RT @gjokiel: Started playing with the #sportstracker beta service. workout upload is back (really missed that) and new features for anal ... [jussisolja]
Just read an article on Mashup.com about how Disney has bought a stake in Hulu.com – the number one on-demand HD-site in the US. Great stuff I thought…but at the same time my old grudge popped up and I wrote a rather heated comment to the article…almost like a blog post of it’s own….hmmm…
So here goes.
The news is all nice and dandy for the viewers in the US but when will the studios and other content owners realize that they need to give up the old revenue streams of gradually milking the non-US viewers by releasing their shows and content in phases to us poor saps? First sell to the TV-networks…then put out a DVD…a Blu-Ray and maybe if we get lucky we can at some point then view the content on-demand and in HD. And oh yeah…a few re-runs on TV just for the hell of it.
Come on guys…get your head out of…well you know…and don’t repeat the mistake the music industry made by clinging on to their “good ‘ol days” and by doing that teaching us that to get music online equals P2P. You might still have a chance if you move fast.
No wonder torrents are getting more and more popular. The mechanisms are in place (I’ve got iTunes, XBOX360 with a Live subscription and….yeah – a browser + a 100meg broadband) but for some reason there is no way for me to legally watch the HD content I want and when I want online.
It’s not that people are by nature purely evil and want everything for free (well not all of us anyways) but it’s quite simply that the powers that be at NBC, Disney, Fox, ABC, HBO, Warner (the list goes on…) are not even giving us the opportunity to do the right thing.
As I write this I’m listening to Spotify for which I’m paying 10€ / month. That’s right…streaming music and happily paying for the great service. So give me my BSG, Lost and 30 Rock in HD and I’ll pay happily (as long as you don’t try and rip me off like you are doing with Blu-Rays).
Hollywood royalty is falling for social media. We’ve got the first family of Twitterverse and now a new social networking site launched by Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo…oops sorry I meant Natalie Portman.
Ms. Portmans MakingOf.com promises to bring never-before-seen insights into the movie making process via true movie insiders such as Portman herself. But like Mashable.com points out: Just stating your site is a part of social media and slapping on a cute “beta” -tag next to your logo does not make it so.
A valid lesson for all content owners: In order to create a social experience online you have to identify the social objects (that Jyri Engeström so nicely talks about), fuel the fire with great exclusive content (this is the only area where MakingOf.com shows some promise…) and then give tools for the users to share, comment, upload their own content & create mashups and create systems for building your own presence and kudos in the community. Just one of the ingredients won’t do the trick.
I do hope that Ms Portman will continue to build MakingOf.com towards a more social experience. The promise of the service is intriguing but I just need the tools to engage – to enable me to take part – before that MakingOf.com is just another portal fighting for my attention. Just like back in ‘98.
(BTW: Has anybody stumbled upon any good examples of social media endeavours by the big Hollywood players?)
I just attended a half-day workshop / seminar held by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) aka the “Finnish BBC”. The topic of the day was their fairly new company strategy: “YLE Enabler Strategy”. I had not really dug into what they mean when they say “enabler” before attending so it was a nice surprise to notice that it actually means what I hoped it would mean: That these guys actually get it.
I’ve been ranting and raving about how businesses need to embrace the change by engaging their audience through being more transparent and focusing on true end-user benefits and needs and here I was sitting and listening in amazement when my speech was delivered to me by Mikael Jungner, the CEO of YLE.
Hold on a minute.
The CEO of the monolithical remnant of the 50’s and 60’s talking about openness, wanting to be the enabler of new business models and being the platform for new and better ways of creating and distributing great content.
Did not see that one coming.
So what is YLE doing right?
They’ve already made their sites “social media compatible”
They are already sharing their content archives (limited only by the pre-historic copyright laws): Elävä Arkisto / Tehosto / Areena
They see the opportunity, not the threat. And they see it high enough in the organization to really make things happen.
They’ve got the right people, with the right mind-set working on their services – with the backing & blessing of the CEO
This storefront stopped me dead on my tracks while walking around downtown San Francisco. It’s a great example of simple disruption at work. How to make something as boring as a hardware store stand out? Cole Fox Hardware in San Francisco did it by turning their storefront into an art exhibit and surprise surprise – people stop, pay attention, memorize your brand and walk in even though buying a hammer is not exactly #1 on their agenda.
Thinking outside the box and adding a human touch to what you do by simply having a little fun works. We all should do it much much more. Being too serious sucks and won’t get you fans. And today you need fans more than just customers.
Social Media is THE hot topic for marketers right now. Just like web 2.0 used to be a year ago. No surprise there. Attention follows people. Where the masses are that’s where marketers focus their attention.
What really scares me is the way everyone is pretending to be an expert when it comes to social media. Blogs of so called experts pop up and agencies claim they’ve got the key to Pandora’s box. The behavioural change that social media has triggered is just starting to take shape and will be a moving target for a long time if not forever. So how can anyone claim they’ve got the solution AND more importantly: It seems to me that the core of the change that social media has brought is that there IS NO FIXED SOLUTION. What is needed is a mentality shift. Companies and agencies need to embrace the openness, the transparency, the dialogue: listening and acting based on the feedback. The continuous development. The forever Beta.
I guess it is again natural for the old skool to try and force this new thing into a process and an operational model they can comprehend. It just does not work that way anymore. Just go with the flow and let go of control.
Jyri Engeström (Jaiku / Google) gave one of the most interesting and inspiring speeches last week at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. His presentation is now up as a video for all to enjoy.
Jyri’s 5 rules for building websites around social objects
1. Define your social object
2. Define your verbs
3. Make the objects shareable
4. Turn invitations into gifts
5. Charge the publishers – not the spectators
I love it how they do this all in stealth mode. No big launch. No big announcement 2 months prior (one that I’ve heard of at least). Just being remarkable by surprising your users with killer features. Simple, isn’t it.
It hit me while listening to the Agency 2.0 -panel discussion at Web 2.0 in San Francisco last week: Advertising agencies are desperately fighting the change. They claim they “get it” but the truth is that they just don’t want to let go of the past. The past where they were the ones who “understood” consumer behavior and knew how to manipulate it to the benefit of the marketers they worked for.
I realised that it wasn’t the ad guys on the panel who you should turn to for help in this new world. It was the audience: The bloggers, the guys with the start-ups and web 2.0 companies, the digital natives who live and drive the change who understand that you no longer can control your brand or trick consumers into buying your shitty product. Talk to them and even if it scares the hell out of you – listen and take action.
This one is priceless. In 1993 iD Software created Doom and changed the game industry forever. I remember staying up ’til early in the morning on school nights just to tackle the next level and then finding it impossible to sleep…Doom truly got into your head. It was pure videogaming bliss (my mum used another word: addiction).
Check out the video below for a rare glimpse into the making of a revolution. If this kinda things is your bag you should also check out a great book on the same topic: Masters of Doom by David Kushner.
