ViTrue or False

Enter ViTrue, a company that has just acquired online video sharing site, Sharkle, and about to drive a couple more tails into the coffin of the traditional ad agency.

Their proposition? Innocuous enough: (from their website)

• ViTrue connects Brands with Consumers through our Video Infrastructure Tools and User Generated Content.
• ViTrue enables Brands and Consumers to engage in meaningful interactions through our world-class technology solutions.
• ViTrue defines the next generation of Brand and Consumer interaction from over 20 years of combined industry experience from our management team.

Minus 1 point for both MediaPost and ViTrue referring to USER generated content

Minus 1 point for the lame name...ViTrue?

Minus 1 point for the lame website...www.vitrue.com?

Now for the pluses...

+3 for already having one advertiser under their belts....Sony Pictures for "The Benchwarmers"

+2 for having acquired Sharkle (not exactly YouTube but in the game nonetheless)

So according to my ridiculous math, that's +2 for anyone keeping count.

But what's really happening here? ViTrue claims to be offering a formalized and scaled solution - that ala Current TV with the VC-squared - allows marketers to "control" (slippery slope) in terms of briefing, approving etc creative into and out of the system. In many respects, it's another AdCandy, except perhaps this time their timing is a lot better and I believe the business model is a little less "gimicky"

If I'm being honest, I feel this stinks of opportunistic money making (return of the other VC), but maybe it's just the jealousy talking. Rupert? Oh Rupert? Your checkbook awaits.

Seriously though, I'm beyond concerned with the need to formalize an organic and natural process - in any way. My concerns for ViTrue are the same I expressed with AdCandy. Ultimately consumers will get fed up with being used and manipulated and cast their attention elsewhere.

On the flipside, any mechanism that does find a happy middle ground between frothing marketers and playful consumers (or is it the other way around?) can only be a good thing, right?

As reported by MediaPost