Seven years after he moved out of Melrose Place and Alison Parker’s life, Andrew Shue started a website with his 30-something soccer buddy from New Jersey all about supporting, informing, and connecting moms. Five years after that, CafeMom is now one of the internet’s top destinations, with over 7.6 million unique visitors a month (and 20.6 million across its network of mom-focused sites) and $30 million a year in revenue.

Shue and CafeMom co-founder Michael Sanchez owe their success to what Alyson Shontell at Business Insider calls a “brilliant strategy.” The company targets the CEOs of families. “They drive the economy, they drive media consumption, they drive word of mouth,” Shue explained to Shontell in an interview. “When you talk about aggregating and creating real value with the gatekeepers and CEOs of America’s families, it’s a huge, exciting opportunity.”

It’s an opportunity that new media studio Deca is trying to seize as well. The four-year-old startup that once provided production, distribution, and marketing services to a diverse portfolio of online video properties – including Smosh and BoinbBoing TV – recently narrowed its focus and rebranded itself as the “leading women’s digital media company.”

Five distinct original web series reside under the umbrella of Deca TV, plus a syndication network that provides mom-focused sites with mom-oriented programming. The company’s latest offering launched this week. It’s called HerSay and stars a Punky Brewster who’s all growns up.

Mother of two, mommy blogger, and very popular social networker (all of which, certainly made for an easy casting decision) Soleil Moon Frye hosts the daily talk show alongside Deca programming regular Jennifer Brandt. The two gab about pop culture and current events (e.g. Ashton joins Two and a Half Men, Arnold and Maria split up, Did you know you could charge your cell phone by screaming?) like they’re Linda Richman and company on the set of Coffee Talk except 20 years younger and without the accent (even though Frye’s a M.O.T.).

Deca owns, operates, and produces HerSay, which it created along with Kraft Foods and the team at Kraft One (an arm of advertising agency Digitas and media specialist agency Mediavest dedicated to Kraft Foods initiatives). “This is a unique opportunity that leverages branded content to reach a specific audience, opening their eyes to experiences and brands they’ll want to be involved in, and then share,” says Sam Chadha, EVP, Managing Director, Kraft One. “We’re thrilled to partner with Kraft and DECA to ignite real-time conversations among women in the online community. Harnessing the collective power of their voice will fuel valuable content for this audience and impact for our client.”

Frye is signed up to host six months of the series for a total of 72 episodes that HerSay creators are predicting will deliver upwards of “140 million views across brand messages and branded content integrations.” Check it out and add a few numbers to those view counts at HerSay.com.

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, Deca, Featured, News, Web Series by Joshua Cohen
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42 years ago this August, the late Iain Macmillan shot of the most iconic photos in music history. The photographer and friend of Yoko Ono was given about 15 minutes perched atop a ladder while police stopped traffic on Abbey Road outside The Beatles’ recording studio of choice with the same name. John, Paul, George, and Ringo walked back and forth across the zebra crossing a handful of times. Macmillan only took seven or eight photos. This was one of them.

Thousands of people (sometimes at the risk of life and limb) visit Abby Road every year to pay homage to the Fab Four and get their own snapshots reenacting the album cover. This is evidenced by scores of photography and a timelapse video, but you can also watch it live.

Abbey Road Studios set up a live web cam that streams the action from the Abbey Road crosswalk 24/7/365. Most of the tourists are doing it wrong, of course, but if you watch long enough you can catch a crew that captures the pose perfectly.

Filed under: Featured, Live Streaming, News by Joshua Cohen
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The Digitour is a 27-city live and in person national tour of top web stars. It kicked off in Los Angeles on April 12, 2011 and ended 33 days later in Miami, Florida. Online musical personalities with rabid fan bases and a combined view count that numbers somewhere in the billions participated. Tonight, live and in person, we ask a handful of them how the tour went down.

Filed under: Articles, Hollywood Web Video Meetup, Industry, Music, News, YouTube by Joshua Cohen
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Doctor Who is a British science fiction television show that had an original run of 26 seasons from 1963 to 1989. In 2005, Russel T Davies penned a reboot of the series, which is currently in its sixth season (which also makes Doctor Who the longest running sci-fi TV series ever). In 2006, Davies created a Doctor Who offshoot called Torchwood, which filmed its fourth series in Los Angeles and Wales. That series is called Miracle Day.

You still following? Good. Me too. Now Streamy Award-winner and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Battelstar Galactica scribe Jane Espenson was tapped to pen ten episodes of Miracle Day. And similar to how Battelstar Galactica spawned an original web series spinoff called The Face of the Enemy (which was set in the the world of the Twelve Colonies and prominently featured BSG characters), so too will Miracle Day have a companion web series. It’s going to be called Web of Lies.

You still with me? Good! This is where we get to the news part. Espenson is so super jazzed about her writing gig and the companion series that she let slip one of its major players. Eliza Dushku (from Buffy, Angel, Tru Calling, and another Joss Whedon joint, Dollhouse) will star in Torcwhood: Web of Lies.

The TV show and its web companion will be distributed in the US by Starz. You can catch their premieres in early July.

Dushku isn’t a total neophyte when it comes to original web series. Her live-in boyfriend and former NBA All-Star, Rick Fox is hard at work getting his own web series off the ground with Michael Eisner’s new media studio Vuguru.

Filed under: Drama, Featured, News, Studios, Web Series by Joshua Cohen
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Being a startup entrepreneur is hard. First, you have to find and execute a great idea (or at least an idea). And second, you have to take care of all the businessy things that come along with creating and operating a company. Things like taxes, payroll, health insurance, incorporation documents, small business insurance, and other important minutia and mandatory idiosyncrasies that make the government make sure it’s okay with whatever it is you’re doing.

But where’s a startup entrepreneur supposed to learn about and acquire all these stamps, documents, and seals of approval? I have no idea! Well, except if you’re a professional services startup with 10 employees or less. Then I have some idea where you can get small business insurance. You can go to Hiscox.

The London Stock Exchange-listed insurance provider that specializes in niche areas of the insurance market (including art collections and kidnapping/ransoms) is extending its services to small businesses in the US. To market its new product, Hiscox commissioned a web series (with a low-to-mid six figure production budget).

Leap Year is a scripted dramedy that tells the story of “five friends and first-time entrepreneurs facing the highs and lows of starting a business.” Or, more specifically, five friends and first-time entrepreneurs get fired, all invest in a shared office space, and all create new startup businesses to compete for $500,000 from a mystery investor.

The program’s executive produced by Wilson Cleveland and CJP Digital (creators of The Temp LIfe, The Webventures of Justin and Alden, Suite 7, and Bestsellers) in association with Happy Little Guillotine FIlms (Yuri and Vlad Baranovsky’s digital production shop behind titles like 7-Eleven’s Road Trip Rally and Break a Leg) and Attention Span Media (the company that brought you Dorm Life and If I Can Dream).

Cleveland created the series, too, while the Baranovsky bros. took care of writing responsibilities. Yuri directed the talented cast of Happy Little Guillotine and Temp Life regulars and a few guest stars, including himself, Alexis Boozer, Wilson Cleveland, Daniela DiIorio, Drew Lanning, Rachel Risen, Craig Bierko, Julie Warner (Doc Hollywood, Crash), Mark Gantt, Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vaynerchuk and Mashable editor Adam Ostrow.

Leap Year debuts its first of 10 weekly episodes on Hulu on June 6, with a six-episode ancillary interview mini-series dubbed #MyStartupStory premiering soon after. The latter will feature successful startup founders – including pete Cashmore (Mashable), Scott Belsky (Behance), Adam Rich (Thrillist), Michael Lazerow (Buddy Media), Josh Williams (Gowalla) and David Karp (Tumblr) – discussing their own small business trials and tribulations.

I recently caught up with Cleveland to tell me how a web series marketing small business insurance to the US from a Bermuda-based London insurance provider came to be.

TF: So, how did Leap Year come about?

Wilson Cleveland: CJP has worked with Hiscox on the PR side for a number of years and was asked to present Hiscox with PR and marketing ideas to promote the launch of its Hiscox Direct service, which offers small business insurance direct and online to professional services startups with 10 employees or less.

The marketing challenge was breaking through an already competitive marketing landscape for small business services. We determined the best strategy for Hiscox to demonstrate its value proposition for startups was to prove it understood the unique risks and challenges every startup faces and could therefore mitigate those risks as a potential insurer.

Hiscox would have to authentically portray the experience of a startup and the highs and lows that follow in order to cut through the clutter. From there we came up with the concept for a series about 5 coworker friends who get fired from corporate life and and decide to make the ‘leap’ to start their own individual businesses.

TF: How did Happy Little Guillotine get involved?

WC: I’ve always loved Yuri’s writing. He wrote the 4th season of The Temp Life and the Suite 7 finale episode I was in with Shannen Doherty.  I was so impressed by the trailer Yuri and the guys from Happy Little Guillotine did for Lovemakers that I brought on that entire team to write, direct and co-produce Leap Year for Hiscox.

TF: How’d you get Guy, Gary, and Adam to make cameos?

WC: Hiscox was already working with Guy and Entrepreneur Magazine on an event but had no reason to know me at all. I took a shot in the dark and sent him an email asking if he’d make a cameo. He responded five minutes later which floored me. The man let us shoot at his house and improv’d one of the funniest lines in the whole show.

To me, Gary Vaynerchuk is the definition of a modern entrepreneur and a hero to the audience we made this show for so I wanted him on the show before we even pitched it to Hiscox. The guy is a machine and nearly impossible to schedule.  As luck would have it, he happened to be in NYC while we were shooting the second leg, for a signing of his new book, The Thank You Economy. We got him for 20 minutes. He was incredibly gracious and makes the perfect cameo later this season.

We wrote Mashable into the storyline and had their real-life editor Adam Ostrow play himself in a key scene.

Startup owners and entrepreneurs in need of insurance and/or entertainment mark your calendars for June 6, and be sure to tune in.

Filed under: Branded Entertainment, Comedy, Featured, Interviews, News, Production Companies, Web Series by Joshua Cohen
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ClevverTV is one of those YouTube channels that when you’re not wearing your teenage girl hat, it’s possible to overlook. But at 547 million total views and 317,000 subscribers, the flagship of LA-based Clevver Media is a force to be reckoned with. Its niche of teen entertainment news, movie previews and even celeb gossip has blossomed since its launch in 2008, vaulting the channel to #59 on YouTube’s Top 100 most subscribed channels.

Today the network is launching their fourth dedicated YouTube channel, Clevver Music, adding to its sprawling sub-verticals of Clevver Movies and Clevver Games. Instead of using its main channel anchors Dana Ward and Josyln Davis, Clevver tapped two new hosts for the new Music channel, a mix of TV and music experience in Bridget Daly and former Virgin Records Music exec Brian Corsetti.

“Our first Clevver Media property, ClevverTV has allowed us to build a substantial YouTube and teen audience by providing upbeat and snackable content surrounding the young entertainment industry. Through Clevver Music we are not only able to provide that audience with music news from the hottest artists, but it will also enable Clevver to reach new audiences obsessed with today’s music culture,” said co-founder and Executive Producer Michael Palmer on the launch.

The (several times) daily web show shoots in Clevver’s Hollywood studio, with in-studio appearances of artists like Romeo, Action Item, All Time Low and Go Radio already on the books. So far it looks like it’s a volume game, with short topical videos being the plan rather than longer magazine style episodes—though the in-studio interviews will be longer. In a soft launch of Clevver Music over the past month, the team has already released 563 videos with 2.96 million combined views. Math fans, that’s 5,258 views per video.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Hosted, Music, News, Web Series, YouTube by Marc Hustvedt
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If you make a Venn Diagram that shows the cast of Glee in one circle and the cast of The LXD in another, Harry Shum Jr. would be the only individual listed where (and the only reason why) the two circles intersect. That is, except if you’re making your Venn Diagram in the summer. Then, you’d just be looking at two concentric circles. That’s when The LXD joins Glee on tour.

Jon M. Chu’s online original megahit about dueling factions of dancers with superhero powers is reuniting with the cast of the most web video savvy series on your TV for a 16-city national tour beginning on May 21 in Las Vegas and concluding on June 18 in Uniondale, NY. Last year the two casts combined for a similar live and on tour collaboration. Ain’t nuthin’ but a Glee thang.

Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy conceived of the Glee Live in Concert! tour while Shum Jr. is in charge of, and the artistic director for The LXD collaboration, along with Christopher Scott. Fox recently announced it will film this year’s tour to turn into a concert flick, Glee Live! In 3D!, directed by Kevin Tancharoen, the creator and director of the red hot Mortal Kombat: Legacy web series.

The LXD is slated to release its third chapter and third season in its epic storyline this summer.

Filed under: Featured, FOX, Hulu, Music, News, The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (LXD) by Joshua Cohen
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You know that Kiefer Sutherland web series? The one that debuted on Hulu where the former CTU agent plays a God-fearing, Roman Catholic, repentant hit man alongside John Hurt, Michael Badalucco, and Sebastian Becaon? The one that’s directed by Brad Mirman and distributed by Digital Broadcasting Group? The one that’s called The Confession? Yeah, that one! It’s being turned into a movie.

Dave McNary at Variety reports Image Entertainment made a non-live streamed announcement at Cannes that the “integrated home entertainment company” is in final negotiations to obtain the rights to title. Image plans to reformat the online original into a feature-length film, for which it will own the “home entertainment and digital rights.”

If and when the film gets made, The Confession will be one of a very select group of online original web series to make the transition from the computer to silver screens. Fred, a hyperactive prepubescent with a chipmunk’s voice and teenager’s body created by Lucas Cruikshank, jumped from YouTube to Nickelodeion in the form of a feature film late last year. The movie did so well, Cruikshank, Varsity Pictures, and company started shooting the sequel this past February.

Filed under: Featured, Hulu, Industry, News, Production Companies, Web Series by Joshua Cohen
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Popular tech demo and review series Soldier Knows Best popped up on Revision3 today, as a part of the network’s continuing strategy to cherry pick top YouTube channels like Epic Meal Time and Dan 3.0.

The long-running series (since 2008) boasts over 200,000 subscribers and nearly 50 million views on its YouTube page. Mark Watson, the series creator (and an actual Army reservist), hosts a fast paced show covering gadget news, unboxings, and gear reviews. His straightforward, no b.s. approach to product reviews has earned him a reputation as a trusted expert that is both knowledgeable and unintimidating.

“I first met Mark at CES this year, though I’d been a fan of his channel for quite a while,” said Ryan Vance, VP Programming and Production for Revision3. “He’s a great guy and I’m extremely excited to officially welcome him to the Revision3 family of shows!”

In the latest episode of Soldier Knows Best, which premiered on Revision3 today, Watson reviews the 2011 Astro A40 wireless gaming headset. New episodes air Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Filed under: Articles, Gaming, Hosted, News, Revision3, Web Series by Drew Baldwin
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Weeks of prep, including beat by beat rehearsals for the multi-camera setup in their newly built Hollywood studio still can’t quite match the thrill of the first time. Today at 10 AM (PT) / 1:00 PM (ET), CBS News’ new weekly internet news show What’s Trending fires up its cameras for its big debut. (What the live stream below.)

Host and EP Shira Lazar told us in our recent interview with her about the new that the high rigor her team is putting into getting it right is by design. “We wanted to do something that wasn’t just putting on a web cam or an unproduced live stream,” said Lazar. “We wanted to raise the bar and create a broadcast quality show online with the authenticity and interactivity of the web.”

The debut today of the half-hour series will feature actress and Dancing With the Stars contestant Chelsea Kane and Streamy-nominated political commentator Cenk Uygur from The Young Turks in the studio taking viewer questions—via Twitter, Facebook and the chat room—on the most talked about stories of the week so far. Like say, Newt Gingrich announcing he’s running for president, on Twitter no less. Also on the first show, via video chat, will be NPR’s senior strategist Andy Carvin and political strategist Joe Trippi will also be joining us on video chat to lend their expertise.

CBS News is taking a risk with What’s Trending, arguably a much needed one after just losing its anchor Katie Couric and lagging TV ratings for its nightly news. But it’s a move towards what’s next for television, as a new generation of educated Americans are increasingly find themselves wanting a much more social news experience. Can CBS lure back the cord cutters with What’s Trending?

Watch the live stream here and join in the chat below:

Filed under: Articles, Branded Entertainment, CBS, Channels, Hosted, Interactive, Live Streaming, News, News-Current Events, What's Trending by Marc Hustvedt
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Its website has never been one of blip.tv’s strong suits.

The online video hosting, distribution, and advertising network of choice for thousands of creators of online original series has done a lot of things very well since its launch way back in 2005 – including helping to create an online video ecosystem that has the ability to elevate independent content creators from the level of amateur to professional, splitting video advertising revenue 50/50 with those content creators resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars paid out to them and their web series every quarter, and raising upwards of $18.3 million in funding – but creating an intuitive, easily navigable destination site that showcases all of blip’s excellent programming hasn’t been one of them.

That changes today. Blip.tv just debuted a new blip.tv that aims to be a discovery tool for the “best in original web series.” It’s pretty. And it looks and feels a lot like a Hulu for online originals, but there’s more to it than that.

Research and Testing Provides Cures for Paralysis of Choice

Blip spent the better part of last six years positioning itself as a resource and home for independent content creators. Because of that, the company’s accumulated a helluva lot of content, the quality of which has only increased over time. But blip wasn’t doing as good a job as it could at showcasing that content. The traffic at the site is substantial, but the powers that be thought it could be much better if more viewers had easier access to blip’s high quality programming.

The company knew it needed a new website, but it also knew in order to create the best website possible it needed to understand its current and potential audience.

So, what do you do when you’ve received over $18.3 million in funding and you want to conduct market research? You go to the best communications strategy firm in the business, Maslansky Luntz + Partners (the same guys and gals that coined the term “climate change” and work with international corporations like these ones).

Blip worked with Maslansky Luntz to identify the entertainment likes, wants, and needs of current and potential online video viewers. The results directly influenced the design of the new blip.tv. For one, the phrase “original web series” resonated better with all demographics than any other descriptive term tested for the type of content you’d find on blip (and that’s why you see it used around the site). And for two, the research gave a strong indication of what current and potential consumers of original web series are looking for.

“We asked people how they discover content,” Mike Hudack, CEO of blip.tv explained, “And what we found out was chaos and algorithms don’t work very well. People want a curated experience. Their perception of web video is there’s a ton of it and they don’t know how to find the good stuff. The people we surveyed don’t want to be spoon fed their choices, but they want to be told what’s good.”

Basically, individuals suffer from a paralysis of choice. So, blip is trying to make those choices easier.

Editorial Decisions Make Viewers Hit Play

Hudack and blip.tv Co-Founder Dina Kaplan told me content creators have uploaded roughly 50,000 original web series to blip. Of those 50,000, only 1,800 or so are currently featured on the company’s new destination site. (You can still reach the blip pages of those other 48,200 shows through direct links, but you won’t be able to find them by going to blip.tv.)

“It’s the difference between the Android Market and Apple’s App Store,” Hudack told me. “Sure, you can find great stuff in the Android Market, but not all of it’s going to work.”

Blip’s editorial staff of eight employees and growing makes sure all the web series on the new blip.tv work, but how does it make its decisions?  What does it take for your web series to get noticed from blip’s content curation team and receive their blessing to be placed on the site? A few things.

1. Great production values.
2. Consistent release schedule.
3. A cohesive brand.

Blip.tv isn’t only curating content for the new blip.tv, it’s doing its best to makes sure the medium is perceived as professional. The new site was designed to be aspirational for content creators as much as it was made to be a discovery and viewing platform for viewers. That’s why only great looking shows, conceived with some thought behind them, and released on a regular basis will be featured. The company wants to encourage and show other content creators what it takes to make professional-grade entertainment.

But how does blip watch all of its 50,000 shows to figure out which ones are good? Well, it doesn’t.

Blip’s Senior Director of Network Programming, Eric Mortensen and his team constantly interact with show creators and producers and watch new programming to discover high quality content, but they also rely on internal metrics.

“Huge view counts are obviously hard to ignore,” Mortensen told me over e-mail, “but it’s really less about specific numbers and more about momentum.  If we see a show on the move, we want to work with it, whether it’s currently getting 5,000 views per month or 5 million. Our internal systems here at blip help us find shows where there might be some movement. The key word is might. Software has gotten very good at telling us if something might be worth watching, but only a human can know for sure.”

So, Mortensen and crew get tipped off to great original web series through bilp analytics and communicating with content creators. But what happens when they find a show that’s good?

Artwork Elevates Mediums

When a show gets called up to get showcased on the new blip.tv, it must create a number of pieces of art for its blip.tv page. That includes a show poster and other images to entice viewers to hit play and enhance the site’s overall professionalism.

“The artwork is all part of elevating the status of the medium,” Kaplan told me. “We want to get away from the idea of professional content vs. User-Generated Content. There are thousands of true professionals on blip and this new artwork is a great visual representation of that.”

Advertisers Like This Stuff

Blip.tv signed T-Mobile as its headline sponsor for the kick off of the new site (you can see the drop down ad up top when you go the homepage) and inked a deal with Reebok to advertise across the site’s Health and Fitness category (which is one of 16 verticals in which the shows on blip are now organized).

All that’s great news for content creators. While blip.tv makes a differentiation between site advertising and in-video advertising (the former is revenue for the company while the latter the company splits with the content creator 50/50), two big brands jumping on board bodes well for the continued success of blip’s ad sales team and subsequently high dollar CPMs paid out to content creators.

Hudack wouldn’t divulge any sales numbers, but he did say blip.tv is poised to deliver 1 billion (with a “b”) video streams a quarter. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go contribute a view or two to those numbers.

Filed under: blip.tv, Featured, Industry, News by Joshua Cohen
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Have you ever wanted to take snaps on the same football field where Friday Night Lights’ Dillon Panthers used to toss the pigskin? What about stumble down the stairs from Exorcist? How about eat at that pizza joint from the opening credits of the Sopranos? (By the way, RIP Al Pawlowicz, aka the kindest purveyor of pizza ever). Or are you the pop culture equivalent of whatever you call those baseball fanatics who make a pilgrimages to every MLB stadium? If you answered yes to any and/or all of the ab0ve, The Onion’s A.V. Club has the online original travel series for you.

Pop Pilgrims is what Remote Control would look like if it was produced by Rotten Tomatoes and made for Travel Channel. Uber-geeks and cinephiles Dan Telfer and Brian Berrebbi share hosting duties as they travel in a pint-sized Fiat (which is also the show’s main sponsor) to 11 disclosed and one-fan decided metropolitan area. The two shoot three episodes in each city highlighting landmarks recognizable from the silver screen.

Their first stop is Die Hard’s Nakatomi Plaza (the building pwned by John McClane), which Los Angelinos also know as Fox Plaza. The Pop Pilgrims pick up film critic James Rocchi who drops some serious yippee ki-yay knowledge about Nakatomi and also provides enough Die Hard context and commentary to make you believe the flick could be in the running as a dark horse candidate for most classic LA film of all time. If you subscribe to Cinematical, you’ll dig it.

Future stops on the 12 city, 36-episode tour include San Francisco, Memphis, New Orleans, Austin, Seattle, Portland, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, and another destination determined by you. If you know a place of great pop cultural significance that you would like the Pop Pilgrims to explore, tell them its location and you could soon see it in streaming color on the A.V. Club accompanied by a nerdcore exegesis.

Pop Pilgrims is the latest web series to come from The Onion’s non-satirical offshoot. Other online originals include A.V. Club’s showcase of “obsessively compulsive pop culture lists” Inventory, ode to Found Footage, and movie and television review show A.V. Talk.

Filed under: Channels, Featured, News, Reviews, Studios, Web Series by Joshua Cohen
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