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.”
Oscar Nominees Delve Into The Art Of Editing At ACE Session
You couldn’t miss Sean Baker at this past Sunday’s Oscar ceremony where he won for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Editing on the strength of Anora. However, earlier that weekend he was in transit from the Cesar Awards in Paris and thus couldn’t attend the American Cinema Editors (ACE) 25th annual panel of Academy Award-nominated film editors held at the Regal LA Live Auditorium on Saturday (3/1) in Los Angeles. While the eventual Oscar winner in the editing category was missed by those who turned out for the ACE “Invisible Art, Visible Artists” session, three of Baker’s fellow nominees were on hand--Dávid Jancsó, HSE for The Brutalist; Nick Emerson for Conclave; and Myron Kerstein, ACE for Wicked. Additionally, Juliette Welfling, who couldn’t appear in person due to the Cesar Awards, was present via an earlier recorded video interview to discuss her work on Emilia Pérez. The interview was conducted by ACE president and editor Sabrina Plisco, ACE who also moderated the live panel discussion. Kerstein said that he was the beneficiary of brilliant and generous collaborators, citing, among others, director Jon M. Chu, cinematographer Alice Brooks, and visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman. The editor added it always helps to have stellar acting performances, noting that hearing Cynthia Erivo, for example, sing live was a revelation. Kerstein recalled meeting Chu some eight years ago on a “blind Skype date” and it was an instant “bromance”--which began on Crazy Rich Asians, and then continued on such projects as the streaming series Home Before Dark and the feature In The Heights. Kerstein observed that Chu is expert in providing collaborators with... Read More