Yahoo! extends its crowd sourcing of content to match AOL

Yahoo!has created the Yahoo! Contributor Network a platform for user contributed content. This is in addition to its recent purchase of Associated Content earlier in 2010.

AOL already has a similar platform called 'AOL SEED network'.

Check out the Wall Blog for more analysis.

News International unveils first paywall figures

Brand Republic's story on News International's paywall figures:

"News International has revealed for the first time that it has had over 200,000 people pay for its digital edition of The Times and Sunday Times since putting up a paywall in July.

Half of those have paid for a joint print/digital subscription, which could include "some duplication" while around 105,000 have paid for digital-only packages."

can be interpreted in two ways:

1) News International have successfully launched their paywall strategy and have added to their overall 'subscribers' to The Times/Sunday Times.

2) The low number of digital subscribers to the The Times/Sunday Times proves that the UK audience don't feel there is (yet) enough value behind the paywall to pay.

ITV launches Corrie Nation social game

Corrie Nation has now launched in to beta.

Start with the Rover's Return and start building 'The Street' by acquiring Corrie Gold through tasks & stocking the shops/houses with relevant virtual goods. Different virtual goods give off XP & Corrie Gold after a time period. Charicatures of the cast cast be added to the Street and they will give you tasks to perform which can yield yet more Corrie Gold.

The game is still a little buggy, but is a good move in to driving a new revenue stream from ITV.com. Give it a go and start building The Street level by level.

Play it here:http://apps.facebook.com/corrienation/

Bin Weevils adds Cartoon Network content into its subscription

Kids MMO world, Bin Weevils seems to be the first service of its type to add in traditional media content to add value to its subscription service......at one level this seems sensible: give your customers more value to make it harder for them to move on....on the other it seems a backward step: do the kids care.

According to Brand Republic, http://bit.ly/aay1Yj:

Bin Weevils, the entertainment platform for children aged seven to 12, has signed a deal to offer Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon programming on a new "social video on demand" service.

From today members of BinWeevils’ ‘Bin Tycoon’ subscription service will be able to watch over 200 hours of on-demand TV content while communicating with their avatar-based friends on the site. Content from Turner Broadcasting-owned Cartoon Network includes ‘Ben 10’, ‘Chowder’, and ‘The Secret Saturdays’ and programming from Viacom-owned Nickelodeon such as ‘iCarly’ and ‘SpongeBob Squarepants. Additional programming on Bin Weevils will be provided from distributors such as Target Entertainment, Decode, Millimages and Cake Entertainment with further partners to be announced in due course.

More Co-Viewing: Million Pound Drop is Back

The Million Pound Drop

ITV has already bought back ITV Live to harness the on-line chatter around X-Factor and now Channel4 are at it as well.

The second series of Endemol's The Million Pound Drop was back on our screens all this week and the most exciting thing about the programme is the 'second screen' application on the web:

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-million-pound-drop-live

The first series showed that 'play along' games can be very successful (nearly 5% of viewers played along to series 1) if it is well integrated and relevant to the TV show. It will be interesting to see if these levels of participation can be maintained and how Channel4/Endemol monetise the 'engaged' audience.

Winning In Digital

Check out Daniel Winner's new blog, titled as 'strategies for success in the digital entertainment market':

http://www.winning-in-digital.blogspot.com/

It is definitely worth a read. So far, he has talked about Apple and iPads....perhaps there is a theme ;-)

ITV Live is back with XFactor

ITV Live is back with a ' follow along' X-Factor service.......chat, catch up on clips & watch live.

It still doesn't give me the 'twitter' effect that makes me feel I'm in the middle of a big conversation.

Spirit

No, not the booze, not the big guy in the sky, not the ghouls.....but a digital production company that intends to make the most of the digital spirit out there

http://www.spiritdigitalmedia.com

CAFE: A Strategic, Social Marketing Mode

from: http://www.clickz.com/3639620

If your goal is get as many people as possible to opt in to a relationship with you, stop reading this now and go start a contest to give away a trip to Hawaii to one lucky person following you on Twitter. It hardly matters what you are selling.

But if you are in this to create an actual business with long-running value, I invite you to explore a new model, called CAFE, which provides the four main building blocks of a strategic, social plan. CAFE stands for Content, Advocacy, Fans, and Engagement.

Content is the fuel that drives the plan. A brand must have some content to start an interaction. We can't wait for the consumer to come to us. That content could be an invitation to tell us what they are thinking. But, more likely it is something that communicates an idea about the product.

Advocacy is the newest kid on the marketing block. While we've always known that people make decisions based on advice from their peers, we've never been able to bake that into a plan the way we have now. Generating advocacy needs to be a real part of what you are planning to do.

Fans are important, of course. We've said they shouldn't be the only goal, but it is critical that when consumers do come to your content, you seek to establish a relationship with them, and following (or fanning) is an excellent way to do it. This is also the pathway to advocacy and earned media.

Engagement is the final piece and the one that most people, unfortunately, ignore. This is the long-term relationship that you intend to have. The work you do to bring people in to your world not only represents value to you, but also a commitment. When someone opts in, it's because they are looking to interact with you again and again. You need to be ready to do this.