“I Am the Long Tail”—the movie

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has just released a seven-minute movie called “I Am the Long Tail”. Here’s an excerpt of their description:

Analysts estimate there are as many as 1.2 million Web sites that support themselves by selling advertising, through their own sales forces or ad networks. Most of them constitute the vaunted "long tail" -- small sites serving the refined interests of niche audiences, whose existence is premised on the Internet's near-barrierless opportunity to create and distribute content. But the term "long tail," based as it is on such abstruse mathematical concepts as Pareto's law, can seem bloodless. It hardly does justice to the countless lives made better because of the ad-supported Internet.

That's where IAB came in. We made a seven-minute movie to put a human face on the long tail. We call it I Am the Long Tail.

Actually, I lied. The IAB didn't make this documentary about the long tail. The long tail made the movie about itself.

We reached out to sites we'd come across, and to online networks, for help in showcasing the almost limitless diversity of the ad-supported Internet. Our purposes were varied. As I noted in the YouTube video I made (I even downloaded the software that turned my Macbook into a Teleprompter) seeking contributions to our documentary, "The IAB wants advertisers to understand that small publishers are a foundation of their businesses -- that you're a vital channel to reach the American consumer. We also want policymakers and regulators in Washington and our state capitals to recognize that small digital publishers are critical to American economic growth, nationally, and in every Congressional district.

This is really cool, and one of the things I like best about it is that they didn’t feel the need to link to me, mention the book or even link to the Wikipedia entry. The Long Tail is now just part of the parlance—no more needing a credit than an invocation of the Tipping Point requires a link to Malcolm Gladwell. Which is as it should be.

Comments

[Website Editor]

well, I strongly agree with IAB video, for long tail there is only market of refind keywords. Very Interesting Video. Worth watching ..

[Rodrigo Frías]

Very nice! great job IAB.

[Alberto Cottica]

Chris, congratulations. Very insightful. As always, people lend a lot of credibility to concepts.

[SEO]

Long tail for me was an amazing thing which helped to get the huge traffic from search engines.

[Anna]

You know, if you really want the Long Tail to become "part of the parlance", you should probably drop the capitals.

[John Boudreau]

Great post. Just picked up your book.

[Jane]

A very good post indeed..
It is true that a large number of internet sites are supporting themselves by showing ads on their sites..
Some of them have made it a part of their income to do so!

[Jeff W.]

Great article, loved the video and the fact that the long tail is now part of the internet vocabulary! I am amazed how ads became part of the game on the net, i remember less than 10 years ago hearing from the news that internet advertisement would never work and that it was only a way to play, to have fun, but not to start a business.
|Jeff from free rpg games|
*Also i could add that to become part of the vocabulary is a very good achievement and that is shows how important is the role that plays this concept on the net now!

[منتديات]

Thank you my dear brother
On this post
It's a very useful and wonderful
Best wishes you success

[دليل مواقع]

Recognizes your hand dear brother

It's wonderful blog

[Gary]

Another classic from the IAB. News has recently been released that shows Internet advertising spend has overtaken TV advertising! I'm still struggling to sell advertising on my extreme sports site though

[iron]

Indeed a good post! Hey i enjoyed this 7 minute movie and it is truly awesome! Really wonderful. Best wishes to you.

[2im]

Thank you my dear brother
On this post
It's a very useful and wonderful
Best wishes you success