Ex-Maker Studios CEO Danny Zappin Raises $25M For New Company

BY

by Sahil Patel

Danny Zappin, who co-founded and was later ousted as CEO of YouTube multi-channel giant Maker Studios, is back with a new company — and he’s apparently raised a lot of money to jumpstart it.

Called Zealot Networks, the company has the backing of Zappin along with more than 15 former and current Maker Studios employees, talent, and management team. Altogether, the group has invested $25 million into Zealot, which is described as a “digital-first media company and growth accelerator that empowers creative entrepreneurs and talent, delivering multi-platform revenue, distribution, and growth opportunities.”

If you were hoping for more details on what Zealot will actually be up to, the company and Zappin are pretty mum.

“With Zealot, I’m pursuing my greater vision of empowering creative individuals with a new focus on entrepreneurs, distribution, and emerging platforms,” said Zappin, who will serve as president and CEO, in a statement. “We’re operating in multiple passion-based verticals, building zealous audiences, and providing services for companies, brands, and talent across multiple platforms to help them realize their business visions and creative passions.”

The “war chest” (as the company calls it) is pretty sizeable, and will go toward supporting operations, acquisitions, and investments.

Maker Studios, which Zappin co-founded and had a sizeable stake in, recently sold to Disney in a deal worth up to $950 million. A few months earlier, Zappin and a few other former Maker executives tried to block the deal from going through, citing their ongoing legal battle with the company’s new executive team, which were accused of committing a breach of contract and fraud in ousting Zappin as CEO.

A California court rejected the motion, and the Maker shareholder vote and Disney deal went through — making Zappin richer for it.

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

Instagram Ramps Up Brand Activity

BY

Instagram is closer to Facebook with brand activity than you think. While most marketers cannot run ads on Instagram yet, social media shop Shareablee compiled the following numbers, which illustrate that marketers are highly active on the social-mobile phone app.

The notable stats below are for United States brand pages during the second quarter. When analyzing these numbers, it is important to remember that Facebook went live in 2004, and Instagram hasn’t even been around for four years yet.

  • Facebook garnered 2.5 million brand posts, a year-over-growth of 22 percent.
  • Instagram had 493,000 of such posts, a 49 percent year-over-year jump.
  • Facebook accrued 6 billion actions (likes, comments or shares).
  • Instagram totaled 3.4 billion actions (likes, comments).
  • Facebook had 2,396 actions per post.
  • Instagram racked up 6,932 actions per post.

There are a few major takeaways from the findings: Firstly, Instagram got 56 percent as many total actions on the platform as Facebook during Q2 with its brand activity growing much faster on Instagram than Facebook. This isn’t necessarily surprising since Instagram is much newer to the marketing world than Facebook. However, what should spark interest is that Instagram is achieving three times the engagement per post when compared to Facebook.

While the future of paid advertising on Instagram remains unclear, Tania Yuki, Shareablee CEO, expects brands to jump on board to enhance their messaging.

“We are optimistic about Instagram’s future ad monetization potential,” said Yuki. “One unknown will be whether Instagram can find ways to effectively drive traffic to advertiser sites without detracting from its own traffic and engagement—and the willingness of advertisers to invest in Instagram without this outbound linking.”
Source: Adweek

Snapchat Is Finally Reaching Out To Marketers

BY

Snapchat, the social app that is looking at a $10 billion valuation with no ad unit yet, has embarked on an ad-seeking journey, meeting brands and agencies to give it a how-to on its platform in an effort to get more companies on board. Despite concerns about the app’s maturity and readiness for full-time brand investment, Snapchat offers staggering user data and embryonic engagement metrics that might be enough to make the service worth investing time in.

Snapchat has always been cautious about brands using the platform; however, the social app has decided to dip its fingers into paid advertising in hopes to make some real money.

Early on, a majority of Snapchat’s focus was spent on building a following — an effort that wasn’t put to waste.  The platform was host to more than 30 million users who, according to a pitch deck acquired by Digiday, send 700 million photos and videos a day. The average user checks his or her account 14 times per day, and according to the company, 50 percent of those users are aged 13-17, which is important info for brands looking to connect with Gen Z.

Image Courtesy Of Digiday

 

It’s the disposability of “snaps” that make Snapchat so unique and forces users to keep an eye out for content. “Every piece of content [users] view is triggered by pressing and holding the screen, meaning people have to consciously engage with content while using Snapchat,” reads the deck. “When people share, recipients pay attention, knowing content can’t be viewed a few days later.” It’s a new way to force attention that replicates real human interaction, “just like in-person conversations.” Snapchat recommends brands promoting new Snapchat accounts should have a story waiting for curious new followers, which can be a little intimidating considering stories are viewed more than 1 billion times per day, according to the deck.

Sanpchat has also developed some interesting metrics for itself. The first is a Snap’s “score,” which shows the number of people who have viewed a “story,” or snaps strung together “in a flipbook of moments” that last just 24 hours. Stories differ from conversations because users can’t respond to them. When put together, the snaps that make up a story can be used to reveal something, like a promo code. The app then enables brands to go even further by allowing them to see how many people have taken a screenshot of a particular snap.

Source: Digiday

Read past articles we’ve done on Snapchat here or here

‘Sharknado 2: The Second One’ Finds Success With Word Of Mouth

BY

Last Thursday, the Syfy disaster movie Sharknado 2: The Second One, pulled in an impressive 1.6 million demo viewers and 3.9 million viewers total, in addition to an incredible Twitter presence, proving that the best marketing tool is actually word of mouth.

According to Adweek, Dave Howe, president of Syfy, attributed these recent successes to the marketing and PR teams who found innovative ways to talk up the flick, but noted that its stars got into the game in a big way, too.

“[Lead actor Ian Ziering] has been this incredible one-man publicity machine, which has been wonderful to watch. He has a real vision in terms of what is and isn’t going to work,” Howe said. “He’s very articulate about how you have to treat it like it’s Shakespeare. You can’t wink at it or make fun of it, because that won’t be funny.”

In addition to this, the marketing team also decided to not promote or advertise on any straightforward platforms such as subways or billboards.

“We didn’t spend any money on formal marketing for it,” Howe said. “This was driven by PR and marketing and social media fueling the fire. And then an incredible number of brands got caught up in the fun.”

There was an abundance of product placement in the film, however. For example, at one point in the movie Subway spokesman Jared Fogle can be seen sitting on subway platform, eating a Subway sandwich, in front of a Subway billboard. Brands also set out to protect their investment with some well-timed social media.

Howe went on to add that there was a bit of targeted social media and search placement, but the vast majority of the marketing was word of mouth, with “a year’s worth of stoking the fire with news and tidbits and things that kept the Sharknado fire alive.”

As a result, Sharknado made Syfy the top cable network in primetime, as well as giving it the top telecast in all of TV on Thursday.
Source: Adweek

Twitter Considering Change That Could Make Everyone A User

BY

Twitter has been experiencing a lot of growth lately, announcing Tuesday that they have surpassed the 270 million users mark with ad sales having increased by 129 percent. This is due in large part to mobile of course. As brands are looking to reach audiences on mobile, the decision of where to place ads boils down to a few key players: Facebook and Twitter.

“We’re in a position to reach the largest audience in the world and every person on the planet,” said Twitter’s CEO Dick Costolo in the earnings announcement.

The issue Twitter faces is how to convert its unique visitors into users as signing up for the site and learning its lingo has built a barrier to entry. According to Costolo, Twitter’s team will “continue to improve the experience for logged-out and unique visitors” and “delivering immediate value to new users when they come to the platform.”

What this could mean for non-Twitter users is that they won’t immediately encounter Twitter’s homepage when clicking on a tweet.

Upon being asked if Twitter would consider a Facebook-like algorithm that shows only a portion of the content, instead of the constant real-time stream with everything a user follows, Costolo has said he isn’t ruling out anything.

Twitter appears to be considering possible changes very carefully and, pending future changes go over well with their existing audience, could stand to become a “media behemoth.”

Brands: Enjoy the days where all your Twitter followers can see every tweet while you can. Times are changing.

 

Source: AdWeek

 

Reddit Advertising Plan Takes a Chance

BY

It’s hard to believe that the Reddit site has been around for nearly ten years, bolstering a unique Internet community and plenty of interactive sessions featuring a variety of professionals and superstars. That said, it’s been a little “odd” in certain cases, particularly with vulgar commentary and users that live for nothing more than to post weird pictures, such as the highly popular LOLcats (cats in humorous poses and costumes).

However, Reddit is looking to change this business model a bit, in the hopes of boosting the advertising side of the site. It’s looking to become a real contender in the Internet market when it comes to advertising, while still keeping most of the community it’s put together intact – which is hardly an easy task, considering that approximately 114 million users post to the site on a monthly basis.

The risk is changing the model so that it’s profitable, but still accessible. There were times when advertising changed a site’s model, such as MySpace, which resulted in disaster and, ultimately, a rebranding that still has yet to catch on.

“One of the things you have to be careful of when you have a site that’s 100 percent community-driven is how best to support that community and not make them feel like you’ve sold out,” said Kevin Rose, general partner at the venture capital firm Google Ventures. “You just don’t want that community to blow up on you.”

Rose co-founded Digg, another site that, at its peak, reached millions of users in terms of community, only for them to depart when changes were made in regards to advertising strategy.

The company has already begun moving forward with monetization programs, including a gift exchange where Reddit earns profit from participating vendors, as well as Reddit Gold, a premium membership program.

“If we’re thinking this hard about the user experience, why can’t we try a little harder about the monetization ” said Alexis Ohanian, a Reddit founder and one of the main members of the board.

Reddit recently hired Ellen Pao, a former partner of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, in an attempt to produce a solid business strategy. “We’re not monetizing to the full extent that we could,” said Ms. Pao. “Our business comes from wanting to be able to continue to serve as a place where people build awesome communities.”

We’ll have to see how this saga unfolds in the months ahead. Do you think advertising will do Reddit good

Source: New York Times

Top Social Networking Platforms You Should Keep An Eye On

BY

For those who are worn out from the habitual social media platforms that are Facebook and Twitter, here’s a look at a few up-and-coming social networks that marketers and users should become familiar with.

First on the list is Snapchat. Snapchat is a photo messaging application that allows users to take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to a controlled list of recipients. These sent photographs and videos are known as “Snaps”. Users set a time limit for how long recipients can view their Snaps (1 to 10 seconds), after which they will be hidden from the recipient’s device and deleted from Snapchat’s servers. Vocus, a cloud-based marketing and public relations company, published a report on Snapchat’s marketing potential by explaining that, “Brands can set up profiles on the network and add users as friends, who opt into the brand’s messages by accepting.” The report also discusses how Snapchat’s young user base makes it an attractive platform for brands with a young demographic (whose purchasing power is rapidly growing) to reach out and engage customers.

Next is the mobile dating app Tinder. Tinder is an app that pulls your photo and basic information from your Facebook account. Users can swipe “yes” or “no” to potential matches who are nearby. If the feeling is mutual, people can chat within the app. Tinder also offers great marketing potential for brands. The app has experimented very little with advertising, but not because it doesn’t want to. Tinder is a hybrid app the encompasses features of both social networking sites as well as dating sites, so it’s target demographic varies depending on who’s using the app, and for what reasons. Still, its brand integration has room for tremendous growth.

Lastly, we have Vine. Vine is a short-form video sharing service that allows users to record and edit six-second long video clips, which can then be published through Vine’s social network and shared on other services such as Facebook and Twitter. Vine’s app can also be used to browse through videos posted by other users, along with groups of videos by theme, and trending videos. The social networking app has become increasingly popular, especially since Twitter purchased the video clip company in 2012 for a reported $30 million. And, as is the case with most popular social platforms, advertisers and marketers are looking for a way to get in, and make money, on the action. Currently, advertisers are tapping popular personalities and characters on Vine to make microcommercials in the same spirit and style that made the social media account popular in the first place. Furthermore, Vine’s short six-second-loop video format makes it easy for companies to film, upload, and share videos to social media. According to a piece done by Fast Company, The 7th Chamber stated that five tweets a second contain a Vine link, and studies are showing that a branded Vine is four times more likely to be seen than a branded video; any brand not onboard with Vine risks losing out on some serious social media exposure.

All in all, with the daily explosion of startups, there are plenty of new social media tools popping up. These newer platforms could be working on the next big thing, so you’ll want to keep an eye out.

Source: Mashable

Nerdist Pokes Fun At YouTube Commenters

BY

YouTube may be a great place to post and find videos, but when it comes to getting the attention of a positive community, some folks have had better luck than others. And Nerdist Industries certainly knows this well.

The popular news-oriented website, which has nearly one million subscribers on YouTube, has also been the place for a number of negative comments on certain videos. The site’s co-founder, stand-up comedian and TV personality Chris Hardwick, addressed this Saturday night during his annual panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

Hardwick stated that he will no longer post exclusive videos on YouTube first, instead referring interested parties to check them out over on Nerdist.com. The reason for this, according to him, is that people often come to YouTube for a single viewing of a particular clip, then move on to other things. It’s not a place for them to “hang out,” according to him.

He’s also not fond of the commenters, as he refers to them as “toxic,” a term that actually got a huge reaction from the crowd. “YouTube is a bunch of 13-year-olds who are like, ‘Look at me, I am unattended!'” he stated. “The second comment is always ‘FIRST’, because they never make it.”

The Nerdist site, however, has become quite positive with community, featuring a number of audio podcasts, daily news posts, and other broadcasts that are highly popular. It’s also spreading out to TV, with one of the company’s offerings, All-Star Celebrity Bowling, being worked on by AMC.

While Nerdist will be premiering most videos on its site first, the company hastened to correct the impression Hardwicvk may have left that YouTube was less important than before. A Nerdist spokesman provided the following statement in an update:

Chris Hardwick is both Nerdist’s CEO and a standup comedian. His comments about our stance on YouTube were intended to be comedy rather than a reflection of our business strategy with respect to YouTube.

YouTube continues to be a tremendous partner for Nerdist, and while we will premiere much of our upcoming content on Nerdist.com, YouTube will remain a home for us well into the future. We are part of the YouTube community and we have no intention to turn away from our fellow creators, subscribers, and the 1-billion users that come to visit each month. Some upcoming content will even live exclusively on YouTube, as the personal touch that comes from being a vibrant, video-facing social media platform allows us to connect with fans in ways that simply aren’t available anywhere else. YouTube.com/Nerdist is here to stay, regardless of who shows up first and how many capital letters they use to tell us about it.

What do you think? Is posting its own videos a better strategy for Nerdist than trying to turn to YouTube?

Source: Recode.net

Budweiser’s Made For Music Campaign Launches ‘Underground’ Series

BY

By Jessica Klein

Budweiser’s Made for Music campaign, launched last year with Jay Z and Rihanna, continues in 2014 with the six-part series “Made Underground.” The series follows Jamie N Commons and X Ambassadors as they travel from New York to London to Rio De Janeiro to Philadelphia searching for members of a new band of street performers.

The series will culminate in a performance at the Budweiser Made in America festival on Saturday, August 30. Produced by Noisey, Vice’s music channel, Alex Da Kid, and, of course, Budweiser, “Made Underground” episodes will feature the search for musicians in London on August 4, then in New York on the 12, with episodes based in Philly on the 19 and Rio on the 26. Those episodes will roll out on Budweiser’s music platform, including additional ones that focus on what happens when the band comes together.

The founder of KIDinaKORNER Records (which has signed both Jamie N Commons and X Ambassadors), Alex Da Kid also co-directs the series while producing and mentoring the band. Meanwhile, Jay Z curates the Budweiser Made in America festival, where the band resulting from “Made Underground” will play in late August.

“Living in New York, it’s hard to miss the amazing talent around every corner, which is why I am so thrilled to work with Budweiser’s ‘Made Underground’ to showcase the truly brilliant street performers throughout the world and highlight the energy they bring to our city life,” the X Ambassadors’ Sam Harris stated in regards to the upcoming series.

You can watch the trailer below:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=I-FI0Eqx62M

This article was originally posted on VideoInk and is reposted on [a]listdaily via a partnership with the news publication, which is the online video industry’s go-to source for breaking news, features, and industry analysis. Follow VideoInk on Twitter @VideoInkNews, or subscribe via thevideoink.com for the latest news and stories, delivered right to your inbox.

 

Expedia Throws It Back With #TBT

BY

Between now and the end of August, Expedia is broadening the concept of travel with it’s new ambitious promotion that focuses on people’s Throwback Thursday photos. For the next five weeks the travel agency is asking Instagram and Twitter users to tag their #tbt, or #ThrowbackThursday photo with @Expedia and the hashtag #ThrowMeBack. The campaign is a clever way to piggyback off a well-worn and popular hashtag and encourage user-generated content as well.

Each week the company will pick one lucky winner and give them a travel voucher so they can return to the place where the photo was taken and recreate it.

However, if you don’t wish to reminisce on the past, Expedia will also grant the option of traveling somewhere different and making a new memory. In addition, the company has also asked the winners to send in the recreated photos with the goal at the end of the campaign of telling a photo story with all the side-by-sides.

Expedia has promoted the contest with the video posted below—”Back to Ocean Beach,” which documents one family’s journey from Washington State to their old beach spot in San Diego to recreate a photo of theirs from the ’80s.

Using popular hashtags like #TBT could be a great way for marketers to engage with a brand’s fans in a way that feels native to Instagram while tapping into the nostalgia inherent to the platform.