Besides being president and chief marketing officer of AmericaFree.TV, Mike Smith is the matchmaker who helped to bring that company together with agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) in a recently announced partnership. AmericaFree.TV provides its viewership with 20 channels of high resolution video content on the Internet free of charge and with no subscription required.
The standard and high definition streaming content is a mix of features and TV programs in the public domain, new independent films and television series seeking exposure on the web, and other product for which advertiser-supported AmericaFree.TV has secured web rights. An example of the latter would be AmericaFree.TV’s recently announced agreement with Los Angeles-based Mojo Productions for the web rights for classic music video/concert films featuring such legendary performers as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and The Rolling Stones.
CP+B will be responsible for revamping and relaunching the AmericaFree.TV website as well as overall branding and marketing initiatives to help the web network (which was formed in 2003) attain a higher profile and build audience from its current base of some 5 million-plus viewers. Per the arrangement, CP+B gains a minority ownership stake in AmericaFree.TV (see separate news story).
Smith has 25 years of experience in PR, marketing, corporate communications, investor relations and public affairs. Prior to AmericaFree.TV, he served as an executive VP/general manager of Euro RSCG Magnet Communications in Washington, D.C.
AmericaFreeTV’s content (www.AmericaFree.TV) spans comedy, drama, action/adventure, science fiction, mystery, horror and music. Headquartered in Clifton, Va., the company was founded by majority owner Marshall Eubanks, who sits on the Internet Engineering Task Force.
SHOOT: What do you envision in terms of CP+B’s involvement in AmericaFree.TV?
Smith: We’re hopeful that they will help build our audience from 5 million to 10 times that amount and I see them aiding us on two main fronts–IPG and GUI. IPG stands for interactive programming guide. We are streaming high-resolution content and streaming is very much a Wild West frontier. No matter how good your offerings, it can be difficult for viewers to locate content and find it at the right time. We’re a 24/7 network but if you miss a 9 o’clock start time, then you miss part of the program. We very much need to provide better navigation for viewers so that they can easily find the content they want.
Navigation is also reflected in GUI, graphical user interface. Now when you open up AmericaFree.TV, it has a scrolling text that looks like what George Lucas did on the original Star Wars. Visitors to our site have to scroll down to find the movie or program they want. Crispin will be very involved in creating a more friendly, appealing, graphical, quick way for our viewers to get to where they want to be. It’s like the iPhone which lets you get to your destination easily through artistic, graphical elements.
SHOOT: Why CP+B?
Smith: We sought them out. They are the best viral, guerilla marketers in the country. Their Subservient Chicken for Burger King has generated 500 million clicks on the web. And part of the agency’s genius is taking legacy brands and pumping new life into them–for the Volkswagen Beetle, for Domino’s with the “Got 30 Minutes” campaign. Since much of our content is public domain material–stuff that our children haven’t seen yet like old movies, The Three Stooges and product like that–Crispin can help to breathe new life and excitement into this content for new audiences as well as viewers who look back on it nostalgically.
SHOOT: Who owns AmericaFree.TV? What’s the size of CP+B’s stake in the network?
Smith: Marshall Eubanks is the majority owner. I hold a minority interest as does CP+B. But CP+B has the capability to build that share to around half ownership if it can grow our audience to certain levels over time.
SHOOT: In what ways do content providers benefit from having their programs on AmericaFree.TV?
Smith: We have a 50/50 revenue sharing model. We have an original comedy show called Noisi Vision, for example, which has built a following on the network. There’s a link to Amazon so that viewers can buy DVDs of the show. We and the producer share in that revenue and in the advertising revenue we generate as a result of the show.
We also have Tough Guy, a reality series that is a Sopranos send-up starring Frank Citro as a Mafioso character. The producers of this series [Def Con Productions] and other independent filmmakers who put their features on AmericaFree.TV are looking for exposure to get mainstream entertainment deals. Tough Guy, with the audience it’s built with us, could be great for a broadcast network to pick up. And the independent features we expose on the web could also elicit interest for theatrical distribution. We will become kind of a breeding ground for these kinds of deals.
Marshall Eubanks sees screens converging–web content ending up on television, TV content being shown on the Internet, high resolution streaming web feature content on AmericaFree.TV winding up in theaters.
Part of what we’re doing is reaching out to independents who are looking for meaningful web exposure. We went to the South by Southwest Festival [SXSW in Austin, Texas] last month to reach out to the independent community for content, offering them the prospect of exposure on AmericaFree.TV.
We and CP+B believe that there are millions of hours of long-form content waiting to be unlocked. And we’re seeking to unlock the best content for our viewers.
SHOOT: What’s the nature of the ads that appear on AmericaFree.TV? Does the advertising take the form of video commercials? Banners?
Smith: Banners, though we are looking to move into pre-rolls. Alex Bogusky [co-chairman of CP+B] believes that the advertising should not be intrusive, meaning that we don’t envision it interrupting the programming in any way, unless there was a specified intermission in a long movie.
SHOOT: Who’s advertising on AmericaFree.TV?
Smith: NBC Universal advertises, promoting its USA Network series Monk with banners. The History Channel and American Movie Classics are advertising. An NBC online network series called Coastal Dreams is advertising, reaching our audience who are watching beach party/surfing movies.
SHOOT: What about mainstream advertisers. Automobiles? Packaged goods, etcetera?
Smith: We’re looking to broaden into these areas and CP+B will be helping us in this regard, talking to advertisers and brands at large.
Streaming long-form entertainment is a growing area. Take a look at streaming entertainment network Hulu, which is a collaboration between NBC Universal and News Corp. Disney and ABC announced plans for web entertainment, leveraging legacy TV series like Daniel Boone and Zorro. And CBS News also has something in the works.
AmericaFree.TV is currently at a break even point financially. There’s a great deal of upside which CP+B will help us attain.
