AUSTRALIAN branded entertainment agency InShot has secured a global deal to commercialise emerging interactive online series
OzGirl.
Launched late las year, Ozgirl is the creation of Melbourne-based new media auteur Nick Carlton and uses a hybrid social web model for distribution. The series boasts an audience of 10,000 to 20,000 viewers per episode and is syndicated to Bebo and screened on YouTube.
Last month OzGirl signed a global distribution agreement with online content distributor Koldcast to broadcast the series in the United States via iTunes and TiVo. The sign-up of InShot will see the drama evolve into an Australian version of Bebo commercial hit Kate Modern in terms of brand placement targeting an international youth market.
InShot managing director James Grant Hay is returning from a series of projects in New York to lead the brand integration project for the series. “Brands will have the opportunity to be seen by the thousands of 14-24 year old girls in their target market worldwide,” Hay told Digital Media.
He said InShot had already received indicative interest from a number of Australian, US and British fashion accounts that are keen on exploring the opportunities of organic scripted brand integration within the narrative of the next season’s series. “Fashion, cosmetics and career search are just some of the categories we strongly believe hold a fit,” he added.
Hay said that the series is targeted largely at the 14 to 24-year-old female demographic and as such will be looking at opportunities to work with local and international brands such as Supre, Ed Hardy, H&M, and Dove. InShot’s recent brand integration work in the US includes online supernatural show Spirits from Belo Interactive which has been nominated for a Webby Award, winners will be announced in April.
Carlton believes that product and brand integration is the key to monetising online content and ultimately hands the power back to the content creators, not the platform it is distributed on. “It’s not a web page, or player dependent. It is the content," he said. "Syndicating your show to all platforms then allows you to aggregate your views and charge a higher CPM. When an advertiser wants to reach a maximum audience, syndication is the key to giving them what they want and getting you what you want. If your content is everywhere, your brand is everywhere. You will have a better bargaining chip than the aggregators. That’s the position you want to be in. Make full use of the platforms out there, but don’t just depend on one, extend your brand everywhere.”
