Firebrand Celebrates 30-Second Pop Culture

amp160Almost midpoint between the decade of Turn On Tune In Drop Out and today MTV was born Its success was inevitable if only in retrospect Programming threeminute videos considered nothing more than promos for the music industry initially made the nascent network a long shot Who would watch such a thing Indeed Not only did the MTV arguably preside over the reinvention of the recording industry it captured the teenage mindshareReach senior ad execs Advertise on JackMyerscomJohn A Lack was not only one of that network39s founders but it was his voice that intoned quotLadies and gentlemen rock and rollquot as the station roared to life in 1981 Lack is back as CEO of Firebrand a tuning fork for another Zeitgeist In an exclusive interview with JackMyers Media Business Report Lack maintains that Firebrand will not only thrive as a media property but that it will revive advertising A venture backed jointly by Microsoft NBCU and GE Capital39s Peacock Equity Fund Firebrand simultaneously opened for business just after Thanksgiving on wwwfirebrandcom as mobile on demand via iTunes as a free download and weeknights at 11pm on the ION TV network This multiplatform debut a first is integral to Firebrand39s strategy playing off the target demo millennialsGiven that ad rates are based on ratings of a particular show and that there39s no quotscriptedquot show to speak of only other ads what39s the business model of Firebrand Lack explains quotOn TV we39re just like any other network We guarantee a rating and itamp8217s a CPM against an audience In our case a 2 or 3 our demos are 18 to 49 and 12 to 34 so we39re looking at CPMs of anywhere between 750 and 1000 for that audience On the Web it39s Clicks and page views On mobile it39s page views and downloadsquotWhat39s fascinating amp8211 and before now largely theoretical amp8211 is that Firebrand39s one hour TV show validates that TV drives audiences to the Web Reports Lack quotWhen FirebrandTV is on our Web traffic spikes 300 percent Now we39re working on driving it back from Web to TV with exclusives premieres and promotionsquot List Your Job Openings at Jobs at JackMyerscom emPowered by mediabistrocomJordan Rost Firebrand39s Chief Research ampamp Strategy Officer adds quotthe client who buys into TV is automatically put on live rotation not just that hour but 247 We guarantee a TV advertiser six spots on the Web buy two on TV get twelve spots on the Web There39s not only the exposure and impressions but every time the spot runs there39s also a link enabling the viewer to act on the advertisement be it a site referral a promo or any offer the brand choosesquotFirebrand certainly gets a bang for the buck in its onehour television show While an emerging TV network needs time to ramp up its host ION is mustcarry and brought Firebrand into 95 million homes from Day OneAt this point the Firebrand library of commercials is still growing A mix of current and classic commercials global as well as national going back twenty years it has a database of 1500 spots by yearend Lack expects the library to reach 50006000 commercials Users spend an average of fifteen minutes on the Website collectively viewing 70000 commercials a day With no promotion the ability to create a custom playlist is really taking off Users are increasingly downloading playlists of favorite commercials from the Website to their mobile phones PSPs on any number of devices and sharing them with their friends New Industry Data Daily at JackMyerscomIt might be anecdotal that AMC39s Mad Men picked up a pair of Golden Globes but there39s something afoot with both the ironic product placement within NBC39s 30 Rock not to mention those AmEx ads In a sense MTV was the seed for what John Seabrook has termed Nobrow Culture Michele Gondry is a case in point The director of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind got his start directing music videos for Bjork which led him to direct commercials including the critically acclaimed Levi39s Drugstore ad Only then did he morph into a film director Firebrand is counting on the discriminating yet wideranging tastes of the viewing public amp8211 particularly those 12 to 24s that made MTV a success Just like MTV39s VJ39s who became celebrities in their own right Firebrand39s hosts are quotCJ39squot commercial celebrities including Jay Klaitz the Capitol One angel and Ben Curtis better known as the Dell Dude Firebrand is gearing up to promote both highprofile sporting events such as the Super Bowl and quotcommissioningquot celebrity playlists from the likes of Wes Anderson and debuting the week of January 21st Quentin TarantinoGoing full circle Firebrand will soon air trailers to coincide with the release of New Line39s Be Kind Rewind and playlists of its star Jack Black Its director Michele Gondry himself not only the director of aforementioned music videos and commercials but the star of a recent fabulous HP adAdvertising has been frequently accused of creating artificial demand What39s underestimated is the genuine excitement commercials create when successful And just as MTV did Firebrand blurs the distinction between art and commerce Whether a videogame or movie trailer a carefully crafted jingle or a minifilm Firebrand is showcasing even curating ads Apart from the bumper crop from the annual Super Bowl adfest see Ridley Scott39s 1984 spot for Macintosh and annual TV specials for Best Commercials viewers haven39t had the framing of seeing commercials we daresay without interruption Not anymoreJohn Lack can be contacted at jalackfirebrandtvcom

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Firebrand Celebrates 30-Second Pop Culture

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Jerry Weinstein

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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Firebrand Celebrates 30-Second Pop Culture

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Jerry Weinstein

Empowering Women in Media: Insights from Industry Leaders (Video) - By E.B. Moss

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