c|net’s Caroline McCarthy argues:

 But what Facebook calls “engagement ads” won’t be the magical cure, because it simply won’t work for most advertisers. Rather, it’s a niche option that will probably lead to very successful campaigns for some brands–and high-profile blunders for others.

This is where I slightly disagree. While I do agree that such ads are of more obvious utility for well known brands with content at their disposal, the market is much larger.

I’ve had the opportunity to speak with some very creative marketers.  “Boring” brands can certainly do well in this context.  Successful campaigns need one or more of the following to succeed: entertainment, utility, self expression and/or economic interest.

Advertising products like Facebook’s engagement ads and SplashCast are applicable to a very wide range of advertisers. Furthermore, this approach should be seen as a requirement in the social network context.

So, why not toothpaste, tomato soup or staplers?

Well, I lost a little bet related to the famous Larry the Cable Guy. Larry is, well, quite viral. In fact, Larry is down right infectious.

Larry just launched. Without any promotion, his SplashCast application has been passed around more than a…[this is the part where I avoid drawing from Larry’s repertoire].

Larry’s application has been added, shared and viewed by thousands of his fans, as well as many new ones. This is yet another example of how SplashCast can help content companies expand upon their audiences within the social networks.

Go Larry!

Add Larry the Cable Guy to your page

]]> http://blog.splashcastmedia.com/2008/08/25/find-your-inner-cable-guy/feed/ http://blog.splashcastmedia.com/2008/08/21/is-facebook-really-going-to-try-this-again/ http://blog.splashcastmedia.com/2008/08/21/is-facebook-really-going-to-try-this-again/#comments Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:49:12 +0000 Tom Turnbull http://blog.splashcastmedia.com/2008/08/21/is-facebook-really-going-to-try-this-again/ Push based advertising within the social networks has certainly not been successful.  Targeting hasn’t seemed to help matters either.  In large part, banner style ads are the forgotten stepchildren of the social medial world.  Well, unlike stepchildren, banner ads deserve to be forgotten.

Last year, Facebook took another approach.  The Beacon advertising program presented purchase information from third party sites, such as Amazon.com, in the news feed.  Users were able to see, for example, that so-and-so just purchased the new John Grisham novel.

The problem was that the program was opt-out and it was simply a bit creepy from a privacy perspective.  Facebook caught more than its fair share of grief.  Arguably, this was the moment that the Facebook honeymoon ended.

Within this context, I was very interested to read on Wired.com that Facebook is taking another run at news feed based advertising.   The new program pushes out positive product endorsements rather than purchase information.

Based on what I can tell, this is just another push product.  It’s news feed spam.  I for one hope that I will be able to opt out.

Now that the Facebook love fest is over (it’s more of a like fest now), it will be interesting to see how this program is received.  I’m guessing that we will be hearing a lot from those grumpy ol’ tech bloggers.

I still can’t figure out why they are so grumpy, but that’s another discussion.

Tim is a class act. During my crazy travel last month, I bumped into literally a dozen people between LA and NYC who worked with Tim at MySpace or EyeBlaster — or from the client / agency side — and they all gushed how wonderful he is, both professionally and personally. It is very clear that Tim has rightfully earned a lot of respect in the industry.

Welcome aboard, Tim!

Digital Media Veteran Tim Lane Sees SplashCast’s Social Advertising Solution Leading The Next Big Wave In On-Line Marketing. Portland, OR (PRWEB) July 14, 2008 — SplashCast™ Corporation today announced that digital media advertising veteran Tim Lane has been hired to head up the company’s new national sales office in Los Angeles. Lane, a 12-year veteran of the Internet advertising industry, has been named SplashCast’s vice president of national sales, responsible for expanding the company’s current position as pioneers and leaders in social advertising solutions. Lane will join SplashCast, leaving his position as southwest sales manager at MySpace.com. His move from MySpace to SplashCast highlights what Lane considers to be a trend within the evolving Internet advertising industry. “Social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook are a treasure trove of opportunity for advertisers that know how to successfully tap into their users,” said Lane. “Brands continue to experiment and struggle to find ways to effectively target this audience. Working with social networks, SplashCast develops unique technology solutions successfully tapping into this audience and delivering results for advertisers. SplashCast is the newest and best solution out there that’s attracting advertisers.”

SplashCast’s Los Angeles-based office will open later this summer. This expansion reflects the company’s recent successes in helping major brands reach social network site users. According to statistics presented on the MySpace music application directory more SplashCast music applications in general have been shared and installed on individual MySpace pages than any other artist-specific applications across the entire MySpace application platform.

In addition, SplashCast’s social advertisements consistently receive click-through-rates 75 times higher than typical banner advertisements used on social network sites. Splashcasts have already been viewed more than 375 million times and spread to 3.5 million web pages.

“We are excited to have Tim join our team and we see his move as further substantiation of our approach to social advertising,” said Michael Berkley, CEO of SplashCast. “Lane has remained at the forefront of the social advertising movement, helping many of today’s largest brands find strategies to reach MySpace users. His expertise will be invaluable in helping SplashCast pave the way for future success stories.”

Prior to his position at MySpace.com, Lane held the director of sales position at Eyeblaster Inc. - developers of rich media advertising solutions. He was also sales manager at Move.com - creators of several top home and real estate-oriented Internet destinations. In his new position, Lane will be responsible for managing SplashCast’s sales team based out of the company’s new Los Angeles sales office scheduled to open later this summer.

The SplashCast Solution

A splashcasts is a powerful opt-in social advertising tool that allows brands to connect and engage with customers. Using an interface similar to a multi-channel TV screen, marketers use splashcasts to distribute videos, games, pictures, and other digital content. Consumers who find a splashcast they like can easily add it to their own profile page. Companies can then easily update all of their distributed splashcasts with new content, as often as they want, whenever they want.

Pivotal to SplashCast’s effectiveness as a social advertising tool is the player’s unique three-way communications capability. Not only can companies push new content out to their splashcast audience, but the audience can also send digital content back to the brand or engage with each other. The result is the formation of online communities that gather via the splashcast player and unite around the product or brand.

SplashCast recently announced a new enhancement to their product that allows marketers to integrate advertisements into new and existing video content. The unobtrusive, opt-in nature of HotSpots ad-insertions works like a product placement advertisement to entice viewers and engage them at a time when they are most prone to the advertising message.

“Whether it’s a brand looking to share content with customers or advertisers looking to sponsor existing content, I believe SplashCast has created the customizable turnkey solution they’re looking for,” said Lane.

About SplashCast

Splashcast Corporation is one of the first companies dedicated to the emerging new marketing field called social advertising - strategies specifically designed to connect brands with users of MySpace, Facebook and other social network sites. Used by Sony Music, Red Bull, Universal, NIKE, AEG, PBS and other top name brands, SplashCast offers an alternative to banner ads, pop-ups and other traditional online advertising strategies that have proven disappointing in their ability to reach this critical audience. For more information on Splashcast visit www.splashcastmedia.com or call (503) 222-5645.

The article is about how big money is starting flow from big brands to hip hop & urban artists - once largely ignored by mainstream brands. SplashCast is the focus of the last 3rd of article. Nice coverage, even if not completely accurate.

Here is the section on SplashCast:

VARIABLE VIRAL VIDEO

The viral side of music videos just got a bit more so with the advent of SplashCast, a social network gaining traction among the major labels.

SplashCast provides a movable window of a performer’s video with a template to enable messaging. Users can transfer their favorites to a MySpace page and share them. They can post videos, pictures or comments and chat with other users.

The service will soon allow insertion of its advertising into the video streams, thanks to HotSpot technology.

In a nod to the popularity of urban music, SplashCast is setting up a site for an established rap star it declined to identify, and expects he’ll be one among many.

“To date we’ve worked with labels,” says SplashCast CEO Michael Berkley. “Now we’re working with artists themselves, particularly in the urban category.”

The urban music channels created by SplashCast get the most viral distribution. The typical user is a tech-savvy African American ranging in age from 14 to 19. Females are in the majority.

SplashCast already has distribution deals in place with Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Geffen, Warner Bros., MTV, NPR and PBS.

“It’s all about connecting our conversation,” says David Bell, director of digital marketing for Sony BMG’s Zomba label. “It’s about creating new communities, creating communities of our own.”

Bell says songs usually are a bigger draw than artists. But Chris Brown’s is the most popular of the 40 SplashCast channels featured on Sony BMG’s site. Roughly 40,000 users added it to their MySpace or Facebook pages within a month of its posting. It eventually was embedded in more than 75,000 pages.

Visitors “gobble up immediately” any news about stars like Brown, Bell notes, adding that urban music is the subject of a “huge number” of blogs. He says Zomba hopes to build content sites in collaboration with brands.

SplashCast plans a reality series on its “mystery” hip-hopper’s site.

“Once it’s out there on tens or hundreds of thousands of MySpace pages, the fans will be able to influence the reality show,” Berkley says. “It’s enabling artists to create content in a very efficient, cost-effective manner so they can essentially have a videographer follow them around, create this in real time and edit it.”

Below is a screenshot of the MySpace Music Application Directory, taken today, with SplashCast apps highlighted in red:

So what’s new???

HotSpot technology

SplashCast’s newest feature is a major breakthrough in video product placement technology. We developed the Hotspot technology to enable a more seamless and interesting integration of advertisements into new and existing video content.

During our testing, we played with many different scenarios where we found the Hotspot technology useful and we thought that this feature could really be used by not only advertisers for marketing purposes, but by everyone who might want an opportunity to provide more information or more context to certain points in a video that they have added to a SplashCast show. So we decided to make this new feature available to all SplashCast users. Check out the Introducing Hotspots and Creating Hotspots tutorials below.

If you think you have a cool use case featuring the Hotspot technology for a specific video in one of your SplashCast shows let us know. We are excited to see what you will do with this new feature and will highlight some of the best uses of this new technology on our blog. Here’s how to share your video using the Hotspot feature with us:

• From your player, play the video with the hotspot
• Click the Send button (the one right next to Comments)
• Send to: support@splashcastmedia.com
• Make sure you enter your correct email address
• tell us why you find the Hotspot feature useful.

Simpler Interface for the Content Management System
See image of new SplashCast Content Management System

Were you confused about where to start when you first started using SplashCast? (Channels? Shows? Players? Where do I start???) Things are whole lot simpler now. Everything starts at the Channel level. When you first log in to SplashCast, select a channel that you want to edit (or create a new one). Then, add a show that you want to display in the More Shows list in the player. We think everyone will find this new interface a whole lot easier. Take a look at the Introduction to the SplashCast Console tutorial below for a quick overview of the changes.

SplashCast Player Channel Guide Change

See image of new SplashCast player

Most of you are used to seeing the Channel Guide button in the upper left corner of the player. Now, instead of the Channel Guide button floating over the top of your content, you will see a button in the lower right that says More Shows.

If you have any questions about the new Hotspot feature or changes in the SplashCast console, please contact us at: support@splashcastmedia.com

Thanks to the folks at Beet.tv.

Watch the interview here or below.

For an ad to be social, it has to be just that, social. This means that the ad is there because it has been invited. It has voluntarily been taken across the threshold and allowed into the inner sanctum of the profile page, just as a teenager might hang a picture of a Nike sponsored athlete on her bedroom wall.

Social ads are those ads allowed “in the circle.” All others are “outside the circle.”

Ads get invited inside the circle for one of three reasons:

1. The ads are tied to great content

2. The ads have utility, and/or

3. There is an economic incentive.

Most examples fall under category #1 (e.g., SplashCast’s Converse campaign). The art and science around these three factors will be the secret sauce of social.

Additionally, some ads, if not explicitly invited are accepted. For example, a music application tied to a sponsorship is social.

So, why should marketers care about all of this? The reason is simple: the power of word of mouth. Social ads create a powerful form of recommendation within the context of friend-to-friend connections found in social networks. This type of advertising is far more rich and authentic than other forms, and, ultimately, far more valuable.

Conversely, ads that haven’t been invited inside are “anti-social.”

For example, banner ads, however well targeted, appearing on a social network page are anti-social. They are, therefore, typically rejected (as evidenced by their comically low click-through rates and CPMs). Anti-social ads are like the junk mail that you would rather not invite into your house.

See, it’s all that simple.

LISA!

I had the very good fortune of experiencing LISA last night at a downtown hotel (no worries, my wife doesn’t read this blog).

LISA, while hot, hip, and sexy, is actually no danger to my marriage. LISA stands for “Lessons in Social Advertising“. It is a traveling panel / networking event hitting the major media markets over the next month: Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. Last night it kicked off in Portland, OR, home to the organizers of the event, TAOW Productions, and of course, home to SplashCast.

The LISA events are the first forums totally dedicated to “social advertising”. It is essentially a panel discussion, with lots of free alcohol and twittering. I was a lucky panelist, sharing the stage with social media thought leaders John Furrier (former CEO of PodTech), Hashem Bajwa (Dir. Digital Planning for Goodby, Sliverstein), Dave Allen (Dir. Insights & Digital Media for Nemo Design), and Kent Lewis (President of Anvil Media). Furrier was live tweeting, while on the panel.

What was so great about this 90 minute panel discussion was that it was heated, bubbling with energy! Fists were flying. We didn’t all agree, and we let it be known. The audience interaction was awesome.

What I want to focus on right now is the very first question: what does social advertising actually mean? The usual set of buzz words were tossed about, like “authenticity, engagement, being-part-of-the-conversation, blah, blah, blah.” While all true, I don’t think that helps in people’s understanding.

Here’s the SplashCast definition of social advertising:

Social advertising is getting consumers to tell the brand story, on behalf of the brand.

Simple. Powerful.

It’s not new. It’s long existed in the off-line world, called “word of mouth”: friends talking to friends about products and brands they like / don’t like. Family and friend influence is the biggest factor in purchase decisions; lots of research has shown this. The problem is that in the off-line world, brands have almost no control over this process.

But in the digital world, brands can play a critical role in the process. Friend and family influence (ie, “social advertising”) can now be seeded, augmented, controlled, and most importantly, it can be tracked and measured.

Let’s look at each of those:

• Seeded. Using tools like SplashCast within social networks, brands can now launch embeddable applications that entertain (compelling content, games), provide utility (information, data), and stimulate communication between family and friends (chat, comments, video / photo submissions, message boards, wikis). People put these applications on their social network profile page or blog, and share them with their family and friends. Conversations start within the context of the brand. It begins to organically spread from one profile page to the next, always being exposed to a new set of friends. The brand being invited into and distributed within a consumer’s circle of influence. This is very different from conventional advertising, where the brand is being forced onto consumers.
• Augmented. To augment the organic distribution as discussed above, brands have the ability to accelerate the process. Using conventional media buying methods, they can juice up the distribution of their social applications by placing them in front of their target consumers. An interactive SplashCast channel, for example, can be distributed within Google AdSense, placed on millions of relevant web sites.
• Controlled. Brands have the ability to listen and moderate (if they choose) the conversations that take place and the content that is create within their social application. There is lots of strategy to discuss around this topic… I will leave that for another post.
• Tracked and Measured. A good social application will provide reports on how far the app has spread across the web, where it has spread, who’s viewing it, how engaged are those users, are users getting value out of it, what are they saying, and ultimately (if the application has a commerce component), are consumers making purchase decisions as a result of it.

This is what progressive brands are doing right now, and there are success stories. All of this is cutting-edge in terms of what the technology enables (enabling, seeding, augmenting, controlling, and tracking), but social advertising is not a new concept.

Back to LISA. I will be panelist at the LA, San Francisco, and New York LISA events. Check out the LISA web site for dates and locations: http://lisa08.com.