AlamoheightsSA, a Tex-Mex broadband cybernovela that debuted this week, is using product placement as a key advertising vehicle, with opportunities that are unique to the medium and different from TV.
“When you offer product placement in an online environment, you can give advertisers detailed metrics for viewership,” said Eric Weymueller, the show’s producer. “We can tell them how many times it’s seen with geographic IP information.”
Alamo Heights SA Holdings, Houston, TX, the company that produced the show in association with El Mundo Entertainment and zyntroPICS, secured a deal with YumDrop, Worcester, MA, to feature lingerie from Yumdrop.com in the series. Characters in the show wear the lingerie, with traditional ad elements like pre-rolls and post-rolls used to promote a discount code that can be used to purchase the lingerie. Viral videos are also being used at MySpace.com to show the lingerie and promote sales, with actors from the show promoting the lingerie to their fan bases at MySpace.
Another product placement deal was reached with Mad Croc Brands, Houston, TX, for Mad-Croc Energy Gum. Packages of the gum appear in the foreground element in a couple of scenes, Weymueller said. The gum also appears in the viral videos, with the lingerie models chewing it.
A third product placement deal involves La Playa Beverages, Houston, TX, with characters drinking its Deep Sea Vodka and Deep Sea Rum.
The metrics Weymueller refered to are being shared with Next Medium, the Los Angeles-based product placement brokerage firm, which is repping product placement deals for Alamo Heights. “We’ll be able to demonstate the metrics from the pilot episodes,” Weymueller said. The show is being targeted to females 18-30.
The first four episodes, from six to nine minutes long, can be viewed here. They will also be available at Internet TV and film networks Brightcove, Guba and VEOH, which will sell pre-roll, post-roll and mid-roll ads. Twelve episodes will be released by December 15, with 30 more planned for next year, Weymueller said.
Viewers can watch the episodes any time. “We’ll leave them up for six months and viewers can watch one episode or five at once,” Weymueller said. “It’s like how audiences interact with YouTube. We’re applying that logic to episodic and dramatic content.”
The cybernovela tells the story of two Hispanic families who run a lingerie business in San Antonio with a factory in Monterrey, Mexico. The program will be available in Spanish and English, which presents another opportunity for advertisers. “We can do interesting things, running different ads in English and Spanish,” said Jonathan Cobb, CEO of Kiptronic, the Podcast ad insertion firm. The episodes will run as Podcasts and on IPTV, Digital Cable and Mobile TV, as well as broadband.
Weymueller’s plan for product placement is to secure deals with “a handful of major brands, six per season,” he said. “The goal is to keep it minimal and make sure they work well with the content.”
Director Christophe Ruggia Found Guilty Of Sexual Assault In France’s First Big #MeToo Trial
A Paris court found a filmmaker guilty of sexual assault on French actor Adèle Haenel when she was between 12 and 15 in the early 2000s, in the country's first big #MeToo trial.
Filmmaker Christophe Ruggia was sentenced Monday to two years under house arrest with an electronic bracelet plus a two-year suspended sentence. Ruggia had denied any wrongdoing.
Haenel, now 35, was the first top actor in France to accuse the film industry of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse after the #MeToo movement broke out. In 2019, she accused Ruggia of having repeatedly touched her inappropriately during and after filming of the movie "Les Diables," or "The Devils," in the early 2000s.
Haenel appeared relieved, breathing deeply, as Monday's verdict was being released. She was applauded by some women's rights activists as she left the courtroom.
The court ruled that Ruggia "took advantage of the dominant position" he had on Haenel at the time. "During quasi-weekly meetings at your home for over three years you had sexualized gestures and attitudes," as Haenel was "gradually isolated" from her loved ones, the court said in a statement.
Ruggia's lawyer said her client would appeal.
He "maintains that he has never touched Adèle Haenel," the lawyer, Fanny Colin, said. "Sentenced in these conditions and on the sole basis of her words seems to us not only unjustified but dangerous."
Haenel, star of the 2019 Cannes entry "Portrait of a Lady on Fire," has in recent years vocally protested what she's called an insufficient response to sexual abuse in French filmmaking.
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