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How Lady Gaga Moves More than Just her BodyPop sensation Lady Gaga has managed to sell 8 million albums since 2008, in a time when no one is buying CDs. How did she do it? By leveraging social media and developing creative partnerships to sell product, albums and singles. She is the first artist to score four consecutive number one singles from a debut album and the video premiere of her “Bad Romance” video lead to a Universal Music server crash and over 110 million views on YouTube. Not only is Lady Gaga scoring in the singles and album sales department she is also reaping the benefits of creative partnerships. With the success of Lady Gaga’s career, big brands are reaching out to Lady Gaga for her help in selling their products. She has been named creative director for Polaroid in the hopes of reigniting the brand and the Estee Lauder Group is seeing record sales of Lady Gaga’s and Cyndi Lauper’s Mac Viva Glam lipstick. Lady Gaga boosts 2.8 million Twitter followers and over 5.2 million Facebook fans that are more than eager to hear the latest Gaga news. This army of followers is gaga, well, over Gaga. In the February 22 Ad Age issue, Steve Berman, Universal Music’s president of sales and marketing states in the article “GAGA, OOH LA LA: Why The Lady is the Ultimate Social Climber”, “Gaga has worked tirelessly in keeping up daily if not hourly communications with her fans and growing fanbase through all the technology that exists.”  Her Facebook page features a merchandise store, events calendar, and gift shop of Lady Gaga images to send friends. Her Twitter page is filled with tweets which encourage users to watch videos and tweet with the singer. “Check me out on the Today Show with Cyndi” and “Any scousers gotta video if “the living dress” so happy I could die? Tweet me!” However, for someone not down with the lingo (as in me), more than 140 characters would help translate her tweets.  Labels: Brand Awareness, Facebook, Social Media, Twitter, twitter social media, Video, Viral Marketing Google to Offer Captioned YouTube VideosTranslation for online video is about to get a whole lot easier. Google just announced that they are going to start offering an automatic caption service for YouTube videos: Offering a service like this, provided it works as described, is nothing short of amazing. Subtitling videos or offering an alternative translated soundtrack is a time-consuming and often costly process that prevents content creators from optimizing the reach of their videos. Being able to post a video to a corporate YouTube channel and then having a captioned translation available in 51 different languages is going to make it a lot easier to get that content embedded in multiple blogs and partner sites. Labels: Blog Outreach, Google, Online Media, online video, Video, web 2.0, YouTube Facebook Now Rated the No. 3 Video SiteWhen it comes to online video, Facebook always seemed to be one step behind the usual online video giants...not anymore! According to Nielsen's latest VideoCensus numbers, Facebook has rose to No. 3 behind online video giants Hulu and YouTube in terms of total streams. Facebook jumped from No. 10 last month - leap-frogging the likes of MSN, ABC Television, Fox Interactive Media, and Yahoo! The report said Facebook generated more than 217 million streams in October to more than 31.5 million unique viewers - this is up from 110 million streams to 23 million viewers in September.  As fast as Facebook has grown in the past year, the online video viewing aspect was never something brands, nor advertisers really drove too much interest to. However, this could open up a door to change. Facebook actually had more than double the number of unique viewers Hulu had for October - but do remember, Facebook caters to the shorter and more personal videos, as compared to TV show length videos that flood Hulu. Facebook began their venture into large-scale video streaming when they partnered with CNN to present the President Inauguration in January, then opened up another live streaming event with the NBA All-Star Game in February - both events drew a high level of engagement across Facebook. More recently, the Foo Fighters in October, held a live concert that was streamed across Facebook, Livestream and the iPhone, and delivered 2 hours and 45 minutes of their greatest hits to more than 150,000 viewers around the world. The video drew 440,000 total live streams, with a max of 20,000 at any one time. Watch live streaming video from foofighters at livestream.com Clearly Facebook is making their platform more friendly from a video streaming perspective, think what could of been from an advertisers' standpoint if the Foo Fighters' record label was to try and monetize that almost 3 hour long show...exactly. On top of that, the concert trended on Twitter at #2, (#1 was Halloween) and it was also #1 on Digg. Music has not been the only source of featured video for Facebook, the early premier of the NBC (and Hulu owner) show Community was debuted through Facebook on the NBC Fan Page. Overall, the number of total U.S. video watchers dipped to 138.6 million unique viewers from 139.3 million in September. However, the number of total streams rose to 11.2 billion in October vs. 11.02 billion in September. And the number of streams per person was up to 81 in October, compared to 79.1 in September, and the time spent per viewer was up to 212.5 minutes in October, compared to 195.2 in September.  Labels: Facebook, hulu, online video, Social Media, Video, YouTube Social Media Weekly BuzzWelcome to the second edition of Social Media Weekly Buzz. This week, both Google and Facebook managed to steal the majority of the headlines. Gmail’s outage on Tuesday sparked widespread panic and led most people, ironically, to use Google search to investigate the incident. In addition, the oh-so familiar, yet quite stark, Google search landing page has finally been patented, five years after being submitted to the USPTO. Facebook tested out a new ad scheme with direct offer engagement ads, and is being accused of leading a Welsh citizen to murder their partner. Also, have you checked out Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on YouTube yet? All this and more follows below:  • Gmail Outage – At 12:30pm PST, a small fraction of Gmail’s servers were taken offline for routine maintenance. Unfortunately, Google underestimated the load recent changes placed on the request routers… The result? Gmail went down for 100 minutes, and online chaos quickly ensued. • Google’s Search Landing Page Now Patented – After 5 years of fierce debate with federal bureaucrats, Google has finally won the right to patent their unmistakable home page. Google now owns the concept of having a large search box in the middle of the page, on top of two big buttons, with several links scattered here and there. Does this spell trouble for sites which possess similar layouts, such as Yahoo search?  • Facebook Tests Direct Response Ads – Craving a Chick-fil-A Chicken Biscuit? How about if it’s free? Soon you might be seeing more ad offers like this on Facebook if their testing of direct offer engagement ads goes well. Facebook has recently been exploring different advertising options as it gradually shifts away from its traditional sales funnel. • Facebook Regional Networks No More – Regional networks on Facebook are now officially gone. This move comes as Facebook attempts to expand beyond its college roots to a worldwide communication platform, not unlike Twitter. But is that really what users want? • Facebook Jealousy Blamed on Murder – A murder trial in South Wales has taken an interesting twist, with a UK prosecutor arguing that Facebook-related jealousy pre-empted the tragic event. Apparently the whole thing got started when Mrs. Jones started to “expand her social horizons” online. The last straw? When she changed her Facebook status to “single”. • Kremlin Launches YouTube Channel – Russian President Dmitri Medvedev launched his very own YouTube channel, located at www.youtube.com/kremlin. The main purpose of the channel will be to reach out to and connect with the youth of Russia. So far he has covered topics from good neighborhood ties between schoolchildren, to the outcome of the Second World War. • eBay Sells Skype – On Tuesday, eBay officially announced that it would be selling th  e VoIP and chat service Skype to a group of private investors for $2.75 billion. eBay will still retain a 35 percent equity stake in the service however, which they hope will increase in value under the new management. The decision to sell was provoked by a lack of synergy between Skype and eBay’s e-commerce and payments services.The Gmail downtime serves as a reminder of how much of our lives are becoming dependent on the Internet. As more and more services become cloud-based in nature, it is imperative that network interruption be minimized at all costs. Fortunately the Gmail downtime occurred during the night, which helped save what could have been a large-scale interruption in productivity for the US. Twitter experienced a similar issue not too long ago, though that issue was more malicious in nature, and not just a big mistake. Facebook continues to modify its services in order to improve both the experience of both consumers and advertisers. The direct offer engagement ads are a great source of lead generation for businesses, however it will be interesting to see how many people are willing to enter their address and other personal info for discounts and promotions. This is definitely a jump in the right direction for Facebook as it tries to shift away from its traditional sales funnel. The major step in this development is that companies will now receive instant results from the advertisements they publish on the service. The Facebook alteration that might not be met with open arms is the decision to completely remove regional network categories. As Facebook attempts to take a more worldly approach to its communications platform, it has the potential of upsetting long time users of its service. For them, Facebook served as a tool to better connect with friends, not strangers. In addition, many users prefer Facebook over Twitter for the very fact that it isn’t… Twitter. Any step closer to the other service could be taken very negatively among its fan base. The sale of Skype was definitely a smart move for eBay, whose e-commerce and online payments businesses really have nothing in common with the VoIP service. The real question is what prompted eBay to make the acquisition in the first place? Earlier in April StumbleUpon was also sold off to a group of investors after a failed attempt to synergize operations. Fortunately now the company can turn to focusing on its core eBay and PayPal businesses. Labels: Facebook, Google, Industry, Landing Pages, online marketing, Online Media, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Twitter, Video, web 2.0, Yahoo, YouTube YouTube Masthead Goes UGThere have been a lot of buzz recently about Sprint’s user-generated “Human Clock” which will launch this week on YouTube. The ad, which supports Sprint’s “Now Network,” will feature videos of people holding up one number that will be strung together similar to a clock. “For example, at 12:09 the ad would display four people, each holding up one number to represent 1, 2, 0 and 9,” MediaPost writes. The images will change as the minutes and hours tick by.  The ad will utilize YouTube’s masthead ad unit which works with other ad units on the homepage. This placement is great for advertisers who want to make a big splash. Zal Bilimoria, product manager for homepage at YouTube states, “On average, these rich media masthead units have 14% interaction rates, compared to the industry average noted by DoubleClick for similar-size units of just under 5%.” The ad unit will also be available as a widget at Sprint’s Now Network micro-site. The site also features interesting facts of things happening “Now,” such as the number of bicycles being produced worldwide, traffic updates in major cities, and even the number of people stuck in elevators. Overwhelming at first, the montage of stats is artfully displayed as a series of interesting stats happening around the world. I admit, I have been on the site for over 42 minutes and I haven’t even clicked on half of the stats. To find out more about the number of coffee cups being produced or the next bus arriving in Portland, visit the site at http://www.sprint.com/network For more information about this post please visit MediaPost's article, "Sprint Takes Over YouTube Home Page With UG Human Clock" Labels: Advertising, Online Media, Social Media Marketing, Video, YouTube Paying Less for More BuzzMiller High Life is approaching the Super Bowl in a unique way this year. Instead of committing $3 million for a 30-second spot, the beer company will be airing a one-second ad, known as a “blink,” for a fraction of the price. The commercial will feature actor Windell Middlebrooks who has been the spokesperson for the Miller High Life commercials since 2007. To generate buzz about the ad, Miller High Life launched a website, http://www.1secondad.com/, where people can view the full 30-second commercial and a series of one-second ads. The site also features list of items that you could also get for $3 million, besides a 30-second Super Bowl ad. Items include 230 tons of smokehouse bacon, 79,000 porterhouse steaks and 15,000 sky dive jumps. "Miller High Life is all about high quality and great value, so it wouldn’t make sense for this brand to pay $3 million for a 30-second ad. Just like our consumers, High Life strives to make smart choices. One second should be plenty of time to remind viewers that Miller High Life is common sense in a bottle,” Kevin Oglesby, Senior Brand Manager at Miller High Life. Even though Miller High Life will be the only advertiser with the one-second spot, other advertisers share Mr. Oglesby sentiment. In years past, companies have aired ads that asked consumers to buy products at regular prices. This year however, advertisers will appeal to consumer’s wallets and funnybone. For example, wallet-friendly restaurant, Denny’s, will feature gangsters sitting around a booth having a serious conservation when a Denny’s waitress walks up starts spraying whip cream in smiley faces on their pancakes. Whether an advertiser will be airing a one-second ad or a 30-second ad, the Super Bowl is one televised event where viewers actually watch the commercials. There has been so much buzz around this year's ads, I'm more excited about the commercials than the game. Not only that, I'm interested to see what other people at my Super Bowl party will say about the one-second ad (if they even see it). Labels: Advertising, Social Media, Strategy, Video Spreading Holiday CheerTV holiday ads such as the ever-popular (and frequently aired) Kay Jewelers signify for me the start of the holiday season. So as advertisers turn their marketing efforts from traditional advertising to online advertising, advertisers have turned to viral ads to spread holiday cheer, and their brand. I read an article today on PromotionWorld.com, which list the five best viral holiday campaigns of the year. As the article points out, what makes a viral ad campaign so successful is providing a connection between the user and the ad, providing a unique brand experience through the creative content, and the ability to spread the ad to their friends. However, a successful viral campaign is more than just adding a grab-it feature to the ad unit. As the author points out, an ad is more likely to spread through personalization techniques, such as adding your picture to a dancing elf, just as Office Max has done. Here are some examples of this year’s viral holiday campaigns. Happy Holidays! 5. The Buddy Group’s Naughty Mrs. Claus 4. X-Box’s Holiday Gift Influencer 3. Simon Sez Santa 2.0 2. Office Max’s ElfYourself 1. Disney’s Personalized Video Message From Labels: Advertising, Online Media, Social Media, Strategy, Video In The DoghouseJC Penney has struck a funny bone with men and women alike, with a video ad called "The Doghouse," which tells the story of a man who purchases a dual bag vacuum for his wife. After receiving the vacuum, the wife leads her husband out to a field and into a doghouse, where he vanishes to an underworld filled with other men who bought their wives bad gifts. I normally have a very short attention span when it comes to online video; 15 to 30 seconds is my max. However, this ad is 4 ½ minutes and I actually watched the entire video. Granted, I read about the video from an article on Wired.com entitled "Welcome to the Doghouse: J.C. Penney Goes Viral" so I knew who the advertiser was. The ad was tastefully produced and doesn’t reveal the advertiser’s message until the very end when the man learns he can get out of the doghouse by buying this wife diamonds from J.C. Penney. I’m not the only person who enjoyed the ad. According to the Wired article, the video has been viewed over 1.7 million times, and has received 56 placements across 9 video sites; over 90 percent have been community driven. To further drive the video, JC Penney created a website, http://www.bewareofthedoghouse.com/ where you can virtually place someone in the Doghouse, see what life is like inside The Doghouse and learn how to get out of the Doghouse. This is also one of the first advertisers to use the Facebook Connect applications, which allows uses to place their Facebook friends in the virtual Doghouse. Labels: Facebook, Online Media, Social Media, Video YouTube: Fit for a QueenOne of Overdrive’s clients markets heavily to people who live in the US, but have close ties to family and friends who live in other countries. In doing research for this client, the media team came across an article on a Middle Eastern news site about Queen Rania of Jordan and the YouTube channel she launched last month to address misconceptions of woman in the Arab World and encourage viewers from around the world to share their opinions and acknowledge stereotypes they have heard of this culture. The always hip and media savvy Queen Rania has found a way to tap into social media to create a cross-cultural dialogue. In the palace statement, Rania was quoted as saying she wanted young people everywhere "to see the personal side of my region, to know the places and faces and rituals and culture that shape the part of the world I call home." I applaud Queen Rania for using social media to encourage discussion about stereotypes and break down common held misconceptions about the Arab World. This is a great example of how social media can be used as a form of communication, and act as a bridge to link people and communities together, around the world. The conversation will go until August 12, which is International Youth Day. To view Queen Rania's You Tube channel click here Labels: Social Media, Video Immersive Media brings 360 degree viewing to online motion videoJust came across a very interesting company – Immersive Media Corporation (http://www.immersivemedia.com) – and their products and services are going to change the way you view online motion video. Everyone is familiar with the 360 degree views of hotel rooms, new autos, and house tours but these images all suffer from the same problem – they are static because they are really nothing more than a bunch of carefully shot still images stitched together with software. You can pan around your potential hotel room as many times as you like but the images are lifeless because there is no real movement in the frame. Immersive Media has changed all that with a hardware and software platform that allows a viewer full control over what they see. Their suite of cameras, image capture hardware and processing software creates a seamless motion video file that can be streamed over the Internet or distributed through more conventional means. (Demos are here: http://demos.immersivemedia.com) The implications for the travel and tourism industry are obvious but the Immersive Media platform also offers new options to the gaming, transportation, and regulatory industries. Their platform ups the ante for online marketers as well. Everyone loves hitting the “play” button on their screen. Rich media ads that use flash movies built from static images or simple video clips look like yesterday’s news when compared to a full motion video sequence that allows the user complete control over what they are seeing. Take a look at their site and their demos and then weigh in with your opinion: Is this the next big thing or just an interesting technological angle in search of a big break? Labels: Online Media, Video The Rise of Online Video AdsA while back, I examined an interesting Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA)/William Blair study showing that rich media growth had outstripped search for the first time and that much of the growth was driven by traditional big-brand advertisers, such as those in auto and finance. Why is rich media drawing big brands and big dollars at such an accelerated rate? Broadband penetration and video. Video is central to rich media, and more people are consuming a major portion of video-based media online. We love hitting that "play" button! EMarketer projects U.S spending on online video advertising will rise to $4.3 billion in 2011, from $410 million last year. Read more at http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627030 Labels: ClickZ, Online Media, Video |
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