Rocketboom is creating a buzz online. It's a daily video Web log, or vlog, for short. Video blogs have been around for at least a year, but Rocketboom's minimalist approach, couple with an eBay auction for advertising, may just catch on as a model for both managing video content/commentary and for selling ads.
Unlike a lot of other video sites that are using a shotgun approach to video with lots of video clips, leaving it to the viewer to sort out what is worth watching, Rocketboom has a single video clip of about three minutes per day. It's mostly tech news, with a smattering of current events, loopy jokes, and a video newsperson named Amanda that relies on a steady stream of wildly exaggerated gestures as she moves from one topic to another.
It's cleverly done, and the exaggerated gesturing seems jarring at first, since we have all grown up on the talking head model of the news. But I think Rocketboom is on to something. Studies already show that when watching video on our computer, many of us quickly move on to other tasks. We may leave the video running, but in the background, often covered up, while we just listen to the audio portion.
What Rocketboom has done is taken fast cutting, inexpensive special effects, and the exaggerated mannerisms to keep our attention. And the whole "show" is short enough and entertaining enough to keep you watching all the way through. Some shows are a collection of short news items, but other segments are single story that looks at something in depth. Vist the archives and take at a look at two or three different shows to get a better feel for the variety--which is also likely to bring people back. Unpredictability is very effective for keeping people's attention.
Auctioning a week of ad space on eBay breaks out of the now boring (and largely ineffective, I think) approach of just sticking a string of Google ads up. Rocketboom provides a daily plug for their advertiser along with a link to the advertiser home page. And the auction allows Rocketboom to maximize revenue but also gives potential advertisers a chance to control prices.
Like so many other things that are emerging, you have to ask yourself, "Who predicted this one?" The answer is, "No one." But we've got both a new business and a new business model emerging. Google has competition now, and that's a good thing. And we will see many other ad models emerge as more and more businesses figure out that Google ads don't work very well.