by Marc Hustvedt on August 6th, 2010
Automakers love web video, and they especially seem to love YouTubers.
With the US economy on the rebound, automakers have already heavily stepped up their spending on TV spots, but with more of their customers shifting time to online video watching, web networks like Hulu, YouTube and Revision3 are feeling the uptick as well.
“In many cases, content lives on TV and online, so we look to buy in integrated places,” said Ford’s marketing director Matt VanDyke in a recent interview with Auto News. He added that, Ford is “absolutely pushing our broadcast partners to bring us more meaningful integrations.”
Ford started early with its ambitious push last summer to launch its euro-styled subcompact Fiesta into the US market, through its Fiesta Movement launched on YouTube. The campaign literally gave cars to dozens of active YouTube creators for six months, tasking the lucky auteurs to create serious of videos of experiences with their Fiestas. The campaign was so successful that the company expanded it again this year and continues to tap the YouTube community.
So when Korean automaker Kia Motors wanted to launch its sub-$15k subcompact Kia Soul, aimed at young first-time car buyers, YouTube was the natural place to head. Its popular ‘Soul Hamsters’ ad spots from 2009 scored in terms of views (more than 2.6 million), but the real power of harnessing YouTube is in tapping its creative community to make videos around a product. Launched a week ago, the new Kia Soul campaign went right to the core of what drives so many of its active uploaders—the insatiable desire to become YouTube-famous.
by Drew Baldwin on August 6th, 2010
Eric Fensler, writer and creator from comedy group Tim & Eric, has teamed up with spirits and wine company Pernod Ricard USA to direct Party-Like-A-Pro, a series of infomercial spoofs for Malibu Rum featuring its new product Malibu Cocktails, a line of premixed drinks packaged in ready-to-use pouches.
by Marc Hustvedt on August 5th, 2010
Ever since YouTube rolled out annotations two years ago, we’ve seen all kinds of games and even blatant attempts at gaming the in-video links.
But for Chad Villella, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Rob Polonsky—or ChadMattandRob as they are known to their YouTube faithful, they saw annotations as a whole new way to tell stories on the popular video platform. The trio, along with Lonely Island member Jonah Goldstein, whipped up a string of elaborate interactive comedy series starting with 2008’s breakout The Time Machine, which scored several million views across its web of “episodes.”
They followed it up with The Murder in 2009 and then this year’s The Birthday Party which bowed in January (see below). Now the trailer for their latest interactive quest—The Treasure Hunt—hit the internet today (above) expected to release sometime later this summer.
by Joshua Cohen on August 5th, 2010
Two weeks ago, YouTube announced Unstaged. It’s a new, five-part concert series brought to you by the world’s largest video sharing site, the world’s largest music video sharing site, and American Express. Each installment will be live streamed on YouTube and promises to “have unique on- and offline components to entertain fans,” which means viewers will be able to choose from which camera angle they watch the shows, vote on encore performances, participate in Q&As, and be involved with other interactive components unique to each musical act.
Arcade Fire, an indie rock band fronted by the still married Canadian husband and wife duo of Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, kicks off Unstaged tonight in New York City. The world’s most famous and least humble arena, Madison Square Garden will play host to the band, its thousands of fans, and Monty Python alum and award-winning filmmaker, Terry Gilliam, who’s directing the concert (which almost makes sense because Arcade Fire has a mildly disturbing song with airy vocals and strings called Brazil).
The concert coincides with the release of Arcade Fire’s third album, The Suburbs. Fans not residing in major metropolitan areas are encouraged to participate in tonight’s event by uploading pictures of their own suburbs, which will be featured onstage during the concert.
The show starts at 10PM EST, preceded by a Q&A with Gilliam asking the band questions submitted by YouTubers. If you can’t catch it live, clips from the concert will soon be made available on Aracde Fire’s YouTube channel. And you can still try to make it to a few of the next Unstaged concerts. John Legend and the Roots are one the lineup, as well as two more unannounced artists.
by Marc Hustvedt on August 4th, 2010
YouTube: The Movie? Not really, but with all the hype around the upcoming Aaron Sorkin penned Facebook movie—The Social Network—we were bound to see a YouTube parody on the movie’s compelling trailer. This one (above) from Jeff Loveness actually makes us want to see that movie more than the Facebook one. “You like being a joke Keyboard Cat? You want to go back to that?! I made you!” [YouTube]
Whitney Port, star of The City, MTV’s popular New York spinoff of The Hills, is set to star in a web series next month, according to sources of NY Magazine’s Vulture blog. The web series is Alloy Entertainment’s recently announced scripted project Hollywood Is Like High School With Money, which is set to premiere on September 14 on AlloyTV.com. Also joining the cast is Ian Harding (Liars) and Brian Hallisay (Privileged), who both had previous roles in Alloy-produced series. [NY Magazine / Vulture]
The International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) today announced the five new members of the Board of Directors who will serve until full elections at the end of the year. Joining the 11-member Board are Miles Beckett (EQAL), Zadi Diaz (Epic Fu), Chris McCaleb (Big Fantastic), Jim Louderback (Revision3) and Tim Shey (Next New Networks). [IAWTV Press Release]
The Valley Girl sat down with the rapper turned social media maven MC Hammer in the latest episode of Jesse Draper’s pink power chat show. And in case you missed their season premiere last week, media mogul Ted Turner was first up. [The Valley Girl Show]
by Drew Baldwin on August 4th, 2010
Inspired by HBO drama How To Make It In America—which follows two enterprising twenty-somethings as they try to succeed in the competitive New York fashion scene—sketch group the SAX show just launched a trailer yesterday for a new parody web series How To Make It On YouTube.
by Joshua Cohen on August 4th, 2010
Critically acclaimed web series, The Guild debuted a Bollywood-themed music video about the pleasures of MMORPGs at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Less than two weeks later, Game On is at the top of the iTunes charts.
Late last night, Katy Perry succumbed to online video starlet, Felicia Day’s social media prowess and uber-popularity. Game On bumped this summer’s top bubblegum pop hit, California Gurls from its #1 spot on the list of top-selling music videos on iTunes in both the US and the UK.
The news should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with The Guild’s music video track record. Last year, it only took two days for Do you Wanna Date My Avatar to break 1 million views on YouTube and reach the top of iTunes’ music video charts.
But Game On’s reign of the charts only lasted a few hours. Country music star and former Mr. Renee Zellweger, Kenny Chesney now sits atop the best-seller list with his high school football anthem, The Boys of Fall.
Can Game On regain the #1 spot? Will gamers unite to take down their lifelong arch-nemeses, aka football fans? Let the Reclaim the Top Selling iTunes Music Video Quest begin.
by Joshua Cohen on August 3rd, 2010
Back Stage is an entertainment-industry-oriented brand started in New York City in 1960. At its core, it’s a robust resource for actors, helping them navigate the media landscape and find performing arts and casting information. The SAG Foundation is an offshoot of the Screen Actors Guild, the labor union which represents over tens of thousands of principle and background performers. Since its inception in 1985, the SAG Foundation’s mission has been to “assist, educate, and inspire, actors.”
Tonight, in New York City, these two established organizations at the center of traditional media will host an exploration of the burgeoning industry that is new media. Net Gain: Creating, Marketing and Building an Audience for New Media is a panel discussion with industry professionals, aimed to give the audiences of both Back Stage and SAG a sound overview of current online video trends and the the myriad ways to get started in web TV.
Join myself, Rob Barnett (Founder/CEO, My Damn Channel), Wilson Cleveland (SVP & Director, CJP Digital Media), Eric Mortensen (Director of Content, Blip.TV), and Vanessa Pappas (Director of Audience & Strategic Partnerships, Next New Networks) for what should be a great discussion of how, when, and where you can make new media magic happen.
Not in NYC? No problem. Tune in above at 7PM EST to see the live stream of the event.
Got questions for the panel? The SAG Foundation will be tweeting throughout the event using the account @SAGF_Live and using #SAGF to track questions any questions.
