It’s hard for stars to hide from cheesy pre-fame television commercials when there’s YouTube, right? Let’s enjoy a few of their early advertisements, which I’ve spent most of New Year’s Eve compiling for you (winner that I am) Jack Black doing Pitfall! (best ever) Lindsay Lohan in a Jello commercial in around 1996 Keanu Reeves…
I was happy to hear Threadless founder and former CEO Jake Nickell on public radio’s “Markeplace” tonight, and how he was “crowdsourcing” in Threadless’ decade of business… even before there was a name for it. “Last year we paid over $1.5 million out to artists,” he told interviewer Kai Ryssdal. Designers upload their creations, and…
Advertisers on YouTube now have an option where they only pay when a viewer engages with the pre-roll ad. It’s a bold way to get digital marketers to move confidently into the medium since, like Google Paid Search, it’s more accountable. Here’s the YouTube blog post about this new format called “True View.” Since most…
Stop. Do not read another word before pausing for 15 seconds. Really. Okay. How’d that feel? Chances are you ignored the advice, and perhaps it compelled you to defiantly plunge ahead with more interest. After all, the headline promised 4 generations, and that usually begs the question “what were the first three?” But I made…
Samsung CEO Geesung Choi called Consumer Union, the non-profit product-testing organization behind Consumer Reports magazine, “not honorable.” Choi on Monday cited the October 2010 issue of the magazine, which gave Samsung low scores on high-definition and standard-definition video camcorders. “American magazine making JVC and Sony best-buy awards is insult to my family and character,” said Choi…
I’m a big fan of Rhett and Link, the singing duo on YouTube who make sponsored videos that are so damned entertaining they hurt. It’s like watching MGM’s latest videos… I am both thrilled for them and ready to hang up my hat. I’ve blogged about them dozens of times, featured them in my book,…
When I saw a YouTube house ad for “how to upload a video,” I had written a scathing blog review (in my head at least) before the video even loaded. Then I was in for a surprise. It was funny, edgy, self depricating, and informative. I’m unable to criticize it. It basically taught people how…
Just when you thought pre-rolls were dead, both Hulu and YouTube are embracing them in recent weeks. Hulu has officially rolled out an “Ad Selector,” where viewers can choose among several ads from a single sponsor. And YouTube, whose parent Google once chastised online-video pre-rolls for causing 75% abandonment rates, is now quietly experimenting with…
I’ve got it! I’ve got it. YouTube and other online-video sites take notice. Free advice, peeps… to solve the ultimate online-video ad dilemma: pleasing advertisers without pissing off viewers. Problem: We hate pre-rolls. Google says they work, but 75% of viewers drop like bodies on Fringe. We think we’re watching the wrong video, and most online-video…
Old adage is “think global, and act local” when it comes to marketing. But what if the Internet screws that up? What if a KFC ad that might be perfectly appropriate in Australia is offensive to Americans? Check Google analytics, Twitter search and “How Sociable” if you want proof of the damage. Even if you’re…