U2BE Part Deux

To follow up on my previous post on YouTube, it was made clear to me by a forced loyal reader (probably the only reader) that I did not expound upon my answer to their monetization issue. I believe there would be great value in placing the ad around the border of the video screen for a few reasons, let me explain.

First, let’s play a little word associate game…Ads…no, not “tuberculosis”, you watch too much Seinfeld, I’d bet most of you come up with “annoying” within the first 3 words. Whether messing with your show on TV, making it impossible to flip the pages in a magazine, or in this case, watch the whole video on YouTube, ads are in the way. AdWords and AdSense have succeeded in part because they’re not in the way. Look at Facebook’s Beacon, failed because it was intrusive, in a little bit of a different way, but intrusive nonetheless.

What makes YouTube different than other web pages though? There's no scrolling, moving of the eyes left to right, up and down….no, it’s a dead on stare straight ahead. So put the ads there, almost. Placement around the perimeter ensures a couple things:

• The ad can’t be closed like current in video ads are
• The ad will be seen for the entire duration of the video (unless they listen, but who does that)

I’ve conceded this will wreak havoc with advertisers who need to create new online ads for their clients, but let’s look at this glass half full for a moment. A user now goes to Popular Mechanic’s website and sees an ad for Ford in a predetermined sized box that looks like every other Chevy, BMW, Volvo and Porche ad. With YouTube they have the unique advantage of having all the content of value in a centralized area, with the remainder of the page for robust, more create, and DIFFERENTIATING ads. Imagine if Ford instead animated a Mustang driving in and parking on top of the video of drag racing a user is viewing, and dropped down the new price and financing deals on either side. Perhaps Bud Light could bring back their frogs to hop across the screen chasing a fly holding a beer instead of having a picture of a girl in a bikini like every other ad. You get my point.

Sure I hear some of you screaming that the success of online advertising has been because of the ability to report EXACTLY how many users clicked on their ad, and consequently charge more. Who’s to say though this old ad sales pitch won’t fly?

“I will sell you a 40 foot by 20 foot sign on one of the busiest roads in America to be viewed by every man, woman and child who drives by for a low daily flat fee!”

Now throw in: we’ll only put the ad on roads where there’s people who like what you sell, these people don’t need to move a neck muscle to see your ad, and oh yea, they’re not driving 65 miles per hour and will view it for minutes on end! It just might work…

Taking It to the Street!

Forget Foldgers, the best part of waking up is realizing the Sox are tied up on opening day in the bottom of the 9th. After a top of the 9th homer by Brandon Moss, local hero Hideki Okajima (game was played in Japan) shut down the A's in the bottom to set up a great day for me. For those of you counting at home, Manny's season tally for "obnoxious poses after getting a hit, the one where the thought of running doesn't come to him for 15 seconds, the one that will be sure to get him plunked 5+ times and cause at least 1 bench clearing brawl this season" is now 1. But what a 1 it is. A top of the 10th, 2 run double off Huston Street to give the Sox the lead, later locked down by Paps. 1-0 is a great way to start, baseball is here, summer is just around the corner, and we're one step close to goggle clad river dancing to the Drop Kick Murphy's. I can faintly hear, even from 3200 miles away, the fans clearing their throats and practicing their "Sweet Caroline". I'm not naive, we won't go 162-0, but at least during some of those home losses we will be sure to get treated to plenty of "these" guys:

Thinking Around the Box

Far be it for me to pretend to be a tech expert. In fact, it’s a minor miracle I can spell tecnolgy technology. I can’t stop thinking, though, that it’s bizarre all these companies are being valued at astronomical amounts with almost no revenue. It’s as if I could write a business plan (everything except how it turns a profit), register a domain, stir up some press and voila...$200 million. Don’t believe me?

Facebook.com – Valued at $15 billion with an expected $150 million in revenue for 2007, their price vs. sales value is almost 100/1

Bebo.com – Just purchased by AOL for $850 million, had $20 million in 2007 revenue, 42.5 / 1 P/S ratio

Slide.com – A widget (yea, I thought it was a fictitious product from business school too) producing company used on Social Networks such as the ones listed above was valued in their Series D funding at $550 and I am not sure if they’d made any significant revenue.

What’s my point? 1.5 years ago Google purchased YouTube for 1.65 billion. At the time CEO Eric Schmidt said to their new acquisition to focus on attracting users and not on attracting revenue. Fast-forward to present day and the word that sums up the missing part of all these overvalued companies starts surfacing – MONETIZATION. As of this past October, Google / YouTube had a 31.3% market share in online video watching. Considering 75% of web users viewed a video that month, and they averaged 3.25 hours of watching in the month, this is what you might refer to as a captive audience. Still though YouTube has not found a way to successfully convert these users into dollars.

Fear not though YouTube, The Village Idiot is here to the rescue.

Picture frame ads. Sure this would require advertisers to partially redesign their online media content. But to take advantage of someone watching the day's Glumbert videos for 5-10 minutes without flipping during commercials? I think they’d find time.

How to target the ad though…there’s several ways. Google already knows every other site you’ve been to, so start with that data. Non-original content’s source can be identified and most media outlets already knows the demographics they reach. Throw this data into the equation. Lastly, using the speech recognition software Google already has for their GOOG-411 service they can build out the software to analyze original video’s content. Based on the determination of the video’s content a final data point for ad targeting is applied. An AI component can be built into this last piece to better target over time based off user clicks and engagement.

Adoption would be tough I admit, advertisers have become used to their easily measured CPC’s. Cozying up to a new measurement scheme, not so dissimilar to Slide.com’s measure of engagement, would take time. But since thinking in, or out, of the box hasn’t worked so far, perhaps it is time to see what can be found around it…

What a dog....

In her first, and surely not her last, appearance on the Village Idiot's blog, everyone's best friend Loomis shows her skills....and what a skill it is!

Tradition....

Man we're getting old. For the 5th year running I've joined my friends (I use this term lightly) for a weekend of college basketball. What began for them 10 years ago didn't start for me until my move to SF. Ruby, the "Duckman" and myself typically are first in line at 8am for the bar Thurs - Sunday...but no longer. It has slowly deteriorated to "I'll try and make it by 4 on Thursday" and "How did we ever get up this early" on Friday morning. The thought of making the normal Saturday and Sunday sessions has given way to "I'll catch some games while doing the work I missed on Friday". It's always good to have those annual traditions, whatever they may be. The problem is what we hoped would be an age old tradition is falling victim to old age....

Don't forget about the NBA

Let's not forget about one of the greatest NBA seasons in years, coming down the stretch its easy to lose interest with March Madness and Opening Day imminent. Figured some of the NBA's finest entertaining in a non-game setting might enlighten your Saturday morning...

The Mighty Crystal Palace

As we all prepare for one of the most entertaining 3 week stretches in sports, its easy to lose focus of the utter hypocrisy that exists in the NCAA. As someone who sincerely cares about the health of the system, for both moral and selfish reasons, it is painful to take a hard, honest look at the current state of affairs.

Let’s dial the clock back 1.5 years with a letter from Congressman Bill Thomas, Chairman of the US H.O.R. Committee on Ways and Means. This letter demands NCAA president Myles Brand to defend the NCAA’s tax exemption status, which they say is to "maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body" in their annual tax return. Several of you are probably just now learning that the NCAA’s most recent TV contract with CBS for $6 BILLION that kicked in 2002 is TAX FREE! Some may have known, but still this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Fine, no taxes paid, but at least all these kids are getting a quality education and learning valuable life lessons… right. Only 55% of football players and 38% of basketball players graduate - compared to 64% of the general student body. Fret not though, Myles Brand has instituted the Academic Progress Rate, and if not met, severe (scholarship loss) penalties will be assessed. In no time schools will surely regain focus in fear of not meeting the minimum standard…50% graduation rate…huh? To make matters worse, they allow 5 years for graduation in these stats; I’d hate to see what the 4 year rates are. There must be other programs in place, some of that $6B have to been put towards academic learning centers, tutors, books, SOMETHING!!!

We interrupt this blog to report NCAA (non-profit mind you) President Myles Brand’s for 2006 earned (drum roll please) $895,000. C&C Music Factory said it best, Things that Make You Go HMMMM!!!

OK, let’s be fair for a second, if it wasn’t for schools misrepresenting their intentions, catering to these over hyped man-children’s every need, and turning a blind eye to anything that may cost the player PT, these schools wouldn’t make enough for the other 25-35 sports that don’t turn a profit to play. I will be the first to advocate that athletics is one of the best training grounds for business, life in general in fact. But is sacrificing our standards a necessary evil?

At least once we move past the economics of the NCAA we find a mature and well adjusted organization run in a fair and reasonable manner…or do we…stay tuned for more.

Bitter Beer Face?

I think one call to Milwaukee's Best (aka the BEAST) can help Eliot recover some of that 80k; he's a shoe in for the next commercial!

Defected Product

A happy smile came to my face while watching the story of 7 Cuban soccer players who recently defected in Orlando from their Under-23 team. It’s not that soccer is that close to my heart or that Communism strikes a strong cord with me. Consider for a second though the planning, effort and most of all risk that goes into such an action, just ask Captain Marko Ramius. Great suffering must exist to lead up to this. Furthermore it’s a small indication of the world’s perception of America despite what the media will have you believe (thanks FoxNews).

This isn’t the first time defection has brought an influx of athletic talent to America, though. Let’s take a quick look at some of the recent contributions Cuba has made to our sports:

Livan Hernandez Pitcher – 2 time All-Star and World Series MVP in 1997 with the Marlins, Livan has been one of the most reliable and durable pitchers in the league over the past decade.

Orlando Hernandez Pitcher – Better known as “El Duque”, he’s killed my Red Sox for years as a Yankee, his age changes more than Oprah’s waist size, but despite probably being 57 continues to throw from 10 different angles to keep hitters off balance

Jose Contreras Pitcher – George Steinbrenner’s big prize in one of the first major bidding wars for international talent (which needs to be fixed)

Boxers Guillermo Rigondeaux (Olympic Champ 2000, 2004) and Erislandy Lara recently defected during the Pan-Am Games

These are just a few of the 50 or so athletes of have defected in just the past 10 years, the most popular exit door for them have been the Pan-Am games. I can’t help but be happy for them when I see they make it, ecstatic actually. What I would hope for, though, is with the failing health of Castro and his recent relinquishing of power that Cuba be able to restore its quality of life, national pride and sporting dominance…..at least until the Red Sox need a flame thrower for the stretch run :)

It's not illegal to cut grass!!!

Good Night Farve

On of the greatest football players of all time has hung up his cleats this past week. Brett Favre called it a career after 17 seasons and a record 275 consecutive starts. I challenge any of you to remember the last time you showed up to work 275 consecutive days, never mind a workplace that has 300 pounders chasing you down on a regular basis. Brett embodied what football is about: team, grit, selflessness, perseverance and determination. A wizard on the field who had the unique ability to make the Lambeau faithful feel hatred for his decision making and glee for his greatness all within the same play.

The greatest loser of all this week is the NFL and its fans. In the league of “me”, Brett stood head and shoulders above the rest. With apologies to John Elway, Brett is the NFL’s greatest loss since Montana in 1994 and I cannot name another of his class in the game today. Over the years players retirements have simply signaled the beginning of a new career in broadcasting (Keyshawn, Emmitt, Michael Irvin, Marino, Boomer, Phil Simms, Tiki, I could go on forever). It’s amazing the Newhouse School of Broadcasting grads are able to find jobs with the amount of former players flooding the screens. With that said Brett is probably one you will not find following suit.

This is what made the man so special for so many years.

There was no other player fans could identify more with than #4. His honesty, blue collar work ethic, flare for the dramatic and gunslinger reputation made him a fan favorite much beyond the Wisconsin borders. Hailing from Mississippi, Brett entered the league as an underdog and never lost that chip on his shoulder, and he never lost sight of the fact it was just a game. Always one to laugh and joke in the most stressful of times (see Warren Sapp) Brett embodied what we all would want our sons to grow up to be.

I may be wrong, but I would think that Brett Favre sightings will become fewer and further between in the coming years. The man will rest his weary body back home in Mississippi and go on living his life just like the rest of his, shaving every week or 2 and rocking the denim as often as possible. If ever there was a Wrangler Jeans and Marlboro commercial icon rolled into one it is Brett.

With that I want to say thank you Brett for reminding us how the game should be played. Enjoy your time off, you’ve earned it, and good night….

Metro-Crockett and His Beaux

Davy Crockett gets FABULOUS in Tahoe!