Last month's issue of Business 2.0 Magazine featured 25 Web 2.0 startups to watch in 2007. The featured companies not only reveal how new media is creating new services, products and business models; they also serve as a point of departure to understand how companies are using new media to tell their story and market to their customers.
As the editors said in their introduction to the story - "the losers are likely to be those companies that try to make money by pouring old-media wine into the new Web bottles. The winners will be the players that invent new ways to tap into what the Web brings to the party: instant feedback, instant analysis, and the collective wisdom of a billion users./I reached out to several of the featured companies to get their perspective on new media's impact on their marketing efforts.
In no particular order, I will begin with blip.tv. Blip.tv has built a platform for syndicating serialized online shows and provides producers with software, ads, and distribution to websites and blogsAccording to Dina Kaplan, co-founder/COO of blip.tv, the company is taking advantage of the explosion of user generated content and the growth of broadband. Blip.tv is not only a destination in its own right. It is also a syndicator -- providing tools for its users to deliver their video content over the Internet. As a web 2.0 company, it is tapping into the universe of users for its content. That is why their relationship to their users is so critical.
So how does blip.tv tell its story, create a brand and build a customer base using new media? They only have a handful of employees. And to date, there is no official marketing department.
To begin with their product is the marketing. Their product is user generated content that is shared on the web. While they are a new media company, their marketing strategy is a mixture of both the new and the old. It is not about advertising and buying one-shot spots on the Super Bowl like dot bomb companies did. It is about conversations - both face to face and online.
From meetings with video bloggers at barbeques in New Jersey and in bars in San Francisco to conferences like Von, conversations are central to their marketing strategy.
It's a focus on listening, getting ideas from customers and working to solve their needs. In fact their roster of mavens -- the term Malcom Gladwell used in his book The Tipping Point to describe individuals that are likely to initiate discussions with consumers and respond to their requests -- has been responsible for some of blip.tv's features. As a result of these conservations, permanent Internet records of video blogger content are now standard.
And everyone is on the act -- from the CEO down. Any time of day is fair game - even, as I was told, one Friday night when CEO Mike Hudack took service calls from a customer while he and the management team were taking a break for Korean food. Customer service is essential to their marketing efforts.
As part of their focus on conversations, it is no surprise the company relies heavily on bloggers like Om Malik and Michael Arrington to reach their customers. Bloggers have their "ear to the ground."
And their blog? Dina explains that it was not the result of a formal strategy; rather one day they realized they needed a blog so they started one. It serves as an extension of who they are and of course a key vehicle for relationship building with customers.
Going forward it will be interesting to see how blip.tv will manage its growth and how it will continue to maintain an intimate relationship with a larger customer base. For Dina, it is not a matter of size - it's about content creation. They don't believe that more content creation will change their model or the company's ethos.
It will also be interesting to see how the blip.tv brand will be impacted by the success of individual series created by their users. Will it focus on the blip.tv brand or the individual programs? More traditional networks like NBC must grapple with the same issue. For its viewers, is it about Must See TV on NBC or programs like Friends? But how will new media impact the equation? Will there be brand loyalty and how critical is the blip.tv brand? It will also be interesting to see how their deals like those with CNN Exchange impact their brand as other media properties license their software.
For her part, Dina wrote me that for more than a year now "we have been focused on building up the brands of our shows. And that will always be really important to us, even to the point that we do press directly for our shows: whether it is Goodnight Burbank, Unleashed or Winning Hearts, which is about the peacekeeping effort in Afghanistan.
"We are increasingly seeing the value of our own brand, however, and how that can be helpful to the shows. There is value to blip.tv being considered, as we have been called, the HBO to YouTube's America's Funniest Home Videos. So if we can leverage that to help promote, market and monetize our shows at a higher rate, that's a win for everyone in the blip.tv family: us, our shows, and all of our distribution partners.
Next up in my examination of some of Business 2.0 Magazine featured startups will be meebo.
Let me get back to you.
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