I’ve been traveling my rear off. But regular posting will resume momentarily, with a sneak preview of a busy, busy June of some very interesting speaking engagements…

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I’ve turned off my daily Twitter digests. So if you really want them back, say so in the comments.

Otherwise, you can follow me at twitter.com/ischafer.

They’re good. Trust me.

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So much of this blog is about me riffing, venting, exploring, expounding, and espousing on a whole smorgasbord of topics.

But what I was just thinking about is that I never ask you, the reader — the commenter — what you want to read.

So tell me. Is it more on social media? More on Twitter? More on video?

Do you want recaps of my speaking engagements rather than just a heads-up that they are happening?

Do you want more insights about what it’s like to run an agency?

Penny for your thoughts in the comments below…

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The latest in the ‘McCain Girls’ tributes to John McCain is now available on YouTube. Why am I blogging about this? I don’t know. I feel close to it, having gone to high school with one of the girls in the video, and well, it’s funny.

It may lack the surprise so-bad-it’s-good punch of the original, but just wanted to follow-up on my earlier coverage.

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I’d be blogging about this even if a) I weren’t an obsessive Mets fan or b) I didn’t try to con everyone visiting my blog on April Fool’s Day into watching the music video for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up (YouTube did it too).

The New York Mets are having a contest to choose the sing-along song that they will play during the eighth inning of every home game. Options provided include Brown Eyed Girl, Sweet Caroline, and Livin’ on a Prayer. But there’s also a write-in field for “other”. And that’s where the internet comes in.

There is a movement on Fark, Digg, and Reddit to get people to vote for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up and “RickRoll” the Mets.

Now by definition, this isn’t exactly RickRolling. That would mean people were clicking on a link to get to something they wanted to see, but were greeted by Astley instead.

But this is a great example of the web’s ability to galvanize and mobilize. Even if it’s for a silly prank, there’s no reason why, that if you created an intriguing enough call to action, you couldn’t at least create something similar to this and turn it into a meme.

You could argue that this was ‘organic’, but hey — the person that started all this had every intention of this to get written about, every intention of this getting as big as it has. Marketers are no different.

Where marketers and agencies typically fail is in trying to replicate and recreate, instead of letting themselves just become ‘inspired by’ what has already been successful. Originality, timeliness, and relevancy are always key aspects in developing a campaign that people actually get behind.

And that’s what this is — a campaign. Ironic that average joes can do it much better than many brands can. But that’s the nature of this medium, and why it’s so important to spend enough time and resources against continually trying to figure it out. Life goes by pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

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The IAB finally released their Digital Video Ad Format Guidelines & Best Practices. I was part of the committee that helped formulate these, and would love to hear your comments below. But please also comment at the official forms available here.

The recommendations in the document were made to meet various needs in the online video marketplace including:

• More efficient operations through a common set of creative submission guidelines


• More efficient development of ads and players through minimum common creative guidelines,
including click functionality and duration definitions


• Easier digital video ad buying across multiple sites through minimum common ad sizes for
overlay and companion ads


• Better consumer understanding of ad interactions and environments through best practice
recommendations for creative development and player environments

Yes. It sounds boring. But all of this is necessary to set minimum standards for an industry that’s been running around willy-nilly for years. What these standards will do will allow for easier production, more efficiency, and opportunities for many agencies and publishers to separate themselves from the rest of the pack that are busy doing the bare minimum just to meet those standards — and given how quickly the online ad market is growing, there will be lots of opportunities to stand out.

So be a part of the solution. Comment on the standards here.

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flyer, originally uploaded by Ian Schafer.

I took this photo on the corner of Spring & Thompson. Notice the email address. How’s that for contextual relevance.

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24/7 Wall Street posts a list and analysis of the top 25 most valuable blogs.

Here are the first 12:

1. Gawker Media: $150 Million

2. MacRumors: $85 Million (Think this is ridiculous? Check out the traffic)

3. HuffingtonPost: $70 Million

4. PerezHilton: $48 Million

5. TechCrunch: $36 Million

6. ArsTechnica: $15 Million

7. SeekingAlpha: $15 Million

8. Drudge Report: $10 Million

9. Mashable: $10 Million

10. GigaOm: $8.4 Million

11. BoingBoing: $8 Million

12. Silicon Alley Insider: $5.4 Million

Read Silicon Alley Insider’s POV here, and check out the original post on 24/7 Wall St. here.

These are some crazy numbers. Many of these blogs have little to no overhead.

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I’ll be sending tweets (that’s messages from Twitter for you layfolk) from the MySpace ‘upfront’ event on Wednesday (3/26) starting at 2:30 or so. Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/ischafer to get scoopage (except for a brief 30 minutes when I have to jump on a call — clients first, you know).

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According to Download Squad, today, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Google announced the formation of the OpenSocial Foundation.

The Foundation is a ‘non-profit’ entity aimed at ensuring ‘…open and transparent governance of the OpenSocial specifications and intellectual property.’

Is it me, or does it seem weird that you can set up a non-profit entity that is designed to support the initiatives of a very ‘for profit’ company like Google? It seems that the efforts are noble enough, but still, these are Google standards, no matter how many third-parties are involved.

Do we have a choice but to choose between Google’s and Facebook’s standards? Time will tell.

Visit Download Squad for the nice little recap.

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