The "CNNTube Effect"

Did you see the Republican presidential debate this week? Not to worry. Catch the highlights. Thirteen of the 20 most popular YouTube videos tonight as of 7 p.m. PST were from Wednesday's live broadcast of the debate on CNN (for you kids, that's a cable news network on television). This CNNTube Effect is yet another example of the Internet's growing symbiotic relationship with traditional television news media. More than 1.4 million people had viewed the 13 newly posted debate videos. YouTube is trending near the top of all sites visited on the Internet. In early 2006, it passed CNN's website, which of late has been experiencing a traffic decline, according to Alexa the Web Information Company (see graphic). Yes, CNN the television network commands a robust audience, but many of its viewers think YouTube is a merely a mispronounciation of Boob Tube. Do they vote more? We'll see. The 18-24 demographic is flexing its muscle. YouTube and CNN are a great marriage. Content is still king. And broader distribution of that content benefits everyone. Just ask Ron Paul's campaign, whose own YouTube channel counts 38,647 subscribers and 6.2 million channel views.

It's Tally Tuesday!

In the wake of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and even the upstart Buy Nothing Day, what phraseology helped consumers make sense of last Tuesday? Call it Tally Tuesday. But how great it would be to see a breakout of data for money spent by consumers on the four days following Thanksgiving.

First reports said online spending Monday rose 21% over last year. Cyber Monday has roots in the frothy dotcom build-up of the late 1990s, which included the $400 Amazon stock price prediction. Surely, modern savvy online holiday shoppers were not waiting for an official Cyber Monday to start buying. No, they clicked all extended weekend long (some in their pajamas), avoiding 4 a.m. rushes to the mall and parking lot anxiety. Cyber Monday isn't really targeted at them. It's for Black Friday shoppers who struck out at Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target -- or need a spending outlet while in the office. One word that you'll never see attached to today: Returns.

Those come after Christmas, as in Returns Wednesday.

Video: Powerful Storytelling

As a follow-up to my Nov. 17 post, I noticed that San Diego-based Slacker has posted additional Portable Player product photographs (a handful of new UI screen shots) to its website. But it still needs more to tell a great story. To their credit, the Slacker team is including a link in customer emails to video from an October segment that CNN ran on the company.

So why not use the power of video to your advantage? PR is one way. Another is pure marketing. An online demo (see Sirius Stiletto 2) can reinforce upcoming Slacker Portable Player reviews from tech writers, most of whom have written with excitement about the company's business model since its March launch.

With a million registered online users, Slacker has an audience ready to receive the product message through a richer online medium. Consumers can't touch or experience the product yet in retail stores, so trust and loyalty must be earned in other ways.

Kindling? Are They Kidding?

At first glance, the Amazon Kindle looks like a modern Etch A Sketch in eggshell white with keyboard and wireless features. Kinda ugly yet neat. But the product's name, value proposition and target audience elude me.

First, the name: Kindle? As in to ignite? Imagine a Kindle product launch after the holiday shopping season. Any spark? We probably keep reading our trusty printed tomes, unworried about fumbling with them in the airport security checkpoint (after removing our shoes, belt, jacket, laptop from briefcase, cellphone from pocket).

Second, the value proposition: 90,000 titles and up to 200-book capacity. Not terribly exciting on its face -- who is going to read 200 books in the next year? Next 5 years? Most of us like to consume books one at a time. Then display them on our shelves. No such thing as novel shuffle or party mix. However, what may bode well for the product is the ability for a user to purchase a book wirelessly now -- bingo, the impulse buy after reading a great review or getting a recommedation from a friend. That's consumer magic. No waiting for the FedEx truck.

Third and most puzzling to me is the target audience: Who is Amazon going after? They've got great market data so I can't doubt them. Clearly the under 30 market is wireless. But are they book buyers and newspaper consumers? Why read blogs on Kindle when you can read them on your mobile. Feels like a 35-49 demographic play. I read the NYT on my Blackberry Pearl while out and about. A single news column fits on the screen perfectly, and I carry it around in my pocket. My eye scrolls down news columns just like it would on a newspaper page. But I don't spend hours. Just enough time to scratch the information itch. No, I don't want to read the newspaper on a tablet. I'll buy one, thank you. Fifty cents to a buck, if out of town.

So, what are books? An escape. A chance to get away for an hour or so. Sometimes a vacation. Sometimes brain food before sleep. The intimacy of reading and savoring the page are part of the experience. Making dogears. Scratching notes in the margins. Going back to revisit a key passage. Seeing how close you are to the end and wishing for more -- or sensing relief about finishing.

Kindle? I'm not feeling the fire.

But an Etch A Sketch may end up under the tree this year. I'm a sucker for red.

Internet Radio Meets Digital Player

It took longer than predicted, but availability for portable digital music devices from Slacker was announced this week in advance of Black Friday, the largest U.S. consumer spending day of the year. Slacker said it's taking online pre-orders for players that will ship in mid-December. But no retail sales yet where a hands-on experience is how Apple has done marvelously with the iPod and iPhone. Instead, Slacker will market directly to their 1 million desktop radio subscribers first. One executive said the company hopes to sell 100,000 units. First thing, they should start posting more product photgraphy ASAP. The image above is making the rounds this week. Deeper in the Slacker website are photographs of users and recording artists holding the players, but you have to hunt to find them. Competing for mindshare in a space with Apple and Microsoft's Zune requires loyal consumers or a product too hot to ignore. We need to see more of it.

Excerpts of Column by Nora Ephron in NYT

SIX STAGES OF EMAIL

Stage One: Infatuation
I just got e-mail! I can’t believe it! It’s so great! Here’s my handle. Write me! Who said letter writing was dead? Were they ever wrong! I’m writing letters like crazy for the first time in years. I come home and ignore all my loved ones and go straight to the computer to make contact with total strangers. And how great is AOL? It’s so easy. It’s so friendly. It’s a community. Wheeeee! I’ve got mail!

Stage Two: Clarification
O.K., I’m starting to understand — e-mail isn’t letter-writing at all, it’s something else entirely. It was just invented, it was just born and overnight it turns out to have a form and a set of rules and a language all its own. Not since the printing press. Not since television. It’s revolutionary. It’s life-altering. It’s shorthand. Cut to the chase. Get to the point...

Stage Three: Confusion
I have done nothing to deserve any of this: Virus Alert. FW: This will make you laugh. FW: This is funny. FW: This is hilarious. FW: Grapes and raisins toxic for dogs. FW: Gabriel García Márquez’s Final Farewell. FW: Kurt Vonnegut’s Commencement Address. FW: The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe...

Stage Four: Disenchantment
Help! I’m drowning. I have 112 unanswered e-mail messages. I’m a writer — imagine how many unanswered messages I would have if I had a real job. Imagine how much writing I could do if I didn’t have to answer all this e-mail. My eyes are dim. I have a mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome. I have a galloping case of attention deficit disorder because every time I start to write something, the e-mail icon starts bobbing up and down and I’m compelled to check whether anything good or interesting has arrived...

Stage Five: Accommodation
Yes. No. No :). No :(. Can’t. No way. Maybe. Doubtful. Sorry. So Sorry. Thanks. No thanks. Not my thing. You must be kidding. Out of town. O.O.T. Try me in a month. Try me in the fall. Try me in a year.

Stage Six: Death
Call me.