Check out this blog post I came across recently:“As with all digital media, since it has no cost to distribute, you have to decide what you want to charge for and what you want to use as advertising to sell something else. As illustrated in the link, it might make more sense to allow music to be played on radio and internet radio for free as advertising for concerts.”

As everyone knows SiCKO was released on P2P networks and Torrents weeks ahead of the U.S. release date. Now I know what a lot of people are saying, especially studio executives, “OH MY GOD, LOST PROFITS, LOST PROFITS!!!” But is that really the case? It is a known fact that Michael Moore releases his movies on the internet to create buzz and has even been seen telling college students to pirate his earlier films. Does Michael Moore know something that every other studio exec doesn’t? You bet. 

 This is classic Marketing 101 and a great way to drive profits. The first thing Mr. Moore understands is that people who consume Torrents and reside on P2P networks are trend setters. They are often well versed in technology and are often the “go to” person when their friends or families need something. Another fact that Michael Moore understands is that lugging video around to give to your friends is not the easiest thing to do. It is not because it is hard but because the people who download this content likely don’t pass it around because their friends don’t have the right equipment or it will take them extra time to teach them how to view it. The easiest thing to do is not pass it around. Downloaders consume vast amounts of music, movies and television shows and mostly just chuck them in the trash can after they are done watching them.But here is where the genius of Michael Moore comes into play. Those very people who downloaded the film, watched the film, and liked the film magically turn into a speaker box of promotion. Take for example the office down the hall from us. One person there downloaded the film over the weekend, watched it, and absolutely loved it. Most of the office did not know what SiCKO was but after the day was over this person had told everyone and the office was full of discussion about the pitfalls of the Iraq War and the U.S. medical system. This weekend when those very office workers are at the box office and deciding what movie to see, SiCKO is now going to be a sweet option from them because the tech genius and “go to” guy recommended it.This is a time of finite advertising budgets. There is so much content out there to choose from and so many platforms to target, it quickly becomes an absolute nightmare to find your audience and engage them with your message. This is why we exist and this is the type of software we provide to studios, television networks, and advertising companies help get the message out. While we don’t do what Michael Moore practices, we have to give him credit for going beyond traditional means with a small budget and getting a million people talking about SiCKO and raving about it to countless millions more.

Heroes returned to prime time NBC a couple of weeks back with a bang. Like millions of people around the world, I have eagerly enjoyed the last few episodes. As I was glued to my television set, millions were watching Heroes in a very different way…through torrents. The reality of the new digital landscape is startling. Heroes comes out online in HDTV hours before national broadcast completely free of drug, Tide, Coke, and soap commercials and at extremely fast download speeds. The lack of commercials and fast download speeds is a huge issue for advertisers and shows how in-show marketing is the wave of the future. But without good metrics (unless you are getting it from us), you have no idea to really understand the true value of a show like Heroes.What is interesting is that in syndicated markets like Spain, Heroes is a couple of episodes back compared to what is airing in the United States. What is stunning is to see the way newly released English episodes spread around the world and to see potential new markets that were previously thought to have no interest in Heroes. This is a great opportunity for NBC or for Heroes’ production company to introduce new markets to the new Heroes storyline they are planning.So how do you figure out where to push for syndication or market additional products on a global scale? The traditional method would be to hire a bunch of families who are avid TV viewers and poll them to see the traction for a particular show. I was stunned to learn that is exactly what is going on! So why does this not work? Well things are different now. People are viewing content on many different platforms. While there might be metering technology on a TV set-top box, is there metering technology on the numerous other platforms families are now viewing content on? Nope. So like all things old, metering technology is on its way out and network centric monitoring is on its way in. Scope is the first step in that direction as we quickly realized that meters and panels were dying.

The Black Donnelly’s is a great show that premiered on NBC a couple of weeks ago to strong reviews and a warm reception in the United States. We decided to take a look at the trends online in terms of regional traction of the show and found some interesting results I thought I would share with you guys.We decided to start off with a sample set of 2800 people for now to see what we could deduce on a global scale. The results were quite interesting. Of course, the United States was first in the consumption and after filtering out BayTSP and company, we were left with New York, NY being the biggest consumer of The Black Donnelley’s in the United States. Surprise! Surprise! And of course, very closely followed by Brooklyn, NY.This type of genre is pretty popular in New York but its appeal has an international flavor as well. Looking at our list of runner up countries, we can see that France, UK, Germany, and Australia are also heavy watchers of the show. All these stats are available in Scope, so go add The Black Donnelley’s to your asset list in Scope and watch the show.