Enough With The “Build It And They Will Come” Mantra!

With the winding down of the Digital Content NewFront (DCNF), one thing is clear – there is a lot of compelling video content.  The question remains - will enough people find it? Online/Mobile video providers are not the only ones confronting this dilemma. A multitude of options are available for audiences of all shapes, sizes, colors, etc. and that hasn’t changed – other than just getting larger by the day. While TV content providers had to go through a phase of dwindling audiences and learning to be able to deal with it, publishers of digital content never had anything but a diverse, wide and scattered environment with which to service. Those in the space always knew that while we could track more information and produce content more inexpensively – but it would be hitting fewer people than the broadcasters and many cablecasters were.  That scale was the first challenge that I think we have collectively gotten over.  Perhaps the biggest hurdle moving forward is the limited perspective usually found in dealing with everything surrounding the actual content creation and the driving of eyeballs to content. It was kind of understandable why many people thought they could build something cool, slap it up on the web and generate some traffic or buzz back in the day.  Before Social Media came on, that was certainly easier – not always completely effective, but more effective than it is now. Today, while many marketers talk about the need for Social integration with their brands and their digital marketing products, its frustrating to witness how many people are still mired in the ideal of “Build it and they will come.”

We see many instances of digital products that take off and generate buzz in a timely fashion, but only tick off one or two boxes out of the five that they could have hit if planned and produced fully across all channels and divisions. Many success stories are achieved almost by accident and many marketers jump on to take a part in its glory. It should no longer be acceptable for a marketing team or vendor to engage on a project based solely on a cool idea if they do not have an executable plan for reaching the right audience.  When setting KPIs or projecting ROI without a clearly defined smart distribution/seeding plan, you’re working in a “fingers crossed” capacity.  Some feel that by creating something cool and putting media behind it, they will be successful.  They will probably be more successful than if they just placed the marketing product in the digital realm, but it’s still not as strong as it can be.  And, that’s why strategy goes beyond any individual campaign and looks to leverage all existing distribution/seeding outlets.

Bringing it back to DCNF, Google/YouTube is the last presentation and will be touting the deeper opportunities with channels – where users can delineate what they are most interested in and have those videos come up in quasi-curated groupings. This might make things a little easier – especially on the video platform that serves up 3 billion hours of video a month. But, for the content creator and any advertisers who are paying for product inclusion within the content, there still needs to be some sort of engagement that actually drives the eyeballs to the content.

While it was nice to see some interesting content presented during DCNF, there’s still a huge lack of compelling discussion of how users will be drawn specifically to this content.  If they are just relying on the conceit that viewers are organically drawn to the affinity channels they most associate with, then they’ve had their eyes closed for a while.  On television, there are MANY channels that I have an affinity for. Yet, there are maybe 15 channels that I will flip through when not watching something in the DVR. Studies have shown that I’m not alone.  So affinity alone does not hold too much water when discussing the introduction of new shows and the generation of viewers.

Moving away from video and focusing on digital marketing products, it’s the same thing. A close friend of mine, Jo Oskoui, told me about an experiment his team just completed that speaks directly to this dilemma.  His company, Oskoui+Oskoui, will be publishing a study that delves deeper into the specifics, but the gist is that they had produced a piece of content and originally posted it only on their blog.  They posted the piece in Q3 2011 when there was a lot of buzz about the related product – a product with a huge cultural value that happened to have a major consumer product release at the time. Their blog gets decent traffic for a blog of that type, but they wanted a limited posting and then see what happened. The basic creative element got less than 50,000 views since posting on their blog - OK but not much.  More than six months later, they completed their experiment by engaging their proprietary social distribution and seeding network to distribute the same exact piece of content and were able to garner over 3 million views with a high rate of re-posting in only one week.

This exemplifies the importance of having a whole plan surrounding any digital marketing product launch. There is too much happening in the digital realm – without even get into the today’s crazy buzz about George Zimmerman’s legal defense team launching a site and social media outlets – nobody can rely on just placing content in the digital realm and expect people to find it.

The good news is that there are many cost-effective options for creating that holistic marketing execution. In fact, I would push vendors to not only come up with the creative idea, but the sound executable plan for generating the distribution that’s required to make a difference (and establish the parameters of success.)  Many companies already engage separate vendors to do creative production, social strategies and implementation, and publicity, but they don’t do a great job of keeping every group up-to-speed – leading to less effective campaigns and wastes of money. So, even if the creative agency isn’t a one-stop shop, that doesn’t preclude the marketing team from engaging all groups internally and externally to set the stage for a whole campaign.

We know that we won’t strike gold every time, but we’ll certainly do better if we go out with a smart strategy and ensure that the strategy and products are communicated across all parts of the company – not just putting content out there and crossing our fingers that people will find it.   FIELD OF DREAMS is a fictional story and we know that the famous line,”Build it and they will come”is just a piece of dialog – we just need to act like we know that when launching our campaigns.

Coachella Fix Served by YouTube and State Farm

There is the saying that nothing beats the real thing, but sometimes what you have to settle for ain’t to shabby. This was the case with the Coachella Live site on YouTube. For those who were not lucky enough to get tickets nor able enough to take off for a weekend of all the crazy things that happen over the course of the weekend on a Polo field, this presentation sponsored by State Farm insurance was fantastic.  Sporting three live streams on a dashboard that included thumbnails of what you’re not watching, Facebook/Twitter/Google+ and a schedule of what’s to come, there was no lack of exploration and enjoyment possible. YouTube really showcased a phenomenal product and Coachella was able to serve the fix of a much larger audience to celebrate the music exploration and wonder that is Coachella.

There were a number of elements that really made this content great:

• The interface was simple, clean and clear;
• The production quality was strong throughout. The on-site direction and coverage was comprehensive and, in some instances, rivaled that of a well produced concert video.
• The streaming quality was better than I had expected. In most cases, both the small and full screen versions were very clear. Sometimes, the images were getting pixellated, but there was no rhyme or reason that I could make out. When the image quality was good, it was great and when it wasn’t, it wasn’t that bad.
• The sound quality was clear and consistent throughout – even when the picture was not.
• The Chat was extremely active with very little delay.  Unlike previous versions of this type of thing that I’ve seen, you could see songs, comments or lyrics presented on stage referenced almost immediately in the feed. The fact that three major social networks were incorporated  for ease of entry and use seems like a no-brainer. It’s surprising how many feeds choose not to use more than Facebook and Twitter…
• State Farm’s sponsorship was persistent, tasteful and refined while not interfering with the content.  Meaning, they didn’t pause sets to show a graphic in-stream - or some other annoying ad mechanic.

Though there was mention of the live streaming on YouTube and the Coachella site, I didn’t see any wide mentions or promotion for the feature.  Perhaps I missed it and imagine there could have been some artist relationship elements to consider.  Ultimately, the people who were most interested were able to find it – either by searching it out or finding it organically through friends’ social activity.

Talking about artists relations, I was impressed that the artists allowed it – and even more impressed about some of the artists that participated. With the point of the weekend(s) being music and the exploration of new music, the site makes perfect sense.  I was able to check out a solid mix of acts I knew and had even seen live before with a healthy dose of new acts.  I know that the experience is not the same as being there, but I am sure that Coachella Live viewers were able to jump from stage to stage much more quickly and easily than anyone who was physically there. The fact that I could jump from a great view of Miike Snow to the pit of Radiohead without leaving my chair was awesome.

On a personal note, My commute home after Radiohead’s late set on Saturday and Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg’s star-studded show to close it all on Sunday night was much more comfortable than driving home from Indio.  And, the fact that I already have State Farm insurance made me feel that I wasn’t just being a freeloader – I might even feel a little bit more loyalty to them because of it.

Hopefully, this becomes a trend for more live events as it really extends the community and the technology has come about to enable that like never before. The technology upgrades has made the experience drastically different from when I spent hours in front of the television watching Live Aid as a kid.  Who would have thought then that we could control what we were watching without having to suffer through commercials and annoying MTV VJ commentary?

Props to Coachella and its partners for taking the festival to the next level by making the experience extend beyond the 180,000 people who actually get to go to the two weekends in the desert.  The fact that YouTube is now hosting some of the full sets, it really extends beyond the desert. And, you get a chance to see some freaky cool things like the holographic Tupac performing. Thanks for providing the opportunity for many more people in many countries to get their fix…

HBO Presents Their Own Smart Freemium Model

In the past, HBO was able to drive subscriptions for their services based on the fact that they were a special premium product. Whether through buzz about their shows, awards their shows garnered, or the enabling of a few days a year of allowing users to sample their content, they were able to drive subscribers.  Now that the other premium cable networks, like Showtime and Starz, have gotten into the production of buzz and award-worthy original shows, HBO has to change their traditional ways.  One of those is HBO’s entry into their own form of the Freemium model. Freemium is generally the term used for product that are attained for free and then continued usage requires payment, or premiums. HBO’s version consists of them making the pilots of their new shows – GIRLS and VEEP – available on HBO.com, YouTube, DailyMotion, TV.com and multiple distributors’ free on-demand platforms the day after their premieres. The shows will also be available as free downloads on iTunes. To me, this is a smart model for HBO to induce viewers to move from freemium to premium and subscribe to the premium cable network to get their fix of those shows.

Hopefully, HBO's Freemium play will drive engagement and not apathy. (Courtesy of HBO)

Of course, they’ve got to hope that the shows are good enough to compel viewers to actually want to pay to see more. This model is probably a stronger one than the limited opening of the FreeView windows they’ve done in the past.  From a television programming perspective, I would even allow for more than just the pilot episodes to be streamed for free. As it takes a couple of episodes to become truly engaged, they should probably look to make three episodes available. The Freemium model is proving to be more and more successful as time goes on and HBO’s foray into that style of marketing or sampling could be a sign for the future of products that are not traditionally associated with that Freemium way of engagement.

In the music sector, Spotify has certainly established itself strongly on the freemium model, but the uptake to premium is an unscientific process. The numbers reported in a Billboard article covering 2010 and early 2011 showed a slow uptake, but that was before they launched in the US and picked up steam in their existing markets.  Even with that, users are running into issues as people start interacting with the product and deciding whether they want to shell out the money for the premium model. Spotify reports that since launching in the States in June of 2011, they have 3 million users, with only 20% subscribing.

On the gaming front, the poster child for the Freemium model is ANGRY BIRDS. They most recently launched on Facebook in February – where playing is free, but the opportunities to power-up or get other additional gameplay benefits comes with a cost. This incremental revenue may just be a flash in the pan as we see whether Facebook users actually care to purchase additional powers, but they don’t seem to be hurting amidst all their other growth on multiple platforms that all effectively launched on either the true freemium model (limited level gameplay with payment for more) or a nominal premium for slightly robust access and the payment opportunities for even more.

The freemium model across the board is increasing and revenues are driving up.  Steve Smith wrote about it on his MediaPost blog recently. Smith cites an IHS Screen Digest Mobile Media Intelligence Service report that projects that Freemium will drive 64% of app revenue by 2015.

I give HBO credit for trying something different as a strategy to remain above the competition in an ever-tightening race with more and more outlets for the type of content they are known to provide.  Will this lead to other businesses to delve deeper into their own forms of the Freemium model? If so, it’s got to be more compelling that what might have been a very early form of Freemium – giving away free food samples in stores hoping that consumers will buy. Regardless of the product, there’s got to be a real desire by the end users to get more. Hopefully, for HBO, these shows are good enough to drive that craving for more.

Sony Wins With Tic-Tac Box Sized Ultrabook

Blowing everybody away this weekend, Sony unveiled their full-powered Ultrabook that is the size of a quarter.  I’ve mentioned here before how Intel has been trying to get the word out and Sony has done it majestically with its Vaio Q product. As stated in the post title, this product that is smaller than a Tic-Tac box is sure to make Sony a winner and bring Ultrabooks to the forefront of every consumer’s mind.

Something must have been happening this weekend for a number of technology companies to launch products with Q at its core. The other big one is the Quest option for Google’s Map product. Oddly launching on a Sunday, users were able to find a button for Quest in the upper right corner at maps.google.com after they entered the address.  By doing so, the service provides a wonderfully simple 8-bit chroma version of the map (of course, this is all in honoring the game, Quest).  As you can see in the map of my neighborhood, it does me a huge service by pointing out the things that are most important – a park, a diner and a mexican restaurant that has live music six nights a week… Oh yeah, and the schools that my daughter will not be attending for Elementary and Middle schools.

And, of course, I know this is all for April Fool’s Day – I recounted some from last year in my post on Friday.  The thing is, there are some strong opportunities to market products and have an eye on the future with some of the pieces that were joked about.  The Google piece above was just one of MANY things the Google folks offered up – April Fools has seemingly become their most holy of holidays. The Quest piece is what seems to have gotten the most buzz (I was sent something about it by 10s of people directly and its been written about everywhere) but they have also done things like offer: every single movie ever on DVD to your door (from YouTube); change the weather to serve your needs; auto-driving NASCAR race-cars; tracking traffic to your sites from other planets;

and, the Googlers from Oz announced their new Google street cam placed on Kangaroos’ heads. Of course, this would never fly in the States because some boneheaded legislator would find something wrong about it – and that wrong bit would have nothing to do with cruelty to animals.

But let’s get to the good stuff.  And by good stuff, I mean things that could leverage the fun to possible sales instead of just something to take up excess free time on the job. In the UK, Firebox.com has announced the availability for pre-order on Personalized Fireworks.

They even go so far as to offer the following caveat:

Please Note:

• Best viewed from a distance of 10km
• Make sure the box is facing in the right direction and check all commercial flight patterns before lighting the fuse
• Once lit, retreat to a safe distance of 200m
• Display last approximately 5 seconds
• In some cultures may lead to idolatry

It really gets me that I have to check all commercial flight patterns and that there is not a chance in hell that I will be able to get 200m away, let alone get to the requisite 10km for optimum viewing.  But, in all seriousness, I bring this up because their product page is surrounded by all the products that they really do offer.  Yes, their product is funny and they certainly had some fun with it, but they are able to then leverage the traffic to drive awareness and, hopefully, sales at the same time.

Also in the UK, mobile provider O2 announced a new phone with a humongous battery that would last for 1,000 hours of talk time and 92 days of stand-by. Sadly, the phones are not that comfortable when kept in your pocket -

but the key thing here is that O2 does actually have a product named On and On.  If someone were to look for that, it would show up on the home page of O2 as their unlimited package.  Again, a good example of something that could drive to more business.

Toshiba got some buzz for its response to Apple and their Patent prowess.  In order to move away from the rectangular tablet, they devised a “Shapes” line where the tablets are anything but rectangular.

I look at this as something that could get people thinking about the future possibilities for technology.  So, even though it might not lead to other sales, it does something for the better good, beyond making a joke.

There are probably hundreds more of these things that appeared at larger or greater scales. If Intel and Sony were smart, they would look to parlay any interest in this obvious joke product of the Sony Vaio Q to illustrate that the Ultrabook product is still quite sweet.  Again, leveraging these things against actual product sales is all about keeping the conversation going – unless, of course the conversation veers to a funny recent post on the Sony Vaio Q YouTube page that laments, “WOW THAT WOULD REALLY SUCK FOR WATCHING PORN.”

The Digital Media Environment Might Be Shown Under The Wrong Light

I get it, but I don’t.  It’s been such a long time where new media/digital media/digital content has been trying to say how different they are from a traditional media opportunity perspective – with some degree of success or failure, depending on how you look at it. Now,  the digital players might be confusing things even more by trying to emulate the traditional media model of television upfronts. I get why the collective of outlets like Hulu, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo! and YouTube would think Digital Content NewFronts is a perfect solution for selling a lion-share of inventory in a fashion people are used to, but it frames digital media in a way that it really isn’t. It seems that no matter how much work is put into differentiating digital from traditional media – by emulating the media-selling platform of a different medium, the industry might err in showing the content in the wrong light.

Television UpFronts have been happening in May for quite some time – where networks unveil their coming seasons and brands and buyers get “pizzaz-zed” at the start the negotiation for a hefty bit of the available inventory. It is quite the feeding frenzy with much of the ad space getting booked in lump sums.  The deals are definitely based on demos and a clearly understood media platform.

The NewFronts will happen for the first time its year and is quite proud that they are taking a cue from the television world. on the site, it says that “Attendees are invited to roll up their sleeves and participate. Form relationships. Eye and act on the possibilities. Make sponsorship agreements.” Which is all fine and dandy, but there is a much higher complexity in the media planning for digital content.  With the data and tracking that is available, it isn’t just about the people you can reach – its about how they interact and what they do after that interaction.

Again, I understand why the powers would want to emulate something that is already known, but that leads people to think that they are effectively the same – which they are not.  Yes.  There are some video networks that are now getting stronger viewership than some small cable outlets, but the scale for the digital content is smaller in most parts, but more dynamic in others.

When a sword can be slammed into the ground that this digital is something different and should be taken seriously, the emulation of an existing media model seems to soften the blow.  Will there be some success and great press releases to come out of this? I’m sure there will be — we have been executing some of those larger UpFront types of deals with major publishers on behalf of studios  for a couple of years.  But, I don’t think a big song and dance will do the trick.

It always seemed odd to have a theatre full of media professionals sitting in a crowd in a huge theatre with TV shows projected on the big screen that they would ordinarily watch with a few people – at most – on a small screen.  And, from this, they would determine what is going to be a winner and what is going to be a bust.  The same issue could be the case here but with an even larger disparity between the presentation experience and the real-life experience of watching these videos.

They talk about moving from beneath the fluorescent lights into something bigger and brighter.  I just hope they find a way to shed the right light on the content and not get mired in a picture that is not their own.