• Social Networking: Separating The Trend From The Trendy
    It seems as though the latest bright shiny object our industry has become awash in a wave of obsessing about lately, besides Twittering, is the need for a social networking strategy. Given the increasing number of social networking sites, strategy offerings, analytics and insights companies, dashboards, blog scrapings, creative applications and myriad of all things "social networking," I was reminded of how the same sort of "Everyone go left" mentality hit when the user-generated content bandwagon came to town a couple of years back.
  • Is The Big Shift Underway?
    This week, I was having a conversation with a colleague who has been at the top of the digital agency world for the past decade. This is the kind of person from whom you tend to learn something every time you chat -- a real maven. We touched on a variety of topics, including online video. Specifically, I wanted to get his take on why we aren't seeing a seismic shift of budgets from TV to online. "Simple," my friend said. "Big brand advertisers want scale. TV delivers it, and cheaper. It's hard not to justify just buying more TV …
  • Targeted Distribution Of Online Video Pays Off
    Last month I spoke to the efficacy of targeting quad-force of right-person, right-place, right-time and right-content. This sparked some debate (and some confusion) with colleagues who saw my allusion to the effective targeting of video content as a form of distribution heresy. "If you don't plant your content somewhere, how are users going to return to it, push it out to friends and family and find it via search?" a friend questioned me. My position is that, in today's world of multichannel media consumption, you have to play to the habits of the empowered user and find the user through …
  • Online Video Changes Game For Brand Marketers
    Two years ago when online video burst onto the scene, the growth engine behind it was centered on consumer-driven uploading and sharing of video clips. At the time, commercial media companies were trying to take advantage of the migration of audiences to the Web and also open up new revenue streams through online video advertising. Today, the growth engine behind online video has shifted dramatically. Video has expanded well beyond the media industry and into nearly every corner of the professional Web, as corporations, governments, non-profits and educational institutions look to use video as a cornerstone of how they communicate, …
  • Why Is Online Video Advertising Dying?
    Consumers view over 14 billion videos a month, which has transformed the very nature of Web content and calls into question everything we knew about how Web sites attract, engage, convert and retain audiences. In order to deliver this massive river of content, sites have turned to specialized software and infrastructure providers. Most importantly (and most expensively) they've turned to content delivery networks like Akamai, Limelight Networks and Panther Express. Sites will never be able to completely escape the high costs of content delivery, so publishers are looking for new methods of monetization. Foremost among these is video advertising: the …
  • The Declining Value of Content?
    At SXSW, filmmakers, brand representatives, advertising agency employees, and digital creatives of all types were talking about one topic: the market value of content is plummeting -- fast. This trend is being pushed by such factors as the affordability of professional equipment, the growing number of people (often amateurs) who are capable of doing the work, and the general acceptance online of lower-quality video content. There's an increase in available content, which is driving up the value of the distribution channel.
  • Monetizing Online Video
    Internet users are viewing more online videos than ever before. In fact, recent studies show a 45% increase in video views over last year. With all this video content available for viewing, advertisers and content providers are looking for ways to monetize their content by injecting advertisements in their videos. So what is the expected advertising investment in this Internet phenomenon? And what options are available for companies that want to take control of monetizing their content? Let's take a look at some options.
  • Is YouTube The Geocities Of Online Video?
    In 1999, everyone wanted a Web site but few people knew how to code in HTML. The solution? Everyone created and hosted their Web site on Geocities. A huge Internet company ended up buying Geocities (Yahoo) and, over time, most good content creators left Geocities and built sites that they owned, operated and controlled. Sound familiar? It should. Three years ago, it was hard to host your videos online. Flash players were rudimentary, content management systems were built on popsicle sticks and video streaming costs were high. As a result, everyone uploaded and hosted their video content on YouTube. YouTube's …
  • Moving From Interruption To Involvement
    The advertising model, as practiced for the last hundred years or so, has been one based on interruption. It's a consistent tactic across TV/video, radio, and even print. It continues because it works. And, in the digital video arena, pre-stream and mid-stream commercials will continue to exist for some time, because they work to help marketers achieve their goals. However, marketers have also begun In a shift in tactics, applying their resources to create content to get their message across.
  • Creating Employee Brand Ambassadors For Video Campaigns
    More often than not, a key to building better relationships with your audiences requires that you connect them to a real person who can serve as a sincere face for -- a more humanized angle to -- your brand identity. Here, empowering your own employees to promote your viral campaigns can lower your acquisition/marketing costs, create a tangible brand experience for your audiences, and boost morale within your organization.
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