MTV goes local with Campus Daily Guide
Cory Bergman August 26th, 2008
Even MTV is pushing into the local arena. Through a partnership with Zvents, mtvU has rolled out out 25 sites that are essentially city guides for local colleges. Called the Campus Daily Guide, they feature events, restaurant and bar reviews, local search and campus resources. They’ve also tapped into content from the College Media Network — the college newspaper network MTV recently acquired — as well as RatemyProfessor.com, another MTV property. The idea is to bring in both national and local advertisers. “Brands like a Domino’s Pizza might want to advertise in a context that is truly local,” said mtvU’s general manager Steven Friedman. There are 25 sites to start with plans to launch 25 more. Here’s University of Washington…
I think this is a terrific idea — in fact, the best idea I’ve seen from MTV in years — and it makes perfect sense given mtvU’s touchpoints with the college community. The site is well-designed, Zvents is a solid events source, mtvU has plenty of great promotion avenues (college papers and mtvU) and local campus representatives will help with the site at each college. And there are plenty of national and local businesses who want to advertise to college students in their natural habitat.
4 Comments Add your own
1. Kelly Wolff | August 26th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Interesting take. Are there many local guides that have been extremely successful as a business model?
Must point out - this -
“They’ve also tapped into content from the College Media Network — the college newspapers MTV recently acquired…”
deserves a clarification.
MTV did not acquire college newspapers. MTV acquired a software and hosting platform that is a contracted vendor for those web services by many college newspapers.
It could also be accurate to say that MTV acquired access to use the content of the college papers on its platform.
2. Bill Reilly | August 27th, 2008 at 5:43 am
I understand this project is still in beta. I looked at the University of Wisconsin site and found an odd mix. When a person from Wisconsin clicks a “University of Wisconsin” link they expect to be taken to a University of Wisconsin-Madison Web site not the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.
After clicking on the link I am taken to a UW-Milwaukee site, OK no problem. Wait, there is one problem, in the list of “on Campus” events they list the UW-Madison football team playing at home. The UW-Madison campus is roughly 100 miles from the UW-Milwaukee campus.
This is what you get when a team of programmers are trying to develop a “local” site from NYC. It feels distant and antiseptic. There really is nothing local about it except the header, which in this case is even confusing.
3. baker | August 27th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I remember when this concept was called InsideGuide.com (visit the wayback machine for more info), part of the short-lived Snowball.com empire (see also: the defunct chickclick.com and now-Murdcoh-owned IGN) and I worked there as site editor. The problem was, we were relying on college students around the country and we were based in San Francisco — and granted, it was also 1999. Though, I can’t imagine it would be any easier to make the model succeed today, despite being Mtv.
I would argue that a college student’s “natural habitat” is more likely Facebook or MySpace or YouTube (or the 5 other sites we’re not in-tune enough to know about) - not some zvents and student driven new site banking on Mtv’s “cool kid” credibility.
4. Anonymous | August 27th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I still won’t forgive MTV for so-called reality TV.
But then again after watching all those 80s videos of hot women with firehoses and pie I knew my life was over at 38 when I was watch a special on getting implants and realized NOW they have no music and HERE are women with marker lines on them who had enough to start with and now they are….CRAP…morons are king.
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