Carat latest blog feed

Bytesize

A round-up of all the latest digital and social media news from the past week.

YouTube launches pilot scheme offering paid-for channels

YouTube has launched a pilot scheme to trial paid-for channels on its website. The initial trial will feature a limited number of YouTube partners including National Geographic, UFC, Sesame Street and Pixl Movie Channel (a full list of partners involved in the trial is available here: http://goo.gl/G7rfM). Subscription fees will start at $0.99 (or approx €0.77) per month. YouTube have said that the launch is part of an effort to enable "content creators to earn revenue for their creativity" which has stemmed from requests from content producers for greater flexibility in distributing their content and generating revenue. With additional channels rumoured to be launched in the coming weeks and months, YouTube has stepped firmly into the subscription based content arena alongside Netflix and Amazon (NB/ details of the rollout of channels in Ireland are still to be confirmed).

Is this the future of Google Glass?

Google’s prototype Google Glass has spawned a huge amount of media coverage since its launch back in mid April. With a consumer release date scheduled for the end of 2013, the current frenzy is in app development and possible features that could be incorporated into the Glass itself. Playground, a Toronto based creative agency have released a video showcasing some of the applications and uses they envisage for Google Glass in future. Surprisingly, most are grounded in practical uses from hailing a taxi to changing the channel on your TV. You can check out the video here: http://youtu.be/S80mE3kQTJ0

Facebook rumoured to be acquiring mapping & navigation company, Waze for $1 billion

Facebook is rumoured to be in the process of acquiring the Israeli mapping and navigation firm, Waze for US$1 billion. Waze is a community based mobile traffic and navigation app (available on iOS and Android) which is based on “drivers in your area who share real-time traffic and road info, saving everyone time and gas money on their daily commute.” Facebook’s motive for buying Waze is in order to maximize Waze’s huge amounts of user location data in order to further develop ultra targeted local mobile advertising.

Yahoo! To buy Tumblr

Yahoo! has secured a US$1.1bn deal to buy the social blogging service Tumblr. According to The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo!'s board has approved the all-cash deal to buy Tumblr. This deal will be Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer's largest since she took the helm at Yahoo! last July. The Tumblr move could see Yahoo! make a deep dive into social media and possibly provide new online advertising opportunities for brands. Unlike Facebook, Tumblr has been slow to pull in advertisers with Tumblr’s founder David Karp previously expressing contempt for how other sites use ads. Of YouTube, he said: "They take your creative works – your film that you poured hours and hours of energy into – and they put ads on top of it. They make it as gross an experience to watch your film as possible. I'm sure it will contribute to Google's bottom line; I'm not sure it will inspire any creators."

The New York-based Tumblr was founded in 2007, employs 175 people and has more than 108m blogs. According to comScore figures, the site had nearly 417K unique Irish users in April 2013. Tumblr is currently valued at around US$800m.

Yahoo Buy Tumblr

In one of the quickest moves from rumour to fact recently, Yahoo have acquired the micro blogging site Tumblr.

They bought the site for approximately €1.1 billion (all cash unlike previous buys which focused on shares).

Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer who joined from Google a year ago, has previously expressed harsh views on how Google have monetised YouTube. "They take your creative works – your film that you poured hours and hours of energy into – and they put ads on top of it. They make it as gross an experience to watch your film as possible. I'm sure it will contribute to Google's bottom line; I'm not sure it will inspire any creators." This clearly influenced the fact that the official press release promises Yahoo will not “screw up” tumblr and are running it as a separate business keeping on David Karp as it’s CEO.

This is obviously good news for Karp who set the site up in 2007 from his mother’s apartment in New York. I suspect he has moved to bigger premises since then, especially since this deal is estimated to have increased his personal wealth by $200m.

Worldwide, Tumblr has 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 signups every day which makes it one of the fastest-growing media networks in the world. Tumblr sees 900 posts per second and 24 billion minutes spent on site each month. As with other social sites mobile is vitally important to them with more than half of Tumblr’s users using the mobile app and an average of 7 sessions per day.

There is much talk of how the opportunities exist for both parties around a sophisticated search infrastructure incorporating the 50 billion blog posts into results and media networks. However it will really come down to building revenue through advertising. In 2012 Tumblr took just $13m from advertising and are allegedly far off their 2013 target of $100m revenue.

Watch the blogosphere to see how Yahoo increase advertising revenue without “screwing it up” or making blogger’s experiences “gross”.

YouTube to Launch Paid Subscription

Last week YouTube reported that they will launch its paid subscription service for some of its specialist video channels and it’s apparently going to happen sooner rather than later with the implementation due to happen as quickly as a few weeks.

It has been reported that this new service could involve as many as 50 video channels and would allow single channel subscriptions for as little as $1.99 (€1.51) a month. A paid content platform could give the site yet another revenue string to add to their bow. It has not yet been confirmed if this subscription will be ad free but it’s probably a safe bet to presume that advertising won’t feature heavily, if at all.

This hasn’t come as a huge surprise to most people. In January of this year Google said "We have long maintained that different content requires different types of payment models," Google told AdAge in January. "The important thing is that, regardless of the model, our creators succeed on the platform. There are a lot of our content creators that think they would benefit from subscriptions, so we're looking at that."

Introducing pay channels is clearly a strategic move for Google. The move will catapult YouTube into the world of established subscription networks like Netflix and Hulu. YouTube currently has over 1 billion monthly views on its video content giving it significant market share. This alone will position YouTube as real competition for those subscription networks.

Carat Case Study: Carlsberg Off the Ball Roadshow

CELEBRATE

A unique partnership with Carlsberg and Newstalk that captured the excitement of a nation, engaged soccer fans and focused on the anticipation of UEFA EURO 2012™

THE CHALLENGE

How do we drive engagement of Irish football fans to ensure Carlsberg is the beer of choice for our target, and that we have the strongest association with the UEFA EURO 2012™ in the lead up to and during the tournament?

THE INSIGHT

Irish participation in tournaments tends to be short lived. Even the most ardent, hopeful/delusional fans accept that our chances of success are minimal. However, the build up to the tournament is still a very powerful time for our target. 10 days of unguaranteed success during the tournament was never going to give Carlsberg standout, but the preceding 100 days of unfettered primal passion, the essence of fandom, was a real opportunity for the brand to stand out and build an emotional connection. So rather than focus on the tournament itself, our strategy was to focus on anticipation. If we were successful at this stage we would win the battle in terms of tournament association and emotional connection. We focused heavily on Football Christmas Eve; that period between qualification and kick-off; when logic deserts us, realism takes leave and gives itself over to delirious optimism. Fuelled by the heated debate, and the long evenings spent talking with friends about how maybe, just maybe, we might be able to pull off a win against Spain, and get out of the group, and if we do that you never know what might happen…

THE IDEA

All Carlsberg communication kicked off on February 29th, 100 days out from the opening ceremony of UEFA EURO 2012. We partnered with the country’s leading sports radio show “Off the Ball” on Newstalk to drive engagement with the audience and in turn improve their experience in the build up to the UEFA EURO 2012 tournament.

The Roadshow involved taking the Off the Ball team out of the studio and into 7 pubs around the country. We broadcast live on the night along with several very special guests, in front of up to 700 ardent fans. Giving fans a chance to meet some of their cult heroes and giving them a front row seat to hear and engage with sporting professionals.

The content ranged from previous players reminiscing on the historic tournaments to heated debates on Trapattoni’s tactics and how Ireland would fair against the bigger teams like Spain and Italy. Our guests ranged from the ever popular Johnny Giles, Packie Bonner, Steven Reid and Jason McAteer to current players like John O Shea, Keith Andrews and Stephen Hunt.

Each of the road shows took place in a venue specifically selected by Carlsberg. Each venue was branded with Carlsberg Euro 2012 merchandise with Diageo only drinks available to consumers. All entrants also received a cobranded Carlsberg and Newstalk t-shirt and co-branded key rings heightening user experience on the night, whilst affirming the partnership between both brands in consumers' mind.

THE RESULTS

The Newstalk audience was a perfect fit with Carlsberg’s most valuable consumer, the partnership between these two brands allowed us to engage with the audience and in turn improve their experience in the build up to the UEFA EURO 2012 tournament.

In total the road shows were heard by over 330,000 people over the 7 events, while a combined total of over 2,000 people attended the events. Total media value delivered from the campaign was in excess of 3 times the investment.

Click here for the the pdf version of this case study.

INM Evening - Ireland: The Media & Beyond

The Irish Independent hosted Aegis Media last Thursday night at an event entitled ‘Ireland, The Media and Beyond’. This was an interactive discussion with the Editor of the Irish Independent, Stephen Rae and his Editorial Team. The theme of the discussion focused on how Independent News & Media are changing the way they operate within an increasingly digitally focused editorial and business environment. The commercial challenges that INM are under are well documented but there is also a large shift underway in terms of how INM produce and distribute their content across digital and mobile. INM are keen to communicate to agencies and advertisers alike on how they are embracing new platforms and engaging with their readers across both existing print and evolving digital channels.

The discussion was moderated by Irish Independent Political Editor, Fionnan Sheahan. The panel featured Stephen Rae (Editor of the Irish Independent) and INM columnists from a broad spectrum including current rugby writer and former Irish rugby international, Tony Ward; Irish Independent legal editor, Dearbhail McDonald; former TD, Liz O’Donnell and Fionnuala O’Leary (Independent.ie executive editor).

There were a wide variety of areas discussed during the evening, including topical news stories such as the recent Judiciary v Government clash to broader topics such as how journalists are using digital channels to distribute content and the ‘elephant in the room’ for all Newsbrands, the dreaded paywall.

It was unsurprising that the panel was quite keen to reinforce the role that journalists play in the news content cycle or as it was put, “curation with verification”. Nobody present was in disagreement with this. Both journalists and Newsbrands command a huge amount of trust with readers and the role of both is critical to driving conversation in the wider media and amongst the general public.

A recurring theme within the conversation was that INM want to be seen as being “platform neutral” going forward. There will be no sole reliance on either print or digital, the most appropriate channel will be chosen to suit a given piece of content, etc. As Dearbhail McDonald put it, “…print and digital silos are gone.” It is encouraging to hear this directly from Ireland’s largest Newsbrand, particularly as the pace of change and adoption within digital is now at light speed. Mobile has fundamentally changed how people consume news and entertainment content.

However, whilst INM look to have taken on board the realities of integrating digital into its news/entertainment content, the key question for us as an agency and for our clients is how they will migrate this approach to their commercial activities. Currently, print and digital in INM are still sold within separate silos. Joe Webb (INM) said on the night that they will adapt this to suit individual client needs.

INM are adapting their journalism output in a digital environment. Adapting this commercially is their next challenge.