Harmonic Aftershock

Get ready for the year of "Back to the Future."

Image Source: IMDB.com

While most prefer the origial, I always favored Back to the Future II and how the movie seamlessly integrates the past, present, and future -- I've re-watched the movie dozens of times.

And back in 1989 when the movie premiered, it was fascinating to imagine what life would be like more than 26 years into the future. It was hard to fathom even what the year 2000 would be like let alone 2015.

But we've made it. And you can bet in the months, weeks, and days leading up to Wednesday October 21, 2015, there'll be lots of focus on the fact that we don't yet have flying cars, self-lacing Nike hightops, or hoverboards...

...But in so many ways we've surpassed, both in technology and as a society, the events depicted in that now classic movie. We've got a long way to go, but I cannot be more excited for what our unwritten future holds.

A Serendipitous Twitter Moment.

There’s something about the idea of getting value added content at the moment when it’s most relevant – And Warner Brothers found a really simple yet effective way to do just that.

As I entered the movie theater last night, I checked in on Foursquare and shared to Twitter using the #GreenLantern hashtag. While waiting in line to be seated, I started looking at what others were tweeting about.

The top tweet (above), as generated by engagement (i.e. RTs), is from @WBpictures letting followers know there’s an extra scene at the end of the main credits.

I’m one that usually bolts out at the end of the movie and had I not seen that Tweet, I would not have stayed for the ending, which after seeing it, was a critical part of the movie and next movie set-up.

In the end, it was a simple tactic for a brand to do that’s generated a good deal of amplification through WOM.

Vudu Finally Arrives on the Boxee Box (Video)

 
This past Wednesday, Boxee announced its latest Boxee Box firmware upgrade which also activated the highly anticipated (and also highly delayed) Vudu content partnership.

Today I did the firmware upgrade on my Boxee Box and checked out the Vudu app. Here’s a quick video demo of how it works:

The highlights

• Vudu’s large selection of 1080p movies turbo charges one's home theater
• The highly cross-linked user experience facilitates content discovery
• The app’s GUI on the Boxee Box is well organized and easy to navigate

This coming Friday (January 28), I’ll be interviewing Boxee’s Andrew Kippen live at Hill Holliday’s TVnext summit. I’ll be asking him more about the Boxee + Vudu partnership and what’s the holdup with Netflix. Be sure to tune in via Ustream. The event kicks off at 9:30am (EST) and the Boxee interview will be around 1:30pm.

Video: Demo of Boxee Box

A month ago I did a video demo of GoogleTV. But long before Google launched its take on Connected TVs, I had my eye squarely on Boxee Box. In fact, it was almost a year ago when I first Tweeted about it and was psyched when it arrived on my doorstep last Wednesday. I already live tweeted my Boxee Box unbundling and setup but here’s my video demo & review of the device & application.

Among the things that differentiate Boxee from its competition is how social media is embedded into its user experience as a means to discover new content. Boxee is not just a convergence of Web + TV but also a convergence of social media + TV -- and this can be very powerful union when done right.

As Avner Ronen (Boxee's CEO) recently stated, “I think social is going to be a big part of TV consumption even more so than search. Often times you don't know what you want to watch and it's about surfacing content that's relevant to you.”

The one gripe I have (which I’m sure Boxee will address) is the painfully slow download speeds of cover art as one browses TV shows and movies.

And once Boxee gets Hulu Plus and Netflix onto their platform later this year, its library of content will be on par with (if not better than) its competition.

“The Social Network” Movie’s Effect on Search Behavior

Since the premiere of The Social Network, there’s been a lot more interest in Facebook’s founders and the website’s origins. As someone who went to see the movie immediately on October 1st and then again 9 days later (and is craving to see it a 3rd time), I get the intrigue. For me (and I suspect many others), the movie powerfully fuels the entrepreneurial drive – much like I felt when I was in my twenties and first read, clipped, and kept in my wallet an article from Mecklermedia's now defunct Web Week titled “The 20 Something CEO.”

 

This “intrigue” that the film evokes is causing both the production and curation of related, yet non-fictional, content.  Bloomberg recently did an interesting documentary-style piece on Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook. This is soon to be followed by an in-depth special program with Lester Holt on CNBC this coming January featuring brand new interviews with many of the people fictionalized in the movie.

And just yesterday, All Facebook curated a number of existing online-videos of the Facebook founders which prompted me to check out and compare their search patterns on Google. Since search is one pretty solid indicator of interest over time, the chart below clearly shows how search queries for each of the “characters” featured in the movie increased since the movie’s October 1st premiere.

What’s also interesting is the fact that spikes in searches have occurred every Sunday since The Social Network premiered (presumably because most people are seeing the movie on the weekend and feel the need, post-movie, to look up the founders and investigate what really happened). Note: The large spike for Mark Zuckerberg on September 23rd (before the Movie premiered) was most likely due to his philanthropic appearance on Oprah.

It’s also interesting that the relative comparison in volume of searches tends to match the amount of movie airtime each person got. Chris Hughes who I didn’t include on the chart was barely featured/mentioned in the movie and was more-or-less flat-lined in comparative searches. Ironically, he was a pretty big part of the founding of Facebook and has gone on to do some very noteworthy things.

In the end, there's no doubt that mass media drives search behavior.

“The Social Network” Movie: Built in WOM

Does Sony Pictures have it made with October’s release of “The Social Network?" From a marketing perspective, it would seem so:

[Social networks promoting "The Social Network."]
Not only has Facebook taken the world by storm but by nature of the motion picture’s content, it’s naturally spreading around through word-of-mouth (WOM) -- Social networks promoting “The Social Network”.

[No need to “earn media.”]
In fact, a quick Twitter search shows that even after 2 days from the first trailer release, there are still several tweets per minute about it. And since the some of the top influencers within the social web cover social media, there isn’t a need for “influencer outreach” programs since they’ll naturally help promote the movie.

[Will 500,000,000 people go see the movie?]
But the question still remains, will the movie appeal to the general masses outside of those who spend all their time within “the social media bubble?”  It certainly doesn’t hurt to have a big name director (Aaron Sorkin) and Actors (i.e. Justin Timberlake).  And since Facebook has affected nearly 500,000,000 people, it very much is a part of pop culture.

The Celebrity Tweet Factor

There’s a lot of talk about celebrities being on Twitter and what that means to the service and the social media thought leaders that once dominated the channel.  Jeremiah Owyang tweeted the question yesterday, “Do you think Twitter has hit a tipping point this last week?” 

I’m not sure about a tipping point yet, but one thing is certain is that Twitter has abruptly burst out of the “social media bubble” and after watching last Friday’s Larry King Live, I think it’s a great thing.

Yes there’s a celebrity ego play (as with most people on Twitter) but what Ashton and Pdiddy are doing is reaffirming the fundamentals of what social media is:

Ashton Kutcher - @aplusk:

• "It’s really a conversation – that’s the difference between it being regular media vs. social media."
• "We now live in an age where a single voice can have as much power and relevance as an entire media network."
• "Twitter is not a platform for Celebrities – it’s really about everyday people having a voice."
• "We’re in a middle of a recession yet social media companies are hiring. A tide is turning."

 Sean “PDiddy” Combs” – @iamdiddy:

• "It cuts out the middle man – the middle man has been the media. It’s given me a chance for people to get to know the real me."
• "You can have  1million followers or 10 followers – it’s the same amount of energy and power to build your own community"
• "It’s the truest definition of viral – everything happens in real time"

But as Jimmy Fallon mentioned (who uses twitter actively on his late night show):  “I still think the majority of people don’t really know what the hell Twitter is – they have no idea what it is and what to do with it.”

But I think we’re all feeling that that’s going to quickly change. Talk about media convergence!

IMDB, Video, and Happy Advertisers

Mashable’s Stan Schroeder isn’t too thrilled about IMDB now offering free full-length movies and TV shows. For me, it’s yet another rockin’ step towards web and TV convergence.  Although the videos have already been made available on sites like Hulu -- IMDB acts as a contextual aggregator. 

I’ve used IMDB for years as a research and reference resource. Not only can I read and view everything I’ve ever wanted to know about a show like Heroes, now I can watch episodes of it while I’m in the context of researching the show.

And this is a win-win for Hulu (in this case) since their branded content is further distributed along with their pre-roll advertisements. So IMDB is happy because they have more great content. Hulu is happy because they’re getting more exposure. Advertisers are happy since they’re achieving better reach – and in the end users of IMDB are psyched because it puts rich content in context at their fingertips.

While I still have issues with viewing full-length films/TV shows in front of my computer and the fact that the videos aren’t portable to my iPod or at least downloadble so I can watch when I’m offline (like on a plane), the tipping scale is imminent.

“Blatant” Instinct

In one day, the Samsung Instinct is primed to be everywhere, including in your face – at least that’s what Sprint hopes as they get ready to launch their YouTube “Sell Out” contest on June 30th. Sprint will give $20 bucks to the first one thousand people who upload home movies containing a blatant product placement of the Instinct mobile phone.

I’ve always been interested in the practice of branded entertainment and recall a presentation I did for a class in the early 90s on product placement in motion pictures.  There are elegant executions where brands can harmonize within the context of the programming. As a kid, I wanted a Pontiac Trans Am so badly because of the show Knight Rider – I grew a genuine affection towards the car in what felt like a natural and organic way…so much so that when I turned 16, I wanted to buy one.

Sprint is taking the opposite approach to product placement and has even called themselves out on it by naming their instinct YouTube campaign “Sell Out”. Their intent, obviously, is to generate buzz in a short amount of time – but does “in your face” promotion foster brand loyalty? How many of you feel good when a pop-up ad interrupts your web browsing experience? For me, product placement done badly is almost as disruptive.

The Apple iPone has become so popular because it's simply a damn good product -- Its success did not come from over-the-top fabricated blatant promotion but by a much more genuine connection with its, now, immense following and loyalists.

If short term buzz is what Sprint wants then they’re well on their way: As I was reading Kristen Nicole’s Mashable post about the Instinct contest, a Sprint ad about the same contest came up on my TV (and, truthfully, freaked me out for a second) – now when TV programming can start to read minds, that’s convergence at its best!

The Glue that Brings Media Together: Apple TV

Earlier this year, Apple released a second version of its Apple TV product – I recently picked one up, plugged it in and my jaw dropped.  What felt like an 8” square by 1” high paperweight (albeit a nice looking one), created a seamless bridge between the digital media on my computer (pictures, music, videos) to iTunes and then to my home theater – all wrapped by the kind of amazing user experience I’ve come to expect from Apple.

I can preview, rent, or buy movies (many of which are in HD). In one click, I can purchase and then watch TV shows that are on iTunes (individual episodes or full seasons). I can connect to my Flikr account or other photo library and share a slideshow to a crowd of people in my living room (and even sync it to music if I want to).

One of the best parts of the new AppleTV is its interface with YouTube. Sure I’ve watched YouTube videos before but truth be told, I’ve never been one to sit idle in front of my computer to consume content for more than quick bursts at a time. Yet, I’ve found myself for an hour at a time browsing content delivered via YouTube sitting on my couch and using the Apple TV remote while watching it through my big screen TV.

Apple TV and its elegance underscores, for me, that a much more onDemand media delivery model is THE future of content consumption. This will continue to erode the need for television and cable networks in their current form and all but squashes traditional advertising models. I’m already considering canceling my subscription to HBO and Starz as I’ve been renting all of my movies (in crystal clear HD) through my Apple TV.

Back in 1982, my computer had only two purposes: dabble in BASIC and play Frogger (on a cassette tape).  The TV was used to watch major network programs. We went to the movie theater to watch movies. We read the newspaper or watched network TV to hear about current events. We spoke on the phone to catch up with friends. Over 25 years later, these silos are all being mashed up into a singular and powerful user experience. Apple TV is the first out of many past attempts that has made me take a step back and say, “It’s really here. The world has changed.”