I came across this video from the Guyism site here, and I have to say, even though the video comes off as a ridiculous, (un)intended self-parody of the 80′s, I cannot get the stupid song out of my head and will have “Mike, Mike, Mike Weinstein” on the mind for awhile. Mission accomplished there as I thought I had moved on from Footloose…a long time ago.
So, is this an effective use of video for political campaigning purposes? I’d have to say a resounding yet irritated yes if the goal was to get Mike Weinstein’s name out there. However, if they were trying to make a middle-aged white guy seem cool with younger voters…negative on that Ghostrider.
Let me know what you think in the comments below or @kobrabai on Twitter…
We’re on the cusp of a revolution in the digital living room…more on that later (and in another blog post…) For now though, you can see videos from Samsung and Google showing how the passive viewing experience we’ve been accustomed to is about to be disrupted in a major way…
SAMSUNG APPS
GOOGLE TV
(Disclosure: Zugara is a Samsung App Store Developer…)
This blog post originally ran on Power Retail – you can view it here.
We’re currently in the midst of a revolution on the internet in regards to how information is interacted with, digested and shared. Social media has been the main driver of this new era in communication on the internet (both fixed and mobile), so it’s no surprise that this revolution is also impacting online retail. Social media tools are just now being incorporated into most online retail sites which are giving consumers a new method in which to pre-validate purchases through peer feedback. However, interactive video is set to alter the way in which consumers interact with product information by not only integrating what works from social media but also altering the way consumers interact with digital content.
Online shopping itself has to date been a very solitary experience and not entirely interactive. Consumers would often review listings of a product, view respective photos and maybe even see a standard product video – all to base their buying decision on. The Achilles heel of online shopping has always been the lack of interaction with the product itself to make a more informed purchase decision. However, innovative uses of interactive video are quickly changing that perception. Interactive video is providing that next step just short of reaching out and physically touching a product (that’s another installment though as 3D printing might change things in the near future). Some online retailers are even using interactive video as a customer service model to better connect with the online shopper. Though interactive video itself is a technical breakthrough, it will continue to evolve online due to its integration of social media fundamentals. Here are a few examples of how interactive video is changing the online shopping experience:
ZAPPOS’ INTERACTIVE PRODUCT VIDEOS
With a partnership with Nike and Overlay.tv, Zappos is offering interactive product videos for the consumer to get product info and other information all through an interactive video interface. Consumers can also leave their own video testimonial through their webcam. Zappos’experience has shown it increased conversions from 6% to 30% for products that use video.
SAMSUNG PRODUCT SUPPORT TV
Even the customer service experience will be affected as online shoppers expect to deal with a live person versus an automated response. Samsung is offering live video streaming for online shoppers to have a more personable way to solicit information from their customer service end.
AUGMENTED REALITY SHOPPING
Webcam usage is skyrocketing, so it’s only a matter of time until shoppers expect to have the ability to ‘try on’ digital clothing while they shop. Enter Augmented Reality Shopping. Tobi.com recently integrated Augmented Reality into their site to provide this innovation for their customers. (Disclaimer: Zugara created Fashionista based off its Webcam Social Shopper technology)
SUMMARY
Webcam sales alone are expected to grow to $3.2 billion by 2015 and video chat services such as Skype are currently handling 22 million users concurrently at any given time. I think it’s safe to say that as interactive video continues its growth on the web, webcam and video chat integration will as well.
Join me at my presentation at the Online Retailer Expo & Conference in Sydney on July 7, 2010 as I show even more demonstrations of how emerging media and technology are contributing to this evolution of both the internet and online shopping.
Via the always informative and interesting Searchblog by John Battelle, is this presentation given by Reed Hastings of Netflix. It outlines the usual growth, challenges, competitors, and so on but what stuck out to me was one slide on competition. It’s obvious that on the streaming side Netflix is going to be confronted with numerous competition from online (Hulu), cable/satellite, premium cable brands (HBO) and so on. What was interesting though was Netflix looking ahead at $100 CPM’s as potential competition. Here’s the text from the slide:
$100 CPM Threat
Ad targeting on internet could get so good that free ad-supported movies and TV shows becomes nearly the entire market
The better the targeting, the fewer ads needed to support a piece of content, thus the fewer people willing to pay for commercial-free Netflix
Consumers don’t like ads in movies, but if there were only 4 ads, and the movie is free, that would be pretty compelling
The threat depends on how much Google and others can improve personalized ad targeting for video
Anyone want to bet against Google on this? It’ll be interesting to see how their Android OS for the connected TV market changes the landscape as well.
The entire presentation is embedded below and definitely worth checking out.
From Vimeo comments, “For those wondering how this is done, it uses a technique called ‘projection mapping’ where the real world geometry of the boxes is modeled in 3D software and that model is used to create a 3D animation that is then projected onto the real boxes. Example of the technique can be found here.”
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
