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Little League + Facebook + Hilton HHonors = Home Run
One of the things about online video that has always intrigued me is how it gives brands innovative ways to engage with target consumers. Thus, a promotional email I received last night, as a parent of a 9-year old Little Leaguer, caught my attention. Little League has partnered with Hilton HHonors for a "play of the week" contest, which calls for parents to submit videos of their favorite plays (aka their kid's shining moments) to a special section of Hilton HHonors Facebook page. Each week that batch of videos will be judged and a winner will be placed into a group of 20 finalists, eligible for prizes. From my perspective, the contest is a home run for all parties.
Hilton HHonors gains 100% share of voice in a campaign that positions them nicely as a "good guy," helping parents draw attention to their kid's on-field accomplishments. The company also gains all the contact information for each participant, giving it valuable information for future communications.
Categories: Brand Marketing, Social Media, UGC
Topics: Facebook, Hilton HHonors, Little League
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VEVO President/CEO Rio Caraeff to Speak at ELEVATE; Early Bird Discount Expires This Friday
I'm pleased to share that Rio Caraeff, President and CEO of VEVO, the leading online music video destination, will be speaking at ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit on Tuesday, June 7th in NYC. Rio joins a morning panel
titled "Content Publishers Crack the Code on Video Success" along with Kevin Krim (Global Head of Bloomberg Web Properties), Doug Knopper (Co-Founder and Co-CEO, FreeWheel), Adam Singolda (CEO and Founder, Taboola) and a moderator TBD.
I'm especially pleased to welcome Rio to the list of all-star speakers at ELEVATE because VEVO epitomized how a strong concept for an online video destination, executed well, can generate successful results. VEVO, which was only officially launched 18 months ago, garnered over 52 million unique visitors in March, 2011 according to comScore, making it the 5th-highest rated video site. VEVO has strong relationships with major record labels from which it sources its music video library. YouTube is also a key technology and distribution partner. VEVO has apps for the iPhone and Android, and also recently announced an expansion into the U.K. market.
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thePlatform Continues TV Everywhere Momentum With Cox TV Online
thePlatform continues to rack up large pay-TV operators as customers for its TV Everywhere video management platform, this morning adding Cox TV Online, the TV Everywhere initiative of 3rd-largest U.S. operator Cox
Communications. thePlatform is now powering 5 of the top operators in North America, including Comcast (its parent company), Rogers in Canada, BigPond from Telstra in Australia and others. In addition to the operator side of the equation, thePlatform has pushed aggressively into powering content providers' authenticated TV Everywhere programs.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Technology
Topics: Cox, thePlatform
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Comcast's TiVo Deal Breaks New Ground, Unifies VOD, OTT Navigation
Yesterday, Comcast and TiVo announced an interesting deal that allows TiVo Premiere owners who subscribe to Comcast's digital video service to also receive Xfinity TV VOD alongside over-the-top choices like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon, etc. It's a little bit of an alphabet soup situation to understand,
which will make marketing it a challenge, but if the two companies are successful, it could actually be quite meaningful to consumers who choose to take advantage of the offer. I caught up with TiVo's EVP Jeff Klugman and had a slew of questions answered by Comcast to understand things better.
Under the deal, TiVo Premiere owners can have Comcast come to their home at no charge and install the box and a CableCARD, making sure everything is working properly with the video service and their broadband connection (this will start in the SF area, with other markets to follow). One of Premiere's primary benefits is that when a user search is conducted for a TV show or movie, the results include all potential sources - Comcast linear and VOD as well as OTT options. That's beneficial to users because as long as rights are granted according to studios' adherence to windows, trying to understand what's available on which service/device at any particular time is virtually impossible for any average consumer.
Categories: Cable TV Operators, Devices, Video On Demand
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TED Executive to Present at ELEVATE on the Renaissance in Ad Creativity
I'm delighted to announce that Ronda Carnegie, Head of Global Partnerships for TED, the highly-influential non-profit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, will be the closing presenter at ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit, on Tues, June 7th in NYC. This special session will be hosted by Dan Greenberg, CEO and Co-Founder of Sharethrough, a leading performance-based social video advertising program.
Ronda's presentation, "TED's Ads Worth Spreading and the Renaissance in Creativity," will focus on TED's recent Ads Worth Spreading competition which recognized breakthrough new ads that are infectiously compelling, have strong industry impact, are in the style of a TEDTalk (30 seconds to 5minutes) and pursue a social good with a powerful idea or innovative approach. The 10 winning submissions, plus the 14 honorable mentions, are tangible evidence of the powerful renaissance underway in advertising creativity, as online video eliminates the traditional limitations of 15 and 30-second TV ads, unleashing a new level of ad creativity not seen in decades. Ronda will share a number of examples in her presentation.
TED's vision of advertisers and consumers being part of the same community, sharing ideas and engaging in a joint learning cycle, is perfectly aligned with ELEVATE's mission. As ELEVATE's agenda amply demonstrates, we're bringing together senior executives from throughout the ecosystem to understand online video's key trends, accelerate the future of online video advertising and tackle remaining challenges.
Ronda's presentation, part of which I viewed at the WPP Global Video Summit last week, will be the capstone to an action-packed day of learning and networking. It is an honor for us that TED has decided to participate in the inaugural ELEVATE conference. I'm confident that attendees will leave the closing session inspired and excited to be part of the action, and having a role in changing the status quo. Cocktails and a reception will follow immediately after this closing session.
Early bird discounted registration is available until this Friday.
Categories: Advertising, Events
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Pay-TV Industry Ekes Out Q1 Gain. Netflix Softens Its Tone. What's It All Mean?
Trying to get one's head around the true competitive dynamic between pay-TV operators and new "over-the-top" entrants is surely one of the most vexing exercises video industry executives face these days. The media's coverage only exacerbates things: when the pay-TV industry contracts for a quarter, the headlines imply cord-cutting is sweeping the nation, then when the pay-TV industry reverses and makes a small gain, the headlines suggest all is fine again in pay-TV land, and that Netflix is just a nice little complimentary service.
So it was again this week, as industry analysts released their Q1 pay-TV subscriber estimates showing that pay-TV operators as a whole eked out an increase of around 450K-500K subscribers. While that was a better showing than the past 2-3 quarters when the industry shed subscribers, it was also slightly worse than Q1 '10. Regardless, the first quarter is a seasonally-strong quarter for pay-TV, and so the gains must be tempered by what follows in subsequent quarters. The good news is that the economy is improving which can only help budget-minded households better afford expensive pay-TV services.
Categories: Aggregators, Cable TV Operators, Satellite, Telcos
Topics: Netflix
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VideoNuze Report Podcast #98 - May 5, 2011
I'm pleased to present the 98th edition of the VideoNuze Report podcast, for May 5, 2011.
In this week's podcast, Daisy Whitney and I discuss YouTube's forecast that by 2015, 50% of video ads will include cost-per-view video, which I wrote about earlier this week. If the forecast pans out, it would cause a huge transformation in the way the online video ad market works, since virtually all of today's in-stream video ads don't have any performance aspect.
As we discuss, the move isn't that surprising, as it attempts to re-shape the video ad market to look more like the search advertising market, which Google dominates. By aligning engagement with advertiser payments, there's clearly more efficiency. But it would be a radical departure from the way TV advertising has traditionally been bought, so it would take a concerted effort by brands and agencies to adapt to the model. Listen in to learn more.
Click here to listen to the podcast (13 minutes, 18 seconds)
Click here for previous podcasts
The VideoNuze Report is available in iTunes...subscribe today!Categories: Advertising, Podcasts
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ELEVATE Conference Gains Momentum With New Speakers, Sessions and Partners
Our ELEVATE: Online Video Advertising Summit, coming up on Tuesday, June7th in NYC, is continuing to gain significant momentum and I'm pleased to share new speakers, sessions and partners today.
We've added a new morning session, "Content Publishers Crack the Code on Video Success," in which we'll hear from leading publishers and technologists about how their video initiatives are becoming increasingly sophisticated, particularly with regard to discovery, recommendations and advanced monetization. The panel includes:
- Kevin Krim - Global Head of Bloomberg Web Properties
- Doug Knopper - Co-Founder and Co-CEO, FreeWheel
- Adam Singolda - CEO and Founder, Taboola
- David Eun - Former President of AOL Media and Studios (moderator)
We've also added an afternoon session, "Making Ad-Supported, Independently-Produced Video Profitable" in which we'll focus on how a new breed of video content producers are mastering the art of creating video specifically for the web - and making it profitable. This session includes:
- Raj Amin - CEO and Co-Founder, HealthiNation
- Ron Bloom - Chairman and Co-Founder, MEVIO
- Joanne Bradford - Chief Revenue Officer, Demand Media
(and a moderator TBD)
Categories: Events
Topics: ELEVATE, VideoSchmooze
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