From the Top: PBS Does Online Content Right

I stumbled across a neat little site today that I originally intended to simply bookmark for later. As a parent of budding musicians including one eight-year-old cellist, I'm regularly searching for content that continues to inspire her, because we all know that struggling through practicing can be frustrating.

What I found was a great example of how content providers should be sharing their content with their audience. Since this is PBS (funded by viewers like you!), the pressure isn't there to pay for big celebrity talent, huge special effects budgets, or make a studio a lot of money, so they were able to break it down to exactly what viewers want and should be able to expect.

The show is From the Top at Carnegie Hall, produced by none other than WGBH in Boston, one of the most prolific PBS stations. The show (which just finished airing its second season) features background information as well as performances by young musicians. This season featured musicians as young as eight, and showed them practicing, talking about how they got started, how they reached the level of performance they are at, and most importantly, why they spend so much time with their instruments.

The site has a clean design with a single ad: the corporation that funded the show (it's Liberty Mutual, and yes, I remembered that without even checking back, so great job Liberty Mutual on a non-intrusive ad that still stuck with me). All the rest is content, which features full episodes of the show, a schedule of upcoming showings on television, two different podcast subscriptions (one with out-takes and other background information, and the other with full episodes of the show), and activity guides and lesson plans for educators.

That's all. No co-branded accessories shop. No invasive ads playing in the videos. No truncated videos or teasers, and the additional material offered is relevant, interesting, and not trying to sell me anything.

The argument you might make is that this is PBS, and they aren't out for profit, and you'd be right. But at the same time, they had one corporate sponsor who had one single ad that appeared as unobtrusively as possible and not only did I remember who the sponsor was, but I included them in a post about content done right. We are inundated with ads everywhere to support free content, but how much of an impact are those advertisers really having? Yodeling smilies and flashing ads and buzzing mosquitos and tiny 120 x 120 squares on every site have trained us to tune out the noise. I don't even turn the ads off anymore because I no longer SEE them. The suggestion that advertisers revert back to the days when they sponsored an entire television show (like the soaps) may be a good one. A simple site with only related content and a single sponsor was enough to grab my attention.

Ed. note: Watch the kid with the marimba. AMAZING!