How will new creative TV ads impact online ads?
April 30th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
NPR aired a story this evening about a new set of Nielsen ratings that will help measure viewership of commercials during this year’s up-fronts. The story explains that as digital video recorders make it easy for viewers to skip ads, the networks are under pressure to ensure that advertisements are being watched.
This has encouraged networks to introduce new ideas such as ten second entertainment-only clips mixed in with the ad break, such as Scrubs’ recent “pod-buster”. Alternatively, the CW network has created two minute entertainment blocks that are merely sponsored, a mention of the advertiser is subtly incorporated.
It seems that it’s not just YouTube who has to be creative in order to get their advertisments viewed. And I wonder what kind of new online ads will come out to ensure viewership?
Will YouTube’s new ad model fly with viewers?
April 27th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
In an effort to generate big revenue, YouTube plans to roll out ads this summer. It sounds interesting, but of course, lots of questions linger. How will the millions of devoted YouTubers react? Will this developing ad model ever eventually rival big media? Will the likes of ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and others shake in their collective boots?
As noted in a recent Red Herring article, YouTube believes its rabid users will watch ads “as eagerly as so-called noncommercial content.” Maybe some of them will, but what about the myriad others, those who watch YouTube exclusively for the wacky, creative, original content? Will the new ads be exclusively wacky, creative and original? And more importantly, will these myriad others want to watch ads to begin with, even brief non-traditional ones that precede videos?
It’s way too early to predict, but summer’s just around the corner.
More than Friendly Competition?
April 25th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
Viacom has made no effort to disguise its animosity toward Google, but are its blows toward the newly-minted “most valuable brand” a reflection of intense competition or are they of a more sinister nature? Yesterday, BusinessWeek’s Andy Beal proposed that Viacom’s action may not be solely in the interest of protecting content, but perhaps may be part of a larger effort to seek revenge on the company. As Viacom continues to wage its battle, pulling more allies to its side and partnering with smaller Google/YouTube competitors, does this spell disaster for Google? Or can Google survive the multidirectional ambush without traditional media companies on its side?
Also, check out NewTeeVee, which has an interesting analogy of the Google attack landscape.
Do media companies simply want to put Google in its place or take it out all together?
The Fierce Fight for Online Ads
April 23rd, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
Major newspaper publishers like the New York Times, Gannett and Tribune reported declines in Q1 profits as ad revenue continues to shift from print to online. And conversely, Google, which noted its ad business is still in its formative years, had a monster Q1.
The understatement of the week is that the competition is fierce for online ad dollars. Media and publishing companies need to continue their Internet expansion plans or this ad revenue downturn will continue in Q2…and it takes neither a skilled financial analyst nor an Internet TV marketer to predict that outcome.
Media companies like Hearst have recently thrown their gloves in the Internet TV ad ring – they’re aggressively developing innovative broadband offerings, giving advertisers access to key niche markets…and niche markets are a key ad-dollar driver.
Will MySpace News mean MySpace Ad Dollars?
April 19th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
Interesting news coming out of MySpace on the social network front…the anticipated MySpace News service is finally being launched to help boost ad revenue and keep its audience on the site for longer periods of time. The new service will display reader-recommended stories, ranked according to their popularity level. But will this translate into sought-after advertising dollars?
We and the media and publishing companies with whom we work are big believers in the power of social networking; after all, anything that helps broadband channels increase ad dollars is great, but are MySpace-ranked stories that particular “anything”?
We’re not skeptics; we merely like to ask questions.
A little too late?
April 18th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
Is Google waving the white flag? According to Eric Auchard’s article yesterday from the Web 2.0 Expo, Google Chief Eric Schmidt announced that the company is on the verge of introducing “Claim Your Content,” a copyright protection tool that will enable media owners to automatically detect and report piracy on YouTube. Wasn’t this what Viacom was demanding Google develop several months ago? And wasn’t it Google’s resistance that sparked the fire for Viacom’s huge lawsuit against them last month? When Schmidt was asked about this by a trusted reporter, he admitted that, “as the product rolls out, the issue becomes moot”.
But is it really a moot issue? Only time will tell.
Men Lead in Online Video Fun, but Women not Far Behind
April 16th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
Reuters published an interesting article late last week highlighting the different online video habits between men and women – drum roll please…men are watching more videos online.
The article noted that men are more visual and utilize the Internet for leisure, whereas women use it for accomplishing day-to-day errands or work-related tasks. To us, this sounds a little stereotypical.
Women’s’ real disinterest in online video comes from the lack of content available – although YouTube has become a media magnet for its humorous nature and user-generated skits, it’s not necessarily the content women care about.
This is where the major media and publishing companies have a leg up – eMarketer predicts nearly 85% of women will be Internet video viewers by 2011, and they won’t be on YouTube. Hearst recently launched an Internet video channel for TeenMag.com and will soon launch 12 others for magazine brands including Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan; media companies are starting to provide more video for women.
As the Reuters article noted, media giants have a real opportunity with the growing female audience…with enhanced online video offerings, women have more flexibility to catch their favorite shows online whenever and wherever they want.
The fun truly never stops in Internet TV land
April 13th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
It’s been a busy 36 hours (or so) and we’ve seen some big broadband TV news coming out of our nascent industry: On the heels of the NBC/News Corp. venture, CBS announced its own Interactive Audience Network to distribute programming through online platforms. And yesterday, Comcast announced it would buy Fandago (and not just because its execs wanted to go to see a movie). The new online entertainment destination, Fancast.com, will launch later this summer, possibly around the time of the NBC/News Corp. launch.
Opportunities abound for us brave souls who enjoy watching ITV, and if this recent news is any indication, this summer is gonna sizzle (and not just due to global warming).
Print Glory Days?
April 11th, 2007 | Posted by Todd Boes
With the advent of broadband video channels, you would’ve thought that the major media companies would be leaving their print brethren in the dust, but not so fast. It’s undeniably true that magazines and newspapers have struggled to stay relevant in their traditional formats…and conventional wisdom says that print publications will go the way of the dinosaur within the coming years. But these “antiquated” news and entertainment repositories have taken the broadband video market by the horns, creating their own Internet TV channels with original content, and even integrating online video into their Web sites.
During the past month, Hearst has launched online video channels for twelve of its magazines. Newspapers are redesigning their sites and increasing online video content. Print publications are making progress fast because they have a major advantage over the media companies – they don’t need to battle portals and intermediaries for control of their content because they’re creating it…to be broadcast online…ahhh, the beauty of broadband video.
This is a feel-good story we feel good about.
