Archive for June 4th, 2008

In a new variation on media migration, Sci Fi plans to debut a dramatic series and simultaneously release a video game companion to engage viewers as role players in the unfolding drama.

Sci Fi is working with Trion World Network to develop an online multi-player game it can brand to play off a TV drama slated for a summer 2010 premiere.

The drama, to be set in the late 21st century, is being conceived as a multi-season, on-air series with an evolving online game to let viewers play the characters, according to Adam Stotsky, Sci Fi executive vice president of global brand strategy and market development.

“What we’re going to do is look to use each medium to its fullest,” Stotsky said. “TV is best at telling a linear, dramatic story. What games do really well is allow you, the viewer, to immerse yourself in it and become part of the story.”

Stotsky projects a lifespan of 10 to 15 years for the game, which will offer variations on the plot of what will likely be a near-Apocalyptic or post-Apocalyptic drama. Sci Fit and Trion are working together to develop the plot for the drama and video game, he said.

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Big marketers are enlisting to be part of Lifetime’s “Army Wives,” including Ford Motor Co., which is getting a special plotline that promotes the automaker’s support of the effort to fight breast cancer.

When the second season of “Army Wives” starts June 8, Procter & Gamble will sponsor the premiere episode with limited commercial interruptions, as it did last year before the series emerged as a hit.

Ford’s storyline starts in the season’s sixth episode, airing July 13. In that show, Betty, who owns the bar that exploded at the end of season one, discovers she has breast cancer and decides she needs to change her life.

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Exxon Mobil, which for more than 30 years was identified as the underwriter of some of the classiest shows on public television, most prominently Masterpiece Theater, but which withdrew from such sponsorships in 2004, is returning to PBS — but on a far more modest scale than previously. The company has agreed to partially underwrite the Nightly Business Report, produced by public TV station WPBT in Miami, and Nova, produced by WGBH Boston. The resumption of Exxon Mobil sponsorship comes at a time when several other corporations are abandoning public television and reportedly creating major funding challenges for PBS. Only last month it was reported that Archer Daniels Midland had decided to end its 14-year sponsorship of The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.

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Here’s the set up: Three college guys are on a 600-mile road trip to Daytona Beach, Florida, for spring break. The student in back mentions casually that he has brought along a bard. His friends up front peer around and see two Elizabethan-looking musicians with a tambourine and recorder. “A bard?” they ask. “Yeah,” says the third student . “He sings about our deeds and adventures and stuff. My family got one when we went skiing in Vail; it’s pretty sweet.”

This two-minute video created by a professional comedy trio, is currently one of 10 semifinalists in a comedy sketch contest on YouTube sponsored by Toyota’s 2009 Corolla, a car whose advertising motto is, “Live the Dream for Less Coin.” If you can’t figure out what’s funny about a bard in the backseat, or how the phrase “less coin” is anything but bad grammar, don’t take it personally: You probably just aren’t in the demographic Toyota is targeting with its ambitious YouTube campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

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World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. honcho Vince McMahon is looking to draw a few more viewers to “WWE Raw” with a weekly $1 million giveaway during the USA Network show.
“McMahon’s Million Dollar Mania” will offer $1 million a week from McMahon’s undoubtedly deep pockets to bring viewers back to “Raw” and to spawn new fans, the melodramatic pro wrestling maven told a live Bakersfield, CA, audience during Monday’s show.

“This is no hoax. This is the real deal,” McMahon said standing at a Plexiglas podium full of play money. “Why would I give away a million dollars in cash? Maybe it’s because I’m eccentric, or maybe it’s because I’m generous. Or maybe I just want people to enjoy and watch what you enjoy every week.”
In a statement on Tuesday, he called it “my own version of an economic stimulus plan for our viewers,” which would “no doubt” increase ratings.

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We’ve got confirmation that CBS is going to announce an important partnership with Yahoo tomorrow morning.

While we don’t yet know exactly what it will entail, we are confident that Yahoo will be joining the CBS Audience Network, which distributes CBS content to destinations such as YouTube, AOL, MSN, Joost, Veoh, Fancast, Bebo, and TVGuide. See a longer list of partners here.

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The changing face of communications in today’s attention-deficit economy took center stage at first annual Voiceboxx Executive Roundtable yesterday.

The event, presented by Weber Shandwick at the 21 Club in New York City, included marketing executives from Siemens, Mastercard, U.S Army and Lazard.

Concerns about properly engaging consumers was foremost on their minds. For some the answer was online. “Wonderful things are happening digitally,” said Amy Fuller, Mastercard Worldwide group executive. We need to “Keep brands global and in-tune with the times” and to do this ” we must digitally embrace it.” she said

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Love it or hate it, in-game ads are here to stay, and this morning both of Sony’s North American and European arms drove that point home, announcing partnership with in-game advertising firm IGA Worldwide. The move follows some vocal trepidation from Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer earlier this year concerning the viability of shilling real word products in video games, concerns obviously muffled beneath the sounds of counting money.
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To help fuel the resurgence of its popular shades, Luxottica is launching a campaign in support of the Ray-Ban Wayfarer “Color Collection.” Five pop artists were tapped, under “Project Colorize,” to come up with their interpretations of each of the brand’s five new products.

Their creations, based on the pink, ice blue and other new styles of Wayfarers, will be featured on billboards around New York City beginning next month.

Expected to draw 16 million impressions monthly, the billboards will be co-branded with Marie Claire. The artists (Scott Alger, Queen Andrea, Ron English, Tara McPherson and Toofly) will be featured in an advertorial in next month’s issue.

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The National Hockey League has signed Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light as official beer of the NHL through the 2010-11 seasons. While the NHL has the unique position of being a pro league with both Canadian and U.S. teams, it had not offered bi-national marketing platforms. The deal with Anheuser-Busch (and Labatt, which markets and distributes Bud Light in Canada) changes all that. Bud Light has brand category exclusivity across North America for NHL media, games and special events.

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