Vizu: Beyond Clicks

How do you test online ads and go beyond just counting "clicks"?

A huge question that the ad industry and ad research biz are grappling with right now.

In just the past month, Nielsen, comScore (Mediametrix) and Compete have launched new online ad testing services that are supposed to solve the problem. Perhaps, they are reacting to a hot (and well financed) new entry into this market called Vizu.

Vizu, (www.vizu.com) a San Francisco-based online polling company, recently introduced
Ad Catalyst, an online ad testing service that goes beyond their competitors' static approach.
Ad Catalyst measures your online ads in real-time and breaks down your campaign's effectiveness by frequency of exposure, time period, creative unit, etc. and puts the info at your fingertips 24/7 (on a real "dashboard").

UpNext

Imagine a Virtual 3-D New York City where you can fly through like SuperMan and drop into any building and view its contents.

UpNext is a tiny 4-person NY startup developing extremely detailed 3D maps for the internet browser. UpNext (www.upnext.com) only maps Manhattan right now (they aim to map Boston and San Francisco by mid 2008), but it is "a powerful demonstration of how 3-D experiences could soon become more mainstream". (from TechCrunch). BRUNI PR is currently pitching UpNext.

Aviary strips Hillary Clinton

Aviary was the highlight of this week's New York Tech Meetup. This Flash-based artist tool is amazing and won rave reviews from a tough technologist audience. We'll be hearing more about Aviary in the future, no doubt

Business Week: CEOs lose Billions

The top five CEOs lost over $1 billion during the past several wks, thx to the stock market drop, according to a major Business Week story released today. David Leach, of Strategic Apex Group, a Bruni PR client, is quoted. Who pitched BW on the idea? The answer is Bruni PR. Reporter Ben Steverman does an outstanding job in analyzing the damage done.

Check out :
businessweek.com

Yes.com: Radio 2.0 and RSS

Yes.com, a radio playlist social media site, is racking up some nice traffic numbers these days. You can find the playlists of over 3,000 radio stations and chat about the songs as they are playing in realtime with other fans of that particular station. I've been testdriving Yes.com and find it impressive. Founder Daniel Goldscheider has big plans for Yes.com, and has been quietly adding RSS feeds to the site. You can chat about breaking news stories coming out of TechCrunch, GigaOM and other sites in real time.

NYers at the Crunchies

No one was surprised that Facebook, Digg, the iPhone, zoho, meebo and others won top awards at the Crunchies last nite. What surprised me was the presence of NY startups that competed for the awards. Tumblr, the multimedia micro-blog, and UpNext, the 3d search/social media site, Etsy, Viewdle and others were in the house and won praise/ attention. Kudos also to Mogulus, which powered the Crunchies TV livestreaming show.

Acid Jazz from Soundclick

Soundclick clicks w/ Web2NewYork Meetup

They've been around for over ten years, but don't get the attention that AmieStreet and other NY-based indy music downloads sites get these days. Soundclick was the highlight of a lively Web2NewYork Meetup last Tuesday nite at the Gallery Bar in the LES of NYC.
From their site:
"You will find well-known artists such as Janet Jackson, Sarah McLachlan, Moby, Gravediggaz, PM Dawn, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Letters To Cleo. But the driving force are hundreds of thousands of great unsigned bands looking for their big break."
Soundclick has
more than 50,000 new songs approved each month. They are seeking more advertisers, and will surely find them. VCs and investors need not apply. Soundclick is fully funded and has been around long enough not to worry about burn rates.

Macworld draws record livestreaming audience

Macworld was a historic livestreaming milestone.

Sure, it wasn't "Super Bowl" network TV ratings, but about 6,000 people watched the Jobs speech live on five separate Mogulus TV channels.

The coverage of The Digital Lifestyle channel (http://www.mogulus.com/tdl), which had experts reporting live from a studio and getting real-time information from reporters on the ground, was a great success and received very positive feedback from viewers.
Mogulus is a Bruni PR client.

NY Startups To Watch in 2008

Which NY startups are worth watching in 2008?

Here's the Bruni PR list:




Kaltura -- innovative collaborative video editing

AmieStreet -- indy music site with unique pricing formula

GroundReport --- hot new citizen journalism TV website

Urbis.com -- literary/social media site eyed by major publishing houses

Blip.TV -- the hottest video on demand site around

Mogulus -- livestreaming on the Web (a Bruni PR client)

Clickable -- run your online ad campaign in a box

StreetEasy.com -- still the hottest Real Estate site in town (former client)

Wixi --- personal/social media search engine

Tumblr -- like Twitter but with video/music/media diaries

The Ladders -- leading job search startup

Animoto --- do it yourself music video creation

Etsy --- your place to buy/sell "all things handmade"

Future Scanners --- Digg with a predictions on the future

Snooth -- wine lovers' social media site

Unype --- 3d Virtual World

Electric Sheep --- the guys who build stuff for Second Life

Yuxt -- online video bookmarking

Motionbox -- online video bookmarking

KickApps --- user generated video

IMEEM --- what's on your playlist

BlockSavvy --- urban culture social media site funded by Damon Dash

AdItAll -- do it yourself tv ads

Magnify --- video community

Raketu --- VoIP service cheaper than Skype

MyBlueZebra --- click to call

Yes.com --- radio lovers' social media /rating site

RecordMyCall --- phone call recording Web service

LinkExperts -- organic search links consultants

JobThread --- job classifieds in a box

Livestreaming Rakes in Big VC Bucks

It was a big Money week for Livestreaming companies. Blogger Robert Scoble gushed on his blog yesterday, "it's amazing how much money is flowing in right now..."

Indeed, Kyte TV (a mobile streaming outfit) announced today it has raised $15m. Earlier this wk, UStream announced that it has raised $2m. And, last but not least, Mogulus has finalized its $1.2m in financing. Not bad for a NY based startup that just launched its Mogulus TV (www.mogulus.com) a little over a month ago.

Collaboration in Romance, Video and Meetup

Collaboration was the theme at last night's fine NY Tech Meetup at IAC corporate headquarters in Chelsea.

Kaltura's Shay David pitched this hot new "Wiki meets Video editing" tool that enables multiple users to edit videos and graphics. Kaltura won rave reviews at the recent Tech Crunch conference. It's a really cool group video editing product that deserves more attention from the press.

Pete Kamali pitched the IgNighter site, which enables "group dating". And, Scott, our organizer and leader, pitched a new Meetup feature called the Meetup Alliance that will allow Meetups to organize among themselves (and beyond geographic borders). A Tech Meetup Nation, you bet.

Mogulus Goes Public

MOGULUS LAUNCHED LIVE STREAMING PLATFORM AT NEWTEEVEE LIVE


SAN FRANCISCO, CA. --- Nov. 14 --- Mogulus, a New York-based internet startup, unveiled a groundbreaking live streaming platform today that enables anyone with a computer, a web-cam and a high speed connection to broadcast like a multi-million dollar television station.

"To make compelling live user generated content, you need powerful production tools. With Mogulus, producers can now collaborate in real time and make high quality live television shows on the internet,“ said Max Haot, Founder/CEO of Mogulus.

Om Malik, editor-in-chief of GigaOM and organizer of NewTeeVee Live, said Mogulus "is a great partner for broadcasting live TV on the Web." In addition to being a featured platform at NewTeeVee Live, Mogulus will be streaming the event live at www.live.newteevee.com.

Mogulus, in private beta for the past four months, is one of the most popular live streaming applications in Internet history. More than 17,000 producers with beta access created more than 18,000 live 24/7 channels and streamed more than 12 million unique viewer minutes a month, according to Haot.

MOGULUS LAUNCHED LIVE STREAMING PLATFORM AT NEWTEEVEE LIVE


SAN FRANCISCO, CA. --- Nov. 14 --- Mogulus, a New York-based internet startup, unveiled a groundbreaking live streaming platform today that enables anyone with a computer, a web-cam and a high speed connection to broadcast like a multi-million dollar television station.

"To make compelling live user generated content, you need powerful production tools. With Mogulus, producers can now collaborate in real time and make high quality live television shows on the internet,“ said Max Haot, Founder/CEO of Mogulus.

Om Malik, editor-in-chief of GigaOM and organizer of NewTeeVee Live, said Mogulus "is a great partner for broadcasting live TV on the Web." In addition to being a featured platform at NewTeeVee Live, Mogulus will be streaming the event live at www.live.newteevee.com.

Mogulus, in private beta for the past four months, is one of the most popular live streaming applications in Internet history. More than 17,000 producers with beta access created more than 18,000 live 24/7 channels and streamed more than 12 million unique viewer minutes a month, according to Haot.

Tumblelogging Towards the Future

Google, Facebook and even Microsoft reps were all there conveying the latest news about their companies at the NY Tech Meetup this week, held in the spacious IAC Corp. in Chelsea this week, but the real highlights were the startups Vimeo, Pixelperfect, and Tumblr. Tumblr, in particular, is generating a lot of buzz these days, especially since Union Square Ventures invested. Here's how this leading VC firm describes Tumblr in their blog:

"Tumblr is the easiest way to express yourself online. The form of expression on Tumblr is called a tumblelog, which (as defined by Wikipedia) is "a variation of a blog that favors short-form, mixed-media posts." Tumblelogging exists to express a more ethereal identity."

I have been testdriving (or tumblelogging) on my Tumblr account, and have to admit it's more fun than Twitter and so easy to use. Kudos to Davidville, the developer (aka David Karp).

Web2NewYork: Going Mobile

"Going Mobile" was the theme at last night's well attended Web2NewYork Meetup at the Gallery Bar in the Lower East Side. The hottest pitch came from Thumbplay, which offers a "platform of mobile entertainment content" that aggregates, promotes and delivers mobile content directly to your cell phone. Thumbplay started with ringtones and now offers videos, movies and ads, all formatted for the "small screen". Won't be long before advertisers follow the lead of movie studios and music companies in moving toward mobile entertainment companies like Thumbplay.

RENAMITY PR & Bruni PR

Silicon Alley is spreading south into the Delaware Valley. Philly's economy isn't just about healthcare/pharma, banks and law firms anymore. Internet companies are sprouting up in Philly and surrounding areas, especially King Of Prussia, faster than timeshares in the Poconos. At the recent TechCrunch 40 and Demo conferences out West, there were numerous Philly based startups rubbing elbows with Silicon Valley venture capitalists and young Net moguls.

To service these new Delaware Valley startups, Bruni PR has entered into a strategic partnership with RENAMITY PR, one of the city's fastest growing PR firms, with clients in a wide range of businesses, including entertainment, food, beverages, consumer goods, and financial services. RENAMITY PR CEO Anthony DiMeo III has a strong track record in marketing to the city's "young affluent", the same demographic group spearheading the economic move into the Net industry. I'd call them the "young affluentials". Can the next Google or YouTube come out of Philly? If it does, Bruni PR and RENAMITY will be there to seize the opportunity.

wixi

wixi, an exciting new media centric social media site, is inviting TechCrunch readers to its beta version. I'm glad I followed up on Arrington's advice today and took wixi for a testdrive. It's amazing. Wixi users get 3GB of free storage that they can use to share photos, videos, and music with their friends and family. While the service is browser-based, Wixi designed the interface to feel like a desktop environment with drag-n-drop functionality. wixi, launched at TechCrunch 40, and I apologize for not including them in my last post about the NYers who generated buzzz there.

TechCrunch 40/ New Yorkers Create Buzz

New York-based startups generated a lot of buzz at the TechCrunch 40 gathering on the West Coast today and yesterday. Clickable, Viewdle, and most of all, Kaltura, got raves views for their demos. Kaltura, a Brooklyn based startup with a unique tech that marries the wiki with video editing collaboration tools, won the coveted "40th company" spot after wooing everyone in the DemoPit. Viewdle has pioneered facial recognition tech that is used in its video search product. Reuters is a big customer. Clickable, a Union Square Venture Fund company, also won rave reviews for its online ad product.
Kudos to Arrington, Calacanis and the other organizers.

Animoto/ NY Tech Meetup

Animoto stole the show last night at the NY Tech Meetup with its amazing, new "do it yourself" music video product. Brad Jefferson, co-founder and CEO, blew away the audience with a music video about the Tech Meetup created in just a few minutes. RobinGood and other prominent bloggers have been raving about Animoto for several wks, and now I can see what the fuss is about. As Robin predicted, this product will replace slideshows in the near future.