What’s Fresh?

The Games are only a few days away, and I think NBC is ready. The schmorgas board of content options that viewers will be able to tap into is honestly mind blowing. Utilizing on-demand, mobile, interactive, and live streaming technologies–just to name a few–NBC is doing what the rest of the digital industry hasn’t quite figured out yet; they are providing online content to viewers and still expected to draw record numbers of viewers during their TV broadcasts.

As new technologies have been evolving, advertisers have been attempting to monetize these different formats while appeasing users (ie-not annoying them) and adhering to privacy restrictions. For example, mobile marketing is great in theory, but keeping it user-friendly and quantifiable for advertisers has not completely been accomplished to date.

What NBC is doing with their coverage of the Beijing Games is truly making content available to users no matter where they are during the 17 days of the Olympics. Since Olympic events are so time-sensitive, NBC should be able to entice users to subscribe to online feeds, watch live and canned events, so they can stay up to date (and not have to wait for Bob Costas to tell them).

From a ratings side, NBC will still be able to draw a wide TV viewing audience because the crowd pleasing sports like swimming, gymnastics and track are planned to be broadcast live only on TV.

All in all, I must applaud NBC…they have significantly raised the bar from 2006 and for the industry as a whole.

According to mediapost, Apple is in the process of creating a business friendly iPhone that will be able to sync with work calendars, email accounts and appointments.  Apple is hoping to compete with the holy BlackBerry.  Until now, iPhones were not able to access Microsoft Exchange, so most professionals were out of luck.  Apple recently licensed Microsoft’s ActiveSync software, to enable iPhone users to access their work accounts. 

This could be a huge step for Apple to increase usership within the business world.  The new software is slated to be released in June.

by Andreas Roell, CEO Geary Interactive

Convergence is the norm

Media convergence is all around us. The internet is available on cellphones, televisions and in cars, which is turning the world into one digital playground. In this dynamic atmosphere, traditional media outlets are continuing to struggle to keep in stride with their interactive counterpoints, and as a result, Americans are seeing reporters posting blogs, streaming radio online, TV programs available for download and digital billboards. Analog media outlets are fighting to stay relevant and timely, which creates opportunities for interactive marketers to increase their reach. The union of all forms of media equates to endless chances to reach consumers at multiple places on several platforms.

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-article published by iMedia Connection on January 30, 2008