In the beginning of 2009, I was asked to develop a web variety show for CraveOnline to be sponsored by AT&T with somewhat free reign to do what i want within a certain handful of guidelines. I got back together with an acquaintance of mine, Sir Narson WIlliams, to throw ideas around and try to incorporate some of the same flavor that we had put into a previous pilot that we created together called The Funny Book Show. We then wrangled in the Enjoy Human team for production and Post Production as well as Jonathan London to come on board as the head writer and co host.
Given the nature of the beast, this web content monster, we were a bit limited to what we could do for a variety show as the budget for a web campaign is always tight. After We hammered out a handful of stylistic, character, and set ideas that were conducive to what we were working with we decided to go for a once a month preview show format that included topics from gaming, comics, film/tv releases, and sports. Using sit/stand up info delivery as well as sketch comedy and interviews with whoever we could scrounge up we crunched all of this info into a 5-8 minute long monthly episode.
See the montage reel of the first 7 episodes HERE.
After 8 episodes and what seemed like good feedback over the course of the year, the campaign has come to an end. The question that this leaves behind is what can be done with Branded Web campaigns such as this? Is there a future for the development of good ideas with web budgets to be re developed for Broadcast Entertainment and how do we know if this was ACTUALLY a good idea or not? The numbers from web campaigns are generally skewed to include bought traffic as opposed to organic traffic so that future sales on the campaign or similar campaigns can be leveraged. How is this conducive to building a brand around a series? Is it better to spend money on driving organic traffic or to just say that the campaign got traffic to appease the sponsor. Its the difference between a.) building a brand over time to gain a stronger audience and fan base and b.) launching a product with no planned development to grab a quick buck.
From my experience and what I have gathered from what other web content producers have spoken about is that most web campaigns seem to exist for a short period of time and than die out due to lack of interest or the next best thing on the web. There inst a whole lot of development money that can be pumped into web series because there isnt much money in general to create them. The good series come from the creators putting in there love of the craft whether there is money behind the content or not. Lots of free hours are spent developing and creating for the sake of making something at a high enough value to gain a future in the content game but what is the end product… a nod at the webby’s or one of the 6 other internet awards shows that exist to date, a sketchy smile and pat on the back by the sponsor or distributor, another chance to do it all over again for a different sponsorship campaign? Those are nice gestures but dont seem to create any sort of revenue stream for the creators/producers involved with web shows such as this.
This post doesnt really have a conclusion, its more or less just a topic for conversation.
In the future, where might we see content created for the web going? If the production value is high, how are profits made, and what are the general dollar amounts that are being spent on web content campaigns?
Also, where does the line exist between content created from sponsored media buys on advertisement based websites and free reign content developed directly with a sponsor, distributed on its own site and platform.
-Laughter
