Northwestern Mutual has posted a video series on Facebook and YouTube that features actual customers sharing their personal insurance stories. The goal of the videos is to show how the Milwaukee-based company can help provide financial security over a lifetime, no matter what the circumstances. The videos are part of the insurance company's "A Foundation for Life" campaign, which broke in August with TV, print and online and was created by Minneapolis-based Olson. Through a range of educational and interactive materials, this campaign is targeted to those seeking long-term protection and flexibility as protection against market volatility, says Northwestern Mutual Marketing Vice President Conrad York. "We aim to bring attention to the unique benefits that permanent life insurance offers," York tells Marketing Daily. "It is flexible and creates a lifelong foundation from which to manage financial risk and offers consistent, guaranteed cash value growth over time." To publicize the videos, over 7,000 Northwestern Mutual field representatives have the option to include links to their clients via Facebook and LinkedIn status updates and traditional email. Links to the videos will also appear on field rep network office web sites. "Our next round of communications will focus directly on the markets where the policy owners are located (Iowa and California) to help drive traffic there locally," says Northwestern Mutual Director of Corporate and Public Relations Darryll Fortune. "Early next year, we will announce a component through the Northwestern Mutual Foundation where consumers will be encouraged to view the videos." The company currently has about 6,400 Facebook fans and will work to increase that number next year, Fortune tells Marketing Daily. "In 2010, our core focus has been to equip our financial representatives with the tools necessary to network on Facebook and LinkedIn," Fortune says. "Interacting on social networks gives our financial experts another opportunity to make an initial connection with clients and appropriately position themselves to discuss holistic financial security and planning. However, in 2011 you can expect to see increased activity on Northwestern Mutual's Facebook page, helping us to build and reinforce our brand." In one of the three-minute videos, Dale Johnson, a retired schoolteacher in Waverly, Iowa, talks about his wife Sandy's wish to use the benefit from her Northwestern Mutual permanent life insurance policy to endow the school she taught at for many years. In another video, Laura and Jeff Kopczynski transform a neglected residence into Cedar Montessori preschool in Glendale, Calif., due in large part to the cash value from their family's Northwestern Mutual permanent life insurance policies. A third features a couple which run a catering business in Readlyn, Iowa, and are able to purchase a home and invest in and expand their business due to their permanent life insurance.
Best Buy has gained attention for its alacrity in adopting new media tools like Twitter for providing customer service (its Twelpforce) and mobile shopping tool shopkick for offering in-store rewards. Less heralded has been the electronics retail chain's in-house media network across in-store screens, the Web and eventually mobile devices. The company promises third-party advertisers that they can get their messages in front of potentially 1 billion customers per year through its media network. That encompasses everything from the 80 to 120 HDTV screens in each of its 1074 outlets (drawing from 15 million to 34 million viewers monthly) to the video-centric BestBuyOn.com content site to its Reward Zone loyalty program. Ross Rubin, executive director of industry analysis at NPD Group, who was among a group of analysts and advertisers to attend a Dec. 2 event in New York formally presenting the Best Buy Media Network, described it as "seeking to fill a gap between general interest publications and tech blogs that serve up a steady stream of snark to technology enthusiasts," in a Monday blog post. Best Buy spokesperson Lisa Hawks explained that rather than directly hawking deals, the focus is on entertainment and education about technology products. To that end, the BestBuyOn home page features a video titled "How Not to Ruin Christmas" with gift-giving tips, a slide show of its picks of the top 10 Christmas movies, as well as instructional videos on 3D TV, tablets and laptops. The videos are also featured in a standard rectangle unit above the fold on the main BestBuy.com site. Clicking on the box launches a media player within the page to watch the video. Best Buy offers banner formats on BestBuyOn.com as well as pre-roll ads with video. Brands running ads so far include Tide and Swiffer as well as endemic ones like Sony, Sharp and Microsoft. Rubin noted that Best Buy is trying to encourage advertisers to focus on initiatives that are more centered on branding and education than direct marketing. This approach positions the media network more directly against TV and outdoor, and makes it suited to handle "campaigns from brands that are not 'endemic,' that is, sold by Best Buy, but which want to reach its 'experiential' customers. These would include ads for apparel, foods, tourism, and cars," he wrote. In terms of its audience, Best Buy also over-indexes in families with young children and people interested in travel -- demographic characteristics advertisers might use to pitch a range of goods and services beyond technology products. While Best Buy boasts a huge audience across the media network, traffic to the BestBuyOn site itself looks anemic so far. It had 74,000 unique visitors in November, according to comScore. To date, the retailer hasn't aggressively promoted the site. But Hawks said Best Buy has budgeted funds for marketing its media network in various trade media in 2011. She also said development of mobile channels for the Best Buy Media Network is in the works, via both the mobile Web and apps.
The Associated Press, Microsoft, and musical group The Eagles are among dozens of organizations now urging an appellate court to rule in Viacom's favor in its copyright infringement lawsuit against Google's YouTube. In a flurry of friend-of-the-court briefs filed late last week, a broad array of media and entertainment organizations, think tanks, academics, performing artists and others argue that U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton incorrectly ruled that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "safe harbor" provisions protected YouTube from copyright infringement liability based on material uploaded by users. In general, the safe harbor provisions immunize Web sites from infringement liability for user-submitted clips submitted, providing that the sites promptly remove them upon request. Stanton dismissed Viacom's lawsuit against YouTube in June, rejecting Viacom's argument that YouTube should be held liable for infringement despite the safe harbors on the theory that company executives knew some clips on the site were unlawful. Instead, he ruled that YouTube qualified for the safe harbors despite evidence that the company's management was generally aware that some clips weren't authorized. "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 decision granting Google summary judgment. Viacom appealed that ruling and asked the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Stanton's decision and award it summary judgment. The company argues that YouTube shouldn't get the benefit of the safe harbors because it built an audience by offering pirated clips. Viacom argues that YouTube had notice of infringement -- but, hoping to draw traffic, declined to deploy filters to screen out pirated clips. "YouTube indisputably was aware of massive infringement," Viacom says in its appellate brief. "If it wished to remain in the safe harbor, it was obligated to take reasonable steps (no heroic acts required) to prevent further infringement." The assortment of groups weighing in on Viacom's side generally argue that YouTube should have done more to block infringing clips than simply remove them in response to complaints by content owners. The groups allege that Stanton's ruling, immunizing YouTube from liability, leaves other Web sites with the incentive to ignore copyright violations in order to draw traffic. For instance, one brief filed primarily by coalition of news organizations -- including the AP, Newspaper Association of America, Washington Post and Gannett -- argues that upholding Stanton's decision would "sanction a deeply disturbing business model." "It would authorize -- and, by its economic logic, encourage -- enterprises to exploit infringing copyrighted content in order to attract traffic and create value for their sites to the detriment of content owners, as long as the enterprises respond to formal 'takedown' notices," they argue. Google hasn't yet filed its appellate brief in the case; any friend-of-the-court briefs on Google's behalf will not be filed until after Google submits its papers.
Dec. 9th marked the 45th anniversary of the premiere of the Peabody- and Emmy-award-winning television special "A Charlie Brown Christmas." The special contained layers of lessons and unlikely themes, touching on topics from commercialism to the biblical story of Christmas (as recited by Linus). But what the special can teach the media industry -- now four and a half decades after its premiere -- is that great content can still draw millions of viewers even though it isn't the flashiest, aluminum-tree production out there. That is a lesson that those of us dealing in the realm of archival online video should remember. What's "Charlie Brown"'s secret? First and foremost, Charles Schulz, the writer, stuck to his artistic vision and fought to keep that vision intact. In fact, he threatened to walk off the project when a laugh track was suggested. But equally important to the special's successful longevity is an invigorated interest each year -- for 45 years now -- created by something that happens naturally: December. This puts the spotlight back on classic content of the holiday theme, and specials like "Charlie Brown" pull audiences time and again. Television historians like me have the challenge of managing thousands of hours of online video content, and we are tasked everyday with earning eyeballs for that content. There is more incredible archived video online than one could sort through in a lifetime, so the top challenges become: How do you prioritize archived content for the inquisitive Web navigator, and how do you give your video library the newsworthiness it needs in order to be found among other, newer content? Following Schulz's example, we try to enhance existing content's history in a measured and simple way. Did you know that CBS executives initially hated the special and reluctantly scheduled it? As "A Charlie Brown Christmas" demonstrates, themed video content does not have to be an over-the-top production in order to garner viewers. In fact, it can even be content people have viewed many times over. What the content must do is speak to the frame of mind that the audience is already in thanks to inherent awareness of an event. Many classic holiday TV specials are already being ported to the digital realm. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was made available this year via advertiser-supported online video sites like Hulu.com and ABC.com. Thanks to digital video libraries, and cyclical pegs that rejuvenate their newsworthy value, these shows -- and hopefully more classic works that are still locked away -- will be featured for years to come.
Last week, my counterpart at DBG, Chris Young, wrote about the seven trends that will shape online video 2011. Here are nine realities that will shape online video in 2011 and beyond. 1) Growth will come from online video, but overall dollars will remain small. When the going gets rough, I remind myself that "at least we're not in the print business." Online media continues to grow and online video is its engine of growth. But the reality is that it remains a fairly small slice of the pie. According to Magna's latest figures, online advertising will overtake newspapers by 2013 but TV advertising will command a 40% share of all ad dollars and gain 7.5% annually through 2016, at which point online video will account for $11.4 billion in global ad spend. Where online video trumps television advertising is in growth rates. 2) Will Ferrell, Justine Bateman and company are exceptions, not the rule. The thing is, growth rates excite investors but do little to get talent stoked. For that reason, I suspect that while we will see more celebrities dip their toes in online productions, "Hollywood" will focus on where the real money is -- and that is television. When the recession hit in 2008, it definitely gave actors an incentive to test the online waters, but as the economy returns and fades away from print and gravitates towards online, television shows no signs of weakness for a few more years to come. 3) YouTube isn't mainstream, and never will be. Oddly enough, YouTube is central to online video, with 44% of the video views in the U.S. But by the same token, YouTube is increasingly becoming a parallel world. Let's face it, its most popular prosumer producers (the so-called YouTube celebrities) are irreverently irrelevant to the outside world. Moreover, most large media companies use their YouTube presence sporadically. Sure, YouTube is a fantastic promotional platform, but its rigid rules of engagement have made most media companies balk at leveraging the site as a commercial platform. YouTube remains the product most likely to become the Google of online video. Still, while open to interpretation, the fact that a number of YouTube managers such as George Strompolos and Kevin Yen have left this year suggests that Google is doing everything in its power to prevent that from happening. 4) Branded content vs. pre-roll. It need not be so black and white, but while branded content will grow in absolute terms, in 2011 it will continue to be more hype than substance. That is not to say that in 2012 and beyond it won't become a major revenue driver. Sure, the 30-second ad has no place online, but with users showing a willingness to sit through 7-, 10-, 15-, or 30-second ads, it won't disappear overnight, either. It's not that marketers aren't interested in the concept of branded content, it's just that the production of branded content faces so many headwinds that ad agencies will probably stick to the lower-hanging fruit for the time being: the pre-roll. Of course, ideally pre-roll and branded content (and what each one represents, mainly) should co-exist. 5) Viral UGC videos not going anywhere despite editorial and sales pressure. With more ad dollars flowing into the online video ecosystem and marketers continuing to shun user-generated content, increasingly you will see the largest portals and video destinations try to de-emphasize cat videos, skateboarding mishaps and videos of the "America's funniest home videos" variety. But that won't prevent them from capturing a large share of views, which will largely go unmonetized. 6) Ads as content. The worst-kept secret is out: some of the most popular videos aren't UGC but movie and video game trailers. This phenomenon will actually put a downward pressure on online video advertising growth, because some of the largest spenders of media (entertainment advertisers) will insist on treating their ads as content and push for performance-based pricing models, which will keep spends down. 7) Dominance of micro content. We also shouldn't hold our breath for the "I Love Lucy" Moment Young is waiting for. Back in 2005, AOL livestreamed Live 8 and frankly, that was the" I Love Lucy" moment that made me realize that online had gotten back its mojo and the future of video was promising (it also reminded people that AOL was still around). The thing is, though, that apart from live events (be it music or sports), concurrent viewership is not something that is economically predisposed on the Web, largely because television continues to garner the real ad dollars and rightsholders are not stupid. Aggregators and distribution companies will want content owners to believe that they should fully open up their Olympics or World Cup programming -- but that won't happen. 8) IPO talk will increase. Brightcove, Hulu and Tremor Media are a couple of names you hear marching towards an IPO, but that will not happen in 2011, so the only viable liquidity event for investors remains mergers & acquisitions. 9) Consolidation will continue. After many years of expected consolidation, 2010 saw a wave of acquisitions: - AOL acquired StudioNow - AOL acquired 5Min - Specific Media acquired BBE - Undertone acquired Jambo - Tremor acquired Scanscout There is nothing to suggest that 2011 will be less busy. Media companies who attempted to build from within have all but failed, and many of those will now look to buy -- even though traditional media companies still don't have a real idea of what they want to do in online video.