They find videos through blogs and direct navigation to video sites, mostly. Google is the top individual site referring video views; also: social networks refer more views than video search engines.
People discover videos online in a variety of ways, from embeds on blogs to video search engines. But which sources drive the most video views? TubeMogul just released some interesting stats…Methodology
The most common way viewers find a video (45.13% of all views our sample) is direct navigation to a video site (i.e. going to YouTube and running a search or clicking around the featured or related videos).
In terms of sites referring traffic, no single source dominates, with a variegated long tail of mostly blogs sourcing 80.88% of all referred traffic in our sample. Here are the top 20 individual referrers:
| Site | Share of Video Referrals |
| 7.19% | |
| yahoo | 2.12% |
| 1.93% | |
| myspace | 1.55% |
| digg | 1.49% |
| stumbleupon | 1.13% |
| msn/live | 0.92% |
| blogspot | 0.78% |
| aol | 0.43% |
| 0.29% | |
| truveo | 0.22% |
| flurl | 0.21% |
| blinkx | 0.19% |
| ask | 0.19% |
| comcast | 0.16% |
| 0.15% | |
| wordpress | 0.15% |
| cnn | 0.12% |
| wikipedia | 0.11% |
| ovguide | 0.06% |
- Search engines: 11.18%
- Social networks: 3.66%
- Social bookmarking sites: 3.19%
- Video search engines: 0.63%
- Email/IM: 0.05%
- Everything else (almost all blogs): 80.88% of all referred traffic.
Analysis/Conclusions
These results likely come as bad news to the myriad sites that are set up with online video discovery in mind, such as video search engines, which source a relatively modest 0.63% of all referred video views.
To those trying to unlock a formula for making a video go viral, perhaps this gives some clues: reach out to bloggers and optimize a video’s meta-data to ensure it ranks highly on intra-video site plugs.
Taken from:
As every creative will agree, most of our best ideas remain as just that – ideas.
Cracking work, bang on brand, exciting, pushing boundaries, disruptive, intelligent, fascinating, thought-provoking, action-inducing but never get anywhere past the ‘no’ brigade. It never ceases to amaze me how many hurdles you have to jump through to produce work, let alone good work.
And how the hell does anything truly great get through? I believe it really only comes out of agencies who aren’t afraid to push back. And how many of those are there in this current climate?
See what you think to this. I’d be really interested in your thoughts. Submitted to both Shelter then St Mungo’s, I’ve had rejections from both even though it’s the offer of free work that’s cheap as chips to produce.
Strategy
Winter is coming. Life on the streets gets tougher and more dangerous. Whether it’s the elements that get you or the unsavoury characters who come out after dark, it becomes ever more difficult to survive out there. The trouble is few everyday people see where some have to spend the night because they’re generally gone by the morning. So, unless people are made aware of the hardship that some have to deal with night after night, they pass by oblivious.
Creative
A simple printed A3 or A2 sheet designed to look like a Police sign dramatically demonstrates that someone could have died there the previous night. The call to action is to donate to Shelter and help give a home to those who really need it. These can be stuck up wherever homeless people sleep rough. Very cheap to produce (perhaps just the price of a colour photocopy), they would be a very cost effective way to cover any city by the charity’s volunteers.
I’m going to go through my portfolio of gems that never were and post a few more here. Am I mad? Am I frustrated? Not any more. I’m really genuinely happy these days. I just fancy airing good thinking that passed by unnoticed, for whatever reason. Then again, perhaps it is all crap after all!
This article was written by Chris Catchpole. Go check out his impressive direct marketing portfolio
The CMO Trends 2009 webseminar took place on 2nd of February 2009. With 40 people signing up from around 20 countries, the webseminar was truly international.
ADVERT: More web-seminars here
I (Michael Leander) had anticipated that I would need to add content to the CMO Trends 2009 survey result in order for the webseminar to be interesting to the attendees.
That didn’t quite work out. I simply didn’t spend enough time preparing and reviewing the contents and structure. However, the webseminar was nevertheless relative well received.
Judge for yourself - review the evaluation below
Everything we wear, the food we eat, the car we drive, where we live, the music we listen to, the people we hang around with speak volumes about us as individuals. We all choose very carefully each and every aspect of our lives. We all have an inner circle of brands that we want to be associated with – that we’re proud to be seen with. I call this Brand ‘Me’.
Read Chris Catchpole’s interesting thoughts about branding and more
I am what I say I am
People use clothing to define themselves. We are also judged by what we wear. I know that I get treated very differently in shops when I wear a smart suit to when I’m dressed casually. Exactly the same person but a different response depending on clothes. Weird, isn’t it? But that’s often how we get our first impression. This is how I explain the importance of art direction – it doesn’t matter what you’ve got to say if you don’t look right. More on this in another post though.
Occasionally, new brands come along or established brands get a makeover and they join our list of close ‘friends’. They may stick around for a while, perhaps just until the special offers run out. This is the true test of friendship. Once the honeymoon period is over, has enough been done to persuade the customer to stay? When the three months free are over, the 50% off is done, 2 for the price of 1 has gone, the free gift yesterday’s news, what’s the reason to stay. Apart from the handcuffs they may have had to sign up to that they now regret, what really makes this company’s offering any different to their competitor’s?
Why not ask people what they want not tell them what they want
Companies spend vast amounts of time and money developing products and services then even more time and money telling everyone how wonderful they are. Do any of them ever think to stop and ask consumers what they want in the first place then create around the need rather than try and create the need? Surely the best way to sell a product or service is to show how it would enhance someone’s life if they had it. Some of the hardest and least successful work I’ve done has tried to create a need where really none exists and probably never would. Why not make the new product ‘amazing’, the new service ‘revolutionary’? But first, ask the people what they want.
Love is…
Think about a company you love. What do they do right? Not only will they make a product that you think is wonderful (or a service that’s remarkable), I guarantee that good Customer Services will play an important role in your relationship with them. It’ll probably be a company that its customer at the centre and does all it can to make them feel special, appreciated and wanted. Why go elsewhere?
All the c&f ‘Rules of Friendship’ deal with precisely this approach for the mutual benefit of both sides. For more information on these, have a read of http://www.chriscatchpole.com/
This article was written by Chris Catchpole. Go check out his impressive direct marketing portfolio
This article was written by Poa Jonas
Tough times call for tough measures is the mantra, which comes out of boardrooms, press conferences and marketing departments.
Budgets are slashed, layoffs are looming and even production lines are being put on hold.
As everybody is tightening the belts in the eye of what some describe the worst economic crisis many marketers have decided that doing nothing or less of the same is the best strategy to weather the storm.
But doing nothing or less of the same will bring with it only one
inevitable result; insecurity, disillusionment and the loss of
customers.
What is needed is new thinking that opens new ways to attract,
engage and retain customers.
It’s simply not enough to rely on standard solutions be it in the
choice of media or in the choice of how you approach existing
or potential customers.
Consumers want to be inspired, empowered and reassured and
that counts for the good times but especially for the bad once and
this is why brands need to step out now and be bold.
Bold in providing solutions, bold in offering support, bold in
delivering added value, bold in working for the community, bold
in designing new products and bold in exciting their audiences.
Bold brands (large or small) will seize the day and come out
stronger than ever before leaving competitors stranded and
struggling to catch up once the crisis is over and for those
who have hesitated it may turn out to be forever too late.
But how can one be bold in a climate where cash is tight and
fears are high?
The answer is simple, be smarter, focus on the little things,
show leadership and above all have the guts to try something
new!!
Have the guts to dismiss the inflationary prices peddled by
media owners and look for partners that for a fraction of the
costs provide real access to your target audience.
Ask your colleagues, agencies and friends to think out of the box
and imagine cost effective ways that could make a real impact and
help your brand to rise above the rest.
Involve your customers and call on them to suggest improvements
to your products or services and respond with quick simple actions.
Convert each touch point into engaging experiences and make sure
they all leave positive and lasting impressions.
Go out and meet your customers, create opportunities where you
can inspire, enchant and engage them. Surprise them with your
vision, your products and your genuine desire to involve them.
Make things happen and you will see your audiences will respond
despite the crunch and you will get returns that will surprise even
the most cynical amongst you.
If you want to survive this economic tsunami doing things the way
you’ve always done them is not an option.
Be bold, think different and above all enjoy the journey!!
Brands need to be bold now!!
I love my direct mail; I look forward to reviewing every piece of the mail in my mail box. The best part of direct mail marketing is not how creative the package is, nor how good and responsive the list is, nor how strong the offer or how compelling the story about the kit is to me.
What is really exciting about direct mail marketing are the disaster stories about the pieces of mail you never see in your mailbox, move closer, this could happen to you at any time. Some of the best direct mail pieces you will never see. Here is just one more mailing kit you won’t see in your mailbox.
In this article James E. Sullivan of Optic Nerve Direct Mail Marketing in San Francisco shares a few direct mail horror stories with you.
DIRECT MAIL HORROR STORIES…
There are a lot of disaster stories out there, some are just plain sad, and some, didn’t even make the mailstream. One such sad story began with the creatives and the clients decided that they wanted to have a singing microchip sing a popular song about their product. The song selected was very current, easy to remember as well as short and sassy.
The chip was inserted into a finely designed box, with a small product sample and wrapped securely with a pleasing to the eyes, box wrapper. The 50,000 pieces were all hand inserted, properly sorted and matched up with a personalized letter, wrapped and again personalized, stamped and ready to mail. Leaving the mailing house with all of those perfectly wrapped packages, the truck driver entered the local USPS loading dock, unfortunately the truck driver was having trouble entering the bay perfectly, in frustration, he jammed the truck into reverse gear and slammed into the rear of the loading dock with a resounding thud….what happened next was heartbreaking melody.
Most, if not all of the micro chips accidentally got activated by the sudden jarring of the truck, singing all of the words of the pre-programmed song in their entire 50,000 pieces chorus. The orchestra did not stop, all of them kept repeating their songs, all at different times and in different segments of that popular song, over and over again. The back door of the truck was not even allowed to open, the Postmaster at the dock would not allow the truck to discharge its cargo until the singing stopped completely.
Undaunted, the truck driver informed the Postmaster that after a few minutes of settling down to normal and balanced levels, the singing would all stop and a silent truck would prevail. The bellowing of the 50,000 voices was not to be silenced, even after a brief waiting time, alas, silence was not going to happen. The Postmaster kindly asked the truck drive to take his melodic shipment back to the mailing house. As you can imagine, neither the production manager, nor the creative director, or even worse, the client, were amused. The microchips continued singing their hapless song for about two days, before their chip life died. With that, the mailing died as well.
All 50,000 pieces were dead, none could be saved, the entire mailing piece was lost, hundreds of thousand of dollars wasted on a singing chips. What did we all learn from this… maybe having your mail talk back to you is not a good idea.
Get James E. Sullivans “Six things to consider when establishing a direct mail campaign”
James E. Sullivan, a NorCal BMA member, is the Project Manager of Optic Nerve Direct Marketing, a direct mail consultancy and advertising agency. Check out their website for additional useful resources, including a “75 Point Checklist” for direct mail.
I (Michael Leander) am conducting a new survey about social networking, how business people use social networks, which social networks business people prefer and more.
You get a summary of the report for free + an invitation to participate in a web-seminar where we discuss the survey results live.
If you are interested in joining a web-seminar to learn about marketing through social networks, you can check this one out.
Super Bowl XLIII, an American football game that will decide the NFL champion for the 2008 season, is scheduled to be played on February 1, 2009.
This years contenders for the title are Pittsburg Steelers and Arizone Cardinals. From a marketing perspective it is interesting that Super Bowl XLIII will also mark the first time that a 30-second commercial time slot will cost (excluding production and talent costs) US $3 million. Once again (certain) advertisers are competing to create the most memorable commercial to be shown to millions of viewers.
Commercials banned or not
Super Bowl XLIII will also mark the first time that a 30-second commercial time slot will cost (excluding production and talent costs) US $3 million.
Many traditional advertisers of the game, such as Anheuser-Busch and Pepsi-Cola, are buying multiple ads at discounted rates. Two traditional advertisers, General Motors and FedEx, will pass on the game, citing the current economic crisis as their main reason. Doritos is reprising a contest for a fan-created ad run two years ago, but with a top prize of $1 million provided it wins the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter’s number one position. Paramount Pictures confirmed that a preview of the upcoming Star Trek film will also premiere during the game.
Interestingly, every year commercials are banned. And this year is no exception.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) with more than two million members and supporters, is the largest animal rights organization in the world. And they are having a go at passing the NBC censorship. Without much luck, it seems.
This video was rejected by NBC censorship:
Here’s an excerpt from PETA’s website;
“Apparently, NBC has something against girls who love their veggies. After we submitted our proposed Super Bowl ad, which features a comely crop of models demonstrating their fondness for fresh produce, NBC nixed the ad, saying it “depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards.” No joke, this is straight from NBC—so stop fondling your fruit salad right now and read the list of shots NBC requested we cut before they’d reconsider”
And here is another PETA commercial rejected by NBC
And here is the list. When reading that list one would understand why NBC rejected the commecial:
- licking pumpkin
- touching her breast with her hand while eating broccoli
- pumpkin from behind between legs
- rubbing pelvic region with pumpkin
- screwing herself with broccoli (fuzzy)
- asparagus on her lap appearing as if it is ready to be inserted into vagina
- licking eggplant
- rubbing asparagus on breast
I have to agree with PETA’s statement, though;
“Why so grouchy NBC? Sounds like someone’s not getting enough um…vegetables. I’m thinking network execs could really benefit from a broccoli booty call.”
More banned commercials at Marketingboss TV
I am conducting a new survey about social networking. If you participate you will receive;
- the survey report which will be published in March 2009
- an invitation to a complimentary web-seminar where the survey results will be presented AND discussed. The latter of which should be highly interesting for anyone inteterested in social networking and understanding how to drive value from social networks.
Go here now to participate in the survey - it takes 4-5 minutes of your time only
Google, Apple, Amazon.com, Zara and Nintendo are among this year’s top gainers in Interbrand’s annual ranking of The Best Global Brands, and not surprisingly, financial services giants Merrill Lynch, Citi and Morgan Stanley are among the companies that have slipped dramatically down the list.
Coca-Cola (No. 1) remains the best global brand for the eighth year in a row. Yet, a notable shift in this year’s rankings was made by IBM, which took over the No. 2 position from Microsoft (No. 3). Google also moved into the top 10 brands, at No. 10, after ranking at No. 20 in 2007.
“The Best Global Brands 2008 ranking is a reflection of the global economy - the current credit crisis in the U.S., the growth of emerging markets and the increased emphasis on sustainability are all key trends that resulted in brands rising or failing on the list,” said Jez Frampton, Global CEO of Interbrand. “The increasing complexities of the global economy reinforce the importance of protecting and growing a brand. It is a company’s most valuable asset - and a far less volatile asset than others during a time of economic uncertainty.”
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Tumultuous credit markets effect
Movement in the Best Global Brands 2008 ranking confirms that the tumultuous credit markets are affecting leading financial services brands, including Merrill Lynch (No. 34) and Citi (No. 19). However, some strong industry leaders have survived such as HSBC (No. 27) and credit card companies Visa (a new entrant to the list at No. 100) and American Express (No. 15), which have all been able to transcend the credit crisis due to their trusted brands.
–> You can download the full report here
Other brands that fell significantly on the 2008 list include Ford (No. 49) and Gap (No. 77). While notable newcomers include H&M (No. 22), Thomson Reuters (No. 44), BlackBerry (No. 77), Giorgio Armani (No. 94), Marriott (No. 96), FedEx (No. 99) and Visa (No. 100).
Emerging markets impact
Emerging market growth has had a significant impact on this year’s ranking. As customers in these markets accumulate wealth and seek to demonstrate it, luxury brands are seen as a clear indication that one belongs to the new elite. Companies like Porsche (No. 75), Ferrari (No. 93) and Prada (No. 91), have experienced great success in the world’s emerging markets.
Not surprisingly, sustainability is driving brand value across all sectors - from automotive, to consumer products, to financial services. Auto-makers like Honda (No. 20) and Mercedes (No. 11) are creating new, more fuel efficient car models. Honda was the only car manufacturer to report better U.S. sales this year, in June 2008, than it did last year. Companies like GE (No. 4) and BP (No. 84) increased their brand valuation by investing a substantial amount in sustainable business practices. BP also rose among the ranks as a result of its leadership position in working towards greener energy investing in sustainable energy sources.
“In troubled economies business doesn’t cease. Companies may struggle, but the practice of buying and selling continues no matter what,” says Frampton. “Many of the Best Global Brands know this and come through these difficult times stronger and better poised to compete. The key to success, in good times and bad is understanding how your brand creates value.”
Best Global Brands 2008 Methodology and Results
To qualify for inclusion in the BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands 2008 list, each brand must derive at least a third of its earnings outside its home country, be recognizable outside of its base of customers, and have publicly available marketing and financial data. This methodology evaluates brand value in the same way any other corporate asset is valued-on the basis of how much it is likely to earn for the company in the future. Interbrand uses a combination of analysts’ projections, company financial documents, and its own qualitative and quantitative analysis to arrive at a net present value of those earnings.
About Interbrand
Interbrand, the leading brand consultancy, combines the rigorous strategy and analysis of a management consulting practice with the entrepreneurial and creative spirit of branding and design. The company offers a comprehensive array of consulting services that guide clients in the creation, enhancement, maintenance and valuation of their most valuable asset — their brands. Founded in 1974, Interbrand has offices in over 30 cities in more than 20 countries around the globe and clients from among the most respected businesses. For more information visit the world’s only online exchange about branding, produced by Interbrand, at www.brandchannel.com.
