Tubemogul Launches Marketplace for Online Video Producers and Advertisers

Today the leading online video super syndication/distribution analytics company Tubemogul launched a marketplace that is a dating site for online video content creators and advertisers complete with profiles, viewership statistics and more.

Right now the FREE Tubemogul Marketplace just covers stats of Flash videos but Tubemogul CEO Brett Wilson tells me that more features are on their way and may include the listing of Quicktime / downloadable stats as well.

I had a chance to speak with Brett about the launch of the Tubemogul Marketplace while I was at the New Media Expo in Vegas. After you watch that video be sure to see if your videos are already listed in the Tubemogul Top 40. If not you may want to set up a profile.

I'm very excited about Tubemogul launching this marketplace I think it will give brand marketers, advertisers and media buyers the statistics they need to make the right buys for the brands they represent and more importantly it will give independent content producers a fighting chance to be seen for the views they have and how they compare to cable TV views.

If only independent online video producers got paid cable TV CPM rates, our world would be a better place and here's out chance.

Thanks Tubemogul.

Hopefully other companies will follow your lead and we will see several companies competing the way text ads competed.

Think Global International Distribution

When film making first started films had international distribution. Why? Because they were silent films with no language barriers and they had universal appeal.

Taking a look at the above video at first glance it has international distribution appeal right? Well, maybe. The guys at Future Thought Productions have done an excellent job of creating a funny animated short entitled "Crime Time: The Gift" about "Shifty (The Criminal) , a pint-sized pilferer with lofty ambitions and limited brainpower" who "dresses up like Santa Claus in an attempt to make off with stolen Christmas gifts." It's fun and it works...in places that they celebrate Christmas.

Action and Sex translate best in other cultures but comedy can be hit or miss depending on the culture of a country or region where your viral video might be playing. Fortunately for Shifty cops and robbers is a great global theme and hopefully this little gem will get lots of play world wide this Christmas season an earn team Future Thought the views and money they deserve. For more shorts from Future Thought check out their website http://shorts.futurethought.tv

Do we need a Writers Guild on the Internet?

There’s a writers strike looming but I’m not sure we need a Writers Guild on the web. As Craig Rubens of NewTeeVee writes, The last Writers strike spawned Reality TV shows like Survivor. Now there are Independently produced Reality Shows like The Next Internet Millionaire that are up, running and building an audience with global distribution on the Internet.

As an artist plagued with ideas this is the first time in my life I can afford the canvas to create whatever pops into my head. Creating entertainment with moving pictures, written words, pictures and digital code I’ve now reached a threshold where I can write, shoot, edit and distribute all by myself. I’m not as fluent in editing and the creation of HTML as I’d like to be but due to necessity I’m working on it and it’s exhilarating to be able to dream something up, write it, produce it and distribute to the world in the same day. Now I’m one of a handful of people making money in viral videos but I’m still not able to survive solely on my personal creations. I supplement my income with new media “work for hire" projects for studios, networks, consulting with Web 2.0 companies, podcasters and wanna-be podcasters.

Thanks to the Internet and the low cost of digital canvas this is the first time in the short history of filmed entertainment that writers and other digital artist don’t need a Movie Studio or TV network to make a living by creating moving pictures. Unfortunately it may not be the lavish lifestyle they have been used to living complete with residuals and it most certainly will be a bumpy ride to transition from traditional media.

The people best positioned to make the most out of this WGA Writers strike are the 20 year old kids who can write, produce, direct, edit (maybe do a little motion graphics and music) and have some understanding of HTML and sales. (Little mini Robert Rodriguezs) These mini RRs will be able to create online entertainment, distribute it and monetize it enough to make a production assistant’s wage to start but with additionally attached advertising to their evergreen work or what I like to call “Digital Residuals” they will make a writer’s salary and maybe more. If they are smart enough to build their own brand like Ask a Ninja has done they will never need a Movie Studio, TV Network or a Writers Guild. The other benefit they will have if they are smart, is that they will retain ownership of their properties and be able to license them to other platforms making even more money.

If you are a talented writer and make a good living right now in traditional media you really need the WGA fighting for you because the kids coming out of school now are mini RRs and what they can do on a used Apple MacBook Pro MA610LL/A 15" Notebook PC with a 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive and a Sony HDR-UX7 digital video camera that they buy off Craigslist is amazing. They not only pose a threat to you they also potentially can threaten movie studio and TV revenues, especially if those studios and networks have to pay a lot of money for writers now when they aren’t making any money online yet.

Sure the production won't be the same quality as traditional media for awhile but when viral videos start getting paid the advertising dollars that Cable TV gets for delivering more eyeballs than Cable TV delivers, production values will increase. Remember the early days of Cable TV? Shows looked like crap but the content was there and the eyeballs followed.