MyMediaMusings

According to AdAge the love-em or hate-em shoes of decade, Crocs, is launching its own sponsored travel site called Cities by Foot:

“a new travel-guide website unveiled today that provides high-definition video presentations of local shops and restaurants in different cities, devised by entertainment and marketing agency Red Robot for its client, footwear maker Crocs.”

A few interesting notes about this effort.  First, Red Robot had to go out and do the entire presentation out of pocket before Crocs would get involved.  Second, it turned out to be a lot less expensive than Crocs initially feared:

“And footing the bill for this is not as great a sacrifice as it sounds. Mr. Flanagan said that for the price of two 30-second TV ads, nearly 80 videos were shot and the website was constructed.”

There are all sorts of benefits to Crocs for this type of effort and it certainly could do a lot more for them than a 30-second spot or two if they are able to keep the site vibrant and full of new material.

The question will be whether or not Crocs and Red Robot can sustain the kind of effort required to put a travel site on the map and keep it there.

TechDirt has some good follow up to a post in the NYT about indie record label Fueled By Ramen.

“It produced Panic at the Disco’s debut album for just $18,000, allowing it to make its money back even if the album doesn’t sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Finally, it seems to understand that the real money is in using the music as a way to market the band, and to use the band’s popularity to sell scare goods related to the band.”

I believe this is part of a general trend in labels (outside of the fast-dying majors) who realize that they can no longer make their money selling albums but instead must sell a band.  Now that bands don’t need the label’s money as much to make the record they need the support and guidance to keep things going once they get out of the studio.

Gawker, the once-mighty snark-blog of NYC that has been steadily losing its identity over the past few years, has post about MTV’s ad pitch at the upfronts:

“The network is also trying to sell sponsors on its “podbusting” techniques—i.e., making commercials that are like mini-shows in themselves. The theory, of course, is that making ads more like regular programs will defeat the almighty Tivo, with content so compelling that you cannot help but watch, slack-jawed, as the hypnotic 60-second Mountain Dew Bourne Ultimatum spinoff flickers before your eyes.”

We’ve been seeing more and more of this on TV with everything from mini-animated extras on USA’s “Psych” to a weird mini-soap opera with Alicia Keyes.  These efforts have been less than compelling and the trend worries Gawker:

“Please keep our television commercials in neat little blocks, so that we can get up and go to the bathroom while they are on, or, if we have the proper technology, skip them altogether. This whole “great ads that you want to watch just cause they’re so great” is a huge backlash waiting to happen.”

The problem is that it is only recently that us viewers could easily avoid standard advertising.  As our ability to avoid the ads grow, their impact will decrease and the brands will not be so interested in the model any longer.  Then who’s gonna pay for the TV you watch?

Well, it can’t come as much of a suprise but PaidContent is reporting that web video site SuperDeluxe will be no more:

“Turner told staff today it is folding SuperDeluxe.com into AdultSwim.com, and laying off much of the SuperDeluxe team.”

While SuperDeluxe did give a lot of funny people some money to make some funny videos they never figured out how to draw a consistent audience.  Often, their best series were drawing as few as 10,000 viewers an episode.

It will be interesting to see how related sites like FunnyOrDie, 60Frames and MyDamnChannel do over the next six months.  I would say one or more of them will be gone or significantly altered.

Following up on my post about Storybids comes word of startup effort Videorix:

“Videorix is a unique and easy self-service marketplace connecting advertisers with publishers of online-videos. We provide advertisers with a network of publishers willing to get sponsors for their videos. We help publishers make money with their videos. It’s simple and it works.”

Well, the site certainly seems a bit more realistic but it, too, will have to wait for the weekend for me to test it.  In the meantime you can read more about it here or here.

The fun to say Zibb.com has a post about the recently launched Storybids:

“Storybids, Inc. is a venture capital funded start up based in Irvine, CA focusing on in-video advertisement via product placement in user generated content as well as professionally scripted webisodes. Storybids offers a new way to monetize video by inserting actual product, services or verbal mentions pre-production before a video goes viral. The videos uploaded via content creators may be uploaded to multiple video hosting sites at once and then tracked via analytics for performance via their dashboard. Advertisers may select video content creators in the marketplace via a search tool that tracks views, comments and ratings across multiple video hosting sites.”

I’ve poked around the site but haven’t taken a deep look just yet (read: don’t feel up to registering for anything at the moment…).  Over the weekend I think I’ll try submitting a project and then I’ll report back with the results.

According to the rather hybolic verbage on the site I’m pretty certain I will be writing that post from the Yacht I buy with the millions of dollars they’re going to help me make.

The folks at MSNBC have launched a new effort called NewsWare, an attempt to blend the news of the day with the growing interest in casual gaming.

As YPulse points out:

“Although I can’t imagine getting my headlines while trying to race against time to destroy all of the orbs, it might be an appealing to stay informed to a Wii-obsessed teenage boy.”

There’s been lots of talk about the slow death of traditional newspapers and the evening network news, especially among younger people.  Will gaming be the thing that keeps America’s youth informed on current events?  I’m not sure this is the answer but it can’t hurt to try.

Ok, I was having a conversation the other day with a friend when the name Dom DeLuise came up. That, of course, led to a discussion of the much-loved Burt Reynolds’ starrer CANNONBALL RUN.

Just a day later I read the following on Mashable:

“There have have been a number of races to succeed the original Canonball run. The latest one is another brainchild of Brock Yates.  And this time, the driving revolution will be televised (on the intarwebs, at least).  The One Lap of America folks have discovered the magic of wireless broadband access and UStream, and will be bringing you the race live from their dashboards, so you can experience the wonder and beauty of a six day cruise across the America.”

Sounds good to me!

Aside from a tiny number of paid or subscription services it seems to me that the vast majority of the web is ad-supported in one way or another. There has been plenty of discussion, pro and con (here’s a good example), as to whether or not this model can support the growth in web video but we’re definitely gonna find out.

Beet.tv has a good interview with Fred Seibert, the creative director of NextNewNetworks about the current  role of product placement in web video.  Fred’s a pretty smart guy and worth a listen.

There does seem to be a role for sponsored programming on the web but not at anywhere close to the budgets most producers have grown accustomed to. The truth is that nothing on the web consistently draws the number of viewers that currently watch TV and without focused consumption by a broad range of consumers advertisers are not going to pour their money all into one or two efforts.

This means smaller budgets for creators and producers in-line with their audience size.

There seems to be a lot in the news (or at least the news I read) that has something to do with the idea of communal viewing.

The most obvious example of this is everyone sitting around the TV in the living room.  That image of the perfect American family lit by the warm glow of the one TV in the house is one that is burned into my own image bank.

Of course, today there is a screen everywhere and that means everyone can go watch whatever they want and screw family time.  The explosion of cable and the niche shows that came along with it enforced this behavior making it even less likely that all members of a household could find a common show to hold their attention for an hour.

The success of American Idol is largely due to its ability to engage a wide demographic but it is very much an exception to the rule.

The growth of web video has only increased our tendancy to view alone (and not just porn).

In  the wake of all this alone time a number of services are popping up to allow folks in different locations to watch videos on the web simultaneously while participating in chat of one kind or another.

This isn’t entirely new as a number of TV shows have live chat rooms that run simultaneous to their airing but allowing groups to assemble on their on schedule for a similar experience is kind of neat.

I’ve already discussed the indie end of this spectrum with SeeToo and some of the larger efforts like NBC’s Viewing Party.  Now comes the Lycos effort with their revamp of LycosCinema.

According to ArsTech they’ve definitely put the spotlight on communal aspects of the site:

“Other significant new features in today’s major revamp of Lycos Cinema focus on the social and chatting experiences. A new lobby chat area can accommodate thousands of movie fans if you aren’t quite in the mood to start watching something yet. Movies can now be scheduled for a later date, complete with friend invites and notifications for when shows are about to start. Movies can be watched in private, with a select group of friends, or publicly (the default) by sharing a URL that any Lycos Cinema user can click to immediately join.”

Seems pretty cool if IM’ing with friends while you watch a movie is something you really want to do.  I’m not totally convinced that this is meeting a desperate need.

With SeeToo, the idea of watching personal videos with friends and family immediately struck a chord so maybe there is overlap.  Time will tell.

In tangentially related Communal Viewing news, I like the idea of the upcoming Pangea Day (via PSFK)

“On May 10^th, millions of people worldwide will watch the same short films at the same time. Via thousands of locally organized events, the organizers hope to remind watchers what we all have in common.

6 cities will broadcast live footage of 24 short films in 8 languages. Those in Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro can check out the events’ headquarters. The estimated 4hr long cinematic debut will also include top speakers and musical performers: Queen Noor of Jordan, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, musician/activist Bob Geldof, Iranian rock phenom Hypernova and others.”

Neato.