Ad:Tech NY: Free doesn't have to be a four letter word
With media companies thinning out their newsrooms, struggling to stem revenue losses and worrying about the plausibility of subsisting on dwindling ad revenue online, there's been a lot of talk over the past few months about charging for content.
The free versus paid debate was at the forefront of discussion on the first day of ad:tech in New York this week. Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, showed his cards early in the day, opening the event with a talk where he put his money with Rupert Murdoch when it comes to making customers pay for media content online:
"In order to make traditional models viable... you have to plumb where people are willing to pay for content."
Sorrell seems bullish on consumers paying varying rates for content of varying quality, and despite predicting a winnowing of content suppliers online, is confident that media brands will need to charge to sustain the quality of their content. It's a theory that found root later in the day as well.
There's a lawyer for that: AT&T sues Verizon over new commercials
Telecom giant AT&T may be more than happy to partner with Apple, who makes fun of its top competitor daily with the now infamous Mac vs. PC ads, but the company is a little thin skinned when it comes to getting mentioned in its competitor's ads.
Today AT&T sued Verizon over the company's "There's a map for that" Droid ads. AT&T is asking for unspecified damages and a temporary restraining order to keep Verizon from running the ads, which say that AT&T customers are "out of touch" in places that do not have 3G capabilities.
Unfortunately for AT&T, the allegations aren't off base.
30+ Twitter Lists and 5000+ Twitter accounts worth following
Twitter Lists are now officially available to all of Twitter's users. And there are plenty of them. While it remains to be seen whether Twitter Lists will help Twitter boost user engagement, Lists offer a no-hassle means to discovering and following people who you might find interesting.
Here are 30+ Twitter Lists that collectively follow more than 5,000 interesting Twitter accounts.
Be afraid cable companies: Apple is at work on an iTunes version of TV Everywhere
For those of you following the saga of authentication, rumors from Apple today may bring a refreshing new twist to the effort to bring cable television content online.
According to sources who spoke to AllThingsD, Apple is trying to talk the networks into streaming their content in the iTunes store and charging users $30 a month. The monthly subscription service would not be tied to any hardware like Apple TV, but deliver televiswion programs through iTunes' multimedia software. The news should shake the cable companies in their boots a little.
Case study: e.l.f. is changing the cosmetics industry, $1 at a time
Through a mix of social media, word of mouth and user generated
content, women around the country have slowly been learning the secret
to buying cheap cosmetics online. It comes in the name e.l.f. The brand
(which stands for Eyes Lips Face) has been selling cosmetics online for
five years at absurdly low price points. For a long time all their
products could be found for $1 each.
Designed by Scott Borba, the man behind Hard Candy and Neutrogena Men, e.l.f. cuts out the marketing budget — and markup — that most cosmetics companies attach to their products. And the results have been astounding. This week, e.l.f. is making a large push into Target stores and online. The company is on track to reach over $20 million in sales this year.
With price points at $1, $3 and $5 an item, that's a lot of lip gloss. How did they do it?
Google's iPhone Killer doesn't need to kill anyone to succeed
In the war against the Jesus phone, Motorola has a new contender. The cellphone provider has manufactured the latest Google phone, set to hit Verizon stores next week. Droid ads take on AT&T's iPhone directly, explaining functionality the iPhone does not have and what Droid does right, making it look like Verizon's trying to make a big play for the iPhone's business.
But Droid doesn't have to knock the iPhone off its popularity pedestal to pay off for Verizon, Motorola or Google. It just has to do better than the rest of the competition.
Twitter introduces Lists. Will this make people actually use Twitter?
In the endlessly self-referential world of Twitter, the company made its own headlines today with the rollout of Twitter Lists. The microblogging service has now enabled about 50% of Twitter accounts with the functionality, which is slowly trending on the site.
Twitterers, blogs and news sites are atwitter with the news, but in order for Lists to serve its purpose, it needs to bring in more users and get current followers more addicted to tweeting. Can functionality like Lists turn the tide for Twitter?
TV Everywhere has a lot to learn from Hulu. Not that it will listen.
Network television is moving forward with TV Everywhere, its plan to move television content online, but it looks like there are more than a few aspects of television broadcasting that executives are not willing to forgo — namely the ad load.
At the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing Summit in Denver this week, cable executives made it clear that TV Everywhere will not be a "Hulu for cable."
And why would it be? Hulu works.
Can magazine brands go on after publication stops?
The trajectory of Gourmet magazine is starting to sound like a Celine Dion song. Conde Nast may have shut down, but Ruth Reichl will go on. The former Gourmet editor was a well respected food writer and editor before her tenure with Conde Nast, and she is bringing her association with the brand with her as she goes forward with her career.
The author is currently on a book tour for her book “Gourmet Today,” and her public television show “Gourmet’s Adventures With Ruth” premiered on Boston's WBGH on Oct. 17.
Those projects were already in the works when Gourmet shuttered earlier this month, but they point to a fact that many in the publishing business would rather not spend much time on: there's no reason that a brand has to die just because its main product ceases to exist.
Google is about to teach GPS companies the pain of free
Mobile navigation systems have been one of the most profitable purveyors of mobile content, with subscribers paying an average of $5 to $10 for mobile GPS access. But Google announced today that it will be launching a free turn-by-turn mobile navigation system next week. And the news ought to have navigation companies worried about their future.
Google's system will launch next week on Motorola's Droid phone and will eventually roll out to other phones, including the iPhone. Can GPS companies compete with free?
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Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
