video screen anyone?

2008 was a very interesting year as we saw the take up of online video viewing rocket to the point where we have seen a new bunch of investors in town trying to understand and monetize this space. We see the potential and we see the joy that it brings to millions of people as they watch, online, on mobile and now online on TV, thanks to slingbox and other competitors in this space.

One of the tricks is to understand video content beyond the PC or MAC and see where else video can be watched. Is it the car? is it at the bus stop? At the back of seats on buses? We are starting to see screens everywhere on the London underground, although these are mainly advertisers promoting products, but I’m convinced that to get the customers more engaged we will see screens in the trains. Now there’s a thought for a captive audience.

Whilst online video advertising is slow to take up, they have many ways to present it via overlays, opt-ins, prerolls, and product placements. This presents four different revenue streams for the broadcaster and to the brands wanting to advertise. Just remember this market is still very much in its infancy and both investors and creative companies will be coming into the market to help monazite or dare I say it “revolutionize” this space.

The broadcasters still have the content that consumers want to watch, content owners such as the bbc, itv and channel 4 don’t really care where you watch the content, but they know the tradition way we watch content is not via traditional broadcast transmission.

This presents us with a massive growth opportunity, not just from an advertising standpoint, but from the whole value chain that this business needs in order to be enjoyed. I’m taking about, cabling, fibre optics, broadband, content creation, encoding and scheduling, player solutions and screens. As we become more creative in the approach for placing screens everywhere, so does the revenues. I think Investors know this and as online bandwidth hungry content viewers increase, so does the value chain…

Signing off!

Realitypod.tv

Target your video directly to its audience!

Firstly I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and wish allot of success in 2009. As I look forward to 2009, I feel that this year more than ever, business must be very specific about who their customers are and what customers want. For all businesses these are very important questions. Revenue and profit are the most important part of any business, if it is to achieve sustainability into the future. So with this in mind, any company that is producing videos for web, tv or mobile I want to recommend a couple of publishing networks which specifically target your video to their audience.

I came across a couple of companies that do just this.Husky Media and Glam Media

Husky Media

Husky Media provides publishers of all sizes the ability to easily increase the value of their video, and provide their users with a better video viewing experience. Husky Media allows publishers to wrap any player with high impact ad units that provide 100% share of voice and increase inventory and video views by over 250%. More can be seen at http://www.huskymedia.com. Husky also owns Heavy

Heavy.com is one of the web’s leading video companies and the leader for 21-34 year old males, the most desirable demographic for marketers and advertisers. Heavy combines its own unique original programming with those of its users to create an environment where you can control and even participate in your own personal video experience. Heavy’s original programming staples include “Over the Hills,” the hit parody of MTV’s The Hills, “Flex and the City” the popular spoof of Sex and the City, “Superficial Friends,” “Kung Fu Jimmy Chow,” and the Webby Award-winning “The Burly Sports Show,” as well as “Behind the Music that Sucks.” Heavy’s original programming is available on Verizon V-Cast, Verizon FiOS, Comcast VOD, TiVo, Sony PSP, Apple iPod and Joost. Advertisers on the broadband network include Coors, Nissan, Panasonic, Diesel, Axe, Sony and Nike.

Glam Media

Glam Media, the pioneer of vertical content networks and a ComScore Top 10 web property, connects premium brand advertisers with more than 75 million unique global visitors a month! As the #1 Women’s web property we know what it takes to make the Brash Publisher network #1 for Men. Our audience has a myriad of passions we satisfy with a network of more than 700 publishers and our own flagship sites: Glam.com and Brash.com. In essence, Glam Media offers millions of viewers with like-minded passions to brand advertisers with greater relevance and efficiency than any other vertical content network today.

So there you have it, a couple of Video Networks out there that will increase the right traffic to your brands and hopefully these audiences will turn into customers.

enjoy!

Signing off

Realitypod team!