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Forrester says “Get Ready for OmniVideo”!

From StreamingMedia.com:
In a new report called How Video Will Take Over the World, Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey encourages companies to embrace a world where video is everywhere.
[...]
In How Video Will Take Over the World, McQuivey lays out a vision for a world in which individuals will be able to watch video nearly everywhere on [...]

IRNewsLink for June 20: “40 Hot Tips for Online Retailing Success”

From the Internet Retailer IRNewsLink for June 20, 2008, here’s the number one “hot tip” (out of 40) for online retailing success:
. 1. Web video has become a key tool in e-commerce. About 59% of Internet users view at least one video per week and viewing by [...]

The Marketer’s Cheat Sheet to Viral Video (as taught by a YouTube superstar)

Kevin Nalts has earned more than 25 million views on YouTube. How can you get visibility like that? Nalts has some tips for you in his excellent blog post, The Marketer’s Cheat Sheet to Viral Video.
Here is Kevin Nalts’ eight-step summary of how to do viral video (slightly condensed):
Step 1: Determine if your [...]

The Neuroscience of Retailing: Shopping is about Emotions

Why do people shop?
It’s not just to acquire things they want or need. People shop because it makes them feel good.
Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan has an intriguing article in the Wall Street Journal called The Neuroscience of Retailing: Research Shows Shopping Can Make People Euphoric:
Research shows that people often do get a high from shopping [...]

The YouTube Top 10 Brands

Social Media Influence has compiled an entertaining summary of the Top 10 corporate brands on YouTube. If you don’t want to read/watch the whole thing, InternetRetailing.net has a helpful summary of the Top 10 Brands on YouTube.
Note that only 5 of the top 10 brand videos were actually produced by the brand (and one [...]

Cringely’s wild speculation: will Apple buy Adobe?

Bob Cringely, everyone’s favorite gossip-columnist-cum-technology-strategist, is back with more juicy gossip about Apple and Adobe. Cringely asserts that Apple is quietly advertising its professional applications business for sale — in order to clear the way for an acquisition of Adobe.
Cringely’s job is to entertain and incite his readers and he’s certainly doing a great [...]

American Eagle bets on Video Shopping for Martin+Osa

There’s a ton of innovation happening in online video for retail these days. In the latest example, Martin + Osa (a new brand from American Eagle) has launched a new website with a really cool video shopping tool called “Shop by Outfit”:

M+O’s Shop by Outfit is a great window into the future of [...]

Adobe opens up Flash — the Flash vs. iPhone battle heats up — where the heck is SilverLight?

Big news today: Adobe is opening up the Flash platform for their new “Open Screen Project“. You know they’re serious because they’re giving up $50 million of annual revenue (see item #4 below).
In geek-speak summary, here’s what Adobe’s doing:

Allowing outside developers to access the guts of the SWF and FLV/F4V viedo specs. This [...]

Creating Content that Turns Browsers into Buyers

Michelle Megna has an exellent article on “Creating Content that Turns Browsers into Buyers” in ECommerce Guide. It’s a summary of a webinar hosted by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group inc. and Scott Todaro of DemandWare.
Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group shares this advice:
the product page… now functions the way home pages used [...]

Department stores feel the pain of private-labels

Department stores have been aggressively pushing private-label brands over the past decade, depriving independent brands of floor space and promotional muscle. However we may be approaching a turning point.
The Wall Street Journal points out (Exclusive Lines May Prove Risky in Cool Economy) that several major department stores have put a LOT of eggs into [...]

How much does YouTube charge for a video campaign? For Toyota: $4 million. For H&R Block: $0.

Emily Steel reports in Friday’s Wall Street Journal that Toyota has launched a new video marketing campaign on YouTube. Essentially, YouTube is creating a high-end microsite that offers contests and culls appropriate content from the YouTube’s user-generated videos.
The result is one of the most intricate and expensive campaigns ever on YouTube; Toyota is paying [...]

Omniture adds video analytics to their suite

Omniture has announced the availability of video analytics in their marketing & analytics suite.
TechCrunch reports:
As far as functionality is concerned, the most important addition to SiteCatalyst is support for the tracking of video usage across the web. If you are a marketer who uses videos to spread your message, you can now use Omniture to [...]

Flash or iPhone/AJAX - who’ll own the mobile web?

Several readers left thoughtful comments about my recent post, Flash for the iPhone? It’s Apple vs. Microsoft all over again…
Ird writes: Steve Jobs has no intentions of supporting Flash; especially on the iphone. Apple’s pushing the H.264 open standard and will stick to its guns because Apple want to use it this standard for AppleTV, [...]

Flash for the iPhone? It’s Apple vs. Microsoft all over again…

There’s a lot of speculation about whether Apple will soon offer Flash support on the iPhone. Insider rumors say yes (cf. Dan Rayburn at Streaming Media), published news reports say not-so-fast (cf. the Wall Street Journal, quoting an Adobe spokesman).
Why is this important? Because the iPhone is not just a smartphone. It’s Apple’s opportunity [...]

Study: Online shoppers want to see what they’re buying

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released a new report about Americans’ online shopping habits. In the study, the Pew Research Center highlights some interesting survey results:
More than half of internet users encounter frustrations and other frictions in the course of online shopping. 58% of Internet users say they’ve been frustrated, [...]