Picturing Online Video Profits
Unlike YouTube, TV Worldwide avoids mass audiences and focuses on corporate niches.
While YouTube garners much of the attention in the surging online video market, one of the few startups that can demonstrate a clear profitability story and a viable business model in the emerging web video market is the unheralded TV Worldwide.
The Chantilly, Virginia-based company pioneered web TV back in the technology’s Jurassic period in 1999. It has since focused on the production and delivery, rather than the creation, of online video content.
The firm focuses on corporate clients looking to reach specialized audiences. For instance, TV Worldwide streams the proceedings at a trade show to people who cannot attend.
In June, the company webcasted the American Advertising Federation national conference from San Francisco. Viewers tuned in to see selected live keynote speeches, breakout sessions, and interviews with industry leaders.
Ironically the theme of the conference was “Taking Charge of Change.” Few industries have been affected more fundamentally by online video than the advertising business.
Participants and online viewers were taught how to use blogs, podcasts, and online video to extend the reach of traditional marketing.
Multimedia Is the Key
“The added benefit of interactivity, blogs, polling data, and all the other information that is unavailable on TV makes online video attractive,” said Mr. Gardy. “People are willing to put up with the smaller image online because they can get all these multimedia features.”
There is automatic captioning for the disabled, and captioning for people who speak other languages, so multinational corporations can stream a webcast to its foreign affiliates.
The company has a wide mix of customers, including the National Association of Broadcasters, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, the Democratic National Committee, JVC, Real Networks, Macromedia, and Sun Microsystems, and U.S. government clients like the Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration.
“I think YouTube will become popular among its investors when it generates revenue,” said Mr. Gardy. “You can throw up a site like YouTube and build a subscribership very quickly, but there are expense and dissemination problems with serving mass audiences on the web.”
Mr. Gardy believes online video is better suited to highly targeted niche and micro-niche audiences where bandwidth issues don’t become a major problem and the audience has a high interest level in the material.
Advertisers are beginning to see superior benefits in targeting these micro-niche markets instead of using the old demographic formulas of region, age, race, gender, and financial status.
Odd Collection of Marketers
“Network TV provides your typical one-to-many programming, and pay-per-view on cable is expensive,” said Mr. Gardy. “Corporations pay $200 or more for a traditional 90-minute broadcast, but reaching that same audience is far less expensive online.”
Because of its micro-niche audiences, TV Worldwide has been able to attract an odd collection of advertisers. Companies marketing accessibility products see the disabled micro-niches as a suitable audience.
The Department of Homeland Security also advertises to the disabled, informing them of what to do in case of a disaster such as a hurricane.
“The trick is to be able to distill the audience for the advertiser,” said Mr. Gardy. “You can sell an audience of snowboarders to a sporting equipment manufacturer, for instance.”
Increasingly Wary
A number of surveys, including one from Forrester Research, show that marketers are becoming increasingly wary of the reach of network TV and the ad metrics offered by the TV networks, so many are looking for online opportunities.
“With online video you can target smaller, more passionate audiences and I think advertisers will pay for that,” said Brian Haven of Forrester Research. “It will force the advertisers to adjust their messages because they aren’t dealing with a mass audience they have to educate.”
Mr. Gardy sees the current burst of interest in online video as a bubble of sorts that will not persist if there is not a viable revenue model underlying the technology.
“If YouTube is able to categorize its content and successfully market to niche audiences, that could be the key to its profitability,” he said.
“People have to have a compelling reason to view something online that is also available on demand on TV,” he concluded. “Interactivity is sticky and a motivated audience is critical.”
Source link: redherring.com...
While YouTube garners much of the attention in the surging online video market, one of the few startups that can demonstrate a clear profitability story and a viable business model in the emerging web video market is the unheralded TV Worldwide.
The Chantilly, Virginia-based company pioneered web TV back in the technology’s Jurassic period in 1999. It has since focused on the production and delivery, rather than the creation, of online video content.
The firm focuses on corporate clients looking to reach specialized audiences. For instance, TV Worldwide streams the proceedings at a trade show to people who cannot attend.
In June, the company webcasted the American Advertising Federation national conference from San Francisco. Viewers tuned in to see selected live keynote speeches, breakout sessions, and interviews with industry leaders.
Ironically the theme of the conference was “Taking Charge of Change.” Few industries have been affected more fundamentally by online video than the advertising business.
Participants and online viewers were taught how to use blogs, podcasts, and online video to extend the reach of traditional marketing.
Multimedia Is the Key
“The added benefit of interactivity, blogs, polling data, and all the other information that is unavailable on TV makes online video attractive,” said Mr. Gardy. “People are willing to put up with the smaller image online because they can get all these multimedia features.”
There is automatic captioning for the disabled, and captioning for people who speak other languages, so multinational corporations can stream a webcast to its foreign affiliates.
The company has a wide mix of customers, including the National Association of Broadcasters, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, the Democratic National Committee, JVC, Real Networks, Macromedia, and Sun Microsystems, and U.S. government clients like the Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration.
“I think YouTube will become popular among its investors when it generates revenue,” said Mr. Gardy. “You can throw up a site like YouTube and build a subscribership very quickly, but there are expense and dissemination problems with serving mass audiences on the web.”
Mr. Gardy believes online video is better suited to highly targeted niche and micro-niche audiences where bandwidth issues don’t become a major problem and the audience has a high interest level in the material.
Advertisers are beginning to see superior benefits in targeting these micro-niche markets instead of using the old demographic formulas of region, age, race, gender, and financial status.
Odd Collection of Marketers
“Network TV provides your typical one-to-many programming, and pay-per-view on cable is expensive,” said Mr. Gardy. “Corporations pay $200 or more for a traditional 90-minute broadcast, but reaching that same audience is far less expensive online.”
Because of its micro-niche audiences, TV Worldwide has been able to attract an odd collection of advertisers. Companies marketing accessibility products see the disabled micro-niches as a suitable audience.
The Department of Homeland Security also advertises to the disabled, informing them of what to do in case of a disaster such as a hurricane.
“The trick is to be able to distill the audience for the advertiser,” said Mr. Gardy. “You can sell an audience of snowboarders to a sporting equipment manufacturer, for instance.”
Increasingly Wary
A number of surveys, including one from Forrester Research, show that marketers are becoming increasingly wary of the reach of network TV and the ad metrics offered by the TV networks, so many are looking for online opportunities.
“With online video you can target smaller, more passionate audiences and I think advertisers will pay for that,” said Brian Haven of Forrester Research. “It will force the advertisers to adjust their messages because they aren’t dealing with a mass audience they have to educate.”
Mr. Gardy sees the current burst of interest in online video as a bubble of sorts that will not persist if there is not a viable revenue model underlying the technology.
“If YouTube is able to categorize its content and successfully market to niche audiences, that could be the key to its profitability,” he said.
“People have to have a compelling reason to view something online that is also available on demand on TV,” he concluded. “Interactivity is sticky and a motivated audience is critical.”
Source link: redherring.com...
mljevar - 17. Aug, 00:01