I have to toot my own horn - we've been experimenting with virtual sets and Flash Video and have put an "owner's greeting" on our home page.
Take a peek and let me know what you think.
Streaming video is taking over the Net. It's on Amazon...it's on iVillage. Google, Yahoo, Singiningfish, and Blinx are searching for it. United Virtualities is figuring out how to interact with it.
ClickZ says "we're getting there."
I can't wait.
Marketers, take note. Audio may have greater branding implications than you thought.
According to Martin Lindstrom, writing in ClickZ today. Nokia has reaped untold benefits from their "branded" ring tone. And, he offers very good reasons for companies to brand their distinctive sounds.
Harley Davidson has known this for years. Remember when they tried to trademark the "Hog" sound? They didn't succeed, but the reasoning was solid.
There are other ways to brand than just with a logo. Keep that in mind.
So, today in i-Media Connection, we have the TV folks saying that television needs to look more like the internet!
TV needs better messaging, better targeting, less commercial "pods," more relevance. better accountability etc. etc. ad nauseum.
These people still think they're competing with each other instead of converging with one another. Foolish and wasteful.
WHY do these marketers want the Internet to look like TV? It's crazy since TV has been looking more and more like the Net!
Today's Online Spin asks how to measure rich media's effectiveness. And, of course, we jump right into TV stats - reach, frequency, etc. Not that these aren't important - they are. But the old thinking of 15 second vs. 30 second spots still prevails.
The Internet presents a unique opportunity to tell your story without TV's constrainsts. It might take 95 seconds, but if you're engaging the consumer, do you really care? Everyone assumes rich media has to look just like television or people won't interact. Pooey....
Virtual sets, lower production costs etc. can turn anyone into a "TV producer." And you're going to see more and more "regular" folks doing it. Mark my words!
Mookie Tenembaum, founder of United Virtualities, predicts 2005 will be the year of Rich Media in a Rich Media Insider article today.
He thinks Rich Media and search will converge as CPG vendors realize they can deliver branding messages as generic search results. Sounds like something that will bear watching.
He makes other predictions, but the one about search is the most intriguing. I highly recommend reading the article.