von Roland Hachmann | Jun 8, 2007 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Marketing, Online Advertising
Joost is apparently testing new ad formats:
In addition to in-stream 15- and 30-second spots, the company is serving ads in „bug“ format. Bugs are brands that appear as floaters in the corner of the viewing screen. These typically appear shortly after an ad for the floating brand has just aired.
Clicking on the bug opens a new browser window that takes viewers to the product.
Interactive television with the corresponding interactive advertising is already in use by some stations (for example Sky in the UK). You press a button whenever a red dot appears in a corner and then you get further information. But in the case Joost, you can send them deep into the web, onto landing pages, rich media experiences, contact forms, etc. This will clearly change the way TV advertising is perceived and produced!
And there is even an additional benefit:
Ads will largely be targeted to viewers based on personal and demographic data that users entered when they first registered with Joost.
Somehow I don’t think they’ll stick with only personal and demographic data. How about behavioural targetting? Measure and track what they watch and what they have clicked on in the past (and hope that it is still the same person sitting in front of the screen).
von Roland Hachmann | Jun 7, 2007 | Blog, Digital Culture, Digital News, Marketing Trends, Social Media Marketing
There is an interesting article at the Times Online about the new book „the cult of the amateur“ by Andrew Keen. A cry out against the crowdism of web 2.0 and how it is killing our culture. How user generated content on wikipedia, blogs, youtube, et al results in the crippling of traditional, quality content producing industries.
I don’t agree. I think quality will still prevail. The problem with some of these „quality content producers“ was simply the fact that it wasn’t really good quality. The value for money isn’t right. So it is better to watch much worse content from users for free rather than paying anything for only mediocre content.
I think this whole trend will only result in a market shake out. Providers of really good content will always be able to charge money. They will always enjoy large appreciation. But those providing contents with little added value (e.g. newspapers simply copying news from a press service or TV stations showing low quality TV series) will face a decrease in acceptance.
They also state the example of how the interent has resulted in big problems for the music industry. This I don’t agree with at all. The biggest problem of the music industry is the fact that they have not adapted quick enough. There is lots of potential to leverage the net. Apple with iTunes has proven that there is lots of opportunities!
The internet is making standard market mechanisms more efficient, that’s all.
von Roland Hachmann | Mai 24, 2007 | Ad News, Blog
Paid display of products in TV-Shows without any referrence to the story was – so far – illegal in Europe. Or at least in Germany. Some German TV stations lately got into trouble for displaying products in soap operas. This might seem trivial to people in the US, where this is normal, as far as I know. But in Germany it caused a big scandal.
Now the European Commission put a decret up, which allows TV stations to display products in TV shows. Only prerequisite: it needs to be clear that it is an advertisement. I wonder, how they will manage to indicate that, without interrupting the story?
Kids TV shows still must not have any product placements, but can now be interrupted every 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes, writes German weekly magazine Spiegel.
Is this the „answer“ to increasing media fragmentation, consumer control and ad resistance? It is certainly a nice try, but I don’t think that will make it any better. I even think it will make things worse. Increase the clutter and users will find more ways to blank out any advertisements.
von Roland Hachmann | Mai 11, 2007 | Ad News, Blog, Digital Marketing, Marketing, Online Advertising
There is a Businessweek article about Honeyshed, which seems to be a new site for branded content. Apparently, this was launched by agencies in the Publicis Network (Droga5 and Digitas). From what I gathered, it is supposed to provide a platform for clients for offering branded content, be it videos, text, audio, whatever, I don’t know.
Honeyshed intends to erase the line between branding and entertainment altogether. But its content won’t be traditional online advertising. No banners. No rollovers. No 30-second spots. Instead, it will provide a mix of live programming and character-driven sketch shows paid for by—and promoting—sponsors, which will collaborate with Honeyshed to come up with suitably entertaining concepts aimed at the ever-capricious but nonetheless influential demographic of 18- to 35-year-olds.
(I am glad they chose this age bracked – it means I am *just* still part of it!)
„There’s a lot of so-called branded content out there, but it doesn’t have many places to live,“ he says. „It gets lost on YouTube or it’s like bud.tv, a brand in isolation. In contrast, this is totally transparent and completely entertaining. It’s overt advertising based on the idea that people love brands. They just don’t necessarily love it when brands interrupt or deceive them. This will make brands the life of the party rather than the uninvited guest.“
Seems to be an interesting concept. Some launch they’re own channel (Bud TV and Audi TV), and some launch things on YouTube. Which will get more attention? Umair from the Collectivegeneration Blog doesn’t quite agree with the approach of honeyshed…
von Roland Hachmann | Mai 9, 2007 | Blog, Digital Culture
Having first looked at joost a few days ago, I wasn’t very impressed with the contents I could find. But certainly, they are (were?) still in beta. Now you can read everywhere that they are signing new deals with content providers / producers / TV stations.
In Tuesday’s deal with Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Broadcasting System, Joost said it would air episodes of the popular “Aqua Teen Hunger Force†and “Robot Chicken†from Turner’s Adult Swim network, along with “Larry King Live†and other CNN news and interview programs.
Still doesn’t sound too great to me, but then there are apparently other deals, such as:
- Sony Corp. will run episodes of several old TV series including “Charlie’s Angels†and “Starsky & Hutch†on Joost.
- Time Warner’s Sports Illustrated will run photo shoots and programs about its swimsuit issue.
- The National Hockey League will broadcast vintage games and game highlights.
- Hasbro Inc. will run old episodes of “Transformers†and “G.I. Joe.â€
If they continue like this, then they will soon enough have a lot of good quality content. Considering that you can choose what you watch, and the fact that the quality of the streamed (peer-to-peer) videos is very good, this is a real competition to any regular cable TV…
Wo ich sonst so bin...