GenDigital

The WB Will Get A New Life Online

Two years ago The WB and UPN announced they would merge to create the The CW Network. In one fell swoop, we said goodbye to a network brand that brought us youth hits like Dawson's Creek and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, among others. Now after a two year hiatus we will be able to see the WB brand again, this time though it will be an online destination, exclusively. Under the Warner Bros. Entertainment umbrella, TheWB.com and KidsWB.com will launch officially next month (they're currently in beta right now) featuring a slate of ad-supported episodes of former hits ranging from Buffy to Smallville to even episodes of the iconic Friends, still after all of these years a top 15 program among teen and college women. Along with the archived shows, The WB hopes to get some mojo by launching new made for online series created by the likes of Josh Schwartz of O.C. fame and McG another top writer/producer. As noted, some pundits express a lot doubt about the viability of new video-based destination site. On the contrary, I think it's a slam dunk. Some of the most streamed episodes online are hits of yesteryear. The WB still has extremely high levels of brand awareness, especially among 18 to 28 year old women. The addition of Friends alone will certainly provide an immediate boost and assuming one of the star writers/producers can create something that sticks, there is no reason not to believe the new sites won't draw in at least a couple of million uniques each month.

Records Will Be Broken With GTA IV Release Tonight

Last year's top selling game title, Halo 3, holds the record for first-week sales, at nearly $300 million. All indications lead us to believe that the record will soon be broken starting at midnight tonight when Grand Theft Auto IV hits stores shelves. Expect long lines outside gaming retailers like EB World and Gamestop. Along with the Wii Fit from Nintendo (which won't be released until May 21...more on that later), GTA IV is already the top pre-ordered title on Amazon. GTA IV will be released for the category leading Xbox 360 console, which 17% of teens and college students own and Sony PlayStation 3, owned by 5% of teens and college students. There is little crossover console ownership. Only 14% of Xbox 360 owners also own a PS3. Much like the buzz and anticipation leading up to last year's release of Halo 3, the buzz surrounding GTA IV has been nothing short of non-stop since early February. Here's the killer stat: more than half of Xbox 360 or PS3 owners, which representative of some 1.6 million teens and college students plan on purchasing GTA IV and nearly a third of them, about half of million say they plan on purchasing it the week its released. Just doing some quick math, it works out to $100 million in sales for GTA IV, and of course that does not take into account the hard game charging twentysomething demo. Video game tracker NPD Group releases its April game title sales data on May 15, expect to see GTA IV take the crown from Halo 3 as the most successful release of all time.

Tween Superstar Will Stir Controversy Pot With Latest Photos

Well, I guess all I can say is oops. Without a doubt the media circus will be buzzing today (in between the doom and gloom recession pieces) about a racy photo of Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana that will be featured in the June issue of Vanity Fair. Who wants to bet that VF's June issue will end up being its top seller at the newsstand this year? Before everyone goes into the how she could this diatribe, let's remember for a sec that she is 15 years old and is surrounded by handlers. Handlers being parents, managers and agents. Simple questions for them: Where were you when the shoot occurred, and why would you go along with it? Truth be told, in today's sexed up and violence filled media world, you really can't get anymore wholesome than Hannah Montana, ok may be High School Musical comes close, but Hannah still kills them in popularity. Far and away she is the most popular celebrity among American kids and tweens. Call it what you will, but this story is sure to be in the headlines for at least the next couple of days and will put Disney, the engine behind the billion dollar Hannah Montana immediately on the defensive. 

Disney Has Green Ambitions With Launch Of New Film Division

First off all, Happy Earth Day to everyone. Of course it would be hard not to notice that today is Earth Day as evidenced by the green marketing tactics used today by portals ranging from Yahoo's front page all the way to a front page greeting on the NY Times advertising The New School's new environmental studies program. Apparently, everybody is going green. Disney's film group looks to leverage the surge in green awareness and interest in launching a new production banner under the name Disneynature. The decision, according to Disney brass was really a no-brainer based on the success of "March of the Penguins," which cost less than $5 million to produce and had box office receipts in excess of $125 million. The first film due to drop under the new production banner will be a film titled simply "Earth" which by no small coincidence will be brought to us by the same producer who created the highly rated "Planet Earth" mini-series that aired on the Discovery Channel. "Earth" will be released exactly one year from today. In 2010 Disneynature will drop "Oceans," which touts the use of a new technology to film underwater activities and coming in 2012 look out for "Chimpanzee," which will be filmed over the course of the next three years on the Ivory Coast. Like most other films under the Disney or Pixar umbrella, the Disneynature films are sure to be family friendly, a plus considering about half of tweens surveyed in our latest Tween & Teen Lifestyle Report said they attended at least one movie in the past two months with a parent or a friend's parent.

Video Game Industry Rips Through March...More Good News Coming

What a difference a couple of years make...The video game industry has been on a tear of late and there is no reason to think that will change anytime soon as more highly coveted titles, including the much anticipated release of the new Grand Theft Auto series drops in a couple of weeks. NPD Group, which tracks the video game category reported a blow out out month for gaming software companies as well as sales of console systems, led again by Nintendo's Wii. All told, sales of video game titles soared 63% in March on a year over year basis to nearly $1.0 billion. Much of the gain came from the release of the new Super Smash Bros. title, "Brawl" which sold nearly three million units during the month. Sales of Wii systems in March reached 700,000+ more than the combined sales of Xbox 360 systems and PS3 systems. Based on all of our tween, teen and college gaming research data, the Wii continues to be the console of choice for the youth market and again will more than likely end up in the top position on this year's Holiday Gift Wish List Report. It's just absolutely amazing what the Wii has done so far. I'd even go as far to say what the iPod did to the digital music industry, the Wii is having the same effect on the gaming category, it's just out of this world. For Nintendo, not to be outdone by sales of its category leading Wii system, also registered a healthy up tick in sales of the DS portable system which grew to nearly 700,000 units, up from under 600,000 the prior month. We've seen DS be especially popular among tween girls, ages 8 to 11, which represents a demographic that's relatively new to the category overall. As the release date of Grand Theft Auto IV draws closer, I think it is pretty safe to go out on a very sturdy limb and say they'll sell more than 2.0 million copies by the end of this calendar year and will certainly be one of the top three titles for the year. I'm sure the consumer watchdog groups will love to hear that. On that note, Happy Friday!

How Legit Is Your Green Marketing?

Ok, so we all know "green" is the new black. On a daily basis it's virtually impossible to not hear of some brand or company touting their "green" plans in newspaper and magazine articles, sites and blogs, cable news nets, radio spots...basically whatever media you choose to interact with, you're hearing something "green." What we're starting to see from some of our panelists, mainly those on the older side, 20 to 26 is a certain level of skepticism. We just wrapped up our monthly immersion and many of the posts from panelists when the subject turned to the environment and "green" marketing sounded like this one: "I think the whole “green” phenomenon is getting boring too. I understand how important it is to conserve natural resources and be kind to the planet, but hearing about it every day several times a day is annoying.  Of course, this panelist was still in the minority for having negative feelings, the more prevalent type of responses we received went something like this: "GREEN IS IN! All over campus you see "Go Green" signs and almost any products that promote going "Green" are popular. So, what's the action item here. Well, our opinion would be this...the market we cover, younger consumers, are looking for basic pragmatic like steps they can take on to reduce their personal impact on the environment. At the same time, they're looking to companies and brands to help them outline what exactly these steps would include. So clearly there is opportunity here, but tread carefully and think about something relatively simple and straightforward whether it be some kind of recycling drive, clothing drive or sustainable food push, trying to do more than one of these things might be too overwhelming for the audience, at least right now.   

One Year Anniversary of Virginia Tech Shootings Marks Reflection

Today marks the one year anniversary of the tragic shootings on the campus of Virginia Tech. It was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history and sent huge shockwaves around college campuses across the nation and around the world. The actions of the shooter who took the lives of 32 people before turning his gun on himself sparked an unprecedented amount of attention on school safety. We reflect one year later by reading thoughts and feedback from our panelists some of whom are students at Virginia Tech. As the reality of the events sunk in, college administrators from around the country quickly scrambled to evaluate their own safety plans, created new special task forces to evaluate their plans and some schools even embarked on PR efforts to ensure their respective students bodies knew work was underway. One of our panelists, who is currently is junior at Virginia Tech posted yesterday on our internal blog that she felt like she was having a deja vu nightmare with all of the television trucks parked on campus and the hoard of television and newspaper reporters all over campus. She went to say she thought school officials could do a better job of keeping the campus clear all of media people during this extremely difficult week of mourning and reflection. We found her comments to be quite interesting. Another panelist from Virginia Tech who is also junior posted last night and said he was almost shocked that it has already been a year since the shootings. Reminiscent of 9/11, he said many students don't mention the word tragedy or shootings instead they just say 4/16. By the way, he went on to say that today was his 21st birthday, typically a milestone event for any college student for obvious reasons, and that he was staying at school today to participate in many of the campus events that will be held. The tone and focus shifted pretty dramatically as other panelists from around the country posted their thoughts and feedback. Several of these panelists expressed angst and frustration that their schools need to do a better job identifying students with mental and emotional problems before tragedy strikes. They directed their anger and frustration towards what they deemed an "inadequate mental health system" on campus. They felt if students didn't have a feasible outlet available to seek help the safety measures enacted on their campus were meaningless. These type of thoughts were posted over and over again. I think it is really interesting to see that students, unlike mainstream media, are intently focused on this rather than safety measures like text-message based alerts, key-card entries and other safety measures that seem to be more of a focus for everyone else.

Gossip Girl Goes Risque To Promote Return

The dust has settled from the writer's strike and the networks are back in the business of airing new episodes...finally. Last week's return episode of "The Office" was classic. Although, NBC might catch a little heat for the bleeped out f-word, but hey, it was still funny. A network that already has been catching some heat from consumer watch dog groups is The CW. They might find their dial turned up even more this week as they launch a new campaign promoting the return of one of their top shows, "Gossip Girl." In addition to pushing the boundaries of good ole "sex sells" equity, the campaign makes liberal use of the tag "OMFG." Many of you probably already know "OMG" stands for "Oh My God." You can guess what the "f" stands for. The complaints are sure to fly into their general counsel's office, but at the same time, their mission of creating buzz for the return of the network's only new show to stick will most certainly be accomplished--the viewers will tune in come April 21st. The problem is not so much who the creative is targeting--mainly 18 to 34 year olds, even though a decent percentage of teens watch Gossip Girl as well as evidenced by our Teen Top Ten List report and Tween & Teen Lifestyle Report, but the characters themselves. After all, Gossip Girl is about a bunch of well to do kids attending a ritzy Manhattan prep school. Could you imagine Aaron Spelling running a piece of creative like this back in the 90s for Beverly Hills 90210? Chances were probably slim to none, and slim just left the room.

How Not To Go About Executing Mobile Marketing On Campus

Sometimes it's easier to highlight of an example of how not to do something backed up with context and reasoning why. In this case, I'm talking about mobile marketing on college campuses. I can't think of a subject that's generating more buzz right now other than may be green marketing initiatives or branded Facebook apps. We've written extensively in our monthly Insights reports about the promise of mobile marketing and even have included several case studies of brands and companies that in our opinions have actually done a great job executing a program...and more importantly, why it was successful. That said, in catching up on my reading from yesterday, I saw a not-so-nice write up in the NY Times about a company called Mobile Discovery and a pilot program they're running on the campus of Case Western Reserve University (home to 34 of a our panelists, just checked). The piece starts out how we as a country are way behind the mobile power curve with consumers in Europe and Asia way ahead of us when it comes to making purchases via mobile and other activities that are still considered incredibly emerging here. Anyway, so the company, Mobile Discovery is conducting this test and working alongside the school's engineering department, whereby those students are helping to manage the program. Through the test program, students are able to download software to their mobile phone and using that software they are able to view a campus bus schedule, order a magazine, get news alerts from USA Today and even enter a sponsored sweepstakes. Ok, sounds relatively ok up to this point...right? Personally, I would have included a few more relevant apps besides a bus schedule, like what's on the menu at the dining halls, how about local campus news alerts and updates instead of just national updates, etc. Anyway, back to the crux of the story, here's where the ball got dropped, about 50 floors down, mind you. The first mistake was cost-related. Yo, if you're doing a test like this, and you're the lead service provider, you'd better have a deal in place with the carriers to either participate as a secondary partner and bypass data costs or step up to the plate and assume those costs, neither of which the company did. Lo and behold what happens, the kids get charged data fees every time they access one of these apps. How do you think the response rates have been so far? The article calls it tepid, which a nice word for shitty. Second, apparently the company's CEO needs a refresher course in morals and ethics. The article notes that the Mobile Discovery CEO gave a presentation to the one of the engineering classes and featured a slide of a topless woman who had a bar code on the rear of her jeans. As can be expected some students laughed it off while others were a bit dumbfounded. One of the students present at the time of presentation ended up writing up an editorial in the school's newspaper (which how I imagine the NY Times picked up on it) objecting to the company by saying they were "slapping bar codes on women as if they were six-packs of Budweiser from the local grocery store." Yikes. When it comes to mobile we've never said we had all of the answers, we like to believe that we can stimulate some thinking among our clients and readers and hopefully provide some insights as to best practices, but if you need a little (or a lot) of cold water splashed on your face for a quick reality check, this should be top of the list of things not to do.   

 

Court Rules In Favor Of Alcohol Ads In VA Campus Newspapers

With stories buzzing around the net today ranging from MySpace's music endeavors to the rumored release of a new iPhone, this story will probably not receive a lot of ink. The Cavalier Daily, the University of Virginia's campus newspaper reports that a Virginia court has ruled in favor of allowing alcohol advertisements in their paper as well as in Virginia Tech's campus newspaper, The Collegiate Times. Citing the first amendment suppression, the Virginia chapter of the ACLU stepped up to represent the school's papers. Can you imagine the letters and calls school officials will receive today from parents and organizations like MADD? Honestly though, I'm not sure this will turn into anything substantial for the papers. Yes, it's true that most college kids read their campus newspaper, more than 80% of them according to our latest data. However, beer and alcohol companies are constantly under heavy scrutiny and pressure as it relates to their media buys. I don't think it is feasible that just because all of the sudden two campus papers in Virginia accept alcohol ads, the brands will come running with 52 week plans. If anything, it might be a good community and social responsibility push for a brand leader like A&B's Budweiser to come in with creative that talks about responsibility exclusively, but the notion that they'd run a pure branding campaign instead is not realistic, they'd be killed in the mainstream media.