Media
Youtube Edges Closer to TV Numbers and TV Money with Wedding Dance
Google put up a blog post today about how they monetized the viral video hit Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz’s wedding party dance(below). This video was posted on July 16th and has generated over 12 million hits in 2 weeks.
TV Numbers
For some perspective, the highest rated American prime time TV show during that time was America’s Got Talent with 13.2 million viewers. TV has long been light years ahead of any online numbers. This example shows that the gap is closing. Truly remarkable content is beginning to reach large viewership numbers online in shorter and shorter time spans. And it is not always professionally produced.
And the gap is only going to narrow. The online audience will continue to grow larger. The information is moving faster and faster. And more and more people are becoming savvy content creators.
Who is Making the Money?
Google is, the content middle man, the distributor. The distributors hold a lot of the power moving forward. Think iTunes on the music front and Amazon on the book front. The “rights holders” to the song in the video, Forever by Chris Brown, were also able to easily monetize (I assume his label or manager). The song has shot up to the top 5 on both Amazon and iTunes.
A Workable System
This did not happen overnight. Youtube has been a battleground for some time now, with entertainment industry giants facing off against Google on profit sharing. Google has been working voraciously behind the scenes to make this process easy for the rights holders. Instead of deleting every piece of copyrighted material, the entertainment industry can overlay an amazon download link for the song and Google Adwords in the sidebar. Everyone is happy.
Of course it would also be nice if after a certain viewer threshhold the video creator got a peice of the action as well. No word on that from the Google blog as of yet.
Giving a Voice to the Neglected
The power of word of mouth travels fast when the story is compelling. This is a very pure concept. Whether it is a mom complaining about a brand she once had trust in or a citizen protesting his country’s election results, the tools of the social web have leveled the playing field. And it is a beautiful thing to behold.
It is no longer an elite few that chooses what media we consume. We all see that daily. The value of a compelling story can project it around the globe in seconds. These same tools that allow many us an amazing marketing channel can be even more powerful as the amplified voice of the neglected.
The power of social media constantly surprises me. When it is adopted as the voice of a cause as powerful as finding a lost child or championing democracy, we should all take pause.
Is social media creating a better world? Yes, and giving a voice to those who deserve to be heard the most is a big piece of that story.
PCWorld – Iran Protests, Tech Tools at Work
CBCNews.ca – Twitter emerges as news source during Iran media crackdown
Tt=elegraph.co.uk – Iran protest news travels fast and far on Twitter
UPDATE (16:33 EST 6.16.09): Twitter’s Biz Stone reacts to allegations that Twitter delayed scheduled downtime, in support of the Iran protests, at the request of the US State Department. I though this quote from Biz was relevant “the open exchange of information is a positive force in the world.”
What If Online Newspapers Charged Again?
Struggling newspaper budgets continue to reach for as many new ideas as possible. Today an old idea was echoed, once again, by NewsCorp’s Rupert Murdoch…
Rupert Murdoch announced that he plans to fix the current newspaper business model by charging for access to News Corporation’s newspaper web sites (via RWW)
This got me thinking and I posed this question on Twitter: “If all the newspapers in the country got together and made a pact to start charging for online content, what would happen?”
Newspapers should explore this question carefully. The closer they consider who would thrive in the absence of all their free online content, the clearer picture they will have of their future.
What Would They See in This Future?
- Much more outside media being embedded on their websites (shocking I know)
- Brand Mascots thriving (see Colonel Tribune)
- The growing importance of a reporter’s personal brand (see Rick Sanchez at CNN)
- Content aggregation from the community (see Visit My Baltimore)
- Greater investment in hardware and software
What Say Twitter?
Gary Vaynerchuk Will be Bigger than Oprah
In the Beginning
For the uninformed, Gary Vaynerchuk’s story starts (for our purposes) as the co-owner of a wine store in New Jersey called Wine Library. Inspired by Andy Samberg’s Saturday Night Live video Lazy Sunday exploding on YouTube, he started video blogging about wine at Wine Library TV. He sent one of his employees out to get a video camera from Best Buy and, as he would say, started hustling. Now he makes major appearances on talk shows with regularity, is syndicated heavily on Hulu and iTunes, and takes in 5 figures for speaking at media and technology conferences.
Why He is Successful
Gary is high energy, extroverted, but most importantly he is passionate and genuine when he discusses a topic. With wine, he has created a small empire around Wine Library TV. As someone that recognizes the business and marketing power of the social web, he has become one of the most popular speakers at conferences on the subject. Whether wine or social media, Gary gets others excited about what he talks about and that holds a lot of value. He brings humor, honesty, and passion. And he frames it in an easily consumed and entertaining package. He has mastered the delivery.
Why He Will Become a Media Giant
Not keen on settling for the success he has seen so far, Gary commonly shares his desire to
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