Last fall, I spoke to analysts about the impact of user generated content (UGC) and the effect it will have on brands and marketers as organizations look to non-traditional media to reach their audiences. The theme: companies are actively striving for new ways to extend their brand.

Back in July of 2005, News Corporation paid USD$580MM (in cash) for MySpace. Given the headline above as reported by Ad Age, this looks to be a bargain and the industry is taking notice. In addition to the ad revenue, News Corp has specific insight and trends into their vast online audiences; information that isn’t available to anyone outside of New Corp. The real value is the aggregated, authentic information that is collected by UGC sites. In essence, content is currency. Or more specifically, content around focused audiences is currency. Afterall, isn’t YouTube just “America’s Funniest Home Videos” on the web?

Being an advocate for driving online communities to promote brands (specifically through wikis) for years, I can attest that there are potential risks in regards to brand dilution. However, done correctly with the right strategy and focus, the rewards can be extremely high as MySpace is proving out on a daily basis.It is also interesting to note some that measurable CPM for UGC sites is on the rise:

“Speaking at the 17th annual Citigroup Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Las Vegas, Chernin said online ad rates have started to become significant at CPMs of $25-$30.”

It’s all about focused content to reach specific audiences.

As a side note, it’s good to be here at ideapark!

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our most recent project, Live Dynamite. Check out this hot new company that helps people expand and create momentum in their lives, set goals, and make things happen. As the founders of Live Dynamite would say, “Sometimes, we all need a little nudge…”

AdAge has posted an examination of what makes Nintendo a leader in the video game space. Namely, they make different products, not better ones.

Too many companies focus on trying to make better products when the real advantage is making different products. The video-game dogfight between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo illustrates this point.

It’s easy to draw parallels between Apple and Nintendo that aren’t there, and I don’t agree with everything the author says (Pepsi better than Coke? Whatever.), but it’s a lesson more marketers need to remember. Grab the imagination of your consumers and you’ll win. Try to out-do the competition with a soulless battle of features and you’ll lose. This is why the iPod outsells all other MP3 players combined even though its feature set is not as robust as theirs. And it’s why Nintendo is eating Sony and Microsoft’s lunch.

Via Infendo.

We’re pleased as punch to announce the following additions to the ideapark wreckin’ crew:

Sy Harris – Interactive designer
As a newcomer to Minnesota, I would have thought Sy’d be a little more shell-shocked by our recent cold snap, but he’s taking it all in stride. Sy’s experience includes working as a designer and art director on interactive and print projects for clients such as Marvel Comics, Gateway Computers, Hearst Publications and Sotheby’s. He’s also skilled at high definition underwater videography which may or may not be useful here in the land of 10,000 lakes (but we’re not counting on it).

Mark Kurtz – Vice President of Client Services
Mark’s been a friend of ideapark for several years and we’re very excited to mix his skills and interests into our group. He brings extensive experience in technology and marketing from both the agency and client perspectives. During his time spent with Seattle-based Garrigan Lyman, Mark worked with clients such as Microsoft, Wall Street Journal, Aveda, Polaris, Nikon, and SAP. As a voracious entrepreneur, he’s started companies in Australia, Singapore and St. Paul. Most recently he served as the Vice President of Marketing and Sales for the wiki wizards at MindTouch (which recently moved to San Diego). Mark’s lived all over the world, but he’s a Midwesterner at heart (we’re hiding the fact that he’s from the Green Bay area for obvious reasons).

From the NYTimes:

It turns out that a lot of people with digital video recorders are not fast-forwarding and time-shifting as much as advertisers feared. According to new data released today by the Nielsen Company, people who own digital video recorders, or DVRs, still watch, on average, two-thirds of the ads.

At my house, we just forget we’re watching a recording until two-thirds of the way through the commercial break…

Keep reading

Wal-Mart just launched a video download service on their website. Big deal. Yet another bunch of movies you have to watch on your computer instead of on your TV the way God meant you to (or, Heaven forbid, on your iPod). In any event, the reason I mention this is because they apparently don’t care about the growing number of people using Firefox. Here’s what their new site looks like to these useless consumers:

Not pretty.

Getting a reliable number when it comes to browser market share is notoriously difficult, but let’s just say for the sake of argument that Firefox users make up between 15% to 25% of the web surfing public. Now think about your business. Is there anything you do today that makes it hard (not impossible, but hard) for 15% to 25% of your qualified current or future customers to engage with your product or service? Of course not. Not on purpose, anyway.

Another example. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I’m always looking for my next car. It doesn’t matter that I’ve had my current car for only 18 months or that I have to keep it for another 18, I’m always looking. One of the cars I’m interested in is Toyota’s FJ Cruiser. Toyota has made two decisions that makes my interest in their car harder to satisfy than it should be. First, they utilize something called the Viewpoint plug-in to power their car configuration tool. Why? Why not Flash? MINI has probably the very best car configuration tool on the web and it’s 100% Flash. Why go with some other plug-in that most people have to install? I’m sure the Viewpoint sales guys have an answer for that, but the user experience guy in me says Toyota should have figured out a way to work around it. Funny thing is, the use of Viewpoint isn’t even why I mention Toyota.

The page that detects the Viewpoint plug-in doesn’t work with Firefox. I’ve installed the thing several times yet it never properly detects that I have. It warns me I need it before I click the link to bypass their warning and then keeps warning me I don’t have it even though the configuration thing seems to be working just fine. If I bounce over to Safari, it works. I assume Internet Explorer users don’t have any problems, either.

So now let’s do some math. The FJ Cruiser sells for about $25,000 (higher with options, but I’m being conservative). By choosing to use a technology that makes it hard for me, a Firefox user, to consider their product, they’re putting potential sales in jeopardy. I don’t know how many FJ Cruisers Toyota will sell this year, but let’s use a nice round number like 50,000. If each one sells for (conservatively) $25k and about 20% of web-based shoppers are using Firefox (and also assuming that two-thirds of car buyers are using the web in making their decisions – a number I just totally made up), Toyota is needlessly endangering upwards of $165,000,000 in sales.

Will anyone not buy an FJ Cruiser because the website sucks? I don’t know. Buy when you consider the ease in which nearly everyone online can be accommodated (assuming you plan and develop for them appropriately), why risk losing even one sale? This is not rocket science, people.

Recently seen on the web. An article about a “DRM-free world” with an ad to the single largest seller of DRMed music smack-dab in the middle of it:

For an interesting example of the decline of old media, take a look at this list of the top grossing movies of all time after adjusting their revenue for inflation. In the top five, none of the movies was made in the past 30 years and in the top ten, the youngest is ten years old. The average age of the top 20 films is 37.

Something very rare indeed happened last night. Superbowl XVI was actually more entertaining than its ads (at least in the first half). My favorite: the 10-second Letterman/Oprah spot (though the Blockbuster pet store ad was cute in an Over the Hedge kind of way and the Garmin GPS Giant Robot spoof was awesome).

Only ten days until pitchers and catchers report…