We are quickly heading towards a media environment where DE-CENTRAL marketing is what matters more and more, where users get other users, where content is syndicated in order to pull people in rather than push stuff on them.
Says he WSJ: "...Instead, the company (CBS) plans to pursue a drastically revised strategy that involves syndicating its entertainment, news and sports video to as much of the Web as possible. It represents a stark departure for the TV industry...."
To me, THAT is the key to media marketing: Syndication, not centralization. Get people to find the content where they already are, i.e. fish where the fish are, and draw them in based on the Merit of what you are offering.
On it goes:
"....Starting this week, an expanded menu of CBS's video content will be available for free to consumers on as many as 10 different Web sites ranging from Time Warner Inc.'s AOL to Joost Inc., a buzzy online video service that is just rolling out. The company calls its new venture the CBS Interactive Audience Network..."
This is another key component: to create a lot of attraction and get attention quickly, a lot of the syndicated content has to be free, or as I like to put it "feels like free", and the toll-booth needs to be moved down a few blocks. This is a crucial requirement, imho. Get less $ upfront but get a lot more attention that converts to more $ subsequently.
The bottom line: ALLOW PEOPLE TO USE YOUR CONTENT (and in many new ways), and you'll sell more of it: "For instance, CBS is working on agreements with social-networking sites
such as Facebook Inc. and Last.fm Ltd. to allow users to post CBS video
clips to their profiles, according to people familiar with the matter.
A deal is also imminent with Slide Inc., which allows users of social
networks such as MySpace to personalize photos and video for their
pages." (WSJ)
Read more: Can CBS Put the Net Into Network? - WSJ.com.
CBS, after a year of experimenting with various Web initiatives, says that forcing consumers to come to one site -- its own -- to view video hasn't worked.