Television- A New Outlet for User Generated Content

The Sims--a world where gamers create their own virtual people and allow them to live there life, acting like the hand of God. It's is the gamer's realm of user generated content because almost everything, from the home your Sim lives in to the relationships you create with fellow Sims, is built and designed solely by users. But now, Sim's creator Will Wright, is in talks with CurrentTV to develop a show called The Creation Project.

The Creation Project, which is a steep departure from Wright's gaming background, will be a hold step in audience participation, according to IGN. Basically, it's a TV show about the creation of a TV show, and it is speculated the viewers will be able to submit story suggestions online and via mobile devices. Where does Wright play in to this idea?

Wright is designing the online/mobile user experience fostering creation and submission of story ideas through a "story maker engine." It has been suggested the show could air by the end of the year, with online components going live before air date. Yet since the project is still in the earlier development stages, the user participation experience could veer from this current path.

In a world where consumers are demanding more content, many have taken it upon themselves to create it. Passive TV watching is a way of the past, and active user engagement is the pathway to the future. This will be an excellent experiment in meshing the worlds of content producers and user generated content to develop a hybrid content experience.

The iAd: Another "i" from Apple

As chatter builds around the iPad as April 3rd quickly approached, another "i" has been announced by Steve Jobs -- The iAd.  The iAd, to be unleashed upon advertisers on April 7th, will be a personalized, mobile advertising system and his been described as "extraordinary"and "our next big thing" by head of Apple's Jobs.

No really details have been released, but it is speculated to utilize Apple's new acquired mobile ad unit, Quattro.  It will be another battlefield for Google and Apple to wage war, since Google recently agreed to buy AdMob.  They are taking the war to Madison Advertisers, and who ever makes the most ad dollars wins.

Mobile advertising is seen as the new vehicle through which advertisers can create innovative and engaging advertisements to recapture an audience that is constantly on the go.  Apple has captivated advertisers with the App Store and ability to build branded apps that consumers actively seek out, and is presenting them with a new opportunity for limitless interactive and immersive ad spaces within e-publications, such as those to be released by The Wall Street Journal and Sports Illustrated, to be offered on the new "tablet" device.  

It is believed advertisers will be able to "hypertarget" consumers "based on their geographic proximity", which will open up new opportunities to location-based advertising.  The media world will be sitting by eagerly waiting to witness the unveiling of Apple's mobile ad platform.  It has a great deal of potential, but will advertisers, as well as consumers, take the bait.  As of last week, only 200,000 iPad's were pre-ordered, higher than initial iPhone purchases, but is this audience size worth the high price of ad space?  

Apple Owners will bring iPad to Life

Apple Owners Nearly 40 Percent More Interested in the iPad than Non-Apple Owners, According to NPD

The numbers gathered by market research firm NPD come as no surprise.  They have found iPad awareness is highest among current Apple owners (82%), consumers with income over $100,000 (80%) and 18-34 year olds (78%).  Only 27% of 18-34 year olds and 24% of Apple owners surveyed expressed any real interest in owning the iPad.  

With these numbers of only around 24% of Apple owners being showing any significant interest in the product, who will it fare with content offerings?  This really begs the question, will it be worth it for content creators/publishers, such as newspapers, magazines and video, to even provide content for the device.  The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, Sport Illustrated and The New York Times have already jumped on board, with other book publishers.  Yet many are holding out.  Random House has not yet bought into the iPad hype, and neither has Google's AdMob mobile advertising unit.  Many are sitting on the fence, waiting to see if the iPad will live up to all its supposed game-changing glory.  

I must say, I fall into the extremely interested category because I am current Apple owner and brand loyalist.  I've been in the market for a tablet computer, but have been waiting for Apple's product offering because I want my computer, phone, music player and tablet device to all streamline together.  It's good that people are skeptical, but up to a point.  With too many skeptics, it sets up the product to ultimately fail.   

Chasing the Mobile Platform

In an AdAge Poll this week, they ask the question, Are marketers wasting online budgets by focusing so much on apps rather than the mobile web? While this is great potential for apps, with the multitude of smartphone platforms from iPhone's to the new Android, it becomes difficult for marketers to decide which platform to create an app for.

Most developers will opt for the iPhone platform. There are many benefits, such as having over 21 million users and a streamlined App Store for easy purchase downloads.

Many advertisers have been jumping on the App wagon without thinking about the relevance of an app to their business. In order for an app to work in a company's favor, it needs to be relevant and serve a specific purpose. I find myself constantly downloading apps and then deleting them because they waste by screen real estate. A multitude of companies woud be better served by developing mobile webpages. They will operate on all smartphone platforms, not just apps created for a specific phone. There are many hurdles that need to be overcome, but there is a great breadth of opportunities to create streamlined mobile web experiences for customers that need to easily seek information on the go.

Apps are the buzz word in mobile marketing, but to what benefit? When deciding whether to dive in, you must ask yourself, is this relevant to my brand? Am I just here because everyone else is? When developing a mobile strategy, make sure you think about the scope of the business and the target audience. Don't just chase a platform because it exists because it will ultimately lead to an ineffectual, weak campaign.