The Boy Scouts and the MPAA

Another great and insightful post from Dave Slusher. The battle for the next generation of Internet users is on. What are we going to call these guys, the YouTube/Google generation? The GooTube generation?

Here is a link to the pdf describing this program.

The Best Marketing Campaign Ever

Cisco has launched a new marketing/advertising campaign called “The Human Network”. I first saw it as an ad on tv and I actually went back (thanks Tivo) and watched it a second time. When is the last time you did that? What a fantastic tv ad. Then I saw it on-line and today I have found the main site. They are also now getting Internet industry luminaries to help define what is the human network. In fact, anyone can submit a story about what the human network means to them. The main site has lots of inspiring and interesting content on it. Nowhere do I see an ad or data sheet for a Cisco router. This is about branding and it works.

In-Game Advertising

Ozgur Alaz has a nice post on in-game advertising.

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.

Shawn Fanning Rises Again With Snocap

Wonderkid Shawn Fanning of Napster fame is back and his new technology is called Snocap. There is a preview out now that allows artists to sell music on sites like Myspace. The embeded player could be put anywhere, even on a blog. From the player, you can purchase tracks and you can get unrestricted MP3’s. Price and any DRM restrictions, if any, are decided by the artists.

This could be a real threat to iTunes as an open format like MP3 would allow customers to put songs on any player they like and being able to sell music anywhere on the web is far more wide reaching then iTunes. For indie bands especially, this is a great thing but large established artists may stick to the tride and true iTunes model and Apple’s promotion machine.

Don’t Give The People Want They Want

News that some record labels are delaying the availability of digital downloads, sometimes for weeks and weeks. Here are all these people waiting to give you money and you act like you don’t want it. And this is distribution on iTunes with DRM and everything. You don’t think that track is already on the P2P networks anyway. I don’t understand the logic of waiting on digital release. Some fans are actively telling others to go get the tracks they want off the P2P networks. If you will not make available what people want on a legit basis, you will force them into illegit practices. The fact is, many people are not going to go down to their retail store and pay for a CD. I know it hurts, but it’s the truth and the future. How the music industry can continue to frustrate and piss off it’s customers is amazing to me. I never saw that in any of the business books I ever had.

Robert Scoble On Second Life

Former Microsoft and now just Tech Geek blogger Robert Scoble has some interesting points about the on-line world Second Life and doing business. I think he is right, the key may be the linking of Second Life and real world products. But the problem I see is Second Life is still very much a geek phenomenon. I’m not sure how or if it will every get to the masses because right now the software to run it is much to hard to use. Eric Rice also has some very interesting things to say about Second Life and technology in general.

Cell Phone Mini Movies – A New Trend

Cingular has announced a deal with HBO to provide a mobile mini-series based on the HBO show Entourage. Similar mobile mini shows are being done for the hit Fox show 24 as well as a mobile mini series for ABC’s Lost. Cell phones are too small to be viewing full length tv shows or movies, not to mention the bandwidth required. But short mini shows that extend the brand of a product or existing tv show is perfect. Unfortunately, to get the Entourage mini show you have to signup for the Cingular media plan and a second charge for its HBO premium service. The data plan you would have to have anyway, but that additional HBO charge I don’t think will fly with many people. I certainly would not sign up for it. That kind of extra charging will cause people to take that video and put it on YouTube and other video sharing services. That’s not legal, but when people feel they are being overcharged, they will do this kind of thing. These video shorts should be viewed as a promotional tool to get people into the show. Then they will sign up for HBO for their cable service. Cingular wins by getting more people to sign up for the data service. There is just no need for that extra charge. Get your greedy hands out of my wallet!

AIM Bots – I don’t get it

AOL has introduced AIM Bots. As far as I can tell, these are instant message buddies that are more like robots and will respond when you chat to them. There are bots for all kinds of things including a Tyson PowerPlates bot that you can use to search for Tyson power-packed recipes. Oh boy, just what I always wanted. Who the hell is going to use that? There are more useful things like Moviephone for looking up movies and some sort of dating bot. Isn't this all much easier to do on a website. Do people really live in IM enough to make this useful? I don't use IM at all so maybe I am out of the loop on this one. Sorry, I just don't get it.

Martha Stewart – Getting Social

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is launching its own social network similar to MySpace. They have correctly noticed that  MySpace and social networking is wildly popular. MSLO will target women 25-45, a market not specifically served by any of the current social network services. 

This could be a real look into the future of digital marketing. A social network for Martha Stewart encourages customers to more fully participate and interact with the brand on a daily basis. Think of how much can be learned about your customers by observing how they interact on a social network. Is the Martha Stewart podcast far behind? Especially for brands that can be considered lifestyle brands, it makes allot of sense to let customers connect, share and extend the brand with their own user generated content. If nothing else, it is interesting too see a company like MSLO be so bold and aggressive in their marketing approach.