Diligent Partner, Ron Eigen scheduled to appear on a panel at Streaming Media West September 23-25th http://www.streamingmedia.com/west/

Here’s some info on the panel:

How Online Video Fuels New Marketing and PR

In the world of online video, is every view equal? How do we measure success as marketers continue to tap online video as a new marketing and PR medium? As PR and marketing agencies begin to integrate social media into their campaign roadmaps, how does online video fit in? Which leads the campaign—format or content? This session will discuss campaigns that have worked as well as ones that have tanked, and seeks to discern what the consumer is really watching.

Recently, Ron Eigen – one of Diligent’s partners spoke on a panel as part of Digital Hollywood’s Building Block’s conference in San Jose. Here’s Ron’s thoughts on the event:

-Good times and Good People.  The panel on which I spoke – All Video-All the Time: Next Generation in Media Technologies – Broadband and Mobile – Content & Advertising  was fun.  Michael Goodman, Director of Digital Entertainment for the Yankee Group was the Moderator and did a really good job of keeping the conversation flowing.  Also on the panel were: Chris Hock, Senior Vice President, Product Management, BlackArrow, Brendon Mills, CEO, RipCode, Rajeev Raman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, mywaves, and Jackie Danicki, Director of Marketing, Qik

We discussed where some of the opportunities in the online video world lay, and also, where some of the red-herrings might be. A common point was the elusive nature of monetizing User Generated Content, while branded content and syndication of professional content were seen as opportunities.

An interesting question was posed towards the end of the discussion which asked which tact is better from a content owner’s perspective, syndicating one’s content out to as many platforms as possible or keeping it at one destination?

Both models are in use at the moment to varying degrees of success. The “hyper-syndication” model is currently in use by studios like Crackle, Next New Networks, My Damn Channel, and 60 Frames.  The goal is to get the content out to as many places as possible, and then aggregate the views in order to sell advertising across all of that viewership.

The competing approach, is being experimented with by Josh Wheeden with his new Dr. Horrible series.  The goal here is to control the traffic by limiting accessibility, and only giving one channel through which users can buy the content.  In this case, that one channel has received so much traffic that it has actually been overloaded (Flood of Fans Crashes Dr. Horrible Website).

“So far, the first installment, or act, has been wildly popular, outpacing shows like Lost, The Wire and The Daily Show to rank No. 1 on the iTunes list of most popular television series.”

I guess that means the approach is working.  Unfortunately, not all brands share the draw that Mr. Wheeden does, and often brands attempting microsites or viral videos get lost in the shuffle without proper seeding or media buys.

It will be interesting to follow both these models as they are experimented with.  Also, a new model championed by Google that is entering the game will be exciting to watch.   The model takes advantage of their AdSense network by targeting viewers who might be the audience for a web show.  The web show in the case of Google’s first attempt in the game of original content is being created by Family Guy Creator – Seth MacFarlane (NY Times Article on the deal) and should be a hit. Although what justifies a hit may now be changing as new metrics must be designed for new mediums.

All in all, the discussion during the panel was fun and raised probably as many questions as were answered.  I look forward to continuing the conversation, learning more, and seeing where things go.  As new models and trends emerge through experimentation in the world of online and mobile video it will be exciting to see how things shape out.  I can’t wait for Digital Hollywood 2050 when we’re all complaining about how to monetize brain waves.