I’ve become a fan of Heroes, an ongoing series by NBC. Interestingly enough, I time shift, medium shift, and control the content in the way I want to. The first season, I didn’t watch on TV, we rented the episodes from the local Blockbuster (not online). For season 2, which just started, I’m watching the episodes online from the NBC site.
The have pre-roll ads, that are about 30 seconds, which you cannot fast forward. The advertising videos are actually interesting, as they change them up for different sponsors and there are links to learn more. For example, last week, there was an interactive game in addition to the video for a new Nissan crossover. This week, Bertolli is launching a frozen dinner product, and there are links to video recipes, very interesting. After the spot plays, the user is required to click on the add to advance. 3-5 times during each episode a 30 second spot is run, which I can’t fast forward.
I’m in control of:
1) What I watch
2) When I watch
3) What medium I watch
4) How I watch (I can start and stop)
5) Where I watch (mobile)
In return, a few 30 second spots, that are related to my interest don’t bother me at all, although I would prefer if I could select (rate and comment too) the types of commercials I want to watch, increasing the opportunity for the message to be on mark.
Most of the control over TV medium is now in my hands, although the 30 second spot doesn’t seem as intrusive. The web and TV continue to intersect, with the control moving to my hands, the savvy media brands realize, embrace and change.
Brian Keith (of Portent) and I have been interacting online from blogs, emails, and phonecalls for quite sometime. I’m glad to finally meet him in San Francisco on a roofop terrace at the FamilyOven headquarters. He’s involve with Search Marketing, and I asked him some key questions. And yes, he was avoiding the sun, those Seattle need to get out more.
BTW the Portent website has baby pictures of them, and it reads “We were born for Internet Marketing” clever!
Find out what the web strategist should know about Search Marketing before getting started.
It’s amazing, the internet is a tool that can free the world, spread democracy, the wishful thinking of communism and socialism, yet we still return to our human instincts to create hierarchies –against our better judgment.
We create lists “A-Lists” and point to leaders, who in turn get other information (under embargo) yet shifting the power of media from traditional to the new influencers.
Despite the nobility of such idealistic causes, I’ll just go along with it, since I’m guiltier than most. Transparency: I’m guilty at bragging too, I’ve worked hard, and it want it to be known… how human of me.
To prove my point, recently, there’s been a few lists created of bloggers, last year, it was for the overall blogosphere:
This week, Techmeme, released a list of top websites and blogs (noticed I used “and”) in the tech industry. Please note that many of the top “blogs” are actually web magazines with multiple authors, editorial policy, agenda and calendar, here’s the list:
And now, the top Analyst blogs are released. Nathan notices that one firm is dominating the space. It’s interesting to note that most of the top blogs are from Forrester, which was highly factored into my decision for joining this team. The other analyst firms lock up their bloggers for clients to read only. I met the CEO today, he embraces this new world and supports the intimacy that these tools can bring between Analysts and Customers.
Here’s the the top 100 Analyst blogs (using similar methodology):
To further the whole numbers thing, I just completed a “Social Media Scorecard” around the entire Web Strategy Brand. I’ve documented the brand on the various tools that I’m using, you can check it out here. It’s during a milestone period of my life as I transition to a new role. Sorry to disappoint for all the cavalier self-importance here, but I’m not the only one doing it.
Arrived in Hong Kong, although my fifth time here, the sheer size and energy of the city that’s always under construction always amazes me. The flight over, on Singapore’s luxurious planes was fantastic, I feel rested when fully reclining in a chair after 14 hours of flight (flickr photos). On the way over, I was able to read a ton of Forrester material, analyze a few strategies, and just relax.
Tonight is the Hong Kong Blogger dinner that I encouraged everyone to come to, there’s over 60 folks, and OutBlaze, a white label communications company has offered to be a gracious host. I’ll be hanging with them and other technologists over the next few days to understand Hong Kong’s web scene better.
I’m here as I’m speaking at the CLSA investors conference. CLSA is a brokerage, consulting, event and analyst firm. There are about 2500 investors from all over Asia here at the Grand Hyatt (flickr photos), with speakers from the largest corporations and China, and even entertainment by the band INXS, which I grew up on. I have distinct memories of them in Sixth Grade, although my kid sisters had a blank look on their face when I brought up their name “in excess what?”
When I meet people from the Finance industry, I often tell them I’m in “new Media” first, if they probe farther I’ll explain it as social media or social computing, so far, most understand.
I’m also reading, listening, and absorbing data points about Asia’s web scene. Today, one of the executives of China Mobile presented, she gave quite a few facts, trends and data points. Wireless infrastructure for one of the world’s largest cell phone market (China), will access the web via the phones.
Asia’s Growing Web and Mobile Industry
China Mobile has 21% growth last year
China Mobile has 68% market share in China
They are deploying ‘nodes’ into Rural areas, which can quickly scale
In other reports, from CLSA’s Elinor Leung, I learned that China is 2nd to Japan in Web Advertising
The Beijing Olympics will be a major web advertising opportunity and spike
Beijing is pushing the digital/broadband experience for the Olympics
Broadband in China is 14%
Advertising Spend: Online Growth is 68%, while the second highest, radio is a mere 20% growth.
It’s truly an international conferences, at the back of some rooms, there’s small glass enclosed boxes where translators sit and transmit to wireless devices so everyone in the audience can absorb the knowledge.
Hey Web Strategist! Are you paying attention to what’s happening in Asia? There’s going to be a lot of eyeballs here, what are you doing about it? Here’s some stats from the World Internet Usage.
Have a story to tell?
My schedule the rest of the week? It’s Tuesday right now, but on Wednesday, I’ll be visiting some of the offices of folks that hosted the dinner, and will meet a few other entrepreneurs. I speak on Thursday, and am free on Friday if you wanted to meet for tea or coffee here at the Grand Hyatt to discuss Asia’s web industry, I’m very curious in learning more.
Imagery tied to a brand will still remain important to the corporate marketer, Is your irrelevant corporate website needing a refresh of it’s marketing images? Lucky Oliver uses pro-amateurs to fuel their image library, where they explain it’s about building a concept or image. Recently zooomr has entered the pay-for-image, but it’s suggested that Lucky Oliver has rights and prosumer quality unlike public sites.
THe Internet Outsider demonstrates the formula most of us have already figured out, the web is causing a shift in advertising dollars (although not the most important attribute, but a key indicator to what’s changing)
“US advertising revenue at 4 big online media companies–Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO), AOL (TWX), and MSN (MSFT)–grew by $1.3 billion in Q2, or 42%.
US advertising revenue at 15 big television, newspaper, magazine, radio, and outdoor companies (Time Warner, Viacom, CBS, etc.) shrank by $280 million in Q2, or 3%.”
42% online vs -3% traditional
Read the bottom line on this spreadsheet analysis. Google is growing hand over fist at 96% while NYT has a decrease by 6%.
Quite interesting that mainstream media would suggest that other factors were to blame such as the “real estate market” or “cyclical weakness.” Take a step back, look at how your kids are communicating, and see the forest.
Well, the title is a bit misleading, the money is already coming to the online space, but I’m seeing more and more reports that advertising dollars both on newspapers and TV will shift to the web. Read the Financial Times’ article on Online ads to overtake US newspapers.
Why is this important? The web is a platform for TV, the newspapers are going digital, and it’s the underlying infrastructure for mobile devices.
[Near vertical adoption curve: In just 15 years the web becomes the most dominant medium on the planet]
“Spending on internet advertising willl reach $61.98 billion, and will surpass newspapers to become the nation’s leading ad medium in 2011, projects private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson in its 21st Communications Industry Forecast released today.”
Shift of the advertising dollars:
“Growth of 25.79% is projected for ad spending on traditional media-based Internet sites, which hit $8.585 billion in 2006, and is projected to reach $27.2 billion in 2011.”
How does this impact Social Media?
“Blog, podcast and RSS advertising is projected to reach $1.138 billion by 2011, registering the fastest growth rate at a 70.9% CAGR forecast from 2006-2011.”
Stories are great, but data is powerful, so read all my other posts tagged Web Usage, or Reading Samplers.
This is great, this blog that you’re reading makes the list of the top media and marketing blogs, find out the top blogs according to Ad Age. Funny thing is, I don’t even consider this a Marketing blog, this is a “Web” blog. I find the integrated index is a good way to rank blogs, much better than relying on incoming links like Technorati does. Not bad, since I’ve only been on this domain for 14 or so months!
It’s interesting to note that many of the folks who scored better than I have SEO strategies. I’ve got one coming…stay tuned for details.
What’s my secret? I give away as much information as I can to help others (except the really important info to my employer), I really believe that the more you let go, the more will come back.
My wife says I need to ‘bump it up’ because 24 is a bad number in Chinese numerology. The Chinese words for twenty four translate to ‘easy death’ in cantonese…gulp.
Viral videos, the craze of internet advertisers and online media groups. If any agency ever promises you they can deliver this, they’re lying to you, as the elements need to be just right.
I’m a big believer in community marketing as opposed to ‘viral marketing’ I’d rather build a thriving communigy of customers, users, partners, and employees than risk all my resources on the potential to get a one hit wonder.
In any case, here’s a great list of the top 10 viral videos. I’ve embedded them below for your ease.
NIKE
“This clip is one of the all time greatest virals ever, with more than 50 million views globally. Featuring world famous soccer star Ronaldinho hitting the crossbar no less than four times, without the ball touching the floor”
AGENT PROVOCATEUR
“Kylie Minogue rides a velvet bucking bronco wearing nothing but lingerie from Agent Provocateur.”
JOHN WEST SALMON
“A John West employee fights a grizzly bear off to land a fish”
QUICKSILVER DYNAMITE SURFING
“How to go surf in a country without waves: a group of young men throw a bundle of dynamite into an urban lake. Whether the clip was real or not was never really discovered, a factor that itself garnered attention.”
BIG AD
“The Carlton Draught Big Ad is an award-winning advertisement for Carlton Draught created by George Patterson and Partners (Young & Rubicam) of Melbourne, which used viral marketing techniques before being released on television.”
TROJAN GAMES
“In 2003, to launch Trojan Condoms in the United Kingdom, the “official” web site for the so-called “Trojan Games” was created with several clips by UK-based The Viral Factory.”
DOVE EVOLUTION
“Already a classic, even though it is one of the newest campaigns in this selection. Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto, used time-lapse photography to show the transformation of an normal woman into a glamorous billboard model using beauty stylists and Photoshop enhancements. The clip was released under the slogan ‘No wonder our perception of real beauty is distorted’.”
BERLITZ – WHAT ARE YOU ZINKING ABOUT?
“A viral video campaign featuring a language difficulty in a European coastguard station.”
DIET COKE & MENTOS BY EEPYBIRD.COM
“This campaign was never planned, neither by The Coca Cola Company nor Mentos. It started out as an experiment by Eepybird with a video showing two men adding Mentos tablets to a Diet coke. Watch to see the results. Several videos resulted, which makes it difficult to estimate exactly how many views the campaign has generated so far. But a qualified guess would be more than 50 million in total, including both the original and all the user generated videos.”
MARK ECKO – STILL FREE
“The best virals usually lead to massive attention and, in some cases, controversy and outrage. This is exactly what happened to Mark Ecko. Having started several enterprises around the hip/hop, skater and style scene, Ecko decided to create a ideological statement on the First Amendment. He filmed a session of himself ”tagging” Air Force One and used the following hype to explain why. Did he really spray grafitti on the President’s jet? Judge for yourself by following the link below.”
