Change Advertising Forever
I came across a very unique Web 2.0 site while Stumbling today. Such a brilliant concept, one of those ideas you wonder why you haven’t thought of it yourself. The site is still in alpha, and has yet to launch. So new, they are collecting emails until lauch date. The idea: User generated television commercials.
The URL is almost as brilliant as the product itself. www.changeadvertisingforever.com. “Help us change the way Madison Avenue does business” is the company’s tag line. Here’s the elevator pitch: Advertisers come seeking video advertisements, and post “requests for brilliance”. You, or an online community develop, or collaborate to create a commercial to promote the company’s products. If the company likes your work, and decides to use it…cha-ching – you can earn up to $50,000.
It’s no surprise that the market sought need to develop and test such a product, and I would not be surprised if copycats have sprung up already or are beginning to. We are in a point in time where the rise of user generated video content is out of control. Economic conditions have recently met an equalibrium where the decrease in broadband costs, and hard disk prices have reached the point in which free video hosting is feasible. At the same time, digital camera and flash memory storage prices are dropping by the day. Anyone with a $99 dollar digital camera and a dream, can make it to superstardom by letting the viral nature of online communication decide what’s worth watching. The classic example is the YouTube video in which two indivuals captivated the net by recording the effects of mixing cola with Mentos. The video at this point has recieved over 2.3 million views, and growing. Is it not amazing that a simple remarkable idea and a production budget consisting of $10 in groceries, attracted more viewers the the great majority of films ever made?
Video hosting services are in need for the right ad revenue model. Sprinkling AdSense cubes around the “virtual TV screen” doesn’t seem to cut it for me personally. Video hosting is a high overhead business. Change Advertising Forver aims to provide the right revenue model. User generated video ads seems like a natural fit for user generated video entertainment. We’ll see what pans out, but I will certainly keep my eye on this web property.