Looks like mashup makers Eyespot are shutting their doors. In an email to account holders, and on a page when users log in, members received the following message:

To Our Users and Customers

We deeply regret to inform you that Eyespot Corporation will no longer be able to continue serving you.

For our users at eyespot.com, we’re no longer allowing you to upload new videos. We’ll soon be providing you with a simple means of retrieving your uploaded videos and video mixes from within your account.

For our business customers in the eyespot video network, your site will continue operate unaffected for a limited period of time. We encourage you to migrate your video solution to one of our competing providers in the video mixing: Kaltura, and video publishing space: Fliqz immediately. We’ll soon be providing you with the means of downloading your community videos from within your dashboard at http://eyespot.com/partnerDashboard. Look for “Download: Click to save.” under each media thumbnail in your galleries.

We have spent three years providing over a hundred thousand of you with a unique video experience. We believed that by putting creative tools and rights-cleared media into the hands of influencers and connectors, Eyespot would enable social media and participation culture like no other company.

After playing over two hundred million of your video creations, we have to stop. After assembling possibly the most potent team in digital media ever, we’re now moving on.

Thank you all for being part of our community over the past three years.

Jim Kaskade
President & CEO

Searching for good content online can be a pain in the ass. If your friend doesn’t send you a link, or you aren’t trolling YouTube for hours, you’re more likely to find a podcast that is already dead than discover the next cool show. With the volume of new webisodes being created, and only increasing, what we could use is a trustworthy source to do all that trolling for us, find the best of the best, and make it nice and easy for us to choose from.

Enter TheWebisodes.com, a new portal for webisodic content. Consider them the new TV Guide of web programming. Not just a guide, The Webisodes has its own show, The Weekly Webisode Watch (hmmm, kinda crimping on our name, but we’ll let it slide), that features co-founders Gil and Oran Margulis chatting about their favorite shows.

For those of you with your own programming, TheWebisodes is syndication friendly, hosting shows on their site or delivering users to your own site. Got content, make sure you tell the brothers at TheWebisodes.com. Finally, a portal page for the videophile crowd.

Yep, its that time of year again. AT&T’s Blue Room is streaming the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

All weekend long, The Blue Room will have live streams from the festival, now in its seventh year. First stream is at 12:45pm ET. The Blue Room also has an XM Satellite radio broadcast, a Twitter feed and ringtones available to download from the artists performing at the festival, so they’ve got a true cross platform effort going.

Kudos to AT&T overall for their continued strength in online video events.

Warning: This video may be the raciest thing we’ve posted, but since its branding, and technically there’s no nudity or anything “questionable,” I’ll save you the hassle of hunting for it.

In building anticipation for their XXX Party, being held in 17 cities around the world, jeans maker Diesel contracted The Viral Factory to create this “SFW XXX” video, which is sure to be a viral hit. In its first day, it has nearly 350,000 views on Break.com.

The Viral Factory, based in the UK, has a long history of creating viral hits, including one of my personal favorites, The Trojan Olympics series.

Someone will have to explain the videos on the Diesel home page to me. Other than an odd similarity to the whiteface worn by Bob Dylan in his Rolling Thunder Review, I flat out don’t get any of them.

Ok. You’ve been warned. Now enjoy.

Diesel SFW XXX - Watch more free videos

UPDATE: I received an email from NeuLion correcting the information contained in Mel Adler’s email. NY & LA sales offices are still open, and Mel is no longer an employee of the company, and was not an employee at the time he sent the letter. NeuLion and JumpTV are still very much in business, and in growth mode.

In a letter to not-sure-who, Mel Adler sent the following note:

As some of you may now know, JumpTV/ Neulion decided to close their advertising sales offices in NY, LA and Chicago last Tuesday. Until further notice, please direct any sales inquiries to their Sanford Florida office at 407-936-0800.

Over the past year, working with so many talented online media professionals has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career. So, thank you all!

When Jump decided to insert advertising into its paid subscription streams last year, there was little research with regard to audience acceptance and possible churn. What evolved was a state of the art, in-stream marketing experience. At our height, comScore ranked JumpTV as the most engaged video sports site, reaching 3-4 million monthly uniques (don’t get me started on video measurement panels). For perspective, four million people is about how many the Yankees draw to the Stadium in a season. And although I have no delusions about my two loves - baseball and streaming media, becoming equally popular, it’s still a nice coincidence.

I look forward to working with each and every one of you again in my next ‘Excellent Adventure’

Session Description:
When will supply of premium inventory become outstripped by demand? What effects will this have on the online video marketplace? Some advertisers would argue there is a glut of quality, premium inventory online. Some would say there is almost infinite inventory. Who is correct? Can premium video actually command a premium on price? Are video ad networks killing the price and creating a low cost marketplace for video that hurts the chances for growth? These will all be discussed in this session.
Moderator:
Jason Glickman, CEO, Tremor Media
Speakers:
Steven Comfort, YuMe, VP, Advertising Sales
Carrie Kelly, VP Ad Sales, Funny Or Die
Christine Peterson, VP Digital Media Director, Carat
Shoba Purushothaman, CEO, The NewsMarket
Lewis Rothkopf, Network Development, Brightroll

A: Peterson: The question isn’t whether or not it was produced by a professional company, but whether or not there is a technology to alieviate their fears of being associated with pornography or inappropriate language. They don’t really care about the resolution of the video.

Q: If the content were determined to be safe, would that warrant a higher CPM?

Peterson: Sure. If we could have the same reach, then yes. A consumer may be even more passionate about that content.

A: We also need to look at things in the broader context. The super-premium content is usually a byproduct of a broader TV deal, and not really a true measure of CPMs .

Christine: Some of the models for super-premium content is built around purchasing a block, as opposed to the majority of digital content which is purchased on CPM or per stream basis. While that sounds nice, it most cases, they are just repurposing their TV spots. We’re seeing frequency of 7 exposures per session, not just when they come back. We’re looking for 1-2 impressions in an in-stream environment. Overall, those super-premium buys have a negative impact. As someone who tried to catch up on a season of 30 Rock, I hope I never see an ad for super scrubber again.

Glickman: Publishers need to balance the frequency capping with their ability to make money.

Q: From a supply and demand standpoint, there is a lot of noise that all of the video inventory is UGC. When you look at the volume of video inventory on tier-two sites, often times it exceeds what you can find on top-tier sites. What is the roll of video ad networks in a supply demand and value?

A: Brightroll: You can’t possibly overstate the value of video ad networks in this environment. The goal is to supplement what the publisher is doing on their own, and help the agency get the buys across a broader array of quality publishers while avoiding the pitfalls that comes with trying to do that. But you’ve got all of these different player types, formats for them to deal with. As far is the publisher is concerned, you get very competitive CPMs, but not what you’d get if they sold it themselves. But what often happens is “The Spitzer Effect.” You get a huge spike in traffic, and then you have a ton of unsold inventory.

Carrie: As a publisher, there is a need for ad networks. When we did the Paris Hilton video, we had a 16x spike in traffic. But nobody has the chance to pre-sell something like that. What we need to figure out is how to have something in-house that we can use to take advantage of that, and work together to increase the efficiency. We need to open up the dialogue on how the publishers and agencies can work together.

The behind the scenes is that we have to think about the end user. As a start up, we’d rather sacrifice some revenue to make sure that user comes back to us again. We want the right brands because we are building an audience as much as we are building the site.

Q: Are video ad networks hurting the CPMs?

Glickman: I think most of us would disagree with that. For standard ad networks that may be true, but not for video.

Brightroll: The people who run the video networks have been there before, and seen what happens. So we are determined as both former publishers to not go down that road again. We only sell on a CPM basis to make sure that CPMs don’t go down.

YuMe: We give our technology to the publishers we work with, and 99% of the time it is better technology than they already have. And that gives their sales team the ability to sell formats and analytics that they couldn’t deliver on their own.

Q: When it comes to formats, price and inventory, formats obviously play a role. How do we see the formats play into the conversation?

Carrie: On the day I started at Funny or Die, we said that there will be no pre-roll on our site, ever. We have to go back to the user experience. As Christine said, she was so annoyed that she’ll never buy a product. So we need to keep the user in mind and how we protect that experience.

Christine: Just to play devil’s advocate, the advertisers spend an enormous amount of money creating a :30 second spot. Not to say that it is the end all and be all, but they are still working. They still drive a brand message, equal to and above the performance on TV. Users are less annoyed than they are with TV, and we don’t see TV changing their ad model. When I say to an advertiser, “I need you to spend more money for the web,” they say “Forget it,” and spend the money where they know it is working.

Brighroll: One of the things that is really tense right now is the :30. In terms of branding and recall, they are the most effective unit out there. So you have the opportunity to do more than repurpose what you’ve got on TV. If you are targeting techies, they know the benefits of having more RAM, so you can exploit that opportunity to spend the time with them because you can deliver a much more targeted opportunity.

Christine: Coming from a media buying perspective, there’s only so much you can do and say to get them to test the waters in the space. Now we’re seeing interactive video, and we can create ad units for the space. But we need to create more case studies to prove that they work.

Q: How do we feel about formats as they pertain to the content? YouTube said they wouldn’t do pre-roll but would do overlays.

Christine: its less about who created it and more about length.

YuMe: The biggest problem is seeing a :30 second ad before a :15 second piece of content. But it is rare that we get more than one piece of creative. But technically we have the ability to do that.

Q: If you can create content that is an ad, but also something that is content and can stand on its own, is that something we see as the next big thing or is it a fad?

Carrie: It will continue, but it is really difficult. If you, the publisher, are doing everything from the script to the talent to the editing, then we are playing the agency, the producer and the publisher and then we need to go do the distribution as well. It’s a lot easier, like with the Dove campaign, where the agency did it, and seeded it. We can’t try to trick the consumer.

Brightroll: Trailers are a great example. They are entertainment, they are high def. There’s a burgeoning market for literary trailers, where they hire actors to create a commercial. Its entertainment that meets everyone’s need at once.

Q: Content doesn’t exist just on one site anymore. How does syndication, and hyper syndication, affect price?

A: YuMe: When you look at the widget world, where content appears on a blog or on facebook, the issue will become addressability. Can you tell who I am?

Q: Do top-tier sites warrant a higher rate than the same content farther down the tail?

Carrie: yes. If you can buy a targeted audience, if you can buy them in that bullzeye, then you should pay a premium for reaching them in a premium environment.

Brightroll: If you are having your content associated with premium, adjacent content, then you should pay for that association. But advertisers don’t necessarily see it that way.

Why?

Brightroll: One is safety. Advertisers pay to be associated with your brand.

YuMe: Demand and true scarcity will play a huge roll. Auto content, business and finance, travel, that will support higher prices across the board.

Q: With regards to TV, there is a comparison of CPMs. In general, people think that online CPMs are higher than TV. Should they be?

Christine: No. We don’t have the metrics to prove that we should pay higher prices for online. But you can’t compare them. Broadcast buyers buy cost-per-point.

Brightroll: Broadband should always be higher CPMs than TV. You have a lean forward audience. On TV, you have a cost-per-maybe. On the interactive side, someone is actively engaged.

Glickman: We’ve heard that the CPMs on TV have been watered down to address that cost-per-maybe.

Q: Is it an issue of education?

Peterson: Maybe, but what we hear from TV buyers is that they turn on the TV faucet, and the sales come in.

YuMe: When I worked in TV, we knew that we’d get exactly how many number of calls into a call center, exactly what time the spot will air. TV can be extremely precise. But when you are looking at an ad that is in a video player, you are waiting for that content to play, and you are very engaged. With TV, the push has been on to move away from show ratings and towards commercial ratings, and that cracked about two years ago. They are getting close to figuring out who watched the ad vs. who watched the show. But if you are on the Web, you are one click away from engaging with the advertiser. On TV, you have to get up, turn on the computer, etc., You are much farther away from that engagement.

Audience Q: What about convergence when TV and the Web come together?
Brightroll: All of the set top boxes run off of basic IP video. But there is no barrier to getting the same kind of ads and metrics off of the living room TV than off the computer. The technology is there. The convergence has happened. Its just a matter leveraging the data.

Audience Q: What goes into CPM rates, and why are they so much lower for UGC? What are the other inputs?

Christine: There is definite value to the body of content that we can trust. A lot of the established rates for the super premium placements happened because they were bought by broadcast buyers without being negotiated. They were set without any real rationale. There is also a lot of value added research that can help you prove whether or not something worked. With a lot of the premium content, you can do a lot more than with UGC. You can brand the entire environment if you’d like, which has a much longer impact than a UGC environment.

Session Description:
There are so many ways of creating, distributing and syndicating video online. We see large, mainstream publishers competing with smaller, upstart production companies to create video and some of it is better than others, but all of it is in demand by marketers. Media planners are trying to determine how they should value these different types of video content, how it should be priced, whether the premium content from large publishers is actually more valuable than these smaller production studios. How do we make sense of the landscape and the implications for marketers?

Moderator:
Doug Knopper, co-CEO and Founder, Freewheel
Speakers:
Dick Glover, CEO, Funny Or Die
Jim Nichols, Partner, Strategist, Catalyst:SF
AJ Vernet, President, KTV Digital Media

Q: Last month, according to eMarketer, there were 52 million unique video viewers last month. Where will we be in 12 months?

AJ: More than 100 million.

Q: What kind of content will it take, and what will it take us to get there?

Dick: Doesn’t think its content. Its accessibility, the growth of broadband and new platforms. I don’t think people aren’t watching because there isn’t content people want to watch. You need content to have a successful business, but content isn’t the obstacle.

AJ: Agreed. It is so easy to take a video and upload it to a facebook app.

Q: OK, what about monetizable content.

Jim: There needs to be a generational change. You can’t just count on young people to watch video. But it needs to be packaged in a way that advertisers find appealing. There is a lot of focus on “consumer control” but the consumer can’t be totally in control because they want everything for free. So the question is how to get companies comfortable with advertising on the type of content. But the industry isn’t packaging content in a way that advertisers find appealing. It also needs to be easy to buy. You don’t buy car that comes in 500 pieces.

Dick: Advertisers and marketers need to find more effective ways to engage with these audiences. They need to structurally figure out who is doing it – is it the interactive agency? The brand agency? The PR firm? You end up with a worse product because it has to go through so many hands. It needs to be much more integrated on the client and content side because it is too difficult.

AJ: Publishers need content. Advertisers don’t know how to package branded entertainment for publishers. Advertisers want a product that is completely made for them. But the biggest obstacle is that the person who is buying the media just doesn’t understand it.

Q: Is it because the content is different?

AJ: 10 months ago, they didn’t understand the model. They couldn’t only think in terms of putting their TV commercial online. Now they understand it, but it is hard to price. Branded content can cost $100k, $250k, $500k.

Dick: Every day it gets a little easier. One of the problems, though, is that people “our age” our trying to communicate with people our children’s age. In the 80s, it was really hard to sell cable TV. And still today, the same commercial to the same audience gets fewer dollars on cable than broadcast.

AJ: If the content sucks, it isn’t going to get views. It isn’t going to do its job.

Jim: Ultimately it doesn’t matter if they like the commercial or content. It matters if it moves product. People aren’t going to seek out “toilet peper” videos.

Q: What systems are missing from the equation?

Jim: Right now, there is a Google video widget that lets you search for political content. So you can find every video of candidates talking about political issues. An advertiser can look up by context and insert advertising against keywords. One of the things that you both do is create brand safe content. But that “safety sells” idea is going to need to get much broader. I’m not saying that all content is going to be good for all brands.

Dick: There is a level of hypocracy that drives me crazy. There was a brand that sponsored a movie that was rated R, but wouldn’t advertise on my site. That’s ridiculous. Advertisers are too scared of the negatives. But nobody ever got fired for making the safe choice that didn’t work. Intelligent risk is a good thing.

AJ: You have to give consumers what they want.

Q: What is the difference between the value of content on your site vs. the value on YouTube or Veoh or anywhere else?

AJ: People are starting to get more risqué because users are being desensitized.

Dicl: There are some differences between “on site” vs syndication. But there is also the difference in the environment that the ad exists. People don’t come to just one spot to watch all their video. Our site will always be a premium site. And we have plenty of UGC. But we have an environment that people know will be funny. Its not all just sophomoric humor that someone shot in their college dorm. The issue, in the end, is how you connect to massive consumers that will determine the value of the ad.

Q: What is the rev split?

AJ: 10% on our site, 90% through syndication.

Q: Can you comment on the Google/Seth McFarland deal?

Dick: its something that people should watch very closely. It all depends on the content, but there’s no reason to doubt that because of his history. It’s a smart deal for both sides.

Jim: The deal sounds like it makes a lot of sense. That one seems to have all the fundamentals that you’d ask for in a deal like that.

Session Description:
In a sluggish economy, when budgets must stretch, will marketers be more willing to roll the dice on running ads in questionable places? What are the pluses and minuses? What strategies, checks and balances should they have in place with regard to their agencies and networks? This panel will debate the things you’d do today, and those you’d have never done four years ago. A discussion of the learning, the pros and cons and how this economic climate is shifting media thinking.
Speakers:
Sarah Baehr, Vice President-Media, Avenue A Razorfish
Jordan Bitterman, Senior Vice President, Media & Content, Digitas
Steve Mitgang, Chief Executive Officer, Veoh Networks
Ross Sandler, Senior Analyst, Global Internet & Media Research, RBC Capital Markets

Q: What are the differences in expectations right now, given the environemnent?
A: (Julie, replacing Sarah Baehr) – A lot of the tactics are still working, so clients are sticking with the overall strategy. We haven’t seen the huge cuts yet, but they are shifting to more efficient tactics. We’re setting expectations that the ROI isn’t as strong as is was, or as it could be, because we’re being scrutinized a lot more.

Steve, Veoh: From a DR perspective, the budgets are going to get hit. In the video space, which is incredibly nascent, the opposite is happening. Its an experimental market right now, and brands don’t want to sit on the sidelines and miss the opportunity.

Q: Is it the same dynamic as the early days of search?
A: yes. Its better to be playing in the space, learning which levers to pull, making mistakes, which gives them a tremendous advantage. A brand that understands the creative, the interactivity, the flighting, etc., isn’t something you can get by reading the WSJ.

Q: Google has had tremendous difficulty figuring out YouTube. How comme they can’t figure it out? Are there structural issues? Is it premium vs USG? Lack of inventory?

A: Jordan: You are seeing things that are more ‘long tail’ than what people who are used to buying traditional broadcast are comfortable with. You are seeing less of an interest to get in there with big dollars. In today’s “flight to safety” there’s less of a push. The more digitally savvy brands are starting to play with it. But its more of a question of what to do in that space. Do you run your TV spot, or do you create custom content? Instead of being adjacent to content, you can actually be the content. But that is more expensive, so there isn’t as strong a push to do that right now. I’m surprised we don’t see more dollars in this space right now, but that will take off in the next 18-24 months like a hockey stick.

A: It is really hard for a marketer to create a meaningful form of engagement when you have what is essentially a two minute experience. We found that most YouTube videos were 9 seconds or less. What is the ad unit that you run around a 9 second piece of content? That’s YouTube’s structural problem. YouTube isn’t any more risqué than MTV.

Q: (Jordan) Will we be watching content in 22 and 44 minute lengths? Or will we be watching more short form content?
A (Veoh): We’re actually shocked at how much long form content people are watching on Veoh.

Jordan: The logistics and development costs are a lot more complex for creating content. That is one of the fundamental problems right now.

Q: Standards. Where are we on the paradigm shift in getting to where display ads are today so agencies can rapidly adopt it?

Julie: We shouldn’t be there yet. Its too soon to say “this is the right way to do it.”

Veoh: We look at ad units as the structure of what you are buying rather than looking at it as the overall campaign. We know what a 5 second or 10 second ad looks like, but we need to still figure out what the real opportunity is.

Q: Content and Transparency. Where are we in figuring out where we are in determining what is safe? Can you scan a video clip and figure out the type of content?

Veoh: A few issues there. Is there enough reach? Is the content brand safe? We make sure that we’ve got a clean, well lit environment. “The great thing about porn is that you can see it.” Meaning, you can easily identify it and remove it. Our policy is to just not have any there. On the reach side, it is still small. But if you want to reach a 15-34 audience, or hyper fanatics that tweet and have 10 facebook sites, there is a lot of density of really important people to reach. You can’t buy tonnage, but you can but very important influencers .

Q: From an agency side, are you comfortable with the metrics?
Jordan: You are taking risks when you have a brand marketer that would load up their T&Cs with caveats with where they don’t want to run. You have to look for the kind of marketer that wants to go at things a little differently. Just like the web started with males 15-34, the same thing is happening with video right now. Over time, it is going to start looking more like the world in general, and will probably get there more quickly than the web, or ecommerce or broadband did.

Q: Production quality. Is a video clip of Walt Mossberg talking about the iPhone on his webcam worth $80?
Julie: yes. If it’s the content you are looking for and it delivers the audience, than yes, it is worth it.

Jordan: Years ago, there were three broadcast networks with three hours of primetime. There were limited options. Now if I want to watch Walt Mossberg, I’m raising my hand and saying “yes I want to watch that” whether it is grainy or two minutes or 20 mins long.

Q: The web is an active environment, TV is passive. Where are we with video search? Does the activity need to switch from active to passive?

Veoh: Search isn’t going to be the primary vehicle for discovery of video. It will be part of the process, but not the primary process. Clicking the remote control on TV is about trying to find something interesting to watch, but its not searching. Its browsing. Recommendation engines and algorithms with play a much larger role in helping the discovery process.

Q: Pre-Roll. Advertisers love it. Consumers hate it. How do you think about pre-roll and using it? What is working and how do you walk the line?

Julie: You need to be careful. With pharma clients, they want to put all the legal in the ad, so you can’t do a :15, you have to do a minute long ad. If it is really annoying to even think about, it is going to be annoying for the consumer. But there is a value exchange. If the user knows there will be value there, then its not bad.

Jordan: You always need to think about the context in which the marketing is being received. You don’t want to just sit adjacent to the content. If you can have message that is specific on how to activate the experience you just saw in or along side the content, that is very powerful. Its expensive, but can be very powerful.

Julie: Samsung has a great ad for one of their new phones that you can take part in the experience of the guy in the story. Do you go to sleep or go out? The user takes part.

Veoh: We’re dialing back the inventory for pre-roll to create a better experience for the user.

Q: Where are we with mobile?

Julie: We’re experimenting, but the iPhone is blurring the line between what is mobile and what is browsing the web.

Jordan: The experience that comes from an application that is served is much more powerful than just serving a banner. We’re shifting from a WAP experience to a Web experience. You need to give people an experience that users can participate in, and has engagement that you can track on the back end. We’re looking for the “Killer App” right now. We’re moving from a “one platform, one provider” environment to an environment that will deliver the killer app.

Julie: Hopefully we’ll stay out of an economic environment that stops people from experimenting.

Q: How are DR advertisers thinking about advertising in the economic downturn?
Jordan: You may stay away from branding initiatives that are tough to measure, but with DR you know what the ROI is, so we aren’t seeing a slowdown in that.

Q: How are you looking at targeting users vs. content?
Julie: There is a huge appetite for that, particularly in the ad exchange environment. But when you look at DR metrics, heavy reach leads to conversions. So it’s a balance.

Jordan: We don’t know what the ad exchange will be called in the future, but it will become completely partner, portal and network agnostic.

Q: How will that impact the ad networks?
Jordan: The publishers control the content and who they will allow to advertise to that audience. The future of the networks will depend on the amount of quality content that you have. If this “uber exchange” comes into play, I’d be making sure I have quality content to offer, more than just the breadth.

Veoh: There will always be quality content where there will be a premium placed on advertising on that content. But we are also all creating our own quilts of what we find interesting, and there isn’t enough of that to avoid targeting audiences. Advertisers are going to need to develop messaging that works in those environments. They aren’t going to find bigger and bigger places to advertise, they are going to find lots of smaller places to advertise.

For Your Imagination has launched axisofcomedy.tv, a new online video destination for some of the best comedy series on the web.

The 8 Axis of Comedy shows as described by FYI:

The hipster chic “The Burg,” critically acclaimed “Break a Leg,” the no holds barred “The Patrice Oneal Show,” newsdesk satire “Goodnight Burbank,” super heroically humorous “Kyle Piccolo: Comic Shop Therapist,” the uncomfortably confrontational “The Retributioners,” the socially deconstructing “GoodieBagTV,” as well as the bearded female manchild know as “Abigail’s Teen Diary.”

By focusing on serial content rather than one-offs, FYI hopes to grow a loyal audience that will be a ready consumer for new shows down the road. If you haven’t yet seen these check them out, they stand as examples of how content done well can succeed regardless of the distribution platform; and expect bigger and better things from some of these producers in the coming months.

First Point: There is a flood of content.

Second point: people obsess over quality. Walt Disney made sure that the theme parks were impecably clean. Disney couldn’t be as successful a park without keeping it pristine. Hulu is the same way. The want to make sure that everything about Hulu is about quality. “We have heated discussions over every pixel. We’re very odd birds, and we know that, but that’s our version of street sweeping.” The details – important, but subtle – tell the users that there is something different at Hulu, down to the 16:9 thumbnails. Hulu is obsessed with quality.

Their mission is help people find and enjoy the world’s premium content when, where and how they want to. The rallying cry is more casual in tone. They want to deliver a server that users, advertisers and content owners “unablashedly love.”

First time user from Chicago, in user feedback, “My first Hulu experience made my head explode in a brain spray of awesome.”

Currently Hulu claims 8 million uniques, 119 million streams monthly. PC World Mag named Hulu #1 product of the year, ahead of the iPhone. There is tremendous advertising demand that significantly exceeded their plan, and Fox, a content partner, has seen their overall online business more than triple since the launch of Hulu just 6 months ago.

For marketers:

Take advantage of the unique power of the environment. For example, Hulu allow users to pick from three different ads from a brand, rather than trying to target the specific user. Let them decide. For example, instead of showing an ad for a sports car in front of sports content, let the user decide. Jason is a father, and actually in the market for a minivan, so the sportscar ad is wasted on him.

For entertainment clients, Hulu offers user a choice. You can watch a trailer or preview of a show as a long pre-roll ad, or the user can watch programming with the normal commercial / mid-roll interruptions. Again, giving users a choice about their experience is very much appreciated.

Be a part of a strong user experience. For long form programming, they start with a :15 second branded slate. A very simple execution. They are finding that the branded slate, plus companion banner, provide higher recall among users. The “Ad Load” on Hulu is one-quarter of what you’ll find on TV.

Leverage the power of influencers. Take advantage of people who are embedding content into their own content.

To conclude: First, there’s a big wave. Second, obsess on quality. Third, marketing.