Fri, August 7, 2009 12:15 PM EST

The Internet and How It Relates
to The Fifteen-Year-Old Demographic

by Oliver McIntyre

A paragraph in my last post focused on our everyday lives, conversations, and the fact that our personalities differ dramatically when we speak to different types of people. I went on to state that we must apply the same thinking to web. We now have very distinct online user demographics like the full-time mom, the professional woman, the baby-boomer, etc. All have very different wants and requirements.

Many of the emails I received following the post asked me to elaborate on that paragraph so this post is going to do just that. So, let’s look at the teenage demographic for a moment and the 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern that anecdotally evaluated and defined the online habits of his friends.

Matthew Robson, an intern from a London school, was asked to write a report on teenagers likes and dislikes, which was very interesting and made the front page of the Financial Times. His report highlighted Twitter as meaningless to the teenage demographic and went on to state that online advertising is pointless.

We all know that teenagers are the early-adopters online, but do they not use Twitter? Not according to Mathew saying teenagers do not use Twitter. Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realize that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting Twitter uses up cell credit and they would rather text friends with those credits). They also feel that no one is viewing their profiles, so their tweets are pointless.

He goes on to state that traditional media – television, radio, and newspapers – are all losing ground. Robson states that he knew no one that reads a newspaper regularly since most cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarized on the Internet or TV. Teens see adverts on websites - pop ups, banner ads - as "extremely annoying and pointless," but he goes on to say that, "most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing, as it often creates humorous and interesting content. Downloading films off the Internet is not popular as the films are usually bad quality and have to be watched on a small computer screen and there is a risk of viruses”.

He talks about game consoles like Wii, which are now able to connect to the Internet and offer free voice chat between users, have emerged as a more popular choice for chatting with friends than the phone.

We must first understand the web and the user, then set about generating content that not only creates an expectation the very first time but also will fulfill the desire thereafter.

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Mon, July 20, 2009 1:16 PM EST

Social Media and How it Defined the Presidential Campaign

by Oliver McIntyre

Many of my presentations start off with the question, “What was the largest and most successful Social Media campaign in the USA and what did it achieve?” In my book, the Barack Obama campaign was and, as we all know, he became the President of the United States.

Main Street now accepts the fact that social media is one of the most powerful and persuasive of marketing tools. Many of the ad agencies here in NYC advertise senior digital positions requiring that candidates have a minimum of two years of Internet experience. So, it’s easy to understand why many clients are frustrated at the level of understanding and expertise coming from the agency team when it comes to Social Media strategy and planning.

The social media-marketing umbrella includes sites that are both Web 2.0 and 1.0 – and basically we need to ensure that our clients are somewhere that enables discussions, sharing, or user-generated content (UGC), such as: blogs, forums, discussion boards, consumer reviews, social networks, online communities, social bookmarking sites, social news, social music, video and photo sharing, and of course Wikis. But before exposing our clients to the vast unknown it’s really important to create the social media road map. By that I mean a map of the social web as it pertains to each and every client’s business.

Our clients also need to understand what Social media can and will do. It engages an audience, encourages online conversations that are user-generated, it increases our client’s web presence and expands brand awareness. It generates publicity (both good & bad I’m the first one to point that out) and it provides huge SEO benefits. It’s great for brand building, relationship management, product development, reputation management, customer interaction, customer feedback, customer support, community building and, of course, SEO.

Last week, Nielsen released the 2009 Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet consumers from different 50 countries. The focus of the survey: to define the degree of trust consumers have related to online advertisers and brands. No surprise, 70% trusted opinions from other consumers posted online and 70% trusted branded websites. Due to the explosion of user generated content over the past two or more years, consumers have a new way of defining and assessing brands, products, and services.  The report quotes: “The explosion in consumer-generated media (CGM) over the last couple of years (we are now tracking over 100 million CGM sources) means consumers’ reliance on word of mouth in the decision-making process, either from people they know or online consumers they don’t, has increased significantly.” The CGM (consumer generated media) revolution is forcing brand owners to use more realistic forms of messaging that are grounded in the experience of consumers rather than the BIG IDEA. No longer do we need traditional advertising to obtain information about a brand or product as the Web puts us all in direct, real-time contact with each other, wherever we are in the world.

The web is now channelized and as marketers we must help our clients to use social media to find out who tomorrow’s customers really are. In our everyday life, our conversation and personality differs dramatically when we speak to different types of people and we must apply the same thinking to web as we now have very defined user demographics.

Many web entrepreneurs will tell you how easy it is to get thousands of people to glance at a site, but how tortuous it is to get people to stick around or even come back again the following day. Creating an expectation for the very first time is easy but fulfilling a desire that people didn't even realize they had is something else.

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Tuesday, May 19, 2009 2:00 PM EST

A Boomer Techie Speaks Out

by Deborah Levine, Guest Blogger

I am not of the generation that is typically known for its cyberspace savvy. I am a Baby Boomer with degrees in people-oriented areas: cultural anthropology and urban planning. Yet, I have found my voice and my business on the web through my online magazine, the American Diversity Report. How did a classically-educated, British colonial (Bermuda) end up on the cutting edge of cyberspace?

In 1965, I started my senior year in high school intending to study medieval history, music and Russian.  I cringed when my mother insisted I enroll in a new elective: matrix algebra.  “It’s computers, sweetheart, your future,” she said in her lilting, island-girl voice. Well acquainted with the steel fist behind that soft voice, I entered the Matrix with only minimal kicking and screaming. The experience seemed out of space and time; I never used a computer as an undergraduate at Harvard. Not until 1971 did I generate my first computerized statistical report. I was at the University of Cincinnati where the mainframe took up an entire building and I needed a suitcase to carry home the hard copy.  This was my future!? Ten years later, I was back in graduate school at the University of Illinois at Chicago where the mainframe only took up one floor of the building. The degree now required computer expertise in generating statistical reports.  I registered as a beginner, but the professor insisted I moved to an intermediate section.  I complied with much kicking and screaming. He calmed me saying, “Don’t worry.  You won’t hurt anything unless you get frustrated and kick in the monitor.”  Heart in mouth, I consoled myself imagining a computer-free career in community organizing.   

Confident my computer days were over, I became director of an interfaith nonprofit project. After only six months, my office purchased a computer network and a young man was hired to oversee computer operations. We installed the system before he came on board and when we ran into problems, I was the only person remotely, and I do mean remotely, able to fix it.  A computer techie talked me through the process by phone, like an emergency plane landing.  I opened the hard drive and cleaned it with a pencil eraser as instructed.  While I kicked and screamed quietly to myself, I made my peace with the fact that computer expertise is accumulative and fast-moving, waiting for no man or new hire.   

In 1990, my Mother’s Day gift was a personal computer and printer. I proceeded to create my first nonprofit and first newsletter from a home office the size of a closet. I became expert at the graphics, the editing and the simple formatting. My writing became fast, efficient and marketable.  Over the next decade, I was Managing Editor for several agencies, including my own.  By 2001, the demand for access outstripped my e-mail capacity and I commissioned my first website. The PDF newsletter went online and attracted hundreds of readers every month. And then came the revolution.  In 2006, I started to think Big Picture. Out went the PDF files and in came Joomla with graphics and photos. A career center and a store soon followed.  The mission of the American Diversity Report (ADR) evolved into building a consortium of volunteer writers from around the world.  Although it seemed like chaos and information overload at the time, my colleagues say that I was actually pioneering social networking. As the social network aspect of the ADR became my focus, I trolled sites looking for articulate writers. But I also sought out the raw voices, propelled by my motto, “Real diversity for real people.”   They reminded me of myself, invested in their community, but aiming for an international presence.  Some were sophisticated about the internet, constantly posting to the web. Others didn’t realize they had a compelling story to tell.  These are the activists that I nudged into the ADR’s universe with one-on-one mentoring.

Forever tracking statistics, we watched the American Diversity Report acquire almost 25,000 readers monthly in more than 60 countries.  Our Alexa ranking of 14 million went to 450,000. Thoroughly hooked on the web, I explored social and professional networks including FaceBook and LinkedIn.  I spent hours every day answering every invitation, every e-mail and every business solicitation.  Bleary-eyed and overwhelmed, I had joined the world of cyberspace addicts. There was no day, no night, no national borders; just a perpetually chaotic In-box. Slowly, I began to exert control and create new worlds.

My generation has the capacity to create with formidable depth. We can combine technology with an historic perspective, literary finesse and an instinctive futurism.  We are not solely on the internet, as one TV pundit recently commented, to check out the weather. Yes, our arrival on the net was random and chaotic.  But the most creative place in the universe is the edge of chaos.  The longer we stand at the edge of chaos, the more we become portals of knowledge and universal translators of reality.  Having chosen to remain at the edge, I’m like the hub of a spinning wheel whose spokes are writers and readers from around the globe. Together we hurtle through cyberspace at the speed of an internet connection. And as the online cosmos expands, so do we.

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Friday, April 17, 2009 1:03 PM EST

Facebook… 200M Members and Counting

by Oliver McIntyre

Are you on Facebook yet?

Sitting in the office a few weeks ago, I overheard a pretty blonde freelancer stating that she now hates Facebook as her mom, dad, aunt, uncle, and cousins all have profiles.

Facebook’s announcement last week that they just added their 200 millionth user really wasn’t much of a surprise for me. In October 2007, I wrote a blog stating that 2007 was all about Facebook and that it was the new mass media. Microsoft purchased 1.6 % of the company for a mere $240 million valuing the brand at $15 billion. In that post I remember putting that into perspective, stating that that was six times the market cap of the New York Times.

But let’s stop for a moment and ponder this milestone. Can you remember the last time 200 million people across the world were ever members of the same community, especially considering the community is only a mere five years old? Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg and his team state that “If Facebook were a country, it would be the fifth largest in the world, more than Brazil and fewer than Indonesia.”

Facebook is imbedding itself into almost every facet of online interaction. There’s the marketplace, where you can buy, sell, and trade with “Users Near You”. There’s the Notes feature, allowing you to share your innermost secrets with your family and friends and their families and friends and potential employers. There’s the People You May Know feature, which allows you to reconnect with your college roommate’s. Even job opportunities, tailored to your interests, are posted on the side of your Facebook homepage. And let’s not forget everyone’s favorite microblogging tool, the status update. 160 fabulous, self-absorbed characters to convey who actually cares-what: “Billy is bowling ... Billy thinks it’s time to get drunk! ... Billy can’t wait to finish bowling.” Billy is a friend of mine I might add (…just kidding, dude).

In reality, the status update in combination with the news feed feature makes it possible for your friends to ensconce themselves in your day life as often as they’d like and, unless you remove yourself from the site (referred to as Facebook suicide), you’re powerless to stop them.

Facebook has created a platform that provides a unique form of social mobilization and its spirit, speed, and versatility cannot be underestimated. The ease and frequency with which users can alert friends to “Causes” has been credited with allowing do-gooders to find each other through shared interests in non-profits and has allowed for donations and fundraising for those activities near and dear to one’s heart.

Users and non-users alike are probably fully aware of Facebook’s presence and the recent presidential campaign is a very good example. The Facebook team explains that of 45 million active users, 80% are of voting age. 50% of its users are over the age of 35 and, as I have stated in previous posts, the fastest-growing user demographic is m/f 55 +. Mark Zuckerberg’s network has morphed into an all-encompassing rollercoaster.

There are still lots of people in the world who aren’t on Facebook yet but the site finds itself at a tipping point. In terms of creating an internet presence that rivals Google’s (who actually wanted to purchase Facebook at one point): does it stick with the paradigm and allow Facebook to remain the social networking site open to anyone (person, place or thing) or does it streamline, retain better control of the product, and charge users — and thereby alienate a significant portion of the population responsible for bringing it to its current omnipresence?

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next year. If Zuckerberg and his team rock the boat too much, it’s only a matter of time before a replacement is born and Facebook is dumped like MySpace. One thing is very clear, however: social media management is now a key requirement for both clients and agencies in the 21st Century. Web is now channelized and communication has got to go way beyond the intrusive messaging of traditional advertising. Web 3.0, or the Semantic Web, will allow us to use the enormous capacity of the medium to develop much more subtle methods of matching propositions to people at exactly the right time, price, and place.

Facebook will monetize its platform not by hosting banner ads, but by providing its users with applications.

Congrats to Mr. Zuckerberg on creating a Monster.

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2009-05-09 06:35:43
from: enquiries_yttyourtrustedtradesmen.com

Hi Oliver well written Article, Facebook is a gr8 resource for business also I'm seeing over 300 + referrals a day from there and of that 5% converting to sales. I'm going to give their ads a try next. Kind Regards Michael http://www.yourtrustedtradesmen.com
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2009-05-01 03:23:43
from: Rani Wemel, Malaysia

Hi Oliver...good article enjoyed reading it :)
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Friday, March 27, 2009 4:35 PM EST

Why are Advertising and Social
Media Mixing Like Oil and Water?

by Oliver McIntyre

Brian Morrissey’s recent Adweek piece states that Social networking has overtaken e-mail as the most popular Internet activity, according to a study released by Nielsen.

Active reach in what Nielsen defines as “member communities” now exceeds e-mail participation by 67 to 65 percent. It goes on to state that social networking and blogging venues are growing at twice the rate of other large drivers of Internet use such as portals, e-mail, and search. Neilson concluded that the shift to social activity online would have profound effects on marketers and publishers. For publishers, social networks are eating into time spent with other online activities, according to Nielsen. For advertisers, the phenomenon at this stage represents a mostly unfulfilled promise for a deeper connection with consumers who are more difficult to reach in social environments. The Nielsen study also highlighted that Facebook’s greatest growth has come from 35-49 year-olds, and it has added twice as many 50-64 year-olds as those under 18.

Brian goes on to point out that advertising and social media to date have mixed like oil and water.

Why? And What’s really changed over the past year?

Adweek.COM , Feb 2008 - a Forrester research survey stated that ad agencies were not well structured to take on tomorrow’s marketing challenges, needing to move from making messages to establishing community connections. In the report, the research firm paints a grim view of the current state of advertising, which it believes is in "a world of hurt" because consumers are tuning out the messages the industry is predicated on producing. Instead, it believes shops need to be organized around communities, not disciplines. What it is calling "the connected agency" would not only know certain communities but also be active members of these groups.

Pushing messages would give way to encouraging voluntary engagement, and ongoing conversations would replace time-based campaigns. Another study published by McKinsey & Co posited the most important corporate resource over the next ten years would be talent and the ability to create a 360-degree agency.

Social media is the fastest growing Internet marketing channel, one that has the power to go viral. It engages and consumes an audience in meaningful conversations about a brand, product, company or issue. The social media-marketing umbrella includes sites that are both Web 2.0 and Web 1.0 - basically you want to be anywhere that enables discussions, sharing, and user-generated content (UGC), such as blogs, forums and discussion boards, consumer review, sites, social networks / online communities, social bookmarking sites, social news sites, social music sites, video and photo sharing sites and Wikis.

Understanding What Social Media Can & Can’t Do is Key Before We Start to Develop a Strategy for a Client.

Social media can engage your audience, encourage online conversations that are user-generated, increase your web presence, expand brand awareness, generate publicity (both good & bad), and provide SEO benefits.

Many marketers, will tell you that social media has no ROI but is great for brand building, relationship management, product development, reputation management, customer interaction, customer feedback, customer support, community building, and defensive SEO (yes you can bury the bad press with positive UGC).

Social media can convert if you own the community and have the power to strategically capture leads. As marketers, we must understand the distinction between ONLINE creative expression and real business objectives.

Wharton professor Eric Clemons’ analysis nailed it for me, and below are two paragraphs from his evaluation as he has defined it better than I ever can.

“Simple commercial messages, pushed through whatever medium, in order to reach a potential customer who is in the middle of doing something else, will fail. It’s not that we no longer need information to initiate or to complete a transaction; rather, we will no longer need advertising to obtain that information … Instead, we will use information that we trust, obtained at the time that we want to see it.”

“Advertising is the creation of a disconnected era when businesses needed some way to get a message out to prospective customers that they couldn’t reach directly. The purpose of an ad is to motivate the prospect to get in touch. The Web, as we all know, puts us all in direct, real-time contact with each other, wherever we are in the world. Instead of advertising a message and waiting haplessly for a response, businesses can proactively connect directly with their prospects, reaching out to them in contexts where they’re ready to buy. What counts on the Web is product placement, merchandising and other forms of direct promotion.”

Web is now channelized and communications has got to go way beyond the intrusive messaging of advertising. 3.0 or the Semantic web will allow us to use the enormous capacity of the medium to develop much more subtle methods of matching propositions to people at exactly the right time, price and place. That means the likes of Facebook will monetize its platform not by hosting banner ads, but by providing its users with applications.

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Friday, March 13, 2009 12:25 PM EST

New Media, Meet New Agency

by Rob Hoffman, Guest Blogger

There’s no debating that the distribution model of music, television, film, and advertising is forever changed. It can be easily summed up in one word: iTunes. But what about the way media is created? Not just by whom but through what methods? The production models for television and advertising remained relatively unchanged through the late 1990’s. Desktop publishing was the first shot across the bow. Then the dot-com boom of the early 2000’s shook the foundation. The advent of broadband seems to have been an additional kick in the nuts. Finally, social networking just may be the death knell of the way things were.

I first got my foot in the door as a tape librarian (the post-production equivalent of the mailroom) in 1992 at MTI; a midlevel studio that catered mostly to cable networks. National, Windsor, and Post Perfect were several of its now defunct competitors. The post-production studio was king back in those days. If you wanted your spot edited on ready for broadcast 1" reel-to-reel video, you needed to work in a studio that had an engineering department. Booking a room for $350 an hour was the norm. Then a non-linear editing system working on a Mac started taking hold. Its name was Avid and it started a revolution. Seemingly every editor in New York was opening his own “boutique” shop. Rates plunged while creative opportunities blossomed.

Pretty soon, broadcast networks and ad agencies realized that they didn’t need to outsource their post-production at all. They could simply convert a closet into an editing bay and the concept of in-house editing and finishing was born. As the major production houses started sinking in the late 90’s, talent began to freelance on a much larger scale. Out was the staffer that would sit around and wait for a job to come to occupy his/her room. In was the freelancer, available to be hired on a “just in time” fashion.

While the broadcast networks were quick to embrace this change out of economic necessity, the ad agencies seemed to dig their feet in the sand and more or less hang in there. It wasn’t until this latest economic crisis that their collective backs were seemingly broken. The “luxury” multi-tiered agency approach for creating an ad campaign is starting to have a hard time competing with the collective approach of on-line contests and virtual team building. Why pay an agency to come up with several concepts when you can enlist a limitless pool of talent to get you there for a fraction of the cost?

In these lean times, the indulgence of a Madison Ave. or Soho address is turning into quite a burden. As a matter of fact, the indulgence of having an address at all may not even be necessary.

What would happen if a creative director could build a team overnight to suit a pitch or project then disband when the project was over? What if that team needed to be built again 6 days or even 6 months later? How could this be accomplished? Good freelancers don’t just hang around waiting for the phone to ring. If you were lucky enough to find this person the first time, surely you won’t be so lucky the next. Then what? If you are using a vocational networking tool to build up your network ahead of time, you may be in luck. And you may be on the forefront of the virtual team building model that will dominate media for the next 10 years.

There is a new breed of networks using this web 2.0 model that caters to virtual team building. Sites such as the upcoming www.reelpost.com (full disclosure – this is the site that I founded), www.whoscreative.com, www.postfolio.org, and www.geniusrocket.com are enabling media creatives to congregate, show off their wares, and their references.

For the print and design world, there are contest sites such as www.99designs.com which enable the user to create a design contest for a set price. The creatives on these types of sites (many of them real professionals with a little time on their hands) then compete to come up with the winning look. How many layers of bureaucracy does an agency have to go through to get a logo design approved? And at what cost? This is easy math.

So where do we go from here? Is the agency dead? I’m not ready to start chiseling the tombstone but I am ready to visit the hospice. The music industry has been dying this slow motion death for the past 10 years – victim of file sharing and social networks. Ad world, take note. Nobody wants to do a job for less pay but many will, so get used to it. Many more opportunities will be created for those that previously had none. Some will see this new opportunity, realize that the time is now, and run with it.

See you at the finish line.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:05 PM EST

Has the Internet Killed the Traditional TV Revenue Model?

by Oliver McIntyre

Gossip Girl is a teen drama based on a group of New York socialites. Since it’s launch in September 2007 it has been receiving a great deal of attention from both the viewing public and TV executives.

The show was created by the CW Network and targets the 18-34 demographic. Understanding that a TV show has a life way beyond the weekly spot was clearly something Josh Schwartz, the show’s producer, understood from the beginning. Gossip Girl was created to work across Television, Internet, and mobile phones and thereby reflects the ever changing needs and wants of the demographic.

CW has a strong online presence, most of which is free (advertising funded). It allows viewers to watch full episodes online, view exclusive interviews, meet and chat with other fans and dissect the characters through a private blog. As well as the advertising revenue that comes from the site, there are also revenues linked to product sales. Viewers can browse and buy the clothes and accessories worn by the characters. They can buy music featured in the show and download mobile screensavers and ringtones.

The primary focus of the Gossip Girl site is to market the shows and they do this very effectively in several ways including a ‘CW Mixer’ which allows viewers to create, upload, and share their own CW show-related video montages.

Online viewers download the show for free using file-sharing technology or pay to download it to an iTouch, iPhone or other mobile device.

The overall popularity of the show has increased, but the traditionally measured viewer figures have been declining, as have the traditional advertising revenues.

Last year TV execs decided to delay the show on the Internet, showing it a week after it was broadcast on TV. The reason: too many people were watching it online and this was having a major effect on the television viewing audience.

Cross platform fluidity is difficult for traditional broadcasters to embrace because their advertising revenue is linked to traditional audience metrics. We have already seen the Internet and file sharing technology wreak disastrous effects across the music sector when the key players resisted the need to change.

Over the past year, YouTube has agreed deals with several TV stations to legally post their clips and share the advertising revenue earned from display advertising placed next to the videos.

These deals provide YouTube with authorized local content and help the TV stations to get paid for content posted free online as well as extending their audience.

The future is about creating compelling content and at the same time understanding that this content is no longer just being accessed through a high-def TV. TV execs must embrace the fact that the existing revenue model is dead and develop new formats and metrics to facilitate and cater to the fact that people are increasingly watching TV shows on their laptops and through their mobile phones.

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2009-03-19 10:08:03
from:

Hi Oliver I don't know if online media has killed traditional yet, but it certainly is equipped to do so. You and I did some innovative stuff with Raketu to show off the potential for sponsors to do things they could never do on television or in print. Didn't we break all kinds of click through records? I now am starting a channel on Youtube where we can offer sponsors more control and selling power than they ever had in traditional media. No time restrictions for ads, star characters who push the products in an entertaining way in their own shows, and direct links to the sponsors' websites where they can use those same stars to help the audience navigate the site as if they were their personal salespeople in a virtual store. And how about commercials that no one wants to fast forward through? ! am ready for this future; I know you are and it could come any day now - the day the first sponsor really wants to beat out his competition. Your pal, John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren and Stimpy
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2009-03-11 19:43:15
from: joseph@businesstribes.com

Integrating media formats is the key. Gossip Girls does not attract a viewer base, they built a tribe.
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2009-02-27 07:50:36
from: brendan@surveyguru.ie

Hi Oliver, Josh Schwartz deserves credit for trying these innovative,. mixed approaches. Jon makes an interesting suggestion on reversing the order of broadcasting. Perhaps the relative revenues (TV advertising versus the rest) would influence that choice. Brendan
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2009-02-25 11:19:31
from: jon@chocolate4health.co.uk

It appears to me that it would have made much more sense to be pioneering and air the show online one week earlier that the TV show. Imagine the value of an advertising slot there!
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Friday, February 12, 2009 2:22 PM EST

The Ever Changing Face of Social Media

by Oliver McIntyre

This recession looks uglier by the day; all I see is one bad news story after another. Every day I’m asked the same question, “where should I focus my ad dollars to get the best bang for my buck?”

This recession is the first really bad news that has occurred in the social media era. But is it bad? For me, social media is immediate, more customizable, and in many cases more honest and real than other forms of media. The conferences and symposiums of the 00’s are going to be replaced by other forms of digital information exchange that will dominate the bummer 10’s. I’m still amazed that many still haven’t invested and focused on the new mass media and continue to debate its relevance. Over the past year, two meaningful verticals have emerged: video and real time search. I want to focus on video within this post.

YouTube.com is now the second largest search site online, and generates domestically close to 3BN searches per month. Putting that into perspective, it’s a bigger search destination than Yahoo. It was an inspired purchase for Google although I was blown away at the initial cost. Google understood that video search was both hard and different and that owning the asset would give them both a media destination (browse, watch, share) and a search destination (find, watch, and share). Video search is very different because it alters the line or distinction between search, browse and navigation.

In the current landscape of online video, YouTube is and will remain the monster as it has more than 30% of all videos. Professional content is becoming more available (e.g., Hulu); the television media is converging with the Internet (e.g., Joost); long-tail video blogs are being created at a rapid rate; communities are forming around topics/interests (e.g., Break.com). Similar to television (where choices burgeoned from just the networks in the 1970s), music (where choices exploded from radio to MP3s, to satellite radio, to Internet radio), and even the major online portals (in which audiences have splintered to social networks), Video content is exploding and this eruption is driven by cheaper bandwidth costs, cheaper Web cams and abundant video cell phones, and monetization capabilities that can now reward content creators. Even traditional media have awakened to the inevitable growth with acquisitions (CBS/WallStrip), content availability (Hulu), and advertiser partnerships (the “Make Your Own Doritos” commercial).

We have four distinct groups:

Commissioned Content Sites

Content publishers complement their existing media offerings. Major players like CNN.com NYT.com as well as TV networks such as NBC.com and Fox.com. Also in this category is the content aggregation site Hulu, which offers content from its partners, including AOL, Comcast, MSN, MySpace, and Yahoo.

User-Generated Content Video Sites

Professionally created content sites are on the rise; UGC video has contributed to the Internet video phenomenon in a major way. Key players YouTube, Veoh, Metacafe, and Break.

Video Syndication/Advertising/Publishing

Given the explosion of online video, we now have companies that specialize in syndicating, publishing, and monetizing video content. The major players in this category include Broadband Enterprises, Tremor Media, VideoEgg, and Maven Networks, which was acquired by Yahoo.

Video Search

Just as Internet users rely on search engines to navigate through the reams of information, the online video world also demands video search engines to index the massive amount of video content. We have five major players, Google, AOL video search engines, Blinkx, Gofish, and Singingfish.

In December 2007, domestic video streamers amounted to 141 million, representing more than 75% of total U.S. Internet users. YouTube dominated with 78 million unique viewers in the month, up 60% since the beginning of the year. A more defining statistic to consider is that more than 40% of total U.S. Internet users streamed videos on YouTube in December 2007, underlying or demonstrating the impact that YouTube, or Internet video in general, has on the daily lifestyle of Americans. MySpace also has attracted massive viewer traffic, at 41 million in December 2007, but we point out that growth is moderate at a mere16% year to date. On the other hand, Facebook, grew more than five times since the start of the year. The rapid growth for me is the creation and adoption of its video application on the site.

Demographics:
Demographic information for YouTube (as a representative of UGC sites) and Time Warner Networks (as a representative of professional content sites).

YouTube, audiences under the age of 25 stream about 27% of total videos on the site, higher than Time Warner’s 19%.

The more attractive demographic group (25-54), 63% of YouTube videos were viewed by this group, on par with the level for Time Warner. (55+) contributes only 10% of total video streams, less than Time Warner at 16%.

What is an Agency, a Vendor, or a Partner?

The debate rages on. I believe the future is about strategic collaboration, agency people with the cross-dimensional expertise, visionaries who can work with the client and develop digital products that foster and build relationships. Today’s user, irrespective of the demographic, must be engaged. Personalization and customization is the future and commissioned content has replaced the banner. The big idea is no longer a big idea unless it can be validated and is focused on business goals (i.e. sales growth, customer relationships,) rather than 'ad' goals of awareness levels, share of voice, or creative likes and dislikes.

The future is Social Networks.

Comments (11 total) | Add Comment | Permalink

2009-03-11 04:36:40
from: David Cooper - cooper@itsportsnet.com

Things are going to get more chaotic before it becomes clear what the future IS. Social networks maybe more honest and real than other forms of media... but they are neither honest nor real. Do not get me wrong, I agree that some of the stuff going on today is incredible and we are at the beginning of some significant changes. However, I do not see a paradigm shift here. I just some cool tools that people are using to interact in a new... but not necessarily a better way. The Future is a paradigm shift where I will have gotten rid of my smart phone, ipod, cable, internet, itunes, my gazillion online accounts, my multiple electronic address books, my laptops, digital cameras, calendars and have a truly integrated way of communicating and interacting where the lines between real and digital do not exist anymore. ... although this doesn't help answer the question about where I get the best bang for my ad money : )
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2009-03-06 09:07:28
from: deborah@americandiversityreport.com

Hi Oliver, Thank you for documenting these major cultural shifts. I particularly appreciate your differentiation between big ideas focused on a business goal rather than awareness levels. I'd like to hear more about the implications of this change of direction and I'm looking forward to your upcoming blogs.
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2009-02-27 07:50:39
from: Brendan Cullen, brendan@surveyguru.ie

Very well written Oliver - provocative indeed. One angle I'm interested in though is the bottom line for some of these companies. Are the Facebooks of the world turning a profit ? And are Google getting a financial return on investment yet from YouTube ? Brendan
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2009-02-27 07:50:42
from:

Oliver, great article, sometimes even when you know you are right it helps when someone with your experience confirms it! I have sent the link to your blog to my colleagues as I think it will help our focus and motivation towards our goal of creating a great social network! Thanks for the inspiration. I agree with your final paragraph, for relationships to work for all parties the partnership approach is by far the most satisfying and promises greater rewards in the long run!
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2009-02-21 13:52:19
from: markh@egoeast.com

Great blog Oliver. When you consider that the majority of Internet search and traffic today is viewing text content, I think we're really just at the beginning of an Internet that will one day be dominated by Video content. One of the most interesting categories is how-to video content pioneered by sites like ExpertVillage and VideoJug. Soon pretty much anything you can imagine doing, or that you may need info about, you will be able to watch via video-based instruction, etc. And as we get past the novelty of video on the Internet, increasingly we will come to depend on it.
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2009-02-19 10:26:55
from: info@creativestarlearning.co.uk

Hello Oliver Thanks for pointing me to your blog. I really like the overall look of it - it's fresh and professional and that helps add credibility in a quiet way - your writing naturally speaks oodles and it's clear you know your stuff. For a non-marketer / advertiser / business-world wifie who's metamorphosed from the public sector into the bright blinking business lights, I was surprised and relieved to find that your content didn't alienate me. It may be worth chunking your blog into smaller sections and offering them in bite-sized pieces. Perhaps it's my goldfish attention span but I need quick read chunks on blogs. Out of interest, who do you think will read your blog? Is it for your own personal satisfaction or are you going to be sharing it with your customers? This is more a rhetorical question as it could be both. I ended up blogging as a way of getting stuff out of my mind and on to paper, but decided share my thoughts via a blog because I like the simplicity of the formats and the idea I could access it from anywhere I happened to be. KEEP BLOGGING and best wishes Juliet
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2009-02-19 08:04:44
from: Pamela Hint pamelahint@yahoo.com

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You're inspirational Oliver! Your POV on where the digital world and internet is heading is truly innovative and makes so much sense. This is great work, I look forward to reading all your future articles.
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2009-02-17 13:51:38
from: Clive Digby-Jones, Ravenscroft international - cdigby-jones@ravenscroft.com

Hi Oliver... In the Chart - you talk about 25-54 demographics but then highlight 35-54 only. Clearly the latter is a big chunk. I idly wondered how computer/technically literate each of the age bands is... this is for my information. At 61 I am pretty literate, but my wife at 66 isn't and won't touch a computer, so I guess that the % watching videos falls with age and that there are different male/female % figures too? Overall, the article was clear, articulate, concise and left me wanting more and thinking that you know your stuff - it also made me want my own blog and to ask for the link to the host site. It also reminded me that a lot of my work was facilitating groups of marketeers, clients and others to think through strategy, etc. It allowed the expert in the room to be part of the group rather than also needing to lead the group. If you ever need a sidekick, based out of Florida and Massachusetts and with bases in NJ (West Orange), VA (Arlington) let me know! Clive
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2009-02-17 10:29:43
from: Sharifah Hardie shardie@sharifahhardie.com

Thank you for sharing your information with us. I believe that you have some very strong points. I also believe that the future is Social Networks and the future is now. In order for any of us to get through this economy we have to "network" or learn to work together to help the greater good! Awesome Points, Sharifah Hardie
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2009-02-15 14:59:09
from: penelope@PROnLineTools.com

Just to prove I was here :-) - great blog, very interesting data. It's great to see an agency guy embrace the internet for advertising as only people with your views and vigour will keep or grow their businesses. Traditional marketing is dead and people are saturated with messages. Marketers, especially advertising bods, need to get with the digital program or die. I recently produced a marketing plan for a client with a VERY niche book product. Gorgeously presented but limited true market. I included in the plan some great internet options for viral marketing such as podcasts on her website with her reading excerpts, e-news and links to other authors, gaining internet reviews of the book, joining Ecademy, joining Expert Sources.co.uk which goes to thousands of media, internet techniques to develop herself as an expert in her field (which she is), market segmentation, positioning, etc. She rejected ALL of it except sending frickin media releases to local media. And she wonders why she's not selling books! Grrrrrrrr - I also went to a lunch and the guest speaker was the MD Aust/NZ for Yahoo and he was REALLY interesting. He now works for a company that inserts advertising into television programs that are played over the internet - blue highway I think it's called. So great stuff, Oliver great first blog - I look forward to more. Well done. Cheers, Penelope (and welcome to Insanely Clever Marketing) :-)
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2009-02-15 14:56:44
from: Rachel Henke

Hi Oliver Welcome to Bloggerville! I'd say that's a pretty amazing start. Well done. Blog looks great. Challendge is to keep on blogging! Thanks Rachel
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