The PS3 has already attracted a large group of hardcore baseball fans with its MLB: The Show series and now they’re perpetuating this cross-pollination with a new MLB.TV app. This gives MLB.TV subscribers the ability to watch every out-of-market game in HD quality. Check out the demonstration below:
In anticipation for the suspense thriller title Alan Wake, Microsoft is releasing a six-part live-action prequel film on Xbox Live called Bright Falls. The teaser trailer for the mini-series can be seen below:
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Despite lacking a narrative, the characters of Left 4 Dead 2 have been cleverly used as fodder for comedy by developer Valve. In a launch trailer to promote a new piece of DLC called The Passing, Valve takes the humorous route again in this somewhat flirty video:
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“94 percent of ad executives plan to expand on their spending for online video in the next year,” says a BrightRoll survey, up from 87 percent last year. The majority of respondents, roughly 54 percent, said they are looking to spend the money on interactive pre-roll, while 20 percent looked towards branded entertainment, 15 percent considered consumer content and 11 percent are looking at other forms of creative content.
“Online video underwent a cycle of massive innovation in 2009, and has matured into a highly effective platform for advertisers to connect with their target audiences online,” said BrightRoll CEO Tod Sacerdoti.
56 percent of respondents said that they see online video advertising as either “more effective” or “much more effective” than other types of advertising.
Source: MediaPost {link no longer active}
McDonald’s today revealed the latest version of its “I’m Lovin’ It” ad campaign. It is now the longest campaign in company history, surpassing “You deserve a break today” and “Food, Folks and Fun” in both longevity and sales increases.
“If you look at the business success, there would have been no reason [for changing the campaign] except for ego, said McDonald’s CMO Mary Dillon. “All across our system, our marketing leaders and agencies in the U.S., Europe, [Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa], Latin America, and Canada, we’re building on our multibillion-dollar asset — ‘I’m Lovin It’ — and making it even better, We’re bringing it out from behind the arches and into the action to better brand and celebrate those uniquely McDonald’s moments.”
“Even more importantly,” continued Dillon, “we’re making sure that we build both brand equity and drive sales with every piece of advertising.” She described moments with more consumer insights and emotion within “a framework that gives us a consistent point of view about our brand.”
McDonald’s yesterday reported Q2 earnings that showed same-store sales growing three percent globally and six percent in the U.S. Dillon sees this as a sign that company messaging is doing its job. It’s pretty remarkable that this same marketing slogan has worked for so long; in the fast changing game industry, this probably wouldn’t be too likely.
Source: Ad Age {link no longer active}
One of the most uneasy balances that Facebook has had to maintain is that of user privacy. The service’s new Open Graph API and protocol that comes with increased ability to integrate websites and web apps has great potential for both Facebook and its most intimate partners, but bringing in greater involvement with third-party sites raises even more privacy concerns that even before.
“In the past, apps that accessed data from the Facebook APIs could only store that data for 24 hours. This meant that apps and app developers would have to download user information day after day, just to keep up with the policy. Now the data storage restriction is gone, so if you tell an app it can store your data, it can keep it without worrying about what was basically an arbitrary technical hurdle,” writes Christina Warren. “While this might sound scary, it doesn t actually impact how developers can use user data, just how long they can store it. Again, many developers were just hacking around this policy anyway, so users shouldn t notice any changes.”
“Additionally, the new options will let users sign up for sites and see what friends are signed up. This does mean, however, that certain public pieces of information will be available in more spots.”
“I took a look at the different documentations of the Open Graph API and the different social plugins, and gathered that the data collection and overall privacy settings don’t differ from what has already been available. Again, what changes is how that data can be displayed to different people and how it can be integrated in different ways,” writes Warren. “Nevertheless, it is imperative that users who have concerns about privacy make sure they read and understand what information they are making available to applications before using them. Users need to be aware that when they ‘Like’ an article on CNN, that ‘Like’ may show up on a customized view that their friends see.”
“Ultimately, users are going to have to be more aware that being public with information means more than it used to. Facebook can help by educating users and sites can also tell users what information they are sharing.”
“Right now, it really doesn t look like Open Graph will have any technical changes to Facebook user privacy,” notes Warren. “That said, the nature of how public information can be linked across different sites is now more robust, which makes it that much more important for the privacy-concerned to read the fine print.”
Source: Mashable
Google and Bazaarvoice today signed a new partnership that will serve up product reviews on Google Web Search, Google Product Search, and through features tied to Google AdWords. This is expected to help customers better understand various advertised products shown on Google searches.
“Social signals provide signals of authenticity and relevance from a source that the average consumer believes and trusts more than a marketer or brand,” says Brant Barton, co-founder and chief innovation officer at Bazaarvoice. “Data that consumers share in their social graph can be used to define more refined results.”
Source: MediaPost
Marvel vs. Capcom is a franchise replete with pop culture references both for gamers and comic nerds, and its loyal following makes it ripe fodder for crossover potential and marketing tie-ins. Fittingly, both Capcom and Marvel are reportedly in talks to make a comic series based upon the Marvel vs. Capcom series.
While Marvel is, of course, a comic company at heart, Udon Entertainment owns the comic rights to the Street Fighter series. Udon project manager Jim Zubkavich couldn’t confirm anything, but certainly likes the idea.
“The comic medium is such an influence on both companies, both franchises,” said Zubkavich. “You look at the game, the style, it’s built off of a comic book aesthetic. It’s such a natural fit. It’s easy to build off of. The reality is, we are a generation of people who love these fan crossovers, it’s almost like fan fiction come to life.”
The idea of a Marvel vs. Capcom comic has been tossed around before, and Udon already has a long history of working with both Capcom and Marvel. “We started out as an art studio, a group of artists working together to provide creative services for other companies,” Zubkavich said. “One of our major clients back then was Marvel. We did Deadpool and Agent X for them. We did Sentinel. We did a mini-series called the Marvel Manga Universe.”
Udon’s various Capcom comics have been so well received, the developers have asked them to help work on games like Puzzle Fighter HD, Street Fighter HD Remix and Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom. “We are now involved on the production level of games,” Zubkavich detailed. “And now it’s all come around again with Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. When we got the license back in 2003 there were no Street Fighter games in development, the franchise was, you know, kinda dormant and everyone was like, ‘Really, you guys are doing Street Fighter ‘ But all of the characters are really rich and there is a great story we can play with. And now watching it come back in the last two years and explode has been super gratifying.”
Speaking theoretically about a Marvel vs. Capcom 3 comic, Zubkavich thinks the perfect length might be a mini-series between four and a dozen issues. “You want to make a good impression,” he said, “but you don’t want to wear out your welcome.”
Source: Kotaku
Facebook today unveiled more details for their monetization program called Facebook Credits. With over 200 million players engaged in greater than 10,000 game apps on Facebook, the potential for this new universal currency on Facebook is huge.
“You may not believe me when I say this,” said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook. “We are doing it for developers. But it’s not a revenue opportunity anytime soon. Ads are a very good business.”
“With Credits, it becomes easier for people to buy things across apps. Rather than being locked into one app that has their credit card, they can buy in any app,” he continued. “This is a canonical economics example where it makes sense to have a standard and have just one, or a few, and that ends up being better for everyone. There is a lot of overhead for us doing this ourselves. It s a lot of hard work. We don t expect it to be profitable for a period of time.”
“We built this with the user in mind,” said Facebook Credits manager Deb Liu. “The mental hurdle of moving to pay for something is high. You take out your credit card, enter the information, and then buy something in FarmVille. The next day, you play another game. If you want to buy something, you do all of that again. Imagine Facebook Credits as more like a euro, which makes it easy to spend money across countries.”
The hope is that by making Facebook Credit more available, users will be more willing to spend money. There will also be rewards deals, such as when users buy credit with a Chase card. Users can by the credit using a credit card, PayPal, mobile payments and special advertising offers.
Facebook also said it can help developers out with an auto-top system that refills a person’s virtual wallet if it falls below a certain point, and users are shown to be more likely to buy if they have money in their wallet. Also, certain regional gambling laws will make it illegal to trade Facebook Credits for money or sell it second hand.
Source: VentureBeat {link no longer active}
Hulu is apparently looking to try out a rumored subscription service as early as May, according to sources. While the majority of content on the site will be free, those that want to see catalog episodes of certain shows will have to pay $9.95 a month for Hulu Plus
Hulu is the second biggest video streaming site for the U.S. next to YouTube. While the site is profitable, its revenue of $100 million isn’t high enough for its network content providers, who want users to pay out money for the service.
Source: L.A. Times
