The Live Indian Entertainment Blog

Google Plus continues to get more open bit by bit, and just today made the service available to teens age 13 and up. Previously, Google Plus was restricted to people 18 and up. Along with the wave of new teenagers, Google Plus is also getting new privacy and security features--a fairly important thing if the service is to become something parents encourage their children to use.

Google is probably doing the slow rollout on purpose. This is their third or fourth wave of opening the service up. Each time it's followed by new statistics on membership, and this time will be no different. Millions of teens are going to sign up in the near future.

Google Plus Opens To Teens

Google Plus is now open to everyone 13 and up, and I'm guessing there will be plenty of takers.

This kind of news should be music to a video marketer's ears, because teenagers are among the most avid video consumers. They're also much more prone to social activity, with most of today's teenagers having grown up with mobile devices, Facebook, and Twitter.

The influx of teenagers 13 and up to Google Plus means the demographic will change almost overnight. It should also make Google Plus a more attractive social video marketing tool for brands and businesses--particularly those that create content known to appeal to teenagers: I'm thinking about action-oriented brands like Go Pro and Red Bull, music videos and music industry brands, movie trailers, etc.

The "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" leaked red band trailer that emerged over the weekend has received over a million views already, yet it hasn't been taken down. You'd expect a leaked trailer to be taken down ASAP, but distributor Sony hasn't done so. Perhaps instead of being a leak, it's now being theorized that the video was a marketing ploy.

In this age of viral marketing, it wouldn't be a surprise. After all, the video, although it appeared to be shaky cam footage recorded by some sort of video recorder, was excellent in both its sound and video quality.

What do you readers think? Clever marketing campaign or leaked video? As we said, it sure seems to be better quality than you might expect from true bootleg; judge the video for yourself, below.

[For those not aware, a red band trailer is approved to be screened only for "restricted" or "mature" audiences. Such trailers may only be shown before R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated movies. Red-band trailers may include nudity, profanity or other material deemed inappropriate for children.

More commonly, viewers of trailers will see a green band at the beginning of a trailer, showing that the the trailer is appropriate for all audiences, in what is called a "green-band trailer."]

The "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" leaked red band trailer that emerged over the weekend has received over a million views already, yet it hasn't been taken down. You'd expect a leaked trailer to be taken down ASAP, but distributor Sony hasn't done so. Perhaps instead of being a leak, it's now being theorized that the video was a marketing ploy.

In this age of viral marketing, it wouldn't be a surprise. After all, the video, although it appeared to be shaky cam footage recorded by some sort of video recorder, was excellent in both its sound and video quality.

What do you readers think? Clever marketing campaign or leaked video? As we said, it sure seems to be better quality than you might expect from true bootleg; judge the video for yourself, below.

[For those not aware, a red band trailer is approved to be screened only for "restricted" or "mature" audiences. Such trailers may only be shown before R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated movies. Red-band trailers may include nudity, profanity or other material deemed inappropriate for children.

More commonly, viewers of trailers will see a green band at the beginning of a trailer, showing that the the trailer is appropriate for all audiences, in what is called a "green-band trailer."]