enables listeners to navigate among all the CBS and AOL stations. Due the recent CBS-AOL deal, where CBS will manage the AOL stations, he expects to double their online audience and ad inventory.

Emmis, Clear Channel and Entercom digital heads also are focused on audio streams and monetizing those streams. They admit their ad inventories are not sold out, and imply their online sales operations are just starting up. All the groups are turning their attention to a mix of direct sales and ad networks.

Avoid Meatball Sundaes: Industry prognosticator Kurt Hanson introduced the Meatball Sundae problem that we all know about at SEW. Radio station sites have bolted on various online features that didn't draw traffic, like trying to sell music downloads. They need to stick to their strengths related to programming, content and personalities.

I think the major groups are pushing forward and realize they have good intellectual property that's worth leveraging online. News and sports stations are blessed with strong coverage that can be streamed and re-purposed. Coupled with online-only resources, stations like WINS.com handily compete with local TV stations and newspapers for visitors.

Music stations have their place too, by reaching new listeners who are attracted to their formats online. They can expand the presence of their personalities, and some stations are even encouraging their jocks to create more community presence by blogging there. Other stations have podcasts of the jocks, to encourage time-shifted listening as well.

It's About Survival: The radio groups are aware of what's ahead, and feel that online listeners will surpass off-line in the very near future. At the Convergence meeting, there were some off-handed remarks about learning from their local newspaper breathren, who have been hit with revenue challenges even more quickly than radio.

Radio stations seem ready to work on the inevitable cannibalization issues -- and it will be interesting to track their revenue growth online as these digital radio heads push forward.

Posted by at 6:20 PM | Permalink

October 29, 2007

Fox, NBC and Others Testing Online TV With Hulu.com

Hulu is ready to start its test as an online television station - well really it is launching for limited access video feeds from its partners Fox and NBC and others and providing video content for Microsoft, AOL, MySpace, Yahoo and Comcast, according to a New York Times report.

Competition for YouTube offers Google's competitors a way to garner more traffic and possibly improve their search share, while also providing income from ads presented with the online video feeds.

The development of online television and/or the melding of the two mediums is close. How its presence will change things has yet to be determined - though Google is not letting any of these potential giant killers to get away.

Posted by Frank Watson at 11:39 AM | Permalink

September 14, 2007

Affordable video production for search marketers – interview with TurnHere

In this recent interview conducted with online video solutions provider TurnHere, Founder and CEO Bradley Inman elaborates on project management aspects of preparing online video content for search engine distribution.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 13, 2007

blinkx and Utarget partners in online video advertising deal

blinkx, the video search engine, today announced its partnership with the UK's online video advertising network Utarget, to place video advertising around its content for UK audiences. Utarget will focus on monetizing blinkx's video inventory including ITN News and ITN Celebrity.

Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx, says his company is looking to develop more geo-targeted matches between content owners and advertisers to better monetize their output, and that "working with Utarget will offer their partners the simplest way of getting in touch with UK advertisers."

“blinkx is easily the most advanced search engine for users to access video." said Phil Cooper, Utarget CEO. Partnering with blinkx will offer our advertisers quality video inventory and a large, well-informed audience.”

Exclusive: blinkx has also informed me that uTarget's ads will be pre-roll, and run before user-selected video. According to a YouGove study commissioned by Utarget Networks, UK Internet users are far more receptive to pre-roll online video advertising than U.S. internet users. Read the commentary on this story at the Grantastic Designs blog.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 8:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 10, 2007

TurnHere announces new video distribution partnerships and products

Today TurnHere, the online video enterprise, announced their expansion in the video search space new distribution partnerships with book-centric sites and an enhanced video gadget for improving on the book search experience.

My new blog features an interview with TurnHere's CEO Bradley Inman, along with in in-depth review of TurnHere's claims of "deep partnerships" with the major search portals, along with a review of their new book widget technology.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 29, 2007

BBC launches Internet TV service

On Friday, the BBC launched its online television service iPlayer, which allows viewers to download programs from the previous seven days. BBC head Mark Thompson described the launch as big a milestone as the arrival of color TV. UK online TV services are forecast to "explode."

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 10:38 AM | Permalink

June 25, 2007

Interview with blinkx on new video search distribution partnerships with Lycos, InfoSpace, and Real

Grant Crowell, video search columnist for SearchEngineWatch.com, conducts an audio interview with the founder and CEO of blinkx, Suranga Chandratillake, on their new contextual advertising model (AdHoc) and new distribution partners – Lycos MIX, InfoSpace, and Real Networks' RealPlayer. (Recorded on Monday, June 25, 2007.)

Links to the files may be download here:

blinkx AdHoc (7 min 40 sec)

blinx's new distribution partnerships (3 min 24 sec)

Posted by Grant Crowell at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 17, 2007

Interview with YouTube on Partner Program

I recently spoke with YouTube's Head of Product Marketing Jaime Byrne about the recent expansion of YouTube's revenue-sharing partner program to include select users from the YouTube community.

Formerly reserved for YouTube's professional content partners, the pilot partner program will allow for YouTube to evaluate if their revenue-sharing program with Google AdSense (originally reserved for their high-end professional partners) should be considered for expansion to more non-professional content partners.

Grant: What is the criteria you used for considering certain video accounts as "most popular"? Is it views, subscribers, comments, or a combination?

Colvin: Members were invited to participate based on their past performance on the platform. The user partners announced are all popular content creators known by the YouTube community and we believe they will be attractive for advertisers. The new user partners are creating series that attract a persistent audience and have a large numbers of subscribers. We feel it's important to reward those who are creating more than just viral one-off hits. User partners' videos remind us of the other larger partners on our site, and the content they create is often in the same vein.

Grant: What are the revenue-sharing and promotional opportunities available to these new content partners, and how to they compare with YouTube's professional partners?

Colvin: YouTube will monetize the partner videos in a manner consistent with the monetization of professional content posted on YouTube by partners. YouTube is exploring a variety of options and will deploy advertising models that work for the YouTube community, advertisers and professional content partners.

Grant: Do you have an example of how the advertising would appear adjacent to the video?

Colvin: You can click on any of lonelygirl15's videos to see the banner running against her content. Participating user partners will receive revenue from advertising that runs directly against their content. (Grant's comment: Some irony that YouTube rewards the example of a counterfeit person.)

Grant: How many partners do you currently have in the program, both professional and those that are part of the general community? Colvin: YouTube currently has more than 1,000 partners with whom we share revenue, including major media companies like the BBC and CBS. The user partner program is simply an extension of the way we share revenue with any of our partners who provide content that we sell ads against. Other partners include the NBA, the Sundance Channel and Sony BMG.

Grant: If someone were to fill out YouTube's partnership lead form to be considered as a content partner, how long would it take to receive a decision?

Colvin: We will continue to evaluate the success of this program and add new partners if and when appropriate.

Grant: Are there certain categories of content that might be given special consideration? Such as education or government services?

Colvin: We will consider all types of content for this program, although no category will be given preferential consideration over another.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 7:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 16, 2007

PR News survey finds online video is underutilized

A new survey conducted by PR News and Medialink reveals that PR pros aren't using online video as often as they're watching it. While 69% of the nearly 300 people who responded to the survey said they've watched online video footage for business purposes within the last 10 days, only half have video posted on their corporate Web sites.

So, what gives?

“Video is still an underutilized resource among PR pros – especially those in B2B communications,” Larry Thomas, COO of Medialink, told PR News. “Execs are watching video themselves, but they're not taking advantage of these cost-effective distribution tools.”

The main drivers respondents cited for using online video are the ability to measure impact/ROI (30%) and financial feasibility (28%). But, Thomas added, not enough public relations professionals are “taking existing video assets and repurposing (them) in addition to creating content from scratch.”

PR News reports on three best practices that are used when preparing online videos: • Produce compelling content and make it as available as possible, then let the destination attract an audience; • Consider ways other than the Web and TV to repurpose the video before ever sending out the camera; and • Leverage the platform's ability to speak to a very targeted, high-prospect audience.

When it comes to online video, Thomas concluded, “PR execs can't stand on the sidelines anymore. They must accelerate their evolution by experimenting. It's scary, but it's even scarier to know that people are talking about you whether you're there or not. We're in a media 2.0 world, and video is the currency of the marketplace.”

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 4:55 PM | Permalink

March 23, 2007

NewsCorp-NBC Deal Matters, But Not As Google-YouTube Killer

No one can argue that well-produced entertainment will draw an online crowd. If there's interesting product available online, then visitors or viewers will stream it. Especially if these media powerhouses have exclusive rights for recent fare, the demand will be there.

Finally, we have reached the point where it's acceptable to view longer videos. The online players work better, video is higher quality, and it's possible to consume video on different kinds of monitors/screens.

Frankly, I don't know why the consortium has been labeled as "Clown Co."

There's demand for online video, which hasn't been exhausted yet. From a marketing perspective, it's possible to promote blockbuster programming. Or perhaps a cable/satellite VOD type approach could work, by appealing to many smaller segments instead.

Let's consider the impact of long-form video opportunities. Instead of the three-minute clips, site visitors stick around. If they watch entire TV episodes, then that's over 20 minutes for a half-hour TV show or 45 minutes for an hour-long program. It's safe to assume that time spent will increase substantially versus current grazing times.

What about the revenue opportunities? There seem to be myriad ad placements. First, video ads can evolve from pre-roll to short commercial breaks. After all, the visitors are more committed to watching these videos. Second, there's advertising real estate surrounding the video screens. That means there are targeted video, banner and text ads to test here.

It's telling that the branded advertisers are committing themselves upfront. Of course, they trust old and new media already. It's not a linear buy like TV, so the reach and frequency numbers will be different. To keep the brands interested, the inventory will need to be growing and plentiful.

This consortium isn't meant to be a Google-YouTube killer or a portal that does everything, but should create some critical mass. If everyone can cooperate, then this might become a textbook example of old-new media success.

Posted by at 3:10 PM | Permalink

March 20, 2007

Get Some Video Ad Accountability

The biggest players are still scratching their heads about how to define and quantify accountability, based on what we heard at ClickZ's Online Video Ad confab on Monday.

* Google: Raja Moonka says you need to conduct surveys that measure purchase intent and brand favorability. * Yahoo: Theresa LaMontagne recommends using scanner panels, to note the lift from sales.

To me, it seems like accountability should not be solely based on these after-the-fact measures, which incorporate all media placements used in branding campaigns.

Instead, let's start by measuring something about online video ads and their current consumption patterns. This isn't impossible to do.

Most video advertisers target specific demos or interests and make buys on specific domains. Thus they should gauge interest levels based on delivered impressions, streams and streamers.

We know that NetRatings and comScore are imperfect, but they invest in tremendous online panels and report metrics from them. These web analytics companies can provide ongoing, trended results for the largest video advertisers and domains.

As Ad Server companies start providing inventory, they can offer another perspective and reliably report what video ads have been trafficked and delivered across domains.

For this new video ad marketplace to gain traction, these suppliers should create metrics that work for large and small advertisers alike. There should be some standards out there, to drive accountability across these buys.

Posted by at 10:52 PM | Permalink

March 13, 2007

Blinkx launches video search optimization wiki and handbook

Blinkx issued a press release this morning announcing the launch of its wiki-style, Video Search Optimization community forum site – to help marketers, advertisers, and content owners “maximize traffic to online video.” The site location, at www.seowiki.blinkx.com, appeared live at 11:30 am EST / 4:30 GMT time today.

Also available is an “SEO toolkit” white paper by blinkx. The whitepaper contains practical and technical tips, including metadata and file optimization, web site integration, media RSS, content management, submission strategies, and common mistakes to avoid.

Coming tomorrow: my interview with Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CTO of blinkx.

Posted by Grant Crowell at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 28, 2007

Jump On The Video Distribution Bandwagon

Right now, web publishers of all stripes are busy developing video to entertain or inform visitors. The best video content engages your visitors and encourages them to spend additional time on your site.

In the rush to develop your site, you may not have focused on other traffic opportunities for your professionally-produced video. That rich video content can provide additional revenue streams outside your own domain.

In the old world order, this is called syndication. As an intellectual property holder, you sign contracts which grant licensing rights to others. In return, these licensees pay you based on where the video is shown, audience levels, specific channels, number of plays, and time periods.

In the age of YouTube, your audience is getting used to finding videos there and across the web. Thus it makes sense to solicit help from your site visitors. Encourage them to embed your videos on their own sites, blogs and pages. With ad pre-rolls and sponsorships attached to your own videos, you'll earn incremental revenue from this extended audience.

Fortunately the barriers to hosting video have fallen lately. Since you already host video on your own site, consider extending that support when it's embedded on other sites. Check out StreamingMedia.com, one of the better resources for tips and contacts.

Why go through this effort? Dan Rayburn presents a wake-up call in Broadcasting & Cable, telling publishers they should not “risk their videos' being marketed by other media outlets like bloggers and those who can drive traffic and awareness.” Publishers are advised to control their content distribution, so they can easily adjust their advertising as well.

External distribution isn't reserved for the biggest publishers anymore. It's true that some entertainment companies have been reacting to YouTube in recent weeks and going it alone. However this is an important matter for all video producers who want to maximize traffic and revenue opportunities – wherever their video appears.

Posted by at 12:58 AM | Permalink

February 22, 2007

Lighten Up, Dear Video Advertiser

Given how advertisers behave on TV, maybe it's time for them to lighten up. There are risks and just rewards when advertising online, in the user-controlled world. Check out how one video newcomer addresses their concerns.

The online environment is certainly no worse than TV shows, says Veoh Networks CEO Dmitry Shapiro in a recent Ad Age interview (subscription required). Veoh is a new destination for user videos, which seeks branded advertisers who might typically hesitate to make buys.

Ad Age Digital: You're launching with Dr Pepper as an advertiser. Yet advertisers are nervous about being next to questionable user-generated content. Have you solved that problem?

Mr. Shapiro: The "being next to stuff" [excuse] I always find silly. On the web you're next to everything. I understand what people mean by being next to, but I guess I just don't believe it. Look at "Fear Factor." Their advertisers know they're going to be next to pretty nasty stuff, but they're still buying ads in it.

Of course, most video content isn't salacious or offensive. There's a plethora of stupid human and pet tricks, and much more. At this stage, the next-to-video advertisers mainly struggle with making targeted buys in an uncontrolled environment.

Our judgment? Savvy advertisers should lighten up for another reason. They still know who they're generally reaching, where they're placing ads, and how many users or visitors they've reached. All very traditional values delivered in the user-controlled world.

Posted by at 10:57 AM | Permalink

February 7, 2007

Will Splinter Communities Work?

Web publishers are scrambling to provide their own outlets for user-generated content.

This could be interesting to search marketers, especially if we're able to reach bloggers or amateur video makers within more defined and splintered communities.

So far, larger branders have taken the plunge. MTV invested in a company called TagWorld. Now it can produce social networking sites a la My Space, complete with audio/video sharing and chatting too.

You know the world is changing when even the Gray Lady says she'll start accepting user-generated video because it's cheaper that way. NY Times executive Nicholas Ascheim said there would be an announcement in March, as reported in Red Herring.

Whether well-known brands or not, online publishers always seek other reasons to grow their destination traffic. Sites where there's plenty of dynamic content and sharing should do best with new user-generated sources.

If sites already attract visitors for specific purposes, like passions or repetitive tasks, then there's an even better chance these visitors might stay a while longer and use other features too.

We don't think splintered communities are a sure thing, but might present an efficient buying opportunity if they do survive.

Posted by at 1:48 AM | Permalink

February 2, 2007

blinkx Launches Video Widget for Integrating Video Into Websites

blinkx which uses speech-to-text transcription to index online video content, now has available a new widget "blinkx it" that will allow a user to embed code to display video streams in a blog or website. This new widget allows users to add contextually relevant video to almost any page. Code and configurations are available for Blogger and Xanga, as well as instructions for how to add Blinkx it to most sites.

With the widget in place, “blinkx it” will retrieve results based on the text it finds on the URL. If the website changes, “blinkx it” will retrieve the most relevant results for the new page. By embedding the “blinkx it” widget on a blog template “blinkx it” will automatically generate a list of related videos for every blog post. The widget works by reading the text of each individual post and finding videos that are about the same topic. For example if you blog about the Super Bowl “blinkx it” will find and display videos relating to it. Change topic to gardening in the next post and so too will the videos offered for that post.

Right now this is a neat feature for enhancing blogs and web sites with video content, but this sure looks and feels like a base for offering contextual advertising for video.

Posted by Amanda Watlington at 11:19 AM | Permalink

January 31, 2007

Over In NYC: Silicon Valley Cavorts

We're at the AlwaysOn Media conference. If we have to see one more company put up a slide that shows Publishers, Advertisers and Consumers in a triangle, then we are going to start throwing tomatoes. Only kidding.

This conference showcases the online media world. Companies give short presentations, and it's a terrific way to learn what's going on lately in those three triangle points and more. Watch it live through Wednesday.

In this energetic venue, there are good companies talking to each other off-stage. There are bloggers sitting in positions of honor during the sessions, in their very own blogger bullpen. Everyone's feeling generally pumped up.

The highlight? Bill Cleary did a “man on the street” interview. It was a nice commentary on the current state of self-made videos and blogs. He showed a video that accosted San Franciscans about whether the blogosphere concerned them. Most people out there didn't have a clue but wanted to make nice – and agreed that it was a dire matter.

The meta-message was not to take ourselves too seriously. For a show with lots of new companies and important things to announce, I'm glad this set the tone. We need to laugh at ourselves sometimes, even while letting the world know what we do.

Posted by at 6:19 AM | Permalink

January 14, 2007

Video From The Professionals

Everyone will be hawking their video wares at the NATPE conference this week. Some 8,000 attendees are expected in Las Vegas. Producers and programmers with original video will be on hand. While TV and cable executives will be licensing video as usual, they will be looking to distribute their existing assets online too. We wonder if the online wheeling and dealing will get even more attention than TV deals.

Ad Age reports on the growing broadband scene: "Gary Gannaway, president-CEO of local TV syndicator WorldNow and 20-year NATPE veteran, said consumers have proven their appetite to watch their favorite programming on any available platform." Both Brightcove and Revver will be there, getting deals with as many players as possible. They provide technology and syndication opportunities, and feel they are strong competitive threats to Google-YouTube. Where are the engines? MSN, Yahoo, Google and AOL will be there and wearing their content and distribution hats. Long Tail author Chris Anderson will present a keynote address, which is the closest NATPE comes to search training this year.

Posted by at 7:23 PM | Permalink

January 5, 2007

What about Targeting Video Ads?

According to MediaWeek, “Analysts and agency executives envision a new ad system that would use sophisticated targeting techniques to create ad messages users will want to watch.”

Someday tagging will connect video ads to video content. That's viable in the new world of YouTube and Google. Advertisers could buy video ads based on keywords. Then their ads play before or after videos tagged with those same keywords.

Brian Morrissey suggests an AdWords type system which "could choose from a vast pool of video spots for one relevant to the viewer."

For this to work, all publishers showing videos have to take a more active role in tagging as well.

Posted by at 4:56 PM | Permalink

Video Ads Are Small Potatoes

Total video ad revenues are supposed to reach $775 million this year or 4% of all online advertising.

In the short term, there's limited inventory. Publishers with good video content will luck out, and be able to sell at high CPMs.

The methods for buying and distributing video ads are just getting developed too.

Meanwhile, video audiences continue to skyrocket. Emarketer says that viewers who watched at least one video per month will leap from 107.7 million last year to 123.4 million this year.

Video ads won't be small potatoes for long, as the advertising community gears up.

Posted by at 4:46 PM | Permalink

July 21, 2006

TurnHere Tricks Out Google Terra

Local short film production firm TurnHere has a new integration with Google Earth that's kinda neat. When users map a city or neighborhood that TurnHere has a short film about, an icon tags it as such. Clicking the icon launches a pop-up window displaying a still from the film and brief description. There are a whole bunch of them up there -- from Punxsutawney to Seoul. If you've got Google Earth, you can download the app.

At the moment, all the films are of the "neighborhood" variety, as opposed to the advertorial films TurnHere creates for paying advertisers (lots of restaurants and shops). According to the company's director of business development, Keith Louie, getting the ad films into Google Earth is something he'll "definitely have some conversations" with Google about. However, he's not so sure that will fly with the Web behemoth because "the thing about Google Earth is it's very editorial driven."

Still, Google makes its money through advertising; I'd bet it's only a matter of time before the company integrates Google Local, Google Base and ads into its Earth app.

I spoke with TurnHere's CEO Brad Inman the other day about the project, and he told me, "We worked hard to do it…. These things seem so simple and they're not."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 14, 2006

A Lengthy "Sneak Peek"

Now, I've heard of giving viewers an online taste of offline content, but a 24-minute-long preview? Yup, that's what the "A Scanner Darkly" (Keanu Reeves' latest futuristic flick) marketers are doing, distributing an exclusive 24-minute-long preview to the gaming audience via IGN.com. The site is also offering video interviews with the actors and director.

Initially, I thought it was crazy to offer this big a bite of the new movie, but 24 minutes is really just long enough to get you through "act 1" where things start to get exciting, in your typical feature film. With that in mind, this seems like a good call. (Though I might have gone more wide to YouTube, etc.) Interestingly, they're having to age-restrict the preview since it's "R" rated.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 13, 2006

Google Radio

The Internets are alight with speculation about Google radio ads, since Tim at TechToolBlog reported receiving a survey that touched on talent brokering for voice work. Back in May at Google Press Day, CEO Eric Schmidt told me (and other reporters hanging on his every word) that he envisioned a system whereby advertisers could upload audio creative to Google that would be distributed to multiple platforms. The idea that the company would help provision voice talent would be perfectly consistent with this approach, given the lack of resources available to many of Google's small business customers. (As others have mentioned, SpotRunner /A> -- the next logical acquisition for Google -- aims to handle the creative and distribution issue for TV.)

Then again, given Google's fondness for technology, maybe the company could do dynamically-generated audio creative like IHT.com is considering.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 6:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 12, 2006

TNT Creates Broadband Channel to Promote On-Air Series

TNT just announced it will create an online broadband "channel" to promote its new series "Nightmares & Dreamscapes" From the Stories of Stephen King."

It has the ring of DVD "extras," only for the Web.

Content will include actor and director interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and even feature films related to the content, which TNT will trot out of its library.

The Web site, built and hosted by Veoh, officially launches today -- as does the series.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 30, 2006

USA Today Airs Talking Tech

USA Today is taking its Personal Technology section to video. Tech columnists Ed Baig and Jefferson Graham will host "Talking Tech" with weekly segments becoming available on Thursdays. Video will be available at tech.usatoday.com or on iTunes.

The initial sponsor is AT&T with its branding campaign launched earlier this year. However preroll and synchronized banner units for Frontier Airlines, VisitFlorida and Microsoft's "The Greatest Asset" spot played before the video during repeated refreshes. Prior to running the preroll unit, the screen says, "Video is always free thanks to support from our sponsor." But at this point AT&T is not clearly visible as the advertiser.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 29, 2006

Praise for the Print Version

When does a complaint about non-user-initiated (or not-intentionally-user-initiated) audio get interesting enough to make the virtual pages of Gawker? When the ad in question is for a certain Pfizer product much in the news of late, and the first few seconds of audio describe the problem the drug solves.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 23, 2006

Google Tests Ad-supported Video

Google is running another ad test this week, this time for Google Video. Under the Free Today program, selected clips from the Google Video Store will be available for free download, instead of the usual fee, which ranges from $0.30 to $14.99. The current free offerings were previously priced as high as $4.95.

The catch, of course, is the free videos include ads. There is a persistent text and image branding unit above the video content, which links to the advertiser's site. There is also a :15 to :30 post-roll video ad. Ads are from a single advertiser; the winning bidder in an auction, according to a Google spokesperson.

The ad-supported clips will not be able to be saved to a file, as the paid downloads are. The free videos are promoted on the Google Video home page

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 21, 2006

Dispatch from Supernova

Oliver Luckett from Revver, which has been hosting the famous Diet Coke and Mentos video from EepyBird, says the video's creators have now netted $23,000 in revenues from their video over 13 days. In fact, Mentos has now come forward to sponsor EepyBird, Luckett said.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 20, 2006

Ask a Ninja's Got Audience

According to Mark McCrey, founder and CEO of Podtrac.com, Ask A Ninja is the top podcast and has over 250 million unique viewers that download its content as it becomes available each week. Then there's a YouTube audience and other delivery not tracked by Podtrac.com. That's quite a brand, anyone brave enough to send him the question, "How does a ninja feel about taking preroll advertising?"

UPDATE Maybe because I was sitting in the nosebleed seats at the ARF conference yesterday, or possibly because the panel occurred right after lunch when I was given a plate of vegetables at lunch (everyone else had beef) and was a little dizzy from the lack of protein, but the 250 million figure is apparently overstated. According to a release Podtrack posted about Mark McCrey speaking at the conference, Ask A Ninja is the video "most watched on a portable device" though it also said that 82 percent of its viewers watch online. It's still a significant audience.

Posted by Enid Burns at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 16, 2006

Online Video Still Just Repurposing?

Moderator Pete Blackshaw just asked audience members whether they agreed with panelist Julian Zilberbrand, associate director of digital operations at MediaVest Worldwide, when he characterized the current state of affairs as largely the repurposing of TV commercials. The majority of the audience raised their hands. Thankfully, it seems like the panels, and the audience members, are interested in moving things beyond the current state of affairs.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 15, 2006

Everything That Can Be Bloggable Will Be Bloggable

And another we-launched-a-blog release crosses the wires....

Scoial media site imeem has hooked up with Virgin Records to create "the first ever concert tour video blog for viewing on the Internet." The blog follows We Are Scientists' summer concert tour.

"The unblogged life is scarcely worth living -- a blunted, petty little thing, that much we know," Chris Cain, the band's bass player, said in a statement, "Let us live life to the hilt, I say! Let us blog this tour, and blog it daily!"

Amen to that.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's Not TV, It's Podcast

HBO began airing new shows this week, with the return of "Deadwood" and "Entourage," and two new series "Lucky Louie" and "Dane Cooke's Tourgasm." Each show will get a series of podcasts to add to an existing library produced for HBO series, films and documentaries.

The video podcasts are available for free at HBO's Podcast page or Apple's iTunes Music Store. Even if you download from the HBO site, you still need to have iTunes on you computer.

Each show has different programming, but highlights include recaps of previous seasons, location and behind-the-scenes content, and interviews with the cast and producers of each show. HBO already has podcasts for some of its other shows like "The Sopranos," "Big Love," "Rome," "Six Feet Under" and reports hitting the one million download milestone for "Real Time with Bill Maher" podcasts.

The venue provides a way to hype new and existing shows airing on HBO, as well as keep attention on shows in production. Because of the existing catalog, I would say it also helps to extend the life of a few classics that have been put to rest like "Six Feet Under"

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 13, 2006

Green Screening the Web: Snickers and Travelers

Looking at a few new video experiences this morning. One is Snickers' attempt to assimilate Hip Hop into the brand through a series of short films at InstantDef.com, starring The Black-Eyed Peas. It's very well done creative, complete with green screen action sequences and some good B- and C-list cameos. My only complaint is the UI – at least for Mac -- is not too smooth. And if you're sinking a few hundred thou into an elaborate online video experience, you don't want that. Another sent to me today is an interactive experience Fallon created for Travelers Insurance. The In-synch Challenge uses a quiz format and 3D representations of homes and businesses to test the user's knowledge of various risk factors that could result in the potential maiming of your grandmother, and oh-ho-ho-wait-a-minute, shouldn't you be insured for that? In seriousness, it's pretty good stuff and not too pushy. A bit stiff, but hey, we're talking about insurance here.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 8, 2006

Survey: Agency Perspective on Online Video Advertising

Hollis Thomases, who many of you know as one of our Agency Media Strategies columnists, is running a survey on ad agency perspective on the state of online video advertising.

She hopes to learn about agency adoption, concerns and future intentions. The survey asks about things like unique video content, tracking, publisher availability and adoption timeframes.

If you could take five minutes to complete the questionnaire, Hollis would be much obliged. And she promises to share results in her next column.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 5, 2006

Merchant Movie Star

If you caught my story last week about the official launch of local travel video producer and distributor TurnHere, you'll recall jeweler and sculptor Daniel Macchiarini. He's pretty much given up on local radio and newspaper ads. Now, he's taking a chance on a sponsoring a two and a half-minute film from TurnHere to promote his family's design and metalworks business. It's up on the site now.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our Video Conference Looks Like A Winner

ClickZ's Online Video Advertising Forum takes place in New York next week on Friday, June 16th. I must say there's been a little unease around here after being out of the event business for so long, but we've heaved a sigh of relief. It looks like we've got ourselves a winner.

This event is the first in a series we're planning over the coming year under the rubric "ClickZ Specifics." The intention is to drill down on the issues marketers face, and to provide real insight on both strategy and practice. Video was the natural place to start. Looking over our News archives, we've been up to roughly 8 out of 10 breaking stories dealing with new online video ad deals, media products and technology announcements.

We've got an impressive list of sessions and speakers lined up for the event, and delegates are coming from agencies and publishers including Dentsu, R/GA, Conde Nast, Microsoft, Google, Oxygen Media, Scripps, Atmosphere BBDO, ESPN, Benjamin Moore, Pitney Bowes, Fildelity Investments...the list goes on.

It would be great to see you there, too. If you can manage to attend, please don't forget to come up and introduce yourself!

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

May 22, 2006

Another New Video News Distribution Play

It looks like online news video footage has another distribution outlet in ClipSyndicate, a firm reported on by The New York Times today. According to the story, ClipSyndicate is owned by online video search company Critical Mention, and "indexes videos from Bloomberg, The Associated Press and other news outlets."

Publishers can show videos distributed by ClipSyndicate as long as they're not broadcast firms. And, like Voxant, a similar company I reported on last week, publishers can earn a cut of the in-stream video ad revenue: Publishers either pay an undisclosed fee to ClipSyndicate each time they show a clip — then display their own ads with the clip — or they can run the videos with ads sold by ClipSyndicate and earn 5 percent of the advertising revenue. The video's owners, meanwhile, receive 30 percent of whatever revenue is generated from each clip. It appears there are a couple differences between ClipSyndicate and Voxant, and both are related to Voxant's viral component.

ClipSyndicate requires potential affiliate sites to be submitted for evaluation. Voxant, however, enables anyone who wants to grab video directly from distribution partners and other affiliates. Content creators can add a button alongside the clip inviting users to "Mash this story," or grab it to put on their own sites. Rather than evaluating sites for inclusion in the network, Voxant has an interesting real-time monitoring interface that allows original content publishers to keep an eye on who's posting their clips.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 17, 2006

ABC Web Video Strong, but Content Is What Counts

PaidContent reports today on a couple interesting ABC/upfront related items. First off, evidently ABC execs say the new 4-show streaming offering ("Desperate Housewives," "Lost," "Alias" and the lame duck "Commander in Chief") has garnered 2 million streams, and 86 percent ad recall, "roughly twice the amount for regular TV." That may be misleading since each episode has one sponsor showing 3 ads, some with interactivity.

Still, it's interesting to consider this result when reading another report from the ABC upfront which suggests that President of ABC Entertainment Stephen McPherson shrugged off questions about the company's streaming content, concerning himself more with the shows themselves than which platform they're on.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 15, 2006

From Poli/Tech Conference: V-Blogging, Control or No?

At today's 3rd annual Personal Democracy Forum Conference here in NYC, where the likes of Elizabeth Edwards, Jon's wife, and Web celebs like Doc Searls, Chris Nolan and Kos milled about, I attended an interesting session about video blogging.

A lot of the panelists were discussing ways political candidates or advocacy groups can use video blogging (either campaign-produced, or volunteer/supporter-produced) to engage voters online.

V-blog aficionado Steve Garfield shared his experiences working on Boston City Councilor John Tobin's '06 campaign. Garfield convinced the candidate to create short video clips for his site -- stuff featuring him at local events promoting initiatives, at a council meeting, in the public square, that sort of thing. Evidently, Tobin was so taken with the potential for video blogging and his site he had all his bumper stickers and lawn signs changed to read, "VoteJohnTobin.com" -- that's it. The candidate created a new video for each of the 9 days leading up to the city election.

We also learned about another current candidate, Ned Lamont. The candidate for Senate from Connecticut has lots of supporters using YouTube to distribute video in support of him (and apparently to dis Joe Lieberman, his Dem primary opponent, too).

The consultant working on the Lamont campaign stressed, "You don't want to control the message," and he thinks enabling supporters to put out their own CGM-developed video through a site like YouTube is a good way to have voices heard that may not be suitable if directly disseminated through the campaign itself.

Interesting to note: Councilor Tobin took the opposite tack, stating in a V-blog clip, "with TV and radio time so expensive and so controlled…video blogging allows you to control your message." It makes sense he'd appreciate this inexpensive means of getting his message out without being encumbered by media interpretation. However, I suspect this will be an ongoing debate among techno-politicos. In the same way that commercial marketers are struggling to determine the best ways to incorporate CGM and distribution channels like YouTube, political and advocacy campaigns exploiting these media will also be debating what makes sense -- more or less control. Of course, whether they truly have the ability to make that decision is another story....

Posted by Kate Kaye at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

IAB Broadband Summit Notes

Only had time to dip into a couple of morning sessions at the IAB's Broadband Summit in New York today. Some of the more interesting comments were on a panel covering creating content for broadband, moderated by Jack Myers.

AOl's EVP, Programming and Products Jim Bankoffwent beyond user-generated content, saying what AOL is looking at is user-generated context.

MTV's Chief Digital Officer Jason Hirschhorn talked user-generated distribution. "If a user ports an iFilm move to their MySpace page, how do you get your content tagged, indexed and branded in this environment?"

Food for thought indeed. And ideas we'll be examining at ClickZ's Video Advertising Forum on June 15th. Hope to see a bunch of you there.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 10, 2006

Two Edgy Video Plays from Bravo

Bravo has announced two broadband video channels with a bite.

The bigger deal of the two seems to be OUTzoneTV.com, a broadband play for the gay/lesbian audience that'll launch in June.

Named after a well-known programming block on the TRIO cable network, the site is a a joint venture of NBC Universal's Bravo and sales/promotional partner PlanetOut. In addition to a full brunch buffet of Bravo and non-Bravo video content ranging from "Queer Eye" episodes to men's bikini fashion show segments, OUTzoneTV.com will have blogs, a news feed, a "Gay of the Day" photo and message boards, among other features.

Also, Bravo will push its "Brilliant But Cancelled" ode to decommissioned shows online. BrilliantButCancelled.com will host a number of programs that were either cancelled shortly after the pilot aired or never aired at all. Billed as "too smart, too edgy or too hip for TV," the site is aimed at the same audience of TV-philes AOL's going after with In2TV.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 5, 2006

MSN Video Promoting Spaces and Splenda

I've been checking out MSN's Jazz Fest video streams (see ClickZ story on this). My first reaction: Bruce Springsteen needs no more promotion. The main page highlights two songs from his festival performance. There are already two Bob Dylans: Tom Petty and Robert Zimmerman. We don't need a third.

But I digress.

They announced they've gotten over 845,000 streams and over 1.2 million page views since the launch last weekend.

I've noticed a couple of interesting things: There's a link in the video player window to "The Microsoft MSN Video 2006 Jazz Fest Trivia Sweepstakes." It looks like the prize is a Gibson geetar (with an MSN logo on it - ?). The interesting part is that the link goes to an MSN Spaces blog post by someone who calls herself the "Dish Diva" and writes about entertainment and celebrities. Of course, she's a Microsoft employee hired to post about and link to MSN entertainment content (recent posts feature a "Hoot" movie contest and an X-Men stars Q&A promo).

Another interesting tidbit: There are display ads within the video player linking to videos labeled as paid placements. Both advertainment/advertorial features tell tales of how Splenda has changed people's lives. There's a family concocting a good-for-you apple dessert, with Splenda, packages of the product prominently displayed on the counter in one shot. There's another mini film called "King of the World" featuring a cute li'l kid named Nick who did a science project comparing Splenda to sugar for use in baked goods. The irony is that in parts of the short he's dressed in army fatigues for Halloween: the most sugar-laden day of the year!

Anyway, don't bother trying to watch any of the Jazz Fest videos or the Splenda vids or the video of Rumsfeld promoted in hilarious juxtaposition with the Springsteen clips in Firefox. It's IE only.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 3, 2006

Philips Bodygroom: Making Ass Shaving Manly

How do you make something as vain as men's body shaving seem proudly masculine? By associating it with promiscuity, of course, and casting the microsite with a caricature of machismo.

Have a look at the slick yet lowbrow interactive video experience Philips created to promote its Bodygroom hair removal unit for the elimination of back hair, underarm hair, (ahem) etc. It calls to mind another site MTV and Axe set up to promote the show Gamekillers. Both have fixed-frame video elements with characters speaking directly to the camera, all against a paper-white backdrop. Same target audience as well: horny guys 18 to something slightly older than 18.

I haven't determined what agency created the Bodygroom site, but wouldn't be surprised to learn it was Glue Society, which did the other. (via threeminds)

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 2, 2006

Napster for the Unsigned, Unsung Heros?

Just spotted a Napster ad pushing their new free service on MySpace, while I was listening to a new demo from Cheeseburger, a fave Brooklyn band of mine.

The thing is, not only can I listen to the demo on their MySpace page as many times as I'd like, Napster doesn't have it. And unless these guys ever get picked up by a bigger label or one with broader distribution or a major, Napster never will. In fact, when I searched for Cheeseburger, knowing full well Napster wouldn't have 'em in their 2-million tune archive (Cheeseburger only has two EPs released on Kemado records), Napster search results listed Chasper Wanner, a jazz fusion guy.

As better known outlets for small acts become more influential, will we see Napster and its competitors develop relationships with smaller indie labels or distributors to offer or showcase the local bands that flood the Web (and MySpace almost exclusively if they have a Web presence)?

These are the bands that don't care about the rights issues; they just want free promotion. It seems to me that somebody could set up a Napster-style interface that's entirely free and ad-supported that showcases the countless bands with four-track homemade cds and not much else...the guys who would be glad to have people downloading their music and passing it around...for free.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 27, 2006

FireFox Flicks Winners Announced

It killed us that we're so busy at Ad:Tech, we couldn't get over to the announcements of the Firefox Flicks video contest winners at the San Francisco International Film Festival this afternoon.

The grand prize winner, Pete Macomber's "Daredevil," will be short-listed for the NY Festival of Advertising's 2006 International Advertising Awards in May. Finalist and runner-up videos will be incorporated into Mozilla's 2006 marketing activities.

The Firefox Flicks campaign continues throughout 2006.

More user-generated submissions can be viewed here.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 19, 2006

Rovion Puts a Tiny Man in My Computer

There's a tiny talking man on my computer monitor! If you've visited TVGuide.com or FoodNetwork.com lately, you've seen him, too. The network is running a campaign on its own site and TVGuide.com using Rovion's InPerson video technology. The spot automatically streams an image of perpetually chipper Food TV host Marc Summers as he petitions viewers to click on him and vote for their favorite contestant in "The Next Food Network Star" battle.

The 10-day campaign began on April 12, launching with a more introductory branding-style creative and culminating now with a call-to-action to vote online. Viewers can also vote via their mobile phones for the big winner, who will be announced April 20 during the final episode of the season.

According to my chat with Rovion CEO Len Ostroff today, the first creative running on TVGuide.com garnered about a 40 percent full-video watch rate and about a 4 percent CTR, while the call-to-action spot is getting about a 45 percent watch rate and about a 4 percent CTR. Not surprising, the FoodNetwork.com numbers are a lot higher: about 53 percent view rate and 8 percent CTR.

(Still, I checked out the ad on both sites and it goes by so quickly, there's not really enough time to register the fact that Marc Summers has invaded your computer before he's done.)

Rovion also ran a campaign on TVGuide.com promoting the 2006 Miss America Pageant on CMT. The 5 day campaign got over 7 percent click-through according to Ostroff.

"After now producing and running a number of campaigns with TV star personalities, we continue to believe that the InPerson technology creates that bridge between broadcast and broadband," Ostroff told me.

Rovion serves the ads and takes care of the ad production using raw video from its advertiser clients. The company has run its streaming spots on ABC owned and operated station Web sites, CBS Radio station sites, McClatchy newspaper sites, and others.

(By the way, if you know what song I referenced in my headline, you remember when Eddie Murphy was actually funny.)

Posted by Kate Kaye at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 14, 2006

Will ABC's Online TV Shows Pave Way for 'Next Big Idea'?

In a straw poll of media buyers, I found that the recent decision by Disney to stream some of its TV shows online for free the day after broadcasting is seen as an interesting, though not revolutionary development that will continue the changes set in motion by the real game-changing event: Apple's release of the iPod with video last Fall.

"This is another sign that content is slowly being set free," said Jeff Lanctot, VP of media and GM of Avenue A/Razorfish. Lanctot said that advertisers will need to adjust their creative to match that freedom, and give consumers a more personal experience across all media.

"In the short-term, this will look a lot like TV, because that's the way advertisers and content providers work. Over time, all advertising will have to be one of three things: invited, engaging or relevant. If it's not at least one of these things, advertisers will struggle, whether it's on TV, a PC or a mobile device," he said.

The most interesting aspects of Disney's implementation, said Carat Fusion EVP Greg Smith, is that it consists of long-form programming with uncluttered advertising opportunities, and it's very nearly first-run programming.

"This looks a lot like TV advertising, but it can be a lot more," Smith said. He suggests possibilities like filling the three one-minute pods with sequential messages that tell a story, or a call to action to visit the company's Web site, or running something else entirely in those spaces.

"This is a catalyst for the next big idea. Now that we have TV online, what will we do with it? TV commercials have to command attention, they assume you're nto watching and have to shout to get you in from the other room. Here you don't have that," he said. "What would you do if your audience was ready to pay attention?"

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 6, 2006

Klipmart Saddles Up Its Own 'Digital Upfront'

Here's a nice follow-up to our recent story about Heavy.com trying to institute a pre-emptive "digital upfront" in hopes of stealing some TV money from the gluttonous broadcast spending spree in New York this month.

Klipmart says it's undertaking an "initiative to put online video into the mix of the traditional television upfront." The effort is to be led by Cory Treffiletti, until recently the engagement architect at Carat Fusion.

Here's Treffiletti's statement: "With the continued penetration of broadband, we offer advertisers the ability to take advantage of the online medium as they plan their TV buying."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 3, 2006

Springsteen Reveals Video on Amazon

Amazon.com and Bruce Springsteen hope to garner interest for the release of the singer's forthcoming DualDisc format DVD by making available video excerpts in advance of the April 25 release. The song shown here is a video performance of the single, "John Henry" from the album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.

Amazon.com is particularly jazzed about the deal, Springsteen's mug got prominent placement on the front page so it can't be missed.

Further video content will be available to customers who preorder the album. Video of studio performances for "Pay Me My Money Down" and "Erie Canal" are part of the promotion.

Posted by Enid Burns at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Geek Vault

Ziff Davis got video game publishers to open the archives for its video site GameVideos.com. The site hosts video of all things gaming; from commercials dating back to the early days of gaming to video game trailers, footage and user-submitted clips.

We covered GameVideos.com in February when another gaming site launched. The ZD site went into beta late last week and continues to add more film clips to its database.

Posted by Enid Burns at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 27, 2006

NBC Demonstrates Passion for IE

So NBC has just announced Passions Vendetta, a narrative unfolding over 24 clickable 2-minute online videos that will appear over 12 weeks. Maybelline and Garnier are sponsors.

The whole thing was created by Avant Interactive to promote the soap "Passions."

Let us know if it's any good, wouldja? Cause we've had-it-up-to-here with promotional sites that do nothing but demand we run IE 5.5 on Windows. Because we're not going to. You can't make us.

A straw poll of the ClickZ ed team, however, was unanimous: anyone watching daytime dramas is probably still using Explorer. So it's probably a demographic thing.

Still, why's NBC (not to mention its advertisers) taking that risk?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 13, 2006

Klipmart Unleashes Shaggy Dog Ad with Web-Only Footage

Entertainment companies and TV advertisers have been mulling over the idea of shooting video exclusively for the Web for years. It's still pretty rare, but it looks like Disney dipped its toe (or should I say its paw?) in the water to promote its remake of The Shaggy Dog. Streaming video ad firm, Klipmart, has produced a 728 x 300 banner that when expanded upon rollover launches video shot exclusively for the ad. The campaign launched last week in conjunction with the theatrical release of the flick.

As if the image of The Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen's eyes isn't creepy enough, the ad allows users to "Shaggify" themselves, morphing their own uploaded photos with the canine character.

Sounds like a chimera. Does George Bush know about this?

According to the Klipmart release, "In any given week, Klipmart produces online ad units for from 4 to 6 of the top box office grossing films."

Posted by Kate Kaye at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 7, 2006

Could Govt Intervention Muck Up Net Neutrality?

Today's Wall Street Journal features a commentary piece regarding the ongoing "net neutrality" debate, by Bret Swanson, senior fellow at Seattle's Discovery Institute. Not surprising, it takes the more libertarian approach to the issue. Admidst the big telecom takeover threat hype, Swanson's thoughts are worth considering. Even some folks I've spoken with recently regarding the issue have expressed skepticism that legislation will do any good. Here's a bit of what Swanson wrote:

Net neutrality supposedly seeks the modest goal of stopping the cable TV or telecom companies from "blocking" or "degrading" the content or services of online companies like Google, Vonage or AOL, which are invading traditional voice and video businesses.... Blocking and degrading Internet access would quite simply be business suicide for incumbent service providers. Compared to cable's other content operations like basic and premium TV channels, its broadband cable modem services are more than 50 times as profitable per unit of bandwidth consumed. This means that with just a tiny sliver of the usable bandwidth in its pipes, cable's Internet services supply about 20% of the revenue and the majority of their net income. Does anyone really think the bandwidth providers are going to kill their golden goose? A net neutrality regime would invite endless litigation among service providers, hardware and software vendors, and content and applications dot-coms. Who gets access, when, and on what terms, to the other's network, the other's operating system, the other's platform? These questions -- the very ones that have stifled innovation in telecom for the last two decades -- should be left to business competition and, if all else fails, to common law and antitrust. Congress and the FCC cannot be the arbiters of every connection, interface and transaction. And if such laws somehow only targeted the incumbent bandwidth service providers, then they would turn out to be merely malicious political tools for business rivals, decidedly not "neutral" and unlikely to survive the scrutiny of the courts. [The conclusion:] AT&T's biggest challenge may be branding itself to a new generation of voracious communications consumers who are oblivious to "long-distance" and only know a world of no-distance chats, texts and blogs. It would be far better if Washington listened to these teeny-bopper baby belles instead of basing its merger, net neutrality and franchising policies on a Great Grandma Bell world that no longer exists.

Posted by Kate Kaye at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 6, 2006

CBS to Stream March Madness Over Web

CBS SportsLine plans to air the first 56 games of March Madness at NCAASports.com via March Madness on Demand (MMOD). Even on the Web however, availability of each game is subject to blackout due to broadcast agreements in individual local market.

Eighteen advertisers signed on for the special content including Courtyard by Marriott and Dell sharing the role of presentation sponsors. Additional marketers include State Farm, Pontiac and Lowe's Hardware.

Inventory includes in-stream commercials that will air when the broadcast airs its own ads. A source at CBS SportsLine said that while some media buys were sold as packages, other advertisers bought separately. Many of the spots are repurposed TV ads.

Posted by Enid Burns at 5:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 28, 2006

Gamekillers

Gamekillers, an MTV show sponsored by Axe, has a site with extremely well-done interactive video elements. It's TV grade creative, top notch footage with decent acting. It helps that the writing's competent, if -- like the show's premise -- a bit meat-headed.

The site and show are being promoted online via AdWords and AdSense listings. The copy: "The Gamekillers: These are people who cause you to lose your cool & the girl."

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 22, 2006

Time Warner Welcomes Pirates

Time Warner launched OfficePirates.com, a men's interest broadband site with serialized video that parodies office situations like getting fired, office flings and boss and assistant dynamics. The site also hosts photos, jokes, blogs and viral elements like cards, posters and wallpaper.

While there's a decent amount of video at launch, other areas of the site have yet to be populated by staff and user-submitted content in each of the sections.

Currently advertisements seem to be limited to display ads for Dodge and Bacardi. No preroll was available on any of the videos we watched on the site but that's likely to come.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 14, 2006

Akimbo Launches "Click-to-Donate"

Now you can donate to charity with a click of the TV remote.

Video-On-Demand player Akimbo has launched the "Akimbo Cares" channel for non-profits, donating the cost of encoding, hosting and delivering videos supplied by the charitible organizations. All proceeds go directly to each charity, says the company.

The first charities to supply video programming are the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; BizWorld Foundation, which teaches kids money management and business; and The National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 3, 2006

So This Is Super Bowl Advertising!

I've never watched a Super Bowl and I never will watch a Super Bowl. There may not be a lot of certainties in life, but this is one of mine.

What's amazing is how suddenly easy it's become to catch up with practically a lifetime of Super Bowl ads. Heavy.com has the banned ones. Adverlicio.us has the online ones. MSN, Yahoo! and AOL will share Sunday's on-air spots, as will any number of Super Bowl advertisers who will host their broadcast spots on their Web sites after they air.

The Web's a great thing. How else could I keep my life spectator sports-free and still do the job?

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 31, 2006

Heavy.com Launches "Super-Banned Bowl"

This outta attract some eyeballs.

Heavy.com has just announced a line-up of banned Super Bowl ads. Highlights include the GoDaddy "director's cut" and two PETA spots, "Milk Gone Wild" and "Sausage."

Heavy.com's David Carson quipped, "The Super-Banned Bowl is for those companies and organizations who were denied their inalienable right to spend millions of dollars for 30 seconds of glory during the Super Bowl."

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 25, 2006

Video: What Flavor Download Would You Like Today?

Impressive how quickly many sites, blogs and portals are adapting to mobile video.

From Google Video (but not Yahoo!) down to personal Web sites, video downloads are offered in two or three flavors: Windows/Mac; iPod and Sony PSP.

We're going to be seeing more and more of this. Content wants to be free -- from technology restraints. This is part of a much larger trend.

Take Steven Sonderburg's upcoming film, "Bubble," which opens in theatres, on DVD, and high-definition cable TV on the same day. Think IntelMac's Rosetta, which will be able to run both PC and Mac OS programs under the banner "Universal."

Want to get a message across? Don't make your audience scramble for a technology fix before they can hear it. Meet them on their own terms.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 24, 2006

Yo Ho Ho and A Streaming of Rum

Bacardi is hoping young adults will tune in to all Bacardi, all the time.

The rum maker just launched Bacardi Internet Radio "to further integrate our brand with music while offering...access to the Bacardi Experience 24/7." said Group Marketing Shane M. Graber.

It's a true multimedia experience; it's radio! It's adware! According to the company, users can customize their players with images, and will receive live promotion updates through a special ticker on the display. The player features a synchronized motion with the track "to complete the audio-visual in true Bacardi style." Listeners can even submit song requests.

The station can be found on www.BACARDIlive.com, where visitors can access a video library of Bacardi TV spots and event footage, photo galleries, recipes and downloads.

Heck, seems you can do everything but actually drink the rum.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 17, 2006

Friday the 13th, via Greenpeace

I was on vacation when we had Friday the 13th last week, but wanted to share this viral nightmare scenario film, courtesy of Greenpeace.

Non-profits are getting really, really good at online viral marketing.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 6, 2006

When Will Paid Video Give Way to Video Ads?

We are now deep into the second coming of paid content, and it's all about video.

We learn this morning that Google has joined iTunes as a provider of premium video downloads paid for on a per-episode basis. CBS is the first to pony up shows. It'll be déjà vu all over again as network after network pushes content into the Google video index, just as they've done with iTunes. The waning of these content owners' enthusiasm for paid video should come in a year or two, as it becomes clear most consumers would rather not pay $1.99 for a single episode of Monk when they can Netflix a whole season. When that happens, in-stream video ads will be given a shot. If they're discreet and respectful of the user experience, my guess is the audience will grow enormously in a short time.

Advertisers will be thrilled in that event, as the amount of "online" video ad inventory explodes. Online has to be in quotes here, since these videos and ads may very well be served onto a television, PSP, iPod or other device. A larger number of homes will have Windows Media Center (or an equivalent Apple-made or third-party digital media server), and the merger of TV and Internet will have its tipping point.

In other words, every device with a screen will be online. There will be less and less television advertising that isn't delivered on the fly via a network.

That's my best version of how online video advertising becomes TV advertising and vice versa.

But we have to start with $1.99 downloads.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 3, 2006

The Future of Media? It's Getting Here Now

Sure, we knew that anywhere, anytime anything media consumption was right around the corner, but it's always fascinating to see how things take shape. Today DirecTV announced DirecTV 2Go, which is similar to TiVo's "To Go" service -- allowing users to transfer video content to a variety of portable devices. Additionally, Starz rolled out Vongo, an online on-demand and subscription video service. ("No ad-supported content at this time," Starz' Eric Becker told me.) Meanwhile, Sling Media is launching a service that lets you watch all of your TV channels on your mobile phone. In that kind of world, who knows where, and in what environment, your ads will be delivered?

Posted by Pamela Parker at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 12, 2005

The Cable/Internet Convergence

Comcast is forming an Internet division and has named Amy Banse, who had been EVP of content development, to run the show. There's no word yet as to whether the new unit will develop ad-supported content -- Comcast officials I spoke with said it's too early to say.

The company has been doing a lot of interesting things with on-demand programming/advertising. It'll be interesting to see if any of it will be mirrored online.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HGTV launches vertical broadband video channel

HGTV.com has launched HGTVKitchenDesign.com as part of its vertical content strategy, which was outlined in May.

The site is launching with six charter advertisers: Kohler, Moen, Viking, Dupont, Whirlpool and Sherwin Williams. Ad formats include traditional :15 and :30 spots within the videos, banner ads and integration in an interactive kitchen planner which visitors can use to test kitchen design elements. Scripps is also talking to advertisers about creating long-form videos early next year in their content categories.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 3:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 7, 2005

Filmloop Begins eBay Motors Pilot

As expected, Filmloop has launched a pilot program to stream eBay Motors listings to their desktop "photocasting" application. Users can subscribe to a particular make of classic car they're interested in, and then images from auctions in that category are streamed to a "loop" on their desktop. Images can be moused over for more information, or clicked on to go to the eBay listing.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 18, 2005

First Seven Minutes of "Narnia" Coming Next Week

Narnia, Dinsey's holiday season blockbuster, will make a sneak peek available next week. The first seven minutes of the film will be made available online, at least so VitalStream's President and COO Philip Kaplan tells me.

Clips tailored for the Web and even for portable video devices are going to make for some very interesting film promotions. Stay tuned.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

November 7, 2005

Yahoo! and TiVo

An analyst in this Reuters article cracks me up. Here's what she says about the deal between TiVo and Yahoo! that has the DVR's online programming service integrated with the portal's TV section:

"I don't see how it's going to drive new incremental subscribers for TiVo. I don't see how it's going to drive incremental revenue for TiVo," said analyst April Horace of Hoefer & Arnett, who added that the deal still appeared "incrementally positive" for the company.

Hm... How could it drive incremental subscribers and revenue for TiVo? Maybe because the company's got the equivalent of a super-targeted sponsorship on one of the Web's top portals. On every single episode page on Yahoo! TV, a "Record to my TiVo box" link will appear. Indeed, even though I'm not registered for the service, when I look at the info about this Seinfeld rerun, I'm told "You can record this program to your TiVo." It involves a high-traffic portal. It offers utility and exposes the TiVo service (and its capabilities) to a TV-hungry audience. Seems like pretty smart marketing to me.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 26, 2005

2005 Eyeblaster Awards: Voting Open

Cast your vote for this year's Eyeblaster Creative Awards.

The '05 awards are divided into North American and international categories. Nominees of the, er, domestic variety include Liquid Advertising for Bard’s Tale and The Hulk, Modem Media for Delta, Peel Interactive for McDonald’s Dollar Double Cheeseburger, and True North for The Incredibles and Scrubs Season One. Overseas entries include The White Agency in Australia for NRL Bigpond, Feref UK for Ray, and Tyo Interactive in Japan for Maxell.

ClickZ is the EB Awards' returning media sponsor. The ceremony happens November 8 at the Show Nightclub on 41st street.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 18, 2005

Banned? Broadband.

Following in bigger brand Budweiser's path, whose banned Super Bowl ad garnered plenty of online traffic last year, is online retailer Bluefly.com

A number of cable channels won't air Bluefly's really not all that racy spots, but you can see 'em online at www.thatswhyibluefly.com.

The most controversial of the bunch,"The Dinner Party" finally tube-debuts tonight on Bravo!, The WB-Channel 11 and NBC.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 17, 2005

BMWFilms We Hardly Knew Ye

Last call for BMW Films! That's the gist of an e-mail BMW is sending around to registered users, telling them the granddaddy of online branded entertainment (and father of a thousand brand-sponsored film festivals) will come down October 21. Since the "The Hire" series launched, it's logged 100 million views, the company said. The take-down comes four months after the automaker parted ways with Fallon, the agency behind the pioneering film series.

The decision got us at ClickZ talking about the longevity of viral video. Should these things simply die after a certain time, or is it worth supporting them forever so long as you're only paying for hosting? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 4:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2005

Eyeblaster's Answer to PointRoll Included

Through a new program called EyeNet, Eyeblaster is incentivizing publishers to sell its formats, a la PointRoll's included network. From the release:

EyeNet's preferred publisher partners will be comprised of the online industry's leading rich media adopters. They will receive pricing incentives and a full suite of publisher products and services designed to answer their rich media sales needs. Additionally, preferred publishers will receive dedicated support from Eyeblaster's worldwide sales and marketing team.

Agencies will benefit from EyeNet by receiving an all inclusive media cost that does not segment rich media serving fees Another benefit for agencies will be access to EyeNet's vertical lists to simply and effectively target their campaigns. EyeNet's verticals were created to help agencies determine which category of 'preferred' publishers to select when planning a media buy.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 12, 2005

The Power of Broadband (Sponsored by Verizon)

Who knew there was actually a branded entertainment contest? ProMotion Pictures is a film competition that teams the marketing folks from NYU's business school with the artsy crowd from the university's film program. The result? This year, three short films sponsored by Verizon that highlight the power of broadband. Telling the stories of people whose lives were improved by broadband, the films are designed to tie in with the company's "Richer. Deeper. Broader." brand campaign.

Execs from Verizon, from interactive agency R/GA and from McGarry Bowen, the company's corporate ad agency, vetted entries into the competition. The filmmakers selected got $40,000 to shoot the short films over the summer.

R/GA built the site, verizonbroadbandfilms.com, that features bios, blog-like journal entries, storyboards and scripts. The Films site is part of Verizon's user-generated Broadband Stories project.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 6:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple's Message Stays Polished

What promised to be a speed-typing contest has fizzled into wait-and-see. Apple picked a WiFi black hole in which to announce its highly-anticipated "One more thing..." (it's pretty much a given that 'thing' is a video iPod).

Apple's certainly has its issues with bloggers. Still, deliberately putting the kibbosh on live-blogging (or reporting, for that matter) is a very interesting choice, control-the-buzz wise. It'll be interesting to see who takes the hit from this move -- Apple, or the media. Update: It's a video iPod, all right. Advertisers, bring on the branded entertainment! Trade show exhibitors, here's the latest in lead-gen bait for your booth.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 5, 2005

Intel Uses Nearly-new Ad Units for Yahoo! Takeover

If you find yourself at Yahoo!'s home page on Thursday, you'll see Intel's implementation of what Yahoo! calls its "Expando East" and "floating element" ad units. In non-Yahoo-ese, that's a 300x250 rich media ad down the right side of the page, which resolves to 300x100, along with a floating rich media unit that moves around the page outside the traditional ad space.

The implementation has only been done once before, by Pepsi's Mt. Dew in August. The ad, featuring pro skateboarder Tony Hawk, is part of its new Centrino campaign pushing the entertainment power of its latest processors, and it really is a break from the specs-based ads most tech companies use, or even from Intel's own surreal Blue Man Group ads.

"A lot of technology advertisers will do more traditional advertising -- the 'speeds and feeds' kind of thing," Elizabeth Harz, category development officer for technology at Yahoo!, told ClickZ News. "This is a great example of a marketer talking about the benefits of technology, and really making the connection between technology and life benefits, instead of technology for technology's sake."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 30, 2005

MTV VMA Results

Rafat over at PaidContent.org is reporting that MTV's video music awards generated 13 million unique streams since the original event. We wrote about the company's cross-platform plans for the awards last month.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 26, 2005

Google Looking More Portal-Like

Google has struck its first deal to promote TV programming through video content on its site. The search company is working with UPN to make the premiere episode of Chris Rock's "Everybody Hates Chris" available on Google Video.

As Gary Price notes on the SEW blog, Yahoo! previously "aired" the Kirstie Alley Showtime program "Fat Actress" and America Online streamed the WB pilot "Jack and Bobby".

Says UPN president Dawn Ostroff, in the press release:

"UPN's young adult viewers are avid online users, and streaming the premiere episode of EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS on Google Video is the perfect opportunity to reach this audience in a new and creative way," said Ostroff. "Everyone at UPN is very excited about this innovative relationship with Google, which offers viewers who may have missed the premiere the chance to watch it and hopefully motivate them to watch the second episode on UPN."

Posted by Pamela Parker at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 23, 2005

The Source of South-Sourcing

Outsourcing. It's not just for programmers and developers anymore.

Zach's covered the trend among major agencies to oursource rich media work. I had a chance to visit an outsourcing source during my recent visit to Buenos Aires. I wasn't alone - OgilvyInteractive's Executive Director, Eric Wheeler, was down there, too. Sure, we were both speaking at the same conference. But I noticed Eric was also spending quality time with Mookie Tennebaum, head of BA-based United Virtualities. And Eric did tell me Ogilvy's more than open to outsourcing.

I spent an afternoon Gaston Silberman, United Virtualities creative director. He's been making the agency rounds recently in NY and SF. UV is handling all kinds of agency work down there, from banner resizing to creative production, Flash, and video conversion.

Seems sensible. Culturally, Argentina is firmly rooted in the same vernacular we are. Are there differences? Sure. But nowhere near Bangalore-size differences, and with communications, that's what matters. Heck, there's barely even a time difference to speak of. BA's only an hour ahead of New York.

I remember how we used to scrouge for Flash jockeys back in my agency days. They were in short supply -- and they could thus name their price. This kind of puts a new spin on things, doesn't it?

p.s. Ladies, slacks are strongly advised if you visit UV's all-glass headquarters. We're talking glass floors here -- and the place is multi-level. It's a lot of fun to look down between your feet and see what's on someone's lunch plate down below. But as easily as you can look down, they can look up.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 16, 2005

Internet on TV: Big in Japan?

Apparently, five Japanese TV broadcasters are cooking up plans for Internet TV-related with ad giant Dentsu and communications conglomerate Softbank. That's according to a report from Reuters that quotes "sources".

The sources said Softbank aims to create a new joint venture that will launch a Web site with more than 1,000 television programmes distributed by the broadcasters next spring that would be available to viewers at no cost and funded by commercials.

Interesting stuff. Also noteworthy -- U.S. cable player Comcast has been involved in the discussions. It's potentially providing programming, according to the report.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 12, 2005

Emmys Go Interactive

Who said iTV wasn't mainstream? The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the international chapter of the group that brings you the Emmys), have added three new categories to the International Emmy Awards.

• The Best Interactive TV Program award will recognize programming that's been enhanced by interactive content.
• The Best Interactive Channel award will showcase a non-linear on-demand channel that lets the viewer interact and engage with content.
• The Best Interactive TV Service will recognize a television service that lets users access multiple video, audio, data and interactive applications.

The organization is also handing out a Pioneer Prize, to go to an individual who has made contributions to iTV.

The awards will be handed out in Cannes in April, in conjunction with the MIPTV show.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 26, 2005

Live Events Online. Who "Gets" It?

Should we add MTV to the list of media brands that "get" how to put on live video events online? Well, judging from the company's announcement of its plans for the Video Music Awards, it looks like MTV may be about to join AOL on that short list. (You'll remember the highly-lauded showing the portal made in its production of Live 8.)

Even more interesting is MTV's cross-platform integration of its advertisers on the VMAs. According to a Wall Street Journal report (subscription), VMA advertisers like the Gap, Revlon, GM and Virgin Mobile are all offering original behind-the-scenes type video content on MTV's Overdrive broadband channel. Wonder how that will work out, ROI-wise. (The Journal quotes an unnamed source saying the integration deals are going for $4 million to $7 million.)

If MTV succeeds, it'll beat on AOL on the marketing side of live event production, though AOL's new venture shows it's got a lot more up its sleeve. Watch this space.

Posted by Pamela Parker at 3:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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