Online video is not the same as TV. It can be much, much more.

One way to make it more is to use a tool like YouTube Video Annotations to add interactive elements to video content. You can jazz up your movies with commentary bubbles, background information, and links to other videos or sites.

To get started, login to your YouTube account or create one (it’s free). Start playing your video and locate the annotations menu on the right side. Choose the appropriate button - speech bubble, note, or spotlight - and activate a pop-up editing screen. Type your text, then simply drag-and-drop the annotation on your video. YouTube provides simple editing tools to fine-tune the timing on your annotations or delete extraneous annotations all together. When finished, save and publish your creation as you would any other YouTube video. Check out this example to see Annotations in action:

Smart marketers have learned to utilize video as a selling tool, often putting real customers and brand enthusiasts in the spotlight. Here is an opportunity to strengthen that message and add an exciting interactive element to your video content.

With all the hype surrounding search and display advertising, it’s easy to forget that radio lives on. 33 million people tune into internet radio each week. Have you thought about advertising to these listeners?

Consider using TargetSpot, an internet radio advertising marketplace. Advertisers upload their ad spots, choose their audience (target by format, station, time, or geography), then sit back and listen to their ad stream over hundreds of internet radio stations. Ads can be in 10, 15, 30, or 60 second spots, and TargetSpot’s platform lets you record your message directly from your computer. Microphone shy? No problem, TargetSpot offers professional recording services, including scripts and voice-over talent. If you have previously recorded or professional pieces, you can upload those into the TargetSpot system and run them as well.

Choose between in-stream audio ads or pre-roll video clips and banner images to be played on the user’s streaming media player. Once you choose your ad, set your “bid” for the station or location where you want your ad to run. This is the maximum amount you are willing to pay to have you ad delivered (played) a 1000 times. The TargetSpot budgeting and bidding platform ensures you never pay more than you are comfortable with.

With the rising popularity of internet radio and simplicity of the TargetSpot system, you may want to bid on a piece of this action.

While we all know that YouTube is the big dog in online video, it’s not the only member of the pack.

Thanks to TubeMogul, launching and tracking a video marketing campaign to multiple sites at the same time can be both feasible and easy. TubeMogul gives publishers a single platform for mass video distribution to all the top media sites. Upload (up to) 12 sites at once, including YouTube, Google Video, Myspace, AOL, Vimeo, and more. Then, monitor when, where, and how often a video is played through your TubeMogul dashboard.

Need more in depth analysis? With TubeMogul, personal analytics, as well as, industry research and trends come standard. Track performance and viewership levels for all your campaigns or gather intelligence on competing publishers to see where you stand. Look at the industry through a larger lens with TubeMogul Industry Analysis reports. Topics range from the top video sharing sites to the success and pitfalls of monetizing online video content.

Both the TubeMogul platform and the supporting data are free. So, whether you’ve got content locked (but not loaded) or looking to experiment with video marketing, TubeMogul offers a great jumping off point.

from the baitshop

who’s it for?

Given that this ad appeared in an upscale magazine, I would assume that they’re targeting a more female audience (than the traditional electronics ad) that’s also upscale.

why is it being done?

To sell some TV’s - and, more likely, build the Samsung brand which isn’t faring too well in the LCD game against Sony and Sharp.

are the fish biting?

It would surprise us.

where to from here?

Check out the selection at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and the like.

Congratulations to Aleisha Swartz! Her witty submission has earned her the (sort of) prestigious title of “The (Sort of) Weekly Feed Growth Caption Winner” and a $30 iTunes gift certificate.

An honorable mention goes out to Ryan Paddock for his submission- “Hooman lied to me. Der iz no cheezburger in dis spacesuit.”

Check out the week’s caption contest cartoon- Here Comes the Hotstepper. The prize remains the same. No limit on the number of entries and don’t forget to utilize our commenting plugin to grab an accompanying image for your caption. Still unsure how it works? Check out this quick how-to screencast we created to demonstrate the process.

Public perception (and prediction) can be that little extra that helps you get a competitive edge in the market. However, few forums exist where you can hang your theories out there and let the people weigh in.

Consider using Hubdub as a tool for marketing insights. Hubdub is a mashup between a news aggregator and fantasy sports league- users discover or suggest news stories, post a question, then let the community predict the outcome by wagering a bet (Hubdub dollars, that is). Questions can be about any news topic you choose, provided the question is objective and likely to be settled through the natural course of events (e.g Who will win the next U.S. Presidential Election?).

Hubdub categories include Sports, Politics, Entertainment, Business, Technology, and so on. A casual glance at the Technology category displays questions regarding the launch of Google TV, Facebook’s IPO, and best blogger on Playboy’s website. You can browse the most discussed topics in the Hot Tags section or post your own question to the community and let the bets begin. HubDub is a prediction market - basically, the current “price” of an outcome is determined by the number of people selecting the outcome and the amount the have wagered on it. Although Hubdub administrators call the end of the bet, a question is often settled by public knowledge or the actual course of events.

Hubdub is not an absolute, but it is a great tool for measuring public sway. So whether you’re sourcing competitive intel, monitoring market trends, or just want to make a wager, this site is worth a look.

from the baitshop

who’s it for?

Tequila drinkers with a few extra dollars. Or, maybe someone who’s just looking to impress.

why is it being done?

Remind people to ask for Patron . . . or to remind them which of the 50 different tequilas they should buy when they’re wandering around the liquor store.

are the fish biting?

This brand has been hugely successful - as has the category. What’s the next liquor category that will make the leap to uber super premium . . . rum?

where to from here?

The proof is in the . . . margarita. Cheers.

Often the key to loyalty is just reminding people that you’re still there. Don’t forget me.

One way to keep your audience coming back is to provide them with a community toolbar from Conduit. Toolbars may seem like unchartered brand territory, but if you think about it, they’re a perfect vehicle for keeping your content front and center. With a Conduit toolbar, you can syndicate blog articles, website updates, and community conversations, as well as, customize your toolbar with your logo and hand-picked gadgets and applications that launch directly from your browser. Check out the feed growth! toolbar we created to keep you up-to-date on all of the fishy goodness.

Conduit community toolbars are free and can be created in a matter of minutes. Simply submit your URL, then walk through the step-by-step process to add your logo and desired accoutrements from the library. Conduit earns revenue by taking a piece of Google’s ad revenue pie (ads appear on results page, not your toolbar), so they can offer these features to you at no cost:

• Google Search
• RSS Readers
• Media Players
• Podcasts
• News Tickers
• Community Conversations (Chat and community messages)
• Buttons for Gadgets and Applications
• Links Menu
• Pop-up Blocker and Cookie Cleanup Tool

Think of Conduit as a natural extension of your website. For your toolbar subscribers, it’s a great way to see content as it’s updated, learn about breaking news and events, and keep tabs on community activity and chatter. Your branded toolbar can even be used to launch promotions or special features on your site.

There are a number of web analytics tools, but they’re not all created equal. With some, there’s a delay of up to a day before you have access to visitor data.

Not so with Clicky. Clicky is a free web analytics tool, designed to provide hyper-detailed information about your site visitors and their activities. With Clicky, you get real time specifics- location, language, operating system, browser, and screen resolution- for each visitor and a log of their every click on your site. Clicky is Ajax and Flash-friendly, so interactions that were hard to track before are now possible.

Clicky has you covered in the information delivery department too, with a slew of widgets and plugins:

• iGoogle Clicky Dashboard- mimics your real Clicky dashboard in look and functionality, displaying all available traffic data.
• Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget- displays basic daily stats in your sidebar; details are a mere click away.
• Feedburner RSS- get your Clicky stats in a convenient RSS feed.
• WordPress Plugin- integrates seamlessly in your self-hosted Wordpress blog. Automatically tag blog visitors for analysis.

Of course, if you prefer the old fashioned way, Clicky offers its own user-friendly interface. To get started, create a Clicky account and add your site(s). Clicky will generate a two-line code, unique to each registered site, to place on your site. The basic service is free, but premium plans are available. Every new sign-up gets a free 21-day trial of the Professional service, which goes for $9.99/ month.

Remember, web data is so important, you might just want to use multiple services to make sure you’re not missing something.

Sometimes the standard car colors just won’t work. That’s when you make the big decision to pimp your ride. Adding customization can also be a great way to build or advance your business.

If you want to customize or build a search service for your customers, check out Yahoo! Search BOSS (short for Build your own Search Service). It lets third-party developers build new search products by utilizing the Yahoo search API. Basically, the same technology that powers the 2nd most powerful search engine is at your disposal. Create a new search application or your own mashup using existing technologies (like Yahoo Search & Google Maps). You’re only limited by your creativity and the skills of your web team (or just let us know if you need help).

The latest BOSS release includes web, news, image search, and spelling suggestions from the Yahoo search engine, but you can index and integrate your own data, content, and technology in a custom solution. The BOSS API is open source (ergo, free) and unlike previous releases and competitors, it includes:

• Unlimited queries
• No restrictions on presentation
• Reordering
• Product co-branding (Yahoo search content + your proprietary content)

Building and launching your own search service is no easy feat and requires an understanding of programming languages (i.e. you really need to know what you are doing). If you’ve ever wanted to put your face or brand on a search service, this is an opportunity to put your hands on the technology that powers it.

We’re fans of free search tools, especially when the biggest search engine in the world offers their wealth of knowledge (and raw data) to us so willingly. We talked about Google Trends in Popularity Contest, and now there is Google Insights for Search.

Google Insights for Search is exactly what it sounds like. Google is giving the public a glimpse of Google search volume and patterns by specific term(s). Results can be filtered by category, region, or time frame, and as a bonus, Google throws in the top searches related to your term(s) and the “rising searches” (searches that have shown the most improvement by percentage). Just about anything is fair game, provided the search term is popular enough for inclusion.

Let say I want to chart the popularity of Web 2.0 technologies for direction in future feed growth! articles. Specifically, I want to see how well “RSS” feeds are doing when compared to “widgets”. Insights graphs search results for both terms and provides headline suggestions (popular new stories) that correspond with search volume spikes. I can see that there is a dominant interest in RSS in Japan, and that “Google Reader” is enjoying a 920% rise in search popularity.

Insights is a public offering (and quite fun to play with), but Google is no fool. This is a tool aimed at marketers and advertisers. Search patterns drive many marketing decisions, from the the language used to describe a product or service to the time of year it’s released. All the information provided by Insights for Search can be used in your personal paid search strategy. The top related searches and rising searches may provide new direction in an already saturated market.

Online project management systems work when everyone is on board. Most are lonely places because team members avoid using them. There’s always a foreign URL to remember and a fear of sensitive data floating around cyberspace.

Allay those fears by using the ActiveCollab project management system. ActiveCollab can be integrated with your current website and styled to blend seamlessly with your company’s visual identity. You retain full control of your data because the platform and files are hosted on your server. You can even integrate plugins to introduce additional functionality and tailor the look and feel of the system to your needs.

ActiveCollab comes with the standard project management fare- file management, project templates, discussions, milestones, and checklists. The Small Business package runs $199/year (with a a free year of support), while the Corporate package runs $399 and includes time-tracking tools and calendars. Both packages allow you full access over permission levels and the ability to assign tasks to individual team members and set urgency levels.

A limited demo is available for free on the ActiveCollab website (a more advanced, hosted trial will set you back $10). Give it a test drive. You may find that managing your project management system is easier when it’s on home turf.