Influential Interactive Marketing

Content Protection, Piracy and Fair Use

A contract between Google and the University of Michigan released publicly on Friday contains no provisions for protecting the privacy of people who will eventually be able to search the school's vast library collection over the Internet.  (Cnet Report)

Here's another hurdle in Google's ambitious project to catalogue works from many libraries in a vast online resource center of materials - now there are privacy concerns in addition to the content copyright concerns of transferring such a large collection of copyrighted materials into a digital format to be shared with the world.

Where do we draw the line between the utopian vision of content to be shared by all for the betterment of humanity and the rights of content creators.  Especially in this world of eroding respect and/or protection of intellectual property?  This question was the subject of several opinionated presentations at the 2nd Annual Digital Media Conference that I attended this past Friday.  I have to say, the best quote from the conference was Gary Shapiro (President & CEO, Consumer Electronics Association) talking about his teenage sons who (according to him) download tons of music for sampling, and then go out and buy tons of CDs.  Yeah, right.

He did have an interesting take on the difference between what is immoral and what should be illegal, though. The unspoken conclusion seemed to be that consumer electronics which may help foster admittedly immoral activities of file sharing and swapping should not be illegal and the courts should not uphold them as such.  Of course, this guy has a vested interest in some consumer electronics products which need the proliferance of digital files (and file swapping to some degree) in order to thrive.  Ok, the iPod may be the one exception to that rule.

Contrasted with this, Fritz Attaway of the MPAA was also there to talk about the rights of the big movie studios and what the potential outcomes and waves in the industry might be after the Grokster hearing.  His view was that the studios need to make money and cannot possibly shift to a television based model where the costs of distribution are covered by advertising ... unless we want to only see movies that are funded by product placement.  The best question came from Ted Cohen, SVP of Digital Development and Distribution at EMI music what the definition of fair and reasonable use of digital files should be.  Until we have a common answer to this question, the gray areas in content and copyright protection, regardless of the medium, will continue.

Do you Gmail? Why Hotmail is failing ...

I have a Gmail address.  In fact, most people in the web industry that I know are now using Gmail for their defacto personal email addresses.  About a year ago at this time, it was the ultimate cool factor.  A badge of honor among the techno-elite, Google's invitation only viral strategy was driving people to bid as much as $200 on ebay for their desired email address.  But now some say that the coolness is dying down.  Ok, so my mom has a Gmail address too ... that doesn't make it uncool, does it?  Well, maybe it does. 

The one thing that is clear, though, is that for most of us who use a Gmail address, we abandoned another email provider in order to do it.  In my case, that was Hotmail.  My hotmail account was definitely the direct causalty of the arrival of Gmail, but it was also the first web-based email account I had.  As a result, I have signed up for the most things from that account, and now get the most junk mail there.  Are they paying for that initial victory?  Since then, they have been perennial "me too" innovators after Gmail and Yahoo.  They upped their storage limits last, added new features last, and today they announced the new MSN personal homepage which has features which duplicate those already available from competitors. 

MSN's strategy of dominance in personal communications through the Passport network and features like IM has, in part, been based on the initial popularity of Hotmail as an email service.  Unfortunately, it seems that people have been surprisingly willing to change email addresses - punching a hole in that strategy.  Email addresses are not like a surname - held by individuals for a lifetime.  They are more like a home.  We love them while we use them ... but when a better situation comes along, and the time is right, we're not afraid to move. 

Blogs and the Marketer's Quest for Brevity

This past weekend I went out to a local antique market to find a gentleman selling hundreds of old advertisements from magazines over the last 60 years, framed and mounted.  I bought one for a Hartmann Wardrobe Trunk ... a great illustrated ad with more than a paragraph of descriptive copy.  In fact, all the old ads had lots of descriptive copy.  Contrast this with the recent Webby Awards, where each winner had to give a five word acceptance speech.  I don't discount this element (and media hook) that makes the Webby Awards such a unique experience - but what does this say about the average consumer today?

Is it even possible to get a target audience to read more than a few words of marketing copy?  Email subject lines (typically 8 words or less) can determine whether an email is read or discarded immediately.  The basic fact is, people scan more than they read online -- a fact noted many times by Jacob Nielson in his guidelines to writing on the web.  In our culture, time is at a premium so no one has time to read anymore.  To get messages through, marketers have to be invasive.  It's the situation that Seth Godin points to for the rise of "interruption marketing."

But then, there are blogs.  They are on screen, nonlinear, use creative grammar, and can be of varying length (ok, most are pretty short).  They are being read, subscribed to, and actively searched.  People spend hours of their valuable time each day reading them.  Blogs are not usually soundbites, but can offer some of the most compelling marketing messages out there.  On a print ad or Canon's website, I may not take the time to read a long description of their latest digital camera.  But on a blog or RSS feed from a credible site like http://www.dpreview.com/news, I'd read (and print) a full 10 page review. 

Brevity is not the soul of blogs as it has become for other communications mediums.  A blog that is credible and relevant will make it through online information filters and connect with a target user, irrespective of length.  And that certainly reverses the trend in marketing copy over the past 50 years.

Videoblogging - the next big thing?

From discussion boards and newsgroups to blogs to podcasting ... new forms of content creation are evolving the user-contributed "DIY" model of the Internet.  I posted earlier about online photo albums as a symbol of the growth of content sharing online among the general online population.  Blogs and podcasting are part of this trend, which (in recent months) have evolved and worked their way into the commercial sector driving corporations to create blogs and popular radio personalities to syndicate their content.

But for an average user to develop video content and make the jump to videoblogging (also known as vblogs, vlogs or vogs), it seems like the barrier will be far higher.  Not for the aspiring directors and video enthusiasts, but for the same 8 million Americans that have created blogs.  Will videoblogging really be the next natural step?  Apart from special cases like the Tsunami video blog phenomenon, isn't it just too complicated to gain the same traction as written blogs or even podcasting? 

An alternative theory is that vlogs could take a reverse growth cycle to other popular forms of content creation.  Where blogs and even podcasting have largely relied on the collective passion of individuals to establish their popularity ... what if videoblogging were to experience it's true growth from the involvement of organizations and current content provider groups?  It's easy to imagine CNN evolving their decision to launch online video news into vlogging efforts.  Corporate blogs with vlogs integrated could represent the next evolution in connecting a human face with consumers.  Product support, crisis management, consumer marketing, Dyson vacuum-style spokesperson campaigns - each have interesting opportunities with vlogs.  Is it possible that dreaded and maligned corporations might be the ones who help videoblogging truly grow into the next big thing?

Content Creation - More than just Blogs

Content creation online is exploding, with over 53 million people (or 44% of all Internet users) having created and posted content online in 2004 - according to a Pew Internet Study.  While the entire category of content creation sometimes seems hijacked by blogging and podcasting, another content creation activity is noted by this same report to be more than ten times as popular as blogging ... posting photographs online.  It was the most popular online content creation activity in 2004 with 21% of all Internet users having done it.  And it shows no signs of slowing down with the rise of digital photography. 

In the corporate world HP acquired Snapfish, Google bought Picasa, Kodak has Ofoto and Sony has Imagestation ... so it seems the big guys are dedicated to growing online photo services as a channel for engaging customers in an ongoing relationship online.  It points to an interesting opportunity for retailers to create that coveted relationship with their customers post-purchase through online photo albums, or even through customized blogging.  Offering a site for users to create posts on experiences online, add photos, and invite contributions from others would be an interesting way to invite customers to serve as intentional (or unintentional) brand ambassadors. 

Nike could offer Golf blogs with photo albums to record and share photos and scores.  Cheaptickets.com (a current client) could enable their customers to share travel experiences and photos.  The Hard Rock Cafe could allows visitors create albums with photos visiting multiple locations across the globe. 

Online Photo Gallery Sites and Corporate Sponsors:

• www.picasa.com - Picasa and Google
• www.snapfish.com - Snapfish and HP
• www.imagestation.com - Sponsored by Sony
• www.flickr.com - No affiliation
• www.ofoto.com - Ofoto and Kodak
• www.shutterfly.com - Seeking corporate partners
• www.picturetrail.com - No affiliation
• www.amihotornot.com - No affiliation

Anyone know of other companies that are using online photo galleries as a way to engage and build a relationship with their customers?