Web Shows Endorse Sewing Machines, Cruise Ships

If you’re an eco-friendly, do-it-yourself fashionista (or Coroy Doctorow) you’re probably so engrossed with Threadbanger‘s Steampunk Week that you missed the news.

Aside from teaching you how to retrofit your eyewear to a faux Victorian era, your favorite fashion network teamed up with its lead sponsor, Janome to release a series of limited edition Threadbanger sewing machines – the “perfect creative tools for the DIY sewist.”

The announcement’s worth noting because (I think – correct me in the comments if I’m wrong) it’s the first time a web show has turned a sponsorship deal into a full-fledged, branded endorsement of a physical product.  This is not a “presented by _______,” GoDaddy 10% off coupon, girl blatantly driving around in a Ford, character funded by Neutrogena, or book, but an actual commercial item.  An advertising strategy that’s been alive and well in 4th Generation iPods

, basketball shoes, and Happy Meals for decades, but new to new media. 

Other web shows could capitalize by putting their name on similarly relevant products.  Indy Mogul could sell inexpensive, video production starter kits. Fast Lane Daily could design some rims. Gary Vaynerchuck of Wine Library TV could endorse a Caribbean cruise.  Oh, he’s already doing that.  Of course he is.

Sign up now for your spot on “the most over-the-top, spectacular Wine Cruise ever produced” – the Thunder Cruise!  It doesn’t leave until April 2009, but spots are “selling like crazy,” probably becasue the dude knows how to party.