IanSchafer.com

Three Depressing YouTube Experiences This Week (and it ’ s only Tuesday).

1. Car Crash Nation, er, Planet


At least once a day, I visit YouTube to see which videos are the most viewed, discussed and shared. On Sunday the entire front page of view rankings was populated with:


a) Videos of Arsenal striker Eduardo Da Silva breaking his leg in a Saturday game against Birmingham City. The injury was too graphic for Sky Sports to rebroadcast it.


b) Videos of Big Brother Season 9 contestant Amanda Hansen passing out due to low blood sugar.


I've watching my share of Formula One and ski jump crashes on YouTube over the years. I'm no innocent. But sometimes, when a "Most Viewed" index holds ONLY injury, disaster or downfall, it makes me wonder. Especially following the noxious preoccupation with 2 Girls One Cup last autumn. Boo humanity! Boo!


2. Giveth, then Taketh Away? Stilleth?


Everybody has "go-to" online content that immediately cheers them up. For me, it's LOLCats (Emily Wu posting unsolicited on my FB Wall to wish me happy birthday was a major highlight this past weekend), and a few key videos. Namely, Charlie the Unicorn, Paintball Kid and a recent addition: "Child Clowns" from Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!


What? That last link doesn't go anywhere? That's because Time Warner/Cartoon Network yanked the Adult Swim show's content from the site. Time Warner's volatile relationship with YouTube is well known, but this was one of those great examples that illustrates the cost of stubborn and stodgy corporate policy. I wanted to share the video, in person, with a group of friends. Sure I searched other sites, but at the time, I only found badly optimized, shorter versions. Nothing as majestic as the one I'd been watching every day on YouTube for three weeks. Note: This version on FunnyOrDie is pretty good, though. Anyhow, the experience left me pissed off and unable to share my excitement with my friends. To use an awkward dating metaphor, I got content blocked. Compare this to the Sarah Silverman/Matt Damon affair, which ABC got OUT THERE. I even tuned into Jimmy Kimmel Live, a show I never watch, to see the response video. Anyhow, I know this is an old story...but that doesn't change the fact that it's still happening.


3. Everybody loves Magic. That's why they call it Magic. (sorry, following the awesomeness of the Redbelt trailer, I had to channel Mamet.)


I don't believe you can cultivate "magic", it just happens. And yet, right now, this little girl is tearing up YouTube.


OK, I guess she's cute and all. And yes, I'll probably get some boos for nay saying the clip but I thought the editing of this video, by the dad, left it feeling completely contrived and bereft of magic. I've nothing against parents capturing their kids doing funny stuff and posting it on YouTube, but this video (and the father defends himself in the comments) really feels like it was shot FOR YouTube. Regardless of intent, the finished product didn't feel organic to me. I went "eh" instead of "aww". And that's a bummah.


Look for a more substantive post on the potential convergence of Online Advertising and New Marketing Research Technologies in the AM.

PaidContent Interviews Blogads CEO Henry Copeland

Blogging is a subject of heated debate. Advertising on blogs gets even heated-er.

Fanning the flames is the ever-knowledgable (and ever-entertaining) Blogads CEO Henry Copeland, who, after speaking at the Networked Journalism Summit (something I wish I was able to attend) gives an interview to PaidContent's David Kaplan. Henry discusses advertisers' embrace of blogs, and fear of comment pages.

This is understandable given blogs' inability to control exactly what is said on those comments pages (something Henry points out that Nick Denton over at Gawker Media has done a good job with, in requiring commenters to register to be able to post). But if an advertiser is going to advertise on a blog, with whom they want their brand associated, are they really that afraid of what readers have to say that they don't even want an ad on the same page as a comment they don't approve of? It's not like advertising on these blogs is done to drive a significant amount of traffic to a site. Advertisers are doing it because they want to speak to the readers of that blog.

The thing is, if you don't want to be adjacent to their conversation, good luck speaking with them. While I applaud advertisers' embrace of blogging as a vehicle, I look forward to the day when they actually pay extra to be on the comments pages.

But I digress. Listen to the interview here.

Brand Nudity: I Call Shenanigans on JupiterResearch

I admit that I haven't read the full report (yet), but MediaPost reports that JupiterResearch has concluded that:

Marketers can better reach influential brand advocates through such online tactics as product microsites or product previews rather than through social media like user-generated content or blogs, according to a new JupiterResearch report, "Brand Advocates: Creating Rewarding Relationships."

The rationale? This:

Although nearly one-quarter of online adults are considered influential brand advocates, according to Jupiter, they actually spend more time online researching and purchasing than spreading the word. Indeed, Jupiter said, more than two-thirds of brand advocates research and purchase products online, compared to slightly over half of all online users.

And here's the kicker:

"Although a high level of online activity may suggest the influential brand advocates would respond to social marketing tactics, they are actually more traditional in their manner of research," explained Emily Riley, a JupiterResearch analyst. "This group is more likely to read a blog for information rather than create their own; advocacy toward a product or service is most likely to be generated by word-of-mouth."

What's the problem with all this? This report addresses advertising on social networks. Banners. "Featured profiles". Maybe if some brands would step up and do this right -- use a social network for what it really is...a community -- we'd start reading success stories about brands that brought their consumers closer, and wait for it...actually listened to them.

Agencies are certainly to blame for not taking this seemingly obvious route to connecting with the consumer transparently. Brands are to blame for not stepping up. And unless the full report states otherwise, Jupiter just threw a scare at both.

But in my opinion, the biggest ones to blame are the social networks themselves. Why is there not a canned CRM solution for brands? What are they waiting for?

My challenge to any "lifestyle" brands out there...

Give us a shot at building your brand's presence on a major social network like MySpace or Facebook. Let us make your brand (and its personality) completely transparent, manage the community, help you listen -- and act. I guarantee that people will be actively speaking and listening with you as long as you're willing to communicate with them and exhibit some "Brand Nudity". Your consumers will appreciate it.

I also guarantee that together we'll prove Jupiter wrong.

Any takers?

Guitar Hero III Tracks Revealed: Updated (again)

Why is this important enough to be posted here? Because Guitar Hero II is the best video game I have ever played, and Guitar Hero III (when it is released) will probably be even better. Here are the tracks in the new release of the #1 game franchise in America:

* "Paint It Black," by The Rolling Stones
* "Cherub Rock," by Smashing Pumpkins
* "Sabotage," by Beastie Boys
* "The Metal," by Tenacious D
* "My Name is Jonas," by Weezer
* "Knights of Cydonia," by Muse
* "Rock And Roll All Nite," as made famous by Kiss
* "School's Out," as made famous by Alice Cooper
* "Slow Ride," as made famous by Foghat
* "Cult of Personality," by Living Colour
* "Barracuda," as made famous by Heart
* "Suck My Kiss," by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
* "La Grange," by ZZ Top
* "Number Of The Beast," as made famous by Iron Maiden
* "Through The Fire And Flames," by DragonForce
* "Miss Murder," by AFI
* "3's and 7's," by Queens of the Stone Age
* "Raining Blood," by Slayer
* "Reptillia," by The Strokes
* "Paranoid," as made famous by Black Sabbath
* "Cities on Flame," as made famous by Blue Oyster Cult
* "Mississippi Queen," as made famous by Mountain
* JUST ADDED: "One" by Metallica!


Watch this and realize why Guitar Hero II is the #1 game in America, and why the anticipation building for Guitar Hero III is among the biggest in recent memory (this is rivaling the fever around Halo and Gears of War).

Courtesy of Xbox 360 Fanboy.


UPDATE: Let's have a little fun. I challenge anybody that reads this blog to a Hero-Off at the Deep Focus offices. I will post the video for everyone to see. Wanna step up to the plate? Bring it on.

Best Commercial of the Year (So Far)

I don't know about you, but I believe that the majority of TV spots are just not good. And the ones that seem to be the worst (the automotive industry) are the ones I see at the highest frequency.

Even spots for movies have gotten pretty lame and formulaic.

So the thought of combining an ad for a car with an ad for a movie would normally make me cringe by forcing me to notice the blatant product placement in the film (i.e. Transformers).

But leave it to Crispin, Porter + Bogusky to do it right. Just when you think they've done all they could with Volkswagen, they do this:

Take a note. This might be the best acknowledgment of product placement in a film, in an ad, you've ever seen.

Wake Up, Hollywood.

Kara Swisher at WSJ's new blog area (blogorrhea?) All Things Digital (which has some real good potential) covers the EconSM Conference put on by PaidContent -- specifically a dinner panel featuring Variety Editor Peter Bart and longtime producer Peter Guber, both of whom host AMC's Sunday Morning Shootout.

Kara heard something that floored her, and frankly, I'm even floored-er.

But I nearly fell off my well-upholstered chair when Bart said, in an off-the-cuff remark, that YouTube might be history within four years. He came out with this particular nugget in the midst of a discussion about the nature of the audience and its desires, which Bart said did not change that much from era to era. He noted that great love stories always were going to do well (he actually used “Love Story” as the example) and that basic tastes don’t really vary.

I could agree with that, until he also noted that today’s youth could be compared to that from the 1950s. Well, except for those iPods and mashups, except for MySpace and video games, except for cellphones and blogs and, most of all, except for the fact that they have complete comfort in a highly interactive universe and, in fact, are not ever going to allow the kind of top-down control that Hollywood has wielded for so long.

When I piped up that kids today really seemed to have a lot more digital tools at their disposal and also seemed to like the whole Internet thing a lot, with all its social networking and user-generated content and interactivity, both Bart and Guber said that that kind of media was still not very compelling and has not produced the kind of hits that Hollywood was famous for. I am not sure they were exactly calling the current digital era a fad, but it was telling to me that Hollywood attitudes still center on the unshakable belief that their businesses will outlast all comers.

Have you seen this last weekend's box office? Disturbia, #1 for the third week in a row, led the box office with a whopping 9.1 million. Several other films followed ranging from $2.5 to $7 million. Moviegoers did not turn out this weekend. You can blame it on the weak films, you can blame it on some nice weather, but you can also blame it on the fact that there are just more media choices than ever out there. Choices that compete with physically going to the movies.

Bart's and Guber's point just re-highlight the problems Hollywood is having with today's consumer. Unless Hollywood adapts to an evolving use of media by consumers, limits the amount of content it produces to better content, and embraces digital distribution while not over-relying on over-used DRM, they are going to be dinosaurs. Not only does an industry leader (on the inside of the studio system) need to step up and set a precedent by changing things for the better (think EMI's non-DRM deal with Apple's iTunes multiplied exponentially), but the MPAA needs to change its draconian stance on content sharing, selling, and distribution.

Consumers' habits, tastes, and technologies are all changing. Wake up, and step up, Hollywood.

**UPDATE**
More fuel for the fire from GigaOm.

Justin.TV is getting interesting.

So this guy, Justin, is documenting his entire life online via a wearable webcam @ Justin.TV.

Gimmicky, yes. But it's gaining some traction. As a commercial venture, it's already attracted Zipcar and Bawl's as sponsors. Is this the next generation of The Real World? Or is it just a lame attempt at The Truman Show?