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Rocketboom and the explosion of vlogs

Published 10 April 2006, 10:11 AM

What will happen to the advertising model when the blogging generation gets its news and entertainment from vlogs (video blogs)? Will companies want to shift some of their advertising budget directly to vlogs and blogs to the detriment of traditional media? Will companies want to develop their own vlogs to communicate their value proposition to their customers in the same way that they use newsletters today?

I am a huge fan of Amanda Congdon and her daily three minute vlog from NYC on Rocketboom. She covers a wide range of topics ranging from commentary on top news stories to a window into the Internet culture (webcams throughout the world). Rocketboom is created with a consumer camcorder, a laptop, two lights and a map with no additional overhead or costs (the studio is Andrew Baron’s one bedroom apartment). Rocketboom relies purely on word of mouth and has two employees. The cost of each vlog is $20…..




Amanda’s newscast is extremely addictive….. Out of the 33 million blogs tracked by Technorati (the blog search engine), Rocketboom is the 159th most linked-to blog. With 300,000 visitors a day (yes, three hundred thousand with replays!! I.e. more than some CNN news shows!), it won’t be long before the likes of Rocketboom can figure out how to monetize their audience and capture a share of the advertising dollars. Rocketboom received $40,000 for their first ever 15 second advertising bid on Ebay last month…

This would represent $2million yearly revenue for a cost of $5000…. Add to that a 50% revenue sharing deal on ads for their latest TIVO distribution deal, a free promotion by Steve Jobs when he launched the Video iPOD and Rocketboom is starting to look like a sound business opportunity. See what the New York Times has to say on Amanda.

So join Amanda’s cult following. Rocketboom is an early example of where we will be spending our budgets tomorrow.

Posted By Eric Kintz | 4 Comments | Trackbacks | Permalink


Comments

Hi Eric Good article. I really do think that this whole newscasting thing is going to gain momentum and will surely get TV execs worrying a little! I think much of the new technology blogs, vlogging, RSS, tagging, etc is starting to motivate people to create 'the media' themselves. Open source marketing, blog articles appearing next to Yahoo! news articles and the like is really making a difference. That picture that appears on your article really rams the message home: anyone can now create their own little news network and have it instantly sydicated across the world in seconds.
# Friday, April 21, 2006 07:38 AM by Marketing Tom
Thanks for your comments Alun. I really think we have only seen the beginning of this trend. There will be a lot of hype, a lot of failures but a handful of successful business models will emerge Eric
# Friday, April 21, 2006 03:20 PM by Eric Kintz
Hi Eric. RB is truly a phenomenon that proves the model, but I think a good amount of the credit for its success goes directly to Amanda. She has a charm & charisma that is very clearly attractive. I have a feeling that her career is going to extend past just the VLOG world. But that's cool. This medium needed a personality to bring it out to the world.
# Friday, April 28, 2006 08:56 PM by gstein99
I agree with you, Amada is great. I read somewhere that Andrew found her through an ad on Craig's list, don't know if it's true. She was doing stand up comedy. I believe that vlogs are just like TV: you need anchor men and women who have the charisma to attract crowds and Amanda is a first example of this new generation. I am currently writing a post on YouTube that will point to similar trends.
# Friday, April 28, 2006 09:08 PM by Eric Kintz

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