Two Years Before Madison Avenue
Posted on June 28, 2011
Earlier this month a GigaOm analyst interviewed two advertising industry experts and inferred that future TV ads will be bought more like online ads. Specifically he concluded that “TV ads will increasingly become performance-based” and that viewer behavior and intent will trump conventionally accepted demographic statistics. His experts were from a prominent media agency named Initiative.
Download two minute audio narration to iPhone, iPod, and iPad.
Inside Digital Media subscribers got the same message about two years earlier. The superiority of “Behavioral Ad Targeting” was the subject of a podcast in July, 2009. It was followed two months later by our “Thinking the Unthinkable about Video Ads” that explained how accountability and behavioral targeting must ultimately apply to video ads. As we’ve repeatedly explained, Google’s search advertising is conditioning sponsors to a standard in which they only get charged for ads that viewers actually use. It’s only a matter of time before advertisers demand that video ads and TV commercials conform to the new paradigm.
What do we predict next?
First, once TV commercials become performance-based, ad agencies will learn to earn addition revenue by creating commercials that segue into online transactions.
Second, smartphones and tablet computers shall become the ubiquitous tools enabling consumers to interact with such TV commercials and thereby purchase merchandise impulsively online.
To subscribe to our podcasts at no charge, click here.
Also, inspect our eBooks including the first half of “Third Generation Television” which is offered at no charge. Our latest analysis, “Television Band White Spaces” is available through The Diffusion Group.
Filed Under Podcast Audio | Leave a Comment
Three Months Before Kleiner Perkins
Posted on June 24, 2011
Earlier this week esteemed venture investors Kleiner-Perkins and Institutional Ventures participated in a $32 million financing for Shazam to fund development of a form of interactive television advertising based upon the company’s music recognition technology. Our March 4, 2011 Interactive TV Commercials Arrive detailed how Shazam pioneered the idea in an TV commercial with Old Navy.
Download two minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod.
Specifically, Old Navy created this short music video to run as a TV commercial. Smartphone users activating Shazam while the track is playing, not only identify the song, but also get directed to pages at the Old Navy website where they can inspect merchandise. Hypothetically, they could also be provided with a time-sensitive discount coupon enabling them to impulsively buy clothing online without leaving their homes. The process works with conventional televisions whether broadcast, cable, or satellite.
Moreover, in a later post we explained that similar techniques utilizing digital watermarks could enable viewers to purchase merchandise representing “product placements” that are integral parts of the storyline in scripted TV shows. The method likewise works with conventional TV-sets and app-enabled smartphones or tablet computers.
Finally, we concluded that a variety of content identification technologies will ultimately result in a future in which All Media Shall Become Interactive, whether it be print, audio, or video.
To become a regular Inside Digital Media podcast subscriber at no charge click here.
Also, check out our eBooks and Market Research Reports
Filed Under Podcast Audio | Leave a Comment
Mad Men’s YouTube Chain Reaction
Posted on June 16, 2011
Special note. – Links to excerpts from copyrighted motion pictures provided below are all from legitimate sources. Since they get less traffic than YouTube, there’s normally a slight delay before the video plays, but once started it normally proceeds without buffering.
* * *
A couple of years ago an episode of AMC’s hit TV show Mad Men included an excerpt of a youthful Ann Margret in a sexy performance of the title song from 1963’s Bye, Bye Birdie. The enticing clip prompted a number of posts to YouTube where the most popular one remaining has been viewed half a million times.
Apparently, nostalgia triggered a chain reaction resulting in YouTube uploads of other popular songs including Birdie’s swoon-inducing Honestly Sincere and the gossipy Telephone Hour. Eventually the entire movie got uploaded. It must be watched in a series of ten minute segments, but the interruptions are less annoying than regular TV commercials. I was able to view the samples and as well as the complete motion picture on my TV-set owing to a YouTube-compatible TiVo.
Download eight minute audio narration to iPhone, iPod, and iPad.
The experience initiated a personal reaction-train as I began to recollect other Ann Margret movies from the era. At the top of the list was The Cincinnati Kid staring the iconic and nostalgia-amplifying Steve McQueen. At first I could only find YouTube clips, but finally located the whole movie in a series of eight 14-minute segments. Read more…
Filed Under Podcast Audio | Leave a Comment
All Media Shall Become Interactive
Posted on June 13, 2011
Today we interact with Internet media nearly as routinely we checked our wristwatches to read time-of-day fifteen years ago. While the conversion might seem radical to consumers from 1996, the advent of portable connected devices such as smartphones and tablet computers implies an even more fundamental change in the future. In short, all media shall become interactive – not just Internet media.
Download audio narration to iPhone, iPad, and iPod — ten minutes.
The underlying force is a previously latent demand from sponsors for more effective advertising. As John Wanamaker put it about a century ago “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Yet during the past decade, Google AdWords introduced a new paradigm. The service generates more than $25 billion annually by only charging sponsors for ads that are actually used by the consumer. At Google, advertising is targetable, accountable, and can be convincingly tracked. It is only a matter of time before sponsors will demand the same of all their advertising campaigns in whatever medium, whenever possible.
Significantly, app-enabled mobile devices are empowering traditional media to adapt to such a transformation because the portable units are evolving into cognitive prosthetics. Much as experienced amputees routinely use mechanical prosthetics as artificial limb extensions, habitual smartphone and tablet owners are starting to use the devices as convenient intelligence aids. They help users gain more information that would otherwise be unavailable, or difficult to obtain. For example smartphones can find price comparisons merely by scanning bar codes and other implanted signals off shelf merchandise labels. Specifically, a price-comparison app reads the barcode or embedded signal to (1) identify the merchandise and (2) display a website where up-to-date prices for the item from all merchants are complied. Read more…
Filed Under Podcast Audio | 2 Comments
Fixing a Home Wi-Fi Problem
Posted on June 9, 2011
This past weekend I decided to rent a movie from Amazon-Video-on-Demand. The service is available via my TiVo, which makes it easy to watch the movies on my TV-set instead of a computer. I’ve done it about a dozen times before. Except when it was a new service, the experience has been generally satisfactory.
But, not this last time.
Download audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod — three minutes.
Unfortunately my TiVo simply gave me an error message. So, like most of us, I shrugged my shoulders and repeated the selection process. TiVo threw-up on me a second time.
Frowning, I proceeded to TiVo’s troubleshooting instructions which suggested I check “Network and Settings”. After a few button-clicks, I learned that TiVo was receiving a “marginal” (35%) Wi-Fi signal from the router in my home office in the adjacent room. My current TiVo uses Wi-Fi to access the Internet to keep its program guide up-to-date and fetch movies from Amazon-Video-on-Demand. Older models typically used dial-up telephone lines which makes the Amazon service problematic. Read more…
Filed Under Podcast Audio | Leave a Comment
Future of Television - Video Podcast
Posted on May 23, 2011
Today’s post is a video narration of our PowerPoint forecast of the Future of Television. Since it only takes eight minutes to watch it, we provide only a brief text summary.
Download video presentation here if you don’t want to watch the stream.
First, ultimately content migrates to the Internet where it is accessed via browser-centric or app-centric devices.
Second, the socket panel available on modern flat-panel TVs is the “Trojan Horse” that prompt’s the paradigm shift.
Third, the future TV remote control units are likely to be smart-phones and tablet computers using apps such as Peel.
Fourth, eventually sponsors will demand that they only pay for TV commercials that are actually watched. This is already starting on the Internet. However, since conventional TV already has digital watermarks embedded in the audio stream, it can also be implemented in regular television via smartphones and tablet computers. The key is to augment content identification with recognition of commercials that can be made interactive.
Fifth, consumers will eventually expect constant access to the Internet cloud thereby leading to the emergence of massive high-speed unlicensed wireless networks utilizing Wi-Fi and TV Band White Spaces.
Filed Under Podcast Video | 1 Comment
How Interactive TV Ads Will Become Standard
Posted on May 17, 2011
A little under two years ago, Inside Digital Media predicted that sponsors would ultimately demand they only pay for video ads that actually get watched. (Thinking the Unthinkable About Video Ads – September 18, 2009). We reasoned the success of the cost-per-action pricing of Google AdWords would force change. Since sponsors only pay Google when viewers “click on” AdWords text, they would ultimately apply such a cost-per-action standard to banner and video ads as well.
Download audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod — seven minutes.
Last week a YouTube executive provided confirmation at WPP Group’s Global Video Summit. WPP Group is a leading advertising and media management company. YouTube’s Product Manager for Video Monetization, Baljeet Singh, was a Summit guest where he forecast half of video ads by 2015 would be cost-per-view. He explained how it is starting on the Internet.
YouTube is offering “TrueView Video Ads” permitting viewers to choose the ads they want to watch. There are two options. In one, after the ad plays for five seconds, viewers get a choice to skip or watch the ad. The advertiser is not charged unless the viewer lets the ad play to completion, or for at least thirty seconds. A second option gives viewers a choice of ads to watch during regular commercial breaks. Sponsors are only charged when their ad is selected. Read more…
Filed Under Podcast Audio | Leave a Comment
Congress on TV Spectrum Reallocation
Posted on April 14, 2011
Earlier this week (April 12th) the House Subcommittee on Communications held hearings about a FCC proposal to permit local TV stations to auction-off part of their spectrum and share the proceeds with the Federal Government. Generally, broadcasters oppose the initiative while nearly everyone else favors it.
Download audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod — three minutes.
An Intel representative went so far as to testify that the auctions should not be voluntary, but mandatory owing to the pressing need for bandwidth in mobile applications. The FCC’s chief of engineering and technology, Julius Knapp, provided supporting data. He predicted 55 million tablet computers will be sold worldwide this year making a $35 billion industry that didn’t even exist two years ago. He similarly noted that online shopping more than doubled to $4 billion in 2010 compared to $1.9 billion in 2009. Knapp predicted a spectrum crunch in which demand will exceed supply by early 2014 if nothing is done. He warned the consequences would be more dropped calls and higher prices for mobile service. Read more…
Filed Under Podcast Audio | Leave a Comment
