Archive for the ‘Video’ Category

How are they doing it?  Let me count the ways!

1. Cablevision matches the names and addresses of their subscribers with regular ad data from third parties, and, voila, different ads to different set top boxes, even if you are watching the same show.    Uses VisibleWorld  Say it’s a hotel ad:  the mom types get an ad promoting their family based activity.   The single guy’s ad highlights their clubs and nightlife. 
2. Dave Morgan, of Tacoda fame, uses your channel changing habits to target ads.   He uses algorithms to categorize the set top box (not the viewer) and targets ads according.  Simulmedia  tracks the data second-by-second.  You like satire news?   You’ll get the edgier version of that ad.
3. Rentrak, a TV-measurement and advertising-services firm, works through your live-TV and DVR  viewing. The company, in some cases, measures videos watched on mobile devices, too.
4. Even TiVo got into the game.  Partnered with TRA, which matches real time data for TiVo boxes, a cable operator and other data, like store frequent shopper cards.    Experian PLC matches the TiVo box to your address through the store card.  Now they know what you watch, what you buy and where you live.    My fave correlation?   TRA found that watchers of “Jersey Shore” are regular buyers of yogurt.  And here I thought it was tanning services and cheap booze.
5. And let’s not forget Google and the long discussed GoogleTV.   When they finally get it right, they’ll be a big player.   Imagine if they use your email content and TV viewing to target ads?

BTW, I’ve been talking mainly about consumer products here. Can you imagine when political candidates start targeting ads by voter?

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Well, the show 9 to 5 may have been a bust on Broadway but the newest musical approach to giving notice caught my eye today. YouTube’s former Head of Industry Marketing, Kristin Kovner, uses her favorite video site to sing her resignation. Yep, you saw that right—sing her resignation. In a warbling rendition of “I’ll Be Seeing You,” she tells her colleagues that she’s leaving Google for AOL. Kudos to Kristin for creativity—and promoting a great new way to say “let’s stay in touch.”

She’s the latest of a stream of Googlers crossing over to the other side at AOL (followers of Tim Armstrong and Jeff Levick unite!) BusinessInsider is lamenting the Google Brain Drain The Google Brain Drain Goes On And On
listing 17 top people to recently leave. Even have a graphic interface highlighting the ex-pats. Yes, that talent is in demand—and other employers will pay top dollar. Yes, Google is much bigger and has probably lost its entrepreneurial vibe. And yes, a larger company means more internal competition (read: less promotions) for top talent. But Google’s strength has been hiring the best and the brightest. Now, they just have to keep them. Even if there’s no free lunch anymore.
So Kristen is just the latest brain to drain from Google.
One final note to Kristen—don’t quit your day job. Yet.
Bonnie Zaben is COO of AC Lion. Her 20 years experience has taught her that exiting gracefully is the sign of a true professional. She’s seen resignation letters, stay in touch emails, let’s do lunch air kisses and even someone who was fired by voicemail. But YouTube to resign was a new twist!

Article By: Joshua ‘The Red’ Russak (Red@aclion.com)

“Viral Video of The Day” is part of this blogs timely Friday Tradition, as provided by my friends at ViralVideoChart.com. They marked an interesting #1 video for today. So for all of you marketers and mobile junkies out there obsessed with your PDA and e-mail, you’ll love todays Viral Video of The Day:

Introducing Gmail for mobile 2.0

That’s right! A geekie video made it to #1…and with reason. For all of you using PDA’s, the proprietary email application can be quite plain (static, no html, courier new, etc.). Well, this is probably more applicable to “Blackberry Users”. Well, today’s viral video promotes Gmail’s Phone Application. The guy’s kinda funny in the video, in a geeky google kind of way. How this made #1 for the day, I’m not sure…

Article By: Joshua ‘The Red’ Russak (Red@aclion.com)

• Discovered 01 Oct 2008
• 591,159 views
• 283 blog posts

The 2nd Video, 5 Friends Uncensored, is #2 Viral Video of The Day:

• Discovered 01 Oct 2008
• 615,283 views
• 340 blog posts

I sent an e-mail to both Scott & Matt of UnrulyMedia, the creator of this site and this is their response:
“We rank videos based on linking and sharing on the web rather than views – similar to how google ranks sites on it’s search engine.
Partially we do this because it’s information that is standard across sites (the definition of a view varies from site to site) and is a bit harder to manipulate and partially because that’s the way we’ve always done it…
Hope that explains it!
Matt.”
So there’s the answer! Now go drink and enjoy your Friday!

Article By: Alan Cutter, CEO (a.cutter@aclion.com)

Paltalk and buzz/viral marketing company Vanksen Culture Buzz took viral marketing to a whole new level with this one…

Article By: Joshua ‘The Red’ Russak (Red@aclion.com)

And now for the “Viral Video of The Day”…as featured on ViralVideoChat.com as the most viral video of today. Bill Gates & Jerry Seinfeld – Shoe Circus Commercial Stats:

• 259,216 views
• 0 duplicate videos
• 122 blog posts
• 419 comments

Article By: Joshua ‘The Red’ Russak (Red@aclion.com)

Before I display the “Viral Video of The Day”, I recently read an AlleyInsider article that sheds new light on YouTube’s advertising capabilities. As quoted from – YouTube Finally Figures Out How To Make Money: Big Ads On Its Homepage

Advertising sources say YouTube is revamping the homepage to accommodate a huge new banner ad that will span the entire width of the page. The ad will is roughly the same height as the current video ad unit on the upper right of the page, and designed to accommodate high-definition video, similar to the campaign Sony Pictures ran on YouTube to market “Pineapple Express.” Sources who have seen the unit describe it having multiple tabs that activate when rolled over by a cursor.

And now for the “Viral Video of The Day”…as featured on ViralVideoChat.com as the most viral video of today. Stats:

• 4,999,706 views
• 2 duplicate videos
• 1,882 blog posts
• 8,048 comments

Article By: Joshua ‘The Red’ Russak (Red@aclion.com)

I was playing with Stumble Upon and discovered a great depiction of a world without internet, in cartoon narrated story form (with pop-ups). Very entertaining if you need a break from work….(*To move through each story, click the arrow on the bottom right of the book)

Article By: Joshua ‘The Red’ Russak (Red@aclion.com)

Every time the TV is on or the internet movie is rolling, everyone knows not to bug me during “commercial” time. I once thought that I was part of a small sect of “commercial” lovers, commenting on them, critiquing them, or simply sitting back and enjoying them. Well, I recently discovered an article that claims there are many more “commercial lovers” out there…
As I was browsing the AlleyInsider Blog for some good material and up-to-date news, I came across Video Ad Companies: People Love Watching Video Ads! …That’s right! 3 Companies support the idea that someone “out there” manages to make it through the commercial. Now I’m not going to go as far as to say they enjoy the commercials as much as I do, but at least they’re not flipping the channel any-time soon. Check out the stats below as quoted from AlleyInsider:

• Tremor Media says [...] only 20% of Web video watchers give up and leave when confronted with the pre-rolls it serves up. Or, as Tremor is putting it in a release later today, 80% watch the ads all the way through. [...] [A]udiences are willing to accept pre-roll advertising in exchange for content they want, on demand.” And Tremor also says that its stuff is so good (it measured 65 million ad impressions across 100 different ad campaigns) that the bail-out rate didn’t change if the ads were 15 or 30 seconds long.

• Break Media is claiming an even higher “completion rate” — 87% — for its pre-rolls, which includes a whole lot of user-generated video. Break’s sample was a lot smaller than Tremor’s — 5.85 million impresssions. But we’re equally skeptical of both numbers. We’re certainly not anti-advertising, and we will indeed sit through some pre-rolls, when we know were getting good stuff we want to see. But there’s no way we do that 8 out of 10 times.

• Brightroll, said last week it had just booked a $1 million pre-roll campaign, and that pre-rolls account for 50% of their business.”

Now they haven’t exactly pinpointed WHY, but the money is there and that’s usually all that matters in order to convince the public that this form/method of advertising works. As for my commercial loving companions, our time to shine is just over the hill. Beware!

Article By: Joshua ‘The Red’ Russak (Red@aclion.com)

As usual, my Friday blogging habbits seem to lead towards a selected “Viral Video”…which leads me to my 4th “VIRAL VIDEO OF THE DAY”…but at the same time I totally got sucked into Reuters YouTube Posting covering Michael Phelps and his Marketing success.

Michael Phelps is a “Marketing Dream” to companies like Speedo, AT&T, and Visa. He earns $5mm a year in endorsements, but can expect more post-Olympics. But none of this could happen without the Marketing Magic behind Phelps, Octagon.
Want a little humor? Well, according to the Video above, VISA immediately launched a commercial congratulated Phelps on the most metals in Olympic History, yet the marketing firm behind Phelps hasn’t seemed to update their own web-site: http://www.octagon.com/worldwide-overview/athletes-and-personalities. Check it out…they still have him down for “8″. Looks like VISA was a step ahead
…Now that’s some good Blogging right there! As for Phelps, have fun buddy!