Nationwide pulled a “Debby Downer” during last night’s Superbowl, and the ad went over like an ISIS beheading at a Circus. Here’s the commercial, titled “Boy.”
Here are a few of my favorite memes. Yours?
Nationwide pulled a “Debby Downer” during last night’s Superbowl, and the ad went over like an ISIS beheading at a Circus. Here’s the commercial, titled “Boy.”
Here are a few of my favorite memes. Yours?
I just got a reporter inquiry about a website called Rumble. It was created to take on YouTube head on (see story), and I think that’s about the worst idea for an online-video site ever (at least in 2014). I’m going to come off like an angry old man in this post, so try to imagine me sitting in my boxers on a rocking chair holding a shotgun.
Rumble will either change strategy or be dead in less than 12-18 months.
Its offering to video creators is so bad I checked to see if this was an early April Fool’s joke (please note 1-26-14 update from CEO, below).
It requires exclusive content. That’s a really bad idea if you’re trying to compete with a market leader that doesn’t require exclusive content. I never suggest a content creator license exclusively unless they get a guarantee that offsets what they might otherwise make elsewhere. Even Revver.com new better.
Rumble is founded by a bunch of folks who have been doing online video for a long time. Some at successful companies, but some come from companies (you haven’t heard about) that got destroyed by YouTube. So will their vengeance inspire them to topple YouTube? Or is history the best predictor of success?
What they do have is a nice name. Rumble. Rrrrumble. Get ready to Rrrrumble. I was going to say they have a nice logo, but the play button is kinda owned already. Hopefully the founders, advisors and employees will adapt Rumble to find a better niche. Anything but trying to compete with a market leader without any discernable differentiation or advantage.
Mind you- this comes from somebody who makes money on YouTube, but who can’t stand monopolies. For amateurs making online video, YouTube is pretty much the only way to make money via online video. So there may eventually be an online video-sharing site that caters more to amateur creators. But I sure wouldn’t hold my breath for it, and resign not to make a dime anywhere else while they try to figure it out. As I told the reporter, I wouldn’t become a Rumble creator (under current terms) if it was founded by my mom and funded Chad Hurley.
All this said, take my advice with a grain of salt. I’ve called a lot of things accurately, but I also was rooting for Revver.com and initially saw YouTube as a horrible financial investment.
Note from Chris Pavlovski, CEO of Rumble 1-26-14
“I recently noticed your review of Rumble. I totally respect your opinion and enjoy reading various takes, although I hope we do not fail 🙂
I wanted to point out that we offer other options for video creators. The 60% profit share is definitely a difficult one for users to swallow (this is because all revenue is generated on Yahoo, MSN, and takes a long time to receive reporting, but its worth it). We also offer two other options for video creators. If the video is good, they get rewarded within 24 hours and paid within 14 days. Here are the options:
The profit share is the 4th option, but normally makes more than the above two if you can wait 3 months. We are currently pushing well over 100M streams per month on our partner websites, so our reach is considerable and many creators are happy with it.”
I didn’t care much when some of the online video sites retired “consumer generated” accounts, and killed my Nalts channels. Metacafe, Revver, Yahoo video, Google video. But I’ve been rooting for the Blip.tv underdog since its infancy. So when I learned today they deleted my account, I felt totally betrayed.
Blip.tv is now owned by Internet studio, Maker. They’ve never much liked me, unfortunately.
Here’s one of my early articles of Blip sharing ad revenue. An article about how it paid better than other ad-sharing properties. And one of my favorite blog posts ever… my experience with Blip.tv’s awesome customer service in 2006 when founder Mike Hudack actually answered my call during dinner.
Unfortunately many of my Blip.tv videos are gone for good… not uploaded to other video-sharing sites and not backed up. Whey they began killing some accounts I wasn’t surprised. I expected some of my secondary “staging” accounts at Blip.tv to go away, so I backed them up. But didn’t expect they’d kill my Nalts one. 🙁
Part of my Internet youth died today. Not since Revver closed shop has the internet made me so sad.
Et, tu, Blip? Et tu?
The coolest thing about marketers are the titles they give their books. Common, right? They’re marketers. What do you expect?
Yep, while marketing and advertising may be dead, the business of proclaiming it even more dead... is booming. Here are the six rules, and as you can see they defy the 6 marketing rules I learned in my MBA (which I’ve added in italics).
Oh- I think it goes without saying that I haven’t read the book, but I am considering adding it to the prized bookshelf of “The Enlightened Stupid Marketer.” At least he embraces book covers over books, right? Is there any irony to the fact that years after shooting that video I’d write a book and, to date, not read it?
Key chapters: Brand essence is important, customer knows best, your reputation is vital, play nicely, sleep soundly and work fearfully.
Key chapters: Integrity, single word or symbol, whole is larger than parts, mind your P’s….
Key chapters: Strategy is the heart and measurement is the blood, frameworks, perception really is your customer’s reality, communication, more than channel surfing.
Key chapters: Relationships matter, partner, it’s about them not you…
Key chapters: Technology is just an enabler, right information, right people, right time… and don’t have wrong thought.
Key chapters: Leadership is a verb not noun.
So, yeah. I have to relearn marketing again, but this time there’s not a test (which sucks because I would have cheated off of my friend Mike Skoler). I wonder if my damned MBA comes with a money-back guarantee (It probably does, but the small print says “not valid on days ending with the letter Y”).
For the record, this marketing-satire video (“Enlightened Stupid Marketer”) was indeed shot in a conference room of an employer who shall remain nameless. You’d never know that unless you worked there, so while I maintained the spirit of the no-camera law (confidentiality), I broke the “letter” of the law. More importantly, it was a satire not of my co-workers at the time but of a Coke executive I’d seen a month prior at a conference. Nobody believed me, and a number of people took offense to this (like the guy who sucked my will to live).
The nice thing about this video is that if you’re offended by it, I’ve struck a vulnerability nerve haven’t I? Are ya offended or are you secure in your marketing competencies? Do you see yourself lampooned, or do you giggle at the absurdity occasionally? If your teeth clench while watching, you MAY just have gelatophobia. There’s only one cure. Avoid people unless wearing ear muffs and blinders. Or just keep reading the latest marketing book that proclaims the last guy slightly dumber.
Two trailers, with dramatically different approaches. The first is about a girl’s death, and takes the viewer backwards to experience it. The second, released recently, shows more game play, and is certainly more “blue” with its cursing and rap music.
From a marketer’s perspective, I like the sequence. The first creates intrigue and emotional connection to the story/game. The second gets you pretty jazzed (or in my case terrified) about game play.
It never seizes to amaze me the “street cred” I get for being the knife in Annoying Orange. Grant, my parts are small with the exception of my debut (No More Mister Knife Guy). My “Mommy and Me” part was especially brief, but at least Wifeofnalts made her debut on the series.
Now let’s take a new angle on the Knife. As you perhaps know, I’ve met my demise before on YouTube. Paul Scott 1972 killed me with car batteries in a parking lot in a lovely video titled “Ignored, Part 5.” Then Davideo (maker of the Pepsi Girl who exploded) was good enough to have me fake killed for GooTube Conspiracy.
Now Iggy35 (check out his epic portfolio) has a new video where I get knifed. Watch, puke, watch again. Then be sure to check out my favorite “fan/hater” video titled NALTS: (**~!0v3**H@t3**s3x**N@!tS~**): “
Tell me Garfield has a video like this to promote “Get Seen.”
Well it seems things are fine in TV Land. A recent study shows that TV ads beat the web in creating engagement (specifically by 38 gagillian times).
And a previous study shows we don’t miss the ads we skip. Good news, media buyers! Get those bucks back on television.
Next week: Print is alive!
Have we seen the last of Revver.com, the first online-video site that shared advertising revenue with creators? It’s MIA… check www.Revver.com.
This blog began as “Revverberation,” and was primarily about the website… sadly it got little traction, was acquired, and eventually stopped paying creators. See Revver’s Wikipedia entry for all the good will it left in its dust… especially when LiveUniverse snatched it up (that website seems DOA too).
It’s ironic… my parody (Chapter11TV) seems to have outlived it.
But if there’s one thing sadder than Revver’s death is the possibility that there’d be no official funeral, right?
Oh and keep up the comment wars… I cherish them.
Watch Chapter11TV.com in Comedy | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
TechCrunch’s “2010 year in review” featured CableTV as a “loser.” It had a funeral. Nobody came. Check it out:
Losers: Huzzah! Cable companies are losing more and more subs every month! Victory!
Well, sort of. Sure, pay TV companies are having a hard time holding on to subscribers, but that’s only going to mean prices will probably stagnate or worse, will be raised to compensate for the lose of income. Comcast has to pay the power bill on their massive video wall in their swanky new-ish skyscraper somehow.
But where are these people getting their content? Not one report surfaced that showed the cable cutting movement has any real traction, and big media basically control the future of living room streaming devices anyway. Pay TV needs a savior or a disruptor. Someone will probably have to paint their face blue and white and stand in front of a horde of angry subscribers to really make a difference.
Meanwhile Roku was listed as a “winner,” and Ooyala helps creators make their own channel. I gotta do that.
Morgan Freeman finally reacted to the CNN Twitter hoax! Mark Robertson (ReelSEO) and I caught him via my iPhone tonight.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S03VJF00mZc[/youtube]
CNN will aggressively investigate this hoax.
CNN will aggressively investigate this hoax.
CNN will aggressively investigate this hoax.
CNN will aggressively investigate this hoax.
CNN will aggressively investigate this hoax.