Hands-on With Yahoo

By Ian Schafer March 23, 2007 MEDIA, SOFTWARE, WIDGETS, YAHOO! No Comments

So I installed Yahoo's new, freshly launched Yahoo!Widgets (v.4).

First thoughts:

* It is way lighter than the previous version. Yahoo claims that it reduced it's memory consumption by about 40%. That was my biggest complaint about the previous version, and I'm glad they addressed that – it shows.
* The widget gallery is still not very easy to navigate. Official Yahoo! widgets are not called out prominently (text links at the bottom of the page). And why can't I sort a list by 'most popular'? Any newcomers to the widget platform would likely love to know what their peers have found most useful.
* While these seem to be a great addition to Windows XP, once Vista really takes hold (with its native widget platform), how many people will continue to operate this Yahoo! platform?

* How come there aren't more ad-supported/sponsored widgets? And if they are buried in the gallery, how come they are not more prominently featured?

* The numbers of individual widget downloads are typically in the low 000's. Yahoo's platform is obviously not a very mainstream thing – yet.

    So…is Yahoo's widget platform just biding time until Vista reaches a critical mass of penetration? Or is its third-party status just what the doctor ordered?

It

By Ian Schafer March 22, 2007 AOL, FILM, GENERAL, GOOGLE, HOT SITES, MEDIA, MYSPACE, TV, VIDEO, YAHOO!, YOUTUBE 3 Comments

It's official, according to this press release. Read all you want, but here are the important takeaways:

There will be a site at the center of all this, but it's unnamed as of yet.

What's the rush in announcing then? Name the thing, hotshots.

AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and MySpace will be the new site's initial distribution partners. The 4 properties have a combined reach of 96% of the internet audience.
This is of no consequence here other than letting us know that those sites are very very big.

Peter Chernin, COO NewsCorp: "…for the first time, consumers will get what they want — professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live."

You left out the "with commercials" part. Now I know people like clips from TV shows and all, but ad-supported clips cut by someone else? I need to see it to believe that mass adoption will take hold. If done right, however, it's certainly possible.

"Each distribution partner will feature the site's content in an embedded player customized with a look and feel consistent with each site, making the offering organic to each destination. The new company will offer innovative advertising sales propositions by being able to sell cross-platform — on-air and on-line."

Read: Lots and lots of pre-roll, and even more of the same :30 spots we're already ignoring on television. I hope there are plans to explore other, more integrated forms of advertising into these players and videos.

What's going to be interesting here is to see how not only Google/YouTube responds, but how the other big media companies not involved in this play respond as well. What does Disney do? What does Time Warner (who currently owns AOL, one of this new site's distribution partners) do?

Any guesses?

Liveblogging @ OMMA: Hollywood (Day 2) Keynote

By Ian Schafer March 20, 2007 ARG, GOOGLE, TV No Comments

SpotRunner CEO/Founder Nick Grouf pretty much gave a walkthrough of the product. Looking around, it seemed as though this was the first time many people here realized what it was capable of doing.

And that amazes me.

Nick said that more people are watching TV than ever before. While some may say that's true, I believe that TV is less effective than ever before. And that's where SpotRunner comes in.

Ultratargeting will not only afford local businesses the opportunity to, well, afford television advertising, but will allow national advertisers to make more efficient television buys.

My question is, do you think SpotRunner will be the one that plays to the big companies, or will it be Google? Or will Google just by SpotRunner and call it a day?

First Post Facto

By Ian Schafer March 19, 2007 BLOGS, GENERAL 2 Comments

This is the first of many posts to this blog that will hopefully be read by more people other than, well, me.

I've decided to take on the challenge of creating a blog that is an entertaining open forum for discussion, dissects the worlds of advertising and marketing (from an interactive perspective), explores what we should be doing better or differently, and generally comments on things that I think you should think are important.

The other challenge is to do this while running Deep Focus, of course.

You may be asking yourself, is this going to be another watered-down, interactive-marketing-for-beginners, PR-approved agency blog? If you're not, I just did.

The answer is a big, resounding, NO.

Deep Focus used to have an 'official' agency blog that had the same problem that most, if not all other agency blogs suffer from — an inability to express opinions.

And when it comes to blogging, that's a major issue.

Instead, what you'll find here are unadulterated, unabashed points of view that aren't necessarily agency 'positions'on any one thing. They're my positions. Well, at least at the moment I'll be writing them they are. Some posts might be insight into decisions I've made as CEO of the agency. Some posts might be criticisms of the industry. But you will always be invited to comment on each and every one of them.

Admittedly, this is an experiment. Can an agency CEO really maintain a blog that has integrity? Will it be worth reading? Will it improve your life?

I aim to make the answer to all those questions a big, resounding, YES.

So stay tuned. Stay alert. And stay connected. Comments are ON, baby.

About Ian Schafer

By Ian Schafer March 14, 2007 Uncategorized No Comments

Ian Schafer, CEO and Founder of Deep Focus, has consistently redefined the way brands and entertainment properties are marketed online.
Deep Focus boasts a client roster that has grown over the years to include the most recognizable entertainment and lifestyle brands, including: HBO, Court TV, Comedy Central, New Line Cinema, Picturehouse, CBS, Nike, NRDC, Bacardi USA, and many others.
Under Schafer

About Ian Schafer

By Ian Schafer March 14, 2007 Uncategorized No Comments

Ian Schafer, CEO and Founder of Deep Focus, has consistently redefined the way brands and entertainment properties are marketed online.

Deep Focus boasts a client roster that has grown over the years to include the most recognizable entertainment and lifestyle brands, including: HBO, Court TV, Comedy Central, New Line Cinema, Picturehouse, CBS, Nike, NRDC, Bacardi USA, and many others.

Under Schafer

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