Comments on: SplashCast makes advertising more immersive, hints of Blade Runner and Minority Report

By: Mike Berkley

Mike Berkley — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:59:51 +0000

@Mike.Mathews — thanks for your thoughts on this. I do like the idea very much. One of the major challenges when working with large media companies and brands in a social media context is fear of “lack of control”. Turning over hotspotting of brand content to consumers is a very big step, and one that will take time before being accepted by most marketers.

By: Rick Turoczy

Rick Turoczy — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:33:48 +0000

@Mike.Mathews Great point. If the functionality is accessible to the typical user base, I’m thinking about trying something a little more informational with this format, but that’s not even getting close to what you’re proposing.

You’re absolutely right. If you (or anyone) could come to what I’ve built and add your own hotspots? Now you’re talking.

By: Mike.Mathews

Mike.Mathews — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:30:20 +0000

Interesting report. Unfortunately, Splashcast seems to be mired in an old paradigm of advertising grafted onto social networks. Granted, it’s well done, but it’s still some corporation pushing a message.

The real power will come when Splashcast shifts HotSpot to a consumer pull model; think of something more along the lines of affiliate ads. Instead of corporations pushing the message, consumers HotSpot the items in their videos and those recommendations are passed along. Why would consumers HotSpot their videos? Because they would be paid by the CTR and continue to be paid on the spread. The consumers target themselves.

Corporations pushing their message is the same old thing, even in a new format like SplashCast. Having consumers spread the message is the word-of-mouth holy grail.

SplashCast has a start, but it really only goes halfway and needs to jump up to the next level of marketing power.

By: Mike Berkley

Mike Berkley — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:45:33 +0000

Rick — thanks for the write up! I love how you presented this.

There is some freaky stuff going on with consumer targeting right now, a la Minority Report. Thankfully, we’re not in that business. We are in the opt-in ad business.

Cheers!