new market figures on convergence

Accenture has made a report on the future of convergence and identifies fierce competition from Asia. I have accentuated this before.. Asia has the perfect base for convergence; a highly skilled IT workforce, large film and television industry (bollywood is as big as hollywood, in production size and turnovers) and they can make the leap for going digital all at once (many parts of the territory is not yet on analogue television..).. no heritage like we have in Europe..

http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/industries/communications/convergence/landing_convergence.pdf

5 lessons for marketing media content

Snakes on a Plane: 5 lessons for marketers
"Snakes on a Plane" was the number-one movie this weekend, taking in $15.3 million. Some traditional media outlets that were so quick to trumpet months of unprecedented Internet buzz called the take "disappointing" and a "letdown."
Don't believe the hype. "Snakes on a Plane" was a first in many ways and if anything, proved that giving fans a stake in the outcome made the movie more successful than it would have been otherwise. (I saw it this weekend and it was pretty bad, but in a fun way, like "Rocky Horror" but without the singing.)
I think there are five key lessons to take away from what will always be remembered as the SoaP phenomenon:
1. Memes have never been more important. The simple and straightforward title was so unlike Hollywood films that fans took interest. Like a gene, a meme knows how to replicate itself. All of the instructions to copy it are inherently transmittable. "Snakes on a Plane" had all of the cultural transmitters necessary for it to easily sink into our cultural consciousness, which made it easy for DC Lugi and all of the other creative content creators to have fun with the concept. Social media means memes will spread faster than ever before. A name means everything if spreadability is the goal.
2. When fans embrace your meme, embrace your fans. Kudos to SoaP director David Ellis for acknowledging bloggers and fans. The studio didn't get medieval on them. They reached out to bloggers to thank them, invited them to promotional events, and finally invited many of them to the Hollywood premiere.
3. The culture of participation is here. Driven largely by the 20-something generation of Millennials, participation is what they expect. That's how they grew up and that's what they love. When Millennials and other meme-infected creative people are passionate about a product, idea or cause, they find the means to create and participate. Social media is their collaboration system. SoaP has proven that citizen marketers will help even the most niche-oriented product like "Snakes on a Plane" find an audience.
4. Embracing citizen marketers reduces risk. Launching a new product is betting against huge odds: Over 80 percent of all new products fail. New Line reduced its risk by listening to fans who wanted more snakes, gore and f-bombs. Making $15 million in one weekend is disappointing how? (Silly media.) If New Line hadn't listened to fans and released a PG-13 film called "Pacific Air Flight 121," chances are no one would have talked about it, and it would have been just another low-brow Hollywood movie.
5. The experience is the difference between profit and failure. SoaP was not just a film but a film-going experience. People dressed up, brought rubber snakes, shouted lines at the screen and had fun. All of the fan-created fun (and Sam Jackson's infamous, fan-created line) created an expectation of "we're in this together." (Read through these comments for first-hand reports from movie-goers.) It wasn't "Snakes on the Waterfront," but some people said it was the most fun they'd had at a movie in years. That's welcome news for an industry whose revenues keep declining. Before seeing SoaP on Friday night, I had not been to a movie in five months. The film industry's theater partners insist on ruining the experience by commercializing it to death. After sitting through 40 minutes of commercials for video games, the Army, Sprite, new TV shows and upcoming films, I won't return anytime soon.

from: http://customerevangelists.typepad.com/blog/2006/08/snakes_on_a_pla_1.html

Thanks also to Christy Dena; http://www.cross-mediaentertainment.com/

Avatar socks...

Yesterday I read a very amusing report about the growing trend of people to turn socks into favorite friends. De Telegraaf reports this to be a worldwide trend.. With this character, designed by yourself you express yourself and have an ever caring friend with you all the time.
I started wondering which of my socks would have a chance of becoming my caring friend. My socks are actually quit boring, most of the time. But sometimes I hide Disney characters in my boots. One of my favourites is Thinkerbell, naughty emotional little bitch. Kind of fits to (the dark side..) of my otherwise "lovely" character. Furthermore I found the idea of actualising an avatar for IRL funny. Is it because we are getting more used to building avatars in virtual worlds? Is it a transcending of virtual habits back into everyday life? When Thinkerbell transforms to be my favorite avatar sock friend I will upload a lovely picture of her.. promissed ;-)

TV content on its way to the mobile platform in the US

ABC is developing mobile phonegames as extensions to its succesprogrammes Desperate Housewives and Lost. Unfortunately in Europe not yet available because I am very curious how they have adapted the content to a light (mobile) game.

US cable network HBO has released one of its original documentaries for free for the first time as a video podcast available from its own website and from Apple's iTunes Music Store.

(c21 media.net)

20th century fox offers popular movies and series online

Twentieth Century Fox is passing by its' coldwater fear of offering films online. Warner Bros already started film offerings online a while ago. It seems the big 5 are not waiting for a catastrophhic market make over as the music industry has experienced through Peer to Peer. Already most of the P2P traffic (which is the major part of internettraffic worldwide) is for movie content. The movie mologs are following the i-tunes model and started an online offering. When the price is right, the advantages are that users can get their movies 'clean'.
Listening to the wishes of your customers is always a wise thing to do. The obstacles for listening to these wishes are often organisation-culturally dominated. It takes courage to break through these barriers, but on the other hand, there is no other way.

Digital Media Space "share of voice"; blackberry TV, sony and channel 4 VOD

Slowly but certainly the race for 'share of voice' in digital media space is heating up.

CanWest launches Blackberry TV: Global TV parent CanWest MediaWorks is launching bbTV, the first advertising-fuelled Canadian market effort designed to deliver video content to users of BlackBerry handheld devices

Sony preps new AXN channels for Europe: Sony is poised to roll out a string of new channels across Europe under its AXN action banner, with Germany, Switzerland and Austria all on the agenda and an animé network for the UK.

Channel 4's VoD plans go beyond TV : UK terrestrial Channel 4 is planning to launch on-demand services that go far beyond television in its continuing quest to gain a "disproportionate share of voice" in the digital media space.

(www.c21media.net)

The user in the director's seat; UGC is gaining impact

The explosive growth of YouTube (300 % in a year), myspace and video google (no figures yet, but I am convinced it is growing extensively) is making the notion of users wanting to generate content more solid.
Now in the Netherlands@ home is adding a UGC service with Zizo to the offerings. Users can send in material, that is rated and then aired. Idols on a daily bases. And NCRV is starting up 'videotalent" http://www.videotalent.nl a video upload service for the public.

All of these, it is a rough land of new beginnings, lovely to see. Yet at the same time it needs to grow beyond the material of the poodle in the pool to generate a break through. I am awaiting for the next global news issue (allas it will probably be a catastrofic situation) where witnesses will send in their reports and google video and youtube will be the number one news deliverers because of the fastness and the "no control" over the content that is an essential part of the "format". And for now, nothing wrong with the poodle in the pool, for what is the information we like to share anyway? What do users want to show off themselves? Wonderfull sources to explore..