Digital Interactif

R.I.P. Pownce

Wow...Pownce.com (the twitter-esque service started by the founder of Digg) is shutting down.

I guess it was only a matter of time before the real world economic problems started to affect the many web 2.0 startups that have sprung to life in the past year. It'll be interesting to see which companies go out of service next.

Likely more to come...

Procruiting - Recruiting 3.0?

Dean Whitney has an interesting post about how recruiters advertise job opportunities on social networks such as Facebook and LinkdIn.  The Internet's affect on the recruiting process is beginning to come to light, but we still have a lot to learn about employee/employer behavior in a recruiting 2.0 environment. Nevermind the old story about employers "googling" prospective candidates - today, we face a world in which candidates are "facebooking" a prospective employer's employees to see what type of people work there. 

I recently came across a great example of how the Internet can affect the recruiting process at WebInno XIV.  Oncero, a Boston-based Internet start-up, operates a social network geared towards connecting employers with qualified job seekers through the trusted contacts shared by the users.  Essentially, employees post their company's open positions on the site and Oncero tracks how the positions are shared within the community.  When a position is filled, all the Oncero members involved in a the referral process receive a fraction of the employee referral bonus offered by the employer.

How it works:

1. my company has a $2,000 referral bonus and I post a job opening for a Marketing Associate position on Oncero.
2. Oncero-user "Bob", who is already happily employed, spots my posted job opening and sends it to his unemployed friend "Sam". 
3. "Sam" applies for the Marketing Associate position through Oncero and gets it! 
4. 90 days after "Sam" is hired, I receive $2,000 referral bonus, a percentage of which goes to "Bob" because he helped locate "Sam". 

Oncero is an outstanding idea because it brings the benefits of social networking and word-of-mouth/viral marketing to the recruiting process and then injects it with steroids by offering a monetary incentive to take action. 

Oncero is currently invitation-only.  If you would like an invite, leave a comment below and I will send you one.

When Writers Attack

Some of the writers on strike are blogging!  Blogging is a good first step for the writers because it allows them to bypass the traditional media and speak to the general public.  While this is an effective and proactive measure, I would like to see more writers using their time and energy to produce video content and post it online (ex. Clark and Michael and Funny or Die).  Now, I know this is no simple task (I certainly couldn't write/produce a show)...but I am expecting very talented and capable professional writers to pull it off, not the average person on the street. 

Check out this News Cast written and preformed by writers from The Daily Show (tip of the cap to Tom).  Aside from picketing, blogging, and drinking, this is exactly what writers need to be doing while they are on strike. 

For more info on the strike, I suggest going direct to the source: the strikers' blogs!

*Ironically these blog don't have advertisements

• Strike Points
• United Hollywood
• The Artful Writer
• Animation Writers
• Wannabe TV Writers
• News From Me
• others? (Post 'em if you got 'em)

Hulu let the dogs out!

Pardon the pun but I couldn't help myself. 

I received my invitation to Hulu's website last night and I am very impressed. Hulu is a video site that has signed content deals with major studios(MGM, Sony), television networks(NBC, Fox), and 15 Cable Channels(such as FX, SciFi, USA). 

Unlike Joost, Hulu actually has shows that I want to watch!  Hulu features full length episodes of TV series such as The Office, Arrested Development, Family Guy, 30 Rock, The Simpsons, SNL, Chuck, The A-Team, Airwolf, Scrubs, and the movies Blue Brothers and Conan the Barbarian among others.

Hulu creates new channels of distribution for TV Shows.  The best feature I have come across so far is that the site allows you to embed the videos on your own site.  Not only can you embed full episodes, but you can also create customized clips from shows and embed them as well.  It is very easy to create a clip. 

FAMILY GUY CLIP: This joke from Family Guy about Ringo Star is hilarious:

FULL OFFICE EPISODE: And it you have the time, watch the most recent episode of The Office (word has it that until the writers strike is over, there will be no more new episodes of The Office):

Advertising revenue generated from this content will strengthen the arguments underlying the Writers Strike.  It blows my mind that the studios would open up this site while negotiating with the Writers Union over online advertising profit made from television content posted online.  Though the ads in these shows are minimal, they go wherever the clips go.  eCRM for each video likely runs $40 - $120 for sponsorship.  Therefore, if a given video receives 100,000 views, Hulu stands to generate, at a minimum, $4,000 in ad revenue from sponsorship deals.  Considering that these videos can now go anywhere on the web, this estimate may be too low.  Regardless, this revenue source will grow at a near exponential rate in the next couple of years and this definitely supports the Writers on strike in Hollywood right now. 

Web Innovators Group XV is TONIGHT!

WOH!  Close call!  I just remembered the WebInno XV conference is taking place tonight at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge, MA.  It starts at 6:30pm.

The Web Innovators Group sponsors events every couple of months that showcase various New England-based Internet Start-ups and I highly recommend checking it out if you have the time.

I went to WebInno XIV and it's a great chance to get out, have a beer, and see some local entrepreneurs present their business ideas.

Register here online by 3:30pm today. 

Here are the presenters: 

• Main

  • FlipKey       - T.J. Mahoney
  • Lemonade - Tom Zawacki
  • iiProperty - Owen Johnson

• Side Dishes
  
  
  • Carbon Rally - Jason Karas
  • Mix and Meet - Bruce Franco
  • Panospin - Carlton SooHoo
  • 360Gadget - Vivek Puri 
  • Student Concourse - Steven Bao
  • Untravel Media - Michael Epstein

It's sure to be a good time.  Drop me a line if you're going! 

Mobile Gaming Industry - MIT Interactive Entertainment SIG

This past Monday, I attended the inaugural MIT Interactive Entertainment Special Interest Group (SIG) event.  The speakers on the panel included Mathew Bellows (GM of Floodgate Entertainment), Jeff Burden (VP Digital Media & Games for Hasbro), and Beth Marcus (Founder of Zeetoo.net). 

The panelists painted a bleak picture for the $1 billion mobile gaming industry.  There are currently two major obstacles facing mobile game producers, Carriers and Hardware:

• Carriers
  • There was agreement on the panel that the single largest obstacle facing game makers is the phone carriers themselves.  The "$6 per game" business model has been undercut by the payments demanded by the major carriers.  According to Jeff Burden, roughly 35-50% of a game's revenue is taken by the carriers upfront.
  • Carriers reserve the right to terminate data packets if they deem them burdensome to the network.  Therefore, even if a game is successful, a carrier may pull the rug out from under it because the game is causing too much traffic on a mobile network.   
• Hardware
  • The market for handsets is too fragmented.  Differences in screen size between handsets make standardization of game resolution impossible. 
  • Memory on most cell phones is not large enough to support high quality games.

The margins for mobile gaming companies are small due to the market's small size and the obstacles thrown up by the carriers.  Matthew Bellows observed that there are not many marketing costs associated with getting a mobile game to market, except taking Execs out to dinner!  Matt insinuated that there was no effective way to market to consumers.  But this point of view avoids the potential of in-store bluetooth downloads and other means of getting consumers to download and interact with video games directly in retail environments. 

Mobile gaming companies have a slight advantage over game makers for traditional gaming platforms because of the relatively low cost of creating a mobile game.  The cost of producing a major PC title typically runs from $4 - $12 million.  The cost of Mobile games on the other hand runs from $150k - $750 per title.  The low end mobile games are 2D, single/multi player whereas the high end games are 3D, multiplater, and bluetooth compatible.  This results in mobile game makers throwing a bunch of games at a "wall" and hoping that they'll stick.   

Mobile gaming has yet to see a game with a viral component.  The first real "big" mobile game will probably arise from a synergy of a mobile social network(Mocospace) and a mobile game.  Additionally, there has yet to be a game with any tie-in on the Internet.  The old model of designing PS2 games for a mobile handset is a dead-end and there is a great amount of potential innovation to be seen within this industry. 

One way to move the mobile gaming industry forward is to look outside of the physical handset for motivation.  Local interactive media company Locamoda has developed technology that allows users to interact with LCD screens hooked up to the Internet via local access numbers.  Using Locamoda's technology and a mobile phone, consumers can control the content on LCD screens, whether it be at a mall or a bar.  This technology could radically alter how the industry develops and looks at mobile games because it would allow game users to bypass the carriers and play games via local access numbers against people in the same room instead of having to use bluetooth or data plans.  This work-around would also allow game makers to do what they are good at: producing high quality games!  Since the games themselves would now be embed applications hosted outside of the handset itself, the level of interactivity and social aspect could be increased drastically . Additionally, projecting mobile games onto an external high quality screen would overcome the fact that it's just not fun to play a game on a tiny mobile screen.

The next MIT Interactive Entertainment SIG event, Financial Game - VC Funding in the Gaming Industry, will be taking place on December 5th.   

5 Ways to Monetize Your Web Content

I went to a few of the Podcamp Boston 2007 sessions on Saturday afternoon and I was surprised to see how much of the crowd was not into Podcasting.  When asked for a show of hands, it seemed the majority of folks there were active bloggers but did not actually post original audio or video on their blogs.  Though the economics of blogging is not one-to-one with podcasting, the conference offered up some insights into monetizing online content. 

Paul Kontonis, CEO/Founder of For Your Imagination, gave an interesting presentation entitled Monetizing Your Web Series/Podcast.  For Your Imagination (FYI) is a video production company that creates original and professional quality content.  Since it's founding in November 2006, FYI has spent $700,000 and earned $400,000 from its various means of monetization.  Though FYI is currently losing money, the IPTV market is looking at considerable growth over the next several years as consumers have begun to adapt to the idea of watching TV shows online. 

Paul's presentation addressed the ways in which his company has attempted to monetize its video content/audience and I have summarized the findings below:

1. Advertising
   • Banner Ads
     • Average CTR (Click-thru-Rate) for a flash banner ad located at the top of a webpage is only .25-.3%  Very much due to the Banner Blindness affect.
     • Interestingly, Feedburner ads on an RSS feed have an average of 3-4% CTR and therefore, banner ads could be leveraged better if placed primarily within feeds. 
     • Banner ads yield an average of $1 - $2 eCRM (Ad revenue generated by 1000 actual click-thrus on an ad) for a general web audience.  Niche markets can fetch higher eCRM (ex. $23 for the Business School audience: 26-33 year old, college educated, finance background).
   • Video Ads
     • Stand alone video ads yield an average eCRM of $2 - $3   
2. Sponsorship
   • To make money on sponsorship, a web property must either have a massive audience(200,000+ unique visitors/month) or a good size niche audience (50,000+ for potential Business School candidates).   
   • Product/Company sponsorship typically pays $40 - $120 eCRM. 
3. Merchandise
   • .1% of For Your Information visitors actually buy the site's branded merchandise.  For instance, Patrice O'neals Web Show has sold 70 pairs of branded panties! The average customer purchases $4 worth of merchandise off the site.
   • Resources for creating Branded merchandise: Cafepress, zazzle, and CreateSpace.
     • Ideas for Products: DVD's, Tshirts, Posters, Buttons, Thongs, Buttons, Coffee, Mugs, ect...
   • Set up an Amazon affiliate program.  Visitors will be more likely to buy your merchandise if they associate your brand with a reputable online merchant.
4. Licensing
   • Since FYI is a video production company, the figures they provided do not correlate to blogging.
   • $2k - $5k per episode should a web show be picked up by Showtime, HBO, or another major cable channel. 
5. Franchising
   • Deals for a cable channel buying the right to your video content can range from $250k - $5 million.

For more information on the Monetizing Your Web Series/Podcast presentation, check out Lori Magno's write up.   

Blogstonians come together at Blogtoberfest

This past Thursday, I had the fortune of attending the 2nd Annual Blogtoberfest held in the basement of the Pour House on Boylston Street. 

I met some great bloggers, both professional and casual.  Eileen keeps up Divine Comedy of Errors a funny observational and anecdotal blog.  John Petit of the Bostonist keeps his site going with the help of a team of enthusiastic contributors and editors.  The Bostonist is part of a larger network of Gothist blogs and it is supported by the Gothist's ad-network. 

I was pretty excited to meet Adam from Universal Hub, an aggregator of local news and opinion.  Adam was the first person to ever link to Digital Interactif online and it was great to get a chance to speak with him, especially about his ninja-like Feed Demon skills.

Another highlight of the event was meeting Wade Rush, one of the three editors of the local business blog Xconomy.  Wade has made a career in Journalism and has brought the same professionalism and dedication to the Xcomony blog.  Whereas the Boston Business Journal will typically rewrite press releases, Xconomy preforms the traditional leg work that is the core of serious journalism (conducting interviews, fact checking, ect) while posting new articles throughout the day.   

I also had the opportunity to speak with Michael Krigsman who runs Project Failures, a blog that examines why IT projects fail and many of the issues surrounding successful implementation of IT software.  Michael's blog was recently acquired by ZDnet so I suggest checking it out. 

George Jenkins keeps up a blog on identity theft.  I've been following George's blog since he began it this past summer and he provides thought provoking and informed comment on issues/news pertaining to identity theft. 

Another great blogger at the event was Ryan Barrett who keeps up her Cheap Thrills blog.  Ryan posts on an eclectic mix of consumer products and events in the Boston area.  Ryan clearly has a flair for writing and I was surprised to find out that she was one of the creative minds behind the ever popular, though currently on DL, BarFrog. 

This event was awesome and I look forward to the one!      
    

5 Reasons to start a Blog for your Business

Tonight I went to the Tech Blogs with Scott Kirsner panel in Cambridge, Massachusetts and I came away feeling great about both Boston and the future of digital advertising.  Thankfully Dan Bricklin, podcaster extraordinaire, recorded the event and has posted the audio on his website.  If your business doesn't have a company blog yet, listening to this podcast may very well convince you to start one.    

5 - Give your employees/partners a creative outlet for their ideas.  It can serve as a platform for exchanging ideas as well as highlight the talent that your company can offer. 

4 - A blog provides you with greater credibility when speaking with a potential client or investor for the first time.  It offers them a glimpse of the ideas and insights that you can bring to the table.   

3 - Fills the void in between press releases.  This will keep your company in the headlines and create more interaction between you and your clients and investors.   

2 - Adds a human dimension to your business.  Your company blog should let readers know that your firm is run by thinking/innovative/talented people, not a bunch of automatons. 

1 - Three letters: SEO!(Search Engine Optimization) A blog will direct traffic on your website.  Google ranks a page higher when it receives links from other websites and a blog is a great way to generate quality links by hosting original content. 

Wiffiti brings the Interactivity to your Hompage

The above is a Wiffiti screen that exists in the digital realm and can be updated via text messages. 

The website lists all the publically viewable Wiffiti screens and each screen is geo-tagged on a Google map.  Though texting a SMS message to an online message board is nothing innovative in of itself(twitter has allowed this for a while), Wiffiti creates a visually pleasing application that could be displayed on a large LCD screen in a bar, cafe, sports venue, ect.   

For instance, since the application records when messages are put up on the screen itself, this type of device could be used in conjunction with quiz nights at bars.  Instead of long, drawn out rounds at quiz night, the Wiffiti screen could serve as the official judge of who texted the correct answer to a given question.   Not only would this save people time by speeding up rounds at quiz nights, but it would also solve the problem of cheaters who use the long rounds to call/text their friends for answers to questions. 

Go ahead and leave a message, its very easy: Text @DIGITAL to 25622.  Wait to receive back a text from 25622.  Then text your message and it will appear on the board.  Very easy! 

Wiffiti is a product of Boston-based Locamoda.