News and Updates on Quantum Partners and Projects

• New Associate Soo Koon Lee Joins Quantum

February 10, 2011: 

Soo Koon Lee has joined Quantum Media as an Associate.  Soo develops and executes social media strategies that help companies identify new customer segments, raise online awareness, and establish stronger connections with current customers.

Lee has combined her research/analysis experience with online innovations in social media for clients. She is happy to join the team, stating “Quantum Media executives are an amazing group of people, and it's truly a privilege to be part of this organization.”

“Working in media gives me the opportunity to combine my different skills and interests:

• My analytical experience that was applied to understanding companies such as General Mills, Southwest Airlines, Simon Property Group and many others that spanned across a number of industries  
• My personal fascination with media (in all its forms) from business to delivery: TV, radio, books, comic books, magazines, and the internet.  
• My interest in the quickly changing tech, app, and online scene and how to use these tools to accomplish my clients' goals”

She graduated with honors from Barnard College, Columbia University with a B.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures and has an MBA from Columbia Business School.  You may read her biography and find her contact information here.

• Quantum Principal to Deliver Keynote Speech at the Berlin Film Lectures 2011

January 28, 2011: 

Quantum Principal Stefanie Lemcke will be a keynote speaker at the "Berlin Film Lectures 2011" hosted by the Media Business Academy on February 16th in Berlin, Germany.

The conference will take place during Berlinale, the large European film festival which is being held for the 61st time this year.   The Berlin International Film Festival is one of the most important events in the international film industry’s calendar, with over 19,000 film professionals and 4,000 journalists expected to attend, along with one of the largest film festival audiences in the world.  Read more about the Berlinale here.

The Berlin Film Lectures 2011 will focus on the realization of film projects for the international markets: production, costs and financing, and is subtitled "From the screen to Ipad, Galaxy & Co."   The welcoming address will be given by Robert Pisanon, President, Motion Picture Association of America.  His theme will be “From screen to mobile: New markets, new formats and new challenges. Creative process and business models of producers, writers and directors in the US film business.”

Lemcke’s keynote title is "The US in an On Demand and 3-D fever: Movies at home, mobile and in Central Park. Trends and business models from the US."  She believes that  U.S. consumers are early adopters of new media, and the successful strategies in the US should be applied in European markets.  Read more about the conference here (available in German only).

• Quantum Principal Takes Q&A at NY Video Meetup.

January 10, 2011: 

Quantum Principal Ava Seave answered questions regarding success strategies at the December NY Video Meetup, the monthly meeting of the largest organization of online video entrepreneurs.  Seave started by answering host Steve Rosenbaum’s request to describe Quantum Media by stating that it is a co-operative of consultants formed in 1998.  

Rosenbaum asked Seave to describe the areas where successful video companies should concentrate in 2011. Seave referenced the concepts in her book “Curse of the Mogul”, which she co-authored with Jonathon Knee and Bruce Greenwald.  She said that aggregation, specialization, complexity, and networks should be the areas of focus, with aggregation being the most profitable.  Content creation alone is unlikely to produce profits.  She also said that aggregation alone would not prevent competition, and needs to be combined with specialization and complexity.

Seave gave the video rental and streaming company Netflix as an example of an aggregator that can take advantage of adding complexity as a barrier to entry.  While anyone can stream hit videos, Netflix can recommend additional content for each consumer by building a large query-based predictive model of preferred viewing .  This level of complexity may prevent competition due to investment costs.

She discussed the difficulty in monetizing video in journalistic website publishing for consumers seeking serious content.  Video isn’t being used on sites for serious news, though it should be.  The challenge is finding a way for viewing the web on your TV, and then being able to sell this format.

A participant asked a question regarding content creation and the obvious profits of some famous examples.  Seave countered that the average incomes for creators of content, including musicians and artists,  are too small to earn a living, much less run a business.  The quantity of the many that earn little, if anything, dwarf the few that achieve success.

She closed with her experience when she testified to give her opinion regarding the proposed ComCast/NBC merger, saying that there are few areas of overlap within the two companies.  While it may be interesting, she sees little reason for the merger.

The appearance was featured in a NY Convergence article written by Jim Flood.

“Earlier, when author, consultant and college professor Ava Seave sat for an interview with Rosenbaum, she asserted that aggregation “is the best place to have a lucrative relationship to media,” in video as well as other online arenas, with specialization being a key complement for aggregators. She insisted that content creation is not going to make anyone wealthy. Some audience members disputed this point, holding up Next New Networks as an example of producers who have found a profitable niche, but Seave maintained that once a bevy of competitors enters the market, profits will disappear.”

Watch the video of Ava Seave at the December NY Video Meetup beginning at the 28:00 mark. 

See Ava Seave's profile and contact information here.