The market for mobile video advertising is improving, but advertisers aren’t serving relevant ads. These are the conclusions that can be made from Knowledge Networks “How People Use Mobile Video 2007” report, released last week.
The report found that 80 percent of mobile users are willing to view ads in exchange for free content, but less than 30 percent feel mobile ads are relevant to them.
The report concluded that mobile video users see little or no difference between mobile video and TV ads in terms of personal relevance or contextual integration with content. The consumers said that mobile video ads are no more influential for them than TV ads.
“Advertisers wisely have entered the mobile video space in a big way,” said David Tice, VP/managing director of Knowledge Networks/SRI. “But so far many seem to have missed the chance to leverage the unique qualities of mobile video, such as intimacy and immediacy. While mobile can indeed by part of larger campaigns, we need to recognize its differences, as well as the ways that different target groups use the medium.”
The study also found that the proportion of cell phones users who pay for mobile video content dropped from 64 percent to 50 percent over the past year.
Netflix Series “The Leopard” Spots Classic Italian Novel, Remakes It As A Sumptuous Period Drama
"The Leopard," a new Netflix series, takes the classic Italian novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and transforms it into a sumptuous period piece showing the struggles of the aristocracy in 19th-century Sicily, during tumultuous social upheavals as their way of life is crumbling around them.
Tom Shankland, who directs four of the eight episodes, had the courage to attempt his own version of what is one of the most popular films in Italian history. The 1963 movie "The Leopard," directed by Luchino Visconti, starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes.
One Italian critic said that it would be the equivalent of a director in the United States taking "Gone with the Wind" and turning it into a series, but Shankland wasn't the least bit intimidated.
He said that he didn't think of anything other than his own passion for the project, which grew out of his love of the book. His father was a university professor of Italian literature in England, and as a child, he loved the book and traveling to Sicily with his family.
The book tells the story of Don Fabrizio Corbera, the Prince of Salina, a tall, handsome, wealthy aristocrat who owns palaces and land across Sicily.
His comfortable world is shaken with the invasion of Sicily in 1860 by Giuseppe Garibaldi, who was to overthrow the Bourbon king in Naples and bring about the Unification of Italy.
The prince's family leads an opulent life in their magnificent palaces with servants and peasants kowtowing to their every need. They spend their time at opulent banquets and lavish balls with their fellow aristocrats.
Shankland has made the series into a visual feast with tables heaped with food, elaborate gardens and sensuous costumes.... Read More