International Digital Content at MIP TV

The annual TV conference in Cannes usually draws people form the TV business internationally, this year, as well for the past few years digital has taken a stronger presence at one of the best TV markets in the world.
Digital's presence could be seen from the caliber of the trade show booth showcasing new technologies and innovations from Yahoo on their new widget channel, to Zillion TV, to Discovery Channel, Comcast, et al... and the list goes on. The market included great keynote's from the advertising, TV, feature, and digital technology world on the future of content and the screens that we will be watching on, and the future revenue models of the future.

Each country had a contingent of distributors and channel's selling content, with events designed to showcase new TV formats and programs, as well as digital focused projects. Being it was my first time attending MIP, and that MIP has always been an international TV market, I was very impressed and surprised to see the new and flourishing markets, especially in digital, coming out of the middle-east and Africa.

While many people stated that MIP attendance was down, the deals were still strong with lots of new revenue platforms presenting themselves for next and new platforms and markets that are becoming the key revenue generators for the years to come.

MINI continues to innovate in advertising

This is a great story. Innovation in advertising, which in some cases translates to content. A German advertising agency has created a MINI ad that brings to life - literally - the new convertible that MINI is launching in Europe. A German company created a technology called Metaio, which is a form of augmented reality. The user takes the advertising out of the magazine and places it in front of their webcam. The picture then appears on the screen, replicating what it looks like but in a convertible style in 3D. Truly amazing.

This has so much potential and not just for advertising but for content companies in terms of intricate story lines, on-line gaming, etc.. The biggets opportunity is to utilize old fashioned media in a way that maintain's it "sexiness" while embracing and promoting what is here and what is next. No word on what U.S. companies are embracing this technlgy but definetly something keep an eye out for in an advetising or media campaign sometime soon.