Tuesday, May 06, 2008

The Myth of 1%

Chris Meyer | 05/06- 11:21 AM

When making a business plan, don’t make any assumptions about market share.

There are many variations on this common trap, but the general outline goes like this: Someone hears a report about how much money there is being made in a market segment, such as podcasts or movie trailers or renting out RED One cameras. They then theorize that if they could capture just some small percentage of that market - say, 1% - that they would be rich. And thus, a business plan is born! After all, who can’t capture at least 1% of a given market?!?

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Multithreaded Information

Chris Meyer | 05/03- 12:05 PM

Is the medium really the message? Or should we think more about matching the message to the medium?

(At the end of an old article we recently posted to our Keyframes channel about creating graphics for the NBC AstroVision sign in Time Square, we mused about the ways networks are trying to take advantage of new media to connect better with their audiences and create more brand loyalty. Even thought it was originally written ten years ago, it still resonates today. I thought I would drag it out here for your weekend musing, in case you missed it over in CMG Keyframes.)

One of the original attractions of “multimedia” was the ability to provide additional details and background information about a subject without forcing interruptions in the linear unraveling of the central narrative (as I do here with my frequent parenthetical asides). Examples of this include allowing the user to click on hot words or photos in a CD-ROM application (do any of you still remember those?) or on a web page to take you to another page with tangential content, or attempts to present multiple media streams at once - such as text, photos, and sound - to give a wider gestalt to the story.

So where does established, linear, big media - i.e. broadcast television - fit into this picture? Although the economics are different, many of the same goals applied, even ten years ago: You have a linear central story (the program), but other details you could provide...even something as simple as outtakes from filming the program, or background on the stars. Fan magazines, newsgroups, web sites, and even TV Guide help fill this roll. NBC, in their own way, started doing the same back in the late 90s. For example, their “NBC2000” group was one of the first to put the alternate screen boxes at the end of television shows, sometimes containing outtakes or promos of other programs. With their AstroVision sign, they went further.

Initially, NBC tried “repurposing” their existing TV promos onto the sign. However, as many multimedia producers also found out back then, you can’t always take a message from one medium to another and expect it to hold up. In this case, the lack of sound, as well as the differences in attention span between someone at home and someone in Times Square (or Epcot Center, or sporting events, where they also play these promos), rendered the original promos less effective than they were on TV. In response, NBC started designing alternate content for the sign - such as trivia puzzles, word games, and factoids about their stars. Each one is then followed by a few seconds of the program the star appears in, along with the name of the show, television network, and night it plays. It ain’t exactly a hot link, but it does give you the pointer you need to follow up on a thread you might have found interesting. And if you’re already a fan, it gives you some additional background information to widen your experience of the show.

It wasn’t the “grand convergence” many preached about back in the 90s (or even today), but neither was it a bad idea - especially for the time. I know it is still popular to say the medium is the message, but perhaps some of us would be better served by focusing more on the message, and then figuring out how to use the mediums at our disposal to better disseminate it.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Adobe’s NAB Sneak Peaks

Hart Shafer | 04/24- 03:35 PM

Another NAB has come and gone and it appears everyone at Adobe survived the crazy/great week. Well, I’m at home nursing the traditional post-NAB cold, and my feet took days to get their feeling back, but that’s all just par for the course. It was a great show for us--while overall attendance was definitely down, our booth was packed. I had the opportunity to get to know a lot of customers and partners all at once, which is the ultimate point of going at all.

During the show I had an opportunity to share a little sneak peak of some of the things Adobe is working on in our technology labs. We wanted to pull back the curtain just bit and show a little of what we are working on because it’s important for you to know where we’re going. You obviously choose the tools company you want to work with based on what they have available today. But because you invest a lot of time, energy, and money into adopting a toolset you’re also interested in where they’re going tomorrow. And so when you look at Adobe, you want to know we’re not just committed today, but that we’re thinking about the challenges you’re just starting to face, or will be facing soon.

If you weren’t able to make NAB, or were at NAB and missed my presentation, no worries. We just posted a bunch of our theater demos to the new Adobe TV site and my technology preview can be found in the video pro section. I won’t give away everything I show, but if you’re an editor at least watch until I get to the speech analysis part. Good times. Then again, the last thing I showed was definitely the most popular. How’s that for a tease? Enjoy!

Monday, April 21, 2008

Freeconomics

Chris Meyer | 04/21- 07:03 PM

Chris Anderson of Wired gives a talk at PARC about how “free” is the future of business.

If you haven’t noticed, the “new” business model is to give away things on the Web, and find other ways to make money off of the (hopefully) resulting feeding frenzy. This isn’t a new concept; broadcast television is - or was, before cable and satellite and TiVo - free, with the content being advertiser-supported. Fast forward to today, and you’re reading web sites like this one for free. But it’s still a radical change in business plans for many. For example, many of us up here were recently magazine writers, used to getting a check in exchange for writing a new article, whether anyone read it or placed an ad next to it or not. Now we’re kicking out content for “free” hoping to be compensated through a combination of ad support and page views.

Chris Anderson - Editor in Chief at Wired Magazine since 2001, and author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More - recently gave at talk at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) on this subject. Here is a short description of the talk:

The Web has become the land of the free. The idea that you can make money by giving something away is no longer radical - free has emerged as a full-fledged economy. Not only is technology giving companies greater flexibility in how broadly they can define their markets, but anything that touches digital networks quickly feels the effect of falling costs.

PARC has made a video of the talk available - for free, of course. Click here to watch “FREE! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business.”

Saturday, April 19, 2008

NAB 2008 Super Session: A Million Dollar Look on a Thousand Dollar Budget

Mark Christiansen | 04/19- 07:46 AM

At the show ruled by suits and dilberts, the rebels get their turn

With big exhibitions like The NAB Show falling out of favor, and some disappearing altogether in the 21st century, NAB struck back this year by offering more educational fare than in years past, featuring keynotes and panels of experts from the industry, as well as day-long classes. On Wednesday was “A Million Dollar Look on a Thousand Dollar Budget,” a keynote and panel on getting cinematic production values out of equipment you may already have sitting around your studio.

The session was kicked off with the Legend of Zelda fan trailer “linked” here (nerdy pun for gamers paying attention) which appeared on April Fool’s Day, followed by a keynote by Stu Maschwitz of The Orphanage (and author of a fantastic blog) and then a panel featuring Dave Basulto of Clarity Pictures, Alex Lindsay from Pixel Corps, D.P. Taylor Wigton (447 Productions) and moderated by Brian Valente from Redrock Micro.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Two More Cool Tools for Your Business

Scott Gentry | 04/17- 10:47 PM

I find that I am using these two clever tools more and more.  Both are relatively new startups so there’s no telling how long they’ll be around, but word of mouth will hopefully keep them thriving so I can continue taking advantage of them.

First up is ReQall.  In short, I have ReQall as a speed-dial on my phone.  While going about my day, I find myself daydreaming and occasionally might get a great idea, or need to remind myself of an upcoming task.  I hit ReQall speed-dial and I am prompted with a female voice asking me if I’d like to “add” or “ReQall”.  You simply say “add” and wait momentarily for the beep.  Then leave myself a voice message.  Within 5 minutes or less, I get an email of my memo transcribed perfectly.  Then daily I get updates as to my ReQall items.  Think of this as having 24/7 access to a voice recorder and secretary.

The second tool I found myself using during this NAB is Tripit.  Sign up at tripit.com and they’ll ask for your email address or addresses that you frequently use.  Nowadays, upon making any sort of travel reservation such as hotel or airline, you usually receive an itinerary via email.  Simply forward that itinerary you received from, well the hotel, travel agent or whatever, to tripit.  It uses your email address to create an online itinerary of all of your pertinent events.  It goes further to provide directions from the airport to hotel (if necessary), and even supplies you with the local weather forecast for the days location to which you’re traveling. I found it was easier to simply click on my iPhone Tripit icon and get everything quickly and easily.

I’m always on the lookout for more tools such as these as I am inherently lazy, um, creative in finding time-saving tools.  More to come.

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