Driver TV has expanded to 25 million cable video-on-demand homes in Cox, Comcast and Time Warner systems, with expectations to grow to 40 million within the year, says @Radical media & entertainment president Bobby Friedman. @Radical has
funded the development of Driver TV (www.drivertv.com), which produces identical three-minute high definition videos of all new cars, enabling consumers to compare vehicles in a "virtual living room showroom," says Friedman.
Shot in @Radical's Los Angeles production studio, the standardized videos include exterior and interior tours plus engine and option overviews, and also include road tests. Consumers can request price quotes, insurance information and additional content. Separately, manufacturers
can provide branded content videos to Driver TV. "It's the ultimate branded content," says Friedman who recently joined Jon Kamen at @Radical to develop "a new type of television studio." @Radical produces AMC's new series Mad Men, Iconoclasts for the Sundance Channel, and several Discovery Channel series, among others.
The company recently announced a deal with Fremantle to jointly develop programs that integrate branded entertainment elements and that have both domestic and international distribution potential. @Radical produces Iconoclasts in
partnership with Grey Goose Vodka, developed the Fast Cars & Superstars – Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, and created MTV's scripted reality dating special The Gamekillers, in association with Unilever's Axe deodorant and BBH Advertising.The Gamekillers has been picked up as a series by MTV for this Fall. Fast Cars and Superstars included six half-hour episodes with an hour-long finale.
"Advertisers are integrated into the DNA of the content," Friedman told Jack Myers Media Business Report during a Lunch at Michael's®. "It's tricky and difficult to create good branded
content. Consumers are smart but they're at the point when they expect product integration when it makes sense." @Radical is working with several producers and directors to develop branded entertainment concepts, in both traditional and short-form formats.
Friedman believes there are opportunities to develop series for the U.S. market and modify them on a country-by-country basis for global distribution. Two versions will be developed, one with brand integration and another without it. Several European countries currently ban brand integration
into programming content, although Friedman believes those barriers will be removed as production costs and time shifted viewing both increase. "Branded entertainment delivers good entertainment value, good economics, promotional opportunities and brand activation for sponsors, and a better solution for reaching consumers," he points out.
Friedman, who worked previously at MTV, New Line Cinema, AOL and Classic Media can be contacted at rfriedman@radicalmedia.com.
Insider Buzz from the Advertising Lions in Cannes
The public buzz in Cannes was all about digital and the winning Unilever online advertising campaign. But consultant Michael Kassan tells Jack Myers Media Business Report the
more interesting and important buzz "was heard in hushed voices in hallways and corners."
Two themes emerged, said Kassan, who recently retuned from the annual Advertising Lions event. "First, it's time to start watching people's feet and not reading their lips. People talk about
digital but they want mass eyeballs and they are not sure they can reach them in the digital space. Everyone is talking digital but it's a $9.2 billion Upfront. The bottom has not fallen out of the network business."
The second big story, Kassan advises, is the concern expressed about the Google acquisition of DoubleClick. "There is real concern about the deal, but only off-the-record. There is genuine concern in the
community that something tantamount to a monopoly is being built with no regulatory response. It's surprising that marketers and agencies with budgets are expressing concern but in hushed corners and not with their spending. There is a fear of being openly critical of the combination." Kassan consults with companies that have vested interests in industry mergers and acquisitions.
Last year, Kassan summarized the Cannes event as a "holy war," commenting "with all the business being done in Cannes, what bubbled up to the top as the biggest issue is the stratification that has been
delineated between the creative side and media side of the business. Imagine that when you look down La Criosette (Cannes' main thoroughfare), on one side are the creative agencies and on the other are the
media agencies. In the middle is a bubbling up of digital, planning and strategy. Who will own it is the most important issue in the business today and neither creative nor media are giving an inch. It's a holy war."
This year, Kassan says the "holy war" is less apparent as the Cannes' event has "become all digital. It's a Microsoft, Yahoo! fest. All the money, noise, events, festivities and focus seem to be digital. But it's not necessarily being reflected in clients' actions." Kassan suggests "Clients are not
demanding a major shift to digital. There is a lot of noise but less action. They're all talking the talk, but the major marketers are not actually walking the walk. When it comes to meaningful shares of their budgets, the movement seems minimal."
Kassan believes "their feet will ultimately follow their mouths, and the four networks are preparing for the time when clients actually demand digital. But this year, the networks didn't need digital to drive demand. In the next 12-months a tipping point will occur as the result of first true
online cultural phenomenon that has 'legs'. A real shift to digital will take big cultural phenomenon."
