I was surprised to see this ad, a display unit for YouTube HD running in my Google RSS Reader on a feed from Silicon Alley Insider. Google serving house ads for its own video service, YouTube?
The ad is running in the Google Ad Sense network, the search giant’s broad, yet targeted hyper-advertising distribution network. It’s what amounts to a house ad, meaning either YouTube is spending to advertise its service, which I doubt, or Google is undersold on their inventory and they’re running free ads for their video service. (more…)
Charlie Rose gives an enlightening looks into the thought processes of newspaper and print media executives as they confront the uncertainty in the future of their business. At the table are Time cover story writer Walter Isaacson, the Daily News’ Mort Zuckerman and the WSJ’s Robert Thomson. Who ever thought hanging out with four old white guys could be so much fun!
This clip from a recent Fox Business channel interview with the smart and entertainingGary Vaynerchuk is fun to watch on multiple levels. Here’s a quick list, in no particular order:
The inability for the online advertising market to develop standardized metrics that prove real ROI to brands has been a major hurdle in the evolution of a sustainable digital content economy.
I’ve kvetched recently about how I think the world would be a better place if display ads, which are all about scale, were coded out of existence and replaced by contextual ads, which are all about engagement. I stand by that statement, especially now that I’ve seen the nirvana of contextual, rich media advertising.
Last night, during Monday Night Football on ESPN, I saw the same video repurposed as a branded, fifteen second spot. It’s the first time I’ve seen content, created for the web as an underground viral video migrate upstream to on-air. Clearly, Levi’s test marketed the content on the web and in success, after amassing an audience of several million views matched with positive comments, decided the spot was broadcast worthy.
Kudos to Levi’s for pushing this innovative ad campaign forward.
Take an hour out of your life and watch this important video. It’s an excellent overview of the evolution of new media’s impact on human interaction. It highlights the role that YouTube is playing in the development of Fan Fiction (a somewhat inaccurate yet my current preferred euphemism for User Generated Content). If you’re short on time, skip to the conclusion at 45:15 and listen to Lawrence Lessig’s take on the cultural inflection point that we have communally reached due to the connectivity and access provided to us through digital distribution.
Pricing is one of the most interesting and yet misunderstood components of digital distribution.
I don’t mean pricing in terms of end-user costs, although that’s a fascinating discussion in its own right. I mean pricing in terms of the value of content interactions that an intellectual property owner should look to extract when selling their content.
In other words, if I’m a content owner, I want to license my show at a variable price which will maximize the value of each interaction that said show will generate. How do I do that in the current state of the digital world? (more…)
I’m extremely proud of the filmmakers and their camps, the deal we’ve put together and what I believe it represents for the future of digital content economics. (more…)
