Diggin’ the new ABC show iCaught. Have you see it? They’ve been exploring the different ways in which consumer-generated media is changing the information landscape (I wonder if they’re going to feature XLNTads soon?). In an upcoming episode, they feature the efforts of some people to use video to get some customer satisfaction. With a larger and larger community of people creating and uploading, video now has the power for consumers to have a strong voice in how they interract with companies. XLNTads, of course, hopes to bend that angle towards a positive relationship, but have a look at this piece to see how things can go wrong for a brand with bad communication skills.
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Poptent is our new community site where brands and independent video creators connect.
Archive for the ‘trends’ Category
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iCaught Catches Some CGM Buzz
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HowTo: Online Video Advertising
Online Video Watch pointed us to some great new featured articles on About.com that delve into the emerging rich media advertising market to how to buy video advertising online. Since that’s a big part of what we’re making here at XLNTads.com, I was excited to see the subject being covered in such depth.
The bottom line?
The online video ad market is ripe with opportunity, and it is a lot easier to begin than the buzz would have you believe. While there are arguments for and against pre-roll, whether 15-seconds or 30-seconds is the right length, or whether or not using TV assets online is the best way to proceed, one thing is clear. Video advertising is extremely effective. Don’t wait before the landscape is oversaturated to bring your brand into video advertising.
About.com has also produced a series of seven videos that discuss the market. For example, here is Harry Case, managing partner, director of media analytics and technology, Mindshare (no embeding, click through to view) bringing up some great points about consumer-generated advertising:
Tags: about.com, advertising, online, video, marketing, cga, xlntads, howto
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Shift Towards User-Generated Content
It’s happening and it’s happening fast. eMarketer estimates about 63 million United States-based Internet users are also creating some form of content online. They estimate that 2011, over 95 million people will do so. And of course, those numbers are only expected to continue to rise.
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MySpace is Dead, Long Live MySpace
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
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Not Like We Need to Be Told, But Video is Hot
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.