Microsoft Releases New Ads – Admits Apple’s Marketing Superioruty

Ok, so I am a bit obsessive about the new Microsoft ads, waiting for something interesting to happen. After they kicking Seinfeld out, Microsoft is jut reaping off the Get a Mac campaign. It starts with a Microsoft employee, who says that PC made into a stereotype, and show others who are using PC. Back to lame kingdom.

Technology, Media and Celebs Meet at Rosh Pina Festival

A gathering of international speakers from US and European media industry, startups, technology companies, interactive agencies, investors, TV stars and executives is taking place in Rosh Pina, Israel, on 5th-8th of November.

In the last 8 years, Rosh Pina Festival was all about the TV industry, positioning itself as the place to be for executives, creators and business people.

This year, Ami Giniger, head of Taya Media Group, the main organizer of the event, decided to extend the festival to digital media – and cover the effects of technology on the international media market. As a part of this change, Yossi Vardi became co-chair of the event.

Therefore, I was thrilled when asked by Taya to be the principal organizer of the digital track. For me, it is like being a kid in a candy store – creating an international conference in the topic I am so passionate about. Though require a lot of heavy lifting (and if you follow my twitter you know that), it is an exciting role, and I am happy to say that we are going to have an amazing event, with speakers from the local, US and European media and digital industry, research companies, and a lot of innovation and startups. And, yes, a lot of TV starts and celebs (let’s face it, geeks are cool, celebs are…. at least as cool…)

Some of the speakers are well known in the Internet TV circles – we managed to get Mike Hudak from blip.tv out of his lavish NYC offices to the stages of Rosh Pina, as well as Robert Millis. Jeff Pulver will talk about disruption in the media industry. But that’s not all. IDC Research will present NBC’s Internet strategy, ESPN will present its multi-platform activities, H3G will present mobile TV case studies,Newtek‘s CEO, Jim Plant, will discuss live broadcasting,  and we are expecting some exciting presentations from Microsoft.

We decided to add a lot of innovation to the event. Therefore, after every panel, we will present a startup that is changing the media landscape. This angle makes the event the place to be for startups, investors and VCs.

Please email me for more information (kfir@pravdam.com). If you are interested in blogging about it, let me know, and please tag all relevant content with the following tag: Roshpinafestival08

Feel free to join our Facebook group as well. 

Stay tuned for more info about panels, speakers and cooperation opportunities.

Microsoft campaign is getting (a bit) better

Here is the second video of Microsoft’s campaign:

A bit better, but still doesn’t match the Mac vs. PC one:

Innovation in News – A Top Down Approach

Image by inju via Flickr

We all know that the news industry is highly affected by technology – starting with the rise of bloggers as a news source, through the usage of UGC in mainstream news reporting, the reduction of cost of live broadcasting, the introduction of video to newspapers websites, collaborative news gathering, and the usage of social media tools to notify readers and create discussions around news items.

However, how can one evaluate the level of innovation of a news organization? Here are some of our thoughts:

1. Release of hot off the press news through the day, without limiting hot items to a specific news hour or edition – TV news organizations expanding to the internet face a challenge – should they compromise the rating of their main edition by releasing hot items on the internet first? The same goes for newspapers and radio. This is a case of innovation – the internet strong point is the fact that news can be dispatched instantaneously 24×7, while traditional media is all about creating and maintaining viewership and readership peaks.

2. Creation of direct to web video news clips – today the cost of a video journalist is much lower than in the past. Newspaper websites already have in some areas video journalists – a role traditionally exisitng in the TV business only. Online news consumers do not divide media based on it sources (such as TV, papers and radio), but based on the information itself.

3. One news desk,  many platforms – while in traditional media, a newspaper has its own platform and news desk, one will think that news innovation should integrate all the platforms and create a unified desk per topic. So, for example, a desk covering the Pallin affair would be a stand alone operation in a newspaper, while others will focus on getting the best information, and “repurpose” it to the relevant platform.

4. Social media as a part of a news gathering game – does a news outlet use social networks and blogs as source of information?

5. Social media as a part of a distribution strategy – does a news outlet use social networks (such as Facebook and Twitter) and blogs as a distribution platform?

6. Audience interaction – does a news outlet interact with viewers, through its own site, as well as social networks?

7. Distributed approach – does a news outlet allow others to embed its content in their sites, social networks profiles and so on?

How does your news room operate? What are the challenges you are facing? what is the role of innovation in the success of news organizations, and how do they evaluate it?

(written in collaboration with Lara Greenberg, former South African journalist and current student of the School of Communications at IDC Herzliya).

Microsoft Launches The Stupidest Campaign Ever

For two years Apple is bashing Microsoft with their clever “Get a Mac” campaign:

Microsoft’s image, already problematic, already under attack for their failing Vista operating system, took a beating without an adequate response. But now, finally, the Redmond giant woke up to strike back. So they took an amazing creative company, and decided to get Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld together on screen to show that Microsoft is not that bad. Doesn’t matter that Seinfeld show ended ten years ago. Doesn’t matter that in all of its season, one can clearly see a Mac in the Jerry’s living room.

Jerry, Are you nuts???

Nothing will stop the Redmond giant from spending $300M on a campaign to save its dignity – and here is the result:

If you are asking yourself “what was that?” you are not the only ones. WHAT WAS THAT???

It is just sad. I have a lot of respect for Crispin Porter and Bogusky, and they are one of the most innovative and creative guys out there. But what we see here is another round where Apple gets the upper hand.

iPhone or E71

What’s your opinion? Which phone is better?

TV Challenge Part 2: Mark Cuban, Platforms and Messages

Mark Cuban wrote a thought provoking post about content and platforms:

…One thing is becoming increasingly clear, while more people are “snacking on Internet video“, the real “meal” continues to be TV….Events look great on HDTVs, whether they are sports, shows or movies. Quick hits and short clips are great for the internet. Sure some people will watch shows that perform better on other platforms on the net. We all use what we have available when its our only choice. Which is why so much video consumption online is in the office. Its our only choice. Replays and breaking news and anything that helps us kill time are what we will use our MIDS, PDAs, and phones for.

The platform is the message from viewers to content providers.

Reading his post made me think about the basics.

TV or TV Set?

In the past, TV and TV set were the same thing. You couldn’t watch TV shows, unless you had a TV set. TV sets where connected to a broadcaster which in turn provided content to TV sets.

Today the situation is different – you can buy TV shows in iTunes, or watch them online. Therefore, TV, at least for me, is a creative definition. The Wire is great TV. Olympics is a great TV event. But I can watch these events and shows on different devices – computers, HDTV sets, iPods, etc.

TV set is still the best way to watch long form content. It is the closest thing to movie theater you can get. Events, movies and high end shows will always look better on that set.

Internet – Distribution or Format?

The internet changed its form over the years. It is true that internet videos are short – as users tend to view them in short breaks in work, and due to the form factor (small screens). But when I connect my laptop to my TV – there is no difference in the experience . Therefore there shouldn’t be any difference in the format. And when online video becomes another part of the EPG, who cares where did the content come from? When AppleTV can deliver both high end movies and low budget indie flicks directly to your TV through the Internet – what is the platform? Is it TV or Internet?

The Missing Link

Like in every vision, the missing link is a business model. In my opinion, if online distribution and monetization would have been profitable enough, we would have seen more direct to internet TV quality shows. As long as the average online video CPM is 12$, nothing will change the current level of Internet originated productions. But I am positive that things will change as ad dollars are going online.

What’s your opinion?

NBC Olympics Shows The Revolution Is Not There Yet

NBC is using Microsoft’s technology and infrastructure for their Olympics video sites, serving 2 million unique users.

Beet.tv has a great interview with Eric Schmidt, Director of Media and advertising Evangelism in Microsoft:

The network is also seeing this event as a promoter of technology for newbies and non technical people:

…”To some extent, the Olympics are beginning to influence how people use new technology,” said Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC Universal…

However, the revolution is not there yet:

…By far, however, television is still the preferred format. Of the estimated 107 million people to experience at least a few minutes of the Olympics on Sunday, 95 percent watched it on TV, NBC said….The number of people requesting Olympic content over their phones is still relatively small — 494,506 on Sunday and 476,062 on Monday — but NBC executives say they’re stunned at how many of those never used the phones for this purpose before…

The reason might be that HDTV experience is richer than what online video can offer today. Two questions rise from these figures:

Does this mean that live sports, the holy grail of mobile content – does not fulfill its promise? And would things change when online HD infrastructure, coupled with internet connected TV set will be a common media product?