Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

Are VideoEgg’s ears ringing? Just days ago, VideoEggg rocked Manhattan’s Times Square with the message that IT’S THE ONLINE ENGAGEMENT METRIC, STUPID, at its sponsored affair designed to spur Madison Avenue agency interest in VideoEgg’s new pay for engagement performance ad offering.

Today, Microsoft declares–via three short on details PR paragraphs–a “new reporting standard” for digital campaign performance dubbed “engagement mapping.” Will VideoEgg feel one-upped? Unlikely, Microsoft signed on as the flagship VideoEgg “engagement” debut advertiser!

Engagement is expensive, though, as the VideoEgg “Engaement Debate” host, CMO Troy Young, reiterated at the Hard Rock Cafe last week, via a rolling overhead message. Microsoft ought to know! Redmond is paying “under” 50 cents per “view,” according to Universal McAnn, as cited by AdWeek via VideoEgg.

Talk about CPMs! How about “under” $500 for 1000 “views.” What exactly is a view, though? Engagement is not only expensive, it is ambiguous!

Advertisers pay on an “engagement” basis – that is when a user rolls over the ad and the advertiser’s full screen creative is displayed.

It doesn’t SOUND very engaging! How engaged are prolific Web multi-taskers, after all?

The allmighty Google click isn’t all it is cracked up to be either, though! SEE my VideoEgg report: MySpace To Google (Round 2): Text Clicks Do NOT Rule! VideoEgg Report

Bottom advertiser ROI line? Savvy, deep pocketed brand advetisers will continue to conduct their own, proprietary econometric modeling to ensure that every single penny they disperse on Web advertising–regardless of mechanism or venue–yields measurable contibution to sales of product, as CPG advertiser Bayer Healthcare underscored repeatedly at the VideoEgg conference.

Bottom brand advertising line for the Web’s front runner? Top tier marketers are not swayed by any media platform’s noble talk of “accountabiltiy,” including Google speak. The only accounting Bayer relies on, for example, is its own.

MORE: VideoEgg Rocks: Debuts AdFrames in Silicon Alley: Google Next?

ALSO:  MySpace On Google: Sorry, ‘NO Truth’ To $900 Million Rumors and Facebook Meltdown: Is Twitter Next? and FriendFeed: Got Google Millions? Who Needs Revenues! and Google vs. Microsoft: The REAL Health Platform War Story

PLUS: Why Obsession is GOOD for Startups, and Microsoft

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN 

What a coincidence? Just hours ago, I discussed how Google would undoubtedly soon be on VideoEgg’s advertising tail, again! Today, Google announces its latest attempt to make money through video advertising.

BUT, unfortunately for Google, neither its Google Video or YouTube have yielded “material” revenues, Google CEO Eric Schmidt once again acknowledged in the company’s annual SEC reporting this month.

Will Google’s newest stab, dubbed AdSense for Video, have better luck? Long-term poential is unclear, but Google will undoubtedly be challenged out of the video gate and is NOT moving full video steam ahead at present. What’s more, Google is partnering with direct video advertising competitors for distribution, confirming it does NOT have sufficient video advertising clout on its own.

Google’s new video ad options include “text” overlays. The purportedly almighty Google text “clicks” are NOT all they are made out to be, however, a MySpace executive advised yesterday at the “Engagement” conference put on by Google competitor VideoEgg.

In a series of four panels, about two dozen agency, programming and consumer marketing execs discussed the need to “engage” people on the Web via content and interactivity that spurs emotional involvement. Panelist Benjamin Ezrick, Oglivy Interactive, though, incredulously offered the Google “click” as the only irrefutable measure of online user engagment. Co-panelist Chris George, MySpace, however, quickly reported on the fallacy of a supposedly allmighty click:

People who click don’t necessarily convert and people who see ads but don’t click can convert.

Just last week, MySpace colleague Arnie Gullov-Sing shared other Google fallacies at the OMMA Behavaioral conference, as I report and analyze in MySpace To Google: Learn How To Sell Advertising, OMMA Report. The MySpace exec also debunked some myths about Facebook advertising, as I discuss in MySpace to Facebook: NO ‘Reach, Relevancy, Results’! OMMA Report.

MORE: VideoEgg Rocks: Debuts AdFrames in Silicon Alley: Google Next? and Microsoft Steals VideoEgg’s Thunder? Google Ultimate Loser

ALSO: MOBILE Visions? Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL Open Up: NOT Google! OMMA Report and NYT Accepts Google Muzzle: Bombs YouTube NYC Story and Health Vault: Hey, Google, Get With the Microsoft Medical Program! and Facebook Meltdown: Is Twitter Next?

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

How does a Web 2.0 video play garner attention for an advertising product launch? Rent out the Hard Rock Cafe in the middle of Manhattan’s Times Square for an ENGAGING afternoon of fast paced, high-level media brainstorming, capped by open bar cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

In the late 1990’s, lavish Web site launch parties were held throughout Silicon Alley seemingly on a nightly basis, and I enjoyed many of them! Venture capital was flowing and so was the hospitality. Most striking though, from a business development perspective, was a general lack of marketing on the part of party hosts. I remember asking fellow celebrants sipping Martinis in a trendy downtown nightclub one evening, which particluar Website were we celebrating, as there was no signage or corporate announcements. The even bigger question: Where was the ROI, then?

In big conrast, today’s Silicon Alley “parties” are not only fewer and far between, they generaly serve to further explicit business objectives: The Video Egg mini-conference today, for example. Themed “The Engagement Debate,” about two dozen agency, marketing and programing execs offered their real world perspectives on the state of the nascent field of measuring and valuing audience engagement in interactive environments.

In addition to driving the “conversation” forward about the need for marketers to ”engage” consumers on the Web, two VideoEgg execs participated in panels and Troy Young, VideoEgg CMO, presented a rapid-fire new ad product overview at the end of the sessions: Introducing VideoEgg AdFrames. One of the moderators insightfully quipped, for Troy, the conference “engagement” generated will be measured with an old, but still very good, school metric: Advertising contracts signed!

I chatted with Young during the party and asked him what inspired VideoEgg to come up with a new ad product which departs from its signature, core offering. Young told me VideoEgg continually strives to innovate and build towards more and varied solutions which meet diverse and ever changing marketer needs. What’s more, each new product has a shot at turning into the next big advertising thing, Young indicated, hopefully.

I also joked with Young about when we should expect Google to come out with its own version of the latest VideoEgg creation. After all, when Google announced its YouTube overlay ad product with much fan fare last year, VideoEgg “welcomed” YouTube to its orignal video overlay party by declaring on its homepage:

We invented the video ad overlay product about a year ago. We are delighted that the market is finally catching on to a vital new approach to video advertising.

VideoEgg does NOT appear to be holding a YouTube grudge: A Google TV Ads exec participated in VideoEgg’s opening panel today. The Googler was, in typically Googley fashion, reserved on stage, but perhaps he was taking notes during Young’s AdFrames pitch:

AdFrames is a performance-based ad offering designed specifically for brand advertisers. Advertisers pay on an “engagement” basis – that is when a user rolls over the ad and the advertiser’s full screen creative is displayed.

No other network offers rich media like this.

So there, Google!

MORE ON VIDEO EGG CONFERENCE: MySpace To Google (Round 2): Text Clicks Do NOT Rule! VideoEgg Report and Microsoft Steals VideoEgg’s Thunder? Google Ultimate Loser

PLUS: Silicon Alley: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Entrepreneurs and Silicon Alley Web 2.0 Startups: Bootstrap For Success and How Web 2.0 Meetups Displaced the New York Software Industry

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Who are the biggest winners in the latest Internet fueled business model disruption? Independent filmmakers and videographers. YouTube may not be a big money maker for Google, but it has spurred the money making ambitions of unsung video creators and the monied interests that seek to leverage their low-cost video production skills.

On the local video advertising battlefield, ambitious players TurnHere and Spot Runner not only duke it out for lucrative video production and distribution contracts, but fight for the highest quality, most prolific independent video producers as well.

TurnHere has built its 3200 member “Filmmakers Network” from the ground up, Spot Runner has fueled its ”Production Network” with the absorbtion of GlobeShooter, a 1200-person strong group of local video professionals.

TurnHere leverages its base of independent video creatives for a variety of vertical applications–travel, publishing, local directories–while Spot Runner has its roots in a core local advertising message.

SpotRunner CEO Nick Grouff: “The acquisition of GlobeShooter is a natural extension of our strategy to be a central resource for local businesses’ broad spectrum of advertising needs.”

TurnHere “has established a strong foothold in the directory and local markets,” said John McWeeny, Business Development, TurnHere, in announcing a video production agreement with YellowPages.com this week, on the heels of its non-exclusive vendor agreement with Superpages.com, announced last month. TurnHere has been supplying video production services to Citysearch since last May.

Why such local business interest in videos?

According to Matt Crowley, CMO, Yellowpages.com, “Advertisers recognize that video can play a key role in delivering a unique and memorable message that engages the consumer and influences action.”

TurnHere’s McWeeny offers: “We continue to see rising industry demand as small merchants embrace online video as a platform to attract new customers and drive businesss growth.”

Citysearch itself, however, is more nuanced in evaluating video traction among merchants online. In November, President Jay Herratti spoke of the need to lower cost of video entry for advertisers in order to spur greater adoption, while keynoting at the Kelsey conference in Los Angeles.

The local video battle for advertisers and production contracts is NOT solely an online one. The Spot Runner founding claim to fame is ”the first Internet-based ad agency that makes it easy and affordable for local businesses to advertise on TV.” Nevertheless, GlobeShooter’s video producers serve to “expand the company’s ability to offer highly customized ads for both TV and the Internet.”

The TurnHere founding Internet message was Web-centric, offering “studio quality Internet adverising and Web distribution for building online traffic.” TurnHere is now poised to leverage good old fashioned television as well, however.

When I spoke with TurnHere CEO Brad Inman about the Yellowpages.com online video deal this week, he began by underscoring how TurnHere is key to bringing “television quality advertising” and television like distribution to the reach of local merchants. What’s more, the TurnHere video product is “more micro-targeted than cable television.”

Inman also hailed the television worthy work of the TurnHere “Filmmakers Network.” Will videos by TurnHere soon be playing then on a TV near you? Stay tuned!

ALSO: Spot Runner Sells For Rival Google: Local SEM Bandwagon Grows and TurnHere Video Gets the Book Marketing Party Started

PLUS: Reach Local Advertising? How Google Squeezes SEMs and AdWords Buyers and Google Apps & Maps: Enterprise and Local Business STILL Missing and
Local Advertising Online: SMEs Hold the Billion Dollar Keys, ILM ANALYSIS and Google TV Ads Auction: NO AdWords Buyer’s Remorse

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

YAY! The Internet free content ride may be nearing its long overdue end: Nielsen and Digimarc embark on a “Digital Media Manager” copyright enforcement service. 

I spoke with Bruce Davis, CEO of Digimarc Corporation, a NASDAQ company, that fatefull day in March when Plaintiff Viacom International Inc., et al, made it billion dollar crystal clear to YouTube, Inc., YouTube, LLC, and Google Inc., collectively known as “Defendants,” that massive copyright infringement would not be tolerated:

Defendants know and intend that a substantial amount of the content on the YouTube site consists of unlicensed infringing copies of copyrighted works and have done little or nothing to prevent this massive infringement. YouTube has deliberately chosen this approach because it allows YouTube to profit from infringement while leaving copyright owners insufficient means to prevent it.

At Digimarc, Davis spearheads innovation and commercialization in the rapidly evolving field of Digital Watermarking (DWM), as part of the Digimarc portfolio of secure identity and media management solutions.

Davis expressed to me his confidence that DWM will be “increasingly adopted to help manage all forms of media to protect copyrights while enhancing, instead of limiting, consumer experiences” at popular Web 2.0 social media destinations. Digimarc positions DWM as a “sophisticated and balanced paradigm for media distribution and management.”

I asked Davis if DWM is difficult and costly to implement. Davis underscored to me that DWM solutions are readily and efficiently deployable across any media, including online video.

Nine months later, Digimarc is partnering with The Nielsen Company to commericalize a service that will “enforce copyrights and monetize value of online video”:

Nielsen Digital Media Manager will use digital watermarking and fingerprinting to establish an industry-wide rules-based solution to copyright security and to assure copyright compliance. By providing a more reliable way to track content, the service will help clients realize the value of their digital content, promote the expansion of Internet-distributed media and facilitate a number of revenue streams, including ad-pairing, e-commerce, royalty reporting and others.

Nielsen already uses digital watermarking to encode 95% of national television programming for its television ratings service, and the new service will focus initially on the online distribution of television content in the U.S. The companies expect these new solutions to be available in mid 2008.

Nielsen and Digimarc also plan to work with the media industry to digitally watermark DVD’s, movies, music, video games and other content in subsequent phases of the roll-out of the new media identification and management services.

YouTube AND Google beware!

The Nielsen-Digimarc Web video policing initiative announcement comes on the heels of Attributor launching its editorial content policing product. Attributor CEO Jim Brock: 

Search engines should not link to pirated content.
Advertising networks should not profit from infringing content.

SEE: Tom Curley AP Crusade: Google AdSense Lawsuit Near? Thanks to Attributor and Attributor Launch Blasts AdSense Pirating: Google Beware

WITH NIELSEN, DIGIMARC AND ATTRIBUTOR ON THE CONTENT MUST BE COMPENSATED FOR CASE, GOOG MAY NOT BE PROFITING, AS WELL!

MORE: Wikipedia Goes Green: Cash To Lure Professionals

ALSO: Henry Blodget Slams eBay’s Whitman: Yahoo’s Yang Next? and Edgeio $5 million Failure: The Myth of Disposable Startups

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

NBC has a hate-love-hate relationship with YouTube, I noted to NBC Universal Senior VP, Digital Distribution, Ron Lamprecht, at the Ad-Tech conference underway in New York City. Google’s Director of TV Ads, Michael Steib, was at his side.

The two execs shared a stage for a panel entitled “Television 3.0,” moderated by Greg Baumann, Editor, Television Week.

During the Q & A, I underscored the irony of a Television Week editor opening a panel on the future of television by showing a “clip” about TV, running on YouTube! I also asked Lamprecht what NBC intends to do about the rampant unauthorized posting of copyright NBC materials at YouTube.

My Question: NBC has deleted its YouTube channel while semi-launching its would be YouTube killer. NBC content nevertheless continues to boom at YouTube. What will NBC do about the ongoing copyright infringement?

1) Join in the Google Video ID program OR

2) Join in Viacom’s billion dollar YouTube lawsuit?

Lamprecht’s answer: We launched Hulu.com. We continue to talk with Google, Michael and I just spoke before the panel (Google’s TV Ads point man concurred).

I saw, and heard over the open mikes, the two Google and NBC execs joking together as well, before the discussion got underway.  During the panel, NBC’s digital distribution point man even gave Google the thumbs up, underscoring how the tehchnology of the company that wants to control all the world’s advertising, even the broadcast kind, will be indispensable to television advertisers going forward. Robert Leverone, VP Television, Dow Jones, chimed in that partnering is key.

The NBC-Google co-panelist love fest today at Ad-Tech contrasts starkly with the NBC-Google almost showdown I witnessed at the OMMA conference in NYC in September.

As I recount in NBC’s Defense Against YouTube IP Abuse? Carrot, NOT Stick: OMMA Report George Kliavkoff, Chief Digital Officer for NBC Universal, twice lobbed veiled, but pointed, jabs at Google for its scant concern for protecting the rights of content creators at its YouTube juggernaut. HE was sharing the stage with Google’s Director of Media Platforms, sitting side-by-side with Eileen Naughton.

During the OMMA Q & A, I asked Kliavkoff: “You seem to have twice indicated NBC’s unhappiness with Google’s DMCA business model. Isn’t it time for NBC to give Viacom some real support by also suing YouTube for copyright infringement?”

Kliavkoff responded that NBC belives in IP “carrots, not sticks.”

Just weeks later, NBC pulled its YouTube channel. Lamprecht didn’t say today if THAT (anti) YouTube move was the carrot, or the stick, talking!

MORE: Tom Curley AP Crusade: Google AdSense Lawsuit Near? Thanks to Attributor and Hulu.com Debuts: Worth the Wait and  NBC on Why Hulu.com IS a YouTube Killer: OMMA Report

PLUS: Google To World: Give YouTube Your Videos, NOW! and NBC Still Booming on YouTube: Google Lawsuit Next? and OMMA Advertising Cat Fight? Google’s Media Chief Gets Defensive

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN