A few months ago I posted about the rise of consumer choice and how centralized media giants like MTV would be taking the brunt of this change.  Here is an article in today’s New York Times about how MTV is struggling with this very phenomenon.

As a brand, MTV has been beyond durable, managing to reinvent itself continuously and in doing so presenting a fast-moving target that left many would-be rivals in its wake…

But finding the edge was simpler before competition for its core demographic started coming from all fronts, from video games and social-networking Web sites to amateur clips on YouTube. And consumers can use the Web to come up with their own reality narratives — the current transformation of Britney Spears from pop superstar to bald alien is pretty tough for anyone to compete with.

Google recently launched a series of video ads, which I first saw on LinkedIn, a business social network that now features video advertising throughout the site.

This ad has a homemade look to it, as if a bunch of Google engineers made it up and shot it right in their cubicles. It features a bunch of evil puppets that attempt to deliver spam into another puppet’s Gmail account, meeting their untimely doom at the hands of a giant pair of scissors. It reminds me of a low-budget version of the Fandango paper-bag characters.

What’s innovative about this ad is that it’s part of a series, and links to other ads in the series are embedded right in the player. So if a viewer finds this ad entertaining, they can just click the “next video” link to watch another video in the series.

Another interesting aspect of this ad is the product it’s for. You’d never see a traditional TV commercial for a product like GMail. First, GMail absolutely free, and that makes buying expensive TV time uneconomical. Second, Gmail appeals to a fairly narrow audience when compared with mass-market consumer products like cola, diapers, and insurance.

This is the first Google commercial I can ever recall seeing. As online commercials become more prevalent, companies that traditionally haven’t made commercials will start to do so. This will happen because the Internet makes the cost of distribution dramatically lower. Online, the creative will make up a much greater share of the cost of producing a commercial compared to buying TV time.

The only problem with this ad was that when I wanted to watch more of them, I couldn’t find it again on LinkedIn! If you’re going to make something that’s entertaining, make sure to provide a way to get back to it!

According to a recent NYTimes article, many TiVo owners do not skip ads. Who knew?

“That’s part of the reward of taping: being able to zip through the advertisements,” said Marjorie Elson, a 62-year-old psychologist in Maryland. “But sometimes I do watch them — only if they capture me.”

Guess what? It pays to make an interesting ad, even on TV.

Who likes talking about tampons, or back hair, or pregnancy tests?

Apparently, some people really do!

According to today’s New York Times the marketing approaches taken by makers of many formerly taboo products, such as condoms and female hygiene products, are changing. Products formerly relegated to innuendo are taking the front door – introducing racy, and often hilarious new ad strategies.

With it’s generally permissive flavor, viral online video is at the forefront of this movement – pushing both the boundaries and funny bones of all those watching.

Here’s a wildly successful internet-only spot for the Philips Norelco Bodygroom shaver directed at men under 40 who want to give a little trim to ‘all those other parts’.

And while it seems unclear whether the trend of hairless men will continue – it does seem to be working for advertisers.

Philips Norelco reported a triple in forecast sales of the Bodygroom shaver.

Assuming YouTube’s 3-second ads cause no unwanted head explosions (see my previous post), we’re going to have to find creative ways to take advantage of very very short blips of video. While these ads are still intrusive, at least they’re short.  Three seconds can only be so annoying.

How to make the most of three seconds?

• 90 Subliminal Ads Why waste the virtual eternity of three seconds on one ad? Assuming the video runs at 30 frames per second that can be 90 individual one-frame ads. Some of them are bound to make an impression.
• Hold a Sign and Scream It’s going to be hard to establish a new brand with this short time period. A great ad might be someone holding a sign with a company’s logo on it with them screaming the name of the company. How many times can you scream, “COKE!” in three seconds? Seven.
• Make a series If YouTube is smart, they’ll let us purchase a sequential series of ads. What that means is that I can make it so that a given user will see only my ads in the series that I choose. With that technology I can actually have each ad build on the other, perhaps with a narrative? While it’s a challenge, I think it’s possible to tell a story in ten three-second spots. For a perfect example of this take a look in the New Yorker. All throughout the magazine are tiny little cartoons, about the size of a postage stamp. Follow them through the magazine and you’ll see that the make up a short story.

I’ve noted before, that a viewer walks away with the same number of impressions when fast-forwarding through them on a TiVo as he does when the commercials just play. Maybe these three-second ads really will make a difference.

Startups create their own video ads, posted on YouTube. Thanks to the Internet, all kinds of companies that haven’t been able to afford TV ads will be making video ads in the future.

The story of Anheuser-Busch’s online television network, Bud.TV (NYTimes, login required)

Bud.TV may be a marketing venture at heart, but it is marketing sotto voce. The shows’ plots won’t revolve around the quest for the perfect beer and a beautiful woman to share it with. Characters won’t declaim the virtues of Budweiser’s freshness at every opportunity. The site won’t be cluttered with banner ads. Anheuser-Busch executives are banking on a more subtle connection. Attach a brand name to something cool, something entertaining, and that elusive young man (and to a lesser extent, young woman) may check out Bud.TV’s offerings again and again, send them along to friends, even take a stab at creating his own minifilm for the site.

Vote for the best Super Bowl commercial of 2007

Seth Godin writes about understanding the Super Bowl:

So, as you waste an evening watching television, understand that the media game you’re watching (as opposed to the football game) is not about selling anything per se. Instead, it’s about creating a short little movie that spreads.