ESPN Twitter Instant Replays, Spreecast Social Video, Branded Content Spending

The Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

ESPN’s Instant Replays on Twitter

New York Times’ Tanzina Vega writes that during this holiday season, Twitter will be providing embedded replays from college footballs games onto the site.

The videos can be watched without leaving Twitter on any device, mobile or not.

Lisa Valentino, the vice president of digital and mobile advertising sales at ESPN said, “When it comes to college football it’s a tremendous opportunity to watch across all our screens.”]

Social Networking and Video

Mashable profiles the founder of Spreecast, a new video social networking site. CEO Jeff Fluhr, who started StubHub, says that “social video is the next logical evolution from text- and photo-based social networks like Facebook and Twitter.”

The platform can be used by publishers, celebrities, and TV shows wanting to talk with fans.

Trends in Branded Content

According to ContentLead, branded content spending has increased across the board over the past two years.
Companies “are using content to engage with new and existing customers, and they’re also spending more to facilitate faster growth through this practice.”

In the new year, brand marketers predict that their budgets for content will increase by 38 percent.

Branded Content in Sensitive Times

David Armano writes about branded content during rough times, such as the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

A meeting should be held to determine the appropriate response, if any, on social media and in content, and it should be decided whether or not to stay silent or speak up.

Auto posts should be turned off so that your company doesn’t look as if its insensitive. “Brands are now built in real time and they can be unbuilt just as quickly,” he says.

BuzzFeed’s Native Advertising Strategy

Post Advertising reports on BuzzFeed and the success it’s had with native advertising. The site has no banner ads and features timely and/or cute, humorous, and nostalgic content that is a hit with readers.

BuzzFeed has generated $20 million for native advertising in 2012, according to industry sources. For instance, one of its campaigns for “Moonshiners” on Discover Channel featured an article called “20 Things You Didn’t Know Were Illegal” to promote the show. On the sidebar is a link to Discovery’s Facebook, along with the Twitter feed.

Aereo to Play Bloomberg TV

The Wall Street Journal reports that Aereo, the online-television startup, will be adding Bloomberg TV to its programming.

Earlier this year, Aereo introduced Web TV service “that streams broadcast TV signals of New York stations to New York residents for a monthly fee.” The company is currently seeking out more deals for content with media brands. Next year, it will also be expanding to 15 new cities.

#Jinglebook Crowdsourcing Holiday Content on Twitter

Digital company Findaway World is producing a holiday audiobook out of tweets, and it’s using crowdsourcing to do so.

ClickZ’s Lisa Lacy writes that “by tweeting with the hashtag #Jinglebook from December 5 to 19, Twitter users can contribute to the story that will be recorded and digitally released on December 24.”

A Naughty-to-Nice translator will turn certain “bad” words into holiday words such as gingerbread or jingle. The company offers access to the book on the website and mobile apps.