After  HULU’s good start there seem to be an even brighter future waiting for the OnlineTV platform: CEO Jason Kilar describes in this 3  Minute AdAge-Interview the strategy that HULU is currently persuing and reveals that Hulu does not have an does not want a marketing department.

The WebTV plattform HULU is backed by some mayor US TV broadcasters: Fox, NBC Universal and ABC.

While being a major success in the United States, the films  aren’t currently available in the rest of the world due to copyright issues. That’s one major challenge we are experiencing at the moment: The established, traditional broadcasters can’t service the web according to the net’s possibilities, as they are limited mostly to national restraints. But here’s some news from HULU: Currently there are some rumors about there, saying that HULU is in talks with the BBC about some kind of cooperation. Given the BBC iPlayer that sounds very interesting to me.

Now there seems to be also a chance to get a glimps of HULU’s quality outside of th US: At least here in Europe the HULU TV Ads also seem to be available. Have a look here.

And here comes the next step forward: HULU just released their sleek desktop app in the HULU Labs. As more and more consumers in the US are quitting their cable tv and relying enirely on online-distribution via Hulu, YouTube, Boxee or MythTV, there seems to be an economic shift going on here, too. But will HULU manage to beat open plattforms like Boxee, which include videos from different services? Could be there’s a bright future waiting here for the TV audience.

“You don’t have to mess with a web page to watch TV anymore.” At least that’s what Boxee TV promises in their short introduction film to Boxee-tv on Vimeo. A few have tried connecting the TV to the several sources on the web  before, see Apple TV or Samsung’s TVs with theirs built-in YouTube-browser.

Boxee manages to connect it’s TV software to many sources like HULU, Joost, YouTube, MTV, last.fm in a sleek, simplae interface you can control with a remote app available in the iTunes store. But the most important features of Boxee TV are the social components. To use it you have to create an account, which then becomes part of a social network, And that’s really something to look forward to: WebTV combined with social functioinalities becomes very powerfull and I think we will see far more of this in the near future. See your friends’ playlists and watch the same shows. Share comments and ratings and so on.

So Boxee TV manages what Joost didn’t: Really making TV social. Up until now there are only versions for Mac and linux available. But with the windows version appearing soon, Boxee could increase it’s reach dramatically. And that’s what then again increases it’s social possabilities. Looking forward to see more of that.

Audi just launched a new version of it’s WebTV: Audi.tv now features much better video quality, social functions and - it was about time - a flash interface. No more problems trying to view Audi.tv on a Mac as it used to be with it’s old WindowsMediaPlayer-Plugin. The content is structured into several channels, one of which is fixed time broadcasting call “On Air” and others like “On the Road” and “Life and Style” feature VoD. Seems to have some similarities to Mercedes-Benz.tv in the way the channels are structured.

The relaunch of Audi.tv shows that corporate publishing and producing is growing adn growing. Seeing the same happen with many of it’s competitors this raises the question: Are companies the next content producers? It looks as if “earned media” is going to become really important compared to “bought media”. More on that in one of my next posts.

It’s getting hot this summer. Not just outside, where we’re just beginning to get some good weather here in Germany, but also with oOnline TV. With so many platforms evolving at the moment it’s about time to get an overview. That’s what I’m going to do in this series.

Kicking it of today with Intruders.tv: Headquartered in the UK, Intruders.tv launched May 2007 with a focus on tech news and interviews. Featuring a new, sleek design the WebTV Channel just relaunched these days. As Vincent Camara, Intruders.tv’s head of Content and Co-Founder says

“Throughout the last year, Intruders tv registered over 10 million video plays, conducted over 600 interviews and have a library of over 300 hours of HD content available.”

Focusing on tech interviews at the moment, Intruders is going to broaden it’s program to music, film and fashion soon.

Here we’ve got a really interesting cooperation form Mercedes-Benz and Condé Nast: The GLK-Dahboard developed by Mercedes-Benz USA is a whole website within a display ad banner. You’ve got different lifestyle-related content here, which  can be viewed directly within the banner and then links to Condé Nast Websites. Mercedes-Benz launched the campaign across 18 Condé Nast Digital sites, including magazine titles such as Details and Vogue and websites such as Style.com and Epicurious.com.

This media placement shows where intelligent online advertising can lead: Rich content formats within other websites that really offer the user a benefit. Adage says the “deal is said to be valued just under $1 million…” “…offers hope for publishers”.

This new webspecial launched at BMW Germany recently shows an important shift in the marketing of vehicles today: As the budgets for many established car lines are reduced, the marketing of concept cars seems to grow. Consider this special from BMW: The new Concept Series 5 Gran Turismo is introduced online not only with a nice 3D-rendered web special, but also features an entertaining spot which explains the concept of this car. Similar as BMW has done at the end of 2008 with the concept X1 the strategy seems to be: Excite your consumers with concepts, so that they buy your actual available car line. Interesting enough that’s what Audi has been doing with the R8 since some time now, in this case an available car, but which is positioned as brand hero at the top of the range (and out of the range for most buyers) and communicated intensively.

Muxtape, the site that brought simplicity back to music mixes on the web, will be relaunching within the next few weeks. After the site’s founder didn’t manage to get major record labels work collaboratively and the site had to shut down on August 18th, 2008, the site has now been recreated as a platform for bands to promote and market themselves. Bands will be able to register and showcase a portfolio. Also, users will have the opportunity to create mixes of the music on the site.

After launching the preview version now, featuring twelve bands at the moment, we’re now waiting for the upcoming release.

A great approach to music on the web - Let’s see if the majors will regret not having collaborated this time. Minimalism is back!

Nice article here on Brandchannel.com: Gavin Finn, president and CEO of Kaon Interactive, creators of 3D interactive sales and marketing solutions, has written the article A Dimensional View of Experiential Marketing in which he describes the importance of interactivity:

So just what is interactivity? Interactivity is a bi-directional process involving the actions of one participant, and the responses to those actions, in a continuous feedback loop. By this definition, watching a video is not interactive. Simply clicking on a button is a one-way action. Just because something is online does not make it an interactive experience. Think of an interactive experience as a conversation. Action equals reaction.

Interactivity, therefore, is a key ingredient in building an emotional connection between a customer and a product

A good article which is definitely worth a read - but then should go a step further: to Web 2.0. The most inspiring interaction a user can have is that between him and other users - not only between the user and the product.

One of my biggest projects of 2008 just went online today in Germany: The new Mercedes-Benz Brand World. This mainly meant structuring the site’s huge amount of content in a more accessible way, developing modules for the brand’s different facets, highlighting some great content within flash modules and integrating the section within the new Mercedes-Benz online appearance.

Hope you enjoy learning more about the history, current projects and future developments of Mercedes-Benz. Get to know the latest technology, the Mercedes-Benz Museum or sport and fashion sponsorship.

With nearly every WebTV station and also many newspapers broadcasting the Obama inauguration live today there is an important question being raised: How important is live content for WebTV? Once defining itself as being on-demand technology for films and shows to be viewed at any time and many TV channels, e.g. Arte plus7 in Germany and France or the BBC using the iPlayer offering a seven-day time shift function it increasingly offers live content. See the popularity of Zattoo in Europe. The question is: How important is the “live factor” to viewers? And the answer is: Very important.

Time-shifted viewing has a lot of advantages to conventional TV, but when it comes to highlights and special events there’s nothing to beat the live feeling. This is the kind of social experience everyone wants. The Super Bowl, Live football matches, concerts or political events and news: We will see a strong rise in live content on WebTV. Enhance that by social features like messenger, chat and vote and you get a powerful community tool. To get the right combination of on demand and live content will be the next challenge for WebTV stations.