French Maid TV and New Uses for Video Blogging

There aren't many guys out there that can resist checking out a site as titillatingly titled as French Maid TV.  The only problem is, you better watch out for someone looking over your shoulder.  Especially if you are at work like I am right now.  Of course, my story is that I'm just checking out the site for professional reasons.  It's a great example of blog marketing - irresistable for it's target audience.  But more than that, it illustrates an interesting competitive advantage for programs meant to be distributed as video programs downloaded to ipods or other portable video players.  Video podcasting offers a sort of privacy unavailable in any other format.  You can watch your own personal screen with your own headphones ... and do it privately.  It's unlike a computer screen and unlike television in that way. 

This means that video podcasting has huge possibilities for any number of things that people do or search for that they want to keep private.  Online dating, searching for a new job, embarrasing hobbies - you name it.  Lots of new realms open up when you consider how portable video players offer new access to reach these audiences and help them keep their personal watching habits private.  It might take French Maid TV to help businesses recognize the potential, but it may not be long before Naked News, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition, Careerbuilder.com, and even the "Home" Shopping Network start to realize the potential of this new channel.  With the inevitable merging of mobile communications with portable video devices, perhaps the link between offering content and using this content to convert viewers to buyers will be the next big marketing channel.

Thanks to Antoine (a colleague from Ogilvy in Europe) for spotting this site.