I am Keith Hernandez » Online Advertising

Google’s Real Game Changer

keith hernandez — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:25:39 +0000

After reading TechCrunch’s post on the marketing push for Google’s Nexus One, my thoughts turned. Maybe the most innovative “disruptive” element about this launch is not the device itself nor the way it sticks it the carriers (barely). The true game-changing move coming from this launch is the way it will be marketed and advertised, almost wholly online.
Think about the Droid and the persistent tv spots you see during primetime. That is not Google pushing it down our throats, it’s Verizon luring us in with the subsidized phone to sign a 2 year contract. The entire Google culture has been adverse to the big tv ad, the wasting of money just to get in front of millions of eyeballs. The billions the company has made is because of the data-driven, hyper-targeted ads coming from adsense. They are the masters of understanding who would want a potential product with their algorithms, not throwing money at a key primetime slot.
This is a big chance for Google, because it is it’s first foray into an actual tangible product not a service, to show that a physical product can be succesfully marketed without the use of print, tv or radio. Google can prove that the online advertising world can fully support and harness the growth of a product and a brand, which if done correctly can cause a paradigm shift in overall advertising spending.
Companies like Aol, Yahoo and Microsoft should be rooting for the Nexus One to succeed if it in fact is only an online push. It would be the greatest case study imaginable if this product sells well for increase in online advertising. The early word is that Google’s marketing pie will be almost entirely online and one can only hope they hold to that. The real game changer coming from this announcement could be the advertising business and finally a strong push to fully realized online campaigns.

Three to Tango?

keith hernandez — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 04:05:24 +0000

With the news that Apple is set to buy Quattro Mobile for $275 million and the already done deal between Google and Ad Mob, the mobile advertising wars are heating up. But, the usual players are missing one of their frenemies. Where is Microsoft during these aquisitions? (Full disclosure: I work for Microsoft) Long ago, Msft was ahead of the curve in the mobile world, offering devices that were ahead of the game with email, internet browser and little things called apps. Now, they are standing on the sidelines watching their two main competitors gobble up two major mobile advertising companies. A lot is riding on Windows Mobile 7 and I have full confidence the product will be great, but I wonder if by missing out on these aquisitions Microsoft will be too late to the mobile ad dance.

Foursquare Ignites the Geo-location Era

keith hernandez — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:08:02 +0000

In 2010, it will not be enough to know what people are doing via their Facebook and Twitter updates, we will want to know where they are doing it. With smartphones on the brink of ubiquity, geo-location apps are taking off, entering us into the next realm of social networking, where with the tap of our phone we can announce the exact location where we are enjoying our frittata. Is it vanity overload? Would others really give a crap that we are playing skeeball at a bar on Monday night? The answer to both is probably. We have entered a social landscape where sharing everything via the internet is like brushing your teeth. For some, its closer to tapping your foot incessantly. We have grown accustomed to posting any and everything, with the thought that somebody might care to engage with us if given the opportunity. The problem being that we are still sitting in front of our computers, interacting with pixels instead of people. How do we take this valuable networking ecosystem and bring it into the wild, meet our mates face to face?

Enter Foursquare. Definitely not the only geo-location app out there, (Brighkite, Gowalla and Loopt all are in the geo-battle) Foursquare nevertheless is leading the charge in innovating ways to bring its users together. I experimented in August with the service, using it to check into a few bars, restaurants and occasionally Prospect park while i was taking a nap under a tree. It was interesting, but with hardly any friends on it yet and the only incentive to checking in being earning a “badge”, I stopped a couple months later. So what’s changed? Foursquare is now signing deals with bars, restaurants, music venues and galleries across the country to offer up discounts and special promotions for people who check in frequently. Techcrunch highlighted a restaurant in North Carolina that offers a free lunch to the mayor (person who checks in most frequently during a given time period) and 25% to those who have earned the “Gym Rat” badge. Deals like this can turn a pedestrian online game into a dynamic marketing and branding tool for local businesses while leading to social interaction amongst its customers. Imagine the competition you and your friends will have to get the glory of the free meal or free drink at your favorite watering hole. Imagine finding out you are not their most loyal customer, that dude at the end of the bar is. Would you strike up a conversation, set out to dethrone him? Granted, it is a gimmick right now, but as apoption rates increase, the service will continue to increase power and will make for a new marketing dynamic. 2010 could begin a new era of local business marketing, where the app on your phone becomes the power broker.

The Hulu Business Model

keith hernandez — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:28:40 +0000

In this months issue of Fast Company, a profile on Hulu CEO Jason Kilar highlights the rapid sucess of the premium content video platform, fiscally and critically, while also examining the struggles it will face as cable companies, movie studios and content aggregators vie for their piece of the advertising pie.
It’s a suprising story of a joint venture that many thought was dooemd from the beginning. The common thought was two bloated media companies coming together in a field they know nothing about and hiring a guy who had nothing to do with media was a recipe for failure. It’s another prime example of the old business model butting heads with a new dynamic that really hasn’t been fully defined.
The negativity before Hulu was released by the industry experts reminded me of Google about 10 years ago. Business anaylysts were quick to dismiss both, saying the revenue model was unsustainabl, yet Google now owns 4 out of every 10 online advertising dollars and Hulu is bringin in $120 million in its second year of existence. Kilar points to his prior experience at Amazon,

I was there when people were calling it Amazon.bomb, and everyone was saying that when Barnes & Noble goes online, the game is over.

Are we right now seeing the growth of the next big media behemoth? With Hulu’s focus on the consumer and its understanding of our desire for media consumption on our terms, the dynamic is shifting in their favor.

Fast Company: Can Hulu Save Traditional TV?

And here is one of my favorite clips on Hulu:

Clay Shirkey is Thinking the Unthinkable

keith hernandez — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:28:46 +0000

Clay’s Shirkey’s blog post “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable” was linked to by a few different people I follow on Twitter, so I was compelled to give it a go and check out what he was saying. The piece is probably the most thoughtful and put together assessment of what went wrong with the newspaper industry during the internet revolution. He argues that they did see the coming change come, but attempted tired models that would continue to the old thinking and that new ideas were shunned. Its a great read on the revolution that we are in right now. Here is an excerpt:

And so it is today. When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to.

There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie.

For the full post: Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable

1 Million Xbox 360 User signed up for Netflix

keith hernandez — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:20:03 +0000

Reuters is reporting today that one million Xbox 360 video game console users have activated Netflix’s movie streaming service in the past three months since the partnership began. In a market that is showing declining DVD sales, this is a huge win for both Netflix and Micrsoft.

Since I signed up for the service a month ago, I have been pleasantly surprised with the quality and content. The updating of the queue has to be done through your computer, which I still think is a bit flawed (why not give the option of adding movies via the Xbox 360?) but the updates are almost instantaneous and the movie quality is pretty good. The big concern that many people have with the service is the availability of movies. Yes the supply is somewhat limited right now, but I am a firm believer that as DVD sales wane, the studios will be pressured into offering more of their hits on this streaming service.

With Netflix continuing to think of innovative ways to be on the cutting edge of the entertainment field, signing deals with LG to make Netflix capable TVs, streaming seems more and more like the foregone conclusion on how we will watch movies in the future.

Full Article: Netflix says 1 million Xbox members use movie service