Michael Garrity – Page 10

Would You Advertise on YouTube?

Published July 31, 2006

This post contains language which may offend some. You’ve been warned!

After a glorious week off in Cape Cod, I was catching up one morning on my RSS Feeds and came across this chart at Silicon Beat with the updated unique visitor stats on the hot Web 2.0 sites, YouTube, Facebook, Photobucket and MySpace.

Two things struck me looking at these trends. First, despite now being owned by “the man”, MySpace continues to grow incredibly. Clearly the average user hasn’t figured out yet that Murdock didn’t lay down $600 Million so this property could continue to lose money. Eventually the marketing push at the site will become noticeable and then we’ll see if the growth rates continue to sustain themselves.

My second observation is that YouTube has a faster growth rate than any of the other superstar Web 2.0 sites. In a traditional portal space, this growth in regular users would naturally translate into the site being a magnet for advertising dollars. But I ask you, would you advertise your company’s brand on YouTube?

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Are Portals Looking For New Territory?

Published June 26, 2006

If you look at the flurry of recent product, partnership and acquisition announcements from the major portal players, there is clearly a battle raging over the “entry points” to the web. And like those “Magic Eye”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Eye “autostereograms”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Image_Random_Dot_Stereogram that were all the rage in the 90’s, if you stare at the picture long enough, an image begins to emerge of where that battle is being fought and who is winning.
To illustrate the image I see in the “Magic Eye” of these announcements, I’ve come up with this humble little chart.
The idea is to show an opportunity progression where the bigger boxes represent a bigger entry point opportunity. By moving further up the chart (i.e. from the inside boxes to the outside boxes) you have an earlier entry point opportunity with users and thus have the opportunity to market your monetization strategy (search, localization, advertising) before the competition.

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Olive Ad Network Launches In Canada

Published June 26, 2006

I hit the launch party for the latest TorStar Digital venture, “Olive Canada Network”:http://www.olivecanadanetwork.com/ last week. Here’s the dish, first on the party and then on the company.
The party was held at swanky A-list club, “This is London”:http://toronto.com/bars_clubs/listing/000-124-544. There is nothing more uniquely urban than entering a hot club through a garbage bin-lined unmarked door down a dimly lit downtown back alley. The party was packed with maybe 700 people, mostly an attractive, under-35 crowd. There was an over-the-top 70’s cover band in full regalia, “Maxim girls”, hotdog cart, private limo’s, open bars and lots of branding for Olive and their featured properties.
Insiders say it was as much of a recruitment effort for new talent as a launch party for their target customers. Olive GM, Simon Jennings (formerly of “Yahoo! Canada”:http://www.yahoo.ca), cracked my favorite joke of the night when he exclaimed from the microphone to a loud and inattentive room, “For the four of you from media buying agencies, thanks for coming, for the all of your cousins and friends who tagged along, enjoy the drinks.” All in all a well-executed launch event with all the details covered.

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Category: Michael Garrity

Would You Advertise on YouTube?

Are Portals Looking For New Territory?

Olive Ad Network Launches In Canada