The quest to create a perfect system for video content integration and interactivity on mobile is well under way. Developers, mobile operators, advertisers, media companies, content providers and small independent publishers are all taking part. Everyone is pushing each other, demanding more from one another, forming what many companies who specialize in mobile hope will resemble a unified (dare I say it?) “standard” for video content consumption. Furthermore, the hope is that this standard will look very much like what broadcast television standards are today – complete with proper encoding and formatting processes that deliver a certain level of quality, targeted advertisements and a wide range of channels that will soon emerge as full-fledged mobile television networks all vying for users’ attention to the latest “primetime” mobile series. Who knows? There may even be a mobile “sweeps” month in the works as we speak.
As devices become smarter and more intuitive, so will the programming. The age-old adage of “Content is King” is already reclaiming its crown as the ruler of the mobile airwaves. Back in 1996, Bill Gates predicted, “Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.” And here we are, just fifteen years later, touting that same mantra on the mobile side, living through the next great phase in humanity’s ever-evolving fascination with moving pictures. Only this time, it’s the viewer that’s on the move, and the content needs to keep pace.
It is expected that video consumption will near 700 billion minutes by 2015, which advertisers are certainly seizing on. With faster loading times, more robust connectivity and a public that is now beyond the early educational years of mobile, video will soon become the preferred method of receiving information across mobile, just as it did online. And it will be driven by YOU – the average citizen whose appetite for a more personal, customized experience will create a crescendo.
Users expect more, and we as an industry must provide it. For instance:
Increase the quality of how we produce. We must produce specifically for mobile, not simply take what works on television and regurgitate it here.
Create platforms on mobile like YouTube that will revolutionize the industry – and make it an engine for self-creation, self-expression and global interactivity. Not to mention monetization unlike the medium has seen before. Just remember what YouTube has done for Google Ad networks.
Make content that invites and triggers responses from users.
Mobile phones will soon replace remote controls, making these devices not just the “end” to our users’ tastes, but the “means” as well.
Mobile phones will also soon become a full-functioning television studio for users to showcase their own talents, so we should be ready to embrace them, or compete with them.
When we first started to play in the mobile space, we were way ahead of our time. We were one of the few companies leading the way in a medium that allowed what traditional television could not: untethered consumer viewing. The ability of people to engage the content they want, when they want it, wherever they are was (and remains) nothing less than revolutionary.
But like every revolution, there were challenges. And for us, these challenges boiled down to content and production costs, distribution and delivery, audience tracking, and the 600 pound gorilla: monetization!
We solved these challenges. So well in fact that we now have hundreds of millions of video views, we are on hundreds of devices, we know exactly who is watching us, and we’ve launched successful campaigns that have led to millions of targeted brand impressions across multiple platforms.
Content and production costs we figured out: find creative young talent with something to say and give them a place where they could run wild. In exchange for their content, they got a platform. Think Roger Corman, or Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland “putting on a show!” — but with some serious technical geekdom thrown in.
Speaking of tech geeks, ours, and I use that term with TREMENDOUS respect and affection, figured out the distribution and delivery of the bazillion smart and feature phones, websites, and pad devices. They didn’t just figure it out. They nailed it. And because of them, Phunware has ShoBot, a distribution system that can deliver a single piece of video content to an infinite number of platforms in the same number of specs – simultaneously.
But perhaps the greatest things about what we do, aside from creating killer content and inventing an economical and seamless distribution system is that we can track who our viewers are and monetize them better than anyone else.
We do this because every time someone downloads a mobile app or one of our awesome, specifically-targeted music channels, we learn who our viewers are, what they watch, how long they watch, what time of day they watch and if they’re coming back to watch again and again. And being able to track your viewers this closely provides advertisers with:
The Perfect Platform To Reach A Targeted Demographic!otoshop
Think about it! For years, advertisers have been working in the broadcast medium, casting a wide net and spending big dollars to reach the most vital demographics. It’s a hit or miss proposition because traditional broadcast campaigns are geared to the people advertisers and programmers “think” are watching. But in the on-demand, easily-trackable world of mobile, we know. So we can deliver an advertiser’s specific message directly to their targeted demographic; a message that will always be waiting when the viewer selects content, that costs little or nothing to create (no expensive commercials that require production), that will be carried by a 15 second pre-roll or post roll, pop up banner or branded “bug” in the corner of the screen during the program, that can be sent to multiple platforms simultaneously for maximum impressions (and virtually no distribution costs), that doesn’t alienate the viewer by interrupting their experience and that delivers a greater ROI to the client.
In short, we’re a great solution to anyone who wants to get their programming (and their message) to the right audience, with the greatest probability of successful engagement, and within the most sensible cost structure around.
Yes, it’s a revolution. But it’s one in which everyone wins.
And isn’t that the way it should be?
