Profiting off the distribution of online video content remains a major challenge for publishers. With that in mind, thePlatform is rolling out new commerce features to mpx -- its cloud-based online video management and distribution system. With the move, Comcast's online-video publishing subsidiary is trying to build on recent client wins. This summer, sister unit NBC Universal picked thePlatform to handle video management and distribution for the USA, Syfy and Oxygen cable networks. ThePlatform’s mpx video commerce system is now offering an ecommerce engine to power publishers’ video storefronts across computers, tablets and mobile phones. Such a solution is necessary, given consumers’ rapidly changing consumption habits, according to Marty Roberts, senior vice president, sales and marketing for thePlatform. Clients “are seeking a unified platform … that brings together advertising, subscriptions, rentals and purchases,” Roberts said. The new mpx also boasts more metadata, with which publishers can design better storefronts -- ideally making better user of their content libraries. As such, clients will be better able to “differentiate and sell highly customized video packages and promotions across screens,” Roberts added. Along with NBCU, thePlatform cervices multichannel pay TV operators, including Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, Liberty Global, PBS, Rogers, Shaw Media and Time Warner Cable.
The appetite for apps focused on new ways to share, augment or combine photos and video seems almost endless. Among the latest to draw a rapidly growing following is Cinemagram, whose iPhone app has attracted more than 2 million users since launching six months ago. Users create Cinemagrams by taking a short video, selecting a still image from the clip, and then defining a specific area of the image to animate. The content is saved as a GIF file that can be shared like a photo, but appears to be animated when viewed in the app or online. Cinemagram also offers Instagram-like vintage filters, sharing on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, a search function, a “popular” page and other features. The hybrid photo-video format essentially simplifies the process of creating "cinemagraphs" -- photos in which a minor animated movement happens over and over -- that emerged from the New York fashion photography world. Cinemagram now aims to be the platform for all activity around these creations it calls cines (pronounced “cinnies.”) Already, marketers are looking to capitalize on the rising popularity and artsy cachet of Cinemagram as they have with other visually oriented apps, like Instagram, SocialCam and Pinterest. Last week, the company launched a “Remix” feature in beta that allows users to access video clips that they can edit to create their cines. The initial group of brands supplying the clips includes Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Linkin Park, Neon Trees and Pink. Sony, for instance, is using Cinemagram to promote the Sept. 14 release of “Resident Evil 6,” while Pink is promoting her upcoming album, “The Truth About Love.” "Companies want more exposure for their video content. For example, an upcoming movie release, official music video launch, live concerts, sports, etc. We view cines as tweets for videos and therefore, potentially a unique opportunity for Cinemagram to achieve their goals,” stated a Cinemagram blog post about the brand-focused remixes. Digital agency 360i spotlighted Cinemagram in its latest Startup Outlook report, which offers advice on how brands can take advantage of emerging technologies and platforms. The study, which also highlighted other mobile startups like Kiip and Square, recommends Cinemagram as tool for driving content marketing programs. “It works especially well for brands on Tumblr, since the animated images embed perfectly,” it stated. On Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere, users have to click another link to see the Cinemagram. Despite the obvious appeal to entertainment marketers, the agency suggested that other types of brands could also utilize the niche format. “A hotel brand might animate the waves seen from an oceanfront property, while a packaged-goods marketer might show one of its beverage brands being poured infinitely,” the report noted. As a platform, Cinemagram still has a long way to go before it catches up with Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook in April for $1 billion and boasts 80 million registered users.
Consumer magazine publishers are embracing mobile action codes in a big way, according to a new survey by Nellymoser, which specializes in mobile marketing services. Nellymoser has compiled figures showing the total number of mobile action codes, including QR codes, Microsoft Tags, Digimarc watermarks, SpyderLynk SnapTags, and JagTags, in the top 100 magazines available on newsstands. The Nellymoser survey found that the top 100 titles deployed 2,200 mobile action codes in the second quarter of 2012. That’s the largest figure since Nellymoser began compiling the data last year. In 2011, the total number of mobile action codes increased from 352 in the first quarter to 1,062 in the second quarter, 1,155 in the third quarter, and 1,899 in the fourth quarter. In 2012 the same magazines deployed 1,365 mobile action codes in the first quarter. On a year-over-year basis, that equals a 107% increase in the second quarter. The sequential growth rate is also impressive, as the total number of codes deployed in the second quarter increased 61% from the previous quarter. Nellymoser noted that the second quarter marked the first time that every magazine counted in the top 100 featured a mobile action code. The proportion of ad pages bearing a mobile action code jumped from 5% in the second quarter of 2011 to 10% this year. The most popular use for mobile action codes is linking to mobile video: 40% of the codes counted took the user to some kind of video content, including product demos and the like. Around 20% of the action codes enabled the user to participate in sweepstakes or share content socially.
Men’s lifestyle site Crave Online has scored industry veteran Drew Berkowitz as its new senior vice president of sales. CraveOnline is part of AtomicOnline -- the publishing division of Evolve Media Corp. Effective immediately, Drew will be responsible for leading the sales efforts of Crave’s East Coast, Midwestern and West Coast sales teams, with a particular focus on developing unique campaigns with brand partners. Prior to joining the AtomicOnline property, Drew was responsible for launching the U.S. operation of AOL’s Video Unit Goviral. Prior to Goviral, Drew ran IAC’s Mindspark division, including Vimeo. During his time with Mindspark, Drew was credited with developing a number of successful campaigns, including Canon’s “Beyond The Still," Tostitos “Salsa” and Nickelodeon’s “Teen Choice Awards.” Citing comScore data, Crave Online says it now attracts over 19 million unique visitors per month. Recent brand advertisers include Schick, Wrigley, IKEA, Universal, LG, Nikon, Coke, Pepsi and Unilever. The company is based in Los Angeles with sales offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto. “Our goal at Crave is to continue to provide premium content and video,” Berkowitz said.
Video chat from long tables in boardrooms and meeting rooms, where employees stared at a large screen on one side of the room, initially emerged as a way to reduce travel expenses -- but tech companies have figured out a way to make video conferencing a mobile and social tool, integrating it into a variety of business applications. Google took aim at Microsoft Wednesday when it rolled out a set of Google+ features designed for businesses. Apps customers can use these business features in the social site for free through 2013, as the Mountain View, Calif. company continues to add more features and administrative controls, to compete with Microsoft's Skype. The keyword here: Enterprise. Companies will support the growth of Google+ as a business tool as well as in relation to advertising. Web-based collaboration and tools that allow co-workers, or companies and clients, to share information in real-time have become the backbone of business. But agreements are not only made on good ideas, but also the ability to build relationships and communicate thoughts and strategies. Sometimes that requires a face-to-face meeting, even if the two are working at opposite ends of the world. Multi-video chat direct from Gmail has moved into Google Docs and Calendar Events. Up to 10 people can join from their laptop, phone or tablet. The group can restrict access to hangouts in video chat. If restrictions are on in the advance setup, users see a notice when starting a hangout. However, users can still override this and either invite only specific external participants, or open the hangout to the public. The Google Apps features for customers provides the ability to restrict posts and hangouts to a specific domain, schedule and join video calls from Calendar, set company defaults from the Admin Console, start multi-way video calls from Gmail, and edit docs live inside a hangout. Google+ will give Google a back door into serving businesses with Docs, strengthening the company's position in enterprise apps and cloud services.
There is nobody in the entertainment business quite like James Franco, the over-achieving actor-writer-producer-director-student-etc. who often appears to be simultaneously juggling more creative projects than any ten celebrities combined. That would seem to make him the perfect choice to star in a commercial showcasing a device that enables its user to do several things at once – in this case the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Sure enough, in Cheil USA’s new video for this tablet, which Franco actually directed, he is super-capable at effortlessly mastering any task at hand, even if it comes at him from out of nowhere. He’s smart, appealing and quick on his feet throughout. (He takes direction from himself very well.) But there’s a slight disconnect between the Franco on screen – who can do just about anything, and do it well, especially when he has his trusty tablet in hand -- and the Franco we all know, who seems to not succeed just as often as he does succeed, perhaps because he does too many things at once. Yes, he was terrific in such feature films as “Pineapple Express,” “Milk” and “127 Hours.” But many of his independent film projects have tanked, his recurring role on ABC’s “General Hospital” helped bring that show to its knees and his gig last year as an Oscar co-host is already a legendary disaster. In other words, nobody can do everything right – not even the awesome James Franco. Throughout the video it appears that he can do everything to perfection, from preparing breakfast to making a medical diagnosis to solving a mathematical equation to directing a commercial. But his actions in the kitchen suggest otherwise. As the video begins he cracks an egg into a pan and puts a piece of bread in a toaster, then moves on to other things. At the end, he returns to the kitchen just in time to slide his perfectly-done egg onto a plate and catch the toast as it pops out of the toaster. Yet he fails to do the most important thing, as revealed in a comment on the video’s YouTube page, which reads: “You forgot to turn off the gas stove, multi-tasker.” That’s a small complaint, to be sure. But it actually says a lot about why this very good video isn’t a really great one. Something is missing that might make it as seemingly sensational as the product it’s promoting. Maybe it needs a flash of self-deprecating humor from Franco that pokes fun at his reputation as the ultimate multi-tasker, or a dash of the essential snark that seems to so effectively sell products to teens and young adults. To put this in another way, it’s lacking an image or an act that might stick in the viewer’s mind and stay there. Is James Franco the Manic Multi-Tasker, appealing enough to sell this or any other product? I can’t really say, but it may not matter, because even Franco at his most charming cannot outshine the razzle-dazzle of a state-of-the-art tablet. Fortunately for Samsung, even when this popular Oscar nominee is at the center of the action in this video, as he is throughout, the Galaxy Note 10.1 is always the star. The message of this busy video can be taken two ways, both of them very well expressed. Take one: The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 is a dream device that can keep up with a fervid multi-tasker’s most urgent multi-tasking. Take two: It is a life-changing device that can enable anyone to become the multi-tasker he or she always wanted to be. At almost three minutes in length, it is an impressive showcase for many of the amazing things this tablet can do, or that one can do with a tablet, even if some of them feel overdone. For example, at one point during the video a young woman complains to Franco that she doesn’t feel well. Franco tells her to stick out her tongue, uses the tablet to take a picture of the inside of her mouth and throat, compares the picture to others on medical Web sites, then e-mails the picture to her doctor and tells her to rest and get plenty of fluids. I’m not sure this particular ability should be a selling point for this or any other tablet. Also, it’s kind of gross. Among the indefatigable Franco’s many pursuits is the maximum utilization of social media. That surely explains why this video generated just under 2.5 million views on YouTube during its first week. It won’t surprise me if that number doubles by next week. But I will be surprised if Franco doesn’t pursue additional video work, since the guy never seems to have enough to do.
No question second-screening offers networks and advertisers enormous potential. It’s pretty simple: get viewers intrigued enough with what’s on TV that they’ll interact with it simultaneously on another device. Using an app, viewers could be interested in accessing additional program or advertising content. Or, the chance to tweet about a show/product and follow others’ takes in a central hub. Or, to participate in a poll that provides entry into a sweepstakes. It’s all about building engagement. Networks are touting their real-time synching opportunities – basically: point an iPad at the screen and voila – constantly now. But is the rush of publicity more of an inside-the-industry thing rather than a response to consumer hunger? It is early in this emerging movement. But has a network released data on how many viewers are using a second-screen app to watch and interact at once? When data is promising, networks usually move quickly to release it. Perhaps NBC has auspicious numbers from its Olympics experience that will be released soon. Second-screening can carry two definitions. One is wide: just surfing the Web on any device while watching TV, even if the surfing is unrelated. The other is the newer concept of using the synch apps for live, opt-in interaction. Based on a Deloitte/GfK survey in the U.K., young people are talking about shows they're watching on second screens. About half of 16-to-24 year-olds use messaging, email, Facebook or Twitter to comment and exchange thoughts about what they’re viewing. Other data from the online research may be far less encouraging for a network or advertiser. The survey found only 10% of all people surf the Web for information about a program being watched. (Of course, 10% of an audience for a show with 15 million viewers isn’t bad.) Other discouraging news for networks building those fancy second-screen apps: The survey found 68% “would not want the Web sites for products, personalities or (ads) that have just been shown on television to automatically appear on their computer, tablet or smartphone.” Of course, it is a survey. How many people generally answer: show me more ads and make me feel like you’re tracking my behavior?