TechnoCloud

Do people think widgets grow on trees? Actually, it’s the other way around with an unusual, but laudable, promotion from ABC and the Arbor Day Foundation whereby for every ten times a video is viewed through the widget is viewed a tree will be planted.

While I’m not a fan of the execution of the widget which I find overly complex, I’m a supporter of the cause, so have embedded the widget below. Click on ‘grab it’ on the bottom of the widget to do so yourself and select ‘videos’ from the option.

You can check out progress by clicking on the yellow leaf icon on the bottom right of the widget.

Update: boo, it’s stopped at 100k trees. Not bad going all the same.

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Like Elvis, Bob Dylan seems to have no limit to the number of Greatest Hits variations he can release. I can remember as a child listening to my parent’s Dylan compilation in the car some 20+ years ago and the old master is at it again with a single CD or ‘deluxe’ version with 3 CD Digipack no less.

Passing over the fact that most of the old favourites are there yet again, a piece of viral marketing for the album caught my eye.

The viral, also available as a Facebook application, allows you to create your own version of the famous ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ video where Dylan nonchalantly holds up lyric cards. In a neat piece of creative you can add your own lyrics to the cards and watch Dylan flick through them followed by a plug for the album.

You can share it via Facebook, email the website version to a friend (with the classic subject line ‘Bob Dylan has a message for you’ or embed it on your blog or social network after the slightly annoying step of having to provide a url and email address.

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In the reveal-all world of social networking, it’s no surprise to find a widget that allows you to share your TV viewing preferences on the web. The MeeVee listings service has developed a neat little Flash widget built on its listings and recommendations service. It works as a loyalty tool as well as a marketing tool for those with the debatable pleasure of discovering more about your viewing habits.

Unfortunately, it’s US only, so I can’t share the delights of my TV dinners here in London, so readers will have to make do with what I might be watching if I lived in New York. Fascinating, I think you’ll agree…

Geographical grumbles aside, it’s interesting to see that the service completes the circle by linking you through to a page to download the episode via iTunes or alternatives. It would be even more interesting to see this technology come to mobile to enable customised recommendations and downloads on the move. Now that would be something worth sharing with the world.

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One of the pieces of feedback from my audience session with Sky+ users was that they skip nearly all TV advertising.

I’m betting if the ads were as engaging/distubring as the remix below then they would watch them (and they are looking at the YouTube stats). I for one can’t get E-e-e-sure out of my head (and my insurance is up for renewal this month!).

Shame the remixes are being taken down from YouTube “due to terms of use violation” as this is a great way of getting the social networking community to engage with your content and certainly cheaper than a 30 second slot during Coronation Street…

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Netflix are offering a $1m prize to the first person who can achieve a 10%+ improvement in their recommendation engine. They are making available sections of their ratings database and stress that all data is anonymous - after all they wouldn’t want an AOL data leak on their hands…

The standard Netflix model, as with competitors Blockbuster and Screenselect, is to get people to subscribe to a monthly service whereby they send you ‘x’ DVDs a month for a rolling fee. So if it’s a fixed monthly fee, how will Netflix get their $1m back by improving the recommendations?

• More recommendations equal a longer subscription time
• Competitive advantage for their service
• Encouraging people to move up the subscription ladder
• Driving people down the Long Tail of their content both to increase rentals and viewing of higher margin older titles. Long Tail originator Chris Andersen explains more.
• Feel free to add more in the comments section.

There’s also one other important consideration, PR, in what is a neat piece of viral marketing. An accessible $1m prize gets people talking - in the blogosphere (looks like I fell for it), in the mainstream media and around the water cooler. More awareness, not just of their website, but of their recommendation technology, means more sales.

Get it right and that $1m could be a snip…

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