With the news that WPP’s GroupM agency and Yahoo are teaming up to create some new brand-backed original web series, we were intrigued and wanted to find out a little more about the deal. GroupM after all is the parent of Mindshare Entertainment which produced the noted comedy web series turned TV pickup by ABC, In The Motherhood. That series itself was a brand-backed from the onset, with Sprint and Unilever’s Suave on board even before ABC came calling. Could this signal the start of Yahoo getting into scripted web series?
The deal itself is an ongoing one, where GroupM and Yahoo will jointly take series proposals, often just in rough synopsis form, and pitch those directly to brands to see if there’s a fit. Some of the early ideas being throw around include a 50-state reality series looking at job hunting across the country (Now Hiring: The Great American Job Search), a series about a band on tour dubbed Rock N’ Roll Jet Plane and a mom-themed scripted comedy series Tales From the Carpool Lane.
We caught up with Yahoo VP Erika Nardini, who is heading up the GroupM partnership. While most of the series are still in development, she mentioned that no new series will get greenlit for production without commitment from a brand sponsor.
Tubefilter: What can we expect from this new set of web series? We’ve heard The Rock ‘N Roll Jet Plane!, Now Hiring: The Great American Job Search are in the works.
Nardini: We are in discussions around several concepts, including Rock N’ Roll Jet Plane and Now Hiring, but will not launch a new series until we’ve partnered with a brand partner, who will play an important role in the development process.
