Startup Diaries

The Future of Marketing

PaidContent.org reported today about a new campaign CBS is running for its new prime time programs.
The campaign will be based on interactive posters.
What are interactive posters you ask? Well, basically these are posters that can interact with you using Bluetooth.

Yes... exactly what you hear... Imagine yourself passing near a poster for the new Madonna album and getting a streaming of the album hits directly to your mobile phone or iPod. Wow. Is this cool or not?? Just think of the possibilities!

Cinemas could use this to broadcast you the movie trailers when you stand near the movie poster... While standing outside of cloth shop you will be streamed the latest fashion show... While browsing a computer shop you will get a video demo of the product you are looking at... This market is simply huge!

Of course that a lot more people should have Bluetooth and video enabled phones in order to have a real impact, but as with every technology, this is just a matter of time...

A new era? Simultaneous TV broadcast on the net and TV

It's hard to keep up with the news about Media companies who state their plans to offer their TV series for view on the net a day after they were broadcast on TV. From NBC, ABC, FOX to CBS, everyone finally decided to get a piece of the Internet advertising budgets.

But yesterday PaidContent.org reported that CBS will also start broadcasting some of its TV shows simultaneously on TV and the Internet.
Finally a media network with some brains!
Think about it... do you really think that a person that can choose between watching a TV series on his small computer screen or his big living room TV set will go for the net broadcast? Of course not. The two audiences are completely different.
The people who are going to watch the Internet broadcasts are probably the ones who got stuck late at work, people on the move using their PDA or Laptops, or just the ones out of the country who can't get the broadcast on TV.
Why not enjoy the advertise revenues from the TV and also from the net?

Until recently most of the networks feared that online broadcast will grow the video piracy numbers. Of course this is also complete nonsense. In order to save and distribute an online streaming session you need to be a more sophisticated user, and if you are - hell, it will be much easier for you simply to save it directly from your cables or satellite dish.

People who want to watch/distribute videos on the net will always find ways to do it. The question is just where all the money is going to go and if the media networks want a piece of it.