A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE FROM E!

Cynopsis: DIGITAL
07/23/12

Good morning. It’s Monday, July 23, 2012, and this is your first early morning digital briefing. If you would like to read this or any other Cynopsis editions online, click here.

EQAL is a social entertainment company that partners with a wide assortment of celebrities and brands to develop personalized digital networks through which they can engage with their audience. The company is also a YouTube partner, as it operates u look haute, a beauty and fashion original programming channel. I recently chatted with EQAL Founder and CEO Miles Beckett about EQAL’s network of celebrity and brand websites, its original channel, and the company’s history in developing content for the web.

You are the original creator of lonelygirl15, a web series on YouTube that has a little bit of notoriety within the web video space. Could you give us some background on that and how it led to the development of EQAL?

When we first began filming lonelygirl15, Greg (Goodfried, EQAL co-founder and President) and I knew that there was something different about the experience of watching videos online. We were active members of the YouTube community and participants in the creation of a whole new “online video language” just like the language of film and television. We certainly hoped that lonelygirl15 would take off, but we never expected it to launch an industry and evolve into the incredible company, EQAL, that we have today. All we knew when I quit working as a doctor and Greg quit his job as a lawyer that we had something special and wanted to be part of the future of what was happening online.

EQAL has really grown out of the core principles we established with lonelygirl15. The way we work with our celebrity partners and O&O properties like u look haute, tap into those original ideals. Be organic and truthful to the audience, create a tight personal bond between the audience and the property, incorporate interactivity throughout the content to make it easy for fans to participate and share. The community builds around you because they trust you and they want to be part of the larger narrative.

Of course, now we have a large organization that provides a comprehensive solution, including technology, editorial support, social media management, and monetization; back then we were just producing videos in our bedroom! It’s really been incredible to see the industry and EQAL grow.

Lonelygirl15 was the first online video series to feature product integration; how did that work?

We had NO money and we had to go to our community and basically say, “Hey guys, what would you think if we created a character who worked as a scientist at Neutrogena? We promise it will be cool and it will help pay the bills.” This was back before any videos online incorporated advertising, so we weren’t sure how the community would react, but the response was tremendously positive. So, we did this deal and a few others, and Neutrogena actually gave us a corporate email address for our fictional character, and we answered his emails! This thinking, around integrated advertising, has evolved into the sponsored post ad unit that we use across our media networks. We are very careful to integrate products that fit into the individual properties and there is always a value-add so that our fans get something; whether it’s a coupon or a chance to win or another give back, they are getting something special and it is always clearly marked that it is a sponsored post. The sponsored posts are some of our most positively commented upon posts, some have literally tens of thousands of comments. Everybody wins.

A big aspect of EQAL’s business is to partner with celebrities or brands to develop these individual sites that feature a lot of social functionality. Can you describe the “operational process” behind these celebrity/brand networks as well as your other content properties?

EQAL takes a very personal approach to all of our media networks, whether it is the celebrity influencer networks, the branded entertainment networks or the owned & operated networks. We produce all of the video content for u look haute in house — we’ve already debuted more than 140 videos totaling over ten hours of original programming in the first 15 week season and are about to launch the summer season tomorrow with some really exciting mainstream celebrities. For our media networks, we work very closely with each of our partners to ensure that their content is always available to their communities in an attractive and accessible way. It’s really like the celeb or the brand is the Editor-In-Chief of their website and social media and we are the Publishers. We provide all of the support functions in house — from design to graphics to website build to editorial to video production to analytics and audience development, publicity, marketing, business affairs, business development, and more, we provide a total solution for our partners, allowing them to focus on what they do best.

What’s the interplay between the celebrity, his or her team, and EQAL in developing and publishing content?

We are very transparent in how we identify where the content is coming from. If a post says “Tori Spelling” on ToriSpelling.com, it’s from Tori Spelling, if it’s from, “Ms. Loo” on TheCloroxLounge.com, then it is coming from the branded community and it’s clearly marked that way. If a post says it’s by “Team Bethenny” on Bethenny.com, then you know that Bethenny approved it but it’s coming from her team. Just like editors might offer suggestions to their writers, we may do that, but like I said, the internet is all about being organic, authentic and truthful and the more involved the celebrity is, the more successful they are. These are their media networks, their websites, their twitter accounts and Facebook pages, and their YouTube channels.

Could you go into the ideation and development process of u look haute? What signaled that this was the type of channel that had the chance to succeed on YouTube?

When we met with YouTube about being a partner in their “originals” program, we realized that there was something special about the beauty vloggers, and having worked with Michelle Phan and Elle & Blair Fowler (more than 350 million combined YouTube video views), we knew there was a real audience there. And there has been. One of the most interesting things that we’ve noticed has been that when we’ve run longer episodes, some of the Beauty Vlogger Boot Camp episodes have been more than 20 minutes, the audiences do watch. I just saw a recent comScore report that had the average video at about 6.5 minutes, which is increasing, so this is also an interesting thing to pay attention to. There’s something about the one-on-one experience online that works for fashion and beauty online. Although, I’d have to admit, I am not the target audience on that one.

EQAL has seen some significant growth for the company’s web properties:
social media reach jumping to 60.1 million followers across multiple social networks; page views rising to almost 19 million a month; unique visitors jumping to almost 5 million a month… What’s driving this growth? Is it just that presence of well-known celebrities that brings followers to wherever they may be on the web, or something else as well?

We are always looking at what activates viewers, what they like and what they respond to. They like repetition, so when Lauren Conrad does the “Tuesday 10,” fans like to know that they can count on her for that every week. Fans love personal stories, they loved that Tori Spelling announced that she was pregnant again on her website and that she posts photos from her children’s birthday parties on the site and takes the reader through how she decorated the backyard and how she made the decorations. Now her husband, Dean McDermott has launched TheGourmetDad.com and he’ll be showing all of the things that people love about him on the television shows, on his own website.The celebrities and brands that we work with are active. They are posting and tweeting and communicating with their communities and providing them with information that they can use. This way, a fan can say, “I learned this today or I got a tweet about this today” but instead of it being from Mary, it’s from Jennifer Lopez or Bethenny Frankel.

Amazon.com has inked a licensing deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution to bring some more TV shows to Amazon Prime Instant Video. With a movie and TV show catalog that stands above 18,000 at the moment, this new deal makes The West Wing and Fringe exclusively available to Prime members and Kindle Fire customers. However, this exclusivity only lasts for the rest of this summer. The Prime Instant Video service is currently available on a number of devices, including the Kindle Fire, Roku, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

The ACC Digital Network has launched a new partner channel on YouTube with the intention of offering over 300 hours of sports programming per year, spanning live events and daily on-demand content. At the moment, it’s YouTube’s first and only official partnership with a collegiate conference. The ACC Digital Network, which was launched in 2011 with the help of tech start-up Silver Chalice, produces daily coverage of the conference, including highlights, news, analysis, behind-the-scenes content and interviews, historical footage, and coverage of all the conference’s championship events. As part of this partnership with YouTube, the ACC Digital Network plans to air live streams of 20 NCAA events this year. The fall live game schedule will be announced in the coming weeks. The channel’s programming lineup also includes a weekly live studio show that will air on Saturdays throughout the college football and basketball seasons. As a way to promote this deal, the Network is hosting a Google Hangout today from noon to 12:30pm ET. It will feature ACC Commissioner John Swofford, ACC Digital Network Host Jeff Fischel, former Wake Forest QB Riley Skinner, and Head of YouTube Global Claude Ruibal and YouTube’s Director, North American Sports, Frank Golding.

Uncommon Content has premiered the Reserve Channel on YouTube, a new product of the video site’s ever-growing original programming initiative. The channel launches with four new shows: On the Table with Eric Ripert, in which the famous chef invites celebrities, such as Anthony Bourdain, Mario Batali, and Stanley Tucci, into his kitchen to cook their favorite dish and also be interviewed; Be Well Week, Be Well Weekend with Dr. Frank Lipman, a show in which the host and a celebrity guest dispense health and wellness advice; Capture with Mark Seliger, focusing on the art of photography; and Ex-Pats, in cooperation with Travel + Leisure, with Savannah Jane Barrett, where the daughter of Jimmy Buffett finds people who moved to a foreign country and interviews them. Along with these original series, the Reserve Channel is also offering licensed content from an array of providers.

More YouTube original programming initiative news: The LiveStrong Woman original channel will air Taking London, a video series that profiles four aspiring Olympians as they try to make the team and compete in the London games. The channel plans to publish two main episodes per week throughout the games and through the athletes’ return home. It will also post additional content such as extended interviews and outtakes. The four athletes are Destiny Woodbury (track and field), Carol Rodriguez (track and field), Arielle Martin (BMX), and former gold medalist Seimone Augustus (women’s basketball). The LiveStrong Woman is owned by Demand Media, and is one of three original channels created by the company for YouTube.

Staying on YouTube… Thousands of YouTube partners are currently bringing in more than $100,000 a year, according to what Google SVP Nikesh Arora said during the company’s Q2 earnings. While he didn’t go into more detail about the video site, he did take the time to boast that YouTube has found its business model.

An agreement between Apple and Twentieth Century Fox bill bring the studio’s library of films to iTunes in the Cloud, per The Verge. This means all of the six major Hollywood studios now have deals in place with Apple to offer digital copies of their movies on the cloud-based service. iTunes in the Cloud allows users to re-download old purchases of movies as well as to store them in the cloud. Users can stream purchased movies on multiple devices, including PCs, Macs, iOS devices, and Apple TV.

To promote its own TV Everywhere initiative, Turner Broadcasting is deploying brand ambassadors to local events around the country in order to get the masses informed about the offering, reports Multichannel News. According to the report, Turner’s fleet of TV Everywhere promoters will probably be found everywhere but regions covered by Time Warner Cable, as the company has not struck a deal with the operator to offer its content on multiple devices.

Hulu has updated its video player. New features include 10-second rewind; Up Next, which gives viewers the ability to browse more videos from inside the player without having to pause the current video; and better organization of settings like closed captions, pop-our player, and lower lights by placing them together in one spot. Hulu says that it now also automatically selects the best quality video for your bandwidth.

The Cynopsis Sports Media Awards Breakfast takes place on August 9 in New York City. If you haven’t seen the finalists and registered to attend yet, you can do so here.

Twitter has rolled out targeted tweets for brands and advertisers who want to reach a specific audience without having to first send that tweet to all of its followers. The offering, available to all Promoted Tweets clients, allows advertisers to segment their audience and target to each specific one based on location and/or device. This option has already been available to Promoted Tweets clients; the difference now is the ability for advertisers to not have to first send the tweet to all of their followers. They can compose the targeted tweets using the tweet box on ads.twitter.com. Twitter says it’s been testing this offering with several beta partners, including British Airways, Coca-Cola, The Washington Post, and Wendy’s.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

A new Harris Interactive poll finds that streaming video apps are the most popular apps for both connected TV owners as well as for those who do not own a web-connected TV device yet. Three of the top five “must have” apps for connected TVs are Netflix (47% for owners; 24% for non-owners), YouTube (44%; 31%), and Amazon Instant Video (34%; 23%). The poll also shows that YouTube seems to be more popular with the younger crowd. Those who are 18-35 preferred YouTube as their top “must have” app (57% for connected TV owners). While these results may not necessarily come as a surprise (after all it makes sense that with such a large screen, consumers would prefer video/streaming apps), the poll of 2,634 US adults also has some data on the potential for connected TV proliferation in the market, and it’s not looking too good. 73% of poll respondents who don’t own a connected TV said they are not that familiar or not at all familiar with the concept of an internet-connected TV. According to Harris, this is despite the fact that shipment data suggests that manufacturers are pushing out more connected TVs. In addition, 7% of those who are not familiar with connected TVs are likely to purchase one within the next 12 months. In comparison, non-connected TV owners who are familiar with the device are four times more likely (29%) to purchase one within the same timeframe.

Microsoft has named Mark Penn as its new Corporate VP/Strategic and Special Projects, with what the company says is an “emphasis on key consumer initiatives.” Penn will be in charge of a small interdisciplinary team. He will report to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and will continue to be based in Washington, D.C., with “substantial time” also in Redmond. Most recently, Penn was the CEO of global PR firm Burson-Marsteller.

Fingerprints is a fairly new website from Conde Nast that features a daily fill-in-the-blank interview with a “style innovator,” who can be anyone from a designer or stylist to a notable blogger or entrepreneur. Each interview is complemented by a curated collection of products that reflect the daily subject’s current tastes, as well as a contest that allows one visitor to win a gift (or several gifts) inspired by said innovator. Launched just over a month ago, Fingerprints has already featured the likes of designer Simon Alcantara, celebrity stylist Allison Berlin, and the Founder of Cheek’d, Lori Cheek, among others.

Later – Sahil
Sahil Patel, Associate Editor for Cynopsis Digital
07.23.12

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