OK, it never left, but it did take a long nap. Now, the Net is back with a vengeance as it becomes more personal, interacts with the user in wild ways and is giving the high-tech sector a lucrative shot in the arm.
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Don’t play the lottery to become an instant millionaire. Play the Internet. Imagine your business raking in $300,000 (all numbers US) a day. That’s what MySpace competitor Cyworld, based in South Korea, earns just through selling virtual items. Or imagine pulling in more readers than Fox New, like Digg.com‘s Kevin Rose did through his innovative newsgathering site Digg.com. And what if you could imitate YouTube’s success by attracting 12.8 million viewers to your site weekly and later selling to Google for a whopping $1.65 billion?
If you’re experiencing dot-com déjà vu, you’re not alone. Both businesses and everyday Web junkies are slobbering with excitement at how the Internet has returned with a De La Hoya punch — user-generated content, snack-sized video, social networking hubs, even viral ads that are more entertaining than TV’s prime-time sludge. Then you have networks playing catch-up by creating broadband channels awash with shows-within-shows, like Tina Fey in the new sitcom 30 Rock.
In an era when everyone wants to poke their fingers into the technology pie, the Web is bursting at the forum threads with sites giving consumers more choice and entrepreneurs renewed hope.
If the old Web was Pong, then the new Web is Halo. Put another way, it’s finally your Web.
The Social Net Works
If there’s an ideal place to start learning about the resurgence of the Internet, it’s MySpace. Social networks offering user-submitted blogs, photos, videos, MP3s and internal email, the site hit 100 million members at press time. Internet tracking group ComScore says one in six Americans had a MySpace profile as of summer 2006. And those one-in-sixers are not just kids posting band camp pictures and diary entries; it’s evolved into a hotspot for self-promotion, including legions of musicians looking to further publicize new albums. The Black Eyed Peas, Nine Inch Nails and Weezer have all premiered songs or entire albums on MySpace.
MySpace rocketed into such an in-demand property that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. bought the business for $580 million. It gets more mentions than most sites — go to a comedy club and you’ll inevitably hear a comedian plug his MySpace page instead of a personal website. Arts festivals, magazines and movies are joining MySpace by the millions so they can ride the wave of the never-ending social-networking trend.
Another key player surging to the top of the Web hit list is Digg.com, where members can upload links to stories and blogs they want to share with the online community. Users can click a “digg it” button to cast a vote for the story, or they can “bury” the story. Content with the most “diggs” zoom to the top of the page, and all stories come complete with comments and time stamps.
No surprise this community-oriented site is the 23rd most popular in the U.S., closing in on NYTimes.com (No. 19). Silicon Valley insiders estimate Digg’s value at roughly $200 million.
Following Digg’s path are sites like Shoutwire and Reddit, even if both have drab layouts. In the new Webverse, looks don’t matter as much as function, so these sites are winning fans by letting anyone express their opinion and move it up the popularity ladder with ratings.
Cashing in on Candid Cameras
Talk to any entrepreneur about YouTube’s unprecedented success and watch the envy tinge their eyes. The online video-sharing site is not even two years old but it already gets visitors watching more than 100 million videos per day. As the Hollywood of video sites, YouTube features clips from upcoming TV shows and movies, archived cartoon series (Thundercats, anyone?) and video that most celebs would want buried forever (like Mr. T’s embarrassing rap about mothers).
This ultimate time-waster is also empowering amateur filmmakers — and karaoke singers — to post footage the entire world can see, bookmark, share and rate. The site’s name is apt: YouTube makes stars out of nobodies. Old ranting men, trailer mashup editors and dancing dervishes are soaking in the limelight that would’ve passed them by if YouTube remained just an idea.
Jumping on the vid-wagon is YouTube’s growing number of challengers — 180 video sites at last count. AOL is tweaking its site to mirror YouTube, Google Video experiments with free and pay-only clips, and Revver marks its place by sharing ad revenue with its content providers.
That’s what attracted a newly Net-famous juggler and a lawyer to the video site. Maine residents Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz filmed a funky science experiment — creating a liquid geyser by combining 525 Mentos candies with 101 two-litre bottles of Diet Coke. It cost $300 but after they posted the video on Revver.com, the Mentos-Coke fountain earned them more than $25,000 in ad revenue.
The video spread across the Web through sites like Digg.com and Slashdot.org, says Grobe. “Since broadband levels are so high, most people can access these videos no problem,” he adds.
And when people are fusing brands, expect the companies to come a-calling. Mentos contacted Grobe and Voltz, sending them 4,000 free candies and sponsoring all videos on their site, eepybird.com.
It’s debatable whether more people bought Mentos because of the soda fountain, but online video’s incredible potential is mind-blowing. Television just doesn’t do it for the young generation anymore. American Idol reels in just half of the audience share that the 1960s classic Gunsmoke attracted. The Winter Olympics this year had their lowest ratings in 38 years. TV advertising has been declining since 2004.
And like a young starlet in desperate need of a makeover, TV networks are cannonballing into the Internet on the heels of YouTube’s popularity. It’s about time.
Channel Changing
”TV is so 20th century,” remarks Bill Maher through a 21st century medium, the online-only talk show. He’s biting the hand that once fed him, but now he’s looking for nourishment through “Amazon Fishbowl,” his new talk show for the giant e-tailer. In an era where content is king, Amazon and Bill Maher understand the need for easy access to quick shots of entertainment.
“Webisodes” are fast becoming the new buzzword for TV networks looking to use nontraditional methods to draw couch potatoes to the desktop. NBC debuted new episodes of The Office to its website earlier this year, and its Tina Fey show, 30 Rock, complements the TV broadcast with webisodes.
In order to further fend off the demise of standard TV, NBC recently unveiled Dotcomedy.com, a broadband channel dedicated to showing NBC’s classic comedies and content from its late-night lineup. “Our online extensions make us unique,” says John Miller, chief of marketing at NBC Universal.
Miller says the digital extensions have cost NBC “hundreds of millions of dollars,” but it’s obvious the move is mandatory to maintain top-dog status. NBC has also partnered with YouTube to promote its fall lineup to the billions of visitors who prefer a more grassroots site to a corporate one.
CBS is also one of the first networks to launch a dedicated broadband channel to online content. CBS.Innertube.com showcases online-only series such as Greek to Chic (a makeover show where slovenly frat boys can transform into suave ladies’ men).
And on the network’s parent site, viewers can watch new episodes of CSI and Numbers a month after their initial TV broadcast. It may not be instant gratification as Web users demand but it’s a clear indication that TV needs the Net in order to flourish.
And the future trend toward broadband should be making network bosses giddy. A recent report from Pricewaterhouse-Coopers found that the amount of broadband-enabled homes worldwide will grow from 187 million in 2005 to 433 million in 2010. But the Net still needs ads to flourish, which is where the next trend comes in.
Making the Brand
The chicken started it all. And not just any piece of poultry, but “Subservient Chicken,” a Flash-powered site featuring an actor in a chicken suit responding to predetermined keywords visitors type into a text box. Make the chicken dance, vomit or smoke a cigarette, and you’ve succeeded in proving the tagline from the client’s campaign: “Get chicken the way you like it.”
In 2004, Burger King hired ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky to devise an innovative marketing strategy that put the customer in control. The campaign won attention instantly: In the first day, the site racked up between 15 and 20 million hits.
Today, every company wants another Subservient Chicken to make their brand seem fun and interactive. “What helps is having a sense of magic in the campaign, a ‘How did they do that?’ moment,’” says Jeff Benjamin, interactive creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. He says the “Subservient Chicken” idea shifted the Burger King brand away from static commercials and jingles. The current climate is now so competitive the viral site or video has to be funnier than ever before.
“We’re competing with TV shows and the neighbour down the street making videos,” Benjamin says.
His agency wants to flip the script by bringing interactivity to online surfing. No longer relying on simple 30-second spots, companies are thirsty for customer feedback.
Crispin Porter + Bogusky is behind VWFeatures.com, a slick site where car aficionados can customize a 2007 Rabbit for an 18-second joyride video. When you can choose your rims, transmission and electronic accessories, the advertising is buried in the pimpin’ fun. Benjamin calls it “putting you in the seat of the car” and it could work as a motto for his industry.
Mark Tutssel, CEO of Leo Burnett, put it best at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes earlier this year: “Marketers must learn to let go of the control they think they have over their brand,” he said. “Once consumers have interacted with brands, they will not go back to being shouted at by marketers.”
Which is where viral games come in. Luring the eyeballs of both gamers and Web wanderers, simple Flash games are fast becoming a goldmine for companies breaking out of television. These games might promote a product — like a Panasonic camera appearing intermittently on Gyrorunner.com — but the logo doesn’t crowd the screen. “We don’t want to annoy the customer who knows we’re selling them brand X,” says Oli Christie of Inbox Digital, one of the leading makers of viral games.
These games are considered winners when they attract at least 100,000 unique users, with a million users deemed “highly successful,” says Christie. The interface doesn’t have to be complicated — jump over rolling Pringles tins in a King Kong setting or balance a stickman on top of a moving gyro ball framed in a Panasonic Lumix camera. What matters is getting a good impression of a company that you might’ve considered as dry as 7th Heaven reruns. Does Gyrorunner.com want to make me buy a Panasonic camera? Maybe not, but compared to Kodak, Panasonic seems the hipper of the two.
Viral marketing doesn’t come cheap — Inbox Digital charges around $60,000 per game, and London ad agency Viral Factory prices their ads between $250,000 and $500,000.
Welcome Back, Web
All this interactivity is breeding a new type of Web user: eager to connect to anyone and everyone, quick to uncover unique content, unabashedly protective of favourite sites and online communities. It’s as if the water cooler, suburban dog park and local bar have all converted into a digital hub where everyone is faceless but fiercely active.
The return of the Internet excites more than just the online addict. With more power, prestige and wealth raining down on Web 2.0’s geeky stars, a budding business idea can turn into a rippling trend. Make no mistake, the death rattle of the dot-com boom has long subsided, and anxiety has been replaced with feverish energy.
Let’s just hope the future doesn’t echo with the ghost of the dot-bust past.
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The following article is a special preview of Digital Journal’s printed magazine. To read tons more features, news about gadgets and a fun look on the world of tech lifestyle, download Digital Journal magazine’s 100-page electronic edition for only $1.69. Check out https://www.digitaljournal.com/magazine and download your copy today!
