Lonelygirl15

lesbrent · Casual Observer Joined: 09 Sep 2006 Posts: 105

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624087

Lonelygirl15 Creators Woo Mad Ave, Launch Production Co.

By Zachary Rodgers

December 1, 2006
Greg Goodfried, one of the creators of scripted video blog Lonelygirl15, has a message for the advertising community: Bree, the show's moon-faced and home-schooled main character, will hawk your wares.
"Bree is a fictional character, but she lives in the real world," Goodfried told ClickZ. "She interacts with products on a daily basis. She has to use a cell phone. She has to drive a car."

Goodfried and Creative Artists Agency, the talent agency representing Lonelygirl15, have recently begun shopping the episodic show around Madison Avenue. They're seeking to cut ad deals for the breakout Web hit which for a few weeks last summer became mandatory viewing for Web video addicts and a topic of fascination for media columnists everywhere.

Goodfried and CAA will offer advertisers a range of methods to reach its audience, including banners and sponsorships on Lonelygirl15.com; but the big focus is on product placement. That's because LG15's main distribution channel is YouTube, which doesn't share ad revenue with content creators. Hence, storyline tie-ins are the show's only recourse to ad revenue since the majority of fans are watching the show on YouTube.

A recent LG15 video involved a product placement of sorts. Though a pro bono effort, the video, featured Lonelygirl15 actress Jessica Rose gazing into a Webcam in trademark fashion; however, this time she spoke about global poverty to promote The United Nations' Stand Up Against Poverty Campaign, rather than gabbing about boy and family troubles. Arranged by Young & Rubicam, it marked the first project from Web video production company Telegraph Ave. Productions, the latest offering from LG15's co-inventors, Miles Beckett and Mesh Flinders. The firm will develop new series and provide marketing support to generate online buzz for traditional film and TV releases, and may do work for other verticals as well.

LG15's originators are laboring to reduce their reliance on the video sharing platform where Bree found her first success. After LG15's first wave of popularity, the show's founders began publishing all their videos on Lonelygirl15.com and developing special content there, including forums and chat features. A recent twist in the storyline sought to drive more YouTubers to the Web site. After her hotel room is ransacked, Bree asks her viewers for some assistance. "All the comments you guys have been giving us have been really useful, so I was thinking maybe you guys could help us out. I'll be in the chat rooms tomorrow at lonelygirl15.com at 6:00 pm Pacific Time, so if you want to come on then, you should."

As it turned out, the chat software only allowed 100 participants at a time, but Goodfried said 350,000 visitors flooded the site between 5:00 and 7:00 pm. Six extra chat rooms were set up to relay information from the main room.

Such efforts have helped grow the Web site's audience to approximately 25,000 unique visitors per day. By comparison, each new video gets about 300,000 views on YouTube, where LG15's videos have garnered the most subscriptions on the site.

Videos on Lonelygirl15.com are hosted with Revver.com, which pays a percentage of ad revenue to creators. Additional inventory on the site is sold through ad networks, including ValueClick and BidVertiser.

Going forward, ad products will be more creative. Sponsors will be attached to specific sections of the site, such as the video responses or the forum. A sponsored video contest might take the theme "Proving Science Wrong," a takeoff on Bree's tongue-in-cheek video entries of the same name. "We'd let people upload their own 'proving science wrong' videos. Have it sponsored by, say, HP and [the winning] fan gets a new laptop," said Goodfried.

He suggested technology, clothing and cosmetics advertisers could be good fits for the show's audience, which he characterized as primarily between the ages of 16 to 28 and tech savvy. He added Lonelygirl15 might partner with an ad agency, which could then develop packages and represent its inventory to clients.

Marketing tie-ins with the storyline itself will have a light-touch. "We want to keep it as authentic and keep as much artistic integrity as possible," he said. "We hope we can get the right advertising partners who understand that, who don't want to take our videos and turn them into a three-minute ad for the product, but who really want to embrace what we're doing for what it is, and let it help them get their message across."

Previously an entertainment lawyer, Goodfried handles most of the business tasks involved in LG15's production, such as reaching out to music labels on soundtrack integrations with the show. He characterized director/producer Miles Beckett as "the visionary behind the whole thing."

All in all, Lonelygirl15 remains a scrappy operation. "The cost isn't crazy. We pay the actors. There are some costs for the video, the props, the food. We all left jobs where we were to do this."

He said the payoff was the chance to create something completely new and "100 percent interactive."

"When people talk about Internet video or Webisodes, they're often stuck in this static vision. Every component of our Web sites is used to tell the story. Our characters go to the chat room, use the forum, read our video responses."

On the advertising front, he said, "We just need to find that one right person who gets our vision."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

So you are claiming that on the night of chat you had 350,000 UNIQUE visitors?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And this article is rather interesting to...

Click here

"Saturday Night Live" rehearsals may be webcast
Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:39 AM ET

By Andrew Wallenstein

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - NBC is mulling broadcasting Friday night rehearsal sessions of "Saturday Night Live" on the Internet.

It's just one of the many scenarios the digital future could deliver, according to NBC Universal chief digital officer George Kliavkoff, who openly mused about the possibilities Wednesday at the Digital Entertainment Media & Marketing Excellence conference at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

"Sometimes it's a lot more interesting than the show," Kliavkoff joked, referring to the closed-circuit footage of "SNL's" Friday dry runs viewed at NBC headquarters. "It's something we watch on the cameras at 30 Rock."

Opening the window to "SNL" rehearsals might represent a case of art imitating art imitating art yet again at NBC, which already has mined behind-the-scenes happenings at the sketch comedy franchise as comic catnip for the Tina Fey half-hour series "30 Rock" and dramatic grist for Aaron Sorkin's drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

Kliavkoff, who has been overseeing NBC Universal's digital efforts since coming over three months ago from a similar post at Major League Baseball, was participating in a panel discussion on digital media when he presented the "SNL" idea as one of a growing list of original content ideas bubbling up at the company's digital studios.

Much of the panel's discussion centered on whether the emergence of user-generated content will become an art form unto itself or just a way for establishment media to skim the cream of the crop. "We see the Internet as our new A&R," Kliavkoff said, referring to the music industry term for talent scouting. "We're out there scouting. The good stuff bubbles up to the top."

Steven Starr, founder and CEO of viral-video outlet Revver, begged to differ. "From our point of view, we see creators develop with no intention of going offline," he said. "(Internet actress) Lonelygirl15 is making a substantial amount of money on a weekly basis just by being online."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter[/url]

TJ Marsh · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:14 pm Post subject:

It still isnt making them enough.
_________________
Long live LG15.

TJ Marsh · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:17 pm Post subject:

gogo · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:48 pm Post subject: hmmm

lesbrent wrote:

GoodGollyItsHolly · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:02 pm Post subject:

What is revvers definition of a lot of money anyway. SAG actors dont come cheap. Im guessing it is costing the creators a grand per actor each day they shoot. Not to mention other incidentals.

This website isn't cheap. Producing a form of entertainment on this scale is wildly expensive. You don't have to donate if you don't want to, but discouraging others from doing so may not be so good.
_________________
Im sorry; you must have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Anastasia Beaverhousen.
Jonas Is OBSESSED!!
http://one.revver.com/watch/297382/flv/affiliate/48242

lesbrent · Casual Observer Joined: 09 Sep 2006 Posts: 105

Gogo, thanks for your analysis of me posting two articles! It was linked in the other thread because it was a discussion of the fans "squelching" the CREATORS creativity, when I feel it's the reverse! I'm so over the God Worship. The Creators, like a heavenly being.

Simply put. I guess it's time to stop asking the fans for money if you are ad shopping, huh? They had us thinking how broke they were until the head hancho at Revver (the second article) points out that they (I did not read it as the actress, Jess Rose) are making a substantial amount of money. Edit - how would he personally know what Jess is making? But he would definately know what Miles, Mesh and Greg were bringing in.

This doesn't even require a response, does it?

gogo, I was the first person to tell the creators to put a paypal account button on here. I'm a little Jaded because I believed they were so broke at the time they couldn't afford to pay Yousef. I feel like the wool has been pulled over a lot of people's eyes.

The number manipulation thing bothers me too. Such lawyer speak as to impress, but carefully worded so not libelous in nature.

Complaints and Concerns don't always need a response.

The response can be a clearer conscious and more honesty.

TJ Marsh · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:09 pm Post subject:

have you ever thought that the quote was a lie made up by the news group??
_________________
Long live LG15.

trainer101 · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:10 pm Post subject:

silvermoon · Guest

GoodGollyItsHolly · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:11 pm Post subject:

I just totally disagree with you les.
_________________
Im sorry; you must have mistaken me for someone else. My name is Anastasia Beaverhousen.
Jonas Is OBSESSED!!
http://one.revver.com/watch/297382/flv/affiliate/48242

silvermoon · Guest

lesbrent · Casual Observer Joined: 09 Sep 2006 Posts: 105

trainer101 · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:18 pm Post subject:

GoodGollyItsHolly · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 4:18 pm Post subject:

gogo · Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 5:03 pm Post subject:

lesbrent wrote: