With the football EURO 2008 entering it‘s final stage I’d like to share some experiences on a quite thrilling visual multimedia service we did for MSN in Germany. For the first time our Flash animation team used Microsoft Silverlight for an interactive infographic application.
The daily EURO video magazine combines 3-D-animations of all goals with picture slideshows, a full audio moderation and infographics envisioning match data and statistics. Besides the video magazine our Silverlight player allows MSN users to select the different content formats directly (e.g. only the goal animations or only the slideshow). The format illustrates the potential of innovative visual concepts on the web. The magazine is fascinating web video without any tv camera image involved.
The daily production is a real challenge. The partners involved are opta/Unlimited in Berlin (3 D goal animations), dpa-infocom (player, infographics, picture slideshow) and dpa audio&video services in Berlin (audio moderation and final video production). After the final whistle – in case of a penalty shootout close to midnight – the team starts to produce.
At 08.00 a.m. when MSN earlybird users start their office PCs the fresh magazine is already online. The audio anchorman and the unlimited folks had to accept three weeks of permanent night shifts. But the service and the overwhelming feedback made the lack of sleep worth it. We are really proud of the result and we have already started to discuss the next ideas for video without video.
Wednesday 25 June 2008
Wednesday 18 June 2008
Rising cost for energy and food - is media paying the bill?
Exciting discussion at the future congress “forward2business“ in the East German city of Halle. Stefan Liebing, coordinator for government relations at Shell oil company gave a forecast for the worlds energy consumption in the next ten years. According to Liebing a huge challenge.
The auditorium agreed on the fact that the gigantic demand for energy from emerging economies like China and India will force average western households to invest a bigger share of their budget for daily basics. Prices for energy and food – quite stable for decades – will keep rising and will remain on high levels. But who is paying the bill? I guess that not only leisure and travel expenses but also the media and entertainment budgets will suffer significantly. Another blow for newspaper subscriptions and Pay-TV?
For Germany „forward2business“ is quite an unsual event – may be thanks to its East German roots. 200 innovators and change managers from all industries share their ideas for the future trends in management and society, technology and science. I like the atmosphere, sitting in the garden of the medieval castle „Burg Giebichenstein“, enjoying the sun and the unconventional ideas of people who share their passion for the new. A touch of californian web camp feeling in the middle of Germany. We need more of that...
The auditorium agreed on the fact that the gigantic demand for energy from emerging economies like China and India will force average western households to invest a bigger share of their budget for daily basics. Prices for energy and food – quite stable for decades – will keep rising and will remain on high levels. But who is paying the bill? I guess that not only leisure and travel expenses but also the media and entertainment budgets will suffer significantly. Another blow for newspaper subscriptions and Pay-TV?
For Germany „forward2business“ is quite an unsual event – may be thanks to its East German roots. 200 innovators and change managers from all industries share their ideas for the future trends in management and society, technology and science. I like the atmosphere, sitting in the garden of the medieval castle „Burg Giebichenstein“, enjoying the sun and the unconventional ideas of people who share their passion for the new. A touch of californian web camp feeling in the middle of Germany. We need more of that...
Tuesday 3 June 2008
"Bild" is trailing "Spiegel" on the web thanks to visual content
Strong pleas for visual story telling at the second Hamburg media dialogue ("Internationaler Mediendialog Hamburg):
Kai Diekmann, chief editor of Europe's largest tabloid "Bild" made clear that commercially successful content on the web will be visual content. "Bild" is investing heavily in video and offers mobile download options for the pictures of it's pinup girls. Moreover they established a service enabling readers to act as reporters and provide Bild with images and information. According to Diekmann "Bild" is flooded with picture content from it's amateur paparazzi.
Especially via video and mobile "Bild" is closing the gap to "Spiegel online", Germany's leading news portal run by Spiegel magazine. Chief Editor Matthias Müller von Blumencron told the audience: "Video is a question of survival."
But how to get video monetised? Howard Geisler, Senior VP of Digitas Global, and Patrick Walker, Director of Video Partnerships for Google/Youtube in Europe, surprised the crowd with their favourite vision: Integrate the advertisor and his story into the video clip. Howard explained how Digitas is developing editorial video story boards with brands in order to compete with media clips or user content on YouTube. No option for "Spiegel". But Blumencron admitted, that it's getting harder and harder to get the PR spin doctors and the advertisers out of editorial web content.
Kai Diekmann, chief editor of Europe's largest tabloid "Bild" made clear that commercially successful content on the web will be visual content. "Bild" is investing heavily in video and offers mobile download options for the pictures of it's pinup girls. Moreover they established a service enabling readers to act as reporters and provide Bild with images and information. According to Diekmann "Bild" is flooded with picture content from it's amateur paparazzi.
Especially via video and mobile "Bild" is closing the gap to "Spiegel online", Germany's leading news portal run by Spiegel magazine. Chief Editor Matthias Müller von Blumencron told the audience: "Video is a question of survival."
But how to get video monetised? Howard Geisler, Senior VP of Digitas Global, and Patrick Walker, Director of Video Partnerships for Google/Youtube in Europe, surprised the crowd with their favourite vision: Integrate the advertisor and his story into the video clip. Howard explained how Digitas is developing editorial video story boards with brands in order to compete with media clips or user content on YouTube. No option for "Spiegel". But Blumencron admitted, that it's getting harder and harder to get the PR spin doctors and the advertisers out of editorial web content.
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