Archive of the 'Online Video' Category

Electronics maker Samsung is promoting the video capabilities of its new Instinct mobile phone with a set of ballpark Webisodes designed specifically to be seen over the handset.

Launched on July 16, the three programs give behind-the-scenes glimpses of three famous Major League Baseball stadiums: Boston’s Fenway Park, Chicago’s Wrigley Field and San Francisco’s AT&T Park. The first Webisode features the San Francisco park. more

Jones Soda

Sometimes you just have to float an interesting idea out there and worry later about whether it’s good for the bottom line.

That’s the thinking behind a new Web site for Jones Soda, the alt-beverage company that has made its reputation on pure cane sugar, offbeat flavors like Blue Bubble Gum and Fufu Berry, and a staunch nonconformism. more

Want to take a live tour of The Weather Channel, the 24-hour cable network that just got a $3.5 billion buyout offer from NBC Universal and two equity firms? Well, you can’t.

It’s not because the channel’s current owners, Landmark Communications, are inhospitable. In fact, they’ve conducted very popular live tours of the outlet’s Atlanta broadcast studios for years. more

Olympics broadcaster NBC has just revealed the massive scope of its coverage of the games, both online and on the tube: 3,600 hours of programming, spread among its main broadcast channel, its cable outlets from MSNBC and Oxygen to Bravo and Telemundo, and its Olympics Web site, www.NBCOlympics.com.

The down side for marketers is that NBC has also imposed stringent restrictions on the use others can make of coverage of the Beijing games. That means marketers who want to associate with next month’s Olympic action may have few resources outside the NBC-sanctioned channels.

But Yahoo! is providing some of those alternative Beijing branding opportunities with a new Web site within the Yahoo! Sports portal that will give visitors a host of ways to follow the Olympic Games over the Internet. more

Game maker Nintendo could possibly be sitting on the biggest buzz marketing hit since Diet Coke met Mentos. But as of now, the company is denying that it’s Nintendo’s underwear-clad sitter we’re looking at. more

TV viewers who grew up in the mid-Atlantic region—I count myself among them—may cherish fond memories of the commercials featuring Tom Carvelas, founder of the Carvel retail soft-serve chain.

Actually, I don’t recall Carvel showing up often in the ads, which usually featured real workers and franchisees self-consciously making ice cream specialties for the camera. Carvel’s contribution to the spots was primarily as voiceover. But what a voice. It’s been described as “gravelly”; in fact, it sounded like he’d been gargling lugnuts. more

If you’re still sweating midnight tonight as the deadline for filing your 2007 tax forms, this story may come a bit late. But tax preparer H&R Block has over the last two years amassed an impressive array of social media-based marketing, all designed to become top of mind with tortured souls wrestling with their 1040s.

Block’s social initiatives are designed to reinforce two brand messages, according to Paula Drum, the company’s vice president of marketing for digital tax solutions: to reinforce the company’s overall expertise, and to announce its specific Web-based competence. more

Red Bull’s Tahitian wave shoot

Web marketers and developers talk glibly about offering site visitors an “immersive” experience. Quite often, that simply means being able to see all four sides of a running shoe.

But when the creators of a new site from energy drink Red Bull talk about immersion, they’re speaking pretty darn close to literally—as in, being able to look up and see 20-foot Pacific waves curling over your head. more

TV camera people know two things: No visual is as dramatic as a burning building at night, and none is as appealing as a cold, foamy glass of beer.

But Pacifico Beer, a Mexican-brewed import whose U.S. sales have so far been held to the Western states, has decided that TV won’t play a part in its drive to reach a national market this year. Instead, the company will promote its brew with a Web site that plays up the adventure of exploring the unknown—and of unknown brands like pacific. more

Sony PSP3, Nintendo Wii and the Xbox 360 may get all the ink in the business press, but when it comes down to choosing where to place in-game advertising for the next four years, most marketers are going to turn to the browser, not the box.

Web-based casual games rather than gee-whiz dedicated consoles will be where the action is in in-game advertising for the short term. That’s the basic finding of an analysis done by marketing research firm eMarketer and published earlier this month. more