Jumping the Shark

From the "hey, let's use the Intertubes" department:

"Dial Complete is launching an effort that centers on an online video contest, via YouTube, where contestants submit their most creative take on hand washing.

"The effort, dubbed 'Campaign for Clean Hands,' includes a contest (for those under 18) and Web site, Campaignforcleanhands.com -- both launching in September. The home page features games, puzzles, a hand washing chart and other interactive features used to promote the brand.

"As 2008 is an election year, Dial chose to incorporate the theme into its contest. The 'Campaign for Clean Hands' asks consumers to create a speech, song, jingle or rap touting the importance of clean hands."

C'mon. Really? A hand-washing rap posted on You Tube? This seems a bit contrived for my taste. Dial is trying too hard to be relevant.

Plus: "Dial is getting the word out through a combination of e-mail blasts, radio media tours, TV placements and merchandising vehicles at retailers. The contest, which coincides with National Clean Hand Week in September, runs for two months."

That seems like a lot of expenditures to promote a contest that centers around a viral video site.

Localizing Online Video

While YouTube and other online video platforms allow users to upload, view and search for whatever content they wish, one company is offering a localized twist -- a video platform specific to one market, South Africa.

Brands such as FHM, Sports Illustrated, Cosmopolitan, Die Burger and Kick Off have dedicated brand channels on MyVideo.co.za, South Africa's first online video platform. The site was launched in January 2007 and targeted at South African Internet users.

"Where videos posted on YouTube are likely to get lost in a sea of clutter, MyVideo ensures that South African content is aired as the sole focus, ensuring that companies who use it are connecting with targeted internet traffic," says MyVideo marketing officer Tristan Owen.

This is an interesting development that mirrors so many other like minded communities of interest (think blogs) that have developed because of digital technologies, and which provide new opportunities for marketers. By understanding the localized needs and desires of South Africans, marketers like Sports Illustrated can push localized content on MyVideo. This even creates new opportunities for low-budget, local businesses, whose messagse may be lost in the vastness of YouTube.

As Owen notes"By developing content that is both relevant to your brand as well as topical to users, you are creating an empire of possibilities."

New Media as New Media

Last year, YouTube announced a plan to "introduce a new type of ad module, where commercial messages are introduced as an overlay on the bottom 1/5th of the screen after 15 seconds of the clip. The overlay lasts for 10 seconds, and the user can either close or just choose to ignore it.”

The ads, running at $20 per 1,000 views, will only appear on videos from the company's content partners, that is, the approximately 1,000 companies and groups that have partnered with YouTube to show copyrighted content on the site.

A smaller video sharing company called VideoEgg has enabled the use of these ads for some time. "Troy Young, VideoEgg’s chief marketing officer, said the goal was to get away from forcing users to watch an ad before showing the clip they wanted to see. Those ads are known as 'preroll' and are the most common form of online video advertising so far." VideoEgg notes that 74.3 percent of U.S. Internet users stream video online and that in-stream ads “enhance rather than disrupt the user experience.”

In-stream ads seem like a positive step, considering that preroll ads smack of the television ads that are under assault from digital video recorders (DVRs). If digital technology is helping consumers to overcome old media, as expressed by DVRs and television ads, then why would consumers suffer an old media style approach (preroll) to another digital technology (online video)?

As Catharine Taylor relates in a BrandWeek article entitled, “New Media as Old Media”: “No one in the industry wants to return to the hype of bubbles gone by, but there is an undercurrent of concern that online is trying to be more like offline (read: traditional media) just at the point when digital TV technologies are changing traditional media.”

“By the time we finish repositioning new media to be 'apples to apples' like old media, old media will have evolved to be very much like new media," said Joseph Jaffe, a marketing consultant.

Two minutes?

Another interesting point regarding the emergence of online video: the videos are tailored to viewers with short attention spans. The previously mentioned USA Today article lists a few current and upcoming web-only serials (beyond the aforementioned lonelygirl15) that churn out a high number of episodes, but limit the duration of each episode.

These include Prom Queen, a horror series geared toward young adults featuring two minute videos, and Foreign Body, a series based on a forthcoming book by Robin Cook (and an example of new media marketing in its own right) featuring about 50 two- to three-minute videos, leading up to the book's Aug. 5 release.

As Brent Weinstein, founder of online film production company 60Frames.com notes,

"Online entertainment is as different from TV as TV is from film," says Weinstein, whose company aims to have 50 Web series in production by the end of the year. "When you're telling stories in two-minute bursts, it's much more like a comic strip that you come back to day after day to see what happens. Not everyone can do it, but slowly we'll figure out who the Aaron Sorkins of the Web storytelling world are."

The two-minute drill that these videos embrace is consistent with the general impression of web surfers: short attention span, limited engagement, the pursuit of instant gratification, etc. And yet, a 2007 eye tracking study from Poynter found that online news readers spend longer amounts of time consuming content than print readers.

One can only assume the difference is intent. The short video serials are geared toward a younger audience who, likely, stumble upon entertainment content or are directed to said content by peers, and who quickly move on to something else, in either case. Whereas news readers expect to spend time delving into articles (and have a great deal more options to select than print readers), since they often actively seek out news material.

It will be interesting to see if two minutes becomes the online standard in the way that television shows are divided in 30 and 60 minutes chunks (counting ads time) -- or if Hollywood-backed content providers will remain flexible in light of the medium's flexibility. Time will tell if the comic strip method prevails.

New Media for Self Promotion

Digital media have opened new doors to amateur entertainers in search of stardom. Specifically, they've enabled low-cost production and marketing of videos and short films. By leveraging video sharing sites, like You Tube, along with blogs, wikis, social sites, chat rooms and other viral-friendly media, budding directors, writers, comedians and actors have generated buzz, built a global fan base, and forced the hand of Hollywood players in search of the next big thing.

USA Today reports that, as online content becomes the calling card for talent, Hollywood agencies are trawling the web for talent and network executives are making deals with online auteurs.

Says Larry Gerbrandt, an entertainment industry media consultant: "The media companies know they will ignore this trend at their peril. The Internet is what cable TV was two decades ago. At first, the big guys balked at it. Now, they own it."

Consider the lonelygirl15 phenomenon. You Tube-posted videos of a high school girl's web confessionals (under the name "lonelygirl15") became a hit and a viral sensation as viewers and bloggers debated their authenticity. Even after the videos were unmasked as fiction, they continued as a sort of online soap opera (in brief segments). (As an interesting side note: lonelygirl15 has embarked on product placement and sponsorship deals with companies looking toward online advertising, including a deal with skin care company Neutrogena. The Neutrogena deal involves a step beyond product placement in the form of a "branded" character on the show, a "scientist" that happens to work at Neutrogena.)

As more lonelygirls turn to You Tube and blogs to hawk their wares (and there seem to be any number of one-hit wonders out there at the moment), the competition will stiffen. But for now, opportunities still remain:

An example: David Young, 25, and Joey Manderino, 23...After developing a following on websites such as CollegeHumor.com and YouTube, the duo was signed by (entertainment agency) CAA. The result: Besides a deal with Warner Bros, the two are writing a comedy pilot for TBS with the support of fellow CAA clients Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development) and Eric and Kim Tannenbaum (Two and a Half Men).