Is the future of the sitcom a syndicated viral webisode series broken into three seven-minute chunks weekly? Alloy and a handful of advertisers are giving it a try, anyway.
"Dating Rules from My Future Self" makes its first appearance on the viral video chart (nearly a million views last week), and it differs from the usual entries in being more or less a webisode version of a romantic-comedy-style TV sitcom with multiple sponsors, albeit with plenty of product integration.
From Alloy, producer of CW's "Gossip Girl," it features actress Shiri Appleby of "Roswell" and "Life Unexpected" fame, in three seven- or eight-minute webisodes a week -- pretty much like a sitcom sans commercial pods, or commercials. Each segment launches with a "presented by" sequence, with Revlon, Ford, KaoBrands' Biore and Energizer Holdings' Schick among the sponsors, who also have their products featured at various times throughout the series.
The concept: Ms. Appleby plays a young woman who gets text messages from her future self warning her of relationship dangers, such as the fact that her fiance is actually a douche. Thanks to some well-timed advice during wedding planning, sponsored by Revlon, she discovers this before it's too late.
This brings to mind another concept for a web series, "Marketing Advice from My Future Self," in which time-shifted brand managers text the sponsors to let them know if they're on the right track. But they may just have to wait for the marketing-mix models.
Last Week Brand Campaign Agency Current Week Views* % Change in Views Watch the Spot 1 NEW Volkswagen The Bark Side Deutsch Los Angeles 7,139,665 NEW 2 NEW Icon Motorcycle vs. Car Drift Battle 2 NA 3,786,225 NEW 3 Back on Chart Megaupload Megaupload Song NA 2,125,926 Back on Chart 4 2 Old Spice Smell is Power Wieden Kennedy Portland 999,431 -37% 5 7 Chromebook BBH New York;Google Creative Lab 990,237 6% 6 NEW Biore,Ford,Revlon,Schick Dating Rules From My Future Self Alloy Digital 963,369 NEW 7 NEW Nike Kobesystem Wieden Kennedy Portland 907,549 NEW 8 5 Evian Live Young BETC Euro RSCG 848,200 -15% 9 8 Apple Introducing iPhone 4S TBWA\Media Arts Lab 811,279 -12% 10 4 YouTube,Lenovo Spacelab: What Will You Do? NA 802,715 -21% The Visible Measures Top 10 Viral Video Ad Campaigns Chart focuses on brand-driven viral video ads that appear on online-video-sharing destinations. Each campaign is measured on a True Reach basis, which includes viewership of both brand-syndicated video clips and viewer-driven social video placements. The data are compiled using the Visible Measures Viral Reach Database, a constantly growing repository of analytic data on more than 100 million internet videos across more than 150 video-sharing destinations.
Note: This analysis does not include Visible Measures paid-placement (i.e., overlays, pre-/mid-/post-roll) performance data or video views on private sites. This chart does not include movie trailers, video-game campaigns, TV show or media network promotions, or public service announcements. View-count results are incremental by week.
**Indicates percent change in views compared with the same period the week before.
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Excited to make the top 10, although our show is tons more fun than megaupload or the chrome book - aiming for #1!
