Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Christian, we dare to be square. Foursquare, that is.
From: Zipcar <underthehood@members.zipcarmail.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Subject: Christian, we dare to be square. Foursquare, that is.
To: "christianbusch@gmail.com" <christianbusch@gmail.com>
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Tuesday, September 07, 2010
First Day - check out our latest show
From the producers of Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and The Sisterhood of the travelling pants; it's the first day back to school and Cassie happens to get the chance to relive that day over and over again! Will she be able to get her guy? Find out in this fun show - two new episodes are launching every week: http://bit.ly/akupY9
<script src="http://videos.teen.com/player.js?width=1920&height=1080&embedCode=53NWRvMTpXdK998EwJ7RFx3EFGikzhb3"></script>
Monday, August 30, 2010
Alloy Digital and KMART launch Branded Entertainment show First Day
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Alloy Media & Marketing
Teen-Centric Company Behind 'Gossip Girls' Partners With Kmart for the Launch of 'First Day'
by Andrew Hampp
Published: August 30, 2010Madison & Vine, Ad Age's original cross-section of the New York ad community and Hollywood, will be taking a broad look over the next year at the key players, projects and platforms in the digital branded-entertainment arena. Check in with M&V as we keep tabs on established players; check in with the media agencies and marketing firms that continue to staff up their branded-content divisions; or profile the newest studios and media companies entering the space.
The Player: Alloy Media & Marketing
Location: Los Angeles and New York
Key Execs: Matt Diamond, CEO, Alloy Media & Marketing; Sean Horvath, exec VP-branded entertainment, Alloy Media & Marketing; Josh Bank, president, Alloy Entertainment, East Coast
--> Key Projects: "First Day," a branded web series for Kmart that launches Aug. 31; "Haute & Bothered," a scripted web series sponsored by LG Mobile; "Private," a web series based on the Kate Brian novels; upcoming web series "Talent" and "Hollywood Is Like High School With Money"; Alloy Entertainment's CW series "Gossip Girl" and "The Vampire Diaries" and their respective book series; and the ABC Family drama "Pretty Little Liars" and its accompanying book series.Teen.com'Haute and Bothered'The Background: For more than a decade, few media companies have shaped the way tweens and teens consume franchise properties quite like Alloy Media. Since the 2005 release of Alloy Entertainment's movie adaptation of Alloy's hit young-adult novel series "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" and the 2007 premiere of "Gossip Girl," based on the books by Cecil von Ziegesar, the company has accomplished a cross-platform pop-cultural relevance other publishing houses could only dream of achieving.
Next Steps: Whether fans tune in to the televised versions of their favorite books on TV, discover the books by following the TV series or films, talk about characters and storylines on Alloy's network of websites (ranked No. 1 among teens in June by ComScore, with 16.8 million unique visitors) or tune in to in-school network Channel One in more than 8,000 schools nationwide, Alloy has quietly become the new arbiter for teen-entertainment trends. It's a distinction recently noticed by ZelnickMedia and Chairman Gerry Laybourne (founder of Nickelodeon and Oxygen), which acquired Alloy in June for $126.5 million.
Now Alloy is turning to the web as its latest development vehicle, bringing brands along for the ride. In 2009 it launched "Private," a web series sponsored by Johnson & Johnson based on an Alloy's private-school mystery novels, and "Haute & Bothered," an original scripted series sponsored by LG Mobile. This week, Alloy debuts "First Day," its first wholly original series for the web and a branded-entertainment vehicle for Kmart, which will use the program to promote three of its back-to-school product lines: Bongo, Rebecca Bon Bon and Dream Out Loud (the latter from Disney Channel star Selena Gomez).
Josh Bank, Alloy Entertainment's East Coast president, saw "First Day" as a creative challenge to build a series' concept around Kmart's brand brief. The eight-episode series follows main character Cassie (Tracey Fairaway) as she's forced to relive her first day of high school over again, "Groundhog Day" style.
"We wondered, 'How could we showcase three different clothing lines?' A girl living the same day over and over again in different ways seemed like the best way to do that," Mr. Bank said.
Although Kmart and its products are never addressed by name in "First Day," each episode will be supported by display and video pre-roll video ads highlighting the participating retail lines, with links to Kmart's own micro-sites to purchase the products seen in the series. "First Day" will also receive heavy promotion via click-to-expand video ad units from Alloy properties such as Gurl.com, Alloy.com and Teen.com, and exclusive web partnerships with Meez.com, Candystand and Fanpop among others. Kmart's media agency, MPG, and digital agency, Digitas, helped broker the deal and create the media plan with Alloy.
--> Mark Snyder, Kmart's chief marketing officer, saw a compelling case to be made for the integrated marketing of his retailer's clothes.'First Day'
"A lot of these kids didn't grow up with Kmart the same way the boomer generation did. It didn't have the fashion credibility Kmart does now, so including it in the storyline felt very relevant to their day to day," he said. "Alloy is an expert on this particular segment and we knew they could deliver the audience we were looking to reach."
And as the teen segment in particular develops more fickle media habits, Mr. Snyder and his marketing team will evaluate the relative value of "First Day" compared to its other media buys later this year. Like Kraft, Procter & Gamble and even Poise incontinence pads have learned before him, original web series can sometimes be tied directly to positive sales results.
"It's hard to say if a 30-second TV spot is more valuable than a 15-minute webisode with incredible integration of product, so we'll have a lot of information to figure out about our targets," he said.
For Alloy, the business model for creating digital entertainment can be break-even if not profitable from the get-go by recruiting brands such as Kmart to underwrite the production costs of the series. But to the viewers, the show has to look as good if not better than a TV series, or they'll have no incentive to tune in.
"We're kind of under the belief that there has to be a variety of ways to deliver a unique experience, so that when you're distributing a show you make sure that views are enabled and interacted with at the highest quality," said Sean Horvath, Alloy Media's exec VP-branded entertainment. "The process is no different than how we would develop something for TV or film, and utilize a lot of the same people we've worked with in the past."
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Good article about our latest branded entertainment campaign for Alloy Digital and Kmart - launching this week.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
How retweeting and liking dumbs down the conversation on blogs
I've noticed on a bunch of blogs that I read that the comment sections are getting increasingly getting spammed by retweets, likes and a few google buzzes. It appears that 95% of "comments" (see example here: http://screencast.com/t/ZjA0ZTFm) are in fact simply people re-sharing the orginial content produced on the blog; on sites like paidcontent.org the ratio is often close to 100% re-sharing vs. original commentary. On the one hand, this is in line with stats stating that 90% of readers only consume but never create content, on the other hand I wonder what the purpose of all the retweeting/ liking/ buzzing really is if no value/ information/ insight is added to the original content. My suggestion for publishers would at least be to follow the techcrunch example and exclude re-sharing from the true comment section so they don't crowd out original insights.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Urban Golf in Fribourg, Switzerland
I came across this in Die Zeit the other day - Fribourg in Switzerland Has put together an urban golf course that lets you explore the city while hitting a soft ball around. At only CHF 9 it's a bargain compared to regular green fees and it looks like a creative, fun way to explore the city.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Name cruelty: Eataly by Mario Batali about to open
By SUMATHI REDDY
Think Whole Foods meets Bloomingdale's, put an Italian spin on it, and you get a sense of the look and feel of Eataly, the gastronomical monster of a marketplace unveiled Tuesday night for its first preview. The 42,500-square-foot market, located in the Flatiron district, will open to the general public on Aug. 31.
Eataly is the baby of Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and his mother, Lidia, of the Batali-Bastianich Hospitality Group. It is modeled after the original Eataly, which was founded by Oscar Farinetti in Turin, Italy.
Flourishes from that country abound at the new market, from an Italian bank ATM to dual-language signs to iPads displaying news from Italian newspapers.
Daniella Zalcman for The Wall Street JournalMario Batali, right, at the preview of Eataly on Tuesday.
The New York location houses seven restaurants featuring everything from salumi and hand-made mozzarella to a raw bar and Neapolitan-style pizza baked in two ovens imported from Italy. Only one of the restaurants—Il Manzo—has white tablecloths and will take reservations (and also happens to serve carne crudo, or raw beef, a favorite in Italy).
The other restaurants are incorporated into the retail sections, which serves as the heart of the market. One of the most anticipated elements—the 4,500-square-foot rooftop beer garden—won't open until November. Beers will be made unfiltered and unpasteurized, naturally carbonated and hand-pulled through traditional beer engines.
"This isn't a selection of restaurants under one roof," Mr. Batali said. "This is a retail store where we peddle the greatest of Italian gastronomy to people who want to eat it and know how to appreciate it. You ask any Italian and all of the smart Americans where the best meal they ever had in the last ten years was, and it was never in someone's restaurant. It was always in the house."
Still, Mr. Batali and company have brought much of the star power to Eataly from their existing restaurants. David Pasternack, the chef at Esca, will oversee the seafood restaurant; Nancy Silverton, of Mr. Batali's California restaurants, is heading up the bread baking; and Michael Toscano, formerly of Babbo, is the chef at Il Manzo (meat).
Some have wondered if there is a need for such a vast retail of Italian foodstuffs. Ihsan Gurdal, the owner of Formaggio Kitchen, which has a tiny gourmet food shop in Essex Market and two larger shops in Massachusetts, questioned the size of Eataly, though he said he was excited to see it. "My motto is less is more. If you start with this huge thing and products have expiration dates, it's a gamble," Mr. Gurdal said. "The size is definitely an issue. I think it's overwhelming."
Others, like Tim Zagat, the co-founder of the Zagat Survey of restaurants, said he believes there is a strong enough demand for Italian products. "We ask people what their favorite food is," he said. "In New York for the last 20 years, Italian food has always come in number one by far. People like to eat Italian food every day."
Write to Sumathi Reddy at sumathi.reddy@wsj.com
I'm not a huge fan of Batali's very rich Italian food which can only be described as "Americanized Italian"... But if you're into butter and olive oil - definitely worthwhile. Now he adds a new layer of sophistication to his restaurant empire - a "food marketplace" called... Eataly. Let's hope the food is better than the name.
