by Brady Brim-DeForest on June 7th, 2010
Tremor Media, the largest video ad network in the world (according to ComScore), has been expanding its suite of interactive video ad products at a break neck pace since early 2010. Today, the New York City based company announced a strategic partnership with Israel based Innovid to provide a white label version of Innovid’s iRoll technology to Tremor’s network of over 1,500 sites. Today’s announcement comes almost exactly a year to date from Tremor’s launch of its own interactive ad platform, vChoice, in June of 2009, and comes hot on the heels of its $40 million dollar Series D funding round in April.
The product, which will be marketed under the vChoice iRoll brand, brings interactive functionality to pre-roll ad units including the ability to print coupons, view multiple videos, showcase product, and integrate with social media tools. The product will be integrated into Tremor’s ad operations platform, Acudeo.
by Marc Hustvedt on June 7th, 2010
At first we thought it was just us. We’re just reading into this too far, victims of a steady diet of too much web video. But when we checked out Taco Bell’s first ever original web series, Super Delicious Ingredient Force, we had to watch it three times just to be sure. We thought there’s no way this was intentional, we were just fueled by a Quentin Tarantino neurotic observation rant—like his break down of howTop Gun is actually a homosexual love story. But a major brand like Taco Bell wouldn’t go there, would they?
No, they went there.
Does Taco Bell know how overtly gay this thing is?
by Jenni Powell on June 7th, 2010
Why is the End of the World so hot right now? After a slew of zombie-related news the last several weeks, yet another Apocalypse-related series has hit the internet. But what’s wonderful about this theme is there is room for all genres and styles.
Take Hollywood Wasteland, for instance. In the first episode we see Steampunk references, an homage to the Terminator films, a wacky cast of characters including an actress who thinks headshots of her as a chimney-sweep are going to set her career ablaze and a basement dwelling conspiracy-theorist whose favorite phrase is “it all ends…tonight”. Based on the premise of the show, he’s probably about to be right…
Written by Caley Bisson (who also stars) and Ellwyn Kauffman, directed by Matt Newcomb and produced by Jeff Winkler (The Legend of Neil), Hollywood Wasteland plays with themes we’ve seen over and over (the vapidness of Hollywood, sending protection for the savior of the world back through time) yet melds them together in an interesting and unique way. What if instead of Arnold appearing naked in a giant fireball it was a beautiful blond appearing in a kid’s bouncy house?
by Joshua Cohen on June 4th, 2010
The Wall Street Journal is good at making online video. More importantly, the Wall Street Journal is good at making online video lucrative. The international business and financially-focused newspaper sees CPM rates in the range of $75 to $100 for its videos on WSJ.com.
So, what do you do when you’re a print organization whose traditional revenue sources are dwindling in value, but even one of your biggest competitors implicitly admit that you’re killing it in the online video space? You create as much video as you can. This week, WSJ launched its latest live video offering with the premiere of Opinion Journal Live.
Every weekday at 12PM ET, James Freeman, assistant editor of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, and editorial board member Jason Riley play host on Opinion Journal Live and feature interviews with newsmakers and WSJ op-ed contributors. Expect to see frequent appearances from deputy editorial page editor Daniel Henninger, Americas columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady, economics writer Stephen Moore, and Potomac Watch columnist Kimberley Strassel from Washington, D.C, all commenting on the day’s top topics.
by Jenni Powell on June 4th, 2010
“Transmedia Elegance”, “Distant Mountains”, “The Spine of the Mythos”, “Keiretsu”: these were just some of the terms and concepts being explained to a room packed full of rapt professionals as they listened to Transmedia visionary Jeff Gomez speak for eight hours plus (he went long but no one minded one bit) on June 2nd at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica, CA. People had traveled from as far as Italy, Mexico, and Canada to attend and participate in this rare opportunity to gain valuable insight into Gomez’s process when creating a Transmedia property: from mapping out every aspect of your franchise to production of materials across platforms to whether to keep your I.P. ownership or allow fans to extend your universes (Gomez always leaned towards giving fans as much creative ownership as possible in order to extend the chances of longevity).
Organized by KidScreen, a leading international trade publication serving the informational needs and interests of kids entertainment professionals, this one day Transmedia Bootcamp, as it was marketed as, sought to arm the audience with the tools necessary to create attractive properties across such varied platforms as video games, publishing, mobile phones, as well as more traditional forms such as television and film. Some case studies (both successful as well as attempts that fell flat) explored, many of which Gomez’s Starlight Runner Entertainment had a direct role in creating, included Coca-Cola, Pirates of the Caribbean, Godzilla, The Crow, Hot Wheels, Valemont, and many more.
People feverishly took notes are typed away on laptops as Gomez openly shared years upon years of experience in creating story universes designed to extend beyond just one entertainment platform and indeed should work in tandem to create a cohesive and engaging whole. One of the first diagrams Gomez revealed is a set of shapes, each shape representing a platform (movie, game, book). He described a “Typical Media Franchise”, in which the shapes are simply stacked and leaned against each other: touching, but not truly connecting. He then revealed his Transmedia philosophy in diagram form in which the shapes truly fit with each other, forming a perfect rectangle.
by Brady Brim-DeForest on June 4th, 2010
It’s no secret that online video ads outperform display ads three times over. So it’s also no surprise that both venerable and upstart digital print brands are increasingly turning to video as a vehicle to increase advertising revenue.
Enter AllHipHop.com, one of the world’s most popular hip hop websites. Last spring, they teamed up with UK based JumpOff.TV to launch their first web series. The Next 48 Hours profiles icons from the hip hop world in the hours before and after major milestones in their lives. The 21-episode first season wrapped in December and profiled such hip hop notables as Jadakiss, Redman & Method Man, Fabolous, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Rick Ross, and Wale. Each profile spans a three episode arc, with each episode timing in at over 10 minutes.
The second season, which launched June 2, is kicking-off its first three episodes with rapper Nas and reggae dynasty heir, Damian Marley, as the pair launch their new album ‘Distant Relatives.’
by Marc Hustvedt on June 3rd, 2010
BCS Ticket giveaway on Tubefilter? Darn straight. Ok no, not that BCS. The digital one. If you’re heading up near Toronto this week, then we highly recommend hitting the Branded Content Summit tomorrow.
Canadians have been a driving force in the innovation of original online entertainment—ever notice how many web series notables hail from up North? So here at Tubefilter we’ve teamed up as an official media partner for the 2010 Branded Content Summit which kicks off Friday in Toronto. Presented by Venture Communications, the day-long conference will be held at the Toronto Board of Trade and bring together leaders from all side of the branded content scene—those that make great entertainment and those that want to use that to reach their customers. Will they play nice together?
by Drew Baldwin on June 3rd, 2010
Students from the Internet and Mobile Concentration Classes at the Television Department of Columbia College Chicago released the first episode of their original web series The Rent, a comedy about three careless friends who dream up crazy schemes to earn rent money before they get evicted from their apartment. The first of six episodes premiered May 13 with a new installment every Thursday at 9:00 pm (Central).
The three central characters, played by Brendan Carney, Nick Bender, and Kevin Quatman, plot get rich schemes that range form sex tapes to blackmail to illegal conspiracies—perhaps they should take a few notes from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
The Rent follows Columbia College’s successful 2009 web series Sexperts, which cleverly leveraged the audiences of YouTube celebrities like Michael Buckley, Valentina of Val’s Art Diary, and Tony Huyin (thewinekone) by casting them as townsfolk appearing in Skype videos on the show.
