Turning Engagement into Money
Posted on June 5, 2009
Posted by Tom Turnbull | 6 Comments
From the user’s perspective, the idea behind SplashCast’s “Social TV” product is to make watching TV online more fun.
Let’s be honest, the big screen and couch are a match made in heaven. We believe that getting masses of people to watch TV on a relatively small computer screen requires a fundamentally different user experience. Playing video on a laptop as if it were an expensive TV isn’t very interesting (which is the current state of online video). This is where SplashCast comes in. We combine social features, such as video time chat (Chatter), games, and more to create a unique, more engaging experience.
Social TV answers the question “why should I watch TV online?”
We have learned a lot about how social TV features impact engagement with long-form TV content (22 and 42 minute episodes). Viewers spend more time with video on a computer if there is something more to do than just watch. Very specifically, we have seen our average session time increase by 50% to 14 minutes on average. This is a good result, in and of itself. See chart below.
From a business perspective, our goal is to translate longer session times into better performing advertising campaigns.
Take for example a recent ad campaign for Right Guard. The goal of the campaign was to drive users to a Right Guard micro-site within Facebook and MySpace, where their branded video content was presented. From SplashCast’s perspective, the higher the click-through-rate (CTR) to the mirco-site, the higher our margins (we get paid by Right Guard on a click-to-microsite basis).
When we initially launched the campaign, the micro-site was promoted solely through a banner ad position at the top of our TV applications. During this phase of the campaign, the CTR to the micro-site hovered around 1.5% on a per session basis. This was a pretty good result, but didn’t it take full advantage of our very high session times.
We implemented a very simple change that made a very big difference.
By adding in-line ads in the Chatter stream promoting the Right Guard video content, we saw the CTR increase by 2-3x, on a per session basis. Specific CTRs increased to 4.5%. The longer people engaged with the video and social content, the more opportunities Right Guard had to engage the viewer with creative, branded content. Simple. The difference in the economics for the ad campaign campaign was enormous. As we incorporate games, and other social features, there will be even more advertising performance upside.
We are finding ways to convert “engagement” into real money.
In summary, there are two related goals for Social TV: (1) increase engagement time; and (2) find ways to leverage engagement to drive advertising performance.
Notice to SplashCast UGC Publishers
Posted on May 16, 2009
Posted by Tom Turnbull | 24 Comments
SplashCast will be discontinuing its free service for publishers effective 12:00 AM June 1, 2009.
We’ve made this decision given our focus on developing our “Social TV” product and expanding our TV application network.
Three months ago, we asked you (our publishing community), whether you would be willing to pay for the service. The vast majority answered “no.” Furthermore, among those willing to pay, the average amount was extremely low. We discussed this in more detail in an earlier blog post.
Additionally, advertising is not a realistic option. We’ve explored several approaches. While we love your content, advertisers aren’t willing to pay a reasonable price to sponsor it [As an aside, this is the issue that YouTube faces on a monumental scale.]
Beyond subscription fees and advertising, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about other, more creative, approaches. The unfortunate conclusion is that continuing our free service does not make business sense (we even considered a public broadcasting-like pledge drive).
We’ve listened. We’ve thought creatively. We’ve weighed the alternatives. We’ve slept on it.
In terms of alternatives, you might check out a service called Embedr. Here is a recent review on the ReadWriteWeb blog. If you know of other services, please let us know.
Thanks for being a part of the SplashCast community. This is a very tough decision for us. We hope that you can understand that, as a startup, we have to focus.
Introducing Social TV in Practice
Posted on April 29, 2009
Posted by Tom Turnbull | 6 Comments
A few weeks ago we quietly redesigned our full-episode TV applications (The Office, Family Guy, House, etc.) and added a new set of “Social TV” features. We did this discretely, as we had no idea whether they would get any traction. Well, they did. In a big way. We saw our engagement numbers dramatically shoot up – like a 50% increase in video viewing session length (which is now over 14 minutes, on average).
With this validation, we are now ready to talk about “Social TV” in actual practice.
We spend a lot of time thinking about how, why, and where people watch TV. Traditionally, we all sat on the couch and watched our favorite shows. Typically, although not always, it was a lot more fun to watch with friends and family in the room.
With the advent of Hulu.com, and other services, we can now watch our favorite shows in many more places. Furthermore, much of this content is moving to mobile (e.g., TV.com’s iPhone application). At SplashCast, we are primarily focused on presenting TV content within the social web, that is, Facebook and MySpace.
The value of traditional TV is the big screen and the comfort of the couch. The value of web TV is convenience (not to mention being able to watch at work). The value of mobile TV is true portability (being able to watch anywhere). There are also great reasons to watch TV in the social web.
Why watch TV in Facebook or MySpace? There is an obvious difference with this medium: the “social graph.” In Facebook and MySpace, users can communicate with their network of friends and interact in unique ways. This is the value of Social TV versus the traditional web, mobile and the couch.
So what are specific examples of Social TV features now in SplashCast? One that we are particularly excited about is a feature called “Chatter.” True to current trends in social media, it is a new type of stream. Chatter allows users to easily add text-based commentary as they watch an episode of a TV show. These comments become aggregated with all previous viewers’ commentary and are presented as a stream that is synched with the video, as opposed to real-time. The fact that Chatter is done in “video time” versus “real time” creates a unique experience of revealing the community’s collective reactions to a TV show as it unfolds. It adds a completely new dimension to watching TV, and gives you a reason to watch the same episode of your favorite show over and over again. Often, the Chatter is more interesting than the show itself.
See screenshot of Chatter in The Simpsons application below.
Chatter has been wildly successful. In a few short weeks, there have been hundreds of thousands of Chatter messages generated. Far more interesting is the fact that time spent in SplashCast applications has increased by 50%. We have been amazed.
This success demonstrates that Social TV is more engaging and fun. Beyond Chatter, SplashCast is testing out a range of Social TV features, such as user generated polls (we will discuss polls further in an upcoming post). Our product roadmap is loaded, but we are determined to keep our applications easy, fun, and simple.
Finally, from a business model perspective, Social TV features have been very useful. For example, SplashCast is able to present in Chatter advertisements tied to campaigns. We have already seen Chatter used to help drive ad campaign performance.
Please let us know what you think about Chatter and the concept of Social TV generally.
See related coverage in TechCrunch and Mashable.
Our YouTubes are Repaired!
Posted on March 30, 2009
Posted by Tom Turnbull | 3 Comments
SplashCast Community,
Thanks for your patience. We are happy to report that we have fixed the YouTube issue.
Let us know if you are experiencing any issues.
-The Repair Team
(For the record, the issues were caused by recent changes made by YouTube.)
Our YouTube Popped…
Posted on March 27, 2009
Posted by Tom Turnbull | 10 Comments
Members of the SplashCast community, you have probably noticed that our YouTube video functionality is not working properly.
We are aware of these issues and Team SplashCast is working hard to remedy the situation.
(For your information, the issues stem from changes made by YouTube.)
We will have this fixed as soon as possible. Our team will be working over the weekend to make it happen.
Stay tuned.
Thanks, SplashCast Team
Boxee is Way Overrated
Posted on February 28, 2009
Posted by Tom Turnbull | 11 Comments
I signed up for a Boxee beta account months ago. I finally got around to really testing it. I wasn’t impressed.
Boxee is basically a clunky made for TV browser. It’s not that easy to use. More important is the fact that it basically adds an unnecessary layer.
Case one: TV.com. I can navigate to TV.com programming via Boxee. However, it takes numerous clicks from launching the application to view the content. It’s far easier, and faster, to go directly to TV.com in Firefox, pull up a show and hit “full screen.” Boxee ends up being a browser on top of a browser. It’s unnecessary overhead.
Case two: Netflix. I can navigate to my Netflix account via Boxee and “Watch Instantly.” Again, it takes several clicks to make that happen. It’s faster to do the same directly via Netflix and hit “full screen.”
Case three: Hulu. I can’t even watch Hulu via Boxee. It’s drop dead easy to go to Hulu.com and hit “full screen.”
I’m sure that Boxee has plans to move well beyond what I can see now. However, based on what I can see, it’s nothing more than an unneeded layer.
I don’t get it.
Other thoughts:
1. iTunes should add streaming Internet video. It’s a fundamentally better user experience. (Confession: I haven’t tried Apple TV. I know that some of that functionality is there.)
2. What really impressed me is the simple $19 Apple Mini-DVI to DVI Adapter I purchased. It’s the real hero. I can now EASILY watch anything on my 50″ TV, and it looks good!
3. Related to #2 above, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that we could cancel cable. Unfortunately, I love to watch my Portland Trailblazers. NBA.com has a broadband service. However, it blacks out most of the local games (wisely not biting the bigger hand that feeds it).
But for sports, I wouldn’t need cable. Much like my local newspaper will survive in some form because of its coverage of local news, local cable had better make sure that it remains tied at the hip to local sports.
Local cable keeps my business to the extent that it exclusively controls content that I want. Distribution is a commodity.
4. Cable’s precarious position is not due to Boxee. It’s that Mini-DVI to DVI Adapter (and, of course, the Internet itself).
In summary: Boxee gets a thumbs down, while the $19 adapter gets a huge thumbs up.
SplashCast & Facebook Get the “Glam” On
Posted on February 11, 2009
Posted by Mike Berkley | 4 Comments
We generally don’t highlight press coverage on our blog unless it’s relating to a big announcement. However, this article in ClickZ really struck a chord. Plus, we like to point out when we are called “glamorous”, because in truth, we are just a bunch of Portland, Oregon, post-emo programmers and media nerds. 
An excerpt:
Of course, the SplashCast player can be sponsored by advertisers, and what a sponsorship it is. Current sponsor Infiniti features its new G Sedan model in all its glory through a massive Flash format that resolves to a static banner to remain at the bottom of the player throughout its use. Click the banner to “view more images,” and it expands once more to offer a full photo gallery of glorious shots that make the most of the player’s large page footprint and allows the user to remain within the social site and video player while experiencing the car. [View ad here]
To find an ad like this on a social site like Facebook is unusual. In fact, it seems out of place, more suited to a campaign on NYTimes.com. It brings a certain glamour to the site that didn’t exist for brands before, and that will take some getting used to. But it’s just what social networks need: the rich, interactive advertising that consumers experience on other sites, smack in the middle of the place they cumulatively spend about 33.9 billion minutes per month according to comScore global data on site engagement.
Read the whole article, written by Tessa Wegert.
SplashCast Community: Thanks for Your Input!
Posted on February 9, 2009
Posted by Tom Turnbull | 37 Comments
As many of you know, on January 28, we announced that we would no longer be offering our the free SplashCast product. As we have hopefully made clear, this has been a very difficult decision for us. The user generated content product was our first product, and we love it.
That said, we simply haven’t figured out a way to build a business around it.
In making this decision, we should have gone first to the community. We didn’t, and we heard about it loud and clear. Thousands of SplashCast publishers rely on our product. We owed it to to this community to check in first. For that, we sincerely apologize.
We posted a survey asking for your opinions. We received comments from hundreds of users with a wide variety of opinions.
Before I jump into the survey results, let me make something clear. SplashCast is not a big company. We aren’t Google. We aren’t NBC. We are a startup. Startups, especially in this economy, have to make tough decisions. They have to focus on doing one or two things well. We aren’t fat cats over here at SplashCast.
As expected, the vast majority of respondents weren’t interested in paying a subscription fee to use SplashCast. Hey, I understand this. I use the scores of online services, most of which are free. Every once in a while, I might pay for something.
In terms of those who were interested in paying, the average fee was very low. We’re talking a few dollars.
Simply put, we don’t see SplashCast building a meaningful subscription based business.
Additionally, many community members asked about the possibility of SplashCast selling ads against user generated content. We’ve taken a very close look at this approach. Unfortunately, for a wide range of reasons, advertising won’t work in the user generated context. The behemoth of the UGC industry, YouTube, isn’t even close to figuring this question out.
Believe me, if we could make a meaningful business out of the free SplashCast product, we would.
Therefore, we have stopped offering new free SplashCast accounts.
However, after listening to the community, we have decided to leave the free product in place for those who have specifically asked us to do so for them. (By the way, if you want your free account to remain active, please submit your information via the survey form.)
Also, there are other services out there that do some of the things that SplashCast does. For example, you might check out Embedr. Here is a great review of their service on ReadWriteWeb.
Thanks for your understanding and thanks for being a member of the SplashCast community.
Free Account Extension
Posted on February 5, 2009
Posted by Mike Berkley | 39 Comments
We have been listening!
Many SplashCast community members have requested that we continue offering our free product. Frankly, we were surprised and delighted by the passionate response.
In response, we have decided to offer any user an extension of their free account for at least another few months. During this time we will determine whether there is enough demand to support a monthly subscription-based service. You can request your free account extension on this page:
http://splashcastmedia.com/blog/survey.aspx
Thank you all for your feedback. We are listening to you.
Sincerely,
Mike
CEO
Notice to SplashCast Customers - Free Product Discontinuation
Posted on January 28, 2009
Posted by Tom Turnbull | 43 Comments
If you have been following SplashCast, you know that we launched at the Demo conference two years ago, in February, 2007. The really amazing thing is that the core elements of what we do haven’t changed much.
SplashCast is, and remains, a powerful online media syndication platform that allows content publishers to widely distribute content across the social web. First and foremost, SplashCast takes the power of an industrial strength content management system and aims it directly at the social networks. This allows media companies, such as Hulu and Sony, to distribute content in previously unheard of ways. That is our core strength.
Additionally, SplashCast applications are immeshed in the social graphs of the major social networks allowing users to share and interact around content in new ways.
We call this powerful combination “Social TV.”
Like all startup companies, we’ve tried lots (and lots) of things over the last two years. We’ve played with new user interfaces. We’ve played with new features. We’ve simplified. We’ve made more complex. We’ve simplified again. We’ve experimented with all ranges of content, from home grown to big media. We’ve worked extremely hard to find what works.
Well over a year ago, we clearly identified our sweet spot. SplashCast is the perfect solution for premium content providers seeking to distribute content within the social networks. In other words, we are like a Hulu or a Veoh, only blown apart into millions of atoms spread throughout Facebook, MySpace, and elsewhere. The revenue model around this is simple: we offer advertisers access to this network.
So, here comes the tough part, we also have to decide what we aren’t going to do.
Over the past several months, we’ve been less and less focused on our “free” product, that is, the user generated channels. While we have well over 100,000 publishers, we simply haven’t been dedicating attention and resources to this part of the business.
All successful startup companies must focus. SplashCast is no different. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue our user generated content product as of February 11. We want to give our loyal (and brilliantly creative) users a chance to find other services that meet their needs.
This is a tough decision for us. I personally enjoy checking out our user generated channels. There is some truly amazing content, from hilarious to moving.
If you are a SplashCast publisher, we thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for your support. We hope that you continue the revolution of web based publishing. We also hope that you check out some of our Social TV applications.
Sincerely,
The SplashCast Team
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SplashCast is a leading provider of social marketing solutions that gives brands direct access to teens and young adults where they live: social networks.
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