The web serials are ready for a high jump. The producers (the real ones) and lots of actors (the true ones) are working upon even if without any great results. A few projects with a good concept and worthy cast have started though ending quite soon. Like “Gotham” that relates the story of “those with a second chance” with primary actors such as Martha Byrne, winner of an Emmy and Michael Park, that got a nomination at the Emmys too.

Well, for the first episode with 22.000 visitors, for the second 13.000 and now at the 13^th episode there are just 200 visitors. This serial has been visited in total from just 74.000 subscribers.

A little better for Streamboat , a mocking version of the show world with good actors as Michael O’ Leary and Beth Chamberin (both seen in the soap “Sentieri”). The first episode got 15.000 visitors and now is between 2.000 – 3.000 visits. Very few to interest the placement market. Different the case of the wonderful “Imaginary Bitches” (nominated for an Emmy in 2009) with 400.000 and 600.000 visits each episode and a total of about 7 millions. The story is a mix of funny and charming, something between “Friends” and “Sex and the City” with a cast of young, nice and really inspired actors. This project is connecting the independent, almost experimental and with low budgets productions with the serious Show Biz. The first project of those who really know how to produce a serial is a remake of Dynasty. Among the cast: Lilly Melgar (General Hospital), Tristan Rogers (General Hospital, Love Boat), Sandra Ferguson – Robinson (Anotherl World, Baywatch, General Hospital), John Callahan (Desperate Housewife, General Hospital, Falcon Crest, Santa Barbara), Taylor Stanley (Another World, Spin City), Derrel Witt (The Indruders) and lots more. The producers told me they are having lots of fun and have been able to create a wonderful mood. This serial is really good for luxury products (jewels, clothes and accessories), for the house (design and furniture) and the free time (auto, motorcycle, sport, gardening, etc.). To underline that Dynasty is the only serial by Aaron Spelling that has not got any remaking until now. Thanks to the peculiarity of the web, the news and the improvements of this project will be worldwide and point of reference for all that follows.

 For sure there is a format well developed in the TV entertainment world, the wine and food one.There is the serial by the young international creative chef (Jamie Oliver); the Tv report in the week-end with chefs, sommelliers and famous critics (Vissani, Luca Maroni ecc.), the semiprofessional and deepening one (New Work by Laura Ravaioli) and those for people who have few time but lots of passion (Nigella Express).  Even on the radio there are wine and food programmes (Decanter) or weekly appointments with interesting proposals for the week-end always connected to food. The web, especially, is full of sites about the good table, or video portals with huge amounts of channels for cooking class and degustation, more or less interesting from a quality point of view. For different reasons none of them have ever approached the product placement. The professional productions maybe considering this like a conflict of interest, the minor and independent ones not so interested in the Companies that have potentially proposed themselves. On this base, the project “Five stars Pans”, nominee at the “7 plots for 7 brands” competition presents something new as it has been thought eaxctly for the web and the product placement. Let’s thing about a video on demand, divided into subjects, very short and easy for anybody through the web. The set could be any real or creative location and the placement declinations will go from furniture to kitchenware to wine and food products .

 Few good ideas have begun to arrive about the prize “7 productions for 7 products” we talked about a month ago. In its official version it will be almost sure that its name will be “7 plot for 7 brands”. We have to say that there will not be just one winner as prizes and medals are not its aim.Its aim in fact is to point out good ideas to propose to Companies interested in planning new product placements. The web serial budgets are so low that the brands that invest become microproducers and can manage their product/webserial even following their own strategies (through their own web company, on facebook page, youtube or metcafe, DVD mobile or selling the format to some digital stations).

And within this scenery the project “Borderman” is really a great interpretation. First of all, it is not a traditional web serial, it is not just the translation of a sit-com on the web but something new called “multiformat” as it is divided into 5 sections, one after the other, about the same subject. Thanks to this, Borderman is a perfect project for product placement, keeping its plot characteristics as well as awakening the public interest. The Companies more interested in this project should be those about sports clothing and accessories, the more casual brands, and those that get around the “Indi” music. Considering its meagre investment and its planning ductility, it is a chance really full of potentialities.

Interpret is a research society in Los Angeles with two branches in New York and London, and is specialized in monitoring and analysing the entertainment (http://interpretllc.com). Lots of production Companies and international big spenders buy and use the studies of this society to plan their work. Last week a research about the phenomenon of the Web Serials was published and the result has been what different persons of the sector have been thinking for a long time. Passed through the experimental period, the online videos present now some characteristics quite homogeneous and begin to be considered a media with their own language and public. Between the most interesting features there is the dilation of the “prime time”. Contrary to TV that gets the maximum of watchers between 20 and 23 in the night, the online videos have a constant public during all the day long (even in the night), except during lunch time and at the beginning of the night. Such a uniform distribution presents huge advantages as it incredibly rises up the chances that “the product” can be watched by a wide range of watchers as well it gives the chance, through the PC to deepen immediately the contents (even the commercial ones) of the product itself. In fact the 27% of the interviewers affirms to gather information about the ads products during or soon after the vision of the serial (that can be stopped just putting it on pause). The 28% affirms that if they have appreciated the spot or the product placement, they navigate in the sponsor web site for a period as long as the serial itself. The 47% at last, calls the hot line notified by the ads. Moreover the analysts affirm that the attention due to such videos is much more than the one due to TV and more than a third of the public watches the serial with families and friends. Actually there are two kinds of serial, the one completely produced by a sponsor for commercial reasons (see Celia and Chloe, already spoken about in this blog) but good in the realisation (direction, photography, acting, etc) and the independent videos that often present some gaps due to the poor budget though rich in creativity, screenplays, dialogues and inventions. The data coming out from this research should suggest to somebody to plan and project web serials of new generation, where producers and playwriters should propose good products under any point of view, being so able to gather ads from different sponsors already interested in exploring new ways to communicate with the public in a more efficacious way.

 In Bejing the Olympic Games had an incredible effect on the ads world.During a few months, maybe one year, lots of agencies have born ready to satisfy on the place the requests of any sponsor coming from all over the world and eager to exploit the visibility window of the games to achieve a world-wide fame. Though without any promotional tradition background but with the best in terms of technology and multimedia, lots of interesting experimentations have grown up. First of all these agencies have a different internal organisation (no copy art, webmaster, pr, media planner, etc). Among them there are playwrights, directors, producers, dancers, state TV businessmen and lots of other people with no direct experience at all. The result has been really great!…. something like an old 70’s long-commercial, where famous actors act in real but short show, or excellent “short film” with interesting plots, good acting and photography, brilliant dialogues, not to talk about the numerous web serials (some of them still present on the web) that though with very low budgets have obtained huge visibility. All these products were so beautiful that they were proposed in all the stadiums, sports buildings, competition fields, etc, to amuse the public during the technical breaks.

Products born to advertise something that become products to amuse somebody. The most extreme vanguard was “Style Experience”, an interactive movie on line produced by the French “Pernord Richard” to promote its cognac “Martell Noblige” (youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2VsKIQ-_c0), a present to James Bond that cooperates with other prestigious brands to propose something quite different from a “poor commercial” and so near to a good “short film” that maybe we can call “AdverMovie”… and the product placement is really happy….

 It has started on March the 11^th so it’s really not the first web serial of the history. And it’s not the first one proposing a product placement… we have already talked about this in other occasions. What’s new about “Celia&Chloe” are the premises. About one year ago the Multinational Johnson&Johnson did a research to understand how and where to propose its products for skin healthcare dedicated to teenagers. The traditional 3-minutes advertising Clusters were not the right thing: it seems that they were stood only in case of a “Lost” episode and they were however too expensive both for the spot realisation as well for the space purchase….. the creative équipe has thought at last about a Soap Opera formula but on the web 2.0. The company has already decided to involve the Walt Disney to produce a serial to publish on the web at no expenses but with a very good product. And its task at this point was to push the Clean&Clear products as those of Disney. So, Ladies and Gentlemen here “Celia&Chloe”: two sixteen girls that love Hannah Montana and face the mirror, because of their spots, at least twice a day every day. The result has been really pleasant and even the critics have appreciated as product placement is well integrated, with credibility and without any restraint within the plot. For all those that disagree because of the advertising ethics, I can say that at the beginning of each episode, during the trade name, the brand of the products appears to underline the goal of the commercial operation.

p.latini@oratorio.biz

 The over 40s will remember for sure a serial quite stupid based on the life of a group of four boys, called “The Monkees”, very fond of music. At the end of the story those four “star-and-striped Beatles” had more records sold than the public watching them ….. that was not so few!

Well, the 2010 version of that media project is called “The All for Nots” or “AFN” as the numerous fans called it. Five boys from Brooklyn, musicians, actors and showmen all together, travelling through the USA, singing their mixed rock-pop-punk songs, as the better bands do. The thing is that their concerts and above all their life on the road have become a serial distributed only on the web of the most important portals (Veoh, YouTube, Bebo, and much more). The program has been immediately a success, a few episodes have been sufficient to get a number of spectators such as a “prime time” on a national channel. It began last year in March but during the summer the famous Billboard had already dedicated time and space to it. “They are not really a band…. But actors playing music”…this was the definition of the journalist Leah Kauffman that did not mean to lessen their importance, on the contrary she approved the geniality of Kathleen Grace, the inventor of this program. And this was not her first exploit, hers is in fact the famous “The burg”. Thanks to such a success, the Sponsors have arrived: so all their concerts are underlined by the presence of products of any kind such as the Chrysler Van that they use to travel around (as in the famous 60’s and 70’s), has become one of the icons of the program. The car market and the Chrysler for first thank and congratulate on the great choice.

p.latini@oratorio.biz