A story in today’s Journal should bring tears to the eyes of online marketers and publishers. Nielsen Media is going to – woo hoo – double the size of its People Meter panel to, hold on, 10,000 households. It’s allegedly going to spend $70M to upgrade its services, including giving people portable meters so those oh-so-important out of home auds can be watched. This, from a company that can’t measure digital cable or satellite, or do dailies except in 55 markets. Hard to believe $60B in ad decisions still rely on this 1960’s style measurement.
From the what were you thinking files…
A new AOL 9 ad shows Sting spamming random instant message users, foisting on them pieces of his new video. [MarketingWonk]
As noted at the MW site, it seems as though AOL and Sting clearly authorize random and bulk spamming of AOL users for promotional purposes. Sting gleefully zaps out his latest video to a list of strangers… when asked who they are getting a message from, one of the unsuspecting users says, “I don’t know, but he sure does like Sting.”
You have to stop and think about this for a second… as an AOL user you can expect to get spammed with IM from strangers and sending you video as well. What if it’s not that nice…
How to Find That Needle Hopelessly Lost in the Haystack
Tags equipped with microchips and tiny antennas should make it cheaper and more efficient to track goods. Now come the privacy issues. [New York Times: Business]
.Mac benefits
I’ve been wondering whether or not to renew my .Mac membership, and I have to say that Apple seems to be working on making it worth the $99/year. The latest new benefits: free VersionTracker Plus subscription, free iBlog software, and $30 off a FireWire drive. And that’s in addition to the free StickyBrain 2, Solitare, and Marble Blast that they’ve had for a few weeks.
Now that it’s free, I should probably check out iBlog at some point.
Just checked out iBlog which seems to be the only reader/writer other than NetNewsWire that I’ve found. It publishes pretty seemlessly to your Apple hosted site via your iDisk which is a very nice benefit and advantage for Apple. I wonder how long it will remain an independent product….
Tim O’Reilly–The Software Paradigm Shift.
Get to know the man behind the animal-woodcut covers that fill our bookshelves. His mission: “Technology transfer–helping important technologies become more widespread” and to “create more value than we capture.”
Many forget how influential O’Reilly & Associates was during the early days of the Internet. They created Global Network Navigator (GNN), the first portal and serious e-commerce web site, which they sold to AOL, who proceeded to drop the ball. (Tim tells us why he doesn’t regret selling GNN.) And remember Internet In a Box, a collaboration of O’Reilly and Spry Software?
All of this and more in a great IT Conversation with Tim O’Reilly. [Web Services Strategies]
Great audio interview…
Court Rules Against Do-Not Call Registry
A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission overstepped its authority in creating a national do-not-call list against telemarketers. [ABCNEWS.com]
NBC launching attack on competitors by tweaking PVR owners?
Note the time of the Scrubs premiere show. It starts at 8:32PM. huh? Coupling is a new show that also sports an odd time slot: 9:27PM-9:58PM. ER starts at 9:59PM that same night. Friends runs for 47 minutes and is followed by a 39 minute long Will and Grace. What in the hell is going on? My TiVo is currently reporting these start times as the actual slots for this Thursday and next Thursday’s line is mostly back to normal, but ER starts a few minutes early as well.
It appears that NBC might be doing this to tweak PVR owners wanting to record CSI or Survivor over on CBS opposite their shows. If you had a season pass for both CSI and ER (both shows would likely have audiences that overlap) and you wanted to record ER you wouldn’t be able to tape CSI during the preceding hour, thanks to the minutes of overlap that would produce a conflict.
[PVRblog]
Good thing my DVR box has two tuners…
iPass opens door to Wi-Fi roaming
iPass is offering a new Wi-Fi roaming service, designed for wireless carriers and service providers that want to quickly enter the hot spot market and increase the reach of their networks.
On Monday, the network software and service developer launched its Wi-Fi Roaming Service, which essentially allows business travelers to gain access to several Wi-Fi hot spots using a single account. [CNET News.com]
This is just what the doctor ordered. It is impossible to to pick a single Wifi carrier at this time due to the lack of coverage and the deals that have been cut with hotels and airports. Hopefully this will work quickly to simplify the process and enable a much greater group of people to gain access. Now if iPass would just update the OS X client to enable WiFi, I’d be all set. For some reason my version is the latest (and shows WiFi on their site) does not include WiFi as a choice yet.
VeriSign seeks advice on controversial new service
Two lawsuits later…
VeriSign said it was creating a committee of “Internet leaders” to advise it on technical matters although it planned to continue offering its SiteFinder service, launched last week amid a firestorm of protest from privacy advocates and rivals. [CBS MarketWatch]
Portability unleashed!
The coming freedom to keep your cell-phone number when changing wireless companies has overshadowed a possibly more revolutionary change also due this fall: the power to move a number from a regular wired phone to a mobile handset.
While traditional local phone companies see the government-mandated change as an unfair invitation for wireless rivals to steal their core customers, they say they’ll be ready by a Nov. 24 deadline to fulfill certain requests by customers who want a home or office number to become a cell-phone number.
The new rules also require that cellular companies be prepared to transfer a mobile number to a landline phone, though such requests are expected to be somewhat scarce at a time when millions of people have gone all-wireless at home and at work. [Wired News]
Think I’ve had enough…
Of Google AdSense. I’m not making any money on it and I might as well get my site back to just my own content. At first I thought it might pay or offset my monthly hosting charges but I’ve yet to hit that level for a single month. I’m sure they won’t be missed…
Radio-Tagged Codes to Hit Supply Lines
Supporters of RFID say this is the week the high-tech successor to bar codes is finally open for business. [Technology News from eWEEK and Ziff Davis]
IBM Launches RFID Service
Big Blue packages consulting, implementation and specialized software for product tracking and inventory control via the wireless technology. [Technology News from eWEEK and Ziff Davis]
Opening the Kimono
How much should you reveal when negotiating with potential partners? Here’s how to “open the kimono” now — without feeling taken advantage of later. [Inc.com]
Radio Tag Debut Set for This Week
A retail trade group will debut the bar code’s successor this week in Chicago. Privacy advocates will be there to protest the controversial radio-tagging technology scheme. By Mark Baard. [Wired News]
Study Reveals Growth for iTV Advertising
A study released this week by BrightLine Partners predicts that interactive television (iTV) advertising initiatives will become integral to television advertising strategies over the next 12 months.
BrightLine’s study takes a look at the current pace of deployment in digital television services as well as the frequency with which marketers are using enhanced television advertising. It finds that the number of marketers incorporating interactivity into their television advertising is growing substantially. In fact, because of a newly demonstrated commitment among television programmers to offer enhanced television advertising opportunities, the study suggests we may actually be entering a new phase of growth in marketers’ use of such advertising, ranging from interactive banner ads on channel guides to sponsoring the program enhancements for a show’s entire season.
Sponsoring Websites with content synchronized to broadcast remains a leading approach, the study found, a reflection BrightLine believes of marketers’ increased desire to fully integrate brands into programming. This desire, combined with the ongoing push to find innovative new ways to target and reach consumers, will lead advertisers to embrace new television advertising techniques as never before, the company predicts.
“The sheer number and variety of enhanced television advertisements and sponsorship makes spotting the trend challenging,” says BrightLine Co-CEO Jacqueline Corbelli. “When you aggregate the data, however, the big picture and its implications look clear and compelling: By the end of 2004, it will become unusual for major advertisers not to be deploying such initiatives.”
Some specific findings:
- More than 30 networks, including all major broadcast and most major cable networks, now air some form of one-screen and/or two-screen enhanced programming
- Interactivity is generating higher viewer retention during commercials, better brand recall, and a more loyal fan base; all of which translates into more valuable on-air inventory and revenue
- The benefits of interactivity deemed most important to marketers are the potential for better viewer retention during commercial breaks, greater brand recall, and new lead generation possibilities
[iMedia]
First Mover Disadvantage
Forbes Online has an article this morning that discusses TiVo and the slower than expected adoption rate of the device given all of the praise:
“That’s really remarkable,” says Adi Kishore, a media and entertainment analyst for the Yankee Group in Boston. “I can’t think of any product that has had the satisfaction levels it has had but has been as sluggish in terms of the growth of the market. It’s certainly unusual for a product to have this kind of enthusiasm from the community that’s using it without being able to tip over and really become a mass-market phenomenon.”
Currently, TiVo, which hit the market more than four years ago, serves fewer than 800,000 subscribers. Only about 1% of America’s households employ TiVo or similar digital video-recording products, according to the Consumer Electronic Association. By comparison, market penetration for DVD players has hit 41% and is rising, making it one of the most rapidly embraced products in history.
The article goes on to argue that TiVo suffers from a first mover disadvantage: it’s a product that will create a market but only appeal to early adopters who will quickly churn out to the next greatest thing. There is no doubt that TiVo has had to create this market itself and suffers from the same arrows in the back that have taken many pioneers down.
But to me, TiVo suffers from another great entrepreneurial problem — it’s a feature, not a product. I have the bundled DirecTV/TiVo and it works beautifully. Rather than purchase a normal satellite receiver, I got one with TiVo inside. No integration issues, no separate device. TiVo is great functionality, but it needs to be built into TVs, DVD players, cable and satellite receivers. It’s too hard a value proposition to explain and too complicated a device to set up on its own.
Hard to argue that it is a feature, not a product now that I have been experiencing DVR technology inside my cable box… TiVo might be easy to install if you are a regular prosumer. For the average Joe, getting behind the TV, rigging some cables including a remote mouse and a phone cable (when you might not already have a jack back there) is not that great.
Speaking of the average Joe… TiVo has done a terrible job marketing themselves. I can’t think of a product that has to continually be explained in EVERY article written about them, years after release. Some traditional Direct Marketing would have gone a long way in assisting adoption. Fortunately for TiVo, they have a Plan B, which is the licensing of their software… Unfortunately, others have copied the technology (my cable box DVR is not TivO). I doubt people will actually care what brand of DVR software is inside their set-top box. In many cases you cant choose your box anyway unless of course you are selecting between cable and satellite.
The next threat to start-ups
William Blundon says “Do Not Call” and “Do Not E-mail” legislation efforts are likely to place disproportionate burdens on new businesses looking for ways to market themselves. [CNET News.com]
AOL’s Road to Redemption
Interactive marketing exec Lisa Brown offers contrition for AOL’s missteps and pledges the Internet service will do better. [internetnews.com: Top News]
snapple acquires NYC government
Well, not exactly… but it seems that Snapple and NYC have entered into a co-marketing agreement.
statue of liberty torch to be replaced with bottle of sugary tea [anil dash’s daily links]