Friends in high places

There is often a perception that not all brands need to pay attention to social media as a brand building tool. Some brands just do not fit with the social media audience. But is this really still true? This week Cartier, one of the world’s most exclusive jewellery brands, published its very own MySpace page. An interesting move from a brand which few would ever associate with the MySpace generation. So is this a sign of a brand jumping on the band wagon or should we instead view this as a brave and clever move which will reach out to an untapped and lucrative market?

MySpace, Hi-Five!

So Channel Five yesterday announced it will be producing a 'youth-focused' news broadcast, distributed on social network, MySpace. This is the second UK broadcaster (the BBC signed up in January) to begin distributing content on MySpace this year.

So is online TV finally ready for the mainstream consumer?

As always, content and access will be the key. Broadcasters and content owners are spending time and money ensuring their content is available on as many platforms (IPTV, mobile, online) as possible and accessible from as many places as possible (The BBC recently inked a deal with our client The Cloud to offer access to BBC content free from 7,500 locations across the UK).

2008 is finally looking to be online video/TV's year now bandwidth has caught up with the US. And here's just a few companies proving just that:

• YouTube - you have probably heard of them...

• iTunes - finally offering movies and TV shows oustide the US. WIN!

• blinkBox - send clips from your favourite films with personalised messages to your mates
  

• Babelgum - what Joost tried to be....

• Hulu - new venture from Newscorp and NBC offering ad-supported free content from over 50 TV networks, movie studios and web-based productions

• Kangeroo - the online venture between BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV which claims to do for broadband what Freeview did for Digital TV