Major record labels take small stakes in YouTube

copyright Brand Republic
by Staff brandrepublic.com
published October 19, 2006


NEW YORK - Three major music companies have bought small stakes in YouTube, in a further sign that threats of legal action for copyright violation of music videos may be avoided.

Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music and the Warner Music Group have each bought small into the video sharing site, according to a report in The New York Times.

The paper says that the deals were struck before YouTube's acquisition by Google for $1.65bn (£883m) was announced.

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Inside A Consumer-Generated Campaign: Kent State Students Compete to Create a Chipotle Ad

copyright Adage.com
by Andrew Hampp
published October 20, 2006


NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Matt Eck recently constructed a 4-foot football-shaped burrito out of electrical tubing, chicken wire and aluminum foil. Why? He's hoping to become one of those consumers who generate content for a marketer.

The burrito came into existence as part of an assignment for his video-field-production class at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. But in addition to an "A," Mr. Eck hopes his homework turns out to be worth $10,000.

Maximum creativity
That's what's at stake in a nationwide ad contest run by Chipotle Mexican Grill. Mr. Eck and his classmates are competing against 21 other colleges nationwide, including University of Kansas and University of Missouri. The promotion asks students to create 30-second commercials with minimal guidelines in hopes of churning out maximum creativity. The winning team is awarded $10,000 in cash, an exclusive run of their ad on the Chipotle website and the possibility of it appearing on national TV. An additional $10,000 will be donated to the winning college's film or advertising department.

A licence to print money?

copyright Marketing Week
by Catherine Turner
published October 18, 2006

Second Life is gaining a life of its own. The virtual reality website allows users to create an online existence for their alter ego and brands are already beginning to exploit this new "market". Adidas, Reebok and Toyota have set up shop, BBC Radio 1 and Sony BMG are organising concerts, and Vodafone has recently moved in.

The mobile phone giant joins advertising agencies Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) and Leo Burnett, and media outlet Reuters - which will "report" from the virtual world - in cyberspace. But with an audience of less than 1 million "avatars", or residents, are brands simply piggybacking the latest fad rather than adding long-term value?

Not at all, says Justin Bovington, founder of Rivers Run Red, a design company specialising in the development of virtual world marketing and design. Bovington believes the three-year-old site - created by Linden Labs - is not a fad. He says Second Life membership is edging towards a "tipping point", with brands seeing it as another platform in an increasingly fragmented media mix. A year ago, there were just 80,000 members, but the figure may reach 6 million, he says. "Clients are asking agencies what their Second Life strategy is," he adds.

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MySpace Influences Online Retail Visits

copyright Hitwise
published August 31, 2006

Google Responsible For More Than 14 Percent Of Online Retail Visits
MySpace Gaining Ground Accounting for 2.53% of Visits to Shopping Sites

NEW YORK, NY - August 31, 2006 - Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, today announced that Google was the top U.S. search engine responsible for 14.93 percent of U.S. upstream 1 visits to the Shopping and Classifieds category for the week ending August 26, 2006. Yahoo! Search was the second most popular search engine sending visits to Shopping & Classifieds websites, accounting for 4.69 percent of upstream visits for that week. MSN Search rounded out the top search engines accounting for 2.33 percent of visits to the category.

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A New Branding Paradigm, Online and Off

copyright iMedia Connection
by Joseph Carrabis
published October 20, 2006

The NextStage CRO explains how the rise of online social networks means that brands must pull rather than push, and how to turn your brand messaging upside-down to reach your consumers.

I've written about my joke list and how sometimes what I receive is linked serendipitously to some research NextStage is doing. It happened in Social Networks and Viral Marketing, and it happened again in mid-June of this year.

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A Superhero Suit for Athletes

copyright Business Week
by Marina Kamenev
published October 13, 2006

NEW YORK - d3o Lab invented a flexible foam material that hardens into a protective shell on impact. It may be the next big brand in sports.

Five years ago, snowboard-mad engineer Richard Palmer was hit with an avalanche of an idea. After one too many painful tumbles, the 39-year-old Brit reckoned there had to be a better way to avoid bruising than the restrictive, uncomfortable, and often ineffective gear available.

"I looked at protective products on the market and thought this is a load of crap," Palmer says. "I thought I could do something better."

Palmer quickly proved he's not just talk. His company, d3o Lab based in Hove, England, developed a futuristic liquid armor that hardens on impact.

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Design Meets Diplomacy

copyright Business Week
by Stacy Perman
published October 11, 2006

NEW YORK - Doug Suisman's Arc project isn't a roadmap to peace in the Middle East—it's a blueprint of what a peaceful Palestinian state would look like.

Over the past three years, while teams of politicians, lawyers, and international negotiators have attempted to hammer out a sovereign Palestinian state—and, more importantly, an eventual peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians—Los Angeles architect and urban planner Doug Suisman has quietly focused on a largely overlooked aspect of the conflict-ridden issue: What might Palestine look like after a peace accord is signed?

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LINK - Suisman Urban Design

Napster on the Block: Online music service has put itself on the auction block and isn’t lacking for buyers.

copyright RedHerring.com
by P. Galapati
published October 16, 2006

LOS ANGELES - Speculation that online music service Napster is heading for a buyout heated up Monday after an analyst issued a research note that the company could soon get acquired.

Darren Aftahi, an analyst with ThinkEquity Research Partners, said some 10 to 15 companies could be looking to buy Napster. Potential buyers could include rival online music services, digital music hardware manufacturers, or a content company.

“An acquirer with a broader reach or audience makes the most sense in our view, as it would be able to leverage its scale to exploit the value of Napster’s assets more readily than Napster could as a standalone entity,” said Mr. Aftahi in his research note.

Buyers could include Yahoo Music, RealNetworks’ Rhapsody music service, AOL, Amazon.com, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Google, Sony, or Samsung, said analysts.

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Jimmy Wales: "Nous faisions du Web 2.0 sans le savoir !"

copyright Le Journal du Net
by Baptiste Rubat du Merac
published October 20, 2006

JDN. Comment vous est venue l'idée de Wikipedia ?

Jimmy Wales. Je regardais la croissance des logiciels open source, avec le travail collaboratif de milliers de développeurs pour construire quelque chose entre eux. Je n'étais moi-même qu'un très mauvais programmeur, pour développer quelques sites Web. Mon expérience de l'open source se limitait à avoir installé Linux sur mon ordinateur ! J'ai eu alors l'idée d'utiliser l'open source pour une encyclopédie collaborative ouverte à tous. Notre objectif est ambitieux : regrouper et donner accès gratuitement à la somme du savoir humain. Mais je crois, en toute modestie, que le monde en a bes

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Les produits coup de cœur du SIAL 2006

copyright l'Internaute
published October 19, 2006

PARIS - Quels sont les nouveaux produits que vous découvrirez bientôt en rayon ? L'Internaute vous présente les tendances du SIAL 2006, salon international de l'alimentaire.

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