In episode 102 of Couch Crashers, Kevin and Ben try to find Conan Obrien but instead wind up buying an awful star map from a midget and having Rowdy Roddy Piper put the sleeper hold on them. It’s unbelievable, it’s Couch Crashers, baby!

First episode of C.C. is up…Watch Kevin and Ben go to the Battle in Seattle.

Episode 2, featuring Rowdy Roddy Piper, premiers March 16th..

The show we sold to Playboy.com, Couch Crashers, is premiering tomorrow, Monday March 9th, on Playboy.com.  It’s a lifestyle / interview show featuring two comedians (Ben Gleib from The Real Wedding Crashers and Kevin Kline from The Playboy Morning Show), “crashing” cool events, while getting full access to them. The show is being produced with Alta Loma Entertainment (playboy’s non-adult division).We’re very happy to announce that Bushmills has committed to sponsoring the first five episodes of the series.  Thank you Stacey Drucker for believing in the project when we brought it to you back in November!  Here’s a link to Episode 1:  http://playboy.com/arts-entertainment/features/couch-crashers/      

Check this out…

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: 

We are thrilled to report that we have completed shooting an online reality show for a health and beauty brand that was made in conjunction with a major publications…whew..neverthought we’d get that out in one breath!  Sorry for the ambiguity, but our 5 million dollar NDA won’t allow us to give out details…As soon as there’s a window to talk, we will let the cat out of the bag. On a different note, we have just closed sponsorship of our online series, “Couch Crashers”.  The series follows two commedians as they “bring the funny” in the most outrageous situations…It will air on Playboy.com (keep your pants on fellas, it’s not THAT kind of show…or is it?) 

This video is from last year at TED.  It’s 20 minutes long and it gives some insight on his creative process.

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!

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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.

The Museum’s Website

We just found out the video we did with Eric Schwartz, aka Smooth E, won 2 Silver Davey Awards….one for

Music Video and the other for comedy short…The video, Crank dat Kosha Boy, went viral immediately, ending up with over 4 million hits online.

We’d like to give a special shout out to our man, Eric Schwartz, aka Smooth E, for involving us with the project.

We would like to announce that Diligent has taken home a total of three 2008 Davey Awards.  For the full press release you can go here.

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. ”