Braun Goes Off-Road For Online Game

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Simple online games can be used to promote a lot of different things, not just as cheap tie-ins to movies as they often are. Here is a perfect example, with Braun using a game that depicts razors as off-road racers.

Avatar Star Sam Worthington Signs for Quatermain

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Sam Worthington is set up to play the lead role in a DreamWorks sci-fi movie called Quatermain. He joins producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar on the project, which has no director and is in the early development stages.

Allan Quatermain is the hero of 19th century writer H. Rider Haggard’s series of novels, most famously including King s Solomon s Mines which would create the Lost World genre of novels, most of which are set in Africa. DreamWorks version, written by Mark Verheiden, is set in the future where Quatermain returns to Earth from a trip in space and begins a planetwide adventure.

Worthington has been busy over the past year, staring in Terminator Salvation, Avatar and Clash of the Titans. He’s now working on The Fields, a thriller being directed by Michael Mann’s daugter, Ami Canaan Mann.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Heroes Thwarted By NBC

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Hard decisions are coming down from networks around this time of year, and while it may have saved certain shows on the bubble, like V and Chuck, others have gotten the ax. The long running Law & Order being canceled was the most high profile decision made at NBC, but also going on the chopping block is Heroes.

NBC considered bringing Heroes back for a short final season or perhaps a two- or four-hour movie to wrap up the ongoing storylines. However, the cost of the drama series along with its withering ratings (along with the amount of drama premieres the network has signed) led NBC to decide against producing any more episodes.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Iron Man 2 Brands: Winners And Losers

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Iron Man 2 has one of the most extensive brand placement programs ever, with several brands trying to associate themselves with the high-tech blockbuster. Some benefited, but a study by YouGov showed that not all did.

Audi’s car models were extensively used in the movie, from the A8, Q5 and Q7 SUVs, and A3 hatchback to Tony Stark s personal R8 Spyder, and they were the biggest brand winner, seeing their buzz score with men over 18 leap from 17.3 on May 3 to a current score of 30.7. Burger King had eight movie-themed toys for its kids meals, a new sandwich in the Whiplash Whopper and The King has shown up in an Iron Man costume in both commercials and at the premier, helping to double their buzz score from 13.3 on April 30 to 26.2 on May 10.

Dr. Pepper had movie-themed cans, ran a TV ad featuring Iron Man creator Stan Lee and partnered with 7-Eleven to create an orange-flavored Slurpee. A Dr. Pepper can was in Tony Stark s house in the movie and on a building banner. All this led to a healthy increase in buzz score from 17.5 on April 27 to the present score of 27.6.

LG Electronics’ program for the Ally included a TV ad and Iron Man giveaways to Ally buyers. Stark used the phone in the movie as well. The Ally wasn’t available when the movie released, however, and LG s buzz score fell from 24.9 on May 4 to 18 on May 10. Symantec had a more low key promotion, where they bundled Norton AntiVirus with the first Iron Man DVD or two tickets to the new film and also had a sweepstakes and an online game; didn’t really help their buzz score, which went from 3.2 at the end of April, to zero.

Source: AdWeek

Google Changing Nexus One Store

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While Google’s Android mobile OS has done exceedingly well for itself, the Nexus One phone has not. Originally, Google was planning on selling the phone through its store and letting the customer choose the carrier, but with Sprint and Verizon opting to instead go with HTC phones the Droid Incredible and Evo 4G, Google is changing the way they sell the Nexus One.

But, as with every innovation, some parts worked better than others, wrote Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google. While the global adoption of the Android platform has exceeded our expectations, the web store has not. It s remained a niche channel for early adopters, but it s clear that many customers like a hands-on experience before buying a phone, and they also want a wide range of service plans to chose from.

As a result of this, Google will instead offer the Nexus One through usual retail channels and use the online store as a showcase for Android enabled phones.

Innovation requires constant iteration, added Rubin. We believe that the changes we’re announcing today will help get more phones to more people quicker, which is good for the entire Android ecosystem: users, partners and also Google.

Source: Google Blog

Online Ad Revenue Up In Early 2010

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Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers have indicated that Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. increased 7.5 percent during the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009. It is the highest level ever recorded during the first quarter of a year.

“We are seeing continued signs of an improved economy and interactive advertising market,” said David Silverman, a PwC Assurance partner. “The media industry — like the economy as a whole — saw tremendous challenges this past year, and uncertainty about the recovery remains. However, entering 2010 with such strong Q1 revenues is a sign of the health and vitality of online media, and of marketers’ continuing investment in interactive as a cornerstone of their advertising campaigns.”

Online ad revenue fell during 2009 to $22.7 billion for the first time since 2001-2002 because of the recession. However, the 14 percent upswing in the fourth quarter of 2009 to $6.3 billion was seen as a sign that the market was recovering.

Source: MediaPost

Transformers Star ‘Wasn’t Impressed’ By Second Movie

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Many were disappointed with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, including star Shia LaBeouf. He’s going to be working on the third movie starting Tuesday and says that it will restore some of the human element lost in the second film.

“When I saw the second movie, I wasn’t impressed with what we did,” said LaBeouf. “There were some really wild stunts in it, but the heart was gone.”

While Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took in over $400 million at the domestic box office, it managed only a 20 percent rating at RottenTomatoes.com.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Facebook Announces New Security Measures

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After being criticized by the European Union for privacy matters and seeing waves of users looking to leave the site, Facebook held an emergency meeting to address the issues. Today, Facebook unveiled a new Safety Center, which includes security features such as login notifications and blocking suspicious logins.

“There’s no single answer to making the Internet or Facebook safer,” says said Elliot Schrage, Vice-President of Global Communications and Public Policy at Facebook. “That’s why we re introducing new tools and advice for parents, educators and teens. We want our approach for improving safety to be as simple, easy and effective as our approach to improving Facebook’s user experience. Our Safety Advisory Board has been a tremendous resource in developing this next generation of safety resources and offering us ideas for new initiatives. Going forward, you’ll see even more powerful – and simpler – safety innovations coming from Facebook.”

Adobe Developer Wants To Develop For IPad

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While Adobe and Apple are butting heads over business matters, at lease one solider in the fight wishes both parties could just get along. Senior Adobe Manger John Nack has nothing but love for Apple’s computer and brands, going back to his childhood through to today.

I love making great Mac software, and after eight years product managing Photoshop, I’ve been asked to help lead the development of new Adobe applications, written from scratch for tablet computers. In many ways, the iPad is the computer I’ve been waiting for my whole life, wrotes Nack. Discovering how to draw a car on cocktail napkins at the Algonquin Hotel at age 3 is among my earliest memories, and I can tell you exactly what I drew on my Etch-A-Sketch Animator in 1986. I can’t wait to create & share tablet experiences with my young sons.”

Put more simply, I want to build the most amazing iPad imaging apps the world has ever seen, he continued. But will I be allowed to do so And who decides

He goes on to note that customers indicate they’d like a mobile version of the imaging software Adobe Lightroom for the iPhone. He noted that Apple doesn’t sell Lightroom in their stores and that they’re somewhat capricious in what apps they will allow and what they will not.

The effect on product development & innovation can be chilling. Yes, it’s easy to point to 200,000 apps on the App Store; it’s harder to note all those that aren’t there–serious apps that will be created only if developers know they’ll get a truly fair shot to innovate & compete. Anything else strengthens alternative platforms while undermining the Apple platform. You shouldn’t care about this stuff because you love or hate Adobe. You should care because these issues affect your choices as a customer & a creative person.”

Will my decision to speak publicly about these concerns harm our ability to deliver iPad apps I don’t know; that’s up to Apple. But can you imagine a world where, say, constructively criticizing Microsoft could destroy your ability to ship a Windows application It’s almost unthinkable, and yet that’s the position in which Apple’s App Store puts us. To borrow from the Think Different campaign, ‘You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them.’ That’s what I ask for Adobe technologies: let them succeed or fail based on their own merits, as determined by customers, he concluded.

Source: blogs.adobe.com

Power Rangers Coming To Nickelodeon

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Saban Capital Group is buying back the license for Power Rangers from Walt Disney. Haim Saban and company are bringing the series to Nickelodeon, with catalog episodes airing on Nicktoons later this year and 20 new episodes launching on the two networks in 2011 under the direction of executive producer Jonathan Tzachor.

Saban is looking to renew its collaboration with Toei Co., the company that produces the Super Sentai series that Power Rangers is based upon. With this acquisition (rumored to be less than $100 million) Power Rangers becomes the first property in the new Saban Brands that will focus on properties in entertainment, lifestyle and fashion.

A consequence of this is that Power Rangers programs are expected to disappear from Disney channels post haste, and the show’s violence apparently never meshed well on the networks. “It didn’t fit with the Disney brand. Moms didn’t like it,” said Disney spokemsan Jonathan Friedland.

“Power Rangers is one of the world’s leading children’s entertainment properties, and we are delighted to see its return,” said SCG chairman and CEO Haim Saban. “I am confident that the talented management team at Saban Brands will expand our licensing partnerships and capitalize on the significant growth potential of this powerful brand.”

While this deal not only nets Saban the rights to the over 700 Power Ranger episodes already made and the rights to produce more, it also includes a long-term toy and video game license deal with Bandai Namco Group.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter