How Miller High Life Could Have Escalated 12seconds.tv

Our New Media Life Cycle Analysis has led us to some very interesting hypotheses about what factors influence the end of one phase of the life cycle and the beginning of the next phase.

Our current analysis of 12seconds.tv illustrates that it is currently in the gestation phase of its Life Cycle:

12seconds.tv New Media Life Cycle Analysis

The goal of any new content creation or distribution channel is to quickly move through the first three phases of the Life Cycle: experimentation, gestation and adoption. By the time a channel enters the escalation phase we believe you must have seen these three key evolutionary traits emerge:

1. Clear Content Value – For any new content creation channel there must emerge a clear understanding of what kind of content fits the channel. For example, Twitter evolved from answering their founding question: “What are you doing?” to a real-time sharing platform for relevant, very frequent, high-quality information for small groups of users. It was at this point that people started to understand how best to leverage the channel.
2. Internet Celebrity — Near the end of the adoption phase, a select few content creators emerge as the channel’s ‘poster-children’ for the appropriate and high-value use of the new medium. In the blogosphere you saw the emergence of celebrities like David Scoble and Guy Kawasaki. On Twitter, someone like Chris Brogan becomes a ‘person to follow’ because he understands how best to use the channel.
3. Mass Media / Marketing Co-opting — The final key indicator is the increase in mass media mentions of the new content creation channel and its use by large corporations to create new kinds of valuable content. When very progressive advertising agencies or marketing companies see value in creating high-quality content on the new channel, it’s a clear sign that it is entering, or on the verge of entering, the escalation phase.

Sometimes, a ‘perfect storm’ in the adoption phase leads to rapid escalation on a selected content distribution channel. For example, a mass media publication (like the Wall Street Journal) might write an article about how an advertising agency has created high-value content on a new distribution channel, creating the latest Internet celebrity.

Our early analysis also tells us that there is no clear formula for success. Sometimes the adoption phase is full of fits and starts: peaks and valleys where smaller hits help push the channel forward. Each one of these ‘hits’ is a step in the right direction.

Why Miller High Life & 12seconds.tv Missed the Boat

Now that you have a high-level understanding of just a few of the key indicators that lead to the escalation of a new platform, let’s quickly break down Miller High Life’s latest campaign: One-Second Ads.

If you haven’t seen them, here’s a taste: (It will only take a second—literally.)

Okay, it took two seconds. Anyway, Miller High Life’s concept for their mammoth Super Bowl advertising campaign hinges around the creation of short, clever, fun content digested in large doses (one after the other).

Miller High Life created a microsite at OneSecondAd.com, where they expand on the concept. At Tippingpoint Labs we believe that microsites are dead. Why?

Subservient Chicken and 1secondad Search Volume Source: Google Trends

As you can see from the chart above, very successful microsites produce a huge spike in traffic and interest. However, this traffic does not produce a recurring return on investment, leaving marketers with an inability to capitalize on the energy behind its success.

By its nature, 12seconds.tv is perfectly positioned to deliver Miller High Life’s campaign based on the concept of the distribution channel. Here are four key reasons the medium fits the message:

1. Short Duration by Nature – 12seconds.tv is founded on the principle that you are invited to say what you need to say in less than 12seconds. (I know, Miller’s campaign is 1 second in duration—but much of their content on their microsite is way too long and destroys this illusion anyway.) In fact, they should have called it 12secondads instead.
2. Constant Stream Delivery – The entire 12seconds.tv distribution model is geared towards the rapid delivery of messaging one after another. By nature of the delivery, this makes it perfect for a total immersion in the Miller Brand. Give me 10 12-second spots and you’ve engaged me for 120 seconds.
3. Random Content Delivery – The 12seconds.tv homepage is wonderfully executed, delivering you the most recent content in a steady (and mildly amusing) stream of video for consumption. With this channel, Miller could have added one (or 10) new ads a day, and they would appear ‘in stream’ on the distribution channel, inviting even more consumption.
4. Viral by Its Nature – Obviously, the 12seconds.tv platform is designed to encourage participation. Miller could have capitalized on this by ‘sponsoring’ one of the daily challenges, inviting users to create their own 12-second spots in the same amusing vein.

In case you haven’t seen something from 12seconds.tv, here’s a quick clip in answer to a ‘challenge’ in January: What TV or radio advertisement jingle drives you crazy?

12 challenge: What TV or radio advertisement jingle drives you crazy? on 12seconds.tv

Let’s imagine now that Miller High Life’s interactive agency had worked with 12seconds.tv to execute this campaign — what might have happened?

First of all, Miller could have translated their Superbowl advertising blitz into a cultural phenomonen, using 12seconds.tv as the vehicle for long(er)-term interest and excitement. Second, Miller could have greatly reduced their costs by using an already deployed distribution channel (and a highly active and engaged audience) to propogate their content, instead of a high-end, static, boring microsite. Third, Miller and 12seconds could have ridden the wave of mass media attention garnered by creating a ‘new’ advertising vehicle. Fourth, and finally, 12seconds.tv might have been propelled through the gestation and adoption phases at lightspeed, delivering the escalation in content creators that they, no doubt, desire.

The Takeaway Message

If you’re a startup with a new content creation and distribution channel, such as 12seconds.tv, you must work with agencies (such as Tippingpoint Labs) who understand the life cycle of your platform and the value or your medium. You must invite them (us) to experiment with your channel and to help shape the kind of content that adds value to your channel. If you’re a progressive marketer (like Miller could have been) you must be using a Diversified Content Portfolio Distribution Model (like the Tippingpoint Labs model) to ensure that you’re creating content in every phase of the life cycle. If you want to be the next big thing, you must be working strategically to develop new relationships at a higher risk. Finally, you must embrace the concept that tomorrow’s content distribution will be wide and varied, with specific platforms designed to deliver your message and measure its return on investment.

My Question to You

In closing, I want to know how we can foster this kind of relationship building. Should we create a TED-like conference where start-ups at various phases in the life cycle can present their ‘wares’ and show us examples of the kind of creative marketing they believe will propel them – and, of course, you – into the limelight?

Let me know!

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."