Time Warner Cable (TWC) is looking to take a page from Britney Spears and Paris Hilton with a new viral video marketing strategy called Fame Star. The new marketing strategy allows customers to create fictional biopic videos of themselves, chronicling their rise to fame, and subsequent fall. It’s a play on the Hollywood pop culture scene, represented by popular tabloid “journalism” outlets like Access Hollywood and People Magazine. Users can create their own videos and share them with friends and family. TWC is hoping for a huge “viral” hit that could potentially reach millions of consumers. TWC products and brands are referenced throughout each video. There are also direct marketing tools on the Fame Star site, including TWC comparisons to Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse.

It’s an interesting strategy – one that is representative of the times. Service providers are constantly evaluating and executing strategies that try to leverage web 2.0 and the “long tail” phenomena, with mixed success. It’s no secret that reaching consumers through traditional marketing and media buys is increasingly difficult. When viral campaigns catch fire, they can reach millions at a fraction of the cost of traditional media outreach. The truly successful ones are few and far between. Give TWC credit for trying. As the famous hockey player Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Skype and MySpace are partnering to allow MySpace members to use Skype as a communications tool on their MySpace profile. MySpace has 120 million members across 20 countries. The partnership will allow MySpace members who are also Skype subscribers to insert a Skype button/widget in their MySpace profile, providing VoIP connectivity. PC-to-PC calling will be free, but MySpace will introduce a number of revenue generating "premium" features such as personal phone numbers, voice mail, call forwarding, and PC-to-landline/wireless calling. Terms of the partnership have MySpace and Skype sharing revenue.

This partnership illustrates the growing influence of web 2.0 on traditional telecom. Web 2.0 applications further erode the usefulness of traditional landline telephony, especially among youth. As more and more subscribers utilize web applications for social networking and entertainment consumption, their desire to incorporate communications functionality into those experiences increases significantly. This MySpace/Skype partnership is a perfect example of that. While it’s too early to tell the impact of this announcement (execution of these partnerships is always a wildcard), it does shed light on the possibilities that Web 2.0 offers telecom. It challenges traditional telecom carriers to recognize that their business is evolving – and quickly. Sure, we always talk about this evolution on conference panels and webinars, but here is proof positive. Traditional carriers should recognize that Skype, and companies like them, including Jajah, don’t have to be the only Web 2.0 players. Couldn't this partnership announcement just as easily have been between MySpace and Verizon? Maybe, maybe not - it all depends on your perspective. Seems to me, Verizon's 60 million+ wireless subscribers (not to mention their partner Vodaphone's global reach) would add tremendous value to this proposition. One thing is certain. As mass markets become more Web 2.0 savvy, telecom carriers will need to be proactive to ensure they don't entirely lose this opportunity to Skype and others.

Alltel has embraced Web 2.0 marketing methods, and appears to be seeing some success. Ad Week magazine examines some of Alltel’s web marketing strategies which includes MySpace pages and stand alone flash websites. The marketing campaigns feature Chad, Alltel’s fictional “cool” employee. Chad’s MySpace page quickly garnered 3,500 “friends” A stand alone flash website followed, centered on the ManCave, where bungling employees from Alltel’s competitors meet and plot how to defeat Chad.

Ad Week points out that much of the marketing throughout this entire web campaign is much more subtle than other similarly developed web campaigns. Nevertheless, Alltel’s Chad and corresponding ManCave strategy has built a solid following. Alltel admits that the promotion is a long term exercise and that the results from this strategy won’t be realized for some time. For right now, it’s a branding exercise. One that Alltel is quite pleased with, especially considering the costs are relatively low, when compared with more traditional media advertising and marketing tactics.