The 12omercial: 12seconds Formalizes An Ad Platform

Anyone who’s met me in the last six months has heard about 12seconds.tv. I’ve also been writing about it recently, here and here. I was intrigued on Friday when I heard that 12seconds debuted a new functionality designed to push video ads to Twitter and elsewhere. After checking out the functionality and watching some of the ads, I’m slightly disappointed.

12seconds is still in the early phases of its New Media Life Cycle, and as the platform grows, the team at 12seconds are rapidly working to help the content evolve into something much more valuable. The addition of the 12omercial comes shortly after the re-vamp of ‘Daily Challenges’ and the debut of the ’12erator.’ All of these new concepts are designed to help 12Second.tv participants create content that has a wide (or wider) reach.

What’s most exciting about the 12omercial is not the fact that you can now use 12seconds.tv as a way to create a 12-second video web spot (that functionality has been there from the beginning), it’s actually the expanded analytic data that the 12seconds.tv team has developed for your 12seconds.tv videos.

12Seconds.tv Stats Example (courtesy of Mashable) - My Stats chart on 12seconds.tv is not working.

The 12omercial also allows you to embed a link (for the landing page for your ad) and your Twitter user name for direct inquiries. Both of these are really great features and shouldn’t be limited to the 12omercial functionality.

The 12omercial is a great example of online content marketing: create relevant content, distribute it widely and engage customers.

Big Splash with LG

LG Versa Vice campaign on 12Seconds.tv

12seconds used one of their alpha clients, LG, to help demonstrate the functionality and the kind of content the 12omercial has the potential to generate for large brands. LG’s promoting their new phone, the Versa, and 12seconds is inviting users to share their ‘Versa Vice’ with the hopes that one user will win a trip to Vice City (Las Vegas.)

I’ve watched lots (and I do mean lots) of Versa content on 12seconds, and so far, here’s the highest quality content I’ve seen:

My Versa Vice: I let my phone run my life! on 12seconds.tv

So, is this working? I’d say yes. (I’m writing about it, aren’t I?) Before this campaign I had never even heard of the Versa. I visited the microsite and engaged with the device – which is exactly what 12seconds and LG were hoping I’d do.

That being said, I think 12seconds should simplify their concept. Invite users to create any video and share it with their Twitter username and a link; it doesn’t have to be a 12omercial. In fact, I hope to recommend a new website each week in a 12second Recommendation. That doesn’t mean that 12seconds should create a new section called recommendations or reviews.

I hope to see thousands of new ads created on 12seconds.tv and distributed very widely in the coming months. I wouldn’t be surprised to see job seekers pitching themselves in 12seconds and posting it on LinkedIn. There’s lots of value to be found in 12 seconds of video content, if it’s done right.

Takeaway Message

The takeaway message here is simple. You’ve got to be experimenting with content on 12seconds.tv. It’s only a matter of time until 12seconds.tv finds the BEST content for their new platform, and whoever creates that content will get lots of press and notoriety. Don’t you want it to be you?

My Question to You

What do you think works on 12seconds.tv? What doesn’t work? What do you want to see?

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."