January
23, 2001
"Bingo
Television" Show Will Premiere
in Fall
Barter
Syndication Will Be Available
on 3.5 and 3.5 Basis
The
most recognizable game in America
and around the world is bingo.
And this fall a live half-hour
week-day game show, Bingo Television,
will feature online elements including
viewer interaction.
The
show will be available on a 3.5
and 3.5 barter basis. The station
gets 3.5 minutes of time for airing
the show and the producer gets
3.5 minutes of time, which will
then be syndicated--sold to national
advertisers.
Bingo
Television cards will be obtainable
via the Internet, local retailers,
and a variety of other venues.
Viewers who win can call a toll-free
number to claim bingo, with a
serial number on the card enabling
the computer to instantly verify
the caller's claim of a winning
bingo card.
Each
Bingo Television affiliate will
be able to partner with local
retailers and other major advertisers
to produce an endless number of
sponsorships and local promotions
using ZIP-code-driven coupons,
which will be printed on all downloaded
bingo cards.
Pepsi's
Barter Deal With Yahoo Finds New Generation
of Customers
Pepsi-Cola
believes the web is here to stay and their
crafted barter deal with Yahoo this past summer
has paid big dividends. That agreement saw
Pepsi printing the portal's logo on 1.5 billion
cans.
In
return, Yahoo took the cola company's already
established loyalty program, Pepsi Stuff,
to new heights. Through a co-branded web site,
PepsiStuff.com, consumers collected points
from bottle caps which where then redeemable
for online prizes--everything from electronic
goods to concert tickets.
Three
million consumers logged on and registered
at the PepsiStuff site, giving Pepsi detailed
consumer data that normally must be paid for
in market research or gleaned from focus groups.
(Information that once took months was obtained
in days.)
Here
And There. . .
-
The dot.com shake-out of 2000 saw at least
210 internet companies shut down their operations,
according to a study released by Webmergers.com.
The fourth quarter of the year hit the internet
sector particularly hard, as 121 companies
(almost 60% of year's total) were forced
to close.
"This kind of shake-out has happened in
the past in most major technology cycles,"
disclosed Tim Miller, president of Webmergers,
San Francisco. Miller expects fewer internet
companies to shut down during 2001.
-
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal
covered the new trend in outdoor advertising
space, where ads are placed on a building's
exterior walls. These wall displays, which
range in size from 500 to 10,000 square
feet, can command upward of $60,000 a month
depending on their locations in heavily
trafficked urban areas. (One of the most
successful trade exchange owners on the
West Coast has developed a booming side
business in this arena.)
-
"I'll provide you with distribution sites
in exchange for your wireless internet services,"
seems to be the message in the recent barter
deal between Starbucks and Microsoft. Seattle
neighbors, Microsoft will provide their
internet services inside many of Starbucks'
stores.
Microsoft has been striking all sorts of
deals lately to promote their MSN web portal
site, as they're locked in a fierce battle
with the much larger America Online for
customers.
-
Tradebart New Zealand's new website, www.tradebart.co.nz,
includes a travel section with new ideas
on how to spend trade dollars for a great
vacation experience in picturesque New Zealand.
-
Don Parks of Winnipeg, Canada, and a member
of the BarterNet Trade Group, is one of
the sponsors of the Minnesota Twins' Winter
Caravan & Fundraising Banquet. The event
generates funds for The Field of Dreams
Foundation, which helps children's charities
in Manitoba.
-
Consumer group-buying on the Web, a once-hot
business model, has ended. Mercata, LetsBuyIt,
and now MobShop have all discontinued their
consumer buying services. The first two
companies have ceased operations, and MobShop
is now directing all of its resources toward
corporate and government applications of
group buying.
-
An electrical engineering student at John
Hopkins University, Volvick Derose, has
not only just completed his master of science
degree, but put together Cambire.com enabling
students to exchange textbooks for upcoming
semesters, instead of buying new ones.
Derose says the his site, www.cambire.com,
has blossomed into something more than originally
intended. Cambire (from the Latin verb,
meaning to barter and exchange) has attracted
other listings on the site, from electronics
to automobiles.
-
Electronic billboards, the newest advertising
medium, are debuting on taxi cabs in Boston.
The billboards can change messages minute
by minute, depending on the time and location--what
neighborhood it's being driven through--thanks
to a satellite feed.
A computer tracks where and how often ads
are shown, and the advertisers pay accordingly...about
$5 per 1,000 impressions. The new type of
communication was developed by Massachusetts-based
Vert, Inc., which intends to expand into
the taxi capital of the world-New York City.
-
Export Today's Global Business magazine
reports that change is coming very quickly
to China, with the city of Shanghai leading
the way. It will soon take its rightful
place as one of the world's great centers
of business, according to the article. The
loser in all of this, as the center of business
power in China shifts, will likely be Hong
Kong.
|
