T.L. Stanley recently wrote in AdWeek about the growth of the reach of YouTube, particularly with the 8-18 set. It should come to no surprise to most of us that TV viewing habits have dramatically changed over the past several years. The ever-important 8pm slot on network tv has been replaced by “I’ll watch it when I have time” and thanks to DVR’s and on-line video services like HuLu, etc…. we can. We’re busy people. We have 100’s of channels, even more distractions and have grown accustomed to watching what we want to watch, when we want to watch it.
My kids, who are slightly younger than the demo in the article, have grown up in the midst of the video tech revolution. Other than basketball games, they can’t quite grasp the concept of a watching particular show only once a week or at one specific time. To them, their favorite shows are 24/7 and a mere remote click away – whenever they are allowed “screen time” that is.
However, it is not just about streaming pre-existing or existing content, but has morphed into slickly produced, web-only content. Good bye NBC’s “Must see Thursday night”, hello AwesomenessTV and its nearly 86K kid created channels. Content changes daily, if not hourly.
But it’s not just about the kids, Will Ferrel and Adam McKay started producing original web-only content on Funny or Die in ’07. Their small side project, is now is one of the top 1,000 trafficked sites in the US and its growth is all thanks original content.
So what does this mean for Current360? Obviously from a media stand point it can impact our media mix, but also allows our buys to get hyper-targets. Creatively it means more opportunities to showcase our in-house video capabilities. We’ve been producing video in-house for our clients for nearly 15 years. In true Current360 fashion, some of our early projects were out of the necessity (due to very small budgets.) But as the technology has grown, we’ve grown with it and I would continue to put our work against anyone in the region. Take a look at one of our most recent examples, our first spot for Clark Memorial Hospital. It was shot and edited entirely in-house.
As attention spans shrink, the demand for video has increased. But it’s not a matter of quantity over quality. The thought of “it’s just going on the web, so it doesn’t need to look good” is passé. The desire for well produced, well shot content is becoming expected. When you think back to Stanley’s AdWeek article, as the pre-teen viewer grows up, it will become the norm.
Meaningful Change – One Click at a Time
January is a time for new beginnings and fresh starts. For some of us, that might mean joining a gym to get in shape. Due