Archive for January, 2010

The 30 second spot is dead, long live the 30 second spot!

Thursday, January 28th, 2010

In the brave new world of online advertising we are able to break convention to deliver great pieces of creative that our target audiences actually want to see and enjoy, so much so that they will seek them out and then share them. This is a world apart from our TV brethren for whom the 30 second rule is indeed golden, if you haven’t sold what you’re selling in 30 seconds then you may as well give up the ghost and go and print something in a newspaper or something even more archaic.

Being free from the old rules means that you can make creative like this piece from Grey London for Toshiba

700,000 people have opted to watch the clip it lasts over a minute and gets across brilliantly the fact that Toshiba are doing some pretty wondrous things with technology. It is a piece of creative that is perfectly suited for online and the 100,000 people who have watched the ‘making of’ video in all of its glory (over 3minutes) probably agree.

Does this mean that everybody should now stop making 30 second spots for TV and now concentrate on making multi-minute masterpieces? No. Of course not, there are still billions of pounds being spent on TV advertising every year and for good reason – it works.

But what happens when that 30 seconds of cinematic glory is re-used online? More often than not it attracts 35 views from the advertiser’s marketing team and then gathers digital dust on the shelf and is never talked about again. The received wisdom is that you simply shouldn’t re-use a TV ad online because it doesn’t work and marks out your advertising as passé. Personally – I think that it is absolutely fine to get the most out of your hard work as long as you make it work for online!.

At Coull we specialise in adding interactivity to a video, making a TV ad as online friendly as possible makes it work harder for you and our recent work for TDC seems to hold this up. Their series of naturist advertisements are generating almost as many interactions as views and that is a stat that any online advertiser would be happy with.

If you haven’t seen enough of them then you can see them all here – http://tdc.dk/reklamefilm/

aol acquires video platform StudioNow

Monday, January 25th, 2010

The acquisition of StudioNow by aol makes a lot of sense to me.The content strategy currently being driven by Tim Montgomery needed the video solution. The issue now is how do they monetise it?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/25/aol-studionow-ted-cahall/

buy.at and Coull Launch Coull Activator to Increase Impact and Value of Online Video to Affiliate Marketing

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Coull Activator – the first fully integrated video technology for affiliate marketing launches at Affiliate Summit West to drive more income to affiliate programmes

15 January 2010, London, UK – buy.at, the affiliate marketing network, has announced the launch of Coull Activator – a new video affiliate platform developed in conjunction with Coull, the interactive video technology company.

As online video usage soars to its highest ever level[1], Coull Activator will launch at the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas 17-19 January 2010.

The Coull Activator launch secures buy.at’s position as the first ever global affiliate network to offer online interactive video functionality across its entire affiliate marketing channel.

Available as a free member benefit to the many thousands of buy.at’s merchants and affiliate partners worldwide, including the likes of Ticketmaster and Sky, all videos used through the service will be managed by Coull.  This ensures that affiliate links stay with videos when they are passed around social networks and blogs.

The launch of Coull Activator means that all buy.at affiliates will be able to include interactive video footage on their sites – to further engage and retain customers online, and increase sales.

Key Coull Activator features will enable affiliates to:

  • Make any video content interactive on their sites, including their own video footage and approved videos taken directly from YouTube
  • Tag individual products and items within videos clips enabling visitors to click through to a dedicated affiliate page
  • Generate increased sales and earn commission every time someone clicks on their links within a video
  • Access detailed analytics to measure the effectiveness of their videos and affiliate campaigns
  • Promote video content across marketing channels, including websites, email forwarding, ad-serving sites and social networks to drive increased visitors, commissions and sales.

To support merchants and affiliates once they start using Coull Activator, buy.at will also be making a library of pre-approved video content available for affiliates to access and upload.  This content will include its advertising back catalogue and sponsored sport interviews.

Paul Fellows, MD of buy.at, said: “In rolling out Coull’s interactive video technology across LittlewoodsDirect.com’s affiliate campaign last year, we saw first hand the impact it can have on product placement and sales.

“Online video directly influences website visibility, encouraging visitors to stay longer, engage and convert.  By teaming up with Coull we are taking the very best in online interactive video right to our affiliates front door.”

Irfon Watkins, CEO of Coull concludes: “Engaging content, especially interactive video is an essential element in generating income for affiliate programmes.  By making sites more interactive, Coull Activator delivers real SEO benefits and will ensure that buy.at’s affiliates are far better placed to increase the visibility of their sites and convert more sales.

“Online video usage is at an all time high around the world.  In the UK alone, the number of online videos viewed in the UK is up 47% compared to last year[2].  As a result, it’s great to team up, yet again, with such a great player in the affiliate market to help their affiliate partners capitalise on the growth and increasing importance of online video, especially when it comes to the bottomline.”

but.at merchants and affiliate partners can sign-up to beta test Coull Activator up until the end of January 2010 by visiting http://www.coull.com/affiliate/register

Coull CEO, Irfon Watkins @Irfonw will be available for interview at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas where demonstrations of Coull Activator will also be taking place.  Irfon will also be available on Skipe, tweeting and blogging from the event.

Affiliate Summit West is the premier affiliate marketing conference.  Taking place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas, the three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.


[1] comScore Video Matrix (January 2010) November sees number of U.S. videos viewed online surpass 30b for first time on record.

[2] conScore Video Matrix (July 2009) 4.7b videos viewed online in the U.K. in April 2009 up 47 percent versus a year ago.

coull and buy.at launch the first fully integrated video affiliate network

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Coull and buy.at launch the first fully integrated video product for affiliate marketing.

The Coull Activator lets any buy.at affiliate generate income from any approved video even those from YouTube. It gives your site more interactive content and the SEO benefits that video can bring. The tool is free and easy to use, Coull host and stream the video and your affiliate links will stay with the video when it is passed around social networks and blogs.

Come and see us and buy.at during the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas 17th-19th January 2010 for a demo or register here to be included in our beta program.