Funny or Die, a Will Ferrell-fronted comedy video site, has received plenty of coverage around its launch, more around his involvement and their intro clip, “The Landlord” than around the user-contributed content, which has been more tepid. That said, there is an onslaught of theme-based video-sharing launches, based around humor, non-profits, tech, etc., which brings up a familiar scenario- What if the audience that YouTube has aggregated fragments right as marketers finally figure it out? The struggles that agencies are going through trying to adapt creative to the online video platform will only be compounded when assets will have to be adapted to different formats, channels, tagging systems, and communities in addition to figuring out appropriate length. Clearly many of the start-ups around today will not be around to witness this additional shift, but as marketers focus on the “what?” in a message, they should also be anticipating a much more complicated answer to the “where?”. Oh, and the same thing is happening to social networks as well, but I’ll save that for another post.
Adjab is reporting that Rocketboom, somewhat recently relaunched with new host Joanne Colan, has gotten another sponsor. Chris over at AdJab thinks that this will be interesting to watch - and I agree. During a recent foray into the iTunes music store, I noticed that I couldn’t find Rocketboom anywhere in the Top 100 downloaded podcasts - in which it used to firmly reside. I wonder how much of a turnover in viewers its had since the change in hosts - and how thats affected their ability to get sponsors?
It a stat-a-riffic week, I suppose. BuzzMachine pointed out the new Neilsen Study relating to podcasts. BuzzMachine included some highlights, such as 9.2 million users have downloaded a podcast recently, along with 5.6 million downloading a video podcast.
Rocketboom relaunched today with its new host, Joanne Colan. Lots of comments of this (along with some choice sarcasm over at Digg) and for the time being, I’m going to let it rest, cut her a break and wait a few weeks to see how “Rocketboom 2.0″ pans out.
NY Times YouTube link of French World Cup “Head Butting” Video may indicate YouTube has arrived in the mainstream….and while we’re at it - 1.2 million views in 24 hours? Nice! (Marketing Vox)
Teens Favorite Site: Not what you may think! (eMarketer)
And, finally, the new host of Rocketboom (ValleyWag)
You couldn’t turn to a blog today (and yesterday) without reading something about Amanda Congdon leaving Rocketboom. It’s all pervasive today, and after some thought, I now think that what Jeff Jarvis has to say is the most level headed (and hopefully true) about the departure and how it reflects for the emerging video blogging/internet video industry as a whole “Plenty of blogs, newspapers, magazines, shows, networks, you name it, have changed or folded and it doesn’t say anything about the entire medium.“
In probably what is the first “big” video blog defection/move/breakup, Amanda Congdon has left (or been fired from) popular video blog Rocketboom (click on the links - the story does shift depending on which side you look at). In the world of video blogs - where often the sucess of the show rests not just on the content, but on the relationship the viewers feel they have with the host (something Congdon excelled at) - this will be interesting to watch. Will Rocketboom stay Rocketboom without Amanda Congdon? (Just as “Would Ask a Ninja be the same if they replaced him with another Ninja?”)
CNET has coverage of Vloggercon, which took place last weekend, and their coverage of participants really showcases the wide variety and depth of content (and reasons for creating content) that are out in the vlogger world. Most interesting are the contrasting numbers from the first Vloggercon (18 months ago) and the second:
Back then, there were only a couple hundred video bloggers, according to Van Dijck, who heads up vlogger directory Mefeedia. Today, Van Dijck estimates that there are between 5,000 and 10,000 active video bloggers.
That’s a pretty nice growth rate, particularly when many of the hoops video bloggers have to jump through to create content are slightly more difficult (and have a larger learning curve) than those their audio/podcasting counterparts have to go through.
The new Wired hit the New Media Sense mailbox yesterday, and the feature/guide to online video is a must read - covering video blogs, “The New Networks” and how to make your own video blog/viral video using the tools at hand. (And if you don’t get Wired, the online versionof the video feature is slated to go live on May 1)
Skpye hits a deal with the music biz (CNET)
The Rise of the Video Blog (Rolling Stone via I Want Media)