Marking its first collaboration with Ben Silverman's Electus entertainment studio, Yahoo Wednesday launched a new video series intended to capitalize on the popularity of TV shows like "Dancing with the Stars" and dance videos online. "Ready. Set. Dance!" will present a dance competition over 12 weekly episodes on Yahoo Music with State Farm serving as the sole sponsor. Each three- to-five-minute show will feature a pair of contestants, selected through an audition process, who must break into their dance routines on the spot whenever they get a phone call from host Adrienne Bailon. Online voters will decide which of the two dance contestants take home the $10,000 prize. In the premiere episode, graying, chunky "Will" had to get up and dance on the median just above 23rd St. in New York, while young "Marissa" showed off her moves to a Times Square crowd. State Farm branding wraps around the "Ready. Set. Dance!" site and a prominent banner ad allows viewers to find their local agent. Bailon also introduces each episode with a brief "Presented by State Farm" message. "Understanding the popularity of dance contests among our target audience, State Farm sees this as an innovative opportunity to connect with young adults in the online space in a fun, engaging way," said Tim Van Hoof, advertising director at State Farm, in a statement. The new show is among the latest in a line of short-form branded series that Yahoo has rolled out in recent years, including "This Week In Music," backed by Target; "The 411 on omg," sponsored by Starburst; and "Daytime in No Time." And "Ready. Set. Dance!" is the second Yahoo video series sponsored by State Farm after backing "Spotlight to Nightlight" last year, which drew 7.2 million streams. It's the first program, however, resulting from a partnership earlier this year between Yahoo and Electus, the digital studio started by ex-NBC Entertainment co-chair Silverman and IAC/InterActiveCorp. Before joining NBC in 2007, Silverman's Reveille production company was responsible for producing hits such as "The Biggest Loser," "Ugly Betty" and "The Office." Silverman was also known for embracing branded content. Jimmy Pitaro, Yahoo's vice president of media, who was quoted in the release about "Ready. Set. Dance!" was reported Tuesday as planning to leave the company soon. Yahoo yesterday, declined to comment on the report and Pitaro, appearing at a Yahoo event in New York for Advertising Week, did likewise. Separately, Yahoo Wednesday also debuted "Fast Fix," a daily video update on political news featuring Washington Post political reporter and "The Fix" columnist Chris Cillizza. The new show will be executive produced by Erik Rydholm, who created Emmy-winning ESPN shows "Around the Horn" and "Pardon the Interruption." "Fast Fix" will appear both within Yahoo News and on PostPolitics.com, the Washington Post's hub for political coverage. The one-minute "Fix" installments won't have a dedicated sponsor but will typically carry a 15-second pre-roll spot. Clarification: Shell is the launch sponsor of the "Fast Fix" on PostPolitics.com but not on Yahoo.
Rainbow Media, which operates various cable channels, including AMC, IFC, Sundance, Wedding and WE tv, is doing a VOD ad trial with BlackArrow's ad system. The cable company hopes to leverage its content, such as AMC's "Mad Men," cross-platform in an addressable VOD ad effort. The multiphase trail will explore on-demand campaign management, rotating inventory, real-time ad decisions and impression-based reporting. "Given the dramatic increase in subscribers viewing on-demand programming, we are looking at ways to provide our advertisers with additional vehicles for building brands and driving purchases in this medium," stated Dave Evans, senior vice president, broadband, Rainbow Media. Nick Troiano, president of BlackArrow, says the ability of networks and operators to monetize on-demand TV programming will have a "direct effect on the value of VOD as an ad medium." He says AMC is putting into practice "measureable advertising opportunities that extend the value of premium content." In April, BlackArrow announced it had closed $20 million in Series C financing. Last year, Comcast acquired BlackArrow's ad insertion technology for its On Demand programming. Earlier this month, AMC struck a deal with Paramount Pictures to make AMC the exclusive basic cable home of "The Godfather" trilogy. Cablevision owns Rainbow Media Holdings.
Reach Media Group announced a new deal with Taxi Magic, which handles booking and payment for thousands of taxis around the country. The alliance allows RMG to introduce digital video entertainment and advertising to displays in the backseats of cabs. As part of the deal, Taxi Magic will be installing HD screens, speaker system, touchscreen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability and 3G connectivity in participating taxi fleets. It begins with a first wave of 5,000 vehicles in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Denver. Like other taxi-based video advertising platforms, the RMG-Taxi Magic partnership targets a captive audience with relatively long dwell times: averaging 12-18 minutes nationwide. No surprise -- New York City is the most developed market. After a pilot program testing the GPS-linked screens in 500 cabs, New York's Taxi and Limousine Commission mandated the screens for all cabs in September 2007. VeriFone partnered with WABC to produce Taxi TV, featuring content from WABC's Eyewitness News, AccuWeather and Reuters Business News, as well as restaurant, nightlife, retail and hotel listings and ratings from the Zagat Survey. In June 2008, VeriFone announced the addition of additional content from People.com and PMbuzz.com. And in January of this year, VeriFone bought Clear Channel Outdoor's Taxi Media operation, combining VeriFone's initial network of 6,500 cabs with CCO's 5,000 for a total 11,500 -- or over 90% of New York's roughly 12,000 cabs. Other taxi advertisers include Eller Taxi Media and TaxiVision, both based in Las Vegas, Medallion Taxi Media, based in New York City, and The Ultimate Taxi, in Aspen.
Everyone has pictures they wish they could take again. They're blurry, off-center, dark or too bright in the foreground from a flash. Canon is looking to right a few of these wrongs with a new marketing campaign called "Your Second Shot." "There's a lot of clutter out there from a lot of different brands, with a lot of celebrity-endorsed products, but there's not a lot of technological propositions to the consumer," Michelle Fernandez, senior marketing manager for Canon, tells Marketing Daily . "We're really putting it in terms of what really matters to [people], which is getting a great photograph." The multimedia effort showcases the company's HS System, a technology designed to sharpen images even under poor lighting conditions. The campaign, which kicks off this week, begins by telling the story of Sofia and Dan, a young couple who traveled to Barcelona three years ago to take a picture where Sofia's parents first met. Unfortunately, the picture they took three years ago turned out blurry and dark. In a television commercial (and corresponding longer Internet video), the couple heads back to the spot to take a clearer shot using a Canon camera and the HS System. "Their story is one of missing that one singular moment," Fernandez says. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and they were not able to capture the photograph." Other stories that will be featured on the specially created microsite, www.usa.canon.com/yoursecondshot, show a woman recapturing the poorly photographed surprise she sprung on her father for his 60th birthday and a group of friends who made a bet concerning a mechanical bull. To increase engagement, Canon is also encouraging people to submit their missed photograph stories via the Web site, for the chance to inspire the next commercial in the campaign. The television commercial will begin airing in select markets this week before moving to cinema and cable outlets in November. The campaign will also include video and online components.
Making good on its vow to bolster content, AOL on Tuesday announced the acquisition of popular video sharing startup 5min Media. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal is part of AOL's broader content-centric strategy, which CEO Tim Armstrong has been pursuing for the last year. "5min Media is the perfect complement to our powerful video capabilities -- it provides a missing piece in the AOL value chain that completes our end-to-end video offering," Armstrong said Tuesday. "AOL is building a video ecosystem for the next decade." 5min is a syndication platform for instructional, knowledge and lifestyle videos -- both professionally produced and user-generated. To date, its success has been largely attributed to partnerships for branded content with top media companies like Scripps and Hearst. To win the content game, AOL is presently hiring hundreds of journalists, editors and various multimedia creators to flesh out its content offerings. Earlier this year, it brought on David Eun, as president of AOL Media and Studios, to "galvanize and build content networks of scale that can win," he told Online Media Daily. "I don't think it's a secret to say that the turnaround of AOL is hinged on content ... It's going to make or break [the company.]" Last December, 5min attracted 30.5 million unique viewers, according to comScore. To put that number into perspective, AOL saw 30 million unique viewers that same month. In terms of videos streamed, 5min saw 75.4 million streams, while its video library now boasts 150,000 videos across a variety of categories ranging from food and health to home and garden. AOL said it has already begun to integrate 5min Media's video content on its sites through a commercial agreement executed prior to the acquisition. Earlier this month, 5min struck a syndication partnership with News Corp.'s IGN Entertainment. Per the deal, IGN Entertainment joined the 5min Video Games Channel. Using its proprietary VideoSeed technology, 5min is semantically matching short-form videos like IGN's game reviews, instructions and news from its gaming brands across the 5min network of more than 800 sites, including MegaGames.com, GGL, NextGenWalkthroughs.com and PlayedOnline.com. Founded in 2006, 5min is headquartered in New York City with offices in Tel Aviv.
The voice of the social community will guide the direction for a portal and business consortium that Hoover's and contributors Outsell, Selling Power, and Shore Communications plan to launch Tuesday. For the first six months the group will focus on building and sharing its collective expertise on marketing and sales, along with a variety of business topics for entrepreneurs. The aim is to launch the site with seeds of information and have the community run with the topics from there. This content delivered through training sessions, events, videos, blogs and other social media will support the site. Similar to American Express OPEN Forum, Hoover's and partners will design processes and best practices to maximize the effectiveness and value of execution for small businesses. The focus to create community and a place where ideas are shared will allow people to learn from each other rather than "try and reinvent the wheel," according to James Rogers, Hoover's EVP of marketing. "The community will become a place where people can benefit from the experience of others." Initially, the consortium will focus on the creation of a Business Information Adoption Path. The site, www.B2Bbuzz.org, will provide a platform to foster dialog, where people can exchange ideas. Rogers says Hoover's has been in talks with American Express to "potentially consider becoming a partner." Allbusiness.com, a Hoover site geared toward small businesses, could lend content to the new site. The details have not been worked out, but the site will tap Twitter and YouTube to contribute content, including video. "We intend to invest in video product, so some of the pieces are done in the YouTube style," he says. "It's not about promoting Hoover's product, but rather bring content." Rogers will measure success with page views, unique visitors and adoption, meaning participation and contributions from members and those visiting the site. We know the business information people need and the life cycles," he says. "If you're a salesperson, you get a contact list and identify customers for the product. Then you run an industry and segment analysis. Who are the decision makers in the company you want to sell to, and what is the company's financial situation? These are things you might need to know for a prep call." A community moderator will attempt to foster conversation among site members to identify best practices not listed or previously talked about. It's about finding an in through social media, Rogers says. Marketers and sales reps have found social media tools like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter manage to get the attention or test ideas of prospective clients. It is one idea contributors have yet to work out.
Interestingly, the Future of Media panelists keep citing how their kids are using media to make points about the future of, well, media. But I'm wondering how representative their progeny truly are. Hilary Schneider's hockey-playing son, aside, Union Square Ventures Co-Founder Fred Wilson just cited the behavior of his kids, who now "buy" most of their television content. "What I see my kids doing is buying a lot of television," Wilson shared. "I'm not suggesting that television is going to become a totally paid product," he added, "but I also see my kids just going and buying shows on iTunes and Netflix. And they're paying for that." Well yeah, if my dad was as rich as Wilson is, I'd have no problem paying for all my media choices too, but you know, there's a bit of a recession out there, and some folks still scrimp on media content, and more or less want the free stuff. In fact, and I'm not mentioning anyone kids in particular (note to Feds), but some kids are still using BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer platforms to access premium content without paying for it. Then again, some big media companies are offering what would otherwise be paid content for free. In fact, NBC U's Lauren Zalaznick, amazingly just disclosed a seemingly secret big media strategy that I've never heard articulated quite this way before. Tell me what you think about it. Here's what she had to say about big media companies marketing content to kids: "These kids are addicted to choice and if you can capture an addiction to something you are the pusher man," she said, and I'm not kidding. Right now we are testing giveing them a little taste for free, but then they have to go buy it on Hulu or Netflix. This addiction to choice is the new market." That's verbatim. I kid you not.
Recently I heard the head of digital at a major agency lament the fact that although his company was one of the first to adopt dynamic ads years ago, they have executed only a handful of campaigns. Creative production and operational complexity are real issues for the agency. Shortly thereafter, I spoke to a major online publisher who is spearheading new advertising solutions by combining audience insights with dynamic creative. However, their efforts are the exception rather than the rule, while thousands of advertisers still struggle with the idea that every online display campaign should be dynamic and are overwhelmed by too many options. These conversations are typical of two primary challenges impacting the industry that I hope to see addressed soon (perhaps during the rest of Advertising Week): How do we make dynamic video advertising simple? How do we increase adoption in the marketplace? To fully understand the direction we as an industry need to head, let's look at a few of the challenges: · First, advertisers must conceive of and plan for complex implementations that address every single micro-target for a product or service. · Second, developing so many creative executions is difficult, time-consuming and expensive. · Third, you must assume you know all about fancy optimization algorithms: algorithms that dynamic providers claim have all the answers, yet find it hard to explain in clear, concrete terms. Each of these steps creates a tremendous amount of friction in the system. They overtax already overtaxed agency folks and, when left unsolved, create a situation where the cost of producing dynamic advertising overshadows the improved performance. I would like to see agencies, brands, technology providers and publishers come together to make all of this easier by focusing on these three challenges and producing some tangible ways to create better advertising. Here is how we can get that discussion rolling: 1. Start with existing creative assets to minimize costs and reduce friction. For example, there is enormous opportunity to repurpose existing television spots to create dynamic video ads online. We all know the power of sight, sound and motion for branding, and this also ensures that the brand's messaging is consistent across platforms. 2. Think about a few key variables that help decide what core message to show to a particular person (and not just a variation of colors, fonts or product images). The most impactful are age, gender, time of day/week and message sequencing. For example, an auto manufacturer wants to show a flashy sports car to a primarily young male demographic. Or a fast-food chain shows a breakfast sandwich only in the morning hours when the menu item is available. Or a television network promotes its prime-time programming specific to the day of week. If someone has seen a video, then show them another clip. These variations are easy to grasp and typically how TV campaigns are planned and executed. Performance data can show what video actually works best online against a particular segment. 3. Localize the core message if it's applicable to the advertiser and can be executed efficiently. For example, a national retail brand wants to drive promotions through its local stores within their targeted geographic region. Applying these ideas reduces friction and results in a manageable number of creative variations -- typically 4 to 2,000 -- with the key variables being the number of product or services offered by the advertiser, and geographic locations. As Advertising Week continues, I am sure we will see many technological innovations that point to the future of display advertising. Between all of the keynotes, breakouts, booths, vendors and meetings going on, I look forward to a number of rich and spirited discussions that will ultimately drive the industry into the next phase of dynamic advertising.
My good friend Tod Sacerdoti posted a provocative article last week titled "Mobile Video Advertising Is Irrelevant," making the argument, and I'm paraphrasing, that video is video no matter where and on what screen that video is viewed on. This is a subject we've thought a lot about as you can imagine, and I wanted to point out that he is wrong for one big reason: specificity works. Consider where the digital advertising world is today. Sure, there is tons of inventory, and many people are buying just as Tod suggests, with no less regard for how that inventory is targeted or where it is displayed. We call that "spray and pray." But more and more dollars are becoming very platform and site specific, because purpose-built inventory always shows better results than "spray and pray" buying. That is why you are seeing site-specific buys with big budgets such as the New York Times Home page shutters and Pandora's wrappers and CNET's story interstitials. Remember the Apple video ads on the New York Times home page where Mac and PC were in the sidebar talking to the banner space above? That was super-captivating because it was super-site-specific. That kind of destination specificity captures attention, drives engagement and shows better brand metric results. Good agencies bet their reputations and their creativity on understanding the difference between buckets of inventory and exploiting those differences to meet aggressive marketing objectives. That buying beats "spray and pray" every day. With mobile video we've consistently seen better brand engagement metrics than online video. We've seen performance such as nine times purchase intent over online video, and 19 times aided awareness. With mobile-video-specific buying, we have the ability to target on exciting vectors such as location. Imagine you are an hotelier who can put a video ad in front of everyone in an airport? Isn't that more powerful than the "every video is the same" advice? There are many other specific engagement models, the nuances of which matter when constructing an effective media plan. Lastly, buying specifically from a mobile video partner can ensure, for example, a zero-latency and zero buffering ad experience that is optimized for quality on the individual device and well-integrated into the overall mobile experience. That matters to users and it should matter to buyers. I get what Tod is doing. He's trying to say that buying mobile through him is the same as buying it anywhere else, so he can capture more share of an exploding market. Cute. Savvy marketers, however, know that best of breed and purpose-built inventory always performs better than "spray and pray."