Was it a plant? Wasn’t it a plant? The guy who posted the video on Youtube and Nintendo claim that there is no link between them and this is not an attempt at social/viral media which has gone wrong. In reality the arguement is unimportant as Nintendo will have benefited massively from the exposure Wii fit has gained through this story so whether it originated from them or not doesn’t actually matter, it is still a huge success. Im not sure whether the viewers on Youtube are marvelling at the technology behind Wii fit but they are showing an interest in something!

Some of the articles relating to this story:

Wii Fit Underwear Girl a Marketing Hoax
Wii Fit YouTube clip gets two million admirers
Wii Fit turns YouTube sensation

And here is the link to the video, I would have embedded it but for some reason it is messing up the page layout!

Wii Fit YouTube Video

BBC’s iPlayer service is wiping the floor with its rivals in the on demand TV market recording up to 500,000 programme downloads a day. 11m TV shows were streamed or downloaded through iPlayer in January in comparison to 2.7m for channel 4’s system 4od and 2m for ITV. The massive amounts of advertising dollars spent promoting the service have no doubt prompted its dominance but will also have given the on demand market as a whole a boost as people become more aware that you can watch your favourite shows from your laptop at any time of the day and night.

The opportunity and issue now facing BBC iPlayer is how to monetise this growing service without annoying its users. Advertising in online video files has been debated far and wide and yet the most appropriate format is yet to be decided upon. Pre-roll, post-roll and overlay are the main considerations with the option of mid roll placements as well but all interfere with the user experience in some way. The key is to strike a balance between the exposure of the ad and the interference with the viewing.

Youtube are still to achieve this and at a recent seminar they were still asking the advertisers what their preference would be for the ads. Youtube have gone with an overlay style ad for in video but admitted trialling preroll and post roll with both showing negative results. I wonder whether the BBC will be able to crack the code?

As part of its record breaking 2008 marketing budget Cadbury are planning a follow up to their much loved drumming gorilla advert. According to the latest edition of Marketing the new ad will also feature an animal playing an instrument. The original advert was a major viral success achieving numerous blog postings, massive word of mouth and many a parody on Youtube (you can see some of them here). So the follow up has a hard task following in its footsteps, as do he agency charged with creating the ad. The original one worked well due to the human like actions of a gorilla but I cant see many other animals having the same impact without looking too comical. Answers on a postcard what you think the new animal and instrument will be and heres the original again just for fun!

I anyone needed convincing of the rise in popularity of social media and the impact it has has on the web then the recent Hitwise news letter should provide it. Bebo has just overtaken ebay in the search term share rankings and the top 10 search terms contain 5 terms relating to social media sites, with two of them being youtube. This just goes to show the prominence this sector now has in the market and the opportunity it holds for those who can adopt it to suit their objectives, whether that be through advertising or participation.

The top ten search terms (as tracked by hitwise) for the 4 weeks ending 9/6/2007 are:

1. bebo 1.14% share
2. ebay 1.11% share
3. youtube 0.52% share
4. myspace 0.37% share
5. argos 0.24% share
6. facebook 0.23% share
7. amazon 0.22% share
8. bbc 0.17% share
9. you tube 0.16% share
10. bbc weather 0.15% share