Versaly Entertainment

Another successful event for Victor Harwood and the Digital Hollywood team.  Digital Hollywood continues to put on terrific events, in spite of the depressing economy, and maintains its premiere event status.

Two take-aways from this latest event.  One: everyone’s T&E budget has been reduced…or maybe slashed is a better word.  I was either told directly about cut-backs or I overheard people taking.  Yes…overhearing is rather easy at these events.  From smaller VC backed companies to large public companies…some rightfully so, and some just reacting in panic mode.  Either way, that would explain the smaller turn out than in the past, however, the right people (deal-makers, business development executives, etc.) attended Digital Hollywood and the networking was as good as ever!  I even signed a deal I have been working on for months with a LA-based company! 

Two: mobile has finally been accepted as a robust platform for streaming good-quality video to a core demographic.  I am thrilled we finally made it, but…and there seems to always be a “but”…there is a roadblock for wider adoption of this platform.

The roadblock is one that has directly affected Versaly and it is the industry-wide poor reporting, both from a timeliness perspective and a data perspective.  Now, not all mobile video destinations are poor…just most.  Wide spread adoption will come with free-to-watch video (just like TV…imagine that!).  The only way to provide top-quality free-to-watch video is to support an advertising revenue model.

Video services, mostly off-deck portals, have focused their development efforts on their UI and viewing experience and neglected their back-end.  Content providers that generate revenue from advertising cannot get the required data from these services in order to execute their business model…better reporting is required.

Advertisers need certain data to show their clients money is being spent well.  Mobile is accepted as a more effective ad with more focused target demo.  If you want to reach the elusive 18-24 demographic, mobile is the way to go!  But, what are the viewing habits?  How many videos watched?  How much of the video was watched?  What time of the day was it watched?  Where is the person who watched it?  Until mobile can provide hard-data justification of an ad spend, it will not reach its potential.

Levi Shapiro, a well-known wireless industry expert, formerly from Telephia, recently wrote an article for Fierce Wireless entitled, “Mobile advertisers demand unified measurement standards.”  Levi goes a step further than me.  He is stating a unified reporting standard…I just want baseline reporting…I can aggregate and massage it to satisfy my clients.  That’s a value-added service we are providing now.