8 March, 2010
In Outsell’s annual advertising and marketing study released today Outsell Vice President Chuck Richard reveals that U.S. advertisers will be spending more on digital media than on print in 2010. Digital advertising is expected to grow by 9.6% in 2010. The calculated increase is based on data from 1,008 U.S. advertisers, in the consumer as well as B2B segment, gathered in December 2009.
Digital surpassing print.
U.S. marketers plan to spend $368 billion this year, of which 32.5% will go toward digital. Only 30.3% of their budgets is to go to print. In this piece of research, digital includes e-mail, online video ads, banner ads and search engine marketing. So, in 2010, for the first time ever, advertisers will Read on…
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22 January, 2010
Today YouTube launched YouTube Music Discovery, basically a music video suggestion tool, although they call it a “Music Discovery Project and Playlist Creation Tool”.
There is a lot of ambition in a name like that, which I will get back to later, but it can best be described as a way to quickly turn YouTube into a video jukebox with an automatically generated, relevant playlist based on one artist. You select, say, Eminem and boom, there is a page with a playlist of 40 music video’s, 10 of which are Eminem clips and 30 of which are by “related” artists.
Taylor Swift, anyone?
On the YouTube disco page you can click one of the suggested artists, or you can enter an artists’ name yourself. Strange enough, the latter feature doesn’t work in a recent Read on…
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22 December, 2009
This week, at iHollywood’s Digital Living Room conference a Sony US marketing manager stated that company plans to build out an area on the PlayStation with it’s own, original TV programming. Meaning that with a connected Playstation 3, you don’t need a TV subscription to see the TV shows.
MTV your PS3
Sony already released the Vidzone Music Video application for PS3 this month, offering “your own personalized version of MTV” on the Playstation 3. This free app offers unlimited access to high quality music video streams, and the ability to build custom music video playlists, turning the PS3 into an MTV type station - but one that actually shows Music Videos ;)
From MTV to HBO
The ultimate goal is to transition from a Read on…
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26 November, 2009
Nielsen’s VideoCensus reports indicate that the battle for the leading positions in online video is on, and the category is still growing fast: Year-over-year, unique viewers, total streams, streams per viewer and time per viewer are all up significantly, led by a 41 percent growth in total streams (US data).
Winners and losers
The loser of the last months: Read on…
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13 November, 2009
This week, UK gaming industry publisher MCV has broken the news that in November 2010 the Xbox add-on known as “Natal” (the black thing lower in the picture) will be released. According to MCW 5 million Natal units wil ship globally and there will be at least 14 games supported by the hardware.
Why you should care
Simply put, Natal enables you to talk to your TV, and it will recognize what you say. Also, you will be able to have it interpret motions you make. Don’t think Wii, think Minority Report. It can even see you smile or frown, and react accordingly. Natal is actually a set of very sensitive depth-vision cameras that do facial recognition and voice recognition as well. This is some extremely complicated technology in a low-cost device. What that means is demonstrated in this must-see video.
14 games ready for launch.
After the unveiling of Natal, Activision Read on…
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30 October, 2009
I was always hoping that the Internet would kill off low-brow TV forever, but no such luck, apparently. During last week’s launch, the “Internet TV” feature in Windows 7 suddenly became something serious for users in the U.S.. Internet TV was already present in pre-release versions of Windows 7, but back then it only had short clips and promos. With the final release, Internet TV includes full episodes of a surprising number of classic and current TV series. With this, Microsoft is entering competition for TV content distribution with Hulu and Apple in a much more direct sense than ever before.
Content
The content is Read on…
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26 October, 2009
Last night Youtube streamed a live U2 concert from the Rosebowl in California. You can still see the recorded HD stream, which has great quality. The playist can be found here. During the live show, an integrated Twitter widget displayed comments from Twitter that were marked #U2, adding an extra layer of interactivity, which was, though hardly innovative, still nice.
PR machine
So, why is YouTube’s PR machine all over this event? We’ve seen enough live webcasts before, right? The truth is, Youtube is far Read on…
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26 September, 2009
According to Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP (the worlds largest communications company by revenue) 20% of marketing budgets will be spent in digital advertising within the next five years.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Sorrell said digital budgets would increase significantly in the next few years - but would not fully make up for the difference between share of time spent online and share of marketing spend.
Time spend online to be 30% within five years
“Companies are spending up to 13% on digital. We know we spend up to 20% of our Read on…
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9 August, 2009
Internet enabled TV sales are growing rapidly according to reports from Quixel Research (US data). Meaning TV sets that have inbuilt network connectivity via WiFi or network cable. Of course, this means you could be Twittering from your TV set :) Other features range from the ability to display simple RSS feeds and dedicated services to advanced on-screen Widgets for access to Weather, Stock quotes, Youtube etc. The TV sets usually are able to play video files that sit on a Media Center PC or Home Server in the home network as well.
Rapid increase in sales and revenue
In the second quarter of 2009, the revenue from televisions that have built in Internet capabilities grew 40% to over 1 billion US dollars. In terms of unit sales, shipments Read on…
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27 June, 2009
Nielsen published the report “How Teens Use Media” this week, a report on the “myths and realities of teen media trends ”. It’s a good read, showing that the American Teenager is more conservative in his (or her) media choice than some fast-talking online media experts would have you believe.
Dad knows best
Some of the most interesting points from the research are around the choice of medium, but the media consulted still are pretty much in line with parental choice. In the end “teens” is the word we use for a part of the demographic that is just about to start making their own unique choices, but are in fact still mostly following the lead of their parents.
Report Highlights:
- For TV, American teens today actually watch Read on…
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9 June, 2009
Apple® today introduced the new iPhone™ 3G S, according to Apple “the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet”. This thing was pretty much conceived while Steve Jobs was either very ill or had already left the office for his sick leave. As such, it offers us a first glimpse of what life without Jobs could be like for Apple. Interesting. Let’s take a look at the new features.
Big features
The 2 really big features of this new iPhone are improved speed —up to twice as fast as the last iPhone, according to Apple —and longer battery life. I will be VERY interested in seeing Read on…
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28 May, 2009
Here’s a quick copypaste: Hulu Desktop sure looks a whole lot like the future of TV.It’s a media center type of application—like Front Row or Boxee or Netflix or Windows Media Center—that gives you full access to Hulu with an Apple Remote or Windows Media remote or just your keyboard and mouse. In other words, freed from the constraints of the browser, it’s like real TV. The app is beautiful, fast, easy to navigate and simply amazing—everything you’d expect from Hulu, honestly.
There are thumbnail previews that pop up as you move alongside the scrubber, like Netflix’s streaming app. You can queue episodes too—you need a Hulu account for this. There are bunch of different ways to find content: via search, Hulu channels, by studio alphabetically or just through suggestions.
There are ads, but that’s part of Read on…
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17 May, 2009
Hulu - the American site for complete movies and TV episodes - continues its explosive growth trajectory, increasing a whopping 490% in total streams year-over-year, according to new data from Nielsen VideoCensus.
That translates to 373.3 million streams in April — up from 63.2 million last April — which solidifies Hulu’s status as the fastest -growing premium video brand online.
According to Nielsen Online, the success of Hulu — originally a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp.– proves that in the future, the Web will not be as dominated by short video clips as it is today.
Hulu, along with pure-play providers like Veoh and the TV networks, have spent the Read on…
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5 May, 2009
Today, May 5th, Chanel launches their ‘new face’ for the classic No.5 fragrance with a special movie of about 3 minutes released exclusively on MSN, with what probably is the most beautiful homepage takeover I have ever seen.
With this new Chanel campaign, interactive media is the leading medium globally, instead of TV – marking another first for Chanel in the luxury arena. This is a big win for Internet, a big win for MSN and Microsoft Advertising. Yes, I work at MSN, and I am very proud of this campaign and our cooperation with Chanel around this.
Truly global
MSN is one of the few publishers worldwide (MSN beat Yahoo in getting this spectacular account exclusively) that is able to offer this level of consistency in the global ad experience. This is what MSN is best at – providing a great environment for A-brand advertising, blending the lines between content and commerce in an exciting cocktail.
Content vs. commerce
I actually spend a lot of time discussing the Read on…
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1 April, 2009
Surprisingly today, after years of hostility & police raids, the Pirate Bay has announced they have settled their differences with US media conglomerate Warner Bros. The largest BitTorrent tracker has sold out to Hollywood and the two have agreed a deal.
The deal, worth over $13 billion (10 billion euros) came about after the recent performance at the Pirate Bay trial gave strong indications that the judgment would go against Warner Bros. For the Hollywood movie studio, it seems that acquiring The Pirate Bay was the only option left.
In the press release, both groups gave Read on…
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4 March, 2009
“Video snacking” is an accurate description of the current viewing habits around quick & consistent consumption of video.
ComScore recently published highlights of its U.S. video reporting that support this trend. Mind you, the data is US only and was gathered in late 2008. Still, some interesting results:
146 million people, or 77% of the U.S. Internet audience, have now viewed online video. Those viewers watched 34% more online videos than they did last year. The average online viewer watched 273 minutes of video, up over 40% vs. the previous year. The average duration of online video is fairly short, at 3.1 minutes per video. And, the audience viewed 87 videos per month on average, 18 more videos per month than last year.
The last two points highlight the trend Read on…
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7 February, 2009
Proof for the point that internet video distribution through consoles is growing fast. Netflix, an American video rental service that started out renting out DVD’s through the post, is successfully crossing over into internet distribution by using the Xbox 360 game console to get movies on subscribers’ TV screens.
In the last few months, one million Netflix subscribers have downloaded and activated the Netflix app that enables Microsoft’s Xbox 360 videogame console to play normal and HD movies - streaming. And it’s not just that the application was installed often, it’s actually being Read on…
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28 January, 2009
About a year ago, IDC research reported that mature users with an internet connection at home spend more time online (32.7 hours/week) than on any other medium. This is almost half of the total time spent using all media (70.6 hours), almost twice as much time as spent watching television (16.4 hours), and more than eight times as much time as spent reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours). And there I was, wondering what “time spent online” actually means. How do these people spend their time online?
Wot, then?
So, now there’s a report from Mediamark Research & Intelligence, (MRI), which shows what people do most, and which activities have seen the most growth. The overall winners are Read on…
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21 December, 2008
Here is my prediction for 2009: The major record labels will leave YouTube and start their own video sharing/streaming site. Why? Just take a look at these two messages: Universal Music seeing “Tens of Millions” from YouTube (December 18th 2008) and Warner Music Group disappears from YouTube (December 20th 2008).
So, that looks weird. Why would Warner leave, if there is so much money to be made? The answer is, they’re not. YouTube is kicking them out. Warner has been trying to come to terms with YouTube on a renewal of the contract that was announced as a “landmark video distribution and revenue partnership” in 2006, but failed to do so. As a consequence, YouTube is removing the Warner clips. But that’s just the beginning.
Something changed
Here is my theory: In 2006, Google was so afraid to lose the Read on…
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