Discovering our long tails,
on the internet that is...
By Jon Fernquest |
The long tail has finally arrived!
Niche content markets are king!
See photo of my Shihtzu Ai Fu Fu staring at the long tail on Wikipedia.
Ai Fu Fu is studying the statistical distribution which shows how popular something is, dog food for example.
The thin yellow long tail of the distribution is popular with only a few smart dogs, the book reading dogs (like Fu Fu).
In contrast, the green "fat head" of the distribution is popular with the vast majority of dogs, the dogs who waste their time watching the boob tube (also known as TV) (none of my 8 dogs are allowed to watch TV).
Once upon a time TV used to be called the "boob tube" (boob = dumb person, tube = big television tube in back of TV) because "boobs" were the only people who watched it, supposedly.
At least that's what my parents told me everytime I wanted to veg out in front of the TV (a black and white TV with a five inch screen, they wouldn't buy a color one).
[Warning: The Long Tail of marketing is not to be confused with Long Tail boats in Bangkok canals]
IPTV to hit Thailand soon
Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) is the technology making long tail programming possible.
At the IPTV World Forum Asia 2007, Yew Ming Lau, VP of business development for Turner Broadcasting Asia Pacific, observed:
...the challenge for original content producers will be how to attract consumers for its traditional content but also for the "long tail" of niche content - something that Turner is developing now through a number of Internet TV experiments. "Consumer behaviour is moving more towards the tail. As a company we need to be both at the head and the tail, but the problem is how you do it cost effectively," he noted.
The internet has oodles more bandwidth than traditional TV and radio broadcasting through the air or cable:
...IPTV operators had more potential to reach niche audiences than cable or satellite operators, as they could create mini-channels or on-demand content rather than 24-hour programming.In the meantime, whether IPTV has enough to attract consumers away from traditional broadcasters and new Internet-only TV services is something that will play out over the next few years.
Targeting smaller niche audiences spread out all over the world with specialised programming is quickly becoming feasible.
Even people who read books will gain from watching TV.
In fact, if you read a book for hours on end and you start to experience diminishing returns, and get less and less out of the book, you can switch to audio and video and absorb knowledge through your ears and eyes for a change and maximize retention of content.
In the past there were only a few TV channels so the lowest common denominator had to be targeted (the so-called "boob").
Nowadays, the long tail markets are well within the range of existing technologies.
Anyone can buy a little webcam for a couple of hundred baht and start broadcasting with their own video blog. (Source: Bangkok Post, Database, 19-12-07, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
a boob tube - (slang) a TV, a television set
veg out - do nothing, be like a vegetable
the long tail - in marketing the vast moajority of products, services, or subjects that most people are not interested in, but a small group is very interested in, for example fencing in Thailand (See Wikipedia)
niche content - content (writing, radio, tv, video) for a very small market with special needs
a statistical distribution - a curve that describes the values and probabilities that a random event can take, for example a single coin flip can take values Heads or Tails with a probability of exactly 1/2 for each (See Wikipedia)
Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) - (See Wikipedia)
vast majority - most people
Once upon a time - a long time ago
oodles - lots of
bandwidth - how much data or content can be carried by a means communications like television, radio, internet, or telephone
targeting - made to please a certain audience or group of customers
diminishing returns - get less and less, the more you do something
get something out of doing x - gain in some way from doing x
get less and less out of - as you do more of the activity, you gain less and less (for example, I got less and less out of language lessons with the boring teacher)
for a change - making life less boring by doing something different (for a change)
maximize - try to get the largest amount
retention - how much you remember after you watched or read something, what remains
content - what an audience reads, watches, or listens to (the temptation is to use the word "consume" but consume "art" or "knowledge" ?)
maximize retention of content - try to remember or gain as much as you can from what you are reading, watching, or listening to
lowest common denominator - designed to be liked by most people, made very simple so no one will object to it
the range of - the different things of the same general kind
a webcam - a small camera attached to the top of your computer (See Wikipedia)
a video blog, vlog - a weblog (homemade newspaper) that uses video (See Wikipedia)
