Reckoning Day is Finally Here
Posted on September 6, 2010
Over fifty years ago an Australian wrote an apocalyptic nuclear war novel entitled On the Beach. Shortly thereafter Hollywood released a movie version. Some parents considered it so disturbing they forbade even high school aged children to watch it. The story tells how people in the Southern Hemisphere struggled to reconcile themselves to their own pending demise resulting from spreading radioactive fallout originating in the sterile Northern Hemisphere after a devastating nuclear exchange.
Audio for iPad, iPod, and iPhone click here (five minutes)
It became increasingly evident that fallout arrival merely a matter of months. Each character’s personality gradually shrank to its essence as the eventuality approached ever nearer. Among them was the crew of an American submarine that took refuge in Melbourne. Perhaps the most chilling moment was when its first member fell ill with radiation sickness. After examining his patient, the ship’s doctor simply told the Captain, “It’s finally here.”
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Implementing Behaviorally Targeted Ads
Posted on August 19, 2010
Bryan Burdick
In earlier posts and podcasts we discussed the theoretical advantages of behaviorally targeted advertising and how the Internet is best suited for the technique. Today we interview Bryan Burdick who is the Corporate Development Officer at Bizo.com which is a company that actually implements behavioral targeting via the Internet.
Bryan discusses how Bizo uses cookies and browsers to target ads to its publisher and ad network clients. He describes the process by which the behavior of the person sitting behind the browser is tracked anonymously and categorized into “buckets” that characterize qualities about him thereby enabling ads targeted at such individuals to be placed on his display screen.
Download interview to iPod, iPad, and iPhone here. (13 Minutes)
He also describes how the data is kept anonymous so as to protect individual privacy. We learn that offline marketers, such as Acxiom, actually have far more personal information about us than Bizo will ever collect via cookies. Read more…
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Ten Months Ahead of Bloomberg
Posted on May 31, 2010
Prompted by the recent GoogleTV announcement, last week Bloomberg-BusinessWeek reported that the product concept would revolutionize advertising in two ways. First, it would lead to a new policy whereby sponsors only pay for ads that get watched. Second, it would enable video ads to be better targeted.
However, regular Inside Digital Media subscribers recognize that we’ve been chanting this mantra since last July’s Future Developments in Video Advertising research report. Another example is our Thinking the Unthinkable about Video Ads last September. Read more…
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Music’s Next Evolution
Posted on May 20, 2010
David Pakman
Today’s audio podcast is an interview with David Pakman who has been a venture capital Partner with Venrock since 2008. Earlier he was the CEO of eMusic where he led the online retailer to sell more music download tracks than any competitor except Apple’s iTunes. Before joining eMusic he Co-Founded MyPlay which pioneered online music lockers. MyPlay was sold to Bertelsmann shortly after the turn-of-the-century. Earlier David was a digital music innovator with N2K and Apple.
To play audio podcast to iPod, iPad, or iPhone click here.
David believes that the recorded music business has reached yet another mutation point. Over the past decade worldwide revenues dropped from $40 billion to about $17 billion. Furthermore, unless the industry begins to proceed along a new evolutionary path he predicts the declines will continue for another five years before bottoming-out at perhaps $7 billion. Read more…
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Two Conflicting Music Opportunites
Posted on April 26, 2010
Phil Leigh
The Internet presents the music industry with two potent but conflicting opportunities.
First, it can replace radio as a more effective tool for promoting music while simultaneously avoiding costly disguised forms of payola that continue to linger. This applies not only to new releases, which traditionally have been the industry’s lifeblood, but also to old tracks which often fall into minimal demand.
To play audio podcast on iPhone, iPod, or iPad click here.
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Year Ahead of Wall Street Journal
Posted on April 19, 2010
Phil Leigh
Last week Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal reviewed a couple of new products from Hillcrest Labs. First, is a Web Browser built especially for big monitors such as televisions. Second is a hand-held device designed to control the browser remotely from a comfortable viewing distance as would apply when a TV is used as a computer’s display screen.
To play audio on iPhone, iPod, or iPad click here. (5 Minutes)
The browser, termed Kylo, contains big icons for 128 popular Web video sites. Navigation to other websites is via an onscreen virtual keyboard. Hillcrest characterizes the loop pointer as a remote mouse. About the size of a gymnastics ring the pointer offers gesture-sensitive control much like a similar unit for the Nintendo Wii. In point of fact, Hillcrest claims Nintendo is infringing patents.
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The Future of Apple
Posted on February 20, 2010
The Need:
Since the turn of the century Apple evolved from a secondary computer company into the most potent force transforming media. It is the premier Digital Media innovator as evidenced by the iPod, iPhone and most recently the iPad. Basically each introduction defined a new product category or enabled an incipient one to “cross the chasm” into mass market acceptance. More of the same is expected in the future, not only from products but also from transactional services.
Most any business affected by the future of media will be directly impacted by Apple’s future innovations. Moreover, its existing product lines alone will carry the company past the $100 billion revenue threshold in less than five years.
Revenue Forecast - Percent Sales by Product Line
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Will Consumers Pay for Hulu.com Videos?
Posted on November 7, 2009
Phil Leigh
Will consumers pay to watch TV shows and movies at the hulu.com website?
Hulu.com’s website hosts popular TV shows and movies after they have been released normally. Owners include Disney, NBC-Universal, and News Corporation (Fox). Viewers can watch shows for free but in exchange must also watch commercials since the videos are streamed and not downloaded. Last month, Chase Carey who is the President of News Corporation said that Hulu should start charging fees sometime next year. Presumably he envisions a premium subscription service providing more content or viewing time in exchange for a monthly fee. Read more…
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