Nissan is sponsoring Lance Armstrong and making the cycling star central to its campaign for the Leaf electric car. The effort also brings Armstrong into an expanded Nissan alliance with Rodale, Inc. called "Master the SHIFT_" and now in its fourth year. The effort for the car, which goes on sale in late fall, also involves sponsorship of such marquee athletic events as the Boston and New York marathons and the Tour of California bicycle race. Nissan also joins Radio Shack and brands like Nike and Trek as supporters of Armstrong's Team Radio Shack bid for the 2010 Tour de France, which runs July 3-25 this year. The "Master the SHIFT_" effort with Rodale, intended to reach amateur athletes, fans and active-lifestyle consumers, puts Nissan Leaf interactive exhibits and Nissan branding at 18 national running and cycling events this year. Central to the program are three "masters" -- including Armstrong, who will appear in ads in Rodale's active-lifestyle pubs. The masters and their coaches and team members will also blog, tweet, make appearances, and do tutorial Web videos and documentaries. The other two masters are Ryan Hall, Olympic distance runner, and yoga expert Tara Stiles. Nissan says all "Master the SHIFT_" content will be delivered through a customized, multimedia Facebook page: Facebook.com/MastertheShift. Rodale publications in which ads will appear include Bicycling, Men's Health, Mountain Bike, Runner's World, Running Times and Women's Health. Their coaches, trainers and nutritionists will add content on how to become a better athlete. J. Schaffer, Nissan brand integration manager, tells Marketing Daily that Armstrong's team approached Nissan early last year about forming a partnership. "As we started talking a little deeper, we explored the possibilities and it made sense," he says, adding that Armstrong will be involved with the fourth-quarter launch of marketing activity for the car beyond the confines of the Rodale Press/Nissan association. "It's much broader," says Schaffer, adding that the Nissan name is on Team Radio Shack jerseys and that Nissan provides support vehicles to Armstrong's team as well. "We are a key partner," he says, adding that Nissan will also work with co-sponsor Radio Shack to cross-promote the team. He says getting involved with the Boston and New York marathons makes sense because of their global reach. "One of the challenges is we don't have many Leafs in the U.S. right now, so we have had to come up with clever ways of showcasing what the product is all about at these events," he says, adding that in an event last week in Seattle, the company used an interactive kiosk about Leaf that includes a giant projection of the vehicle that one can manipulate to change the vehicle's exterior color scheme. Schaffer says pre-orders have been brisk, with 15,000 consumers plunking down $99 to hold a reservation for the car. "We did a tour early in the year where we took a Leaf concept around the country to build buzz. It generated a lot of hand-raisers. So we are looking at doing a ride-and-drive experience next," he says.
Handing Google a sweeping victory, a federal judge on Wednesday dismissed Viacom's three-year-old copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube. Viacom had alleged that YouTube infringed copyright because the site allegedly contained tens of thousands of copyrighted clips uploaded by users. But U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton in New York ruled that Google was protected by the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which broadly state that sites are immune from copyright infringement liability for material uploaded by users as long as the sites remove the material upon request. Those safe harbor provisions have an exception for sites that know they are hosting unlawful material, but Stanton said that exception did not apply in this case. Stanton specifically rejected Viacom's argument that YouTube should be held liable because its executives were aware that the site was used for infringement. "General knowledge that infringement is 'ubiquitous' does not impose a duty on the service provider to monitor or search its service for infringements," he wrote in a 30-page decision granting Google summary judgment. "Indeed," Stanton added, "the present case shows that the DMCA notification regime works efficiently: when Viacom over a period of months accumulated some 100,000 videos and then sent one mass takedown notice on February 2, 2007, by the next business day YouTube had removed virtually all of them." Viacom said it intends to appeal "as soon as possible." "We believe that this ruling by the lower court is fundamentally flawed and contrary to the language of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the intent of Congress, and the views of the Supreme Court as expressed in its most recent decisions," the company said in a statement. "After years of delay, this decision gives us the opportunity to have the appellate court address these critical issues on an accelerated basis." YouTube praised the decision. "This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other," the company stated. In his ruling, Stanton rejected all of Viacom's arguments against Google. In addition to rebuffing the theory that YouTube was liable because executives knew of infringement on the site, Stanton also rejected Viacom's position that YouTube was comparable to the peer-to-peer company Grokster. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Grokster was liable because it intentionally induced copyright infringement. Stanton wrote that Grokster wasn't comparable to YouTube because YouTube removed infringing clips upon request. Stanton also referenced a 2006 email by Viacom's general counsel that said "the difference between YouTube's behavior and Grokster's is staggering." The judge also adopted YouTube's argument that a Web site has no way of knowing which particular clips are infringing, writing that sites can't readily determine "whether the use has been licensed by the owner, or whether its posting is a 'fair use' of the material, or even whether its copyright owner or licensee objects to its posting." Google had argued that it couldn't tell which Viacom clips were infringing and which were legitimate because the company itself uploaded many of them. In December Viacom withdrew infringement claims for around 250 clips -- including around 100 that were uploaded to the site by its agents. Earlier this year, infringement claims for more than 100 additional clips were dropped from the case. YouTube is at least the second video-sharing site to prevail in a copyright infringement lawsuit. Last year, a federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed a lawsuit by Universal Music Group against video-sharing site Veoh, ruling that the site qualified for the DMCA safe harbors. That judge ruled that the DMCA doesn't require sites to proactively police for piracy; rather, sites need only remove infringing clips upon owners' requests. Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube drew the attention of a host of industry players, including digital rights groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge, Web companies like Amazon and Yahoo and some content owners like NBC Universal. The digital rights organizations and other Web companies sided with Google, while NBC and some other rightsholders backed Viacom.
Video ad platform provider AdGenesis Digital On Wednesday named Jeremy Sterns as its new chief technical officer. Sterns comes from Send Word Now New York, a provider of on-demand alerting and response services for both emergency and routine communication where he had been CTO since March 2007. Prior to Send Word, Sterns co-founded ContextWeb, and is credited with helping to launch the company's ADSDAQ ad Exchange. Founded just last year, AdGenesis has been collecting brand-centric member-provided data through sister company Beezag -- which Sterns will also oversee as chief technical officer. From some 10,000 beta users, Beezag has secured over 200,000 opt-in data points that are made available in the aggregate to its advertisers to inform, alter or improve their marketing messages. Earlier this month, AdGenesis debuted a video ad platform that rewards consumers for watching ads with various deals and incentives. The white-label platform, which functions across media platforms, rewards consumers with savings and other marketing offers for providing information about their buying habits and brand preferences, after watching video ads that are relevant to their "lifestyle preferences." "We felt from the beginning that AdGenesis was unique in creating an experience where consumers want to watch branded content and entertaining ads," said Richard Smullen, co-founder and CEO of AdGenesis. The AdGenesis platform can run on any Web site or mobile device, allowing members multiple access points across the Web and mobile ecosystem. Going forward, the company plans to scale through the mobile interfaces of distribution partners such as PriceGrabber, Stylequest and Home Shopping Network. To date, AdGenesis Digital and Beezag have raised about $4 million from angel investors, including Michael Kassan, chairman and CEO of consulting firm MediaLink; Wenda Harris Millard, president and COO of MediaLink; and Gerry Byrne, former publisher of Variety and SVP of media and entertainment at Nielsen. Separately on Wednesday, AdGenesis named Tremor Media founder Andrew Reis to its Executive Council.
Fox Mobile Group officially announced that its mobile video streaming service, Bitbop, was available starting Thursday. The service will offer streaming video of full-length TV shows for $9.99 a month. Fox said the service will supply programming from "numerous top-notch content partners," including content from rival broadcast networks CBS, NBC in addition to Fox, as well as cable programmers, such as A&E, Comedy Central, Discovery, FX, MTV and USA. The company plans to offer full-length movies later this year. While the service has been talked about for some time, Fox Mobile didn't mention any possible connection with its other big premium streaming video initiative: News Corp's/NBC Universal/Disney's Hulu video service. Nor did Fox mention anything about one major mobile phone product, the iPhone. Fox says Bitbop debuts exclusively on BlackBerry smartphones, including the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve 8900 and the upcoming BlackBerry Tour 9630. Joe Bilman, executive vice president of Global Products for the Fox Mobile Group, stated: "The potential of the smartphone has barely been tapped. Our goal is to provide consumers with an exciting new digital entertainment experience on their handheld devices, and what better place to start than with the original and continuously innovative smartphone." Many other mobile programming services, and video aggregators already exist in the mobile space, including MobiTV, FLO TV and the phone carriers themselves.
Google and Microsoft are scrambling to find ways to please the entertainment industry. Both search engines this week launched separate music services. The move may gain points with recording labels, but it's not clear if they will satisfy artists. The stakes become higher for everyone as rumors heat up online about Google launching a rival music service to iTunes. At a star-studded event in Hollywood to unveil the Entertainment section on Bing that enables consumers to play complete music tracks, T Bone Burnett, writer for the best original song, "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart, told the audience during a panel discussion on technology that Lady GaGa had 220 billion hits on one music video, but her total income from streaming music sales last year was $10,000 (we were not able to confim this figure). Burnett described the creative process as time washing over the tip of a pyramid. There's plenty of room at the bottom to put in a lot of things, but time washes it down from the top into the sand quickly, he says. The artist's job is to put something right at the top and get it to stay there in an effort to be heard among the millions of voices now online. The music industry and innovation will cease to exist unless there is an investment in music, Burnett says. "There are a lot of people making a lot of money today, but the creators of the music are not being rewarded at all," he adds, calling it dangerous for society and the industry. "Google made $28 billion in advertising last year. Their No. 1 search [category] is weather and No. 2 is music." After Burnett told the audience the record industry dropped off 80% following the advent of broadcast radio, Seacrest interrupted to say "now it's getting personal," inviting him to KISS-FM studios where he hosts a morning radio show. Comparing old with new media, Burnett explained how music publishers and copyright owners persuaded broadcasters to share some advertising revenue because broadcasters played music for free and sold advertising. Separately, musician Michelle Mangione took time out from a recording session with Grace Slick to talk with MediaPost. The two are working on a song related to the BP oil spill in the gulf. Mangione says music on the Internet still remains "a bit of a free-for-all" or experiment. She acknowledges that search engines have begun to try to help artists, and that some people pop over to iTunes after hearing the music to buy the track, but "generally people with the most money will always have the most exposure; and therefore, sell the most music." Artists are still trying to figure it all out, she says. While Mangione believes it's all in a day's work to promote and market her music online, she'll now have help from Friendly Music. On Wednesday, Google's YouTube announced a deal with RumbleFish that allows independent artists to license their music for $1.99 to people who want to use the tunes as background for videos they upload to YouTube. The site, Friendly Music, launches June 29. U.S. Internet users watched nearly 34 billion videos in May, and Google sites ranked as the top video property with 14.6 billion videos, representing 43.1% of all videos viewed online, according to comScore. It's not clear how many have music behind the video, but the new service from the company gives people a chance to add it and remain within copyright laws. Google last year rolled out a way to search and discover music on its search engine through a service it calls Google Discover Music. The engine enables you to type in lyrics to find the song. Click the link to hear an audio recording to preview it through one of Google's partners. It also provides links to purchase the recording or learn more about the song.
In the last decade online video has grown from an esoteric hobbyist activity into a multi-million dollar business built around a thriving ecosystem of content creators, publishing and monetization platforms, and various enabling technologies, services and devices. Like many industries born out of the mass consumer embrace of the Internet, online video continues to evolve rapidly. It was only five years ago that the first video was uploaded and shared on YouTube, yet a scan of industry news today reflects a growing conversation around the myriad devices and endpoints from which audiences consume video. Advances in broadband, computer technology and consumer electronics have ushered in a new era of Internet connected, video-capable devices (PCs, smart phones, gaming consoles, tablets, set-top boxes, etc.). Digital technology has also greatly reduced the cost and complexity of creating video content, resulting in the emergence of not only user generated video, but a greater output of professional and semi-professional video content from publishers for whom video was once cost prohibitive. These two trends combined (increased distribution channels and low production costs) have resulted in an explosion of Internet-based video. Media companies and marketers evaluating their video strategy need only to look to the news media to witness an industry that failed to innovate fast enough to meet consumer demand for digital content. As new online news and information delivery models (HuffingtonPost, CNN.com, ESPN.com, Craigslist.org) emerged, the ad dollar pool for local and regional print news outlets shrunk to a fraction of its previous size. Many smaller outlets have gone entirely out of business, and even larger news organizations (Gannett, AP, etc.) have begun to feel the pain. Publishers that fail to innovate and embrace online, mobile and social delivery mechanisms will surely experience the same fate. Digital has evolved beyond the PC. Online audiences are spending increasing amounts of time consuming media from multiple platforms. The introduction of the iPhone and now the iPad have established entirely new markets for the delivery and sharing of live and on-demand video content. According to Nielsen, mobile is now the fastest growing segment of video consumption. And connected devices like Boxee and Roku are meeting pent-up demand from consumers frustrated by the lack of freedom and control over how and when they consume professional broadcast and internet programming. Digital is social. The days of centralized, one-way broadcasting are over. In today's world of social media and transparency, video publishers need to create an authentic experience supported by the social dynamic of friends and like-minded individuals. Facebook and Twitter have become integral to today's media consumption habits, with Facebook poised to revolutionize online advertising (in much the same way Google did with search) through "earned impressions" based on intricate social connections and behavioral history. To be relevant today and engage audiences, publishers need to create video experiences that integrate the social graph and provide a rich interactive experience. These trends are amplified when video content is separated from static digital content. Video is commanding a much higher CPM than traditional display advertising, and advertisers are finding TV less effective as they shift dollars online. Combined with an avalanche of statistics that show more and more people are watching video programming online or on their mobile devices, media companies and marketers are faced with several compelling reasons to quickly determine how they are going to reach and engage with these audiences. While consumer choice and emerging platforms have created new opportunities for publishers, and in some cases entirely new industries, these trends are also the key contributors to growing audience fragmentation, resulting in increased technical challenges for publishers looking to deliver rich video experiences to multi-platform audiences. Adding to this, competing technologies and devices (and the companies who back them) are creating additional technical hurdles for publishers (the Flash vs. HTML5 war being the prime example). For any organization evaluating how to best publish, monetize and scale video in what is becoming an increasingly complex landscape, hare some decision criteria to help you get started: · Evaluate your video strategy through the lens of your broader marketing objectives. Are you already reaching core audiences across social platforms? How about mobile? How can you converge these efforts under a single point of control? · If you're considering working with an online video platform (OVP) provider, examine how different vendors provide mobile, social and connected device capabilities. Can they provide these services natively, or do they work with third parties to provide this functionality? How deep are their roots in mobile and social technology? · How quickly do you need to move? Do you need a partner with built-in native functionality across multiple consumption platforms, or can you handle longer development cycles? · What are your content creation needs? Do you plan to leverage live and on-demand video? How about UGC? Do you have a means of easily moderating this content?