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Defiance Will Pair TV Series With Simlutaneous Real-Time Video Game
Syfy is already pitching advertisers on integrations into "Defiance," the coordinated TV series and multiplayer online game that it plans to introduce in April 2013.
The complicated nature of the project, in which plot points will appear on the TV show and in the game at about the same time, requires bringing in marketers earlier than usual, according to executives.
"We are in conversations with potential advertisers nine months in advance," said Linda Yaccarino, president-cable entertainment and digital advertising sales at NBC Universal, which owns Syfy. "We have never thrown back the curtain this early in a project."
"Defiance," a joint venture with video-game developer Trion Worlds, centers on aliens and humans living together on Earth 30 years from now. The two species struggle to build a society amid devastation after an epic war.
The show and the game will influence each other and evolve together, said Syfy President Dave Howe. If, for example, the game warns of an invasion, "then the show will reference that battle in the following episode," he said. "If a massive storm moves in on the show, it moves in on the game." Read the rest at AdAge.
Millennials Switch Media 27 Times An Hour [STUDY]
A recent study found that consumers in their 20s ("digital natives") switch media venues about 27 times per nonworking hour—the equivalent of more than 13 times during a standard half-hour TV show.
The study of consumer media habits was commissioned by Time Warner's's Time Inc. and conducted by Boston's Innerscope Research. Though it had only 30 participants, the study offers at least directional insight into a generation that always has a smartphone at arm's length and flips from a big TV set to a smaller tablet screen and back again at a moment's notice.
The study's subjects were split evenly between natives and "digital immigrants" (consumers who grew up with old-school technologies, such as TV, radio and print, and adapted to newer ones). Immigrants switched media venues just 17 times per nonworking hour. Put another way, natives switch about 35% more than immigrants. Read the rest at AdAge.
More Original Netflix Programming
Ratcheting up competition with HBO, Netflix will produce 13 episodes of a new comedy series, "Orange is the New Black," according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
The online movie and TV service will have first rights to the series from the creator of "Weeds," said the person, who wasn't authorized to speak before the deal is announced. The show is based on the memoir of a communications executive who served time for drug-related charges in a minimum-security women's prison. Read the rest at AdAge.
Google Tweaks Search Results For Symptom Searches
Every day, people search on Google for health information. Many of these searches relate to symptoms they or their loved ones may be experiencing. You might be trying to understand why you’ve had a headache every morning for a week or why your child has a tummy ache all of a sudden. Our data shows that a search for symptoms is often followed by a search for a related condition.
To make the process easier, now when you search for a symptom or set of symptoms, you'll often see a list of possibly related health conditions that you can use to refine your search. The list is generated by our algorithms that analyze data from pages across the web and surface the health conditions that appear to be related to your search. Read the rest at Inside Search.
Google To Compete With Cable Providers? [PATENT]
Google TV looks to be on the verge of creating an app marketplace specifically for video channels much like Boxee and Roku have. In a recently updated patent (20110321072) they describe a system that, "...allows content providers to create channels of video content and make them available to users in a marketplace. Users can search or browse for channels of interest, and selectively subscribe to channels." Read the rest at ReelSEO.
David Carr On The New Media Universe [VIDEO]
For the last year, media pundits like me have been running around screaming our heads off about falling skies and collapsing paradigms, and yet as 2011 comes to an end, the sky is still there.
Yes, competition is storming out of every device and connection, and consumers have choices and leverage they never dreamed of. But network television continues to waltz along, attracting advertisers in big numbers. Cable had a great year, and media octopuses like Time Warner and News Corporation continue to find plenty of profits. Big media companies still rely on huge, well-entrenched assets that include brands, distribution and capital. Read the rest at New York Times.
Gowalla Checks In To Facebook
Facebook has acquired location sharing service Gowalla for an undisclosed sum, according to a source close to Gowalla. Read the rest at CNN Money.
Happy Spam Day?
This Cyber Monday is expected to beget the largest volume of marketing email ever, according to email firm Responsys. So far, this year's Black Friday saw the most marketers turning to email to shill holiday deals, even though the day after Thanksgiving has traditionally been a big day for brick-and-mortar retailers. More than 80% of major retailers sent at least one promotional email on Friday by Responsys' count, which is up from 69% of retailers last Black Friday and 77% of retailers last Cyber Monday. Read the rest at AdAge.
Early Cyber Monday Sales Up 20%, IBM reports
Online sales as of midday Eastern time in the United States were up 20 percent versus the same period last year, according to IBM Benchmark.
Cyber Monday is traditionally the first day after Thanksgiving when employees return to offices -- and purchase items using their work computers.
In 2010, Cyber Monday sales topped $1 billion, making it the heaviest day of online spending ever, according to comScore Inc. This year, the firm expects Cyber Monday sales to exceed last year's tally. Read the rest at Chicago Tribune.
The Economic Travails Of Generation X
If you want to understand Generation X, you need to understand the generation's economic history:
There’s no doubt that members of Generation X (those born from 1965 through 1980) have had a rough four years. They should have been enjoying strong real income growth, raising kids and trading up to bigger homes. Instead many had their careers and lives interrupted.
A recent National Bureau of Economic Research study concludes that during the Great Recession those in their 30s suffered the greatest percentage drop in both income and net worth of any age group, with their housing-dominated net worth falling a stunning 45%. Read the rest at Forbes.
