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Is Chatroulette A Passing Fad or Potential Opportunity For Brands?The big phenomenon currently making waves on the interwebs right now, Chatroulette, is like Skype on steroids. It’s the newest innovation in live video conferencing. With the recent buzz it’s generated on the USA Today and NYTimes , you may already be familiar with how Chatroulette works. For those who are unaware of the crazed, addicting, and somewhat creepy nature of th  e technology, Chatroulette is a one-to-one webcam and chat service that connects you with anyone in the world (word of advice: Go on Chatroulette at home, it's NSFW). When I say anyone, I really mean anyone. A week ago, my roommates and I went on Chatroulette and had a 30 minute conversion with a couple of girls from Canada, and later in the night we talked about our love for crêpe’s with some people from Paris. Celebrities like Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, and The Jonas Brothers have also been seen to be hopping aboard the Chatroulette bandwagon. It's an intriguing concept to say the least.The traffic to Chatroulette.com has exploded in recent weeks. According to AdAge, traffic doubled in one week from 20,000 to 40,000. Copycats of the service such as Redditroulette and Tinychat are also cropping up. What is the obsession for people over this thing? It’s hard to say. However, if marketers can figure out what is driving people to flock to sites like Chatroulette, they may discover how to market to mass audiences through interactive video conferencing. In his article on AdAge, Matthew Szymczyk says that Chatroulette might lay the groundwork for the future of live video conferencing and streaming. Here are some recent stats he presented that shows how the live conferencing site Ustream is benefiting celebrities, artists, and film studios:
It will be interesting to see if interactive video conferencing will ever become a part of a brands social media strategy. There seems to be some opportunity there. Do you think the technology can help brands reach a mass audience like artists and celebrities do on sites like Ustream? Or do you see it a passing fad or an invasion of privacy? Labels: Marketing, Social Media Marketing, web 2.0 Interactive TV Ads: Real-Life ExamplesMy last column, "When TV and the Internet Converge," examined four points that marketers must understand about what's now happening with interactive television. In this column, let's review real-life examples of interactive television ads and explore where advertising will go from there. Interactive Television Ads: Real-Life Examples OK, let's look at some things that have been done that start to combine video and interactive TV with advertising, games, and even e-commerce. Budweiser: Branding Game and Contest  Budweiser ran an interactive TV ad that rewarded "interactors" with a game and chance to win a trip to the World Cup. According to a case study examining this campaign, around 890,000 people interacted with the ad by "pressing red" or select and 90 percent of the interactors played the "Heads Up" game to win World Cup tickets. Interactors reportedly spent an average of just over seven minutes interacting, but 38 percent thought they'd spent 10 minutes or more interacting! See a video of the Budweiser interactive TV ad here on YouTube. Axe Body Spray: Interactive Branding Game  For this interactive TV commercial, Axe created games where viewers controlled bikes and did a stunt using the arrow keys. Other options also brought up a slow-motion version of the stunt and information about Axe body spray. The ad was shown to 60 million homes that have either DirecTV or Dish Network. In just a few weeks, 3.5 million people watched the video and spent an average of five minutes playing with the ad. Charmin: Coupon Distribution  This Charmin toilet paper interactive ad was delivered to TiVo users. When the ad appears, a green thumb appears in the right corner of the screen that reads, "Apply now for a valuable coupon from Charmin." When viewers click the thumb using their remote control, the program they are watching pauses and they are taken to a coupon request screen. Using the remote, they can choose that option and the coupons are sent by mail. The program resumes once the viewer completes the interactive ad. Although this ad was done via TiVo, it could be done with any cable system. Domino's Pizza: Ordering Goods  OK, this was one of the first interactive TV promotions to really get some buzz. As described from the press release dated Nov. 17, 2008: "TiVo subscribers can seamlessly access their Domino's Pizza order from various advertising entry points on the TiVo user interface...by clicking on "Order Your Pizza"...they can log-in with a simple account number...build their pizza order right from the television set by selecting type of crust, toppings, and sauces, and get the pizza delivered by their local Domino's Pizza." This particular promotion was not e-commerce enabled, so you paid for your pizza when it arrived. But how hard would it be to add a pay feature now? Not too hard. Clickable Video: Imagine Where This Can Go Let's start to imagine where this can go. First, take a look at the images and videos below. They're examples of Web-based clickable video. Now, imagine that this Internet technology moves to television and the mouse-like remote control evolved to be a Wii-like remote control mouse where you can move a curser around a screen to play games and click on items in actual TV shows. Now, imagine watching your favorite shows and movies in catalog mode. Product placement will be huge and shows will generate click and commerce revenue from the highest bidders. It will be "The Truman Show" meets Google AdWords meets Amazon! There is no reason why this technology can't be applied to television now that the remote control, the Internet, and television video are fully merged and we can pause shows while people perform transactions. At the very least, we can tell people to click "OK" to see more info on a particular item. Then the DVR can pause the show and a consumer can view a pop-up Web page and make a transaction if she wants to. This could be done in millions of homes right now! To see the below videos live, visit VideoClix, choose a category, and choose a video. When watching these videos, roll your curser over the products and click on them. Vogue, 60 Seconds to Chic This video includes links for consumers to obtain additional information and to make a purchase.  Progresso: Start Cooking This is an example of a brand's informational video that could link to coupons.  Nike: Zappos Clickable Video Catalog I couldn't find this on Zappos, but you can see it on YouTube here. I like this example because it integrates everything and shows where you could end up making a transaction at the end.  Bring It All Together, Mash It Up, Make a Wish List So, here are a bunch of things I can imagine being done -- or are already being done -- with interactive TV. For the real-life examples, the items include links. What can you add to this list knowing what you know now?
In conclusion, the way to think about interactive TV is this: anything you can do on a Web site you will be able to do with interactive TV. Ads will become much more action oriented to encourage viewer/user behavior and shows will have new revenue opportunities with product placement and embedded calls to action (really saving them). Finally, tracking will be extended to television in a whole new way and will really raise the bar on marketing and advertising performance and accountability. So, what is the good news for online professionals? Online marketers already work under this kind of atmosphere! Labels: Advertising, ClickZ, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing Five Elements of Leadership from Colin PowellWhile attending the CCA Global conference in DC about a week ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Colin Powell speak. While we may not be 100% politically aligned, I do think he is an admirable leader who has faithfully served our country and truly has an amazing amount of leadership and life experience wisdom to offer. He started the speech by saying, “One day you are at the top, #1! Kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers all want to see you, you’re flying around on your own jet and then...you ain’t!” I liked that he started out addressing that people can reach amazing heights in their lives and then in an instant things can change. This is especially poignant now when so many people find themselves being knocked off their high perches of success in their jobs and businesses. (His whole speech was peppered with a lot of humor and was quite entertaining.) Then he went on to tell us all the 5 Elements of Leadership and following is what I managed to write down: Inspire: Your role as a leader is to inspire, and your challenge is to get the most out of the talent in your team. Leadership says you are a person who can get 100% out of the people under your command and the key to this is to give them a purpose. Let them feel that what they are doing is beyond their individual roles and how it fits into the larger picture. He talked about how everyone at the State Department had an important role right down to the cleaning people who came in at night. The way he put it their mission was hyper-critical. The sheen and gleaming image of the State Department projected to the dignitaries that came to visit was not put there by him – it was put there by the largely unseen folks who came in every night to dust the woodwork and polish the floors. Theirs was a sacred mission, and he wanted them to understand the importance of what they did and take pride in what the jobs they performed. My comment: so for those of us in marketing, our roles are not just about building brands or driving leads – marketers drive the economy. Marketing helps companies grow, thrive and hire people! We also help people who need a product or solution find it! At its heart, marketing is more than advertising – it’s a significant engine of the economy that finds new ways to communicate, encourages desired behavior and helps companies become successful. Did I get it right Colin? Invest in the Troops: A leader takes care of his troops and makes sure he knows what they need to get the job done. He spoke about three major areas of investment:
Recognize Success: Be able to spot the leaders in your midst and reward with large and small gestures so they know you know the good job they are doing. Tactics he listed included promotions, bonuses and most important praise (public and private). Discipline: Accountability is critical and people knowing what they are responsible for is key. The troops must know that they will be rewarded for success and sanctioned for failure. Under-performance by one member of a team drags down the success of the whole team. My comment: we all have experienced this right? Everyone works hard to hit a deadline or make something great and one person fails in their part and the whole team (for that matter the whole company) is robbed of their success and resulting pride, glory and client gratitude. Trust: If people trust you they will follow you into battle. In life and the long term they will follow you even out of curiosity. They will think, “I am going to stick with this guy to see where he leads us.” But they need to know that you are not reckless and won’t lead them to a bad place. My comment: this is of course true of your team and clients. If your team thinks you are going to drive your department or company into the ground they are not likely to follow you in the long term – they need to know that the person leading the way will lead everyone to a fulfilling and secure place for all. For clients this is doubly true as, unlike employees, they are paying you and in a very real way their careers and success are in your hands. They need to know that you will run your business and their account in a wise and prudent way. That the risks you put forward, and even push the envelope on, have a balanced risk/benefit factor. In a very real sense leadership trust is the element in a team dynamic that binds everyone’s success together. You need to trust that your leaders a) know what they are doing b) have the mission’s success at heart and c) that success in the mission equals success for all the team members. So needless to say I was quite inspired by the speech and can only do my best to apply these principles to my life and company. The thing I loved best about what Colin said was the sheer pragmatism of his leadership philosophy. These were not lofty B-school management or psychological principals. This was advice that anyone could and should follow. These were principles that could be applied to a million army battle plan or a five-person team. |
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