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RSSNow, I watch videos on YouTube and I watch videos on Hulu. Frankly, I think they are both great for what they are. And to me that precise combination of words, "what they are" is a key in being able to enjoy them. Everyone has a notion of what YouTube is all about and the content there is decidedly not just about the often-cited-now-clichéd cat flushing a toilet. I know just as many people who watch excerpts of shows, concerts, cooking tips -- you name it -- and are thrilled to find those things.
And Hulu is wonderful. The user interface is streamlined, intelligent, and intuitive. And the content diversity continues to grow with an interesting mixture of old, nostalgic, and new.
But Google's recent announcement that "Family Guy" creator Seth McFarlane will be creating exclusive content for Google and served up as part of its AdSense system demands attention. First, the content is uniquely tied to ad revenue through pre-rolls, post-rolls, or overlays. Second, the content is from a proven creator of programming. Third, there is a significant budget associated with creating the content for "Seth McFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy," a collection of 50 two-minute episodes. In several different reports, that production cost is purported to be in the multimillions. Fourth, the ever elusive "what's the business model?" question appears to be answered in that when a viewer clicks on the video clip, that advertiser pays a fee. Fifth, the general viewer make-up for this content is better known than is usually the case. This makes it possible to push the content to where the viewer is addressed, instead of creating a presence to which interested viewers must proactively navigate.
The notion (and the allure) that there may be a way to offer one piece of content that is associated with X number of advertisers for those two minutes is enormous. What does a time-slice mean when you can do that? Instead of being able to only sell, say three spots, if the content is syndicated to 50 sites, that's 150 slices for ad placement (pre-roll, overlay, and post-roll). And who wouldn't be tempted to place that bet?
Signiant recently participated in an iHollywood webinar that was entitled, "The Truth about Digital: Fact vs. Fiction in the Digital Supply Chain." One of the questions I received had to do with how content will be delivered based on user preferences and user input, and how the content would potentially be reformatted on-the-fly according to a viewer's "input or settings." Much of this will need to be accomplished by what I like to refer to as "automated recombinant digital media workflows" (how do you like that?), that have to be modeled, created, and put in place very quickly.
I think that the "where's the business model," "the content looks crappy," "you won't own the content" musings are rapidly turning into very well-thought-out approaches -- and those notions are going to become meaningless in very short order.
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This remains the age old problem that TV solves and that a select few websites like YouTube also seem to have a handle on.
Quit solving the technology problem. Technology is a commodity. There's plenty of it around and not enough demand. Solve the distribution and discovery problems - you'll be EVERYBODY'S hero then!
my .02 JB
With video advertising, they may both have different approaches here but I iwll focus on YouTube's strtegy: 1st of all, I don't see a viable approach that gives advertisers a great value for a $50k entry point. With the latest press release out there about advertisers concerns over their ad popping up next to questionable content--they seem to have a long way to go to garner the interest of big brands.
What about the 25 million small businesses across the U.S.? What does YouTube provide for them? With video advertising costs almost as expensive as television advertising, the same 17000 advertisers that support the industry are going to continue advertising over the Internet with Video (if YouTube can make them feel comfortable and they adopt the CPM--banner ad model) What about the other 24,983,000 businesses in America?
www.hotpluto.com, although not nearly the size of YouTube, can grow to establish quite a pressence in video advertising because the site is: - Just for video advertising - Entry points are $19.95 to $99.95 per month with fixed monthly budgets - Business profiles and weblinks are included with the video ad - Accounts get up to 7 video ads - They can post to multiple categories - They can create and offer online discount coupons - They can interact directly with consumers - And they can tract comprehensive Web Stats
This type of video advertising will attract many of millions of businesses that have been out of traditional advertising in the past because it has been cost prohibitive.
Both YouTube and Hulu provide meaningful content--no doubt. The quesiton is, how much of the video advertising community will they attract and what value will they provide.
There are other ways--better ways to do things. Sites like www.hotpluto.com don't ovelay ads on other content and they don't make video advertising intrusive.
While day-to-day parts of Google, MSFT, Yahoo, and others are simply trying to find more ways to stream pre, post, and overlay ads, other (more forward thinking, IMHO), are focused on how to give the consumer what they want, where they want it, and delivered how they like it. This 'new' model (first discussed in 94 in Wired Mag) called Superdistribution, provides all of this, and can even cut the viewer in on the revenue streams.
Microsoft has built to it, Adobe is aiming there, and my company, Digital Containers now has a fully operational system. While streaming will always have it's place, superdistribution models have more advantages to both content owner and viewer.
There's a good demo of superdistribution in action for valuable video at:
http://tinyurl.com/superdistribution
It gives Google the opportunity to leverage the massive reach of the AdSense network, plus YouTube, to become the dominant distributor of original Web shows.
Without effective distribution and promotion, many new shows will simply never be found by their target audience. And the same goes for the ads.
More analysis of the ramifications of the deal here:
http://tinyurl.com/sethgoogle
Empact can relate hundreds of products to any piece of video. The nice thing about Empacts technology is it's based on what you see and hear, not time so hundreds of advertisers can be related to a single video.