While chatting with Duncan Riley over espresso I found out:
Web 2.0 bible techcrunch has more page views than the Sydney Morning Herald and The Melbourne Age combined.
The question is which one will drive our web start up further?
Category: media
Old media / new media
We all agree that media is changing – “ing”, not “ed”.
So it still makes sense to consider both options for our limited marketing and startup budgets.
So here’s a simple summary of each:
Old media
Costs a lot, but is really quick. Reaches people who might not have been looking for you. Leverages solid infrastructure so demands less human capital. But has a high wastage rate. Suits mass markets
New media
Usually free, and reaches those who are seeking you. Can be quick, but only for the lucky few who nail ideas people want to spread. Uses fragmented infrastructure so requires more man hours. Leaves a digital footprint and so effort compounds. Suits niches.
Until old & new media fully merge, we need to allocate budgets. But it’s also important we remember we can replace money with time when we are financially constrained.
More than just sizzle – Abundant Media
There is no shortage of television shows about holidays.
Let’s call it Holiday Porn… Lot’s of visuals, quite stimulating, high end holidays with locations and activities which are largely out of reach for most people. Who can really afford to drive a Ferrari down the Amalfi coast?
A lot of sizzle, not much sausage. So they generally leave you feeling a little unsatisfied.
Australian media start up Abundant Media have done a nice piece of game changing with their new TV show Holidaysforsale.tv
A simple concept: Everything you see on the show is for sale – You can watch the show, then jump on line and book the exact same holiday. The exact stuff you see and they do. No tricks.
This Australian media startup has in a very short time proven that there is room for innovation even in a crowded market space.
And here’s the bit I love the most, they are so focused on doing, that they’ve sold in their TV show to channel 9, produced it and aired it, and they haven’t even built their own corporate website yet! – Check it here: http://www.abundantmedia.com.au/ Bootstrapping Gold.
Yep – they’re focused on making it happen, not stuff which is nice to do.
Bono says
Circa 1992 on MTV across 4 big, no 4 massive TV screens U2 lead singer Bono was asked what ‘Zoo TV’ was all about. His reply:
“It’s about the chaos of choice.” Poignant.
Start ups ought listen to Bono – and avoid the chaos.
Mass customization
Here’s a few categories or Industries which have been revolutionized by Mass Customization:
T-shirts (Threadless & Neighborhoodies)
TV (Youtube & Joost)
Handbags (Elemental Threads)
Journalism (Blogs & podcasting)
Newspapers (RSS)
Job Seeking (Aggregation & feeds)
Book publishing (Lulu)
Tourism (the web in general)
Luxury goods (fractional ownership)
Music (itunes)
Networking (facebook & social apps)
In fact there’s just too many to mention.
But the real question is this: If it hasn’t hit your industry yet, why not and what are you doing about it?
Rentoid on techcrunch
We finally got ‘crunched’ – with a little spiel for rentoid on Tech Crunch.
In the first instance it’s given us a large membership boost and a very positive response. But it’s also given us our share of negative armchair experts, naysayers in the comments.
We say:
“That’s Ok – revolutionaries like us don’t care what naysayers think.”
But it’s a few thousand more people that know about rentoid.com too.
Actually we do care about what they think as it pertains to ideas to improve the service. We turn their negatives into a positive. But we always ignore an attitude which says something won’t work. It won’t for them – their attitude has already predetermined that!
In fact, some context here: We had many more positive comments and only a few negative. Also, both our membership and listings have been boosted as has our unique visiters today. But I thought I’d make this ‘blatant piece of self promotion’ worthy of a startup blog story by providing some insight!
You can check out the story here.
And add some comments here on the Crunch Base or on the story. We want to hear negative and postive sentiments. We want to improve our offer.
Losing the plot – MTV
I found out the other day that MTV used to play music videos… here I was thinking that the ‘M’ stood for ‘Miscellaneous’
But seriously, they have lost the plot a little. It’s rare to turn it on and find a song playing.
It’s one thing to diversify revenue streams it’s another to forget why you are there in the first place. And this is why alternatives like VH1, Music Max et al had room to move into the market in the first instance.
I get my music from youtube now – on demand. Simply because none of the music channels on cable (pay TV) cut it anymore.
Sure, evolve, but don’t forget why your business / brand / startup exists.