| Wed, Jun 10, 2009 |
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Microsoft Adds TV-Style Game Show (Complete With Commercial Breaks) To Xbox
With 1 vs. 100, the live game show it launched in open beta on the Xbox last week, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is also pushing another TV staple to the video-game console: The commercial break. The show 1 vs. 100 lets thousands of Xbox owners respond to questions while listening to a live host provide comedic commentary. And just like a TV show, segments are divided by 30-second ad spots. (There’s product placement too, which is more typical of in-game advertising: For instance, the theater in 1 vs. 100 is dubbed Sprint (NYSE: S), as you can see in the thumbnail to the right).
There’s always been advertising in the Xbox 360’s online service, Xbox Live, including some video spots (like movie trailers). But Jeanie DuMont, a senior product planner for Xbox Live advertising, told us that the opportunity for advertising in 1 vs. 100 is particularly strong because it adds “to the realism of the game,” since game-show watchers (and therefore 1 vs. 100 participants) expect to see ads. Microsoft won’t break down ad sales so far, but Honda, *Sprint*, 7-Eleven and Doritos are all already running ads during commercial breaks. About seven minutes of the two-hour game show are dedicated to ads. There’s also a 30-minute “extended play” version of the game which includes about three minutes of ads.
1 vs. 100 is part of a larger initiative by Microsoft to broaden the appeal of the Xbox beyond its core young, male demographic. In announcing 1 vs. 100 at E3 a year ago, Microsoft said it would be part of a “collection of virtual game shows” that would be featured on a new Primetime channel on Xbox Live. For now, though, the company is staying mum on plans to expand beyond 1 vs. 100. “Our focus is 120 percent on 1 vs. 100. Make sure we get that experience right,” said Manuel Bronstein, the director of Xbox Live Primetime at Microsoft. (In fact, Microsoft delayed the initial launch of 1 vs. 100 by more than six months to ensure a smooth launch). Bronstein said that about 50,000 people participated in last week’s open beta. However, “hundreds of thousands” are expected to eventually participate—and Bronstein said that Microsoft is prepared to add more capacity if needed.
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paidContent.org
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| Tue, Jun 02, 2009 |
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UPDATED: Better Licensing Terms May Not Be Enough To Save Imeem
Imeem has had a good run the last several weeks, landing some new funding and winning better licensing terms from record labels. But how much will this change the music-streaming site’s near-term prospects? Probably not as much as you may think. Even with lower payments per stream, imeem may well not turn profitable by the time the latest funding dries up, which, according to some reports, will be before the end of the year. Many digital-media companies have resigned themselves to the idea that the ad market won’t start growing meaningfully again until 2010—and in the meantime, imeem will still have to make the payments to the labels. A look at imeem’s site indicates that the current ad mix likely isn’t enough to support even more favorable licensing terms. Here’s why: (Plus, see imeem’s response below.)
—A lot of video ad inventory on the site is unsold: Video advertising commands the highest rates from advertisers, and thus is important to a site with high licensing and streaming costs like imeem. However, a sampling of imeem’s streams indicate well less than half of its videos are accompanied by advertising. Sprint (NYSE: S) appears to be the biggest video advertiser on the site.
—Banner ads are likely getting low CPMs: T-Mobile is a large buyer of banner ads currently on the site, and Adidas appears to have made a small buy, but most of the banner ads on the site are from advertisers like Lincoln College, Stop & Shop, Vonage and Colgate, which typically do not pay premium ad rates for banners, usually placing buys in the low-single-digit CPM range.
—Dearth of custom sponsorships: The real money maker for music sites are custom sponsorships that advertisers pay premium rates for, but Imeem currently doesn’t appear to have many on its site (few sites do these days, but not everyone is at risk of running out of money by the end of the year). AT&T (NYSE: T) sponsors a section of the site that lists tour dates, but sections like exclusive album releases and “New Music Tuesdays”—prime products for sponsorship deals—don’t have any advertising at all. A Marilyn Manson exclusive stream does have sponsorship from Vitamin Water.
—Selling music may not be the answer: The company recently said it would develop its own store to sell MP3s. With the average profit per song being about $0.20, that would be a nice incremental revenue stream, but not the boost the company needs to become profitable soon enough.
Here is the response from Matt Graves, VP of marketing for imeem:
“Even during the current economic climate, imeem’s ad business has continued to grow. Today, we have over 30 campaigns live on the site, many over the six-figure range and all with custom elements. In the past month alone, imeem has run campaigns with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Kia Motors, Wrigley’s, VitaminWater, Armani Exchange, LG (SEO: 066570), AT&T, Adidas and FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance, among others. And in 2008, we ran campaigns with over 100 brands. It’s impossible to understand the scope of the work we’re doing with advertisers based on looking at a single day’s worth of ads (whether we’re talking about imeem or, cough, paidContent), particularly when that snapshot is for the U.S. only.”
Disclosure: I founded a digital-music company called Baeble Media, and imeem is one of many affiliate partners to which it distributes content.
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paidContent.org
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| Fri, May 29, 2009 |
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UPDATED: Better Licensing Terms May Not Be Enough To Save Imeem
Imeem has had a good run the last several weeks, landing some new funding and winning better licensing terms from record labels. But how much will this change the music-streaming site’s near-term prospects? Probably not as much as you may think. Even with lower payments per stream, imeem may well not turn profitable by the time the latest funding dries up, which, according to some reports, will be before the end of the year. Many digital-media companies have resigned themselves to the idea that the ad market won’t start growing meaningfully again until 2010—and in the meantime, imeem will still have to make the payments to the labels. A look at imeem’s site indicates that the current ad mix likely isn’t enough to support even more favorable licensing terms. Here’s why: (Plus, see imeem’s response below.)
—A lot of video ad inventory on the site is unsold: Video advertising commands the highest rates from advertisers, and thus is important to a site with high licensing and streaming costs like imeem. However, a sampling of imeem’s streams indicate well less than half of its videos are accompanied by advertising. Sprint (NYSE: S) appears to be the biggest video advertiser on the site.
—Banner ads are likely getting low CPMs: T-Mobile is a large buyer of banner ads currently on the site, and Adidas appears to have made a small buy, but most of the banner ads on the site are from advertisers like Lincoln College, Stop & Shop, Vonage and Colgate, which typically do not pay premium ad rates for banners, usually placing buys in the low-single-digit CPM range.
—Dearth of custom sponsorships: The real money maker for music sites are custom sponsorships that advertisers pay premium rates for, but Imeem currently doesn’t appear to have many on its site (few sites do these days, but not everyone is at risk of running out of money by the end of the year). AT&T (NYSE: T) sponsors a section of the site that lists tour dates, but sections like exclusive album releases and “New Music Tuesdays”—prime products for sponsorship deals—don’t have any advertising at all. A Marilyn Manson exclusive stream does have sponsorship from Vitamin Water.
—Selling music may not be the answer: The company recently said it would develop its own store to sell MP3s. With the average profit per song being about $0.20, that would be a nice incremental revenue stream, but not the boost the company needs to become profitable soon enough.
Here is the response from Matt Graves, VP of marketing for imeem:
“Even during the current economic climate, imeem’s ad business has continued to grow. Today, we have over 30 campaigns live on the site, many over the six-figure range and all with custom elements. In the past month alone, imeem has run campaigns with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Kia Motors, Wrigley’s, VitaminWater, Armani Exchange, LG (SEO: 066570), AT&T, Adidas and FOX’s So You Think You Can Dance, among others. And in 2008, we ran campaigns with over 100 brands. It’s impossible to understand the scope of the work we’re doing with advertisers based on looking at a single day’s worth of ads (whether we’re talking about imeem or, cough, paidContent), particularly when that snapshot is for the U.S. only.”
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paidContent.org
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| Thu, May 28, 2009 |
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UPDATED: Better Licensing Terms May Not Be Enough To Save Imeem
Imeem has had a good run the last several weeks, landing some new funding and winning better licensing terms from record labels. But how much will this change the music-streaming site’s near-term prospects? Probably not as much as you may think. Even with lower payments per stream, imeem may well not turn profitable by the time the latest funding dries up, which, according to some reports, will be before the end of the year. Many digital-media companies have resigned themselves to the idea that the ad market won’t start growing meaningfully again until 2010—and in the meantime, imeem will still have to make the payments to the labels. A look at imeem’s site indicates that the current ad mix likely isn’t enough to support even more favorable licensing terms. Here’s why: (See imeem’s response below.)
—A lot of video ad inventory on the site is unsold: Video advertising commands the highest rates from advertisers, and thus is important to a site with high licensing and streaming costs like imeem. However, a sampling of imeem’s streams indicate well less than half of its videos are accompanied by advertising. Sprint (NYSE: S) appears to be the biggest video advertiser on the site.
—Banner ads are likely getting low CPMs: T-Mobile is a large buyer of banner ads currently on the site, and Adidas appears to have made a small buy, but most of the banner ads on the site are from advertisers like Lincoln College, Stop & Shop, Vonage and Colgate, which typically do not pay premium ad rates for banners, usually placing buys in the low-single-digit CPM range.
—Dearth of custom sponsorships: The real money maker for music sites are custom sponsorships that advertisers pay premium rates for, but Imeem currently doesn’t appear to have many on its site (few sites do these days, but not everyone is at risk of running out of money by the end of the year). AT&T (NYSE: T) sponsors a section of the site that lists tour dates, but sections like exclusive album releases and “New Music Tuesdays”—prime products for sponsorship deals—don’t have any advertising at all. A Marilyn Manson exclusive stream does have sponsorship from Vitamin Water.
—Selling music may not be the answer: The company recently said it would develop its own store to sell MP3s. With the average profit per song being about $0.20, that would be a nice incremental revenue stream, but not the boost the company needs to become profitable soon enough.
Here is the response from Matt Graves, VP of marketing for imeem:
“Even during the current economic climate, imeem’s ad business has continued to grow. Today, we have over 30 campaigns live on the site, many over the six-figure range and all with custom elements. In the past month alone, imeem has run campaigns with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Kia Motors, Wrigley’s, VitaminWater, Armani Exchange, LG (SEO: 066570), AT&T, Adidas and FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” among others. And in 2008, we ran campaigns with over 100 brands. It’s impossible to understand the scope of the work we’re doing with advertisers based on looking at a single day’s worth of ads (whether we’re talking about imeem or, cough, paidContent), particularly when that snapshot is for the U.S. only.”
-
paidContent.org
|
|
|
UPDATED: Better Licensing Terms May Not Be Enough To Save Imeem
Imeem has had a good run the last several weeks, landing some new funding and winning better licensing terms from record labels. But how much will this change the music-streaming site’s near-term prospects? Probably not as much as you may think. Even with lower payments per stream, imeem may well not turn profitable by the time the latest funding dries up, which, according to some reports, will be before the end of the year. Many digital-media companies have resigned themselves to the idea that the ad market won’t start growing meaningfully again until 2010—and in the meantime, imeem will still have to make the payments to the labels. A look at imeem’s site indicates that the current ad mix likely isn’t enough to support even more favorable licensing terms. Here’s why: (See imeem’s response below.)
—A lot of video ad inventory on the site is unsold: Video advertising commands the highest rates from advertisers, and thus is important to a site with high licensing and streaming costs like imeem. However, a sampling of imeem’s streams indicate well less than half of its videos are accompanied by advertising. Sprint (NYSE: S) appears to be the biggest video advertiser on the site.
—Banner ads are likely getting low CPMs: T-Mobile is a large buyer of banner ads currently on the site, and Adidas appears to have made a small buy, but most of the banner ads on the site are from advertisers like Lincoln College, Stop & Shop, Vonage and Colgate, which typically do not pay premium ad rates for banners, usually placing buys in the low-single-digit CPM range.
—Dearth of custom sponsorships: The real money maker for music sites are custom sponsorships that advertisers pay premium rates for, but Imeem currently doesn’t appear to have many on its site (few sites do these days, but not everyone is at risk of running out of money by the end of the year). AT&T (NYSE: T) sponsors a section of the site that lists tour dates, but sections like exclusive album releases and “New Music Tuesdays”—prime products for sponsorship deals—don’t have any advertising at all. A Marilyn Manson exclusive stream does have sponsorship from Vitamin Water.
—Selling music may not be the answer: The company recently said it would develop its own store to sell MP3s. With the average profit per song being about $0.20, that would be a nice incremental revenue stream, but not the boost the company needs to become profitable soon enough.
Here is imeem’s statement in response:
“Even during the current economic climate, imeem’s ad business has continued to grow. Today, we have over 30 campaigns live on the site, many over the six-figure range and all with custom elements. In the past month alone, imeem has run campaigns with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Kia Motors, Wrigley’s, VitaminWater, Armani Exchange, LG (SEO: 066570), AT&T, Adidas and FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” among others. And in 2008, we ran campaigns with over 100 brands. It’s impossible to understand the scope of the work we’re doing with advertisers based on looking at a single day’s worth of ads (whether we’re talking about imeem or, cough, paidContent), particularly when that snapshot is for the U.S. only.”
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paidContent.org
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