Change Has Come

It was only fitting that the most digitally-savvy President in U.S. history would be seen taking the oath of office through a blend of traditional and digital media. He's bringing a welcome political and philosophical change, but he's also changing the way that politicians utilize digital media to communicate with constituents. Just take a look at the squeaky-clean, newly-launched WhiteHouse.gov, complete with blog, weekly video address and email updates.

I watched the inauguration on Current TV, featuring their live feed of tweets streaming along with the ceremony, and online at CNN Live with Facebook. I did this simultaneously, which was a bit overstimulating, but I wanted to try out both experiences. The social aspect of both brought an enhanced viewing experience, for different reasons.

Current TV

Current was displaying tweets in (almost) real-time to coincide with the event. Their broadcast felt a lot like VH1's Pop Up Video, and I mean that in the best way possible. Tweets provided commentary and factual nuggets that added a lot of value for the viewer. And the stream of ecstatic tweets from people from all over the world, including @wonderasiwander tweeting from Kenya with the tribe of Obama's father, added to the bigness of the event. I was proud to watch it, and intrigued by what people were saying.

CNN Live with Facebook

C.C. Chapman called it early on -- this was a game changer. As he mentioned, CNN, Facebook and Cisco created a better experience than watching on TV, thanks to a very smooth feed that experienced remarkably few hiccups despite the huge amount of traffic it was receiving. And, unlike Current's experience, it was uber-social. Every status was posted, comments could be made on every status, and most importantly, Facebook flexed it's muscle as a micro-blogging platform. Everyone still has more friends on Facebook than twitter, and they are more comfortable conversing there.

For the experience that I liked better, I would have to go with CNN and Facebook -- it was more social and all my friends were already there. But I enjoyed watching the Current broadcast as well, and it will be interesting to see if other stations try something for a major event like the Oscars or Super Bowl.

This is an exciting time, both politically and in the realm of new media. It is fitting that these two happened to converge on the same day.

Can Netflix be the first social network in your living room?

I have written before about the convergence of tv and the web. CES built on that trend last week, introducing an array of media-streaming TVs and DVD players (see #7 on Lifehacker's list) that bring online services like Netflix to your TV, without the need for a Roku player. For Netflix, media streaming devices represent a tremendous opportunity for not only growing membership, but bringing a social network to their members' living rooms.

Netflix does have a community built into their site. It's a good start, but it could be a lot more. And given the prospect that Netflix will soon be front and center in living rooms everywhere, it should be.

Netflix subscribers enjoy movies, and they are all, to some degree, critics. They are the same people that took trips to the video store with friends and returned an hour later with at least one person unhappy with the choice that was made. They have an opinion and they enjoy making it heard. They also want to know what their friends are watching, and they want to commend or ridicule their choices.

The existing Netflix community doesn't make doing any of those things easy, on a computer or on a tv. But it should.

Going to the video store used to be a social experience. There's no reason picking a movie in your living room can't be the same thing.

If you must advertise on TV...

After a weekend spent watching more TV than I usually do -- bad weather and laziness contributed to this -- I reached a boiling point. The final straw was viewing a free on-demand movie and being subjected to the same three TNT show promos every 20 minutes. Same three, same order every time. They realize that viewers can fast forward through these, right?

This morning, AdAge published this "news": Repeat Ad Nauseum: TV Spots Risk Driving Consumers Away. Obviously, this isn't news, but I thought it was pretty interesting timing. Maybe everyone else is reaching a similar boiling point at the same time? Or maybe a lot of advertisers still don't understand that TV and media consumption has changed significantly, and will continue to change.

When I think about what I recall from the video/tv ads I saw this weekend, there are three that immediately come to mind for me. It only took one viewing of each for me to recall them, and two of the three I saw online, not on television. The first was Wii Music, which I shared on this blog yesterday. The other two are for Adidas Originals and Bruce Lee's playing ping pong for Nokia.

So what does it mean that I recalled ads that I saw once, while I won't remember the other ads until I see them again? Keep in mind, many of these are common sense.

• The TV spot isn't dead. Just the really bad ones. I know, I know. The ads above were practically made for me (males 25-35 target), but that doesn't make them any less compelling.
• Targeting still matters. I know we're in a fragmented media market, but at least try to buy media in appropriate spots.
• If you must run ads during shows or movies that are made available on demand, there is an even bigger opportunity to target specifically and run more captivating ads. Mad Men does a great job of this. These ads often come as a surprise to a viewer who is expecting to settle in for a commercial-free movie, so they are quick to get annoyed. Their finger never leaves the "forward" button on the remote.
• Shows airing online should not have the exact same commercials as they did when they ran on television. The audience watching has changed, and so should the ads
• Even good spots get old when people are forced to watch them every fifteen minutes. It's possible to actually lose customers by doing this.
• All ads should exist online, be embeddable and allow comments.
• And probably the most important one: Make spots that people want to watch, not that they have to. All ads are more compelling when people come to you.

Thoughts?

Media Convergence and the New TV

Remember the battle of the next generation of DVDs: HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray? It was only mid-February when Blu-Ray was declared the standard, and since then, it hasn't really mattered.

Three things caught my eye in the last week.

• Netflix Begins Streaming Movies to the Xbox 360 (Techcrunch)
• Domino's Let's TiVo Users Order Pizza Via TV (MediaPost)
• Is YouTube the Next Google? (ReadWriteWeb)

These three things aren't closely related..but they will be. We already have the Netflix TV top box (and streaming at the site), Apple TV, Hulu, an explosion of social networks for gamers, "time shifters" and on and on. There are countless reports telling us what we already know -- millennials spend more time online, and less time in front of the TV. And the reason is because most aspects of TV aren't on-demand and interactive the same way the web is.

As all of these technologies continue to converge redefine the meaning of "television", we'll wonder why we ever cared about the stable of next generation of DVDs sitting we'd have sitting in our living rooms.

Mad Men Guide to New York

I found myself missing my favorite new show of the year, "Mad Men" during the recent winter onset. I checked in on the "Mad Men" site and was relieved to find that it's been renewed for a second season. The bad news: episodes will not begin airing until the summer of 2008. Until then, re-visit the show with The "Mad Men" Guide to New York, a Google map of some of Don's haunts, including Menken's Department Store and the Gaslight Cafe.