The Marketleap Report
Volume III, Issue #3, March 4, 2003

Is There a Market for Multimedia Advertising?
by Keith Boswell

Is free file-sharing through networks like Kazaa on the brink of extinction? Looking at recent legal actions and government posturing, the shift to legitimize online media is happening now. Technology is catching up and in order to protect copyrights, media producers will have to sell and control files online, forcing file traders to the underground chasms of the web.

File-sharing, peer-to-peer networks like Napster and Kazaa convinced people that the entertainment industries business model could never catch up with technology. The major labels and studios never imagined the demand for media online. The explosive popularity of these programs showed that consumer's had an insatiable hunger for free audio and video files.

Today the light is starting to shine in the other direction. As consumers begin to purchase media files through websites like www.listen.com, the need to advertise is created.

If Norah Jones comes out with a new album and you can't find her songs for free online, searching on a site like Singingfish will help you find it. But her record label must make sure that you can easily find her songs and albums online through advertising.

Online search technologies are the logical progression to help guide consumers in finding the media of their choice. Multimedia search delivers qualified users in a way that in-home Nielsen tracking of television families could never do.

The future is here today for advertisers who need all of their online media files to tie back into a sales or contact channel. Singingfish, the world's leading audio/video search engine, has just introduced a paid inclusion program that allows advertisers to ensure indexing of audio and video files into their search database.

Media creators and advertisers have distinct needs from online search technologies that are finally being met: guaranteed and prompt inclusion, distribution to a wide audience, copyright control, the ability to control the advertising message, and gaining a longer shelf life for content beyond its initial distribution outlet. Over 100 million Internet users have downloaded a media file, and over 47 million of them do so regularly.

Now that there are products like Tivo and ReplayTV that offer consumers the option to bypass advertising and ignore broadcast timetables, solutions for advertisers, like the one Singingfish created is eminent. The opportunity will be about properly cataloging audio/video files, making them available to multimedia search engines.

Within a few years, audio/video optimization will be a standard business practice just like search engine optimization is today. Multimedia search is paving the way for the promises of online marketing.