The Early Days of Video Search

Engines, Marketers Are Working to Optimize Results, but No One Can
Figure Out How to Monetize This Market

By now, everyone knows full episodes of ABC prime-time shows are
available on the network's website, ABC.com. But let's say you didn't
know that -- and you were looking online for the final episode of the
most recent season of "Lost." You might go where most people go to
look for things online: Google. You type in the words "Lost final
episode video." What's the first result?
1. The "Saturday Night Live" sketch "Lazy Sunday" broke out as a viral
hit on YouTube.
Lazy Sunday YouTube
2. But a Google search for "SNL videos" turned up nothing from NBC on
the first page of results -- until the network undertook some major
video-search-optimization efforts.
Lazy Sunday YouTube
3. Now the top search result on Google for "SNL videos" is a rich NBC site.
Lazy Sunday YouTube
A three-minute YouTube clip that's not the final episode at all but a
spoof from the Consumer Electronics Show of Kate and Sawyer walking on
the beach talking about going to Vegas to see how the HD DVD/Blu-ray
rivalry plays out -- with Spanish subtitles. Not at all what you were
looking for, to say the least.

This scenario is likely to change as Google improves its video-search
function and as video sites it didn't use to detect -- such as
ABC.com's Flash player -- start to become more relevant. Of course,
you could search again, refining your keywords until you find what you
want. But this example also illustrates the immaturity of the
video-search market. No proven, paid video-search model exists yet.

Richard Hagerty, CEO of Impaqt, a search-engine-marketing agency
outside of Pittsburgh, says the state of video search reminds him of
where text search was seven years ago -- in part because monetization
of video search barely exists, if at all, and mostly because of the
relatively rudimentary ways in which marketers optimize video to show
up in search results.

"In the early days of search, you had a big title tag, a graphic in
the middle of the page and a description describing the page," he
says. "We're back to that with video."

No universal standard
"We're still in the early stage in terms of marketing opportunities
for video search," agrees David Berkowitz, director of emerging media
and client strategy at 360i, which boasts video-heavy companies such
as NBC Universal, Scripps Networks and MTV Networks as search clients.
"It's in natural search where more opportunity lies." He says one of
the problems with video search that doesn't plague text search is
there isn't a universal standard for how videos get indexed into
search engines.

Mr. Berkowitz points to an example of how his firm has optimized video
so that it shows up higher in search results. When the "Saturday Night
Live" hit "Lazy Sunday," a hip-hop-music-video parody starring Andy
Samberg, went viral on YouTube in December 2005, NBC was nowhere to be
found in the first page of results for a Google search on "SNL
videos." After major video-search-optimization efforts, the SNL video
page showed up first. Mr. Berkowitz also credits optimization efforts
for ensuring NBC video sites show up in the top half of results for
other phrases, such as "Friday Night Lights," ahead of other popular
sites such as IMDB, TV.com and Wikipedia.

Marketers will have to play closer attention to such optimization
tactics as more of them begin to add video to their sites to explain
complex stories that can be better told in sight, sound and motion.
How will consumers find those videos?

More video searches
Consumers, too, are increasingly interested in video. Tim Tuttle, who
runs all of AOL's video-search efforts under the brand name Truveo, a
company AOL acquired 18 months ago, says he's seen search queries
steadily increase -- up 40% month-over-month since November 2006.

Previously one had to search for video on a separate search channel,
Google Video, which began life as a video-hosting site where you could
watch, buy and rent online videos of TV shows. After Google acquired
YouTube last year, it made YouTube its video-hosting site and turned
Google Video into a video-search destination.

The only trouble is, until recently, Google Video searched only the
videos hosted on Google sites -- not videos across the web.

Google is joined by a slew of start-up competitors and established
portals that are hoping to make a name for themselves with
sophisticated video-search techniques that include things such as
converting speech to text and detecting images that appear within
video.

Letting others in
Suranga Chandratillake, CEO of video search engine Blinkx, says
Google's previously closed video-search system has opened the door for
companies such as Blinkx to be the next Google.

Still unclear is how video search engines intend to make money off
video searches -- there is no set model for advertising like there is
with the $7 billion text-search industry. Blinkx, for one, is trying
to use its technology to place contextual advertising in video
content. "We want to help people find content and help people get
relevant ads for that content," he says. Blinkx outsources its ad
sales to Advertising.com, another indication of how nascent the
industry is.

The hurdle Blinkx and other start-ups may run into is how to get
traffic when consumer search behavior is ingrained. When searching,
people naturally gravitate to Google. And when looking for video,
people still tend to go to YouTube.

Take 360i's Mr. Berkowitz, for example. He recalls staying in Las
Vegas recently and noticing a particular comedian was performing in
his hotel. He wanted to check out the comedian in action before
splurging on a ticket, so the first place he stopped was YouTube.com.

"YouTube has already branded itself a video search engine, but it's
not a great experience," he says. "Increasingly, I won't need to take
that extra step if I realize Google will have it [in its Universal
Search results]."

Apple co-founder backs Internet video venture

An Internet video brainchild of three twentysomething former
University of California grad students has won big backers, including
Apple (Nasdaq:APPL - CCU - news).

The billionaire moguls are backing a tiny venture-backed company,
Hotswap.com, which has ambitious plans to feed a growing demand for
high-definition-like Internet video for everyday e-commerce uses, such
as consumer car sales, its founders said.

"I like what they're doing. It's definitely a step forward," said
Wozniak, the Silicon Valley wunderkind who formed Apple with
entrepreneur Steve Jobs in 1976.

"Woz," as he's known, said he signed on as an adviser to the company
to "give them ideas that come into my mind."

Hotswap.com emerged from graduate computer science research into
digital "compression" technology that its founders say can make common
digital camera movie clips mimic high-definition television on Web
sites.

Luke Thomas, a 21-year-old former UC Berkeley grad student and Hotswap
chairman, said the often-fuzzy videos uploaded by amateurs onto
YouTube.com and similar Web sites can be transformed by Hotswap's
technology. Hotswap has applied for patents for the technology, he
added.

"All the technology we see on the Internet is 1994 technology," said
Thomas. "You will see e-commerce take off with the advent of
high-quality video."

Formed just three months ago with the backing from the venture finance
firm Kinsey Hills Group, Hotswap.com has already won contracts with
AutoNation Inc. (NYSE:AN - news) and with Red McCombs Enterprises'
chain of auto dealerships.

Rad Weaver, McCombs' vice president of business development, said the
company has begun using video clips with Hotswap technology for its
used car listings on the Internet.

The San Antonio, Texas company sells about 40,000 new and used cars a
year and is part of the business empire of Red McCombs, 79, an
oil-and-gas magnate who started a car dealership chain in Texas and
expanded into home building, oil and other businesses before
co-founding Clear Channel, the media company, in 1972.

He has also owned sports franchises including the Minnesota Vikings,
San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets.

"DYNAMIC"

"This gives the most dynamic presentation of the vehicle," said
Weaver, who said he's found no similar marketing tool for Internet
video presentation.

Digital camera filmstrips can also be easily uploaded onto Web sites.
"With their compression technology, they are able to drastically
shorten the upload time-frame, which is critical."

Weaver declined to value the contract, but said it's "material" for his company.

Thomas founded Hotswap.com with two UC Berkeley friends, Ryan Waliany
and Ken Elkabany, both 20. All were former computer science Ph.D.
students who spent most of their time in laboratories.

"When other kids were out partying, we were in our labs," said Thomas.
"In the weekends, we were in the labs. We've never taken a break from
this."

Reeling off statistics on potential market demand for the new
technology, Thomas confidently predicts: "We're going to be a
billion-dollar company."

For now, Thomas says the Berkeley-based company plans to focus on the
$370 billion-a-year used car industry, where the company expects to
win more contracts.

Thomas said his alma mater won't be making any claims to the
technology, as universities often do with budding technology.

"They definitely influenced our brains, but this was done
independently from our university," he said.

RSS Ads Promote Videos - What Next?

TurnHere and Pheedo have partnered to distribute branded video content
by RSS into ad divisions on the Pheedo network. TurnHere is an online
video platform and production firm. Pheedo is a feed-based ad company.

TurnHere has been struggling with attracting viewers to the site
although they have been working hard with clients in manufacturing
affordable video ads for placement. Pheedo is the answer to Turn
Here's problems with an ad network and RSS-facilitated ad divisions
titled FeedPowered Advertising. These are used to update existing
placements by advertisers with image and text based information in
real-time.

Videos will not play within the ads; the ads will actually provide a
preview that there is new video content on the web sites of TurnHere's
clients. Vice president of marketing and founder of Pheedo Bill
Flitter stated, "Every time a new video is uploaded to the site, the
ad unit automatically updates with the latest content."

Flitter continued, "We tie everything together with a deep analysis on
user behavior." RSS platforms will track video viewing results such as
links coming from search engines and interaction rates according to
Flitter.

The first project has been developed for publishers Simon & Schuster
which will offer video spotlights of authors to promote new works.

TACODA Sells To AOL

Another acquisition making headlines today is that of AOL and TACODA.
TACODA is an ad network that specializes in online behavioral
targeting.

The ad network gives advertisers the possibility of serving ads based
on the online behavior of consumers. AOL can utilize this
functionality to widen their targeting capacity and broaden the reach
of the third-party display network which is the largest in the United
States.

TACODA will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of AOL.

eMarketer projected that the behavioral targeting market is expected
to increase up from $350 million last year to $3.8 billion by 2011.

YouTube Goes To Washington

Tonight is a historic evening as the very first of two Presidential
debates sponsored by CNN and YouTube are scheduled to air. The
questions that will be asked are all from user submissions on
YouTube.com.

The debate tonight is for the Democrats and will air for two hours
starting at 7 p.m. EST. The next one will air on September 17th for
the Republicans. Anderson Cooper has been slated to moderate and is
reported to offer between 20 and 30 questions.

In an elaborate campaign that equally advertises CNN, YouTube, and
parent company Google, the debate will feature geographical locations
of questioners on Google Earth maps; and oversized projector screens
streaming questions by visitors to the site.

CNN has been advertising for the debate with video clips from
YouTube.com of American citizens submitting questions. Health care and
the economy have been the most popular topics of choice for questions
including: How are you going to make healthcare more affordable? and
What are you going to do about the value of the dollar?

Another effort put forth by YouTube for the impending race was
YouChoose '08 which allowed visitors to vote on various candidates'
video channels.

This night brings a new awareness of the integration of the internet
as the standard for information, advertisement, and entertainment
across the globe and its influence on our daily lives.

Grouper Goes Hollywood

Grouper's completely scrapping their old site and being reborn as
Crackle. The new site aims to discover the top online video talent for
their parent company, Sony, by offering producers the chance at fame
and fortune. All the old Grouper accounts will be transferred to
Crackle.

The new property will be a destination video site, consisting of 12
branded channels for different show concepts such as comedy, music
news, and animation. The site consists of a channel guide and high
quality 16 x 9 embeddable video player. Advertisers will be able to
place 5 to 15 second ads between the videos and banner units on the
site.

Crackle's Branded Channels

Crackle will seed the channels 1000 of their own professionally
produced videos. They will add the top user generated content
following the channel's show concept (comedy, music, etc.) as selected
by the community and their team of editors.

In return, Crackle will reward the producers in varying degrees,
ranging from revenue shares to mid seven figure production deals. All
winners will receive distribution across Sony's network of hardware
and film properties. Sony's distribution network and 60 person
advertising team really pushes this open studio model beyond anything
other video startups can currently offer.

The site is launching with 4 of the 12 user supported channels.
Judgment Day is a channel where the hosts will "judge" other people in
the public and then find out if their judgments are right. Scrambler
is a video music magazine for indie rock. High Wire is a virtual stage
for stang up comedy. Wet Paint is an animation channel. They also have
a channel devoted to America's Firehouses, whose content will be
paired with Sony's "Rescue Me" series. Finally, Moving Targets is a
sketch variety channel coming soon.

Rewarding Producers

Crackle will allow users to climb the "fame pyramid" as pictured on
the right. Anyone will be able to submit a video to the channels,
which will be put into a general video library. Viewers will vote for
the best videos and during contest periods for special deals, the two
top user selected videos will join the editors picks to be chosen for
production deals.

The possible rewards for producers will vary based on the channel. All
the chosen content will be distributed across their network of
embedded video players, along with Sony PSP, Bravia, and Sony Vaio.
Crackle claims an audience of 25 million unique visitors per month.

Quarterly winners of their Shorts and Moving Targets channels will get
a pitch meeting with Columbia Pictures about deals produce more
videos. Winners on the comedy channels will get the chance to perform
on stage at the IMPROV comedy clubs in LA, NY, or Chicago and pitch
their shorts to IMPROV Comedy Lab. Animation winners will get a cash
prize, the chance to pitch the studio on a theatrical release of their
short, and tickets to Siggraph 2008.

Their first example is Mr. Deity, a comedy show produced by Brian
Dalton, which Grouper lured from YouTube with the promise of greater
distribution. Since March, the show's 10 episodes have received over
5.7 million views. Sony has picked up the show for an additional 10
episodes to premiere on their Moving Targets channel.

How Does it Stack Up

Crackle is a big shift from the plans originally announced after
Grouper turned down a $10 million second round and sold to Sony last
August. We reported Sony would use Grouper's technology to share lower
quality Sony videos online, distribute DVD quality video by P2P and
allow users to create mashups of select Sony media properties. Both of
these ideas were very similar to what Veoh and Eyespot are already
doing.

YouTube can still drive more traffic to your videos (this one did over
1 million in a day) and make you famous. However, Crackle has what no
other video network has, Sony, which means they can offers top
producers access to fatter budgets along with Hollywood style fame.

It is a model that can be reproduced with some effort by other sites.
iFilm, with it's parent Viacom, could similarly strike deals with top
producers and distribute across their properties. Other social video
sites like Veoh, with their P2P player, Joost and Babelgum, while
lacking Sony's clout, could also step into the ring. Increased
competition for top content from all of these sites spells good news
for the burgeoning internet video industry and may mean bad news for
existing video content networks that can't match what Sony has to
offer.

ValueClick to Acquire Leading U.S. Comparison Shopping Site Operator MeziMedia

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2007--ValueClick,
Inc. (Nasdaq:VCLK) today announced that it has agreed to acquire
privately-held MeziMedia, Inc., a leading operator of U.S. comparison
shopping websites. MeziMedia ranked fourth in the June 2007 comScore
"Retail - Comparison Shopping" category with approximately 10.5
million U.S. unique visitors through its Smarter.com comparison
shopping and CouponMountain.com online coupon websites.

ValueClick anticipates three key strategic benefits from the MeziMedia
acquisition:

-- MeziMedia will add scale to ValueClick's fast-growing
Comparison Shopping segment and give the Company a leadership
position in the U.S. comparison shopping market. ValueClick
currently is a major comparison shopping provider in Europe
under the PriceRunner brand.

-- MeziMedia will enhance ValueClick's search engine optimization
(SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) capabilities.
MeziMedia has a sophisticated, proprietary SEM platform and
significant expertise and experience in SEO and SEM, which can
be leveraged across ValueClick's businesses and clients.

-- MeziMedia will give ValueClick a formal presence in China.
MeziMedia has a world-class engineering and operations center
in Shanghai and has also launched websites in China for
comparison shopping, coupons and search.

"MeziMedia is consistent with our acquisition philosophy and gives
ValueClick comparison shopping scale in the U.S., greater search
marketing expertise and a presence in China, all three of which are
key growth initiatives for the Company," said Tom Vadnais, chief
executive officer of ValueClick. "This is an exciting acquisition and
we look forward to welcoming the MeziMedia team to the ValueClick
family."

"We are proud of our significant accomplishments in comparison
shopping, SEO and SEM and believe that the time is right to join
forces with ValueClick, one of the largest and most diversified online
marketing services companies," said Talmadge O'Neill and Harry Tsao,
co-founders of MeziMedia. "We are confident that MeziMedia and
ValueClick will enjoy important benefits from this transaction and
generate meaningful synergies across the combined businesses."

Under the terms of the agreement, ValueClick will acquire all
outstanding equity interests in MeziMedia for approximately $100
million in cash at the time of closing, and contingent cash
consideration based on revenue and adjusted-EBITDA(1) performance from
the closing date through December 31, 2009. Total cash consideration
will range between $100 million and $352 million, depending on whether
performance thresholds are met. ValueClick anticipates the acquisition
will be accretive on both an adjusted-EBITDA and diluted net income
per common share basis.

The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each
respective company and all the stockholders of MeziMedia. ValueClick
anticipates the acquisition will close in August 2007, subject to
customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Upon the
transaction's close, MeziMedia's management team will join
ValueClick's management team and continue to lead the MeziMedia
business. MeziMedia will be included in ValueClick's Comparison
Shopping business segment.

Founded in 2001, MeziMedia employs approximately 160 people globally
in its Los Angeles area headquarters and Shanghai, China and Tokyo,
Japan offices. In 2006, MeziMedia generated approximately $40 million
in revenue and was EBITDA, operating income, and net income
profitable. For more information on MeziMedia, please visit
http://www.mezimedia.com.

ValueClick intends to update its 2007 business outlook upon the close
of this acquisition.

About ValueClick

ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCLK) is one of the world's largest
integrated online marketing services companies, offering comprehensive
and scalable solutions to deliver cost-effective customer acquisition
for advertisers and transparent revenue streams for publishers.
ValueClick's performance-based solutions allow its customers to reach
their potential through multiple online marketing channels, including
affiliate and search marketing, display advertising, lead generation,
ad serving and related technologies, and comparison shopping.
ValueClick brands include Commission Junction, ValueClick Media,
Mediaplex, and PriceRunner. For more information, please visit
www.valueclick.com.

Next New's 'Mogul' Boasts Over 1 Mil. Streams in June

Next New Networks, the niche online video company launched by former
Nickelodeon president Herb Scannell, said its independent film-themed
site Indy Mogul generated over a million video streams in June,
marking the third channel created by the startup to surpass that
threshold.

The new media company, led by several former Viacom executives, rolled
out last March half a dozen niche video Web sites, with the promise of
launching more than 20 "micro networks" by the end of the year. Thus
far, Next New has created content aimed at groups ranging from car
junkies to massively multiplayer game enthusiasts, which it
distributes on Web video gathering places such as YouTube, Veoh and
Joost.

Last month, the seven-week-old Indy Mogul, which features Backyard FX,
a service-oriented show for aspiring filmmakers, recorded a million
video views, according to Next New officials. That matches the usage
levels seen for two previously launched shows: Channel Frederator and
VOD Cars.

"We have always said that we are audience people and the beauty of our
online networks is that we have a direct relationship with this
audience and know in real time if something is working," said
Scannell, the company's CEO. "And, in the case of Indy Mogul, the
audience has spoken. It's a hit."

IAB to Standardize Web Video

The Internet Advertising Bureau is developing a standard metric to use
for measuring web video, reports TVWeek.

The move comes as the agency seeks to provide a common currency for a
format that, to date, features a hodgepodge of different players
trying a plethora of different marketing options. The conversation
comes amid a flurry of claims by major distribution outlets of how
many hundreds of thousands of streams they've delivered. It also comes
as more and more monetization plans pop up, seemingly every day.

Standardized methods of determining audience figures could help tap
even deeper into advertising budgets. Online video is already expected
to garner $1.31 billion in ad revenue this year, a number that is
likely to go no other direction than up in the near term.

One point of contention when it comes to counting streams is that a
longer TV show delivered online may be broken into four or five
seperate streams to make for more efficient delivery. But that boosts
the number of streams a network can claim it's delivered, which some
see as artificial since, theoretically, only one viewer is being
served.
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adap.tv Gets $10 Million In Funding

ADAP.TV, WHICH OFFERS AN IN-STREAM contextual ad platform for online
video, said it had closed a Series A funding round of $10 million from
new investor Redpoint Ventures and existing investor Gemini Israel
Funds.

Headed by CEO Amir Ashkenazi, former co-founder and chief technology
officer of Shopping.com, adap.tv has developed proprietary algorithms
that analyze video content, determine the most relevant ads, and serve
them in real time by adapting to viewer behavior.

The firm has previously announced partnerships with Metacafe and thePlatform.

Lionsgate Invests In Break.com

LIONSGATE HAS MADE AN UNSPECIFIED equity investment in video-sharing
startup Break.com, the independent production studio said Wednesday.

With the deal, Lionsgate hopes to better distribute clips from its
existing library of more than 11,000 movies and TV episodes.

Break.com, popular among young males, presently reaches more than 17
million monthly unique visitors.

60Frames Entertainment: A Professional Approach to Online Video

IN A MOVE TO BRING some order to the explosive growth of the online
video marketplace for industry pros--including actors, writers,
directors, and perhaps most importantly, advertisers and
agencies--Spot Runner and big Hollywood talent agency UTA have
incubated a new kind of video content studio.

The firm, dubbed 60Frames Entertainment, will provide financing,
distribution and advertising services for professionally produced
video programming to fill a void in the fast-growing, but still
largely amateurish marketplace dominated by consumer-generated content
on YouTube, MySpace and various viral videos.

There simply isn't enough high-quality inventory online in terms of
video content," says Brent Weinstein, the former head of digital
operations at the United Talent Agency, who was named CEO of 60Frames.
"A lot of it is consumer-generated and not very advertiser-friendly.
We think there is an amazing opportunity to give advertisers an
opportunity to have high-quality content to advertise in."

The "we" includes UTA and Internet-based advertising and media
services agency Spot Runner, which will serve as the advertising sales
arm, representing the new video content on Madison Avenue.

Although Spot Runner--which itself is backed by big agency holding
companies Interpublic and WPP--is best known for helping smaller,
so-called "long tail" advertisers create TV advertising and media
buys, 60Frames' projects will initially be aimed at bigger advertisers
and agencies looking to get involved in the early stages of
professionally produced online video content. Producers and directors
Joel and Ethan Coen have already signed on to develop 60Frames
projects, and Weinstein says other big names are soon to follow.

"We're going to be working through Spot Runner with major brands and
advertisers to provide unique opportunities including pre-roll and
post-roll, product placement and other ways of integrating their
brands with high-quality video content," Weinstein says.

Projects will vary depending on the mix of artists involved, the
audience the content is aimed at, and the nature of the distribution
mix. 60Frames will handle both the front-end of financing and
distribution, as well as back-end deals, providing an easy structure
for content creators to participate in the online video marketplace.
60Frames will also act as a syndicator, arranging distribution across
various sites and portals to maximize the reach of content depending
on the nature of the programming.

"Right now, we're announcing the company, its formation and intent. In
a few weeks we will be making announcements about additional partners,
distribution deals and key executives and artists. Our intent is to be
in development on our first batch of content very soon."

YES Network on the Hunt for Distribution Partners

The YES Network, the broadcast home of the New York Yankees, is
looking to extend its reach with a number of distribution deals,
reports MediaWeek.

YES has signed deals with Joost, Amazon, Yahoo and ROO to have games
broadcast on those sites and services. That would enable Yankees games
to reach fans who are outside the YES broadcast area but still want to
follow the day-to-day games.

Partners like ROO aren't limited to just one site but will make games
available to its own stable of distribution partner sites. It also
gives services partnering with YES access to other sports franchises
like the New Jersey Nets.

Because broadcast revenue is split between teams in the MLB, it could
be a matter of time before the other teams come looking to whet their
beaks with the money YES will pull in from the deal, which will be
ad-supported, providing income for both YES and the sites/services it
will utilize for games distribution.
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Dove's 'Evolution' Shows Power Of Video Revolution

by Alan Schulman, Tuesday, July 10, 2007
THERE ARE TIMES IN every creative practitioner's career when
inevitably you come across some execution that is so simple, yet so
powerful, you're left wondering how something so obvious hasn't
occurred to you to do yourself on one of your own brands. Maybe we're
just too busy getting lost in the advertising trees to see the simple
power of the human forest.

Or, maybe it's also because, like so many skunkworks projects and
unknown change agents, the most innovative thinking and
transformational ideas surface by sneaking up through the middle of
our industry, rather than being bestowed on the world from the top
down.

I would venture to say that such is the case with Ogilvy/Canada's
viral video phenom, Dove's "Evolution" -- winner of both Cyber and
Film Lions at last month's Cannes Advertising Festival. This should be
a wake-up call to all of us that, from YouTube to your tube, the
medium isn't the message.... the message is!

So what can we learn from a breakthrough piece of creative work like this?

1) The evolution will not be televised. While big advertising ideas
and great storytelling have traditionally been reserved for the craft
of the :30 televised commercial, the world of online video, viral or
not, has become just as legitimate a source for both branded
information and entertainment as television has -- when it's done
right.

2) The desktop has democratized execution. Grabbing a digital camera
and executing an idea from your gut may not always start out on a
creative brief, but rather, in the new lab known as your laptop
computer. Got an idea? Show, don't just tell.

3) Advertisers will either "be" the content via longer-form,
brand-centric infotainment, or "sponsor" the content with honest,
entertaining spots like this one that offers brand truths that overlap
with real consumer truths -- in this case, extending the definition of
real beauty by showing what it isn't -- and then standing up to
educate teen girls who are being seduced by the pink jungle to,
instead, emulate what beauty "really" is.

4) Video production skill sets once reserved for the bastion of big TV
agencies are slowly beginning to reside in the halls and cubbyholes of
digital agencies, while concurrently, technologists are suddenly
appearing in the brainstorming sessions of traditional creative shops.
This is a good thing.

5) When you have a big idea, it shows. Again and again. It writes
itself in different ways in different hands. Dove's "Real Beauty,"
expressed one way in traditional American media, took on an entirely
new expression in the hands of the Canadian creatives who saw it just
a little differently.

What this kind of evolution also proves is that these are
opportunistic times for creatives and creators who are ready to take
some chances and stretch out on an idea. It takes inspiration, guts, a
spirit of independence and the tools to bring them to life. Waiting
around for test scores, or wondering if there will be enough
production dollars remaining after the TV campaign is shot to leave
room for other video projects, won't get you far.

Maybe far enough to enter them in Cannes. That's the easy part.

Winning? Well now, that requires real beauty!

Nielsen Scraps Web Page View Rankings

NEW YORK (AP) -- A leading online measurement service will scrap
rankings based on the longtime industry yardstick of page views and
begin tracking how long visitors spend at the sites.

The move by Nielsen/NetRatings, expected to be announced Tuesday,
comes as online video and new technologies increasingly make page
views less meaningful.

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Although Nielsen already measures average time spent and average
number of sessions per visitor for each site, it will start reporting
total time spent and sessions for all visitors to give advertisers,
investors and analysts a broader picture of what sites are most
popular.

Currently, sites and advertisers often use page views, a figure that
reflects the number of Web pages a visitor pulls from a site.

However, Yahoo Inc. and others are increasingly using a software trick
called Ajax to improve the user experience. It allows sites to update
data automatically and continually, without users needing to pull up
new pages. Page views decline as a result.

Page views also drop as people spend more time watching online video
at sites like Google Inc.'s YouTube.

"Based on everything that's going on with the influx of Ajax and
streaming, we feel total minutes is the best gauge for site traffic,"
said Scott Ross, director of product marketing at Nielsen. "We're
changing our stance on how the data should be" used.

Nielsen will still provide page view figures but won't formally rank
them. Ross said page view remains a valid gauge of a site's ad
inventory, but time spent is better for capturing the level of
engagement users have with a site.

Ranking top sites by total minutes instead of page views gives Time
Warner Inc.'s AOL a boost, largely because time spent on its popular
instant-messaging software now gets counted. AOL ranks first in the
United States with 25 billion minutes based on May data, ahead of
Yahoo's 20 billion. By page views, AOL would have been sixth.

Google, meanwhile, drops to fifth in time spent, primarily because its
search engine is focused on giving visitors quick answers and links
for going elsewhere. By page views, Google ranks third.

In both page views and time spent, Yahoo is ahead of News Corp.'s
MySpace and other Fox Interactive Media sites, according to the
Nielsen measures.

Yahoo has more than twice the time spent as Fox, but has less than a
10 percent edge in page views. That is because MySpace requires users
to pull up a new page anytime they make a change or view a new
profile, while Yahoo increasingly uses Ajax to continually pull new
data, even if a user stays on the same page all day.

Nielsen's rival, comScore Media Metrix, also has addressed the rise of
Ajax with the development of site "visits" -- defined as the number of
times a person returns to a site with a break of at least a half-hour.