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Laptopdance: results from the ‘entertainment’ jury

By Iain MacMillan on November 8, 2008

I really did pick the long straw in terms of categories. You’re onto a winner when you can pick out a two minute Will Ferrell comedy masterpiece to show and discuss with your audience. There was some lively discussion and plenty of disagreement on what was interesting, what works, what doesn’t and what’ll be big in 2009. But the votes are in, they’ve been counted, there’s been a couple of re-counts, but these were the most discussed and debated sites:

  1. Hulu. Video was the big topic of conversation – how it’ll be consumed, how it’ll be monetised, the continuing move away from UGC and back towards high quality output. And for brand managers, how to get decent content out there at an affordable cost. Good news for companies, such as Visible Measures, who are helping us think of new ways of measuring user engagement with video.
  2. 23andme. Lots of different opinions on whether people would be interested enough in their DNA to pay $399 to find out more. Quite a few people picked up on the ancestry/geneology angle. But there were a few comments on the marketing approach – lots of different benefits listed, but no clear idea of who the target audience for the product is. But overall, a lot of agreement that there’ll be lots of room for new forms of entertainment  – over and above the usual music, movies, TV, sport, gaming mainstays.
  3. Funnyordie. Universally popular – who doesn’t like Will Ferrell. And a few mentions of how much more sense it makes for a comedy superstar on top of his game to be launching this type of site rather than, say, a beer brand.
  4. Nowplayit. What’s not to like about Paul McCartney teaching you how to play one of his songs – even if it’s one of his new songs. The musicians amongst our audience talked about how they use YouTube to watch and study artists playing tracks live. Lots of potential, it seems, for more entertainment/education cross-overs.
  5. Purchance/Swoopo/Madbid. Purchance was on our original list, but discussion soon broadened out to cover a number of the new auction and e-commerce models. Lots of the discussion, but the consensus was that most of these sites were not going to be long for this world.

And there you have it. Thanks to everyone who came over to chat on Thursday night.

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Iain MacMillan

Iain founded RMM in 2006, with the objective of providing good, strategic advice across all areas of digital and social media. Nowadays, the focus is entirely social and involves the provision of more than just advice – insight, inspiration and expertise in social media. Iain leads the strategy development and training teams on most client projects.

He specialises in leading client strategy projects in a number of sectors, including finance and gambling, where RMM has conducted studies into social behaviour in highly regulated environments. He also leads projects for travel sector clients, a sector in which RMM works in partnership with eCRM sector specialist, Spike Marketing. They work together across a number of clients, most recently including Neilson Holidays, Thomas Cook’s ski and active holidays division.

Prior to RMM, Iain spent five years helping to run the web design business, Tonic, winning and managing accounts such as Vodafone, GE, GAP, MTV and Barclaycard. Before that he worked at Tribal DDB London, working on Volkswagen before heading up the Victor Chandler, Sony Europe and Guardian accounts. And before that he had a colourful career in music promotions, running the annual Soho Jazz Festival in 1997.

Iain spends quite a large amount of time trying and failing to explain to his long-suffering wife why he really loves golf, seventies hard rock and eighties pop. She remains none the wiser.

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