Technical Project Manager, The FeedRoom
New York, NY
Read the full post February 5th, 2007
Archive for February 5th, 2007
Search beats TV promotion
Last week, as most of you know, Steve Safran broke a national story here on Lost Remote. He appeared on ABC and MSNBC, as well as Boston TV and radio, with plenty of Lost Remote mentions. While our traffic nearly doubled for the day, it more than tripled the next day. Why, according to our logs? Search engines pointed thousands of users to Lost Remote for both the Aqua Teen Hunger Force story and the bad hair bride video. Which is a powerful lesson for TV folks: showing up near the top in Google for popular search terms trumps nationwide promotion on TV (well, unless you have a spot in the Super Bowl). So how’s your search engine optimization going?
Add comment February 5th, 2007
Sling Media looking for network buy-in
Back at CES, Sling Media and CBS announced a deal to allow users to clip portions of the network’s shows and email the clips to friends and even post them online. Called Clip+Sling, the idea is to allow people to post clips on an upcoming Sling Media site with built-in advertising, of which the networks would get a cut. “Why not monetize what was piracy?” says Jason Hirschhorn, the former MTV exec who now runs Sling Media’s entertainment group. “What was once a negative can be a positive.” But convincing the rest of the networks is another matter. “Your business development people, your lawyers, they’re all going to want do a number on me,” he tells media honchos. “And they’ll be right.”
Add comment February 5th, 2007
NYTimes.com to post user-created video
Beginning next month, NYTimes.com will begin posting user-created video. “The most expensive thing is the journalists themselves. That’s why user-generated content is interesting,” said Nicholas Ascheim, director of entertainment for video and audio at New York Times Digital. Also, NYTimes.com will soon offer an embeddable player. “We’re comfortable about embedding our video on other sites now,” he said. “Amassing an audience to make a business out of this on your own site is probably not a reality.” Also in the same article, Yahoo is looking into offering micropayments for user-created video, and the portal plans to launch a “different approach to news telling” around the end of March. What’s wrong with this picture? Neither Yahoo or NYTimes.com are TV companies, which should be innovators in this space.
Add comment February 5th, 2007
DirecTV to air SXSW 2007
For all you South by Southwest (SXSW) fans out there, DirecTV just did a deal to bring the music-design-tech event to TV, airing live March 15-17th. Press release…
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Cable news channels fighting at own expense
In the last few months, as the cable news race has tightened, Fox News, CNN and MSNBC have stepped up their negative ads. Remember when Fox News called Anderson Cooper the “Paris Hilton of TV News?” Now CNN has fired back with a Flash ad (I saw it on Drudge) that explains how Cooper “called” Fox News on its incorrect story of Barrack Obama’s past. The ad ends with the line, “It’s called journalism.” MSNBC, which has historically stayed out of the mudslinging, has aired this spot which essentially points out that only normal people watch MSNBC. “These ads are kind of funny,” says MSNBC GM Dan Abrams. “Sometimes I see the vitriol exchange between some of the news competitors in this environment. We’re just having a little bit of fun with themes that certainly seem to resonate with viewers of these other networks…. This is just our effort at a little lighthearted retaliation.” Yes, but MSNBC is starting to go down that same road of Fox News and CNN ridiculing each other at their own expense. This isn’t politics when we have to decide at the end of the day to vote for someone. All this makes me want to do is to vote for no one and get all my news online. And I don’t think I’m the only one out there.
4 comments February 5th, 2007
Where’s the download of Prince’s halftime concert?
I fully expected Prince’s outstanding 11 1/2 minute halftime show to be available on iTunes today. The show was great, “Purple Rain” in the rain was amazing, and the addition of a marching band was inspired. I wanted to pay for a good quality download. Nope. As near as I can tell, it’s not available. So I searched it out in some - ahem - alternative ways. No problem. Now I have it and I didn’t pay for it. The NFL and CBS milked every possible penny out of the game… how’d they miss this opportunity?
14 comments February 5th, 2007
And the top TiVo’d ads are…
It’s the Monday after the Super Bowl, which means TiVo sends out a press release with the commercials that were “trick played” (rewatched) the most:
1. Bud Light: Language Course with Carlos Mencia
2. Bud Light: Rock Paper Scissors
3. FedEx: Don’t Judge
4. Nationwide: Kevin Federline Rollin’ VIP
5. Doritos Crash the Super Bowl
The rest of the top 10 in the press release below…
Read the full post 1 comment February 5th, 2007
AmericanIdol.com lands new advertisers
Last year, AmericanIdol.com switched from the domain of Fox Broadcasting to Fox Interactive Media. Now the site has its own sales force, and it plans a makeover this month with a weekly giveaway with Ford and video sponsorships with Maybelline, McDonald’s and Fruit of the Loom. “We looked at how we can maximize the site to make the most page views and the best user experience but at the same time giving advertisers more custom space,” said Jeff King, GM of the site and VP of Fox Interactive Media. The site recently started streaming full Idol shows in the day after it airs.
2 comments February 5th, 2007
Turner’s $2 million guerrilla ad campaign
Today Turner Broadcasting agreed to pay $2 million to settle any upcoming litigation from the Mooninites takeover of Boston. The day after the stunt, Aqua Teen Hunger Force jumped 20 percent in ratings and CartoonNetwork.com skyrocketed in traffic, but time will tell if any of those curious viewers/users will stick around.
Add comment February 5th, 2007
Best and worst Super Bowl commercials
What’s interesting about this year is just about everyone has different favorites — no one spot stood out as a home run. (Watch them all here.) Writes Mike Penner in the LA Times, “Even Sunday’s sloppy, soggy turnover-fest was more interesting, more inventive and infinitely more memorable than any of the many opportunities fumbled away by a marketing industry whose creative imagination is running on fumes.” True, and maybe that’s why Madison Avenue is tapping the talents of amateurs to produce new ads, like that Doritos spot of the guy who crashes (”crunch!”) and the woman who runs up to him (”smooth?”) Doritos calls it the first-ever, completely fan-created Super Bowl ad. So what do you think? How does this year’s commercials stack up against previous years, and which spots were your best/worst?
10 comments February 5th, 2007
