Melissa Roth quoted Diligent Partner, Ron Eigen in her article on branded entertainment titled: Meet the Monetizers: The Year of the Branded Web Series for the newly launched site editorial site eGuiders. The site shows great original online videos recommended by great entertainment professionals.
In the article Melissa talks about the evolution of branded content. She references several examples of the ways in which brands have integrated their messages with entertainment… our favorite being this integration of Winston Cigarettes with The Flintstones:
Our new multi-touch kiosks have been installed at the Natural History Museum for the new Visible Vault installation that houses the Latin American collection. Here’s a sneak peak of the interactive screens!
The exhibit is currently in sneak preview mode (for members only). But it fully launches in mid-January, so stop by and check them out.
Some info on the collection:
The archaeological collection from the great Aztec, Maya and Inca empires and their surrounding cultures is being conserved in preparation for a new exhibit. The objects from the ancient civilizations of the Americas – Southwest United States, Mexico, Central America and South America.
First off, the project we did for Parrot with Ground Zero Agency, “Kid Fails Driving Test”, has won two Gold Davey Awards in this years competition. There were many people that made that project such a success, but we’d like to thank Advertising Agency, Ground Zero, for making the project one of our best of 2008.
Now, onto the Davey Awards… here’s a little blurb about them:
“The International Academy of the Visual Arts was honored to have once again participated in the International Davey Awards competition. We were truly amazed and excited at the overall caliber and quality of this year’s pool of entries” noted Linda Day, Executive Director of the IAVA. She added “The Davey Awards serves as the benchmark for recognizing creative excellence and continues to raise the bar in honoring the best work from small agencies and firms worldwide. Congratulations to the “Creative Davids” at the forefront of their industry, helping to push the limits in creativity and design.
The Davey Awards is judged and overseen by the International Academy of the Visual Arts (IAVA), a 200+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. Current IAVA membership represents a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms including: Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Yahoo!, Estee Lauder, Wired, Insight, Interactive, The Webby Awards, Bath & Body Works, Brandweek, Polo Ralph Lauren, ADWEEK, Alloy, Coach, iNDELIBLE, MTV, Victoria’s Secret, HBO, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Myspace.com, and many others. See www.iavisarts.org for more information. ”
Our co-founder Ron Eigen will be moderating a panel at this years Digital Hollywood Fall in Santa Monica -
The panel is on Thursday the 30th at 12:50, so if you are attending the conference, stop by. Track IV:
Strategizing the Campaign: Selling Movies, TV and Video on the Web, Social Media, Mobile and TV David Straus, Chief Executive Officer, WITHOUTABOX Mike Fitzsimmons, CEO and Founder, Delivery Agent Terry Dry, President, Fanscape, Inc. Liz Jones, Vice President of Media & Entertainment, The Hyperfactory Albin Reif, Founder and CCO, 65 Media Craig Hill, CEO, Digital Outlook Jenny Wall, President, Crew Creative Ron Eigen, Partner, Diligent, Moderator
Currently, Jambo Media delivers more than 2 million daily video plays and supports video on more than 120 web sites and growing on a weekly basis. Diligent, has partnered with Jambo to produce event content for the distributor.
In the world of online video, is every view equal? How do we measure success as marketers continue to tap online video as a new marketing and PR medium? As PR and marketing agencies begin to integrate social media into their campaign roadmaps, how does online video fit in? Which leads the campaign—format or content? This session will discuss campaigns that have worked as well as ones that have tanked, and seeks to discern what the consumer is really watching.
Recently, Ron Eigen – one of Diligent’s partners spoke on a panel as part of Digital Hollywood’s Building Block’s conference in San Jose. Here’s Ron’s thoughts on the event:
-Good times and Good People. The panel on which I spoke – All Video-All the Time: Next Generation in Media Technologies – Broadband and Mobile – Content & Advertising was fun. Michael Goodman, Director of Digital Entertainment for the Yankee Group was the Moderator and did a really good job of keeping the conversation flowing. Also on the panel were: Chris Hock, Senior Vice President, Product Management, BlackArrow, Brendon Mills, CEO, RipCode, Rajeev Raman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, mywaves, and Jackie Danicki, Director of Marketing, Qik
We discussed where some of the opportunities in the online video world lay, and also, where some of the red-herrings might be. A common point was the elusive nature of monetizing User Generated Content, while branded content and syndication of professional content were seen as opportunities.
An interesting question was posed towards the end of the discussion which asked which tact is better from a content owner’s perspective, syndicating one’s content out to as many platforms as possible or keeping it at one destination?
Both models are in use at the moment to varying degrees of success. The “hyper-syndication” model is currently in use by studios like Crackle, Next New Networks, My Damn Channel, and 60 Frames. The goal is to get the content out to as many places as possible, and then aggregate the views in order to sell advertising across all of that viewership.
The competing approach, is being experimented with by Josh Wheeden with his new Dr. Horrible series. The goal here is to control the traffic by limiting accessibility, and only giving one channel through which users can buy the content. In this case, that one channel has received so much traffic that it has actually been overloaded (Flood of Fans Crashes Dr. Horrible Website).
“So far, the first installment, or act, has been wildly popular, outpacing shows like Lost, The Wire and The Daily Show to rank No. 1 on the iTunes list of most popular television series.”
I guess that means the approach is working. Unfortunately, not all brands share the draw that Mr. Wheeden does, and often brands attempting microsites or viral videos get lost in the shuffle without proper seeding or media buys.
It will be interesting to follow both these models as they are experimented with. Also, a new model championed by Google that is entering the game will be exciting to watch. The model takes advantage of their AdSense network by targeting viewers who might be the audience for a web show. The web show in the case of Google’s first attempt in the game of original content is being created by Family Guy Creator – Seth MacFarlane (NY Times Article on the deal) and should be a hit. Although what justifies a hit may now be changing as new metrics must be designed for new mediums.
All in all, the discussion during the panel was fun and raised probably as many questions as were answered. I look forward to continuing the conversation, learning more, and seeing where things go. As new models and trends emerge through experimentation in the world of online and mobile video it will be exciting to see how things shape out. I can’t wait for Digital Hollywood 2050 when we’re all complaining about how to monetize brain waves.
In other news, CBS’s hit show “The Amazing Race” was nominated for a 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Reality-Competition program category. Diligent partner, Gabriel Landau, produced on this year’s nominated season!
Melissa Roth quoted Diligent Partner, Ron Eigen in her article on branded entertainment titled: Meet the Monetizers: The Year of the Branded Web Series for the newly launched site editorial site eGuiders. The site shows great original online videos recommended by great entertainment professionals.
Our co-founder Ron Eigen will be moderating a panel at this years 
Great news….We were just notified that the video we produced for the Captain Morgan for President 2008 campaign was showcased on FoxNews!
Recently, Ron Eigen – one of Diligent’s partners spoke on a panel as part of Digital Hollywood’s Building Block’s conference in San Jose. Here’s Ron’s thoughts on the event:
The competing approach, is being experimented with by Josh Wheeden with his new
It will be interesting to follow both these models as they are experimented with. Also, a new model championed by Google that is entering the game will be exciting to watch. The model takes advantage of their AdSense network by targeting viewers who might be the audience for a web show. The web show in the case of Google’s first attempt in the game of original content is being created by Family Guy Creator – Seth MacFarlane 
