Media Week

The program entitled – Children’s Fight Club – exposed the practise of videoing assaults, playground fights and criminal damage being committed and then uploading it to online video sites. The high-profile YouTube came in for a particular drubbing, however.....

......so did a couple of smaller “niche” sites such as Live Leak and Pure Street Fights.

Leaving aside the obvious issues surrounding the idiots who initiate and film this type of crap, two questions for the digital industry sprung to mind:

How should generalist sites like YouTube and MSN Soapbox ensure their content is not of this kind of gratuitously violent and criminal nature? And how can we protect advertisers from appearing alongside such videos which could potentially damage their brand?

I believe media owners have a responsibility and a duty of care to at least be seen to be proactively doing something about it.

The Google spokesperson said that “the community” will judge the content and flag anything inappropriate, but that’s not going to happen!

The people searching for this stuff are just the sickos who want to view it. They’re hardly going to flag it for removal if it’s exactly what they’re looking for.

The types of viewer that enjoy videos of rabbits doing back flips are simply not going to be searching for “happy slappers”. Although last night may now have given rise to a few video vigilantes hell bent on flagging inappropriate content which wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Technology should do the trick - as with search engine listings, keywords in the titles and descriptions could trigger alerts for analysts to take a look and judge whether the video is appropriate and take action. But it will take a little thought and investment....

This’ll then benefit the advertiser too, as will better, more contextual and intuitive algorithms ensure they have better control over where they’re ads are shown.

We’ve already seen the reaction to recent stories of blind networks having distribution deals with less than desirable sites. Action is being taken...

It has to be said that these cases are the minority that are spoiling the party, but with advances in technology and a little common sense it’s not something that’ll be too difficult to fix.

How stupid is it to film yourself kicking in a police car and exposing it to millions anyway?

The weekend started with an intriguing angle on the whole Facebook phenomenon...

Picture the scene, it’s Friday evening at a hostelry somewhere near London Bridge. I find myself outside accompanying a friend for a quick smoke.

Now the ban has been enforced in England, the pastime of “smirting” – flirting outside pubs and clubs while smoking – has a brand new dimension as all the conversations centred around whether people were on Facebook or not. 

Through the plumes of smoke, the enthusiasm for the site was addictive.

Impromptu photo sessions ensued, people swopped names as new best pals slurred promises of lifelong friendship and then melted into the night.

If The Times on Saturday’s article about usage of social networking sites at work is accurate, those connections from Friday night are being made right about .........now!

Interesting how the anti-social worm has turned...

PS When I was checking out the cricket score on my smart phone yesterday, my sister-in-law asked, “Is that one of those Banana thingys.......?”

No amount of money spent on branding, PR and marketing will cater a message to everyone I suppose.

At least, given I only just understood what she was trying to say, they both begin with B!

Well it seems........Yes they can!

Yes okay, I work for Microsoft, but any thoughts on this blog will always be unbiased and agnostic or you won’t read it, and Steve Barrett will kick me off!

However, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t comment on the significant announcement that the guys in Redmond have done a deal with Digg.com to serve both display ads and sponsored links on the social news site.

On his blog, Kevin Rose talks about needing to partner with a more scalable technology platform, and that user experience was still of paramount importance.

This, coupled with a similar deal with Facebook last year, gives you an indication of who Microsoft are interested in partnering with and how serious they are about taking what they’ve learned in 10 years through MSN, and helping even more advertisers make meaningful connections with a range of audiences on 3rd party properties.

A vibrant debate has ensued over at WebmasterWorld!

Some think Digg's audience will be anti-Microsoft and click off, others think the competition is a good thing.

This'll be interesting.....

Have a jolly good weekend all!

David Harrison & co have sold The Search Works to online marketing company TradeDoubler for a cool £56m.....

For those not au fait with the story behind TSW, the company was originally called Website Promotional Services (WSPS), based in Telford and was the brainchild of David Harrison and Simon Conroy.

Back in 1999, their big idea was automated bid-management software that would make running search campaigns across Google, Overture and Miva a great deal easier and more efficient. BidBuddy went on to be hugely successful, as did their agency, after David handed over the reins to Overture veterans Nick Hynes and Jim Brigden in 2004 and the company underwent a huge makeover.

Speculation of a sale has always been on the cards, but David always let it be known whoever bought it had to have big plans on what to do with the company.

This marriage makes perfect sense as both focus on direct response, with a keen eye on return on investment. TradeDoubler gets search technology and TSW gets an immediate footprint in 16 countries and a foray into display advertising.

TSW are certainly no DoubleClick, aQuantive or 24/7 in terms of global reach but isn’t £56m a bit of a bargain for the UK’s number one SEM?

And who’s next............the guys from Warrington?

July 13th 1985 will always be etched in my mind.....

.....as the day my parents were late to pick me up from school at the end of term. On the way home they decided it would be a great idea to stop for dinner and then pop in to see some family friends before getting home well after 10pm.

Because of all this I missed the entire Live Aid concert!!!

So imagine my joy when I was lucky enough to get a seat at the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium a couple of weeks ago.

For all the cynical press about the artist’s carbon “size nines” and the hoo-ha about some of the fruity language, it was actually a very entertaining day and all carried off in the best possible spirit.

What was interesting was that, while I was gyrating with Genesis and marvelling at Madge along with 65k other folks, a staggering 15m video streams were being served to laptops and PCs around the world during the live coverage.

At its height 237k people were watching simultaneously, apparently breaking the record set by Live 8 two years ago.

Other than Madonna, the most viewed acts were the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Shakira, Kelly Clarkson and......erm......Metallica!

Now the burning question is why? Why didn’t everyone watch it on TV? Why boot up the notebook when there’s a bigger screen in the living room or pub showing exactly the same thing?

The answer is by giving people a choice of platform, we allow users to fit viewing in more easily to their more, and more busy lives.

So you could have watched it in the pub or in a cafe, in the bedroom while the parents watched something else, online while discussing the acts on instant messenger with your mates or searching for CD’s or downloads while the band’s on stage. You could have been checking out their blogs or forums while flicking from gig to gig and goodness knows how many people have been viewing the footage in the two weeks since. 50m+ I hear...

There would have also been some people watching regular TV AND checking out the concert online at the same time.

According to a fascinating study by Yahoo! and Isobar last year called Fluid Lives – 51% of those surveyed admitted to regularly surfing the internet and watching TV at the same time.

Converging platforms are bringing the phrase “anytime, anyplace, anywhere” to life, and as savvy marketers, realising that these choices mean great opportunities to make meaningful connections with consumers is as important as the platforms themselves.

If only the internet had existed in 1985.......at least I got to see Duran Duran this time around!