This from PC World ...
Google will soon begin selling video advertisements on the Web, opening a new front in its battle for a bigger slice of the online advertising market.
The ads will appear on Web sites that are part of Google's AdWords network, which includes partners like About.com and The New York Times, rather than on Google's own properties. They'll be offered first in the U.S., Canada, and Japan, with other regions to follow shortly, the company said in its official AdWords blog on Monday.
Users will have the choice to click on the ads to start them playing, rather than having them launch automatically. Advertisers will bid to display their video ads alongside the existing text, Flash, and image advertisements that Google sells today.
This news follows hard on the heels of VitalStream's purchase of EonStreams, which specializes in online video ad insertion.
One-Stop Shop
This release from VitalStream just hit the wire ...
VitalStream Holdings Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VSHI), the world leader in audio and video streaming, today announced it has acquired Eonstreams, Inc., a privately-held provider of Internet advertising insertion and streaming solutions. The integration of Eonstreams’ advertising solution technologies into VitalStream’s content delivery network (CDN) will provide customers with a one-stop solution for delivering integrated streaming and digital advertising content on the Internet.
VitalStream Holdings Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: VSHI), the world leader in audio and video streaming, today announced it has acquired Eonstreams, Inc., a privately-held provider of Internet advertising insertion and streaming solutions. The integration of Eonstreams’ advertising solution technologies into VitalStream’s content delivery network (CDN) will provide customers with a one-stop solution for delivering integrated streaming and digital advertising content on the Internet.
Internet Catwalk
In an article entitled Fashionably Late? Designer Brands Are Starting To Embrace E-Commerce [subscription required], The Wall Street Journal examines the increasing importance of the Internet to high-end fashion brands. Glam is playing an integral role in helping these brands merchandise their goods.
The rush for Internet riches comes after luxury-goods companies have poured money into buying or renting some of the world's most expensive real estate for extravagantly appointed boutiques. Many, like Prada and Louis Vuitton, hired famous architects and artists. Luxury-goods brands generate the bulk of their sales through their own stores, not at wholesale.
But as luxury labels reach critical mass in important markets like Tokyo's Omotesando neighborhood and Hollywood, the profit margins for each new store could soon start to shrink, analysts say. "There could be overcapacities soon," says Merrill Lynch luxury-goods analyst Antoine Colonna.
The Internet offers a new source of sales and higher profit margins.
The rush for Internet riches comes after luxury-goods companies have poured money into buying or renting some of the world's most expensive real estate for extravagantly appointed boutiques. Many, like Prada and Louis Vuitton, hired famous architects and artists. Luxury-goods brands generate the bulk of their sales through their own stores, not at wholesale.
But as luxury labels reach critical mass in important markets like Tokyo's Omotesando neighborhood and Hollywood, the profit margins for each new store could soon start to shrink, analysts say. "There could be overcapacities soon," says Merrill Lynch luxury-goods analyst Antoine Colonna.
The Internet offers a new source of sales and higher profit margins.
LA Story
Larry Marcus and I just returned from the Always On OnHollywood 2006 conference, where Larry judged a group of online music startups. To see a video of these companies' presentations as well as Larry's commentary, which starts around the thirty-five minute mark, please click here.
I Want My User-Generated Content
At a Chuchill Club event last night entitled Video Goes Internet: The Future of What You Watch, representatives of WIRED, Google, MSN, MTV, ESPN, and Slingbox discussed the future of video over the Internet. Here are a couple of observations from the panel (in no particular order) ...
- Traditional networks will only survive if they adopt a "voice" or point-of-view. While ESPN and MTV mean something to audiences, to the consumer, NBC, ABC, and CBS are just random assemblages of programming, signifying nothing.
- Consumers are contributing a surprising number of homemade commercials to Google Video.
- Because of rights issues, search engines will not supplant networks. Google is interested in linking off to other video networks. From Google's perspective, finding the right programming will still be a huge problem.
- MTV and ESPN are designing programming for two-screen viewing.
- Almost half of ESPN's daily audience of 4.5 million uniques watches videos on its site.
Vital Thoughts
ThinkEquity has raised its estimates for VitalStream ...
We believe business remains strong at VitalStream and expect the company to outperform our raised 1Q and 2006 estimates. We continue to believe VitalStream is the best way for investors to play the increasing demand for online streaming content, as the Internet grows as a distribution channel for interactive rich media and advertising. We are reiterating our Buy rating and raising our 12-month price target from $10 to $14.
Brands Take to the Web
This from the front page of today's Wall Street Journal [subscription required] ...
After years of cautiously experimenting with Web marketing, powerhouse advertisers like General Mills Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. are cranking up online spending and increasing the range of brands they promote on the Web. General Mills, maker of Cheerios and Betty Crocker baking mixes, expects to nearly double online-ad spending in the current fiscal year. Kraft, home of Jell-O and Kool-Aid, plans to double its number of online-ad campaigns in 2006 and to increase the number of brands it advertises on the Internet by at least half.
The shift underlines the Internet's threat to traditional media such as television and print magazines. It suggests that the boom in Internet advertising that has already fueled rapid revenue growth in recent years at Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other companies could continue as still other groups of more traditional advertisers step up online spending.
The packaged-goods companies say their customers are spending more time online and using the Web in new ways, such as watching TV shows and other video. 'Our job is to invest in where consumers are engaging with media,' says John Galloway, vice president of sports, media and interactive marketing at PepsiCo Inc.'s Pepsi-Cola North America unit. At his division, online spending is expected to rise to between 5% and 10% of the overall ad budget in 2006, from 1% five years ago.
[Bigger Buy]
Providers of consumer packaged goods accounted for more than 11% of the $145 billion in U.S. ad spending in 2005, according to research firm TNS Media Intelligence. But they spent just 1.6% of their ad dollars online last year, on average, compared with an overall average of 5.8% of total ad spending for U.S. advertisers, says TNS. These advertisers have been the most challenging targets for Internet companies, says Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer at Yahoo. That company has overcome some of their resistance by wielding new tools to show that Web ads can increase consumer spending.
These developments bode well for BlueLithium, which has focused heavily on brand-building campaigns.
After years of cautiously experimenting with Web marketing, powerhouse advertisers like General Mills Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. are cranking up online spending and increasing the range of brands they promote on the Web. General Mills, maker of Cheerios and Betty Crocker baking mixes, expects to nearly double online-ad spending in the current fiscal year. Kraft, home of Jell-O and Kool-Aid, plans to double its number of online-ad campaigns in 2006 and to increase the number of brands it advertises on the Internet by at least half.
The shift underlines the Internet's threat to traditional media such as television and print magazines. It suggests that the boom in Internet advertising that has already fueled rapid revenue growth in recent years at Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other companies could continue as still other groups of more traditional advertisers step up online spending.
The packaged-goods companies say their customers are spending more time online and using the Web in new ways, such as watching TV shows and other video. 'Our job is to invest in where consumers are engaging with media,' says John Galloway, vice president of sports, media and interactive marketing at PepsiCo Inc.'s Pepsi-Cola North America unit. At his division, online spending is expected to rise to between 5% and 10% of the overall ad budget in 2006, from 1% five years ago.
[Bigger Buy]
Providers of consumer packaged goods accounted for more than 11% of the $145 billion in U.S. ad spending in 2005, according to research firm TNS Media Intelligence. But they spent just 1.6% of their ad dollars online last year, on average, compared with an overall average of 5.8% of total ad spending for U.S. advertisers, says TNS. These advertisers have been the most challenging targets for Internet companies, says Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer at Yahoo. That company has overcome some of their resistance by wielding new tools to show that Web ads can increase consumer spending.
These developments bode well for BlueLithium, which has focused heavily on brand-building campaigns.
Listen Up
A good two-part analysis of music subscription services on TechCrunch. I gave up my Rhapsody subscription about six months ago and haven't turned back. Everyone eventually reaches subscription overload, and for me, $120 per year for a music service that I only used once or twice a week did not make "cents." (It's clearly a subject that hits home: the number of comments speaks volumes.) I am currently buying music from a couple of sites mentioned in the article, listening to Pandora, and streaming (and burning) Internet radio using StationRipper, one of the best and most unsung programs out there.
Ignite Catches Fire
Ignite Technologies has a new CEO, and he's quite a catch. Jim Janicki formerly served as CEO of Calpont, a database solutions provider backed by Austin Ventures. Before Calpont, he grew MetaSolv Software from three employees to more than 600 and took the company public in 1999. In 2001, MetaSolv generated $130 million in revenue, leading Ernst & Young to name Janicki its "Entrpreneur of the Year."
Follow the Money
BlueLithium announced today that Bill Lonergan has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer.
VitalStream in the News
VitalStream is making news yet again ...
VitalStream Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB:VSHI), a world leader in audio and video streaming, today announced that it has effected a 1-for-4 reverse split of its common stock as approved by its Board of Directors on March 24, 2006. Upon today’s market open, VitalStream’s common stock will begin trading on a split-adjusted basis under the new trading symbol “VSHI” (OTCBB:VSHI).
VitalStream Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB:VSHI), a world leader in audio and video streaming, today announced that it has effected a 1-for-4 reverse split of its common stock as approved by its Board of Directors on March 24, 2006. Upon today’s market open, VitalStream’s common stock will begin trading on a split-adjusted basis under the new trading symbol “VSHI” (OTCBB:VSHI).
Stream On
This item from Marketwatch underscores VitalStream's tremendous market opportunity.
CBS Corp. appears to be on track to set the record for the highest number of live simultaneous viewers on the Web without any major disruptions.
The media giant's unprecedented airing of the men's NCAA tournament live and free on the Web drew a peak of 268,000 simultaneous viewers Thursday.
That level of traffic would give CBS bragging rights for handling the largest audience at any one moment for a live entertainment program on the Web.
Since there were few people in CBS's virtual waiting rooms at the peak time, the network believes it can handle an even larger audience.
The numbers were so impressive that they prompted Yahoo to send out a release reminding everyone that the Internet media giant still holds the record for simultaneous viewers of a live event - in this case a news event, rather than entertainment. Yahoo's July 2005 Webcast of the Discovery Shuttle launch attracted 335,000 simultaneous users who watched the NASA ship return to space.
That surpassed Yahoo's coverage of Howard Stern's final day in terrestrial radio, which pulled in 214,000 simultaneous viewers, according to Yahoo. The Live 8 concert shown on Time Warner's AOL.com site was said to have drawn 175,000 simultaneous viewers.
CBS Corp. appears to be on track to set the record for the highest number of live simultaneous viewers on the Web without any major disruptions.
The media giant's unprecedented airing of the men's NCAA tournament live and free on the Web drew a peak of 268,000 simultaneous viewers Thursday.
That level of traffic would give CBS bragging rights for handling the largest audience at any one moment for a live entertainment program on the Web.
Since there were few people in CBS's virtual waiting rooms at the peak time, the network believes it can handle an even larger audience.
The numbers were so impressive that they prompted Yahoo to send out a release reminding everyone that the Internet media giant still holds the record for simultaneous viewers of a live event - in this case a news event, rather than entertainment. Yahoo's July 2005 Webcast of the Discovery Shuttle launch attracted 335,000 simultaneous users who watched the NASA ship return to space.
That surpassed Yahoo's coverage of Howard Stern's final day in terrestrial radio, which pulled in 214,000 simultaneous viewers, according to Yahoo. The Live 8 concert shown on Time Warner's AOL.com site was said to have drawn 175,000 simultaneous viewers.
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