(Not the opiod kind)
We were excited to see in today’s (8-28) Wall Street Journal the article “Web’s Niche TV Programs Win Sponsors” (membership required to see full article), Irina Slutsky and Geek Entertainment TV with a big feature on their GoDaddy.com sponsorship. Also featured was Next New Networks, the network of micro-TV networks out of New York with twelve networks launched so far (see them up close and watch them grow here), and mentions of “Alive in Baghdad,” “Wallstrip,” and “Break a Leg.” The fact that this is big news is BIG NEWS. Niche content producers making money through web video and getting mainstream press - this is a good indication of what’s to come. As providers of tools that help distribute and measure web videos, we think we can help catalyze sponsorship for our users.
But as Emily Steel writes in her article, “Advertising on niche Web TV shows isn’t for every marketer. Not only are audiences relatively small, but pricing models and measurement systems aren’t yet established.”
Well, we’re happy to provide the measurement!
Way to go GETV and the rest of the creators mentioned - you are paving the way!
We were pleased to make the “Top 50 Online Ways to Market Real Estate” (Jamie Glenn’s full pdf presentation can be found here) put out by the new video marketing website geared towards real estate sellers and business owners, WellcomeMat.
You can also watch a version of Jamie Glenn’s video presentation below (it’s a video of him giving the powerpoint linked above).
WellcomeMat leads a growing list of new sites that use web video to market real estate. You can either upload a video of your own, or hire a videographer through the site to film your video, and upload it to their site to begin your web video marketing. There’s a great geotagging feature which shows your business or real estate listing on an interactive map. On the site, you can see the thumbtack on the map that represents our company in Berkeley, CA, and clicking through takes you to our channel.
Check it out!
Much has been said about the need to figure out advertising models for online video. Viewership is moving online at a rapid pace, but advertising has yet to follow at the same rate (despite this year’s 79% growth over last year forecasted by e-Marketer).
Most agree pre-roll ads aren’t the solution, and there are a plethora of companies working to create a winning solution. But YouTube’s announcement to overlay videos with advertising is the first to make a big splash beyond the pages of the blogosphere, which isn’t a surprise, since they are the market share leader by a long shot (49% by recent estimates). What’s great to see is the data YouTube has shared on the engagement of the ads, which are clicked 5 to 10 times more than banner ads (NY Times article) and 75% of those that clicked watched the entire ad (more under the term of “participation” here).
This is great news for video publishers, especially those creating online productions as a full-time gig. Is YouTube the only one with this type of technology? No. VideoEgg has had this type of technology for over a year, and creators can also use technology such as VideoClix on their own sites to do much the same as the new YouTube ad serving technology, but by clicking on objects in the video. I haven’t used VideoClix, though I saw them demo at last month’s Pier Screening event in SF.
