It’s been a while since I saw something that really needed to be covered, and been immensely busy.

I came across this genius piece of technology and advertising this morning and just had to share.

So before you get to watch the video you have to watch an ad, nothing ground breaking there. What is a terrific idea is giving customers the choice of selecting which ad they do get served. I think this is terrific as a consumer who targets the ad they will be watching is likely going to be more receptive to the ad.

I’m sure this idea has been around for a while but seeing it on a mainstream site like MSNBC is great. It shows that media execs are starting to try and unlock a solid revenue stream online, something that will be necessary if we’re ever to transition media to the web.

Why is big business so inept at harnessing the power of new technology? I was reading Mark Cuban’s blog and I just found myself wondering if the Underpants Gnomes from an episode of South Park were more in tune with business decisions than these media companies. Linked below is a clip from SouthPark featuring the Underpants Gnomes obviously strong language will be featured in the clip.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/151040

The Good

Books
I’m not sure how its possible but one of the oldest forms of medium has made the transition to the digital age the most gracefully. Both by offering eBooks as well as capitalizing off bloggers willingness to pitch books to their audiences publishing companies are really doing a great job of staying relevant in the digital age.

Add to that the fact they’ve not seen the huge problems with piracy the other industries are seeing and it looks like the next few years will be quite good for these publishers.

The Bad

Movies
On the plus side bandwidth limitations have mitigated a lot of the potential damage piracy could cause; it just takes too long to download multiple feature length films. Additional benefits movies are enjoying is the inability to recreate the theater experience, and movie subscription services like Netflix.

It’s not all a bed of roses for the movie companies, as torrents have become increasingly popular as bandwidth continues to rise. At the same time because of a reluctance to abandon the first run model on television and sell into online content aggregators like Netflix the film industry is not reaping any of the profits of deals that their own customers brokered instead.

Television
Its hard to imagine something that was freely available (broadcast) or has the depth of content that people feel compelled to spend upwards of $50 a month for would become threatened so fast. They had some good ideas with projects like Hulu, but it seems that even in success they start thinking about how best to fail.

While I’m a big fan of intellectual property management and am a huge proponent of enforcing rights against outfits like YouTube, I still think you have to offer the content up or risk piracy that dilutes the product.

Seeing lawsuits against YouTube for $1 billion I had hoped that would force the content holders to establish the value of the product by promoting it on their own web properties. Whether its pulling content or trying to divert a successful business model away from what made it a solid option for consumers.

The Ugly

Music Industry
Early on Napster had been looking for an exit strategy from the illegal download model to a subscription based model. Unfortunately the music industry was either not capable of understanding the business opportunity of converting music pirates into real customers, or was too spiteful towards the business that built their customer base upon it.

Instead the music industry shut down Napster allowing Kazaa, torrents, and Limewire to become the new medium of illegal file sharing.
Even now the music industry still hasn’t recovered from the wasteland that piracy has brought them. They’ve still yet to establish a lasting revenue stream which replaces the inflated prices of the CD days. They still haven’t fully adopted a subscription model that could bring them a substantial annuity, and while their work with iTunes and Amazon has yielded some solid revenues it has been pennies on the dollar of what it was before.

Newspapers
How it is there are so many bloggers out there making big time bucks and yet newspapers can’t unlock this equation to save themselves from the downward spiral that is the end of the circulation business? I’ve seen bloggers who do nothing but talk about how much money they make and yet they somehow manage to continue to sell advertising.

I don’t see any future for the majority of newspapers as they’re struggling to even figure out how to get online. There’s been a lot of talk about bringing the medium to the iPhone or Kindle but it’s yet to be seen how this will work, and how many papers will adopt this model.

Conclusion
Most of these companies haven’t done a great job of figuring out a solid business model, and it may be because they’re used to having a monopoly. The problem is copyrights don’t mean a heck of a lot on the internet, if one person gets cut off another 20 will upload the infringing work.

These companies should start focusing on the reality that they’re now competing against free, and if they want to engage the audience they better be somewhat more accommodating than they’ve been in the past. It’s not enough to stamp your foot on the ground and expect the justice system to protect you, that doesn’t get your shareholders the earnings they want.

Full Disclosure
So this is a bit outside of normal for me. If you’ve taken the time to read the about section of the site you’ll know I’m a Product Manager at Microsoft in the CE group. Given that, I try and stay about as far away from Microsoft topics as I can in a sort of separation of church and state sort of concept. It’s just usually bad news to cross your personal blogging efforts with your company. 

That being said, I try and be somewhat relevant to what is going on in the world, and well Windows 7 on October 22nd 2009 will be one of the biggest stories of the day. So here’s my take which is not in any way representative or endorsed by Microsoft. This is only my own personal view as a user of the product, a consumer, and someone who loved the new advertisements.

A New Breed of Advertising

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Windows 7 arrives amid a mix of the A-Team, a little girl, ponies, kittens, and awesomeness. Commercials dedicated to the fun, often random, whimsical desires of a diverse group of customers; who use their machines in any way but what is predictable. Finally the marketing for this product has caught up with the internet age; where people watch dogs on skateboards via YouTube or unfortunate pictures of failure at failblog and peopleofwalmart.

A Product That Fits
I’ve been using Windows 7 since it came out in beta and have loved every minute of it. One of my earliest memories of a Windows 7 “WOW!” moment came when I had a fellow Product Manager who wanted to get a second screen working with his Lenovo laptop so he could keep an eye on March Madness (NCAA Basketball) while he continued to work on his other screen.

Here’s how the scene played out (almost commercial like in its ability to pitch a product feature):

PM 1: He guys do you know anything about ATI drivers? I really need to figure out how to get this second monitor working, I’m missing the Michigan game.
PM2:Oh you actually don’t want to go to ATI’s website its more of a Lenovo issue you should head to their website, and look through the available drivers for that device.
Me:Or you could just click the Windows Update button, the Windows team understood how bad of an experience it could be to have to jump around all over the internet, and worked with their partners to get the drivers delivered via a Microsoft download.
PM2: Oh yeah…….
PM1: Let me try that.
<90 seconds pass> and PM 1 comes rushing back to my office.
PM1: It’s working and I can watch the game now. That was great.

The best thing I can say about the product is it works around your life. There are lots of features designed to make the places you were already going to that much easier to reach. That’s why I love the random and totally bizarre commercials with a little 5 year old rocking out on her PC, because that’s honestly how the product feels to me. 

Conclusion
As for the marketing, I love the little girl she humanizes this giant product, sells the right message (it really is that easy), and looks like she’s having a ton of fun doing it. Then you throw in some A-Team song and I’m all about it. Sure the ad is random but so are consumers, and that’s who needs to cuddle up with Windows 7.

Only concern I have with the advertising is I’d like to see more features outlined. That has been one of the showcases of the iPhone commercials which have been so successful. They show you how to use the product in a 30 second spot every time, and it’s something Microsoft should also be doing.

The launch of the  MID

So there was a hot buzzword coined a while back in the Consumer Electronics space “MID” ok so its actually an acronym.

Most of you must be asking what the hell is a MID? Well its a Mobile Internet Device, but it might as well be a Mobile iPhone Device. That’s because the iPhone to date is the only MID people are actually buying in volumes to be a blip on the radar.

So what is the key to Apple’s success? They’re the first company to pair a high end web-browser with a cellular connection.

So why just Apple

There are many companies offering devices to compete but most lack a cellular connection. This to me means they are a TID or (Trapped Internet Device) that’s because without cellular connections you’re stuck with WiFi oases.

The idea that I’ll duck into a McDonalds or a Starbucks and pop out my device to enjoy the wonders of the internet, only to toss it aside the minute I step outside is silly. People have become used to the idea of being always on, and connected, if you can’t offer that they’ll stick with their cellular phone.

The golden Opportunity

If someone can come up with a reasonably priced package for providing cellular connectivity to consumer electronics devices they stand a chance of building the same success that Apple was able to. There is an opening as not everyone wants a converged device (phone, mp3 player, Internet device, Navigation Device) and not everyone will want the same product.

Help on the way?

There’s been a lot of movement by telecos towards offering netbooks as this bridging device by partnering with device manufacturers.

Take-away: Once again Apple gained a huge first mover advantage by filling a gap traditional players in the field had ignored. Apple has shown a willingness to say why not, and pass the pain of a transition into a new product market onto its partners. This has been an extremely successful strategy for them, but why hasn’t any other OEM been able to do the same?