the first two days of webmission in San Francisco have been a whirl of social networking. We were invited to the home of Jim Buckmaster, CEO of craigslist and Susan Best from BestPR  on Sunday for Brunch and Cocktails, which was fantastic. Met some very interesting people, worth the trip already! We then headed off to Redwood City in the Valley for a BBQ. It seems food and beer oils the wheels of the web 2.0 community here. No difference to the UK then!

So far the event has been very useful and there are some really good companies here from the UK and the reception from the Valley so far has been great. Just off to the Oracle campus now followed by a tour of Google…..

Irfon

Twenty UK Web 2.0 businesses are going on a charm offensive to Silicon Valley, the home of hi-tech start-ups…

As part of a new initiative called the Web Mission, 20 UK tech start-ups have been selected to fly out to San Francisco, where’ll they spend a week hanging out drinking skinny soya lattes with Web 2.0 luminaries like Bebo’s Michael Birch and representatives from the likes of Google, Facebook and Amazon – not to mention investors who are keen to spend their money on backing the internet’s next big thing.

The idea of the trip, which was arranged by entrepreneur Oli Barrett and funded by sponsors UK Trade Invest, BT, HSBC and law firm Heller Ehrmann, is to show the Americans just how splendid our internet businesses really are – while giving these companies a chance to learn from their US counterparts and hopefully make some contacts that will help them develop faster in the future.

The businesses – which were selected from over 100 applicants – have all been chosen because they have the potential to expand into the US. And there are some impressive companies in there: the list includes WAYN (Where Are You Now?), a social networking site for globe-trotting types; edocr, which makes business documents interactive; Coull, an interactive video platform; and our particular favourite Silobreaker, an online search that aggregates news and provides all kinds of graphical content for additional context (although it did give us a video of The Charlie Goodwin Quartet when we were researching Sir Fred Goodwin this morning).

To be honest, we wouldn’t claim to understand exactly what all of these jazzy web 2.0 businesses do – but we’re happy to go with the opinion of former Dragons’ Den stalwart Doug Richard, a member of the judging panel, who reckons that ‘some of these companies are as good as anything coming out of the Valley’. Let’s just hope that they can follow in the footsteps of Silicon Valley graduates like Google and eBay and turn themselves into global behemoths…

Click here to see the article on Management Today web site.

The advent of interactive online videos gives advertisers a new way of capturing consumer interest. But Irfon Watkins, CEO at Coull, argues that success with this new format requires more than just rehashed TV ads…

Over the past few years, the surge in consumer use of online video has happened faster than many people expected.  According to eMarketer, more than 70% of Internet users viewed online videos in 2007.  Despite this rapid growth, advertisers have been surprisingly slow to develop creative optimised for the possibilities of this new medium.

The interactivity of the web has caused it to stand out over and above more traditional forms of advertising. Consumers can click and interact with content; advertisers can provide immersive, engaging experiences that inspire interest and action.

But this full potential has not yet been realised within online video. The increase in bandwidth and consumer appetite for online video has largely been met by advertisers with standard fare. TV slots are simply re-run online. What was once an engaging, interactive medium shifts down a gear to becoming a one-way, linear form of advertising, much like watching TV, or reading a newspaper.

Online video advertising today demands little more from the consumer than a lean back experience.

But what of the web’s intrinsic functionality? Why can’t a consumer watching an online video do all of the things expected on a standard web page – clicking and interacting with objects and information at will? 

Coull has launched Coull engage to help advertisers answer this very question. Brand marketers and digital agencies can use the online video advertising format to easily create interactive video adverts – enabling unprecedented levels of interactivity and consumer engagement.

The first trial of this new interactive ad format was by Boots, running its ‘Here Come the Girls’ ad across the Lycos.co.uk site. Viewers were able to interact with products during play, finding out more information and clicking through to the e-commerce site to purchase.

Results from the campaign highlight a very responsive viewer base, with 29.3% of consumers interacting with the various products within the video -taking engagement with the Boots brand to another level. The Coull Engage format also drove five times the average play rate for a non-auto play MPU ad.

The success of the Boots commercial has been followed closely with a Renault campaign, now underway, and a first in the automotive industry. The Coull Engage format has again been utilised to allow viewers to interact with the new Renault Laguna advert during play, clicking on objects to book a test drive or request a brochure.

Boots and Renault’s experiences highlight the increased scope Interactive video offers brands scope to engage directly with consumers. Maximising the power of online video to drive deeper brand involvement, customer acquisition and sales.

But what results could be expected from content created specially for this new medium? The emergence of two-way, interactive functionality within video offers a significant boost in creative scope. Narrative and content can be designed around this, creating fresh and different ways to engage consumers and keep their attention.

When TV first emerged, producers largely imitated radio, with presenters talking straight into a camera, with no camera movement or editing. Direction of film was also very limited in scope until the creative brilliance of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane shone light on new ways to bring the medium to life.

Online video is at a very similar stage. The medium offers creative opportunity not possible on TV or film. As trials by the likes of Boots and Lycos highlight the increased potential for online video, attention will inevitably shift to production of content directly for this new medium. Exciting times lie ahead.

by

Irfon Watkins

CEO

Coull

Click here to see the article on Netimperative’s website.  

FMCG brands have been traditionally slow to embrace online advertising.
A research from PHD and Yahoo, featured on Brand Republic,  revealed that consumer exposure to both TV and online video campaigns led to an 18% increase in purchase intent and a 12% rise in brand favourability compared to consumers who were only exposed to TV advertising. The research shows that “online video advertising can impact on a brand’s marketing objectives - particularly in key metrics such as purchasing intent and brand favourability”.

Online video advertising campaigns are not a mere extension of TV advertising but they can provide added value in terms of brand awareness.

I picked this up off Nic Brisbourne’s blog The Equity Kicker

New IAB data reported in the FT today has the UK internet advertising market at £2.8bn in 2007 up 38% on 2006. That is an incredible growth rate for a market this big. The other piece of data reported is that internet advertising now accounts for 15% of total advertising. That is well below the percentage of media consumed on the internet, which last I saw was at 30%+. Hence we can expect the market to continue to grow, and early signs are that internet advertising spend is standing up in the face of the current economic problems. This market is made all the more exciting for me by the fact that despite the growth we have real issues to sort out - with poorly monetising social media inventory and declining effectiveness of display advertising to name but two.

I agree with Nic, we have a market that is expanding rapidly and could accelerate if new formats and measurements are used.

Of course we at coull have a format that might be appropriate…

Irfon

20 British web entrepreneurs are set to spend 5 days in Silicon Valley in a new private initiative called the Web Mission.

Sponsored by HSBC, BT, Heller Ehrman UK Trade Invest, and with partners including Sun and Oracle, the group will spend time exploring opportunities for their businesses and will meet representatives from Google, Facebook, Bebo, Linkedin and Amazon, as well as a number of up and coming fellow entrepreneurs. 

They will have the chance to pitch their businessses to US-based investors and to attend leading industry events including Web 2.0 expo, taking place during the week.

The trip takes place between April 19th and 24th and is independently organised by serial entrepreneur Oli Barrett and Polecat Ltd. The 20 companies were selected from over 100 applicants.   

Michael Birch, who recently sold online social network Bebo, said: “The Web Mission represents an amazing opportunity for the best of entrepreneurial UK talent to visit Silicon Valley, and learn for themselves the differences that make the US a breeding ground for innovation and more importantly successful execution of ideas. With a spark of inspiration the UK has every opportunity to replicate that success on UK soil.”

Doug Richard, who contributed to the selection process added: “Some of these companies are as good as anything coming out of the Valley.”

To read more about the Web Mission (including an agenda) go to: www.webmission08.com

The 20 companies embarking on the Web Mission are: 

Groupspaces - Web-based tools for groups

Tioti - A social network around TV

Exabre (TheFilter) - Advanced music recommendation

Coull - Interactive video platform

Zogix - Employee services platform

Byteplay (dotHomes) - Real estate search engine

Trampoline Systems - Enterprise software harnessing social behaviour

Hubdub - News prediction social network

WAYN - travel and lifestyle social networking community

TrustedPlaces - Venue recommendation network

Slicethepie - Enabling bands to raise money directly from their fans

Mydeo - Mainstream application for storing and sharing video

Skimbit - Research and share decisions

Huddle - Enterprise 2.0 collaboration

Rummble - Mobile social networking and recommendation

Zebtab - Desktop TV application

Silobreaker - Contextual and graphic search results

Kwiqq - Social Website builder

edocr - Making business documents interactive

ShortFuze - Online movie creation tools for social networks

Details on the 20 selected companies are listed in TechCruch.    

Click here to see the article on Netimperative’s website.  

Yesterday’s MediaPost Video Insider’s post “Video Advertising: A Performance Medium by Any Measure” focuses on the importance of performance in online video advertising. Video advertising performance is driven by three key factors: campaign execution, traffic quality and technology.

Producing  “creative creatives” drives campaign execution according to MediaPost.  “Advertiser-generated content represents the ultimate branding solution, wiping out the line between advertising and programming. Consumers love it, and advertisers who leverage the ‘lean-forward’ experience by adding interactivity or calls to action are clearly getting higher performance than from repurposed 30-second television commercials.“

“Advertisers should leverage the interactivity video formats can add to their creative. While television offers established ways to monitor performance, the measurement capabilities provided in the online world are even greater.”

We are on the right track then!

I found the latest research published on MediaPost very interesting, it is backed up by our own statistics around engagement.  In essence the research finds that online video advertising is at least as good as TV in building brands.

“The takeaway is that nothing is lost and much can be gained. There is no downside in terms of bringing a brand-building message,” Marianne Foley, senior vice president-strategic initiatives at Harris Interactive said referring to the impact of running TV commercials online.

The study found that the commercials performed equally in all the major attributes on each of those platforms, but that embedded video ads might actually perform slightly better in terms of their ability to influence “purchase intent.”

Maybe this is why we have seen a huge spike in activity over the last few months. Long may it continue..

Irfon

We have been working with Lycos and Carat on a new Renault laguna campaign. This has been covered here by Marketing Week. I’ll let you know the results as soon as I am able to post them.

Irfon

I’ve just been reading Liz Gannes on newteevee

It staggers me that videoegg take on $32m in investment then decide that the market for UGC video advertising is not as large as they were forecasting. I bet that pleased the VC’s!