Cynopsis: DIGITAL
10.17.13

Good morning. It’s Thursday, October 17, 2013, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

Microsoft’s Xbox Entertainment Studios is adding another new original series to its line-up that revolves around soccer called Every Street United. Engadget reports it will be the first reality TV series for the studio, with eight 30-minute episodes. The studio already announced earlier this year its first series based on the popular Halo video game in partnership with Steven Spielberg.

Hearst is teaming with Awesomeness TV to create a stand-alone YouTube channel for iconic teen mag Seventeen, with original shows and tutorials on fashion, beauty and relationships, as well as multichannel network for girls to produce their own channels. “This is a generation that not only consumes an amazing amount of content but produces it as well,” said Awesomeness TV founder and CEO Brian Robbins. 

Vice Media and videogame publisher Ubisoft created a web series called Rum, Guns, and Gallows to promote Ubisoft’s latest pirate-themed game, Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag. The first episode launched Oct. 10, the second will stream Oct. 17 and the last on Oct. 24 on Vice’s site. Black Flag hits shelves Oct. 29, and Ubisoft is releasing an Assassin’s Creed movie due out in 2015.

Yahoo may still be struggling, according to the company’s latest Q3 earnings, despite new CEO Marissa Mayer’s 15-month overhaul. The company reported $1.08 billion in revenue, which is about the same as last year’s numbers. All Things D says that the 7% decline in display advertising revenue is the culprit. Yahoo has made more than 20 acquisitions, redesigned key aspects of the site and has grown its traffic by 20 percent since Mayer took over.

YouTube will livestream Breaking Bad’s farewell event in Albuquerque, a funeral for main character Walter White that was inspired by an obituary for White placed in the Albuquerque Journal. Attendees gain entrance with a donation to benefit Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless; there will be a “donate” button on the livestream page for online viewers. Funeral is 4:30 MDT on Saturday.

The “Apple of China” Xiaomi sold out the first set of its Xiaomi mi3 smartphones and smart MITV smart television in 87 seconds. The company made the announcement on its Sina Weibo page, the Chinese version of Twitter. Xiaomi has a record of selling products fast  it has brought in $2.5 billion in revenue during the first half of 2013.

Pepsi is paring with Instagram, Airbnb and culture blog FlavorPill to promote its Pepsi Next drink to millennial consumers. The company’s new campaign, Unbelievable Taste Escapes, will awards fans trips to Hawaii, LA or Brooklyn, where they’ll stay at an Airbnb location. The promotion will be featured on FlavorPill, and will generate three branded photo filters for Instagram users and fans of Pepsi Next.

Call for Submissions: Cynopsis is producing its annual Holiday Programming Guide, which comes out on November 26 and will be sent to all Cynopsis and Cynopsis Kids subscribers. If your network has holiday-themed programming airing from November 27 through December 31, please send your listings to Lynn Leahey at [email protected] no later than Monday November 18. Please include the following information: type of program (i.e. series, special, documentary, movie or holiday-themed episode), title, dates and times of all airings (please indicate when the show first premieres and when subsequent encores will air). A confirmation email will be sent following each submission from Lynn (if you don’t receive a confirmation email, please resubmit).

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Walgreen’s Duane Reade is promoting its Halloween themed hosiery line through a mobile and social campaign called Boo-tiful Legs, which encourages consumers to upload photos wearing the products on Duane Reade’s Facebook page until Nov. 3. Fans will then vote for the photos by liking them. The winner will receive prizes including spa services or an iPad mini.

The video game industry and the free-to-play game market have called a truce in order to pull in new players. The Wall Street Journal reports both sides are looking to reel in a new set of gamers as Sony and Microsoft prepare to release their latest game consoles in the next month. Microsoft has offered free-to-play games on its Xbox Live Arcade, and Sony has followed suit on its PS3. Although console gamers bring in the biggest revenues for the game industry, free-to-play brings in the most downloads, according to research from information firm NPD Group.

Machinima announced a new app for Xbox One. Adweek reports Machinima hopes the app, in which video gamers can have all of a game’s secrets right in front of them, will pull players deeper into a game, so that publishers can offer expansions and extra levels for a price. The app will launch with the console on Nov. 22.

The highly addictive game Candy Crush Saga has extended its grip to Amazon device owners yesterday. The King mobile game debuted on the Amazon Appstore worldwide, and currently has 53 million daily active users.

New net Pivot announced it’s available to DISH customers through its downloadable app, PivotTV, and the DISH Anywhere platform. DISH customers will be able to view Pivot’s programming on Internet-connected devices and stream its on-demand offerings. Bottom line: Pivot is targeting Millennials, and that means delivering content everywhere.

Pinterest and Facebook are driving the most referral traffic to publishers, according to Shareaholic data released this week. Mashable reports Facebook recorded ten percent of traffic to publishers in September, and Pinterest pulled in four percent. However, Pinterest grew in visits overall year-by-year at 66 percent, which is more than Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit and Google+ combined. Reddit declined by 35 percent and StumbleUpon was behind it, at 27 percent year-over-year traffic rates. Shareaholic collects data from 200,000 publishers.

24/7 Media announced it has hired Nora Schwab and Ian Unger as Platform Sales Managers in the UK. Schwab recently worked for Publicitas as a Sales Exec, and Unger also came from the company, as a Digital Sales Manager.

Video publishing company thePlatform has hired John Frankovich as its new VP of Consulting Services and Chris Drake as its VP of Business Development. Frankovich was the previous CEO of Vortex Consulting Partners, and Dark was the Executive Director at Platform.

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Brands like GE, Burt’s Bees and Comedy Central are flocking to the man being called the “Vine Whisperer” or “Scorcese of Vine,” Jethro Ames. He is a freelance art director and Tribeca Film Fest #6SECFILMS winner, with more than 35,000 followers on Vine. His videos are usually stop-motion and intricately staged, and his most popular is a Pacman video that boasts 25,000 likes on Vine. Check out one of his infamous videos at www.Cynopsis.com.

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See you tomorrow,
Jessica Reese
10.17.13

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