Disney Orgy – Messing With The Brand

How out of control are companies with regard to their brands? Very. Check this video out; shot backstage at Disneyland Paris presumably by a Disney cast member. The combination of cheap, mobile video recording and media sharing social networks like YouTube make this kind of thing all to easy. I’m sure these cast members thought they were backstage and therefore in a safe place where they don’t have to be “on”. Backstage should be a safe place for employees but someone did shoot the video and it did get out. Disney’s new or reinforced policy will be, when you have the outfit on, you’re “on”, no matter where you are. Think of Abu Ghraib in Iraq. People casually taking digital pictures, but with the power of the network, they got out and created a firestorm.

It also means as a person living in this connected world, you have to be extra careful of what you do or say. You could be recorded at any time, by anyone. So where are the lines drawn? Does anyone have the right to record you with audio, video or a photo and share that to the world? Do you control those permissions? Will there be a wave of lawsuits by people who have not consented to have their image or voice published on the Internet?

Palm Treo Breaks News

Using a Palm Treo 700, a Fox News cameraman was able to shoot video and send it directly to Fox which proceeded to use it live on-air. This is the first time a major news organization has used live streaming video from a cell phone. The cameraman was actually on a completely different assignment but was close by when a single-engine plane crashed into an apartment building in downtown New York. The software technology used is called CometVision from Comet Video Technologies.

With so many cell phones now having camera and video capabilities, this kind of on the spot citizen media link to major new outlets will only increase. I can see the possibility for an affiliate citizen media program. For every photo I make available to a major news outlet, I can get compensated. For every minute of video I provide, I can make a little cash. How soon until we see fake, staged news events created by people who want to see their stuff on tv or who just want to screw with the system?

Google and YouTube Sitting in a Tree…

Internet video king YouTube is so valuable it’s almost impossible not for them to sell. But it will take someone with a good deal of cash and moxie to pull it off. Enter Google. Google has been trying to enter the video space for the past year but their Google Video offering has been panned by most observers. So, if you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em. Purchasing YouTube would rocket Google to the top of the on-line video market. It would also give them lots of juicy video content to sell Google Adsense off of. I think it’s a great deal for Google to do and I just hope when/if the to get YouTube, they don’t screw it up. Years ago, Google bought then leading blog firm Blogger and since it’s died on the vine. So far, Yahoo has done a much better job of integrating their purchases into their overall product.

YouTube Video Advertising

It’s finally here. YouTube has started video advertising, allowing ads on the site that include video. It’s only natural, no big surprise here. They have, however, created something kind of cool in Brand Channels, wherein advertisers can have their own channel to push all their stuff down. The first such channel is…….The Paris Hilton Channel. Of course. Paris, remember, was also one of the first commercial podcasters when she was promoting her House of Wax movie. Let’s hope marketers don’t just shove the same old crap they serve us on tv and radio down this hot new medium.

More YouTube Validation

It’s funny when I read these “oh, look, people aren’t watching tv anymore. They’re on the Internet” stories. For those of us who have been living and breathing this stuff for a long time now, it’s like duh. A good article, nonetheless, on cnn.com about all of this. Mentions for The Long Tail as well.It amazes me the networks still bust a nut over schedule and time and day of the week. Things that are all meaningless for me. Most of the shows that I do watch, I couldn’t tell you when they are on. They are on when I want to watch them.

Snakes On A Plane – Time For The Payoff

After untold Internet hype, this Friday Snakes on a plane with Samuel L. Jackson will open nationwide. This film has had an amazing run of user generated Internet marketing, more than any other film in history. Now we will see if that pays off at the box office or not. At the end of the day, this is a commercial product and it needs to sell. If it does, it could be a huge boon to this kind of new media marketing. Certainly, there is a core of Internet faithful, but can it reach a mass audience? Should be a interesting weekend; I’ll be there.

Liberal Internet Politics

So the liberal bloggers claim victory as they helped to defeat Joseph Lieberman in favor of anti-war but unknown Ned Lamont. I wouldn’t go to crazy over this. Don’t forget the last candidate they helped push forward, Howard Dean. He couldn’t even secure the nomination for president.
Republicans should be very happy. The farther left the Dems go, the less chance they have of winning anything. People are not happy with the Iraq war, but they’re not stupid either. Just pulling out as fast as we can would lead to complete disaster.

Google News Obsolete? Not Yet

Nice article from Steve Bryant at Google Watch asking if Google News is obsolete. I would say no, but it does have lots of competition. I still like Google News and use it but I also really like NewsVine as well. The best part of this piece is this diddy.

This hasn’t made newspapers very happy. Editors often bemoan that aggregators like Google News take traffic away from their sites and subvert the editorial process.

Cry me a river. Wake up and smell the Web 2.0 editors. News aggregators are great because you can get a variety of coverage from multiple sources at one time. Intelligent people don’t get all their news from one source. You have to read, watch or listen to a variety of sources to get the real picture. And God forbid if users subvert the all powerful editorial process. Being your own editor is always a good idea if you have the time. If you don’t, pick up the New York Times and be happy.

Another Condescending Blogger Survey

A survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project says while many see weblogs as an alternative to mainstream media, most bloggers run them as a hobby rather than a vocation. There are many interesting stats and numbers in the report about blogging in general but a strong trust of the research is that since bloggers are doing it for love (hobby) we should not take them seriously like regular journalists. Maybe bloggers are redefining what a journalist is. Just because someone is doing something as a hobby doesn’t mean their viewpoints and insights are any less valuable than someone else. Just because you are getting paid does not make you above everyone else. How about the New York Tims and the journalistic scandals that went down there? Now who do you want to believe?

MTV To Launch Social Network TV

MTV Networks will launch in September a new tv network called Flux. The new network will feature user generated content in the form of videos and text messages sent in via cell phone. You can think of this as like taking YouTube and putting it on tv. Consumers will choose which videos get played on the channel by using a corresponding website. So not only do users generate the content, they progam the station as well. This could be really interesting if they follow through and truly let users control all the content and programming.