Online Content - Advertising

How do we create content for our Viewers with advertising elements without interrupting them?

1) *Engagement* - Are we meeting our Viewers needs or desires when watching our content? Then and only then should a brand be integrated in a compelling way.

2) *Extension* - Syndicate the content broadly across the audience's content affinities

3) *Execution* - Embed additional functionality (like share, buy-it-now, download, demand it) Then set up tools to measure the activation from those elements.

4) * Efficiency* - Look for ways to make even a small cpm revenue share on content. (i.e. Google AdSense)

GOAL: CREATE BRANDED CONTENT THAT IS COMPELLING FOR THE VIEWER AND DELIVERS FOR THE BRAND!

What compels Halogen's viewers? This is the question we must seek to answer!!

DOWN

The Dreaded Downturn

If the current downturn endures...then we will see everything from cautious spending to straightforward pessimism in the consumer arena next year.

Let's think a little more positive here...tough times are perfectly suited for forging a better bond with your customers/viewers. CARE ABOUT YOUR VIEWERS!

Your customers and employees and investors will remember how you treated them when times were tough, when they needed a break, when a little support meant everything. No one in particular will remember how you acted during the boom times.


Here are the top DOWN themes:

1. DOWN + Empathy & Seriousness = lower your prices
   
2. DOWN + Cheap = durability, advice, efficiency
   
3. DOWN + Luxury = demise of luxury
   
4. DOWN + The Obvious = indulging, escaping, staying in
   
5. DOWN + Making Money =create, participate, contribute, DIY, crowd sourcing, collaboration (MINIPRENEURS)
   
6. DOWN + Security & Pressure = people are stressed out by the lack of security

THE EXPECTATION ECONOMY:

an economy inhabited by experienced, well-informed consumers from Canada to South Korea who have a long list of high expectations that they apply to each and every good, service, and experience on offer.

DO

OK let's all admit that we are in desperate need of improvement when it comes to having too many meetings when we just need to DO Something...anything.

We are out of the initial Research and Theory phase of Halogen now...and we need to get into the DO Phase. Let's get er done.

Here are some hot areas we can DO something about: Here are 3 areas that relate to us!!

1. Do & Design: There is no category or product that cannot benefit from bold, brilliant, redesign efforts. Customer's desire for the new, combined with their ever-shifting preferences, to-die-for design has the ability to make status quo designs instantly feel like expired designs.
   - Given the recent turmoil, distrust, disappointment and complexity on a global scale, a craving for purity and simplicity is to be expected: Keep It Simple!
   
   
2. Do & Partnerships: This trend is all about informed, demanding consumers looking for the best, and thus 2 or more brands bringing their unique competences to the table, in order to re-imagine or invent a new, unique product or service that delights those consumers because it combines the best from multiple worlds.

- Partnerships make products hard to copy & you have 2 promotions going to both of the
customer groups!

3. Do & Micro: a forever growing trend of shrinking things like affordability, eco, snack,
convenience, recession, electronics, cars...and the list goes on.

NOW

NOW is just another word for LIVE

LIVE means surprises, LIVE cannot be edited!
Human beings have a deep need to be with others (now and then).

Anything that is live is preferably one-time-only, and thus unique and tied to a specific place and time, will retain its value while everything else crumbles under the weight of the copy economy.

The fixed is replaced with an obsession with the here and now, an ever-shorter satisfaction span, and a lust to collect as many experiences and stories as possible.

LIVE THE LIVE

Examples: Concerts! Election Nights! Parties!

Expect instant-on operating systems to get lots of attention in '09! As consumers are getting used to versatile mini-computers and do-it-all phones, which are always getting to go at the touch of a button, on thing they will appreciate less and less in bigger devices is the long time it take to boot up.

Consumers will come to expect Instant Gratification even more than they do now.

HERE

HERE and Local have made such a comeback!! There is a major drive towards celebrating local commerce, local entertainment, and local activities!!

So...HERE are the trends to pay attention to:

• HERE and locally produced = made HERE
  
• HERE and exclusivity = only HERE
  
• HERE and navigation = GPS & Apps count on hyper-local technology to get HERE
  
• HERE and pride = rooted in and proud of living HERE
  
• HERE and meeting up = the more people get their hands on the right info, the more they socialize online, the more likely they are to eventually meet up in the real world

Side Note:
Planned Spontaneity: acting on a whim is the new planning: making spontaneous decisions to go somewhere or do something is becoming the norm; often the only thing consumers are willing to plan is to...be spontaneous!

ECO

ECO -ICONIC = is a status shift - many consumers are eager to flaunt their green behavior and possessions because there are now millions of other consumers who are actually impressed by green lifestyles.

Eco-friendly goods and services sporting bold, iconic markers and design, helping their eco-conscious owners show off their eco-credentials to their peers.

ECO-CHEAP = If the current economic climate continues...then count on all things ECO to be repositioned from "worthy but expensive" to "cheap and, oh yes, worthy"

ECO-METERING = Is where eco-cheap and eco-status meet. Expect frugal status seeking consumers to embrace a growing crop of devices and services that help them make the most of energy savings options and simultaneously display the related 'green savings' to peers, or at least provide their owners with eco-bragging ammunition

ECO-GENEROSITY = Once companies and consumers can no longer get away with anything less than totally offsetting their negative impact on the environment - and this will happen sooner than latter - the only way to stand out, to gain any kind of respect in the eco-sphere, will be to go the extra mile and to be GENEROUS.

TIP: Think about how Halogen can actually boost the environment instead of just limiting the damage. As long as you're going out of your way to be generous everybody wins!!

(more to come on going green!)

100%

When it comes to Online think 100%…and no one is logging off.
100% is the Mainstream...Chew on That!

Everyone is online, or will soon be. Every young consumer definitely is. The impact? No excuse not to go all out in 2009 when it comes to online strategies, services, and communication.

THE STATS:

1. 1.46 billion people are now online (Internet World Stats).
2. IP traffic will nearly double every 2 years through 2012.
3. Video is now approximately one-quarter of all consumer Internet traffic.
4. Internet Video will account for nearly 50% of all consumer Internet traffic in 2012.
5. 3 billion people have cell phones.
6. Flickr.com has 10 billion photos uploaded - and more than 30mill added daily
7. YouTube has 329 million users; Facebook has 121 million, Skype has 370 million, PayPal has 65 million.
8. In it's first 3 months Apple's App Store had handled 200 million downloads.

The Point: You cannot over-spend, over-invest, or over-imagine when it comes to the online part of your business, your processes, your branding, your anything.

So lets get ready for a generation that is (finally) always online while offline. And vice versa!! More and more of the offline world is adjusting to and mirroring the increasingly dominant online world, from tone of voice to product development to business processes to customer service.

Oh, one more thing...Online technology is actually fast becoming one of the main drivers behind face-to-face meet ups! ON=OFF

FSTR

SNACK GRAZING CULTURE * HYPER-INNOVATION * HYPER-TASKING

EVERY YEAR FASTER IS GOING...FASTER!

Younger generations don't ever dream of being 'unconnected', or living life in the slow lane :(

So the big question we can answer for our viewers is:
How Do We Help Viewers Save Precious Time?

and equally important:
How To Not Waste Their Time?

Growing & Peaking Trend = Energy Drinks

This retail market to make people 'Energized' is valued at USD 4.8 billion bucks. Teens have embraced energy drinks even faster than those over 20. Next up? Expect 'energy' not only to make its way into food & beverage products...but with added health and well-being benefits too!

Check out these cool websites:

Walkstation - www.details-worktools.com/product_details.php?pid=740

Eboost - http://www.eboost.com/

Shower Shock - www.thinkgeek.com/caffeine/accessories/5a65line

Hybrid Energy Water - http://www.fyxxwater.com/

Tip: In the future everything will have a TO-GO Version!

INTERESTING

One favor we can always do for our viewers is keep it INTERESTING & help viewers become more INTERESTING to others! People want to be loved, to be admired, to be coveted, to be special, to be unique.

Consumers thus will want to buy because association with those products/services makes them more INTERESTING. The trend is: individuals are considered INTERESTING because of what they do, say, and who they connect with.

So the goal is to STAND OUT! Here's ways to start

1. It's play lists
2. It's videos
3. It's pictures
4. It's one's musings and creative outbursts
5. It's gaming scores
6. It's preferences
7. It's portfolios

This also means, of course, keeping a documented track of one's life.

Expect to see: Micro-Celebrities arise in '09
growing pockets of consumers will find pleasure and status in knowing more & doing more!

TIP: It won't hurt to focus on a number of initiatives that are about helping your customers become more interesting to others. Oh...and pay attention to etiquette and manners = expect less young money to seek refuge in status symbols, but also to increasingly abuse etiquette and manners as a secret weapon to sift the 'new haves' from the 'old haves'.