XLNTads - Connecting Brands and Creators

I wrote Jackson West to thank him for posting about XLNTads (and thereby leading to this job), and he was psyched enough to post about it on NewTeeVee.com, Om Malik’s widely read blog on new media and video. Have a look.

I guess it’s about time this happened. I’m actually surprised it took this long. Mashable! is reporting that the Lonelygirl15 team is scripting in a new character who is basically there to sell Neutrogena. While of course, most people’s first reaction is, ‘what sell outs!’ I think it’s important to remember that those guys were all just prosumers like the rest of us. Making videos in their bedroom during free time.

And while no one has really yet figured out how to monetize consumer-generated content, Lonelygirl15 is taking a step in a new direction (a long proven one for networks and film studios).

My only question is, who’s next? Nalts using Gillette’s line of shaving cream next time Renetto shaves his head? Oh wait, maybe he’s already one step ahead of us:

Tags: nalts, lonelygirl15, mashable, video, marketing, advertising, viral, renetto

Get yrs now! Here’s a video of a ripoff iPhone being pulled out of the box. The video’s probably worth it’s weight in gold to Apple’s marketing department having already gone viral, even though they’re probably scrambling to stop the makers.

Tags: viral, marketing, iphone, apple, video

Read/Write Web just posted a fantastic and highly recomended list of their ‘8 Ways to Remix Online Videos‘.

Bravo.

You know, since we still are. But not for long, baby! We’re launching our site in only a couple weeks. Stay tuned for more.

In the meantime, check out Under the Radar. They’re hosting a one day conference in Mountain View, CA on June 28th, 2007 and our very own Tom Hernandez will be reprisentin’! XLNTads will join three other companies on stage for a presentation on the latest trends and opportunities in consumer-generated advertising. Each company will have six minutes to share who they are, what they do and why they are the next “big thing” in their category.

Be there or be square.

All over the tech blogs today is a rumor that says that Yahoo! is interested in buying MySpace for 25% of its own stock ($10+ billion). Man, what a dumb thought.

The way I see it, and believe me, I’m an avid user, MySpace is going to die a slow, horrible death. But not before some schmucks throw another few billion down the drain thinking they’re on the ‘cutting edge‘ of marketing.

MySpace is still the big kid on the block for finding and friending new bands, for example. And a decent way to keep your friends posted on your happenings (although, damn, I wish you could change the size of the bulletin board, or grab a damn RSS feed now and again!).

The problem arises when MySpace’s marketing potential, slowly but surely, becomes a whore to its own medium and devours itself. I haven’t had a “real person” ask me to be their friend on MySpace in months. Everything I get is a band, a new company, a film, a new non-profit. Sure, I’ll friend up some of the good ones, but more and a couple of my friends are fed up with it. Sick of the ugliness of it all (both in design, but also in the mounting spam). Once MySpace gets completely spammed up, forget it. Once non-humans (read: non-consumers) invade the space, it loses value exponentially.

Spam will off MySpace for good. But the main reason MySpace will die is despite rampant calls for it to innovate, it does nothing but sluggishly plod along and play copy-cat. Facebook’s new API is the beginning of the end. All my friends are heading to VIRB.com.

Why a company like Yahoo! would think it’s a good idea to do the proverbial ‘friend up’ with the FOX brand is beyond me.

Tags: myspace, virb, social networking, marketing, yahoo!, trends

It almost seems like old news already. But like most of us thought, the numbers are in. Jeff Jarvis pointed out some staggering numbers on his blog Buzz Machine:

Daily usage of online video rose by 56 percent over the last year. In 2006, 9 percent of 12- to 64-year-old Americans who used the Internet reported using online video daily — every day. Today, in 2007, this number has risen to 14 percent of Americans 12 to 64 years old.

His post, which quotes from a survey by Magrid is heavy on numbers. I have to pull out one more quote:

Over a third of online Americans 12 to 64 watch online video news stories regularly. Video content described as jokes/bloopers, weather, and movie previews are tied for second most regularly viewed video content. Closely following these are music videos and “videos shot by consumers and uploaded to Web sites like YouTube” — a more consumer- friendly way of saying “user-generated content.”

So not only is online video popular and gaining on old media, user generated video is high on the list of consumed content. Will this change the more Old Media join the game? I believe we’re going to see a huge rise in the prosumer market. Not quite pro, but much more savvy than your average consumer.

That would be… me!

My name is Mark and from now on, I’ll be tending this blog for the good folks here at XLNTads. I’d be happy to field yr questions about me, XLNTads or online video in general.

If you’re the curious sort, and you’d like to know more about me, have a look at one or more (at yr leisure, captain!) of my other blogs and vlogs: The Poverty Jet Set, Cheap Dates Video Podcast or Live Music Journal. Cheerio!

Consumer generated advertising (CGA) is creating a stir among marketers and in the marketing media. Experiments abound, ranging from the high profile effort for Doritos on the Super Bowl, to obscure design campaigns on brand websites.

Interest in this new advertising model has been stimulated by concerns over two increasingly visible weaknesses of the traditional advertising model: a lack of authenticity in communications and diminishing creative output. Consumers are becoming immune to the slick and formulaic messaging styles of the past, and remain indifferent to messages that rarely reach even a minimum threshold of creativity.

CGA provides, by definition, a true consumer voice. It also provides a potential creative windfall for marketers. Aren’t there creative minds outside Madison Avenue, in the far reaches of America, in Dubuque and Las Cruces, in Toledo and Billings? Doesn’t CGA offer a way to tap into this bigger pool and, indeed, to do this more cost effectively than by paying large sums to the black shirts in traditional agencies?

As with any new model that challenges convention, CGA does create controversy. A recent article in the New York Times, “The High Price of Creating Free Ads”, presents a cautionary tale. Focusing primarily on the recent H.J. Heinz campaign, which solicited homemade ads from consumers via YouTube, the article highlights some potential pitfalls in the model. Still, the article is less an indictment of CGA than a story about what can go wrong. Indeed, at XLNTads we agree with much of what the article says. A lot can go wrong. Fortunately, the XLNTads model offers a solution to all of the potential pitfalls noted in the article.

Essentially, the Times’ article offers 3 areas for concern: low quality, process complexity and cost.

1) Low Quality Consumer Submissions

The article emphasizes that many of the entries to the Heinz competition were “mediocre, if not downright bad.” Why is that so surprising? Advertising isn’t easy, even for established creative agencies. Does the agency establishment forget that they themselves may go through hundreds of bad ideas, spending considerable sums “consumer testing” many of them, before finding the occasionally great idea? CGA merely goes through this process in an open and public way.

The key for brand marketers is to reach the talent that’s out there, waiting to be discovered and keen to demonstrate what they can do. A cattle call on YouTube is not the solution. Brands need to target that talent, and XLNTads provides a way to do that. No one can guarantee a great ad, not even the big ad agencies, but we can guarantee more qualified submissions by a cohort of videographers than any other site.

2) Process Complexity

The article points out that running a CGA campaign can be messy. It involves designing and managing a campaign. It involves addressing legal issues, e.g., determining rights to music in submitted ads. It involves the time consuming activity of screening ads.

None of this should come as a surprise. Many of these things have to be done for any ad campaign. What is different with CGA is that companies and agencies have no established process for doing it. So engaging in CGA becomes disruptive. XLNTads has developed a system to make the process easy for brand marketers. We have the platform; we screen the ads; we even have music pre-approved and cleared. We offer a virtually turnkey solution.

3) Cost

The primary criticism of CGA is embodied in the Times’ article’s title: “high cost”. Creating the campaign, promoting it, vetting the ads, etc., all takes people and money. Advertising spending to promote some campaigns has run into the millions.

There are two points to keep in mind here. First, much of the cost is discretionary. CGA campaigns don’t have to be backed up by millions in TV spending. Using XLNTads, for example, a company could run an entire campaign, including moderate promotion spending, for $200-300 thousand. Second, the real issue is value for money. Doritos is cited in the article as spending “$1.3 million in advertising in October”. What isn’t cited is their marketing director’s revelation that the campaign generated the equivalent of $36 million in paid media. Real bang for the buck.

The article emphasizes that while “it sounds so easy … (to) sit back while average Americans do the creative work”, it’s not. We agree. But XLNTads has created a model that addresses all the problems cited. We offer an easy, lost cost way to explore CGA. And we can work with you to design a campaign that fits your needs and exceeds your ambitions.