What does this mean? Not much, yet. Obviously, cable companies are still bringing in vastly more revenue than Hulu, and remain more important to the networks whose shows appear on either platform.

But Hulu is increasingly making a strong case that it could be the video platform for the future -- if it can ever create nearly as much revenue for content producers as cable companies do today.

This is an interesting - and somewhat surprising - usage of QR Codes. Most marketers here in the U.S. have been hesitant to deploy a QR program with any scale due to the relatively small footprint of smartphones and QR reader applications. Given that smartphone usage skews urban - and that the Kidrobot scavenger hunt is in NYC, it'll be interesting to see what happens here.

Augmented Reality has been getting more than it's fair share of hype lately. The first iPhone apps featuring the technology are starting to show up in the App Store - Yelp's new version features an AR easter egg. Meanwhile, Metro Paris has also released a new version with an AR layer. ReadWriteWeb has a great article on AR in general, including some of the potential barriers and challenges:

Lastly, my colleague Garrick Schmitt (@gschmitt) posted this round up to AdAge's Digital Next blog back in May.

Interesting approach as companies broaden their crowdsourcing efforts and it move beyond logo design or ad development.

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Fiat is building a consumer-generated car in Brazil, using input gathered through social media to inform everything from the automobile's design to its marketing communications.

--> Working with Sao Paulo-based AgenciaClick, part of Aegis Group's Isobar network of digital agencies, Fiat started a website this month requesting ideas for the work-in-progress Fiat Mio.

"We're inviting Brazilian consumers to invent the concept car that Fiat will exhibit in the Salao do Automovel, Sao Paulo's auto show, in October 2010," said Abel Reis, AgenciaClick's president and chief operating officer.

Hopefully it'll turn out better than Homer's attempt to design a car. Can't find the Hulu link, but you know what I'm talking about.

The anticipated growth of internet-enabled TVs in the next four years would likely increase the popularity of digitally downloaded movies, TV shows and video games while dampening sales related to DVDs, blu-ray discs, video game discs, and other physical content formats. According to USA Weekend, several major TV manufacturers already have or will soon have internet-enabled TVs on the market.

While internet-enabled TVs are only expected to account for about 3% of TV sales this year, research firm Parks Associates estimates that they will represent 24% of TV sales by 2013. Companies including LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba now or reportedly plan to offer internet-enabled TVs, at a starting price point of around $1,500 USD.

 

So 24% of TVs sold by 2013 will be web-connected and may enable high-quality streaming of TV content on demand. How will operators (Comcast, DirecTV, Dish, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, etc.) battle this? And what does it mean for emerging iTV standards like EBIF and tru2way?

Interesting finding, though perhaps not all that surprising.

Other interesting data in the study:
- 38% of ALL teens, regardless of cell phone ownership, text on a daily basis (and 76% of teen cell phone owners have ever sent a text message). This is relatively consistent with other numbers I've seen (Comscore reports 80% of cell phone subs age 13-17 have sent a text message).
- 77% of teens own a game console like an Xbox or a PlayStation
- 74% of teens own an iPod or mp3 player

Managing a marketing program across all these devices and platforms is already challenging; but fragmentation shows no sign of slowing down. That's why it's so important to be testing and experimenting now - it takes a good bit of trial and error to get it right.