YouTube – lifesforsharing’s Channel - The YouTube channel for the heavyweight campaign I’ve been working on – T-Mobile ‘Dance’. Very exciting stuff still to come…
Openfilm – User Generated Films - Vimeo looks like it has a new competitor in the HD-UGC space. This site seems to favour long-form video through the promotion of made-for-web series.
Ninjai: The Little Ninja – Chapters - I used to love this series, and then it went dark for a while. Now I hear they are completing the series and submitting it as a feature length film!
Rather old, I know, but a great reminder of how sometimes the simplest forms of presentation are often the most effective. Comments on this video include such pearls as “we’re fucked” – Did You Know 3.0.
Problem: 9% of UK mobile subscribers accessed video on their mobile last month, but just 0.8% accessed Broadcast TV on their mobile. Although the demand exists, broadcasters can’t create an audience for Mobile TV due to technology constraints.
Solution: DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld) enabled devices have an inbuilt chip (top right) that picks up TV signals. They use the same frequency as Freeview, so images are immediate and crystal clear, effectively offering consumers a portable Digital TV.
Market Readiness: DVB-H is a key feature of Nokia’s new N96 and N92 (bottom left), and we can expect more DVB-H enabled devices in 2009. Uptake will be slow however, since operators will initially charge users to access the service. Deals already in place see users spending £2/day to access their partners’ video content, so there is no incentive for operators to promote the service. Potential for Advertisers: Mobile TV is no threat to the dominance of ‘at home viewing’ (3.5hrs avg. usage/day) but the behaviours are very different. The ‘Mobile Audience’ will watch most during travel times: 0800-0930 and 1630-1800, so broadcasters should schedule programming to meet viewer demands. I predict this will result in mobile-specific variants of existing channels, where popular programs are scheduled during travel times. Advertisers should therefore consider mobile specific creative, tapping into the users’ on-the-move psyche with a firm call to action such as “go in-store now!”
There is also a YouTube “press release” of their announcement here:
And an example of how the in-game ads might look here:
And finally, an article from CasualGaming.biz who broke the story last Friday:
Google unveils its game plan Oct 8th 2008 at 13:54 by Michael French:
Web giant Google has finally unveiled its long-awaited bid to enter the in-game advertising sector, revealing it is putting a big focus of the strategy on casual games.
In a post on the blog for the firm’s web advertising team Adsense, Google reps said that it is targeting web games in the first instance:
“Do you develop or publish web-based games? If so, you’re contributing to a growing trend – according to comScore, over 25% of Internet users play online games every week, which is over 200 million users worldwide. As a beta user of AdSense for Games, you can display video ads, image ads, or text ads within your online games to earn revenue,” the sales pitch reads.
“You’ll be able to show these ads in placements you define, such as interstitial frames before a game, after a level change, or when a game is over. Members of our AdWords team will sell your in-game ad placements directly to top brand advertisers, and you’ll also see contextually targeted text and image ads based on content and demographic information. In addition, you’ll be able to control the ads you see on your pages using our filtering options.”
Google has opened a beta for the service, which is open to publishers with predominantly (over 80 per cent) traffic from the UK or US.
Demonstration videos for the service make reference to a wide variety of games – although both open with footage from Playfish’s Facebook Word Challenge game.
“We’ve built ad technology for games played within a user’s browser, and now we’re looking to expand our publisher network,” the company said.
Google has partnered with Mochi Media and its MochiAds network to add inventory to its available advertising slots.
Jameson Hsu, CEO of Mochi Media commented: “Google AdSense for Games will be able to offer a wide reach for its advertisers, and Mochi Media can better monetize international traffic for our developers and publishers.”
The news comes just hours after the company revealed its YouTube video service would start offering online sales of games as well via links from its relevant videos to online stores such as Amazon and iTunes.
