GenDigital

Eisner's Vuguru Going For Number Two Webisode Series

After scoring what most people are saying it is a modest hit with Prom Queen, Michael Eisner's production company is getting ready to launch a new short form series that will be called "The-All-For-Nots," a documentary styled series that follows the trials and tribulations of independent rock bands on tour, this according to the trade magazine Mediaweek. The series is exepected to drop early this fall in September or October. The series will encompass a total of 24 episodes, aired weekly and lasting about 7 minutes each. Oh, and btw, Vuguru execs also said they're going another round with Prom Queen with the premiere episode of new season "Summer Heat" dropping in August. I assume they'll be using the same distribution channels like MySpace as well as the home URL.

In Style's Teen Spinoff Says Bye Bye After Just Two Issues

If you really thought about it for a few minutes, this was totally counterintuitive from the get go. As Time, Inc is preaching (and executing) all things digital, what the heck were they doing launching a spin-off targeting of all segments, teen females, just as we said so long to Teen People and Elle Girl last year? Exactly, it wasn't happening. So, after just two issues, they have decided to kill the teen spin off, which originally was scheduled to be a quarterly publication. I would have to think it came down to ad pages. The premiere issue carried 24 pages and the most recent issue on newsstands now carried just 20 pages. With the selling prowess and clout of Time Inc and In Style I would have expected better, but the market has spoken, and they do not see the need for a new teen fashion, beauty and entertainment title to exist, even if it is only a quarterly and even if it is a spin off of a top ten book. There was no mention of whether the accompanying instyleyourlook.com web site would live on, but we'll keep an eye on it. I am a little disappointed. The contrarian side of my head thought the launch would do so well this year (you should at least check out one the issues, it's a nice mix of content and photos) they would run 10 times in 2008. So much for my thinking, it's just not a good time to be a teen magazine publisher.

Can A New Pink Notebook Get Dell's MoJo Back?

Forget about the $600 iPhone and the slow and unreliable AT&T cellular network, I want one of those hot new pink notebooks from Dell that looks fit for Reese Witherspoon's character in Legally Blonde. At least that's what Dell is hoping for, take away just a little bit of the unprecedented buzz for the iPhone and shine just a little light on its new line of notebook computers available in an array of colors ranging from flamingo pink to sunshine yellow. Who do you think Dell is targeting these new notebook computers to? Right, young people. The problem and challenge for Dell is simple, yet large. Over the past two years, there has been a seismic shift in purchase intent and actual follow on purchases in the notebook computer category. Where there was once a time not so long ago where it was Dell, Dell, and yes, Dell, that just isn't the case anymore. Apple's Macbook has put quite a dent in Dell's reign over the past 18 months. With special students discounts and features and functionality we've detailed in great almost boring length at this point in previous Youth Trends reports and this blog, it has been a ninth inning grand slam home run. Now, going back to the problem...The key is all about purchase intent and then converting those intenders into customers. What we don't see right now is lots of intenders. Typically, about 16 to 20% of teens and college students purchase a new computer each year, of course the overwhelming majority of those purchases (more than 80%) are for notebook computers. According to our latest research purchase intent for a new computer is just over 10%, a rather sharp decrease from what we've seen previously and consistently. Essentially, what we believe is that for the most part, young people purchased or received their computer of choice in the past 18 months so were embarking on the down part of the purchasing cycle. Six to 12 months from now, we'll start heading upwards again, but right now from a youth market standpoint, this could be the most inopportune time to introduce a new line of computers. I would also say this time will include the upcoming mega crucial back to school shopping season when almost three out of four computers are purchased. We'll go ahead and field our back to school retail and shopping report in about four weeks and we'll either confirm what we're seeing right now in terms of the lower purchase intent levels, or we'll have some different news, news that would certainly benefit the struggling computer maker from Round Rock.

In The Midst of Turmoil, Yahoo Snaps Up Rivals...Who's Next

To say the very least, it's been tough for Yahoo and its shrinking list of supporters over the past couple of weeks. After non-stop criticism from research analysts and shareholders, their CEO stepped down last week pushing the stock up 4% for the day. Now that the dust begins to settle word is out today that the company is losing their widely respected display ad chief, Wenda Millard, who is heading off to Martha Stewart to be their sales chief. Slick move if you care for my opinion. Unfortunately, as the news came out yesterday, Yahoo basically said she was let go rather than leaving on her own accord. Anyway, from what I hear, she certainly won't be the last sales team member to leave this summer. An old colleague of mine is running a group over there and she said that things are pretty lousy in terms of morale and what not. So, does it make a lot of sense for the troubled company to be acquiring hot start ups like sports community and information service Rivals.com? I guess business must go on regardless, right?  No purchase price was released so we can't comment on whether they landed a sweetheart deal or not. If anything, the acquisition continues to validate the market drawing power of the high school/college sports vertical. There are barely any independents left at this point, and perhaps the next great concept or application doesn't even exist yet. We'll see, but if I were one the Rivals.com staffers, I'd be a little bummed about heading into the hands of a company enveloped by negativity.

MTV Leveraging Mutliple Platforms For Super Sweet Sixteen Flick

MTV is preparing a full frontal assault leveraging multiple media touch points as it readies the made for television movie version of its reality series hit "My Super Sweet Sixteen." Starting next week, MTV will release the mobile version of the "My Super Sweet Sixteen" the movie on Verizon's V-Cast service. This marks the first time the cable network releases a movie via a wireless platform before premiering on-air. For those of you not into the whole mobile media thing, you can also view new flick on-demand if you're a Comcast customer. For those of us who are not Comcast customers or prefer to bypass the mobile viewing, you will just have to wait until July 8th when the movie will air on the network for the first time. In case you have plans on the 8th and don't have a DVR, no need to fret because beginning just two very short days later, the DVD will be available. One might deduce this could be some sort of working blue print for future content offerings as the major media conglomerates continue to evangelize the whole notion of being platform agnostic. 

Under Armour To Target Females After Conquering Male Market

When you think about total game changers in the youth and young adult retail category over the past two years, there is a certain shoe manufacturer from Colorado that would most likely come to mind first. Of course we're talking about Crocs. Perhaps under the radar a little bit, but certainly benefiting from the explosive growth of organized youth sports, both team and individual, as well as the increasing number of young people who are regularly exercising and working out, you might not think of Under Armour, unless you visited a high school gym lately, because they are everywhere, which might explain how the company has gone from $20MM to $430MM in annual revenues over the past four years. Now, after creating this new category niche of apparel in the performance space (and forcing top behemoth competitors like Nike and Adidas to innovate quickly and bring a similar product link to market) Under Armour has set its sights on the other gender, and our prediction is that they will succeed. Why? For the same reasons they have been wildly successful targeting high school and college aged men who participate in organized sports or regularly work out. Guess what, the girls are doing the same thing, and in some cases, even more so. Think we're nuts? Go do a search on high school women's lacrosse, volleyball or field hockey, the three fastest growing female interscholastic sports nationally according to our latest Teen Lifestyle Report. It will be interesting to see what the new tagline is for the female line..."we must protect this house" might not resonate as much.

Flickr Teams With Blurb For DIY Books

Flickr, the Yahoo-owned property and number two photo site after Facebook's photo service is partnering up with DIY book maker Blurb.com to enable users to include images and photos as part of their book making endeavors. Flickr claims its users have been providing feedback that they wanted to make their own books, so it makes a lot of sense to do something with Blurb. If you haven't checked out Blurb, I would encourage you to do so. The site's free downloadable application, called BookSmart, is really sharp. Although we haven't seen a tremendous amount of interest from young people when it comes to creating their own books, we are keeping a close eye on it. We do believe that booking at some point will become a part of the curriculum for journalism and English maker types as well as become popular with the artistic and emo psychographic youth segments, essentially the same young people who are updating their own personal blogs on MySpace, LiveJournal or TypePad.

Outside of North America, Newspapers Are Thriving

Subscribers to our Insights Report were able to review the latest print and online readership numbers among teens and college students for national newspapers in the recently delivered June Report. The story has been a familiar one over the past 18 months. Print readership continues to fall while online readership is not only growing rapidly, but its growth rate has reached a point where print has never dared to even touch. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize the papers are reaching new first-time readers through their digital offering. There are number of factors that have led to rapid ascent of online newspaper readership among the audience. If you aren't a YT subscriber and interested in reviewing a copy of the June report, you can email me for a copy. Anyway, back to the original thought. There is a report out today from the World Association of Newspapers that shows worldwide readership and sales of print newspapers have increased sharply over the past 5 years effectively positioning the media channel as the world's second largest behind only television and ahead of radio, outdoor, online, cinema and magazines combined...yes, combined. Asia seems to be place for where most of the action is taking place. Seven in ten world's to 100 best selling newspapers are based in Asia. China and Japan are home to 60 of the world's top 100 selling newspapers. The takeaway here is be careful and thoughtful in your view of various media channels. Just because something isn't working well here in the U.S. doesn't mean its broken throughout the rest of the world.

Media and High School Sports, It's All The Rage

If you been following any of our research or this blog over the past six months, you are already quite familiar with the commercialization of high school sports. We've detailed the current and past successes as well as future market opportunities for Internet media properties like CSTV's MaxPreps.com and Takkle.com. If you go all the way back to our 2007 Trends and Predictions report we made the call of the growing importance and value of niche social networking sites led by the sports category. Today's NY Times nicely sums up a lot of what we have been saying for the better part of a year. The parties that make up the high school sports engine, that is, the athletes themselves, their parents and coaches are a formidable force and one that marketers are increasingly trying to gain favor with. CSTV is aggressively building out its recently acquired MaxPreps franchise by offering a wide variety of on-demand offerings that will almost certainly provide us with a new crop of mini-celebs, many of whom probably aren't even old enough to drive to school. Given of all of this activity, you can bet that the worldwide leader in sports coverage, ESPN, has to have a few tricks up its sleeve so it to can join the next "it" thing: high school sports. 

The Sopranos Ends...Kind Of

How could I start the week and not say something about the end of The Sopranos. In a way it could be considered some kind of sick joke by the show's creators. All the hype and suspense and then...nothing, absolutely nothing to be even more precise. Early estimates have nearly 50 million people tuning into last night's finale of the show that has left its mark on American television and popular culture forever. Some viewers might be a little bitter and jaded this morning based on what happened (or didn't happen) in those final scenes, but I believe that is exactly what the show's brilliant creators wanted you to feel. Sure to dominate the Monday water cooler conversation, I thought it was so very telling to see the finale go back to its roots in many ways. Anthony Jr. who has been headed down a path of negativity, depression and even a suicide attempt ends up right where he started, a spoiled kid driving a new BMW M3 after his parents intervene and keep him out of the Army. Carmela is looking at kitchen plans for her new shore house, she always seemed to be doing something to her North Caldwell McMansion. Remember her little almost tryst with Vic the painter way back? I also thought it was so very much a Sopranos episode or theme if you will to have the inclusion of the cat. Since day one it has been all about the animals for Tony. Go back to episode one with the ducks through his horse Pie O' My and now his new friend the cat from the safe house. They ended with no ending, which opens up the possibility and almost certain speculation of a future Sopranos movie to occur sometime in the future, a rumor that has been thrown around ever since the last season was announced some two years ago. Whether you liked or disliked how things came to a conclusion last night, one thing is for sure, the creators of The Sopranos were never one to follow a carved out path. They had the unique ability to mix the most gruesome violence with almost comical naivete and examine the American nuclear family in an unprecedented light. I am sorry to see it go away, but I will hold out hope for film project that may be, just may be will tie up some loose ends.