ClickBerry – A platform that allows users to make video, interactive.

I have been meaning to blog about ClickBerry for some time as it’s one of the most exciting platforms I have seen for a while. I am a big fan of ThingLink and emailed them about a year ago asking if they had any plans to incorporate video. (At the moment you can tag images with extra content but not video) They said they didn’t have any plans yet so I swiftly forgot about it.

Then I discovered ClickBerry. Following on from my post about The Future of Advertising (using Nicole Kidman to demonstrate it, obviously) I think this short video sums up the possibilities to not only advertisers, but also content makers. How many times do you Wikipedia or IMDb people after having seen them on screen? That’s how it could be used in the most basic sense. The possibility for hidden plots, story lines and discovery is much more exciting. I could go on all day about this, but I need to finish eating my crisps.

 

 

Using Nicole Kidman to demonstrate the future of advertising on TV

The future of video advertising is via clickable interactive links embedded within the video. I promise. This Nike campaign for it’s new look book is a pretty basic idea but executed really nicely.

Imagine this: You know the Chanel Advert with Nicole Kidman in Paris? Well imagine if you were watching that on your connected television, and at any single point you could use your remote control to stop the advert and it would give you information about what was on screen at that given second.

It would go like this: Nicole Kidman is stood (for example) outside the Eiffel Tower. Wearing a vintage Chanel dress from 1923. The car in the background is a vintage Rolls Royce and she is wearing gold eye shadow (I’m making this up) I pause the video and I can click on any of the above objects and either buy them or find information out about them.

So in pausing the advert during that particular shot and clicking on the Eiffel Tower I am directed to let’s say the Trip Advisor website which pulls in an article about Paris (or a Guardian Travel article, Frommers guide etc). Which ever brand wanted to be associated with ‘Paris’ would pay on a PPC basis.

Then I get bored of looking at Paris, so I click on the dress and I am directed to the Chanel website which gives me a brief history of the dress. In 1923 Coco Chanel wore the exact dress to a party where she talked to Winston Churchill. Didn’t know that before I watched the advert. Wow- I’m starting to like Chanel even more.  I want to buy into the heritage of the brand.  The Chanel website then suggests that I may like the gold eyeshadow. So I buy it online on my internet enabled TV. Chanel eyeshadows are about £18. Now imagine if every advert you watched had every single object and location tagged- you could pause it at any point and buy any object on your screen. Ker ching.

I don’t have time at this moment to think about the moralistic element of this idea/reality by the way. But I will and I’ll re edit the post as and when.

Will Siri be the TV gamechanger?

Ben Elowitz, co founder of Wet Paint has written a thought provoking article on the website All Things D. There has long been talk of a future landscape in which TV is motion controlled. This article makes that prediction look archaic. Ben thinks Siri, Apples A.I language interface on the iPhone 4GS will be the game changer. Not just for device manufacturers, but more importantly, content creators. Networks will become meaningless to the viewer. There will be a blurred line (probably no line) between a YouTube video or a BBC programme. The hierarchy that has existed in TV forever will disappear. Choice will be king.

My question is- How do we monetize this myriad of content? What will be free? What will be paid for? What is the business model?

Read it here now.

Ben is on Twitter too

‘X Factor’ expands digital domain

Interesting post in Variety magazine about the X Factor USA digital department.

TRAP.IT my new favourite website.

During an average couple of weeks I go on the following websites religiously:

Mashable
Tech Crunch
Fast Company
ITVT
The New York Times
The Guardian
Facebook
Twitter
About three thousand food blogs
About four thousand design blogs
Cheap Flights.com
The Fancy
HBR
LinkedIn
NMA
Pitchfork
Wikipedia
And…
Blog pages of ‘freelance social media consultants/brand advisers” whose updates I look at with utter dismay. I do it more to get annoyed by the fact they are being flown first class to NYC to give a presentation on hashtags. #getagrip

ANYWAY, given what I do and what I like, I always find myself researching new trends and TV related stuff, however when the whole of the interwebz is at my disposal it seems shoddy that my online life is so limited. Step forward TRAP.IT.

TRAP.IT has just launched in public beta and uses the same A.I technology as Siri.
You select ‘traps’ of things you’re interested in, such as design, technology, business, or finance and it pulls together the latest articles from across the web. You also create your own traps by searching for a topic. I searched for ‘Trans Siberian’ and discovered some great travel blogs I would otherwise not have known existed.

You ‘like’ the content that appeals to you and over time TRAP.IT will learn what you like and don’t like and give you (hopefully) content that is tailored to you’re interests.

The UI is really nice, it’s easy to sign up using Twitter or Facebook and I think it could change the way people use the web and their reliance on Google.

Let’s all go to China

A great post by Patrik from Made by Many about the untapped potential for western brands in this gargantuan market. Click here to read it.

I went to a talk at Channel 4 a few months ago called ‘Is China the next media superpower?’ A television producer was on the panel who was responsible for bringing the American Idol format to China. She explained that there were many western formats that would work well in China,  the ones that they had bought the rights to so far were extremely successful. There were two problems though, other networks in China were creating ‘copy cat’ programs  and there was not a great deal of legislation to stop them.

Secondly, the political landscape of this vast country prohibits popular western shows from being recreated. The example used was the BBC’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ In China, the idea of tracing ones family tree isn’t as simple as it sounds. People here still operate under the watchful eye of the state. Remember, whilst the country is seeing dramatic urbanization and wealth creation, Google doesn’t/won’t operate here, internet usage is monitored and speaking out against the government is a massive no-no. You may want to read about the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei who did so and was imprisoned. Find out about him here.

Westerners setting up TV production companies, social media agencies and creating a brand presence in China will no doubt have a lot to learn about the intricacies of Chinese life, but the overwhelming feeling from the panel was that yes, it could be the next media superpower. There is certainly a lot of money to be made, China has adapted itself to become the global hub for manufacturing, property prices are booming and it has the single biggest online user base in the world. Will it’s censorship also impede it’s media growth? Judging by the country’s rapid rise despite censorship, it doesn’t look like it.

ADVANCED TELEVISION: Social participation TV to generate $2.9bn by 2016

This is interesting: