NextStage's founder describes how the business models for ManiaTV and FORA.tv each reveal different opportunities for advertisers in the brave new world of iTV.
Once again and without planning, the universe brought several threads together for me-- so I'll share them with you. Basically, NextStage has been doing some research into the best ways to communicate brand in online video and ad placement. On a totally different channel, I had conversations with the folks at ManiaTV.com and FORA.tv. Then I got interviewed on TV regarding how the politicians are using their websites, specifically about how they are creating their online brands. Then IMedia's editor in chief Brad Berens asked me to comment on Super Bowl ads moving from offline to on.
Okay, obviously there's lots of interest: time to write about what we've been learning and researching.
Internet TV has been around for a while...as an idea
Drew Massey, CEO and Founder of ManiaTV.com, had the idea for true commercial television over the internet in 1998, which is when he trademarked ManiaTV. The quantifier in that sentence is "commercial" television. There are lots of clip and "software upload and share" services on the web (YouTube and MTV Online are examples of these).
For example, YouTube is considering rewarding good content with good old "coin-of-the-realm" dollars. That's great. I'm all for people making money from what they love to do. I'm also guessing that the content providers YouTube will reward will be those who bring the most visitors to the site, which means the pages featuring that content will return the most advertising dollars to YouTube, which means YouTube will be able to reward those content providers, which...holy commercial television, Batman!
Again, there's a difference. Massey's ManiaTV is offering premium, youth-oriented television in an internet-accessible format. This is what's new and different. ManiaTV is moving the quality TV model online. Its content is television with high production values -- something you'd see on cable or network TV -- distributed in an internet friendly format.
ManiaTV: going viral and social
One thing ManiaTV has in its favor is its marketing. It's pure viral, and ManiaTV has been rewarded accordingly. "This is the distribution method of ideas," said Massey. Getting that word out takes two forms: content from entertainers known to their target demographic ("people born after Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video was released," according to Massey) as well as folks on the street. Both forms rely on their target demographics' social networks to bring ManiaTV into mindshare.
The ability to put high production value video on the internet has much to do with changes in technology beyond the internet. Editing is now affordable to anyone with a Mac. High tech video cameras used to cost $30,000 U.S. and can now be had for $2,000 U.S. This puts production capabilities into quite a few hands. Match that with the proliferation of broadband and, suddenly, putting quality TV on the net is a no-brainer. "We have over 150 countries watching ManiaTV," says Massey.
FORA.tv: asking users to generate content
What ManiaTV is to the youth market, FORA.tv is to "people interested in gaining a broader understanding of their world and engaging in a level of dialogue beyond the newspaper page or television screen," according to Brian Gruber, FORA.tv founder and CEO. For someone who can remember Walter Cronkite's "20th Century" and Edward R. Murrow's "See It Now," this is Must See TV. ManiaTV's goal is to entertain, FORA.tv wants to educate.
Like ManiaTV, FORA.tv relies on user-generated content as well as quality content from "entertainers" known to their target demographic. FORA.tv's entertainers list is a little different from ManiaTV.com's and includes groups such as the Brookings Institution, the Hoover Institution, C-SPAN and The Cato Institute. FORA.tv's catch phrase is "The World is Thinking," and it shows on their homepage.
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