Local TV threat: Superpages adds video
Cory Bergman December 3rd, 2007
Superpages.com has inked a deal with TurnHere and Denver Multimedia to create video profiles of local businesses. The plan is to leverage the Superpages sales force to upsell clients to the video packages, and the clips will appear alongside directory listings. Recently, Yellow Book and CitySearch have begun similar video efforts.
While most agree there’s a big business opportunity here, local TV stations aren’t players despite long track records of innovation in video advertising. And in some cases, it may already be too late. Why? Stations haven’t invested in building innovative local directory/search products that have succeeded in achieving a large enough audience. Without an audience, there’s no video worth upselling. If you try to post the same video profiles on a TV site, smart advertisers won’t buy it — there’s no targeting, no context. You don’t visit a TV site to find something. You Google it. Or CitySearch it. Or Yelp it. Or visit the local newspaper’s entertainment site. But never a TV site, unless you’re looking for the forecast, traffic report or the day’s news.
Put simply, TV hasn’t made local business directories and search a priority. And with well over half of local online advertising dollars moving to search, directories and lead-generation, this lack of investment will prove to be a key strategic mistake in the years to come.
6 Comments Add your own
1. Mel Taylor | December 3rd, 2007 at 7:45 am
Cory,
Just got back from Kelsey Interactive local media conference in L.A. (TurnHere was mentioned) Your points are pretty accurate as they relate to what I saw at the Kelsey show.
IYP’s (Internet Yellow pages) and other pure-play directories are hell bent on cracking the local online market. They are making serious inroads. They are well aware that TV’s greatest limitation is that it’s slow moving, and not nimble enough to move quickly into these spaces.
Yes, TV has decades of experience shooting pretty video. But that doesn’t mean they are capable of going after small businesses using a Rosenblum inspired VJ strategy of small cameras and quick turn around edits via a mac book.
Web based video for small business. BIG market. The Wall Street Journal did a story on this topic last week.
Mel Taylor
2. Jason | December 3rd, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Cory, I would invite you to Check out SeekitLocal.com. This is a full blown directory and mapping application that is being rolled out to Broadcast sites accross the country. Clients can have VOD, email, Print application and more as a part of the program.
So yes, local stations are playing in this arena.
Thanks
Jason
3. tdc | December 3rd, 2007 at 12:11 pm
local tv is simply taking a paragraph from the obit of the newspaper industry.
good luck. but i think cory’s “strategic mistake in years to come” might be better as “years too late”.
aloha.
4. Biff Supprito | December 3rd, 2007 at 5:24 pm
What the flip? You say local TV will die and it keeps on truckin’ like a ho at an interstate rest stop.
Come on, fellas. Stop shaving your legs and step into the reality that the mode of distribution is becoming a muted, pointless hissy fit.
The long tail belongs to the stars. (Stars that are determined by your research with unaided recall.)
Later.
5. Drew | December 4th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Local TV stations didn’t made a strategic mistake by not becoming local directories. That’s simply not in their DNA. Viewers don’t turn on Channel 5 to see the latest commercial from Pete’s Pontiac. They want to watch local news or national programming. It’s not likely they would rethink that identity when they visit channel5.com. If stations ever had a chance it was to port their expertise in entertainment to the web. They didn’t so they don’t.
6. Scott Wyffels | December 4th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Should local TV stations be using their sales force to sell inventory outside of their own sites? Hearst-Argyle Television seems to think so. They recently inked a deal with Google to become the first television industry reseller of the Google AdWords(TM) advertising program. Maybe local TV stations could be selling and producing these video ads as well?
Maybe the mistake is by trying to only sell their inventory to a fragment of the local audience?
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