Adam Schultz

Here are some links to some good on-line TV shows that I subscribe to and that I strongly recommend you also check out:

“The Show” with Ze Frank - This is kind of like a 5 minute “Daily Show” in that it’s a political news show and that it’s funny. The similarities stop there. Steven Colbert himself has actually stolen a couple of good jokes from Ze. The coolest thing about “The Show” is the amazing community that Ze supports around it.

He has created the league of awesomeness, calls his community sports racers, and created a social site called the ORG. Has user generated intro’s, theme songs, show transcripts and has even allowed the community to write entire shows for him via wiki. He has even successfully prompted the creation of the first earth sandwich. Yea, literally, two pieces of bread on either side of the earth.

There is a lot more too, just go check it out and give your self a couple of hours to poke around. The whole experience makes you feel like you are in on a ga-jillian inside jokes that only other sports racers will understand.

Well, that is, if the invisible asshole babies don’t mess up the vacuum you dressed while harboring running fool in preparation for the creation of ray’s video.

Basically, if you work in social media like I do, and you don’t study every move Ze Frank makes, you can’t be a very good at it.

Oh, and work fast, come March 17th, “The Show” will be over. No one knows why but Ze.

The Burg - This is a 10-15 minuite sit-com about a group of hipster trust fund kids living “la vie bohem” in Willamsburg, Brooklyn. They also have some pretty funny shorts.

While at first glance it looks like 5 kids hanging out and creating a TV show, its not.  It’s actually, written and produced with hired actors and everything. They shoot it all on the weekends and everyone involved has other jobs or responsibilities.

The first season is pretty much complete and you can go to the site and watch all the shows month by month. I would highly recommend doing exactly that. I think the last episode is being filmed right now.

Currently, they haven’t monetised and i’m pretty sure that wont last long. I get the feeling that the first season was just a proof of concept. Well, in my eyes, the concept is gold and the execution if flawless for the new space of on-line TV.

Homestar Runner - I subscribe to the weekly cartoon but there is so much more to be found on the site. These guys produce a hilarious experience all based around a little town of strange and wonderful characters.

It is the epotome of retro geekdom, complete with text based RPG’s and 8 bit graphics. Strong Bad even checks his text based email on a LAPPY486. That replaced his COMPY 386.

If you are a geek, this is a must watch. Actually, if you are a geek, you found out about this site 4 years ago.

If you haven’t heard about this yet, and you aspire to geekdom, you have some work to do and some cartoons to watch.

Ask a Ninja - Literally, that’s it. You send in questions and the ninja answers them. It may be kind of difficult for nonjas to grasp at first but this alone makes for a pretty nice premise. Just check it out, you will either like it or hate it.

Either way, the ninja standing behind you right now will determine whether you live or die, so watch it, don’t watch it, no matter.

What are you watching on a regular basis?

Comment some links so we can check them out.

All the cool kids geeks are doing it.

Can you find me?

This is a public service announcement:

There is now enough quality, regularly produced, on-line video content to warrant watching Internet TV instead of regular TV.

Because of a great piece of technology called the DemocracyPlayer. It’s like I-Tunes, but for TV.

While this may have been true for some time, it is now true to me and I want to let you all in on it.

Now that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop watching traditional television, there are still a few things that need to happen to allow me to go full-time on-line for my video entertainment needs.

It would be wise for the likes of YouTube, Google, Yahoo, GetDemocracy.com (and ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) to pay attention to the following items:

1. Currently, when I find a good source of videos to watch, I can subscribe within YouTube, Atom Films, or (insert video site here) but I can’t import that subscription into my Democracy Player. I would love to see little Democracy subscription icons accompanying every on-line video feed. Maybe, Democracy can create a plug-in that will allow me to import videos from my video site accounts ad additional channels in my player.

2. Offline content needs to come on-line in a bad way. It’s time for the big networks to give it up. We want to watch their content on-line, but not in their fancy little ad guaranteed sites. Let us watch it where we want to watch it.

That’s it. That’s all I need. If these two hurdles can be jumped, we will see the masses, and myself, flock on-line for the majority of our entertainment needs.

Sure, HD will still be formidable, and until the technology allows us to upload HD video quickly and cheaply enough, there will still be a market for cable and satellite TV. However, for most of my viewing, I could give a rat’s ass about HD. I want to laugh or cry or whatever.

Seeing him more clearly doesn’t make Jon Stewart funnier.

Message to the Participatory Culture Foundation: (makers of the Democracy Player)

Get social, get integrated, look at Technorati, make a deal or two with sites like YouTube, become the ultimate aggrigator like we all know you can be.

If you don’t because you want to only focus on non-corporate relationships in an effort to somehow serve the greater good, someone else will. That someone is far less likely to use their power for the good of the consumer population like we know you would.

Message to the Networks:

Imbed all the ads you want into the stream. I can fast forward them with my Tivo, so why would this be any different. Respect me enough to give me your valuable content the way I want to watch it.

It is good for you to send your content out on-line. You can make ads click-able and track what I click on. You can know your actual viewership rather than relying on Nielsen ratings. Based on the ads I respond to, you can adjust my ad feed to make my ads more relevant to me, making me want to view and click them more often. Finally, you can turn me into a more loyal viewer by giving me the content I want where and when I want it.

Furthermore, you can get a considerable advantage on your competition by embracing this new medium before your competitors. After all, this is an attention economy and if your shows are being watched on-line, your competitors aren’t being watched offline. The sooner you move, the more competitive advantage you can gain.

Perhaps a scrappy network like the CB needs to do it first. If you know anyone over there, have them give me a call.

Message to my Readers:

What would it take for you to consume all of your visual media on-line?

What could the video sites and networks do to make you alter your viewing habits?

What hurdles do you see, political and technological, that would cause this end to come about more slowly or not at all?

If you ever wanted to watch, listen to or read the original “I have a dream” speach form Dr. Martin Luther King.

Now is your chance.

Watch, Listen, Read it here.

Here are my 2 cents as to how and why MarketSmart Interactive Failed. I know I’m a little late on this, but for some reason, I still feel compelled to get it out.

Until 2004, when the company reached its pinnacle of success its primary focus was on meting customer demand. They were identifying needs, creating solutions and delivering on what was promised most of the time. The people in charge of delivering solutions as this point were knowledgeable and flexible.

Then, two movements converged. The industry changed and so did the focus of MSI.
1. SEO became SEM and tips and tricks could no longer bring the kind of results that a concerted and organized creative marketing effort did.
2. Websourced started answering to shareholders before answering to clients.

Continued attempts to deliver what needed to be creative marketing efforts as engineered solutions over promised and under-delivered on a mass scale leading to 1.4M in bad debt from contracts canceled before their natural terminations.

Now, the upper management at CGIH/THK had to come to terms with a very difficult truth. The cash tree was dying. They could no longer fund the growth of a diversified but not all profitable group of companies with a single cash cow. They also had no clue how to effectively synergize their companies due to, amoung other things, acquisition deals that did not make it profitable for the principals of each silo’d company to want to work with the others.

I think that at this point the decision was made to let the company bleed until it was small enough to absorb into MSA. MSA had a smaller, more boutique clientele with a completely different organizational structure and business strategy. They changed the name of the company to MarketSmart Interactive to both shake the bad press and to better align the the companies. MSI was only given as much rope and they could weave on their own. That wasn’t even enough to hang them selves with. It wasn’t enough to do much of anything.

This left them with the business equivalent of a bag of rocks. So they moved rocks the rocks around, brought in middle management and moved the rocks again. They let some rocks out of the bag, moved them around again, let some more out, moved them, spilled a few more. Finally, last Friday, they dumped the rest out and threw away the bag.

This is all just my opinion. I had no inside information leading me to this conclusion, no seat close to the door of management. It’s the only scenario that makes sense to me based on the behavior of upper management during the eventfull rise and fall.

Here are some links to other XMSI employees and their thoughts about the final resting of MSI/KWR/WBS: Evan, Garret, Cord, JP, Stephen, Andy.

What do you think?

UPDATE 06-08-07 - Click here for an updated explanation.

Thanks to everyone who commented last week with the wonderful advice and information for those who were recently laid off from MSI.

I have already heard about quite a few individuals who have already been scooped up into new positions much better than the ones they held at MarketSmart Interactive. One such friend of mine has landed a spot as the Media Director for a local Ad Agency.

I have read the commentary from Evan, Garret, Cord, JP, Stephen, and Andy but I wasn’t ready to share my thoughts on MSI just yet.

Basically, I can sum it up with a statement I made to Cord Silverstein in a chat we had Friday afternoon.

“The best thing I ever did for my career was to leave MSI, but the second best thing was to start working there.”

At MSI, the people I met, the experience I earned and the knowledge I gained would not have been possible at any other place. It was an amazing ride for all it’s ups and downs and has changed the direction of my life for the better.

They say that its not what you do during the happy times in life,but what you do during the tough times that show your character and help you grow as a person.

In my 2+ years at MSI, I matured (arguably) personally and professionally more than I ever thought possible.

Furthermore, I am grateful to all the XMSIers who had shared that journey with me.

As far as reasons why the company failed. Well, I actually think it is more simple than anyone has mentioned to date, but I will cover that in another post.

For now, all my past comrades in arms, whether you left months/years ago or if were a part of this most recent release of talent into the world, let us know where you have landed in the comments of this post.

If you haven’t landed yet or aren’t happy where you landed, comment your linked in profile here.

If you know of good companies hiring talented on-line marketers, comment here.

For my part, Garrett and I are building a preformance marketing /on-line holding company called Bold Interactive.

Hey Gang,

The news is out. MarketSmart Interactive just decided to flood the Triangle market with some amazing, just to name a few, PPC managers, Project Managers, SEO Copywriters and Online Marketing Consultants.

Without getting emotional, there are alot of completely fantastic people that need new jobs.

Please use the comments section of this post to announce local companies that are hiring for these types of positions or non-local companies that are hiring for this area.

Also:

If you are looking for a local position now, comment your skills and the kind of job you are looking for.

If you are hiring, lets us know what positions and where to send resumes.

PS. I will delete any non-helpfull comments.