Archive for November, 2009

By Juliana Koranteng, London

Music is playing such a critical role on fast-growing social networks that brand owners can no longer ignore it for brand-awareness strategies, says a new report by Heartbeats International, the Sweden-based international marketing agency.

Called “Social Music Revolution,” the report will be unveiled at the Eurobest advertising festival in Amsterdam today (Nov. 25). It follows “Sounds like Branding,” Heartbeats’ survey on branded music projects published early this year.

The new report examines the role of music in social media and how brand owners can adopt recorded and live music to reach young audiences that have stopped using traditional media.

It analyzes several international studies by firms like SIFO Institute, Entertainment Media Research, and Millward Brown and concludes: “The same digital technology that changed the music industry is changing advertising as we know it.”

It finds that, on average, consumers listen to music on five different platforms, including mobile handsets and PCs.

Moreover, “two out of five social networkers have music embedded in their personal profile.” And the number of hours spent listening to music per day is growing.

“We want to open up more marketers eyes to the massive impact that music has on these networks,” the report’s author, Heartbeats’ CEO/founder Jakob Lusensky, tells Billboard.biz. “There are definitely differences depending on the market and culture. But the digitalization and increased usage of mobile phones, iPod/MP3-players and Internet (in the developed world) have created a situation where more people then ever easily have access to more music then ever before.”

As services like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Last.fm alone gain more than 500 million users, they are reaching consumers on a scale global marketers crave for.

Even the 140-character text limitation on Twitter has not stopped the service from making music sharing possible via add-on services such as imeem, Twittytunes and Blip.fm.

Heartbeats’ report advises advertisers to work with the music industry on social network platforms by adopting the new marketing principles of the four Es (emotions, experience, engagement and exclusivity) – as opposed to the traditional four Ps (price, product, placement and promotion).

Brands should also consider three types of strategies, the report continues. The ‘Association’ strategy centers on connecting artists to audiences. An example is Bacardi rum’s collaboration with dance act Groove Armada earlier this year.

The ‘Involvement’ strategy advocates co-creating to encourage fans to interact with music, such as remix competitions using legally licensed hits. Computer chip giant Intel worked with media-buying agency Universal McCann on its Intel Powers Music social-network campaign in Europe last year. The campaign resulted in 19,000 bands and performers adding Intel as a friend on their MySpace page.

The ‘Exploration’ strategy offers music discovery platforms and introduces fans to new music. Duracell, the batteries manufactured by consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, has set up Scandinavia-based music sharing Web site Ramp Music.

• Xbox 360 Continues to deliver the Leading Games and Entertainment Experiences
• Connect to Facebook and Twitter with your Xbox 360
• Great value addition for 20 million users on Xbox Live
• Tweet and Update your status while playing your favourite game
• Compare your Xbox LIVE and Facebook friends’ lists to see which of your friends are on LIVE

For people who are addicted to Social networking and can’t seem to get enough of it, here is breaking news! Microsoft now gives its ardent Xbox 360 fans an opportunity to go Live and enjoy social networking along with games right on the gaming console! This next wave of Social Networking will be available on Xbox LIVE from the 17th November, 2009, and transform the Xbox LIVE into the most entertaining connected experience ever!

Jaspreet Bindra, Regional Director, Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. shared the excitement around the launch by saying “Since the time of the launch of Xbox 360 and XBOX Live, we have always heard our customers and continuously worked to enhance their interactive entertainment experience. The addition of Facebook and Twitter brings an altogether different level of excitement and action for 20 million Xbox LIVE users across the globe. Only on Xbox 360 can you find the best in movies, music, games and now social networking tailor-made to suit your needs and demands.”

Keeping up with its promise of providing the best in entertainment, Xbox 360 will now become your complete source of social entertainment experience by enabling you to enjoy a lot more! So, here’s what you can do:

Facebook- Update your status to share what movie, game or entertainment you’re enjoying, connect with friends and view their Facebook stream, status updates and photos on the big screen – all seamlessly integrated and custom-built for Xbox 360. You can even compare your Xbox LIVE and Facebook friends’ lists to see which of your friends are on LIVE.

Twitter– Stay in the know by discovering, posting and replying to Tweets right on you’re Xbox 360. You can even view friend profiles, trends and conversations, or search to see who’s tweeting about your favorite game.

With these updates, Xbox 360 is bound to become the one-stop shop for everything. You can now connect with your friend’s online, show them your cool new victory in that favourite game that you play and proudly upload those pictures on your Facebook profile. All this and much more while you are still busy fighting the devils in the game. Sounds exciting? It sure is the best.

So, what are you waiting for? Make sure that you are right in front of your Xbox 360 on the 17th of November. Go LIVE and experience Social Networking like never before. Upload the picture of the cool new car you buy while playing Forza Motorsport 3 on your Facebook profile and make sure that your most recent tweet does talk about your victory on Halo 3: ODST.

There’s tons more to experience with Gold subscription as well. Play the latest game titles like “Halo 3: ODST” and “Forza Motorsport 3″ online multiplayer, participate in “1 vs. 100,” host an Xbox LIVE Party or even video chat with friends. All of these Gold-only features will be available all weekend long for anyone to try.

Action Adventure Movie Marathon From EPIX Kicks Off Nov. 26 on FiOS TV VOD, Keeping Viewers Awake and Entertained After a Full Meal

NEW YORK, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire/ — In just a few days, Americans will gather with family and friends for Thanksgiving, a holiday that is traditionally celebrated by eating turkey and watching football games on TV, while dozing off on the sofa or armchair. This year, however, Verizon is offering a new way to help people stay awake — and entertained — after a full meal: an EPIX “Feast of Fury” action adventure movie marathon.

Starting Thanksgiving morning, Verizon FiOS TV subscribers can watch back-to-back action adventure classics in “The Indy 500: 500 Minutes of Indiana Jones,” which includes “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

The “Feast of Fury” continues throughout the weekend with films like “Iron Man,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Flash Gordon,” “Casino Royale,” “Golden Eye,” “Red Dawn” and the “The Untouchables.” In total, “Feast of Fury” features 21 movie classics and concludes Sunday, Nov. 29, with the world television premiere of “Cloverfield.”

“Thanksgiving is all about relaxing with family and friends, and this year the FiOS ‘Feast of Fury’ movie marathon from EPIX is on FiOS TV customers’ R&R agendas,” said Shawn Strickland, vice president of consumer strategy for Verizon. “There’s really only one thing that can make movie classics like ‘Red Dawn’ and ‘The Untouchables’ better and that’s FiOS TV’s amazing picture-and-sound quality. And let’s not forget that FiOS TV subscribers are the first and only consumers today who can enjoy the incredible quality and variety that EPIX offers.”

Available in standard definition on FiOS TV channel 395, high-definition channel 895 and on Video on Demand (VOD), “Feast of Fury” and many other films from EPIX are also available online at www.epixhd.com. (To access the content online, EPIX subscribers must have both FiOS TV and FiOS Internet.)

FiOS TV customers can order EPIX, which is available for $9.99 per month, by tuning to channel 395 or 895 and clicking the remote to subscribe, using Verizon’s unique on-screen ordering. EPIX also can be ordered either online by visiting www.verizon.com/fiostvcentral or by calling Verizon at 888-553-1555.

EPIX is part of Verizon FiOS TV’s extensive VOD collection of more than 18,000 monthly titles in every market, offering everything from popular movies and concerts to exercise and kids programming. FiOS TV customers can access on-demand content simply by pressing the “VOD” or “On Demand” button on their FiOS remote control, by using the menu on FiOS TV’s Interactive Media Guide, or by selecting VOD channel 900.

FiOS TV also offers more than 500 all-digital channels, including more than 126 HD channels, and provides next-generation interactive services including an advanced interactive media guide; social TV, news and entertainment widgets; remote DVR management; multi-room DVR, and more.

Verizon is the only company in the U.S. to bring 100 percent fiber optics straight to the home, delivering America’s top-rated broadband with download connections speeds of up to 50 megabits per second, more pure HD TV channels, amazing picture-and-sound quality, and interactive capabilities that cable can’t match.

For the latest news, updates and information about FiOS TV, visit www.verizon.com/newscenter and http://www.verizon.com/athomeblog.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America’s most reliable wireless network, serving more than 89 million customers nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America’s most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers innovative, seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 230,000 and last year generated consolidated revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

VERIZON’S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon’s News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases.

SOURCE Verizon

Angelenos unhappy with the cable or satellite TV offerings in their neighborhoods will have a new, much less expensive option today: Sezmi, a novel combination of over-the-air broadcasting and broadband programming. The company is launching a trial run here in anticipation of a much broader rollout by March, providing free equipment and service for about three months to those who participate. (You can sign up at Sezmi’s website.) Even after the free trial ends, the price will be far below competing pay TV services: just under $5 a month for local broadcasts, Internet channels and access to pay-per-view services, and an additional $20 a month for more than 100 cable TV networks. Sezmi has some issues — some popular cable networks aren’t on board, at least not yet, and its selection of Web programming is far too limited — but it also offers some innovations that push TV service in the direction viewers want it to go.

saw a brief demonstration of Sezmi last week and was impressed by the picture quality and the user interface. The brains of the service reside in the set-top box, which makes aggressive use of its 1-terabyte hard drive to record shows automatically that its users like or might like. The service also expects to have well over 10,000 movies and TV shows available on demand — some of them on a pay-per-view basis — when it formally launches. The result is that the “My Shows” section of Sezmi’s on-screen guide should have plenty of personalized on-demand programs to offer in addition to whatever happens to be airing live. Among the other nice features: the box integrates programs from the Web into its recommendations, and it can create separate profiles for each user in a household so that Dad’s affection for news programs doesn’t pollute Junior’s lineup of sci-fi fantasies. The company also plans to give networks and advertisers room in the program guide to create expanded lists of content that can be viewed on demand, although that feature won’t be included in the local trial.

Now for a few reasons to be skeptical about Sezmi’s prospects:

The trial lineup doesn’t include any of Disney or Fox’s cable networks, or any regional sports networks or premium movie channels. Company co-founder Phil Wiser said the trial offers just a snapshot of what will be available when the company does its official launch, and that it’s still in talks with content providers. I have trouble seeing how Sezmi could compete with ESPN and the Disney Channel, Fox’s news and sports channels, FX, HBO and Showtime. But I also wonder, if they add those channels, how they could stay at $25 all-inclusive price.

The service transmits cable networks over the air, through digital TV frequencies leased from a few local broadcasters. They can use those airwaves much more efficiently than broadcasters can, enabling them to transmit multiple high-definition streams in a single channel. But Sezmi doesn’t have nearly as much bandwidth at its disposal as cable operators do, which means the amount of high-definition programming may be more limited. The company wouldn’t say how much HD it would deliver, just that “the most popular content on the most popular networks will be in HD as available.”

The reliance on over-the-air transmissions for much of the programming means that homes with poor TV reception may not be able to use Sezmi. Company officials say that the “smart reception system” is the highest- performing over-the-air receiver ever built, using multiple technologies to grab signals more reliably than the typical antenna. In fact, Chief Executive Buno Pati said, the company expects to be able to serve 80% to 85% of the customer base in Los Angeles. That’s important because the city is a key market for Sezmi, with the country’s highest number of households that do not subscribe to cable or satellite.

The service takes the walled-garden approach to the Internet, providing access only to the sites it chooses. And at this point, the lineup consists only of YouTube, Crackle, OnNetworks and an array of podcasts. That’s far too thin a sampling of the bounty available online. Company president Phil Wiser said that, as with Sezmi’s selection of cable channels, the lineup of Web programming will be broader at launch.

Finally, the company may emphasize personalized program guides and on-demand viewing, but when it comes to pricing, Sezmi sells channels in bundles that cannot be customized. That’s not much of a change from cable or satellite services, although Sezmi’s prices are far lower. Pati and Wiser put a more positive spin on the company’s approach, saying Sezmi planned to offer only the most popular cable networks in its streamlined bundles. The advantage that Sezmi has TV-over-the-Internet competitors, Wiser said, is that it offers networks “economics that are in line with what they have today” — a cut of Sezmi’s subscription fees, in addition to the revenue the networks generate from advertising. That’s something Hulu can’t do, at least not yet.

Sezmi’s investors don’t seem to mind any of these issues. The company just announced that it has raised an additional $25 million from previous funders Morgenthaler Ventures, Omni Capital, TD Fund, Index Ventures and Legend Ventures, as well as one undisclosed new backer.

As 2010 fast approaches, digital marketers are gearing up for yet another year of changes that will incorporate both the transformational and the incremental.

From the economy’s influence on the burgeoning “do-it-yourself” culture to an increasing reliance on collective wisdom, information-based art, and remote computing, digital experts at Last Exit (via MarketingCharts) have put together the following list of top digital marketing trends they believe will play out in the year ahead.

1. Facebook Replaces Personal Email: As Facebook becomes increasingly used as a verb (e.g.”I Facebooked you today”) in ways that Hotmail and gmail never were, it will be interesting to see the extent to which it will displace personal email as a communication tool.  It’s already completely permission based, there is no spam (yet), and no address book required – your friends are already there.

2. The Cloud Helps Open-Source Software Make Proper Money: Open-source software projects that were typically the purview of programmers and technophiles are now available to the masses. In one example, Beanstalk, a fully hosted, version-controlled code repository that uses the Subversion open-source project has created a subscription based service that – for a small fee – removes the hassle of setting up Subversions and maintaining servers.  Services like this can really only be financially viable with cloud computing infrastructure – so companies such as Beanstalk don’t have the huge upfront capital outlay for servers. With the right skills any open-source project can be commercialized this way.

3. Mobile Commerce -  The Promise That Has Never Delivered, Yet: Though mobile phones have, for a while now, delivered real benefits to global societies by facilitating the transfer of money, only recently has mobile device use extended to payment for goods and services. The game changer has – and will continue to be – the iPhone/iTunes platform.  In-app purchases on the iPhone can tempt users to buy small items, upgrades, updates, etc, while iTunes holds their precious credit card information.  All, of course, is done in seamless fashion, enough to promote impulse purchases.  It would seem like an easy task for this to be extended to other platforms with PayPal or Google Checkout, but so far it has not been done.

4. Fewer Registrations – One Sign-in Fits All: As consumers grow increasingly frustrated  and resentful about registering yet again on another website, juggling different IDs and remembering a dizzying array of passwords, information-managing services such as Facebook Connect and OpenID will becoming even more useful and will continue to be adopted at great speed through 2010.

5. Disruption vs. Continuity – Alternatives to the “Big Idea”: As the significance of social networks continues to grow, businesses are investing more in community building as a marketing driver. According to the recent Tribalization of Business study released by Deloitte, 94% of businesses will continue or increase their investment in online communities and social media and, for the majority of these companies, their marketing function will drive this investment. At the same time, as evidenced by Google’s recent release of “free floating” social tools, such as Google Waves and Sidewiki, there is an increasing shift toward online identity and social activity being an integrated part of the network as a whole, rather than concentrated within discrete platforms such as Facebook.

With the increasing emphasis on marketing and advertising through social networks and the increasing pervasiveness of social tools, marketing objectives come into conflict with advertising techniques. While advertising has often sought to distinguish itself and stop the consumer in their tracks with a disruptive “big idea,” the emphasis is now shifting toward persuasion through fitting organically into the consumer’s social sphere. It will always be the objective of marketing to provide creativity and novelty, but the way in will increasingly be one of persistence and continuity.

6. Self-Sufficiency: The Continuing Evolution of Web-Driven, Open-Source DIY Culture: Much has been said about the power and potential of collective intelligence, and many of the breakthrough solutions of tomorrow appear to lie in more effectively pooling the resources and intelligence of our increasingly networked world. On the other side of the equation, the power of pooled intelligence and networked resources have empowered individuals to take on more and more complex undertakings themselves.

From drawing on the collective intelligence of blogs and university open courseware to educate themselves, to services like ponoko, spoonflower and cafe press that facilitate small-scale production, to offline resource pooling like pop- up retail and collective office spaces, individuals are discovering that it has never been easier to try doing it themselves.

7. Info-Art: Where we once had pop-psychologists and pop-philosophers, we now appear to have pop-statisticians and pop-economists. The growing wealth of data and the access to rich and diverse data sources that are significant by-products of information networks have made the art of data analysis a defining skill of our time.

At the same time, the skill of elegantly visualizing that data has become a defining art of our time. The art of the infographic is becoming increasingly pervasive as people look more and more to the growing amount of data at our disposal for insight, and more refined as the interactions of that data becomes more complex. Expect to see greater innovation spurred by more elegant ways of capturing and visualizing information by a growing number of info-artists.

8. Crowd Sourcing: Across many industries and organizations, crowd sourcing will become a growing tool as part of various outsourcing strategies. Organizations will mobilize the passionate special-interest groups to not only carry a message but also to lead and take part in activities on their behalf. From political canvassing to software development, from people journalism to environmental activism, expect to see huge growth in crowdsourcing models provoked and led, in large part, by digital social media strategies.

9. More Flash, Not Less: Outside of the obvious brand sites, micro-sites and media sites (video, games, etc.) where it appears absolutely necessary, Flash has often been looked down upon if not completely discounted by both techies and search engine optimizers. It seemed to face an uncertain future as a viable tool for serious websites and applications such as eCommerce tools and corporate websites. However, Adobe’s rich media tool has enjoyed the grit and determination of its advocates and external development community. Now, several tricks, authoring tools and server side scripting workarounds have meant that Flash-built websites no longer serve up a single, impenetrable page. They offer deep, searchable, indexable sites that will allow acute, detailed traffic and behavioral analytics and search engine optimization.

As websites continue to increase in their importance as a company’s storefront, the demand for rich, brand-extending experiences will also increase. Further proliferation of  fast broadband will reduce download issues while the adoption of Flash on mobile devices will dramatically increase and fuel reach and the desire/need for highly usable, brand transporting, conversion oriented experiences

The network that introduced millions to Michael Jackson will air his final performance.

MTV Networks has acquired the exclusive U.S. TV rights to air the posthumous documentary “Michael Jackson’s This Is It.”

Though the film wasn’t the blockbuster smash some anticipated, the concert movie did well at the boxoffice and should prove of high interest to viewers of MTV, whose airing of Jackson’s music videos helped boost the singer’s career into the stratosphere during the 1980s.

Sister networks such as VH1, BET and Palladia will also have the ability to air the film.

“The film is a true testament to Michael’s musical genius, passion and commitment to his craft,” said Van Toffler, president of the MTV Networks Music Group. “Michael Jackson has always been inextricably tied to our viewers as they witnessed his evolution from a talented performer to a global icon who redefined music. Now, with this film, we can help give his fans a chance to see his final performance.”

“This Is It” was shot from March to June and includes concert rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage as Jackson prepared for his planned comeback tour.

News Web sites are starting to look a lot less like newspapers and a lot more like television.

CNN.com and ESPN.com are featuring video much more prominently on their home pages, often prompting visitors to press play before they begin to read. Even The Wall Street Journal has moved its video player front and center with a twice-a-day live newscast onWSJ.com.

A major reason is commercial. At a time when other categories of advertising dollars are shrinking, video ads are booming. News sites are adding more video inventory to keep pace with the demands of advertisers, and benefiting from the higher cost-per-thousands, or C.P.M.’s, that ads on those videos command.

The attention to video mirrors changes in how consumers are experiencing news. Major events — be it the presidential election or the death of Michael Jackson — bring a surge in video stream viewings by new users, and each time some of them stick around.

“Every watershed event leaves video more popular than before,” said Charles W. Tillinghast, the president of MSNBC.com, a joint venture between NBC Universal andMicrosoft.

K. C. Estenson, the general manager of CNN.com, a unit of Time Warner, said that “people are using the Internet in a different way now.” He added, “With broadband penetration becoming ubiquitous and more and more sites having this easy capability, people are expecting video to be there.”

Media companies typically do not break out figures for video advertising, and certainly the video revenue pales next to search and display advertising. But the growth has spurred investment and interest in video production.

Among Web sites operated by newspapers, The New York Times, Gannett and Tribune each reach more than a million viewers a month with video streams, comScore says. The home page of The Times sometimes streams live video of events; it carried a news conference Friday about the shootings Thursday at Fort Hood, Tex.

But video can be costly to produce, hindering some sites’ efforts to expand and leading people like Mr. Tillinghast to predict that access to television film (like a bounty of NBC News video) is an advantage.

Beyond news sites, video is now the fastest-growing segment of the Internet advertising market. Digital video amounted to $477 million in revenue in the first half of 2009, up 38 percent from the same time period in 2008, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

With an estimated $5 billion in revenue in the first half of 2009, search remains the dominant segment of online advertising, but it is expected to grow only marginally this year.

Augmenting the increase in video spending is the growing acceptance of pre-roll — the once-derided ads that appear before a video plays.

“It actually works really well,” said Brian Quinn, the vice president and general manager of digital ad sales for The Journal’s digital network. A 15-second pre-roll “followed by two to five minutes of high-quality content is a fair-value exchange,” Mr. Quinn said.

Analysts say they expect the flow of online advertising dollars to video to continue. The research firm eMarketer projects 35 to 45 percent growth for the segment for each of the next five years, topping out at $5.2 billion in 2014. (Even then, it would hardly rival search advertising, which is projected to be a $16 billion business.)

In the five-year outlook it released last month, eMarketer said that video ads would be the “main channel” for major advertisers seeking to increase their online spending. Already, ads for companies like Johnson & Johnson and Unilever pop up often on sites likeMSNBC.com.

“More and more advertisers are starting to play in the online video space,” said Jeremy Steinberg, the vice president of digital sales and business development for the Fox News Channel.

News sites account for only a small portion of the 25 billion video streams counted by comScore on an average month. The firm reported almost 500 million video streams in its news and information category in September — still a substantial figure. Most of the streams occurred on MSNBC.com (162 million, according to comScore) and CNN.com (148 million).

Advertising dollars have not always kept pace with the growing view counts, but Mr. Quinn said video was currently the strongest ad format for WSJ.com.

“I wish we had more, since we’re sold out,” Mr. Quinn said.

In September the site introduced “The News Hub,” a live Webcast from The Journal’s newsroom at 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. each weekday. When “Hub” is shown live on the WSJ.com home page, it includes a sponsorship mention and a companion display ad. When it is replayed, it includes a pre-roll ad. Sponsorships are sold monthly, with Charles Schwab being the current one.

The rate card for WSJ.com lists pre-rolls for a $75 C.P.M. before advertiser discounts. Mr. Quinn said the C.P.M. was around $50 last fall.

FoxNews.com, which like WSJ.com is a unit of the News Corporation, now sells sponsorships of its daytime Web show, “Strategy Room.”

When the show had its debut in its current form earlier this year, it included only an occasional remnant pre-roll ad. This month, as viewership increased, the show started to include TV-style commercial breaks and advertiser logos in the corner of the video screen. Fox says the 9 a.m.-to-5 p.m. show gets an average of 35,000 streams per weekday.

Web executives say some clients think of online video as an extension of TV, and others think of it as an enhancement — one that allows for interactive messages and instant feedback from viewers. They acknowledge that the medium is still in many ways immature. Sites continue to disagree about the legitimacy of “autoplay,” a setting that starts videos automatically when a Web page loads, increasing the number of streams without necessarily knowing that the Web user is watching.

Web executives say that ads next to dispatches from Afghanistan normally cannot draw the same C.P.M.’s as lighter fare. MSNBC.com has found success with lifestyle segments that are sold as a package between TV and the Web. Last month it introduced TodayMoms, a section for mothers sponsored by Wal-Mart with a TV connection on the “Today” show.

“The Web is fulfilling this promise of being a medium where you can enjoy video as much as you can see it on TV,” Mr. Tillinghast said. “The difference online is, if you want to do something with it — share it, stick it on a blog, post it on a Facebook page, or mark it and save it — you can do all that. And that was never possible before.”

They Understand the Technology, the Speed of Iteration and Analytics

Over the past 18 months, a great debate has consumed our industry: Are digital agencies poised to sit at the head of the advertising table? Depending on whom you ask and what you read, the answer seems to flip flop — with a majority of people still having reservations and making claims that digital agencies aren’t ready to lead.

So why does the debate continue? Does offline or online really matter to an oblivious consumer who’s only interested in “no-line” communications? Are we spending too much time focusing on who should lead and not enough asking: What’s next?

Ana Andjelic’s DigitalNext post, provocatively titled “Why Digital Agencies Aren’t Ready to Lead,” mentions several reasons why digital agencies aren’t ready to lead, one of which was their lack of experience in the business (as compared with the “decades of experience” that traditional agencies are known for). I’m sure there are instances where decades of experience can directly translate into success, but there are certainly instances (uh, Lehman Brothers?) where deep roots had no bearing on their ability to produce — and produce well. Furthermore, a certain percentage of the individuals now working and thriving in digital agencies came from traditional agencies.

Additionally, most of the world’s most ingenious inventions were not created overnight, but took years of hard work, research, observation, trial and error, and collaboration to fine tune. The digital ecosystem has required much of the same exploration — and, in most cases, into technologies that are new to all of us. As James March himself said, “Exploration involves being an amateur for a while, but only as a step on the way to being a professional.”

And while the structure of an interactive agency may often mimic “one big crazy family” (by the way: Whose family isn’t crazy?), how could making sure everyone’s opinion is heard be a bad thing? Most interactive agencies subscribe to the notion that you never know where the big idea or concept will come from. Sometimes the big idea can come from the exploration of a new technology or method that enhances consumer connection.

Here’s why:

• That was then, this is now. Like it or not, the days of the ingenious, 30-second TV spot are over. Today’s creative ingenuity lies within the idea, the technology, the concept, the innovation and, perhaps most important, the Holy Grail: consumer connection. Word of mouth is more prevalent than ever and interactive communities have an increasingly louder and more influential voice and are stronger (and sometimes the only) sources of breaking news stories. No one understands this better — nor is better equipped to handle the swift demands required — than the digital agency.
• Teaching an old dog new tricks. The “new trick” is immediacy. It’s about faster response times and the concept of immediacy. E-mail, IM, Twitter, Facebook, cellphones — all of these technologies set the stage for consumers wanting and expecting immediate responses, not to mention, immediate access to products and services. Traditional advertising agencies are not adapting to this mentality because they are still working with processes and organizational structures that were developed in a time when the internet and the concept of immediacy simply did not exist.

  Digital agencies understand that brands are being held to higher-than-ever consumer expectations. The plethora of data we can garner from a $50,000 media buy can leave traditional agencies’ heads spinning with insight and analysis. The truth of the matter is: Interactive agencies are forcing traditional agencies to integrate with digital media to better track and measure campaign results through custom URLs, short codes, etc.

• Kickin’ it old school. Not only are the days of the 30-second TV spot gone, so too are the traditional advertising agency gurus like David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach. Today, those figures have been replaced, instead, by financially backed entities. Rather than exploration and exploitation, digital agencies need their own gurus and legends that can lead by example.

Five or 10 years ago, I might agree with the argument that digital agencies weren’t ready to lead, but after sitting at the table with other agencies for the past decade — traditional, branding, public relations, marketing — it’s clear that digital agencies have proven their value, not to mention their ability to innovate, inspire, and create the big idea.

Perhaps the synergy and balance between exploitation and exploration is off kilter for digital agencies, but more and more we’re starting to see the agency structure itself change with new hires in technology and social media. And marketers are noticing:

• According to Media magazine, AKQA was named the lead agency for Nike India earlier this year.
• Precor named Ascentium its agency of record in October 2009. According to Forrester’s Q2 2009 Interactive Agency Wave, Ascentium “received the highest client satisfaction scores in this year’s review.” The assignment with Precor includes strategic planning and execution of all offline and online campaigns.
• McAfee hiring Tribal DDB as its agency of record in 2008. This assignment included all TV, print, outdoor, and digital.

The balance may not be there today, tomorrow or next month. The truth of the matter is digital agencies have earned their right to sit at the head of the table because they’ve brought what consumers and marketers are looking for: new innovations in measurement; flexibility and nimbleness; and, most importantly, ideas that bring what a magazine spread or 30-second TV spot cannot.

The online video directory service Clicker launches Thursday at the NewTeeVee Live conference. If you watch TV, you will love this site.

Clicker is not a full-on video search engine like Bing or Google, and it’s not a video-viewing site like Hulu. It is, instead, a carefully curated directory of full-length video content, with several extremely nice features and user interface flourishes that make it a good first stop online if you’re looking for an episode of your favorite show to watch.

Unlike a search engine, Clicker won’t give you every last shred of online video on your search query. If you’re looking for the “Dr. Horrible Sing-along Blog” on Bing or Google, you’ll get hundreds of clips and related videos. On Clicker, just four: the three 15-minute episodes individually plus all of them combined into one long stream. Each video also has a very good “Related” sidebar showing other videos that are thematically linked. No matter what I threw at it, I found the Related suggestions pertinent.

Clicker’s behind-the-scenes engine is constantly crawling video sources to add and remove content as necessary. The “remove” part is key, as many networks take episodes off the Web as frequently as they add them.

In the Clicker interface, an auto-completing search box that’s focused just on video makes it incredibly fast to find content. Searching within a show (for example, looking for “Clinton” in the Daily Show page) is also very fast, as the search results change in real time as you type.

When you want to watch a video, Clicker plays it either by linking to the source, such as aggregator like Hulu or a network site like that of CBS or AMC, or it displays an embeddable player. This depends on the content owner’s terms of use. Some content is not available for free, but Clicker knows that it can be streamed on Amazon.com or Netflix; Clicker will direct users to log on to their accounts on those services.

This service does an amazing job of taming the morass of online video, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The site has been in private beta for a few months; it is scheduled to go live Thursday at 10:30 a.m. PST.

What’s next

But this isn’t the end of the story for Clicker. The shame of this product is that it is in many ways a better television experience than you can get on your TV. Unless you connect your computer to your living room TV, you’re going to have to sit in front of your PC or laptop when you want to watch a show. A partnership with Boxee will yield a better set-top-like experience for the service, Clicker CEO Jim Lanzone told me. An iPhone player will follow next, and the service will be smart enough not to find videos you can’t play on that device.

From a business perspective, advertising will become a part of the model, although Clicker won’t try to get in the way of pre-roll videos from the content sources. In some key vertical content areas, though, like health and finance, Lanzone thinks there’s a good opportunity. Also, Clicker could end up driving traffic to sites like Hulu and could potentially monetize those click-throughs.

The challenge for Clicker is to get viewers to know about it. A strong SEO effort will be applied to get Google searchers to the site when they’re looking for shows. That will help. There may also be privately labeled versions of the service for various institutions. But–and I rarely say this–this service is good enough to grow organically. Once you try Clicker, you’ll be back again.

Netflix announced this morning that their streaming service would arrive next month on PlayStation 3. The service has already available on Xbox 360 for Xbox LIVE Gold members for nearly a year now. Microsoft, being the first console manufacturer with the service, has responded to the announcement today.

“The Netflix experience on Xbox LIVE is unique and reflects our commitment for social entertainment.” a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. “We believe we offer an experience today that is a generation ahead of what others are offering,” the spokesperson said. “For a little over $4 a month Xbox LIVE Gold membership is hands-down the best value in home entertainment, and gives you exclusive access multi-player gaming and early demos as well as Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm, “1 vs 100″ and more.”

I doubt anybody pays for Xbox LIVE Gold solely for Netflix? Either way, how will you be using your Netflix service? PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360? As for me, I guess it depends on whatever controller is closer to me.