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SceneCaster Incorporates e-Commerce Sites

Sep 25, 2007
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SceneCaster, a free, create-your-own 3D web experience and community tool, debuts today. As described by Mashable.com, it is a network

for creative professionals and those that enjoy media-sharing. It’s an interesting way of taking pieces of social networking and the virtual web-based communities that are gaining a stronghold for Internet culture. SceneCaster lets you add all sorts of images, effects and items to your virtual 3D space-it’s integrated with Google’s 3D Warehouse, which hosts a good amount of 3D images, both recognizable and imaginary.

The part of this story that really caught my attention, though, was the third paragraph:

SceneCaster has also enabled you to incorporate e-commerce sites like eBay and Amazon, as well as other networks like Facebook and Flickr. Some companies that have already partnered with SceneCaster include iStockphoto, Kohler, Oddcast, and more.

Between the Lines, a ZDNet blog by Dan Farber and Larry Dignan, reports more details on the revenue side of SceneCaster’s equation:

SceneCaster expects to generate revenue from contextual ads, brand advertising (such as product placement in scenes), sponsorships and transaction revenue from ecommerce. For starters, SceneCaster has lined up partners, such as Commission Junction, eBates, Kohler, iStockPhoto, SmartFurniture.com, Wolfgang’s Vault and ZeroFootprint. The company is also considering licensing its platform to other vendors.

scenecaster.jpg

I’m not sure what to make of this interesting concept right now. The incorporation of e-commerce sites, especially affiliates like eBates and networks like Commission Junction along with mega-sites Amazon and eBay suggest that some type of change is coming.

If nothing else happens, I feel SceneCaster’s revenue model could speed up the process whereby affiliate link placements on social networking sites becomes an accepted practice. If that is the case, a lot of affiliate agreements will have to be rewritten to permit “off-site” link and banner placements within social apps and on publisher-branded space on social networks like SceneCaster and Facebook.

Filed under: Contextual Advertising + Next-Gen Marketing
  • Scott

    Also, how does distributing affiliate links via newsletters, RSS or even iGoogle relate to distributing through social networks. Do merchants need to specify whether affiliate links can go through each one of these mediums?

  • http://www.revenews.com/mikeallen/ Mike Allen

    Personally, I think affiliate programs will require more and more trust to function in this space. Simply put, trusted publishers will be allowed to do more.

    For that reason, I feel the move to shrink the number of affiliates and opt for quality instead will have to accelerate if merchants/advertisers are going to benefit from social networking trends. Merchants simply cannot do it all and will need innovative affiliates to cover all the bases for them. That’s great news for honest and reputable affiliates!