The
Battle For Coca-Cola
Rages On.
Ain't
Nothing Like
The Real Thing, Maybe.
I
Don't Mean To Say
I Told You So, But...
Are
Consumers Smarter
Then We Are?.
The
Four Great Myths
Of Global Branding.
Mr
Bevis Butts Heads
At Mitsubishi
The
Best Laid Plans
Of Mice And Men.
Dare
to Be Great:
The Mad Genius of "The Matrix"
Mitsubishi's
New Marketing Boss
Out Of The Frying Pan.
Concept Is Stronger Than Fact.
Value
Perception In A World
Gone Mad With "Cool"
The
Future of Advertising
The Brand
The
Future of Advertising
The Targets
The
Future of Advertising
The Grid
The
Future of Advertising
The Swarm
Technology
Making The Message
Meaningful
The Only Business That Matters Is The One You're In.
What
Ever Happened To The
Big Idea?
The Post-Advertising Era Is Here
Confessions Of A" Liar For Hire"
Good, Bad and Ugly At the Moment of Truth
A Post-Advertising "Big Idea".
The Value Of A Paying Pustomer.
Emergence Of the "Empire of One".
All customers Are Created Equal
Playing God An Other Atrocities
the
City That Spawned
The Age Of Advertising..
Fear And Self Loathing In Advertising.
The Greatest Success Metric Is Sales.
Foot In (Word Of) Mouth Disease
In the Begining, There Was The End.
Thje Rise And Fall
Of The Creative Class
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Google goes To DefCon Five. I don't care how many secretaries at Google made millionaire status last year. Now it's the cleaning ladies' turn. I have seen the future and it is the beta version of Google Video. I don't have to describe it to you— the name says it all. Searchable, categorized video images from 7 seconds to 3 hours in length. Points North Group surveyed 800 folks this past November to find that, 3:1, customers would rather suffer through commercials on TVthan pay $1.99 to watch the same thing online without commercials. Yet CBS just inked a deal with Google Video to provide it with programming to sell online. So even though it seems the public will not support their business model, onward they march. I say the Googlers know full-well how powerful the shift from "passive" (the tv set) to "active" (the computer) will be. And they intend to be ready for it. |
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I spent four hours on Google Video, just to try to gauge its potential. I had no idea what I would encounter, or what the level or lack of production values would be. Well, suffice it to say, it ranged from abysmal to inspired. But within the first hour I came to the epiphany that brought me to understand what will drive Google from a reference tool to an entertainment "medium." In a word ... curiosity. |
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I have a term paper to do on advertising. Can you tell me the best way how to do a creative ad campaign . – Asprey R., Manila Yeah, steal one. – hw |
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What I experienced was so subtle and so insidious It took me a full ten minutes of reflection to even come to grips with it. At first, I just went to the home page and clicked on the random video clips that show up at each landing. Not sorted by any specific type or category, it gave me a fair overview of what was in store for me, should I continue to hang out. Then I decided to take the next step and type in a search topic. Here's where the dynamic gets interesting. I typed in the word "trains," certainly because I have an interest in the subject matter, but also because I know there is a vast amount of video shot on trains floating around on the web. Well, folks, Google had managed to round up 196 video clips on trains. Everything from a "train" wreck from 1932 to the "training" of covert operatives by the CIA. That's what got me. I went through all 196 pages. That's how curious I was about a topic that I had an interest in. A topic that was MEANINGFUL to me. In effect, the video fare that Google Video is serving up is a global sampling of the visions and images of a wide spectrum of film makers and videographers on an amazing variety of topics. Next, I went to "bullfighting." Four videos were all that were available. My favorite Jazz musician "Miles Davis" yielded 25 topics, non of which had anything to do with Miles (including the Archive of American Television interview with Jane Wyatt, Alan Alda and Mike Wallace, provided by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation.) Even so, I was still compelled to keep feeding in subject matter to see what was available for viewing. On and on I went, coming finally to "advertising." This search yielded 368 topics. Everything from brilliantly executed "virals" to abysmally realized "templates" for retail automotive commercials. Now the content became truly compelling as student projects and art films, all based upon the tv commercial paradigm, came spilling forth. Again I found myself driven by curiosity from page to page. That's when I began to realize how this emerging entertainment form could be easily exploited by advertisers. Short films on a wide variety of topics that included branding references could be easily deployed in each interest category. Instead of spending a million bucks on producing a single network tv spot, ONE HUNDRED 1- to 2-minute topical films on 10 popular subjects could be produced and "distributed" via Google Video. Obviously, a million dollar investment to dominate the dawn of a powerful new web medium is marginal at best. Google Video customers can currently buy and rent sports programs (like NBA), prime time and classic CBS shows (CSI online anyone?), music videos, ITN news, cartoons and childrens’ TV, movies from independent producers and film makers and more. “For video producers and anyone with a video camera, Google Video will give you a platform to publish to the entire Google audience in a fast, free and seamless way,” according to Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and President of Products. Of course, the fatal flaw in the beta version of Google Video is so basic as to be inconceivable. The company that has become so synonymous with world-wide web search so as to be considered a verb ("Googled") is not currently intending to "search" the web for video content. A web-wide search engine for video files is not on their horizon. In fact it is quite obvious they intend to focus on sales rather than search, taking a page from the Apple primer on pod-casting. This will leave an Achilles heel for competitive incursion into their probable monopoly. Look for the Ikagami-powered MSN Search giant or Yahoo megabrand to exploit this flaw, in the interest of offering a wider selection of video content as a competitive advantage. In any case, the movie and TV industry should feel the heat from these developments. Independent producers may in the future bypass these companies altogether, splitting the profits with Google and other online video platforms instead. Of course, they will miss the millions of dollars of promotional support the majors can throw at a film or a tv show. Video prices on Google Video are set by the content provider. The copyright owners decide whether the files should be given copy protection – giving them even greater control over their distribution. And the Web has proven that there are other ways of building an audience than giving away the store to a major player just for distribution. Can you say "MP3" boys and girls? The greatest challenge will be the ways in which the massive potential audiences for Google Video will be accessed by brand marketers. All of the "old school" rules and sensibilities will no longer apply. Google Video is shaping up to be the first major proving ground and frontier for the Post-Advertising Era. The land grab has already begun. Stay tuned.
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