Friday, January 21, 2011
Another silo / this time Starbucks
Sent from Randy's iPhone
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Deal Biz
Sent from Randy's iPhone
Required reading
Sent from Randy's iPhone
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Future of TV is TV....but what's on?
LOS GATOS, Calif. – Netflix fans will soon be able to use a remote controller to flick through their flicks available for streaming over the Internet on devices such as TV sets, Blu-ray players and others.
Netflix Inc. said Tuesday that consumer electronics companies will begin selling remotes with "Netflix" buttons in the spring. The buttons will bring up the Netflix screen on users' TV sets, providing easier access to TV shows and movies. Though the button will likely only save couch potatoes a few seconds of time, its appearance is another sign that Netflix has become a household name.
Netflix says the list of companies that will make the remotes for some new Blu-ray players include Best Buy's in-house Dynex brand, Memorex, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba. Some Blu-ray devices can connect to the Internet, which lets users stream movies.
Sharp, Sony and Toshiba will also place the Netflix button on some new Internet-connected TVs.
Netflix, based in Los Gatos, Calif., has been spending heavily to obtain the streaming rights to movies and TV shows to help lure more customers and shift existing subscribers away from DVDs, which cost more to distribute.
Shares of Netflix rose 18 cents to $181.55 in after-hours trading, having closed up $2.96 at $181.37.
Stealing Mark Cuban's line in my title gave me a chance to add a little caveat. Basically I agree with Mark. At least over the next 3-5 years TV will basically be TV as we know it today. Most people will continue to pay cable or satellite providers to get their programming. Internet-enabled TV's (selling well) will not lead to a mass cutting of the cord...at least in the short-term. But this latest news leads me to my greatest concern for local TV....it's not the loss of connected cords we have to worry about in the new few years, it's the loss of eyeballs.
TV households are going to add 8 bucks a month to their monthly video entertainment cost. But what do you think will happen to viewing when Netflix is one press of the remote button away? To think traditional viewing patterns will not be affected is nonsensical to me.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Trying to unlock the SMB ad chest
In his keynote address at DMS ‘10, Yext CEO Howard Lerman pointed to the imminent release of a tags product in response to Google Tags and emphasized that tags could grow into the standard local advertising unit. Sure enough, the company will officially unveil Yext Tags in January across more than a dozen locally-oriented partner sites, including AOL’s Mapquest and Patch, Citysearch, Superpages, Yahoo! and Yellowbook. And no, Google is not taking part.
Many will assume that Yext Tags is launching to combat Google’s continued migration into local advertising. Some have even termed this an “anti-Google alliance.” For the non-conspiracy theorist, perhaps it is about integrating online advertising for merchants into a single buy and a central distribution engine. Whatever the case, the key to breaking through with SMBs who have found search engine marketing to be a confusing experience will be simplicity, which is at the core of the new platform.
Pricing is flat rate for advertisers ($99 per month), to be split evenly between Yext and the partner sites where the tags appear. From Yext’s dashboard, busineses can create, distribute and modify tags across a local network that reaches more than 100 million UVs each month. No keyword bidding – these are natural search results, not sponsored ones.
For Lerman’s New York-based startup, Tags broaden the overall value proposition that Yext can offer the 30,000 businesses that are currently using some combination of its pay-per-call and reputation management tools. Initially, Yext will market the product, but will soon allow partners to re-sell it. Another “next step” will be enabling clients to update their listings and tags from partner sites (not just on them).
While Tags can be messaged any number of ways, many merchants will seize on it to promote deals and offers. This could appeal to national retailers seeking to drive local store traffic in particular areas (a theme that sprouted in 2010 and will only gain stream in 2011). Gold’s Gym, for instance, has been experimenting with localizing offers across the partner network as part of a Tags beta test.
Google first pushed out its Tags offering in June at a flat rate of $25 (seemingly its new magic number, with Google Boost also being peddled at this rate). The search giant recently enlisted at least 100 telesales reps to market Tags and Boost to businesses that have claimed their Places page. Now it is offering $100 million in AdWords credits to SMBs that enroll in Places. Funneled together, these initiatives have many online search and Yellow Pages companies wondering if Google is trying to take their turf.
This isn’t the first coordinated effort to push back against Google. IAC’s CityGrid Media developed over the past year to connect sellers and publishers through a targeted ad engine that optimizes placement for businesses across the network. At BIA/Kelsey’s Marketplaces conference this past March, CityGrid CEO Jay Herratti described the network as an alternative “scale player” to Google.
Sample Yext Tags Listing
Yext Tags Dashboard (courtesy: TechCrunch)
Tags: CityGrid, Google Tags, Yext Tags2 Comments
I would recommend to my traditional media friends the price-point for SMB ad solutions is somewhere in the $25 to $99 a month range.
