Marketing Pilgrim

You know how they say “Timing is everything”? Well, apparently so does Google. Less than a week after the head of Dow Jones whines about Google sucking newspapers’ lifeblood like a vampire (no, seriously, he said that), Google helpfully instructs news publishers on how to share their videos with the search giant.

Thankfully, unlike many newspapers, most news video publishers seem to be a little more “with it.” Google is asking them to become YouTube Partners. In exchange for their original, professional content, Google says its partners gain (emphasis added):

• Featured Premium Placement. YouTube news partners receive featured placement on the YouTube news page, youtube.com/news, where we feature news videos from partners related to the top news stories on Google News. In addition, if you allow your videos to be embedded, they’ll be eligible to appear on Google News, which means additional exposure to all Google News users.

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paidContent has two pieces of good news for Hulu in the past week—they’re commanding not only similar ad prices to broadcast television, but also 10% of the online video ad market.

From a Bloomberg report, paidContent shows that, for some shows, CPMs on Hulu are actually greater than they are for broadcast TV. And when I say broadcast TV, we’re talking primetime, new episode, time-slot-leading network television. (None of that cable syndicated rerun stuff!) Bloomberg’s example:

Marketers typically pay $20 to $40 per thousand viewers for a prime-time ad. On Hulu, which began offering shows to the public in March 2008, an ad on the animated series “The Simpsons” costs $60 per thousand viewers, Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. wrote in a June 18 report.

How can the Internet, with demonstrably fewer viewers (another example, the NCAA basketball championship game, drew 17.6M TV viewers and 7.52 Internet viewers), command such high CPMs?

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Although the latest planned feature for YouTube looks like an ad, for once YouTube’s rolling out something somewhat noteworthy that’s not part of its continue search for revenues. The feature? Overlays, like InVideo ads, that feature off-site links.

As TechCrunch reports, “you probably thought it was already out there.” But to-date, YouTube hasn’t allowed any links embedded in its videos other than a.) ads or b.) links to other YouTube videos. If you needed to link to your website, blog, Twitter profile, etc., you had to do it in the right-hand sidebar, where it would be largely ignored.

YouTube ran a similar promotion in March for charity:water. This video from the organization features the overlay:

The move is unique in that this is the first non-advertising off-site links YouTube has allowed. However, the program will only be open to YouTube’s advertisers participating in the CPC Promoted Videos program. TechCrunch says the program is launching today.

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Almost 3 years after Italian authorities investigated two Google Italy employees–as part of an inquiry into how a violent video appeared on Google Video–criminal charges have now been brought against four Google executives.

According to the Financial Times, Italian prosecutor Francesco Cajani has brought criminal charges against four Google executives directly.

…David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, and Peter Fleischer, its top privacy executive, after footage of a disabled boy being bullied by other boys was broadcast on Google Video…George Reyes, former chief financial officer, has since retired from Google. The fourth is Arvind Desikan, a senior product marketing manager.

While the video sounds pretty heinous–four boys bullied another with Down’s syndrome, then posted the video to Google Video–it might be equally unjust that Google is being pulled into the court room. The European Union’s electronic commerce directive works in much the same way as US laws and basically protects internet service providers from being liable for the works published by others. In addition, Google pulled the video as soon as it was made aware of it.

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Okay, no, not really—but the encyclopedia anyone can edit is looking to add video to its offerings, according to Technology Review (via RWW).

To launch in the next 2-3 months (by the end of the summer), Wikipedia’s new system will allow users to contribute and even edit clips for articles, posting the entire clip or only portions. Wikipedia itself will only allow videos from the Internet Archive, Metavid and Wikimedia Commons.

No video editing software is necessary to post full or partial clips, but “One of the requirements for any video added to the site is that it be based on open-source formats.”

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Back in April, Credit Suisse issued a report stating that YouTube stood to lose $470M this year. But now it looks like the financial services company was overly pessimistic (and, really, they’re probably just used to that, with the economy the way it is). New estimates from research company RampRate puts the losses for the most popular video website in the world far more conservatively:

RampRate lowered the estimated bandwidth costs, stating that by locating its data centers in “out of the way” locations like Iowa and Finland, the company saves significantly on the cost of transmitting data. RampRate also took into account peering costs for what they say is a more accurate estimate.

While a $174M loss is still a significant loss, it’s not the sob story we’re used to seeing with YouTube and its tireless search for profitability. RampRate takes a cynical line on Google’s motivations for not correcting reports like Credit Suisse’s:

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It’s only been a month since we blogged about YouTube’s attempts at monetization—so it’s about time for them to try something new, isn’t it? paidContent reports that YouTube is testing a choose-your-own-ad feature to give us all what we really want: the choice between instant and delayed gratification.

I know when you read “choose your own ad,” you were hoping you’d be given the choice between commercials for Swiffer and Burn Notice. (What? You don’t stop whatever you’re doing to watch Michael Westen or join in with “Baby Come Back”?)

Falling short of that, YouTube’s test feature is still okay, I guess. YouTube’s new test lets users choose between one single pre-roll ad (usually 30+ seconds) or four 15-second commercial breaks dispersed throughout the clip. But will there be any choice? Back in December, Hulu reported that 88% of its users chose a two-minute pre-roll instead of 30-second ads interspersed throughout a half-hour (23-minute) program.

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We have chronicled the slow death of the newspaper industry for a while now. First, there was the thought that maybe the Internet could displace newspapers with the delivery of content in a more timely and personalized manner. Newspapers decided that they were doing just fine and that they were moving into the digital world in a way that could help them maintain their content delivery fiefdom with no problems. Now, we see a landscape of wreckage where some of the most venerable names in newspaper including the Boston Globe are losing value both monetarily and in reputation. It’s been painful to watch but now there is even more carnage predicted as a result of the Internet age.

Henry Blodget penned a column over at Ad Age that can be summed up neatly in its headline “Sorry, There’s No Way to Save the TV Business; It Should Take Its Cues From What Happened to Newspapers”.

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All your hours are belong to us: YouTube announced yesterday that it has joined Facebook Connect. The integration between the two sites is more than just the typical FB connect partnership, which allows FB members to link their profiles to comments on participating sites. On the Facebook Developer blog, program manager Josh Elman says:

When logged into Facebook and YouTube, users can now automatically publish and share the videos they upload to YouTube directly to Facebook.

YouTube isn’t the first video site to integrate with Facebook. According to AllFacebook, Joost has been in a partnership with Facebook Connect since December and has seen some serious benefits:

According to Facebook, Joost has also implemented Facebook Conenct and since implementing it in December, the average Facebook user has watched 30 percent more videos and has entered 15 percent more comments. The message is clear: implementing Facebook Connect on your site, tends to increase engagement across the board. Every site that has integrated with Connect has reported that overall activity has increased since launch.

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A study was released today, conducted by inbound marketing company HubSpot, which looked at 4.5 million Twitter users over a nine month period. The data was gathered by their proprietary Twitter Grader tool and provides more confirmation of what we reported last week following a study conducted by a Harvard MBA candidate and assistant professor: As the tool as grown its usage has not in the same proportion.

What in the world does that mean, right? Of course if there are a gazillion people signing up for Twitter accounts and lawsuits being filed over impersonation accounts then it must be that all the world is atwitter with Twitter-itis, correct? HubSpot’s study shows that despite the top line growth in number of accounts the actual usage of Twitter may still rest with the technology crowd that claimed it as their own oh those many years ago (well actually around 3 years ago but in the Internet age that’s like a generation or two).

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It seems that more people are watching video online these days. Maybe it’s the rise in unemployment where people are finding more ‘free time’ these days rather than having to be hassled with a job. Maybe it’s the folks at their desks trying to while away the time since there is no business being done? Maybe it’s the high quality of most video on the Internet? Maybe it’s the ‘job outsourcing” craze? Maybe I am being way too cynical?

Whatever it is, ClickZ reports that comScore’s Video Metrix service showed an Internet users watched 16.8 billion online videos in April of this year which is a 16% increase over March. Google itself increased 15% month over month for videos viewed on its properties led by YouTube. What is most striking is what Google is doing regarding market share of online video. It’s a show that is as impressive, if not more so, than their search engine dominance. Here’s the numbers

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The aliens over at Hulu don’t just want to eat your brains—they also want to take your money, according to a Daily Finance story yesterday. New CEO Jonathan Miller said:

he envisions a future where at least some of the TV shows and movies on Hulu, the premium video site co-owned by News Corp., NBC Universal and Disney, are available only to subscribers.

Miller . . . prefaced his remark by noting that he won’t attend his first Hulu board meeting until Monday, so the scenario he foresees is merely his own speculation. But, he continued, “in my opinion the answer could be yes. I don’t see why over time that shouldn’t happen. I don’t think it’s on the agenda for Monday [but] it seems to me that over time that could be a logical thing.”

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