OK, so it’s not often you see things about print journalism on this blog, but this was too fun not to share. Enjoy.

“Aren’t we all digital?” asks Darryl Ohrt, founder of the creative agency Plaid. Ohrt argues that digital-versus-traditional wrangling is increasingly beside the point as lines blur and agencies adopt new technologies.  Advertising Age

Social media’s ROI can be measured only once your firm has detailed its goals and established a baseline metric — a snapshot of blog traffic at a certain time, for example — writes Urs E. Gattiker, chief technology officer of CyTRAP Labs. He emphasizes cost-benefit analyses and says clicks, views and re-tweets can be used to measure one’s success.  Social Media Today

The youth today is savvy; intelligent; and importantly, powerful. Powerful? Yes. Looking at demographics; purchasing power; and the extent of influence to set trends, this is a group to be admired; respected (yes, they ain’t no fools); and targeted intelligently. I wrote a story that offered a compilation of insights on what not-to and to do when marketing to the youth. For one, don’t disrespect them, their values today are stronger than many of the preceding generations and their wit and tech-savvy abilities could mean the your organisation or brand fare rather poorly if you don’t deliver.

Here’s a summary of the findings:
- Be accountable for everything published on your website.
- With online campaigns, you are targeting people in the real world, therefore you should target with this in mind, more so, when using social media.
- With the web, it is difficult to identify influencers, and because you’re not sure which individual could spread negative comments around your brand, make sure that customer service is more than up to scratch.
- This comment should be revealing: “I reflected on all the ads that were thrown in my face that never even got a chance, thanks to my shark-like instincts to kill anything that looks like an ad.” The youth don’t like being imposed upon and they certainly stay far away from online ads.
- “Word-of-mouth and Google are basically all you need to know when Generation Y (Gen Y) is looking to buy a product.”
- Social news and networking sites have democratised the process of content filtering, making Gen Y the first generation where broadcasters can actually be the last to hear about newsworthy items. Marketers need to be on social networking sites, but also to be very prepared for the leap and all it demands.
- Much of Gen Y thinks of marketing as ‘evil’, and some handy advice to remember is that “marketing works when an intersection is created where on the one hand, the brands push, while on the other, the consumer pulls. Generation Y is living in a time where, for the first time, the consumer can control the corporate path.”

Hope you found this useful. Let us know your perspective on this topic.

OK. This harkens back to those internet “go-go” days of the late 90s – get first-mover advantage and scale and the money will follow. Sounds like the script for the movie Field of Dreams… “build a better product and the customers will come,” which as a marketer often working in the tech sector, is a line I hear all too often.

If what I just read in Business Week (“HULU’s Tough Choices”, Dec. 7, 2009) is any indication, HULU, the very popular free video streaming site with 40 million downloads per month (second only to You Tube) has run up a $35 million annual loss and is suffering just such a fate as the web bubble did.

HULU is not just an ordinary site. Funded in part by NBC, Fox and ABC, HULU was the film/video industry’s response to the technological disruption of FREE that had obliterated the music industry and with the prevalence of cheap bandwidth and storage, was heading it’s way. They saw how the music industry not only lost control of the new now dominant digital distribution channels but also found itself rendered obsolete, and did not wish to suffer the same fate.

One of the experiments put forward was HULU and lo and behold, I can get yesterday’s episode of 30 Rock and all sorts of video and film content on demand (1,700 titles) playable on my computer any time I want. And with WiFi-enabled LCD flat screens upon us, let alone the ever easier ability to integrate TVs into our home networks, this free content on your HiDef TV is nearly a reality. Or is it?

If the Business Week article is to be believed, the era of premium content at HULU is upon us. In other words, content we will have to pay for. And what is to be the price for this content? Your premium cable service!

Wow! Let me see if I have this right. Here comes this disruptive force of free streaming video content sponsored by the broadcast and film industry. It’s ad supported model is not really sustainable, at least right now. So yes, those happy days of free content appear to be coming to an end. And now the industry in its wisdom is telling us we may have to pay, and the way we will pay is in support of the what were soon to be disintermediated cable TV interests!

I mean after all, do we need cable anymore if a thriving online channel is delivering this content through our medium of choice through our server, versus the cable box? I guess the cable industry saw the handwriting on the wall too and isn’t about to go quietly into the night.

We could spend all day trying to figure this out. Is the Comcast acquisition of Universal (and NBC) from GE a factor in this equation? I will leave this to others to decipher.

My beat is marketing, and the question on the marketing side is, is this the best you can do, HULU? You have built a brand, you have scale, you have content and now you want to punt, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory while the experiment is in process? What a waste for you and the viewers who love you, and if my students are any indication, many do.

We all know that it is one thing to point out problems, another to pose solutions. Marketing is all about solutions, so let’s see what we can come up to get HULU out of this mess, knowing their ad model as currently in play isn’t sustainable.

Recommendation #1.
Up the value of the advertising.

How so?

As I see it from the outside, HULU has been a pioneer of offering choice to visitors? Watch the long ad and see the show uninterrupted… or choose the shorter ads sprinkled throughout. This is a great start.

How about going further and offer viewers even more choice? Offer a menu of ads by type and even product. Let the viewer self-select their ads of interest.

You can be high or low tech about it too. Low tech… base the ad offerings by the show, or if you want to be more slick, apply behavioral information to narrow down the choices based on each visitor’s clicking habits.

How does this improve value?

1. You are empowering your viewers with more, not less control
2. Ads are more relevant as a result
3. And in doing so, viewers actually act and “raise their hands,” which direct marketers know is the most costly and difficult part of the customer acquisition process

What this means is that response and conversion rates should be higher and I will argue in the absence of evidence either way, at least worthy of testing. And should indeed response/conversion rates improve, the value of the advertising will go up and command a higher premium.

And one other point. Advertisers could be charged based on actual visitor selection and or performance. If viewers don’t click, they don’t pay. And when visitors do engage, they pay more. Integrate some interactive promotions and calls to action for those that do select and powerful interactions can take place.

Recommendation #2:
HULU Ju Jitsu

I see HULU as more than a platform for streaming video… free streaming video on demand. I call it a Network of One. It is our own personal Video network, programmed by us just the way we want it, with the content we love, when we want it and hopefully soon, where we want it too.

The motor that has driven it’s success to date as the second most visited source of streaming video content is the fact that it is free. Don’t kill it! Use it! Since Fox, NBC and ABC are principals, create premium content that bring fans closer to the shows, films and actors they love with interviews, webcasts, blogs, tweets, contests, and even closer interactions and behind the scenes access. Create opportunities and other reasons to join fan clubs and other communities and pay for the privilege based on the degree of proximity and interaction.

Peel off some percentage of 40 million for tiered service and subscription packages that supplement the free streaming content, and some interesting numbers come into play. 1% of 40 million is 400,000 prospective customers. Find reasons to get them to pay up to say $100 per year for something special above the free content… well you get the idea.

For one thing, HULU is no longer operating at a deficit. Up the percentages… every .1% is 40,000 customers afterall, and the return can be even more radical. Personally, I would love the opportunity to win a lunch with Tina Fey, a comedic genius if there ever was one.

Blogging entrepreneur Anil Dash is launching Expert Labs, a social platform that aims to connect policymakers and researchers through social media and to crowdsource content on existing sites to inform decision making. “Opening government up to a broad array of expertise is the next logical step in improving American policymaking,” says publisher Alan Leshner.  Wired.com/Epicenter blog

Selecting and using the right font for signage, labels and other print campaigns can heighten brand awareness and evoke joy. On the other hand, using an inappropriate typeface is often jarring and can even be damaging to a brand, the author of this article writes. The New York Times

Thanks to better targeting, optimization and performance ads, online advertisers are shifting to buying audiences, not media, according to Rubicon’s Q3 Online Advertising Market Report. “The race to deliver exact and precise audiences to advertisers — as opposed to traditional online targeting tactics, which substituted content and context as proxies for audience — is on,” the report notes.  MediaPost Communications/Online Media Daily

Interactive-media strategist Tessa Wegert offers her take on the trends that will drive digital media in 2010. She says to expect more in-depth consumer data and targeting opportunities, more ads embedded in mobile apps and greater standardization in online media buying.  ClickZ

Social network Bebo has added a help button to its site to address cyberbullying, and child-protection groups are pressuring Facebook to follow suit. Bebo members can use the button to reach professional help when caught in a threatening situation. “The predator, the person that goes on with harmful intent … [knows] when they see it that there is an active deterrent here,” says one advocate.  BBC

B-to-b companies risk prioritizing short-term gains over the long-term potential of blogs by using social media to generate general traffic, Galen DeYoung writes. The firms should instead be trying to parse out the small number of followers relevant to their industry by increasing their search visibility and carefully positioning themselves as thought leaders in their niche, DeYoung writes.  Search Engine Land

Companies such as Comcast and Dell are investing in Twitter as a cost-effective customer-service tool. A majority of Twitter users say they expect a company to reach out when they post a complaint, but many firms say they’re overwhelmed by the volume of complaints and constrained by the service’s 140-character limit.  USA TODAY

Location-based social networking will eventually bridge the gap between virtual spaces and the real world, writes MG Siegler. “Social networking up until this point has been great. But it’s also really a bit odd. The core concept is still to gather your friends in a virtual construct,” he writes. Siegler notes that tools to manage privacy and let the user decide when to share location data are key to the technology’s success.  TechCrunch

Jay Adelson, CEO of the social bookmarking site Digg, told Fox Business News that his site would “get to profitability” with its ad product, which gets high click-through rates with strong content pairings. “If I can take that same concept and syndicate it and put it on a newspaper … I can help them solve their problems,” Adelson said.  Wall Street Journal, The/Venture Capital Dispatch blog

The FDA needs to develop guidelines for online pharmaceutical ads that reflect the differences between the way information about benefits and risks is conveyed via different media, consumer groups and marketers say. “You can’t just take the same rules from print and TV and put them online,” said David Zinman, Yahoo!’s vice president of display advertising. “The goal isn’t just to help advertisers. It’s also to help consumers.”  Los Angeles Times

While ads placed alongside online video perform well by certain measures, a new study from Eyeblaster notes that such ads attract less engagement in social networks and gaming sites than they do in e-mails or content-based sites.  Mediaweek

Despite the industry’s recent struggles, 74% of adults in the U.S. still read newspapers in print or online at least once a week, according to a recent Newspaper Audience study by Scarborough Research. “Given the fragmentation of media choices, printed newspapers are holding onto their audiences relatively well,” said Gary Meo, Scarborough vice president of print and digital media services.  MediaPost Communications/Media Daily News

National Geographic Channel this past weekend began rolling out an image campaign under the tagline “Live Curious.” One series of spots positions the network as a conduit for learning and personal growth while another features NGC on-air talent such as Cesar Millan, Sean Riley and Chris Fischer.  Mediaweek

Grocers including ShopRite, Meijer and Whole Foods offer apps to aid consumers with their shopping decisions, as do dozens of coupon, nutrition and store-locator apps also available to shoppers. But applications, says one industry consultant, will never replace the emotional quotient associated with shopping for groceries.  MediaPost Communications/Marketing Daily

Yahoo! is looking to reposition its Right Media Exchange for online ad inventory as an up-market ad-serving platform that will attract large agencies with better data, targeting and transparency.  Advertising Age

As online content providers search for ways to get readers to pay for access, a new survey from Forrester finds that receptivity to various payment models varies substantially. Some 80% of consumers said a “pay wall” would be a deterrent to them using a site, although college-educated consumers and high earners were more apt to pay for online newspaper access.  Mediaweek

Creative agencies for the first time joined media agencies and publishers in contributing to the IAB’s new online ad standards guidelines. The IAB anticipates the guidelines will improve creative output and branding opportunities. The next step in the process, says IAB President and CEO Randall Rothenberg, will be an effort “to drive towards adoption of revised standards that we believe will spur increased investment in interactive advertising.”  MediaPost Communications/Online Media Daily

Dec. 9 has been set as the date for AOL to once again become an independent company, its parent, Time Warner Inc., announced. The shift comes nearly nine years after AOL merged with Time Warner in what was intended to be a dynamic alliance of new and old media, but ended up being a failed megamerger, according to this article.  Reuters

Fate Therapeutics said it has raised $30 million from a series B funding round headed by OVP Venture Partners. The company is studying a method that employs small molecule drugs to turn adult stem cells into induced pluripotent stem cells.  San Diego Business Journal

Affiliate-marketing programs have grown beyond Web sites, as individuals are becoming a growing force in referral sales, entrepreneur Steve Poland writes. Expect more spam on social sites as more people realize they can make money in the referral business, he predicts.  TechCrunch