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8 Wishes for Online Video

ByNalts

Paul Sanchez — biker, video junkie, PR machine, blogger, and maddman — has started an 8-wishes “tag chain” thingy. He’s asked me and other bloggers to post our 8 wishes and pass along the task to others. Parenthetically, Paul’s first wish was granted, as he recently interviewed Kinkos founder Paul Orfalea.

So let’s be clear that if I really had 8 wishes, they’d be focused around my wife and family, world peace, end of poverty and injustice, etc. However I’m focusing these strictly on online video.

  1. Amateurs develop niche audiences that can economically sustain themselves. That’s what this blog is about. Many of us make videos for fun, but would love to jump into it full time. Currently there are really only two ways to do that. Develop a tremendous following such that advertising (via sites that share ad revenue) sustains you. This is proving to be very difficult so far. The alternative is to develop serialized content and attract one or more sponsors. We’ve done a couple videos for Mentos (Sneaking Mentos into Theater and the recent Team Mentos with MediaMogirl). It would take a lot of these to cover my mortgage, but it’s a good start.
  2. Online video channels will compensate creators. If you had asked me a year ago, I would have almost guaranteed you that community would form around sites that shared ad revenue. This isn’t happening as fast as we all hoped. YouTube does not share advertising with creators, and sites like Revver, blip.tv and Brightcove are only effective if you have your own audience. None of these sites draws traffic like the big boys. Metacafe has both ad sharing and traffic, but it’s fierce competition to get seen.
  3. Advertisers will hasten their shift from interuption marketing to engagement marketing. Instead of building campaigns that push product, I hope they’ll more deeply engage in social media. The EepyBird Coke deal is a great example. Coke paid the comedic duos, and then drove views via Google Video. Advertisers are starting to realize that the the 60-second spot is dead, and they need to let go of scripted messaging to be viable in a demand-driven content world where they can skip ads.
  4. Online video accessible via any box. I hope that in 2007 we see more power to the explosive collide of television and online video. YouTube and Revver have deals with Verizon, and there is no shortage of models that bring online video to cable, television, media centers and portable devices. The more this happens, the easier it will be for content creators to find audiences and audiences to find niche content.
  5. Niche channels form. There are many of us that create content that is not necessarily mass market. But there are groups of people that love specific niches. YouTube facilitates this connection via subscriptions. In the past week I jumped from 400 subscribers to about 1200 on YouTube and these are people that have self-identified as being interested in my style. Others can RSS my content, but there’s no easy way to turn on the boob tube and surf some of my videos. I hope there will be soon.
  6. The letter V will be removed from the alphabet. You have to have a stretch wish.
  7. The networks will support an online-video show. This will provide mainstream visibility to online-video creators that have interesting content but can’t sustain their own show. We’ll see an SNL-style show that features an assortment of short clips from regular content providers. I want to be one of ’em. Remember how the Simpsons got its start as a segment of The Tracy Ulman show.
  8. My 8th wish is for 8 more wishes. Is that allowed?

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Appear Better Informed About Darfur in 3 Minutes: The Onion Makes Me Cry

ByNalts

Darfur. We both know how serious it is, but we’re not sure exactly why or where it is. The Onion (helping you seem more informed”) has produced this fantastic parody of news analysis. It’s called “How Can We Let Darfur Know How Much We’re Doing For Them.” I’ve never laughed as much in preparing a…

15 Comments

  2. I’ve squatted “willideoforfood.com” for when your wish comes true… mwoooahahahahahahahahah!

  5. I need someone to translate my videos into Chinese, Korean, and Japanese:

    Asia’s Funniest Home Videos

    via Businessweek January 16, 2007 by Brian Bremner

    Low production values and soft sells work best with online video clips in Asia

    Home to some of the fastest broadband networks on the planet, Asia has seen its share of the explosive growth of social-networking sites, where users can upload and share videos. Attracting mega-traffic in the region are such sites as South Korea’s Cyworld and Japan’s Mixi. In China, podcasting and video-sharing sites pulled in 76 million users in 2006.

    The reach and multiplier effect of clicking with these consumers haven’t been lost on big U.S. multinationals in Asia. But connecting with this crowd can be tricky, marketing experts contend. Head-on sales pitches can elicit a toxic reaction, so companies need to come up with off-beat, clever, and entertaining content that promotes their brands more subtly.

    That’s just what some companies are doing. To reach younger consumers in Asia, businesses are experimenting with unconventional and interactive marketing initiatives. Last year, PepsiCo, for instance, posted a page inviting consumers to submit scripts as part of a “Pepsi Creative Challenge” on a commercial site it set up with Chinese mega-portal NetEase.com. Chris Pan, 2.0 marketing director with PepsiCo China, said the site “remained live and constantly refreshed” for six weeks. PepsiCo received nearly 27,000 script pitches, gave prizes to 15 finalists, and, after holding an online ballot that drew millions, turned the winning submission into a TV commercial.

    Late last year Intel developed a series of wacky online video clips called “101 Ways to Get a New PC” and posted them on video-sharing sites around the region to promote its Core 2 Duo processors (for a sampling, go to http://www.neednewpc.com). Some 2 million consumers in Asia have seen the video, and much to Intel’s delight “people have started submitting their own videos, and in China we have a very large number of submissions,” says Jayant Murty, Intel’s Asia Pacific director of corporate brand strategy and advertising.

  6. My prediction: #4 & 7 will definitely happen, but possibly at the expense of #5. Failing this, #5 will strangle the progress of 4 and 7.

    My wish: The numbers 4, 5, & 7 will then meet up one day and kill the letter “V” for you.

  7. What do you have against the letter V? What did it ever do to you? It’s a beautiful letter(my favorite letter, in fact…is that weird?). Without it, how could the term “Viral Video” even exist?

    I’d love to see a network show centered around viral videos/user-created content, such as your videos. I fear, though, that we’ll get something along the lines of VH1’s hideous show, which will cater to the same crowd that ate up AFV (and who eat featured videos on YouTube alive, via comments). I think that is inevitable, but hopefully it will evolve into something like your wish. At this point, with the ease, and accessability, of online video, television is going to have to ante something up for the intellegent crowd, or they will lose them altogether.

  8. Wow- I’m jazzed with the depth of these comments. Best collection I’ve seen. As my friend Juan Cordova used to say, “now you put me to think.”

  9. Thanks for putting up your 8 wishes! Gave me a big smile and I loved your wishes. For some reason after I read you wishes I was thinking about how it would be cool to be able to embed video into email! Gmail would be the first service that could do it the easiest. Video’s would have a better chance at becoming viral with embedded video’s in your inbox. One less step makes a huge differance and on a busy day I might still hit the play button if it was right in an email. Just a thought. Kevin I’m having such a great time at Sundance. Making great contacts! Can’t wait to tell you everything. What I can’t wait for is to sit down with you and make some video’s together. Take care and thanks again for posting your 8 wishes

    Paul Sanchez

  12. I’m ƒrµ§†rª†€Ð. Can you please tell me if you have to be 18 to upload videos. Because I’m not 18, and i really want to upload a video. I ask this because in part 10 of the terms and conditions of the google video uploader, it says something about being 18 years old.

  15. Pingback: Turn Your HDTV Into a Computer: Online Video Without Restraints | Will Video for Food

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