Exclusive footage of film
Monday, December 17, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Press about Clearspring's WAN (Widget Ad Network) Announcement
Here are the results of our recent PR efforts regarding The Widget Ad Network, SnaggableAds and our PointRoll partnership.
Widgets Gone Wild (Widgets get cover mention on Adweek and Full cover story on yesterday’s Mediaweek; attached as a pdf file)
Adweek
December 10, 2007
Byline: Rich Brunelli
http://www.adweek.com/aw/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003682974
“Now comes another turning point, as McLean, Va.-based Clearspring on Dec. 10 gears up to roll out the Widget Ad Network, enabling media companies to create ad-embedded widgets distributed via social-networking sites, desktops and mobile phones.”
--Adweek and Mediaweek
Online Ad World Gets Wider with Widgets
InternetNews.com
December 10, 2007
Byline: Clint Boulton
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2230179,00.asp
"Google is getting a new competitor. Widget maker Clearspring Technologies on Dec. 10 said it plans to launch an ad network to help its media publishing customers make money from their content."
--InternetNews.com
"Peggy Fry, senior vice president at Clearspring, said that while Google Gadget Ads are designed to run on the Google content network, Clearspring's widget ads will run on any blogs, start pages or social networks. The competition is likely to be friendly; Google and Clearspring are partners, and are working on how to make Clearspring's widgets run on Google's network."
--InternetNews.com
Clearspring Partners with PointRoll for Ads on your Widgets
Mashable
December 10, 2007
Byline: Kristin Nicole
http://mashable.com/2007/12/10/clearspring-ad-network-pointroll/
"In Clearspring’s evolution as a distribution tool, it’s become somewhat of a one-stop shop, so offering a way to analyze the performance for multiple widget formats and recommending the best formats or combination of formats for various types of websites would give Clearspring another edge."
--Mashable
Widget Syndicator Clearspring Launches Ad Network
Reuters
December 10, 2007
Byline: Eric Auchard
http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSN1019024920071210
"Because the content in its syndicated widgets comes from recognized media brands, Clearspring says its service has distinct advantages for advertisers, compared with the "anything goes" ethic of much of the content created on the Web."
--Reuters
Clearspring launches widgets for Madison Avenue
VentureBeat
December 10, 2007
Byline: Julie Ruvulo
http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/10/clearspring-launches-widgets-for-madison-avenue/
“Clearspring earned its reputation as the market leader developing widgets for Big Media, and counts among its clients NBC (exclusively), Disney (recently launched over a dozen widgets for ESPN) and Turner.”
--VentureBeat
“Peggy Fry, a former vice president of sales at Netflix and AOL Time Warner, is well-positioned to head up the advertising effort for Clearspring, and several people I interviewed attested to Clearspring’s mindshare in the market.”
--VentureBeat
New service will insert ads into Web widgets
Clearspring launches network to help advertisers more easily target social network users
Computerworld
December 10, 2007
Byline: Heather Havenstein
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=development&articleId=9052098&taxonomyId=11&intsrc=kc_top
“Hooman Radfar, Clearspring's CEO and co-founder, noted that PointRoll is a dominant player in the rollover and expandable ad market. That, combined with the recent growth of consumer use of widgets -- 34% growth in the past two months, according to research firm comScore Inc. -- creates a ‘really powerful advertising communications platform,’ Radfar said. The two technologies will ‘make ads more interactive, having users be able to interact and stay longer with the ad than ever before,’ he added.”
--Computerworld
Clearspring Launches Widget Ad Network
Read Write Web
December 10, 2007
Byline: Josh Catone
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/clearspring_launches_widget_ad_network.php
“For smaller widget creators or those whose widgets are strictly content-based, selling in widget advertising may be a good way to monetize widgets, especially if ads are kept unobtrusive.”
--ReadWriteWeb
Clearspring Technologies & PointRoll Bring Rich Media to Widget Ads
Jack Myers.com
December 10, 2007
Byline: Jack Myers
http://www.jackmyers.com/commentary/media-biz-buzz/12309731.html
“Virgin Mobile, Blockbuster, Lionsgate Films and The Learning Channel have entered into a beta test agreement to distribute viral widget rich media ads through Fox TV (Futurama) and x17 online. The partners will be exploring different widget ad formats to define retention, grab rates, and interaction with the ads. Advertisers who want to reach the Web 2.0 audience can do it more effectively in widgets rather than banner ads, especially now that they are rich media enabled," said Peggy Fry, SVP Business Development.”
--JackMyers.com
Clearspring Launches Widget Ad Network With Major Partners
Digital Media Wire
December 10, 2007
Byline: Mark Hefflinger
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2007/12/10/clearspring-launches-widget-ad-network-major-partners
“The company said the tool will allow publishers to monetize their digital content across social networking sites, start pages and blogs by creating ad networks to serve ads within widgets. Twelve advertising and publishing firms -- including 20th Century Fox Television, Blockbuster, The Huffington Post, Lionsgate Films, and the National Hockey League -- will use the ad network.”
--Digital Media Wire
The Widget Ad Network
Washington Post’s The WashBiz Blog
December 10, 2007
Byline: Dan Beyers
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/washbizblog/2007/12/the_widget_ad_network.html
"Clearspring Technologies is creating another way to deliver one company's ads to another's Web site or desktop. The DC startup said it has started the Widget Ad Network, which will allow people to not only serve up their content on social networking sites, start pages and blogs, but also their ads."
--Washington Post
Clearspring Forms Network to Send Ads to Widgets
E-Commerce Times
December 10, 2007
Byline: Katherine Noyes
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Clearspring-Forms-Network-to-Send-Ads-to-Widgets-60702.html?welcome=seen
“The overall trend behind the widget advertising phenomenon is to try to improve the level of engagement with consumers and the targetability of ads, Harry Wang, a research analyst with Parks Associates, told the E-Commerce Times. “The first step is to generate interest from consumers by giving them the applications to help them access their desired content easily, conveniently and quickly,” Wang explained. In that way, Clearspring’s service “may be the bridge connecting consumers with advertisers -- it’s a good step.”
--E-Commerce Times
“Advertising through widgets is “definitely a trend,” and makes a great deal of sense for publishers since it lets them monetize their content, Greg Sterling, founder and principal with Sterling Market Intelligence, told the E-Commerce Times.”
--E-Commerce Times
Clearspring Unveils Widget Ad Network
ClickZ
December 11, 2007
Byline: Fred Aun
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627843
“Advertisers and agencies are saying the distributed Web is on the rise and they want to reach that audience,” said Fry. She said the Clearspring platform enables widgets to be spread on 14 officially supported destinations, including Facebook, iGoogle, MySpace, Windows Live Spaces and Blogger.
--ClickZ
Clearspring + Pointroll = Ad layers for widgets
Widgetslab
December 10, 2007
Byline: Avatar
http://www.widgetslab.com/2007/12/10/clearspring-pointroll-ad-layers-for-widgets/
“Well, that didn’t take long. It seems like Clearspring is not going to let Google or anyone to have all the fun so they made a partnership with Pointroll to create an Ad network for widgets that can be placed as a clickable layer in the widgets as a way to monetize more of their offerings and offer users and co-developers a way to monetize themselves better.”
--Widgetslab
Stay tuned…


Widgets Gone Wild (Widgets get cover mention on Adweek and Full cover story on yesterday’s Mediaweek; attached as a pdf file)
Adweek
December 10, 2007
Byline: Rich Brunelli
http://www.adweek.com/aw/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003682974
“Now comes another turning point, as McLean, Va.-based Clearspring on Dec. 10 gears up to roll out the Widget Ad Network, enabling media companies to create ad-embedded widgets distributed via social-networking sites, desktops and mobile phones.”
--Adweek and Mediaweek
Online Ad World Gets Wider with Widgets
InternetNews.com
December 10, 2007
Byline: Clint Boulton
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2230179,00.asp
"Google is getting a new competitor. Widget maker Clearspring Technologies on Dec. 10 said it plans to launch an ad network to help its media publishing customers make money from their content."
--InternetNews.com
"Peggy Fry, senior vice president at Clearspring, said that while Google Gadget Ads are designed to run on the Google content network, Clearspring's widget ads will run on any blogs, start pages or social networks. The competition is likely to be friendly; Google and Clearspring are partners, and are working on how to make Clearspring's widgets run on Google's network."
--InternetNews.com
Clearspring Partners with PointRoll for Ads on your Widgets
Mashable
December 10, 2007
Byline: Kristin Nicole
http://mashable.com/2007/12/10/clearspring-ad-network-pointroll/
"In Clearspring’s evolution as a distribution tool, it’s become somewhat of a one-stop shop, so offering a way to analyze the performance for multiple widget formats and recommending the best formats or combination of formats for various types of websites would give Clearspring another edge."
--Mashable
Widget Syndicator Clearspring Launches Ad Network
Reuters
December 10, 2007
Byline: Eric Auchard
http://www.reuters.com/article/technology-media-telco-SP/idUSN1019024920071210
"Because the content in its syndicated widgets comes from recognized media brands, Clearspring says its service has distinct advantages for advertisers, compared with the "anything goes" ethic of much of the content created on the Web."
--Reuters
Clearspring launches widgets for Madison Avenue
VentureBeat
December 10, 2007
Byline: Julie Ruvulo
http://venturebeat.com/2007/12/10/clearspring-launches-widgets-for-madison-avenue/
“Clearspring earned its reputation as the market leader developing widgets for Big Media, and counts among its clients NBC (exclusively), Disney (recently launched over a dozen widgets for ESPN) and Turner.”
--VentureBeat
“Peggy Fry, a former vice president of sales at Netflix and AOL Time Warner, is well-positioned to head up the advertising effort for Clearspring, and several people I interviewed attested to Clearspring’s mindshare in the market.”
--VentureBeat
New service will insert ads into Web widgets
Clearspring launches network to help advertisers more easily target social network users
Computerworld
December 10, 2007
Byline: Heather Havenstein
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=development&articleId=9052098&taxonomyId=11&intsrc=kc_top
“Hooman Radfar, Clearspring's CEO and co-founder, noted that PointRoll is a dominant player in the rollover and expandable ad market. That, combined with the recent growth of consumer use of widgets -- 34% growth in the past two months, according to research firm comScore Inc. -- creates a ‘really powerful advertising communications platform,’ Radfar said. The two technologies will ‘make ads more interactive, having users be able to interact and stay longer with the ad than ever before,’ he added.”
--Computerworld
Clearspring Launches Widget Ad Network
Read Write Web
December 10, 2007
Byline: Josh Catone
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/clearspring_launches_widget_ad_network.php
“For smaller widget creators or those whose widgets are strictly content-based, selling in widget advertising may be a good way to monetize widgets, especially if ads are kept unobtrusive.”
--ReadWriteWeb
Clearspring Technologies & PointRoll Bring Rich Media to Widget Ads
Jack Myers.com
December 10, 2007
Byline: Jack Myers
http://www.jackmyers.com/commentary/media-biz-buzz/12309731.html
“Virgin Mobile, Blockbuster, Lionsgate Films and The Learning Channel have entered into a beta test agreement to distribute viral widget rich media ads through Fox TV (Futurama) and x17 online. The partners will be exploring different widget ad formats to define retention, grab rates, and interaction with the ads. Advertisers who want to reach the Web 2.0 audience can do it more effectively in widgets rather than banner ads, especially now that they are rich media enabled," said Peggy Fry, SVP Business Development.”
--JackMyers.com
Clearspring Launches Widget Ad Network With Major Partners
Digital Media Wire
December 10, 2007
Byline: Mark Hefflinger
http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2007/12/10/clearspring-launches-widget-ad-network-major-partners
“The company said the tool will allow publishers to monetize their digital content across social networking sites, start pages and blogs by creating ad networks to serve ads within widgets. Twelve advertising and publishing firms -- including 20th Century Fox Television, Blockbuster, The Huffington Post, Lionsgate Films, and the National Hockey League -- will use the ad network.”
--Digital Media Wire
The Widget Ad Network
Washington Post’s The WashBiz Blog
December 10, 2007
Byline: Dan Beyers
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/washbizblog/2007/12/the_widget_ad_network.html
"Clearspring Technologies is creating another way to deliver one company's ads to another's Web site or desktop. The DC startup said it has started the Widget Ad Network, which will allow people to not only serve up their content on social networking sites, start pages and blogs, but also their ads."
--Washington Post
Clearspring Forms Network to Send Ads to Widgets
E-Commerce Times
December 10, 2007
Byline: Katherine Noyes
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Clearspring-Forms-Network-to-Send-Ads-to-Widgets-60702.html?welcome=seen
“The overall trend behind the widget advertising phenomenon is to try to improve the level of engagement with consumers and the targetability of ads, Harry Wang, a research analyst with Parks Associates, told the E-Commerce Times. “The first step is to generate interest from consumers by giving them the applications to help them access their desired content easily, conveniently and quickly,” Wang explained. In that way, Clearspring’s service “may be the bridge connecting consumers with advertisers -- it’s a good step.”
--E-Commerce Times
“Advertising through widgets is “definitely a trend,” and makes a great deal of sense for publishers since it lets them monetize their content, Greg Sterling, founder and principal with Sterling Market Intelligence, told the E-Commerce Times.”
--E-Commerce Times
Clearspring Unveils Widget Ad Network
ClickZ
December 11, 2007
Byline: Fred Aun
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627843
“Advertisers and agencies are saying the distributed Web is on the rise and they want to reach that audience,” said Fry. She said the Clearspring platform enables widgets to be spread on 14 officially supported destinations, including Facebook, iGoogle, MySpace, Windows Live Spaces and Blogger.
--ClickZ
Clearspring + Pointroll = Ad layers for widgets
Widgetslab
December 10, 2007
Byline: Avatar
http://www.widgetslab.com/2007/12/10/clearspring-pointroll-ad-layers-for-widgets/
“Well, that didn’t take long. It seems like Clearspring is not going to let Google or anyone to have all the fun so they made a partnership with Pointroll to create an Ad network for widgets that can be placed as a clickable layer in the widgets as a way to monetize more of their offerings and offer users and co-developers a way to monetize themselves better.”
--Widgetslab
Stay tuned…


Friday, October 26, 2007
Independent Confirmation of Clearspring
From: Steve Winton
Sent: 26 October 2007 11:11
To: Anna Carlson
Subject: Clearspring Blog Post
I Can See Clearly Now…
I was recently handed the monumental task of comparing the major players in the wonderful world of widget platforms. No mean feat, I can assure you, this turned into a mammoth undertaking of epic proportions (well, that may be stretching it a tad ;-). This is new and (relatively) unchartered territory and, although undoubtedly a new and exciting area of social media to be involved in, this meant it was tricky to nail down and collate the huge volumes of data and information into something palatable and useful that would enable us to deliver a whole host of wonderful widgets (be they destined for the web or desktop) using the right platform for the right client, and for the right price. Phew!
OK, so who are the ‘major players’ in the widget platform arena at this point in time?
With the help of Ivan Pope, of Snipperoo
Clearspring
Springwidgets
Widgetbox
I looked at a number of factors from a technical perspective, ranging from analytics, API richness, deployment options, parameter types, supported technologies (Flash, Flex, ActionScript 3, HTML), hosting capabilities, as well as ’softer’ considerations such as user experience, administrative ease, support responsiveness, and widget exposure (i.e. how many ‘hosts’ we can get our widgets onto, such as iGoogle, Pageflakes, Netvibes, Facebook etc.).
To spare you the gory details, allow me cut to the chase…
The winner is…
Clearspring! And here’s why…
Firstly, I’m really impressed with the definitions/terminology they have in place. They really seem to have thought through all this ‘widgety goodness stuff’ from a fresh perspective, and as a result, I feel they are pushing the envelope with what’s possible (for example, their concept of a widget ‘placement ID’ and widget placement awareness, is unique. What’s more, they will be exposing this to developers through an API shortly, which will make our widgets more flexible and able to do all manner of interesting things!).
I like the publishing process on this platform (both from a developer’s perspective and end-user perspective), the process was really clean and fuss-free. Plus, for privately hosted widgets (i.e. where a widget resides on a private space such as iGoogle) there’s no need to revisit the platform’s website just to change a parameter value, you can do it all right there on the page where the widget resides. Bonus!
Both HTML and Flash widgets are supported (for maximum exposure, stick to Flash widgets as certain sites, notably Facebook and MySpace, don’t allow any scripting in widgets and so simply don’t permit any HTML whatsoever).
They will be exposing more features to their (already well-documented) API in the coming weeks (I’ve been added to their beta-list and await an update in this respect with bated breath!).
I was also pleasantly surprised to receive responses to my questions on support forums! And, from a bona-fide Clearspring employee, no less! This is reassuring to say the least!
Hosting isn’t provided as part of the service (which, incidentally should be provided on a Utility Computing basis, but I digress…) but that could be regarded as a positive thing… no need to hang around wondering when your latest widget amends might finally make it onto the production server, you remain in control of publication at all times.
A tip of the hat in the direction of Widgetbox is appropriate at this point, if only for the fully-fledged Facebook apps you are able to create from your widgets in a few simple clicks using this platform, they really make this a painless process. However, at the end of the day, the sum of Clearspring’s well-thought through concepts, forum support and APIs were the clincher for me!
So, hats off to you Clearspring, for creating what looks like a very promising service, and I hope to be working with you very soon!

Social media goodness. Translated. Created. Delivered.
Steve Winton
Developer
+44 (0)1273 648310
steve@nixonmcinnes.co.uk
21-22 Old Steine t. 0845 345 3462 www.nixonmcinnes.co.uk
Brighton BN1 1EL f. 0845 345 3463
Read our free ebook: Essential reading for marketers
Chapter 5: Mashups - Learn how to distribute your brand aggressively and inexpensively
Registered Office: 14 The Droveway, Haywards Heath, RH16 1LL
Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 4116747
Sent: 26 October 2007 11:11
To: Anna Carlson
Subject: Clearspring Blog Post
I Can See Clearly Now…
I was recently handed the monumental task of comparing the major players in the wonderful world of widget platforms. No mean feat, I can assure you, this turned into a mammoth undertaking of epic proportions (well, that may be stretching it a tad ;-). This is new and (relatively) unchartered territory and, although undoubtedly a new and exciting area of social media to be involved in, this meant it was tricky to nail down and collate the huge volumes of data and information into something palatable and useful that would enable us to deliver a whole host of wonderful widgets (be they destined for the web or desktop) using the right platform for the right client, and for the right price. Phew!
OK, so who are the ‘major players’ in the widget platform arena at this point in time?
With the help of Ivan Pope, of Snipperoo
Clearspring
Springwidgets
Widgetbox
I looked at a number of factors from a technical perspective, ranging from analytics, API richness, deployment options, parameter types, supported technologies (Flash, Flex, ActionScript 3, HTML), hosting capabilities, as well as ’softer’ considerations such as user experience, administrative ease, support responsiveness, and widget exposure (i.e. how many ‘hosts’ we can get our widgets onto, such as iGoogle, Pageflakes, Netvibes, Facebook etc.).
To spare you the gory details, allow me cut to the chase…
The winner is…
Clearspring! And here’s why…
Firstly, I’m really impressed with the definitions/terminology they have in place. They really seem to have thought through all this ‘widgety goodness stuff’ from a fresh perspective, and as a result, I feel they are pushing the envelope with what’s possible (for example, their concept of a widget ‘placement ID’
I like the publishing process on this platform (both from a developer’s perspective and end-user perspective), the process was really clean and fuss-free. Plus, for privately hosted widgets (i.e. where a widget resides on a private space such as iGoogle) there’s no need to revisit the platform’s website just to change a parameter value, you can do it all right there on the page where the widget resides. Bonus!
Both HTML and Flash widgets are supported (for maximum exposure, stick to Flash widgets as certain sites, notably Facebook and MySpace, don’t allow any scripting in widgets and so simply don’t permit any HTML whatsoever).
They will be exposing more features to their (already well-documented) API in the coming weeks (I’ve been added to their beta-list and await an update in this respect with bated breath!).
I was also pleasantly surprised to receive responses to my questions on support forums! And, from a bona-fide Clearspring employee, no less! This is reassuring to say the least!
Hosting isn’t provided as part of the service (which, incidentally should be provided on a Utility Computing
A tip of the hat in the direction of Widgetbox is appropriate at this point, if only for the fully-fledged Facebook apps you are able to create from your widgets in a few simple clicks using this platform, they really make this a painless process. However, at the end of the day, the sum of Clearspring’s well-thought through concepts, forum support and APIs were the clincher for me!
So, hats off to you Clearspring, for creating what looks like a very promising service, and I hope to be working with you very soon!

Social media goodness. Translated. Created. Delivered.
Steve Winton
Developer
+44 (0)1273 648310
steve@nixonmcinnes.co.uk
21-22 Old Steine t. 0845 345 3462 www.nixonmcinnes.co.uk
Brighton BN1 1EL f. 0845 345 3463
Read our free ebook: Essential reading for marketers
Chapter 5: Mashups - Learn how to distribute your brand aggressively and inexpensively
Registered Office: 14 The Droveway, Haywards Heath, RH16 1LL
Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 4116747
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
FB App and Widget Quote Relevant to Publishers and Advertisers
Quote from OMMA article that is relevant to publishers and advertisers:
The panelists agreed that publishers or advertisers planning to use widgets need to make sure they have enough quality content to feed them with and an actual strategy for promoting them--because widgets don't just go viral by chance. "Viral growth is engineered," said Goldstein.
"You can't just build a widget, put it somewhere and they come," said Boissiere. "The initial burst comes from seeding a widget inline with content. Users are going to NBC.com for content around 'The Office'--they're not going to go to Facebook first to get that content."
According to the panelists, the recent wave of publisher and advertiser interest in widgets was arguably tied to Facebook's decision to open its platform to developers. "With an app on Facebook, you as an advertiser can build a multipage experience that goes beyond just a widget," said Ro Choy, head of business development, RockYou. "You can create a microsite in a user profile."
The full article can be found at
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=68105&Nid=34724&p=468186
The panelists agreed that publishers or advertisers planning to use widgets need to make sure they have enough quality content to feed them with and an actual strategy for promoting them--because widgets don't just go viral by chance. "Viral growth is engineered," said Goldstein.
"You can't just build a widget, put it somewhere and they come," said Boissiere. "The initial burst comes from seeding a widget inline with content. Users are going to NBC.com for content around 'The Office'--they're not going to go to Facebook first to get that content."
According to the panelists, the recent wave of publisher and advertiser interest in widgets was arguably tied to Facebook's decision to open its platform to developers. "With an app on Facebook, you as an advertiser can build a multipage experience that goes beyond just a widget," said Ro Choy, head of business development, RockYou. "You can create a microsite in a user profile."
The full article can be found at
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=68105&Nid=34724&p=468186
Monday, September 10, 2007
Web 2.0 People in the News
| Heavy Lands Another Biggie |
| by Tanya Irwin, Monday, Sep 10, 2007 6:00 AM ET |
| HEAVY.COM IS ON A ROLL for nabbing new top executives. In another coup for the online video service, Eric Hadley is leaving Microsoft Corp. to join Heavy as chief marketing officer, Online Media Daily has learned. He will join Todd Sloan, who left NetRatings last week to be Heavy's new CFO (see Online Media Daily, Sept. 6, 2007). |
Online Video Information and Resources
Sept 10, 2007
Online Video Viewers Looking For News Clips
A new study by Advertising.com, Inc., reports that that the majority of consumers are viewing video online, at 62 percent of survey respondents. These viewers are not just young adults viewing user-generated videos, says the report, but, in fact, 69 percent are ages 35 and older with a preference for viewing news clips online.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Gizmoz.com Avatar TV Campaign
| Gizmoz.com Avatars to Star in Taco Bell Ad | |
| by Karl Greenberg, Friday, Sep 7, 2007 6:00 AM ET | |
| TACO BELL HAS CHOSEN THREE fans to star as virtual actors in an ad for "Fourthmeal," the late-night meal between dinner and breakfast, set to debut worldwide during the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards on Saturday. The winners were chosen as part of Taco Bell's "TV Me!" contest, in partnership with Gizmoz and MTV. Gizmoz is an online program that enables people to create avatars of themselves. In less than two weeks, consumers created more than 17,000 Gizmoz clips, which were viewed more than 920,000 times. The contest, launched in early July, earned each of the 3-D animated talking actors 30 seconds of air time during MTV's music awards show. Following the debut on the VMAs, the winning auditions can be viewed on tacobell.com. Using Gizmoz.com's photo-realistic avatars, consumers were asked to audition by uploading a digital photograph. The Gizmoz program creates a 3-D lifelike head and personalized body. Consumers could also record their voices for their 15-second, lip-synched audition. Contestants were judged on personality, originality, overall appeal and ability to express themselves. Irvine, Calif.-based Draftfcb created the TV spot, and added the winning avatars into the "World Stops for Fourthmeal" environment. The 15-second spot will run first, followed by the debut of the new spot that includes the three winners.
|
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Apple Stats
Lots of news big and small from The Steve Jobs Show (NSDQ: AAPL) now underway, including, as anticipated, a touch iPod with WiFi shipping this month-basically an iPhone sans AT&T and the phone, a WiFi Music Store-and, for the traditional content partner surprise, a deal for WiFi downloads with Starbucks (NSDQ: SBUX) complete with Howard Schultz cameo/sales pitch. (Updated: The full video of Jobs' presentation is here.)
The Cliff Notes version of the incredibly detailed Engadget coverage:
-- The Starbucks deal, allowing WiFi access for music downloads, is exclusive with iTunes and rolls out Oct. 2 in NY and Seattle, followed by 350 stores in San Francisco Nov. 7 and eventually to 5,800 WiFi-enabled stores across U.S, most by end of 2008. It will work on iPhone as well as iPod Touch. (Less clear, whether you need a T-Mobile account for the other WiFi features like YouTube, etc.)
-- iPhone: On track to ship 1 millionth unit this month but lowering price of 8GB, which most people want, to $399 from $599. (Sounds like the 4GB may be toast but unsure.) Jobs: "We want to make the iPhone even MORE affordable for even more people."
-- iPod Touch: Same size as iPhone but even thinner, comes in 8GB at $299 and 16G at $399. Includes Safari and 802.11 b/g. Battery life per Jobs: 22 hours audio, 5 hours video playback. Shipping this month.
iTunes stats: Over 600,000,000 million copies distributed. Over 3 billion sings sold. Over 550 shows, over 95 million shows sold. 125,000 podcasts.
-- KT Tunstall as the surprise performer: "It's fantastic that Steve Jobs is making it more fun to pay for music than steal it!"
Update: In an interview with CNBC, Jobs confirmed that the 4GB iPhone was being discontinued. He also said iPhone would launch in some European countries next quarter with Asia 'probably' to follow in 2008.
-- Some had hoped for the Beatles' announcement today. Jobs: "It's up to Apple Corps. I hope you will see something in the next six months. ... When Apple Corps is ready, we're ready to go.
The Cliff Notes version of the incredibly detailed Engadget coverage:
-- The Starbucks deal, allowing WiFi access for music downloads, is exclusive with iTunes and rolls out Oct. 2 in NY and Seattle, followed by 350 stores in San Francisco Nov. 7 and eventually to 5,800 WiFi-enabled stores across U.S, most by end of 2008. It will work on iPhone as well as iPod Touch. (Less clear, whether you need a T-Mobile account for the other WiFi features like YouTube, etc.)
-- iPhone: On track to ship 1 millionth unit this month but lowering price of 8GB, which most people want, to $399 from $599. (Sounds like the 4GB may be toast but unsure.) Jobs: "We want to make the iPhone even MORE affordable for even more people."
-- iPod Touch: Same size as iPhone but even thinner, comes in 8GB at $299 and 16G at $399. Includes Safari and 802.11 b/g. Battery life per Jobs: 22 hours audio, 5 hours video playback. Shipping this month.
iTunes stats: Over 600,000,000 million copies distributed. Over 3 billion sings sold. Over 550 shows, over 95 million shows sold. 125,000 podcasts.
-- KT Tunstall as the surprise performer: "It's fantastic that Steve Jobs is making it more fun to pay for music than steal it!"
Update: In an interview with CNBC, Jobs confirmed that the 4GB iPhone was being discontinued. He also said iPhone would launch in some European countries next quarter with Asia 'probably' to follow in 2008.
-- Some had hoped for the Beatles' announcement today. Jobs: "It's up to Apple Corps. I hope you will see something in the next six months. ... When Apple Corps is ready, we're ready to go.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Mobile Widget Info & Companies to Watch
Why are Mobile Widgets Important?
MySpace and Facebook are the leading social network sites in the US with 53M and 25M unique users each month respectively*.
There are currently 35M mobile web users in the US*, and this market has grown at more than 50% per year for the last three years.***
There are 206M mobile phone subs in the US (17% use their data plans and 25% have data plans)
The Clearspring mobile syndication platform will be able to publish widgets to all carriers except Verizon when mobile launches and will offer the Verizon system before the end of 2007.
Globally, more people have mobile phones than PCs
There are 2.7 Billion mobile phone users around the world while there are 850M PCs: 800M cars; 1.3B fixed landline phones; 1.4B credit cards; 1.5B TV Sets**
*Source: Web data from Alexa and Quantcast; Mobile user data from Telephia and Comscore.
**Source: Communities Dominate Brands, book by Toni Ahonen and Alan Moore
***Source: Chetan Sharma Consulting
Companies to Watch:
Zyb.com
Mosh - Nokia's video sharing play
Facebook mobile
Netvibes is upgrading their mobile service
YouTube mobile
Yahoo! mobile
Hooqs.com - Application that allows users to easily create a video channel and post that video to a mobile device.
MySpace and Facebook are the leading social network sites in the US with 53M and 25M unique users each month respectively*.
There are currently 35M mobile web users in the US*, and this market has grown at more than 50% per year for the last three years.***
There are 206M mobile phone subs in the US (17% use their data plans and 25% have data plans)
The Clearspring mobile syndication platform will be able to publish widgets to all carriers except Verizon when mobile launches and will offer the Verizon system before the end of 2007.
Globally, more people have mobile phones than PCs
There are 2.7 Billion mobile phone users around the world while there are 850M PCs: 800M cars; 1.3B fixed landline phones; 1.4B credit cards; 1.5B TV Sets**
*Source: Web data from Alexa and Quantcast; Mobile user data from Telephia and Comscore.
**Source: Communities Dominate Brands, book by Toni Ahonen and Alan Moore
***Source: Chetan Sharma Consulting
Companies to Watch:
Zyb.com
Mosh - Nokia's video sharing play
Facebook mobile
Netvibes is upgrading their mobile service
YouTube mobile
Yahoo! mobile
Hooqs.com - Application that allows users to easily create a video channel and post that video to a mobile device.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Marketers Start to Use Social Networks for CRM Instead of Ads
http://adage.com/digital/article.php?article_id=119918
Monday, August 20, 2007
Ad Age Article about Widgets
Three Strategies for Thriving on the Decentralized Web
As Long-form Content Becomes Bite-Size, Make Everything on Your Site Eembeddable
By Steve Rubelhttp://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=119926
Social Network Ads must be interactive and "make people's lives easier, better and richer.
Traditional marketing failing on social networks
Get interactive or get out, says analyst
Traditional marketing campaigns are proving unsuccessful on social networking sites, according to a recently published report.
The Forrester Research study suggests that most marketers still use traditional tactics like run-of-site advertising and static microsites to push messages into these networks.
However, the return on investment in these campaigns is very low, and marketers should be prepared to engage in a personal relationship with users by providing something of value.
Promotions are good in this context, according to Forrester, but information or brand elements that users can pass on to their friends are even better.
"It is clear that successful social networking site campaigns do not follow traditional marketing rules," said Charlene Li, a principal analyst at Forrester and co-author of the report.
"Social networking sites cannot be treated as channels because their members are not passive web pages."
The report suggests that marketers should mimic how music acts promote themselves on sites like MySpace by engaging their fans with frequent backstage gossip and answering their questions.
"During the past 10 years, the evolution of the internet has dramatically changed how organisations interact with customers," said Gurval Caer, president and chief executive at marketing agency Blast Radius.
"Companies are recognising that traditional marketing approaches like advertising are less effective today, and marketers are struggling to deliver value.
"People no longer want 'interruptive' brand communications; they want interactions with their peers and true value from companies through Facebook applications or communities for sharing ideas and experiences."
Caer added that marketing needs to "turn itself on its head" with a much greater focus on building relationships that will make people's lives "easier, better and richer".
The report concluded that companies that want to advertise on social networks should embrace the interactive aspect of the sites in order to gain the full benefit of these campaigns.
Forrester Report: Marketing on Social Networking SitesIndependent Confirmation of Clearspring's platform
Posted on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 at http://mmogwidgets.blogspot.com/2007/08/widget-platforms.html
Clearspring
When I started this project I settled on using Clearspring as my widget platform. It has a number of attractive features that influenced my decision.
- It offers turnkey syndication to many popular "start page" or personal page sites like iGoogle, Netvibes, Pageflakes, etc.
- It offers turnkey syndication to blogs and other services like Blogger, Digg, Stumble, etc.
- It was based on standard and well known technologies like Javascript and Flash.
- It has amazing analytics including:
- Number of widget views.
- Number of unique viewers.
- Domains that views are coming from.
- Viral hubs that are spreading the widget.
- Where people are viewing the widget from geographically.
- 3D graphs and charts with modifiable date ranges and data sets for custom reporting.
- The "get & share" button that makes it easy for viewers who like the widget to simply grab it, customize it's settings, and automatically add it to their favorite pages via their turnkey syndication or by embedding.
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