One of the biggest missteps a company can make is addressing a need that does not exist. It’s nearly impossible to tell beforehand. Pets.com was a major example: why would anyone pay for pet food to be shipped to them when they can buy it for less than the shipping and handling from the local mall.
When I launched WatchMojo.com and began to create videos for the Web, I won’t lie, I knew there was a chance that I was going to fill a need that did not exist… especially if movie studios and TV networks would embrace the Web and put all of their content online. I knew they would not fully, because to quote NBC CEO Jeff Zucker, they’d be crazy to swap dollars offline for pennies online. I also knew that even if they did, the kind of programming that worked in theaters and on TV would not necessarily work online.
I think WatchMojo.com has the best made-for-web content online. Sure, our worst content stinks, but it was probably made two and a half years ago; our best stuff is as good as the good stuff you see on TV.
That was validated, I think, when Hulu chose us as part of their launch. We were one of the few made-for-web programmers. It was a major validation, and vindication, for Hulu’s co-owner News Corp.’s IGN unit had sued me unfairly back in 2006 for a crime I had not committed. Mind you, by then we had also secured News Corp.’s other unit, MySpace, who has become a great partner of ours…
Today we had another validation: on a day when Hulu announced it had locked up rights to Comedy Central’s Colbert Report and Jon Stewart Show from Viacom, we are starting to see more and more marquee sponsors want to piggy back on our content, either on our site, on MySpace, YouTube, or Hulu. See for example this on Hulu, part of Alberto Culver’s recent advertising on the site.
Advertisers are beginning to latch on to Hulu’s unique Ad Selector tool, which allows users to select the kinds of ads they’d like to see. Alberto-Culver just signed on as the format’s first advertiser and will plug brands such as V05, Tresemmé and Nexus.
I spent all of 2007 telling anyone who would listen that our content was exactly what advertisers wanted. Today, I don’t need to waste my time anymore.
Even more so that validation, that’s vindication that money can’t buy.
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