Was watching video commentary from Mark Cuban, as much as i hate some of what he says sometimes, I really like what he was saying about video hotspots.
Digitally augmenting video with hyperlink hotspots should be a huge revenue model and i just dont get why it's not being done.
Surely a common standard for all 'props people' can be implemented with everyone from production crew to movie studio to broadcast network receiving a cut of the final online ordering sales from AmazonTV.com could be implemented.
Something else thats always bugged me is why doesn't my remote control have a 'record this timeslot' so that when Time Warner is showing a tv commercial for the series "Out of Alaska" (cool show btw) that i just click one button and it takes the commercials meta data and tells my pvr to record this show/series.
Surely having a standard platform for tv commercial timeslot meta codes that work on all set top boxes cant be that hard right?
Cheers,
Dean
There are in fact a number of companies working with hotspots and /or other forms of in-video clickable technology - innovid, clickable.tv, overlay.tv to name a few. Its a very exciting business model both in its ability to monetize content, but also in its ability to more deeply engage the viewer, thereby making videos more valuable to both content creator and advertiser alike. Why has this technology been so slow to take off? One answer of course is the high cost of both development of these technologies and then again of implementing them on a massive scale. Which of course leads to media buyers, who theoretically have the money to buy the technology in the interest's of their clients and to distribute videos on a massive scale. Why aren't brands jumping all over this technology as they search for better ways to use video to reach their audiences? I posed this question to one ad exec at a conference a year ago and his response was that the brands he worked with weren't actually interested in making sales, they were interested in solidifying brand perception and reach. Therefor hotspots held no interest for high paying advertisers.
ReplyDeleteThe economy has forced some brands to focus more on direct response than branding, so perhaps that is good news for the various in-video clickable technologies. The next hurdle... proving that video has a legitimate enough reach and efficacy to satisfy an advertisers demographic goal... but that's a whole nother story!
hotspots is very interesting space may be niche for now. We are launching a product very soon. We are currently in private alpha :). May be soon after techcrunch50. But if you have any potential business contact let me know for a demo.
ReplyDeleteThere are lot of sites which can take advantage of this technology.
Homedepot, newegg, zappos etc and Amazon ofcourse as you mentioned.
would be better if you posted a link to your companies website holding page even if you are in closed alpha.
ReplyDeleteHI Dean
ReplyDeleteGreat post, glad you found the bit about Mark Cuban. He can be a bit polarizing, but he sharp as a tack in my opinion and in general has a great perspective on most things techie, in my opinion anyway.
@Kathryn it is klickable.tv. Spelling it with a "c" is something else. I have gone back and forth a bit with Roger Wu, one of the founders of klickable.tv. Great guy. Hardworking and bright. Good stuff he has, which I think really solves a problem for people with objects to sell.
veeple is another one out there as well.
These are all online video efforts, though. I get the impression that you (Dean) are wondering about hotspots on video in a TV box rather than a computer monitor. As I am sure you know that is a staggeringly different ecosystem, that is well behind online efforts. This makes me think of WebTV which never really took off and still hasn't.
I like the idea of a pairing. Watch the video on the big screen telly. Then, if you are interested in something, you can then go to the company's website, where the same video is available online, with klickable.tv hotspots added on. That's my plan anyway.
good stuff
Jeff
In response to Kathryn. Hotspots on TV are not that difficult...matter of fact my product does it. The real issue is the cable companies.
ReplyDeleteDean - you'll be happy to know that your desire to click a button a on the remote to record a show being promoted is now a reality. See http://www.itvt.com/wordpress-tag/tvworks. Comcast just launched this in Bay Area.
ReplyDelete