Tag: PopCuts

  • Where’s the movie tonight?

    Google has been struggling to get some money out of You Tube for sometime now, and a few days back,  introduced ‘Paid Search’ in You Tube. They appear on the right hand of the page and one small image and Google Adwords style text ads, as ‘Promoted Videos’. These link to the advertiser’s channel on You Tube itself, and sometimes to their homepage. You Tube has anyway been a fertile ground for viral campaigns. This should well work for branding, leads remains to be seen, since (unlike Paid search) users are only looking to be entertained on You Tube. On an aside, they also have a deal with CBS now to play CBS programs on the site, and Google TV advertising.

    The latest monetising attempt from You Tube is click to buy. (via Marketing Pilgrim) If you happen to see a good music video on YouTube, and are wondering where you can buy the track, there are Amazon and iTunes links nearby to help you out. As of now, this works only in the US, but of course, this is only a start and Google will work on scaling this up for additional content and product partners, and international users. I wonder how this will affect the distribution model of sites that promote indie music? On another front, Facebook is plotting a move into the digital music business.

    Meanwhile, closer home, Medianama recently carried a story of Landmark making a foray into online music sales, with a ‘pay per song’ model. I agree with the article and wonder how this model can work with piracy that’s so rampant. I wonder if someone would try out the Popcuts model, about which i’d written about earlier. Otherwise, mobile seems to be the only way for digital music.

    While audio seems a tough place, there is definitey some action happening in the video space. Here’s a review of Moviemart, an online DVD rental company, and a report on the DVD rental market in India, on Trak.in. I also came across the news of Hulla’s release on BigFlix, simultaneously with its release in cinemas. I think Vivah was the pioneer in this.

    With DVD rental companies getting their distribution in place, online video sharing sites figuring out revenue models, and DTH, with its ‘movie halls’, increasing its penetration, I wonder if we’ll see the simultaneous release of mainstream Bollywood and regional movies on DVD, DTH & online (a pay per view model) and cinema screens. I’ll be particularly interested in the online piece – a social angle to it by tying Bigflix with Big Adda, and involving movie communities to do word of mouth publicity, ‘invites only’ premieres and so on? Perhaps a virtual multiplex screening on Second Life later? 🙂

    until next time, so many tubes..

  • The new brand ambassador – you

    Sometime back, I saw a press release of an entity called AdBhai. It is positioned as a no-frills classifieds portal and according to the release, has implemented Google’s Friend Connect. It means that you can use your Orkut/GTalk id to post comments on the site, giving the entire thing a social twist.

    I have come across quite a few interesting sites which link shopping to social media. There’s Tribe Smart, which allows you to make a profile and use crowd wisdom to know about the product. And its not just a product, it could be a website, a movie. In the process, you end up meeting people who share similar interests. Skimbit is a browser add on that allows you to make a project page you can configure, for your purchase, add products from different sites, and then allow others to rate these.  Another startup working on a plugin based model is Notches, which works on two fronts – allows product sites that tie up with it to add review buttons to its product pages, and users who have downloaded it can review any product from any website. (via Center Networks) Meanwhile, there’s a very interesting online music sale model at PopCuts, which rewards you for spotting trends early. You can buy a track, and when someone buys it from then on, you get a cut. A very cool idea, I thought, and would like to see how it pans out. Just like the earlier site, you start meeting people who rock to the same tune.

    Mashable has written about a widget based service called TurnTo, which works on the concept of social shopping. Deviating from the path of the above two, this one lets you add people from your existing circle of friends. During TC 50, which I’d written about earlier, a couple of startups working in the social shopping/reccomendation space were showcased. One was GoodRec, which shows users reccomendations of restaurants, books, movies nightlife, and displays the location on a map. It allows you to make reccomendations, which can also be shared on Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed etc. According to StartupMeme, GoodRec scores over the existing player – Yelp, in terms of usability. Another player, who is into ‘social’ based decision making is CityVoter, which ‘allows insiders who know a city best to share their insight with information, ratings, and reviews on everyday decisions’.The other startup is GoodGuide, which aims to provide users with information on social, environmental, and health related aspects of consumer products. With people becoming increasingly aware and conscious of the environment and the impact of their lifestyle on it, this is a good space to be, especially because of the clutter of ‘green’ goods that have been hitting the market. You can read more details on them here.

    WOM is no longer a buzzword, it has become a fact of life, if not in ‘low involvement’ categories, at least in ‘high involvement’ ones. Amazon has recently been using passionate Kindle users as brand ambassadors.We are on our way to what this post (quoting from a report) very correctly describes as an ‘influence economy’. As more and more users enter the social realms of Facebook, Twitter etc, their purchase decisions are becoming increasingly influenced by their social peer group. I come across this regularly on twitter – social based decisions on everything from restaurants to laptops and mobile phones. The post also gives a simple path for brands to get invloved in this process. But the essence is that brands need to be truthful, transparent, listen to their customers, be accessible, and most importantly, have a great product, for the reality is that communities cannot be bought. It has to be earned, and this post has a few tips on that. RWW has shared some data on super influencers, from a McCann study done  among 17,000 active internet users in 29 countries.

    Though brands are only beginning to take consumer voices seriously, it is great to see market leaders like Unilever and P&G understanding the limitations of current consumer research procedures, and making efforts to embrace online buzz. Meanwhile, HUL has introduced the concept of a customer ombudsman in india. The ombudsman works on behalf of the consumer and will tackle all cases that cannot be dealt with by Lever Care. A wonderfully radical move, which shows why they are market leaders. Read all about it here.  While on the subject, there’s a company called BazaarVoice, which helps brands create business value out of the positive consumer PR they generate. As fanboy cults emerge on Facebook and impromptu brand wars (among consumers) occur on twitter, I think this space has great potential. Speaking of Facebook, they’re also using users as brand ambassadors in Germany. (via Tech Crunch)

    until next a sociaholic shopaholic?