The dirty little secret that most people who make their living marketing on the Internet will never tell you is that they love watching TV spots. Of course, it is frustrating how much clients spend on questionably effective television advertising … and there are a lot of crappy TV ads being produced. But what if you could collect all the good ones in one place and let people watch them? My guess is it’s not only the marketers that would watch. People love watching good entertaining advertising. There are entire television programs dedicated to them. In the case of Geico’s Cavemen spots, some ads are even spawning entire TV sitcoms.
YouTube is full of ads that people have put online themselves (as well as those seeded by ad agencies) and collectively those have generated millions of views from people who watch them over and over and pass them along to their friends. Earlier this week, I got an invite from Chris Abraham to attend the press unveiling for a new service called Firebrand TV yesterday in NY. Unfortunately, I could not make the event … but in reading about the site and what it hopes to offer I think it’s worth every marketer’s attention. The reason is because from the limited information out there through videos and demos, Firebrand is trying to become an advertising on demand entertainment platform. Their promotional video promises to serve up "advertising as content" and only feature the best ads. Check out the video below:
Here are a few reasons why I love the idea of Firebrand and think it may become successful:
Aggregating all great commercials in one place is a long overdue idea.
Assuming it will allow embedding and sharing, this will be a great way to share ads virally (something people love to pass along to each other)
The international ad section will be huge, as lots of the best, funniest, and raunchiest ads never make it on air in the US
The site has a built in revenue model … what advertiser wouldn’t pay to get their ads seen by people who are actively looking to watch them?
Short TV ads and movie trailers are perfect for mobile consumption. The mobile access element of Firebrand has lots of potential.
These are just a few quick observations on what the site could do based on my very slim understanding of the site through their promotional materials. The site officially goes live on October 22nd, though Chris has promised I’ll be on the private beta so I can share a more detailed review once I have a chance to play around with the site for real. In the meantime, definitely add it to your list of sites to watch.
Many of you may have already caught this yesterday, but this blog was cited in the Recommended Reading section of the Wall Street Journal yesterday in an article by Keith Huang. As Jay Berkowitz from Ten Golden Rules shares on his team blog, my blog was one of 60 resources that they recommended to the journalist as part of their…Read More >>
One of the questions I have gotten from more than a few readers is how to get into speaking at events and conferences. It is surprisingly more easy than it may seem, but the real challenge is breaking into your first conference speaking chance. Perhaps you work for a small company, or you are still starting out your career. Whatever…Read More >>
On the surface, capturing what you are doing on daily, hourly or even minutely (double meaning intended) basis seems like a useless activity. Who has the time to send these incessant "tweets" all day long? As it turns out, lots of smart folks with respectable jobs, but that’s besides the point. Driven by Mark Simon’s dismissal of Twitter and my…Read More >>
People often ask me how long a blog post takes. Some take months of collecting information, most take an hour or two, and then there are posts like this one. A quick idea, written in about 5 or 10 minutes … in this case, the quick idea came from going through my emails and realizing that I have way to…Read More >>
Today I have the chance to join a marketing panel at an event that I wouldn’t normally have the chance to attend, Promo Live. The event is all about promotion marketing and as a result there are many sessions that seem interesting and different for me from most of the interactive events I make it to more often. Looking at…Read More >>
I have a profile on just about every social network that I can find. That doesn’t mean I use all of them, of course, but I am starting to run into a very interesting problem that I have to assume others are running into as well. The problem is keeping my social network synchronized. I have nearly 250 contacts on…Read More >>
Ok, maybe not so great – but over the next week I am going to become an active Twitter user. I have not been a huge user of Twitter, though I have written before about seeing the potential for using it for marketing. Recently, there have been several other folks also speaking out about how it could be useful for…Read More >>
There are a lot of resources out there for marketers. We read books and blog posts and articles and magazines and podcasts and video blogs and … well, let’s just say the list goes on and on. Like a lot of people in our industry, I follow a lot of links and have a lot of opinions that I respect. …Read More >>
Earlier this week, I posted on our 360 Digital Influence team blog about Mark Simon’s piece in AdAge titled "Beyond the Hype: The 10 Most Asinine Trends Online and Why You Should Ignore Them") and about the type of counsel I think we should be offering to our clients. My main point is that we need to focus more on…Read More >>
Rohit is founder of the Influential Marketing Group and an expert on helping global brands to be more human. For the past decade before starting his “concierge marketing” consultancy, Rohit led branding, digital and social media strategy for dozens of the world's largest brands through leadership roles at Ogilvy and Leo Burnett marketing agencies. He is the best selling author of two books (including Likeonomics, named one of the Top 5 Marketing/Sales Books of 2012 by 800CEORead), a non-boring keynote speaker and Professor of Global Marketing at Georgetown University.
Books
15 Marketing Trends In 2013 And How Your Business Can Use Them
- #1 Marketing Research Best Seller on Amazon - Viewed over 125,000 times on Slideshare Learn More
LIKEONOMICS
- #1 Marketing Best Seller - Shortlisted for 800CEORead 2012 Best Marketing/Sales Book Award Learn More
Personality Not Included
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The dirty little secret that most people who make their living marketing on the Internet will never tell you is that they love watching TV spots. Of course, it is frustrating how much clients spend on questionably effective television advertising … and there are a lot of crappy TV ads being produced. But what if you could collect all the good ones in one place and let people watch them? My guess is it’s not only the marketers that would watch. People love watching good entertaining advertising. There are entire television programs dedicated to them. In the case of Geico’s Cavemen spots, some ads are even spawning entire TV sitcoms. 
YouTube is full of ads that people have put online themselves (as well as those seeded by ad agencies) and collectively those have generated millions of views from people who watch them over and over and pass them along to their friends. Earlier this week, I got an invite from Chris Abraham to attend the press unveiling for a new service called Firebrand TV yesterday in NY. Unfortunately, I could not make the event … but in reading about the site and what it hopes to offer I think it’s worth every marketer’s attention. The reason is because from the limited information out there through videos and demos, Firebrand is trying to become an advertising on demand entertainment platform. Their promotional video promises to serve up "advertising as content" and only feature the best ads. Check out the video below:
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