Bebo Strikes Revolutionary Content Deals

Bebo on Tuesday became the first social network to invite major media companies to make their content available to its 20 million-strong user base. The site's users can now legally post music and video files to their profile pages. The initiative, called Open, has an impressive list of launch partners, too: Viacom's MTV, CBS Corp., Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN, Yahoo Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment Co.'s Crackle and JibJab Media Inc.

Bebo is the No. 3 social network on the Web, but its strategy of connecting users through entertainment--which now includes both original programming and traditional media content--encroaches more on the territory of No. 1 ranked MySpace than No. 2 ranked Facebook. MySpace distributes content from News Corp.'s own Fox Studios in addition to hosting Hulu.com. It also produces original content.

With Open, Bebo's partners will keep ad revenue gleaned from their own material; the social network benefits by keeping users at its site for longer. According to comScore, MySpace drew 107 million worldwide visitors in September, followed by Facebook with 73.5 million and Bebo with 19.7 million.

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Link to MediaPost Article

Look Out, YouTube: Here Comes Bebo

CBS, MTV Set Up Channels on Social Net -- and Keep All the Resulting Ad Revenue

By Emma Hall

Published: November 13, 2007

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Bebo today unveiled its new vision for social networking -- and it looks a lot like an aggregated media destination. The venture, coined Open Media, is a platform of channels offering free content from major broadcasters as well as emerging media companies.

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Open Media was launched at simultaneous press conferences in New York and London. The extravagant London affair was attended by a couple hundred journalists and media watchers and featured live performances from jazz keyboard performer Jamie Cullum and up-and-coming singer-guitarist Remi Nicole.

Control the environment
Turner, CBS, MTV, BBC, Sky and a host of other broadcasters are creating individual channels using their own media players, which means they can retain control of the environment, the content and of their brands. Broadcasters will keep 100% of the revenues from advertising shown on their channels.

"This is about making Bebo more interesting and engaging and about the self-expression of our users," Joanna Shields, president of Bebo, said at the London launch.

The move makes Bebo more of an entertainment portal and differentiates it from rivals such as Facebook, which is viewed mainly as a communication forum. While MySpace is also more entertainment centric, it is known mostly for its strong music community. (Bebo has not yet signed up any record labels to Open Media, but Ms. Shields said bulking up the site's music offering is a matter of "when, not if.")

"The spectrum of social networking is evolving beyond utilities and applications," Ms. Shields said. "Bebo is a 'social media network' where culture and content come together and people use media and entertainment as a form of self-expression."

40 million users
Any media company can create a channel on Open Media through a "self-service" system and create the potential to expose free content to Bebo's 40 million users worldwide. If a company is not set up with its own online ad-sales or player technology, Bebo will step in with its own offering.

Bebo users can add video content to their own "personal video profile." Bebo claims this will create a turbo-driven word-of-mouth element that makes YouTube look like it's just scratching at the surface.

"This is not just another deal," said Casey Harwood, senior VP-digital media at Turner Europe. "Bebo is more of a community or a magazine and we are creating a new channel in its own right that will require its own channel manager."

Richard Cohen, commercial director of Premium TV, lauded the distributed nature of Bebo's entertainment offering. "The idea of trying to drive people to your own site is now defunct," he said. "You have to recognize where people are and want to be and capture their attention there, not dictate where they should be. Plus, this gives us the ability to monetize -- it's a natural extension to syndication."

Asked whether Bebo's audience would feel invaded by big brands and advertisers, Ms. Shields pointed out that you have to hit "explore" on the home page and then enter the "discovery" section to view Open Media content. "It's not forced on you; it's something you can discover at your own leisure," she said.

'We will tread carefully'
Said Turner's Mr. Harwood: "You can't antagonize the user because it's all about retention. We will have frequency capping and make sure that ads are relevant. We will tread carefully and won't change the environment."

One of the Open Media features Bebo touted is a content-discovery mechanism that matches users with people who share the same entertainment tastes. Users who choose a channel, program or band as a favorite can automatically receive online and mobile alerts when any new content is made available.

Bebo is the third-largest social networking site in the U.S. and the largest one in the U.K. It was founded in 2005 and claims its core of 16- to 24-year-olds spends 35.7 million collective hours on the site per month.

Link to AdAge Article

Take LonelyGirl, Ship Her to the U.K., Add Brands

Result: 'KateModern,' Online Show That Invites Marketers to Get Into the Drama

"KateModern," an online drama from the makers of "LonelyGirl15," is already a whole cyber-generation ahead of predecessor Bree and friends

The London-based show (the title is a play on the name of one of the city's art galleries, the Tate Modern) fully exploits the commercial opportunities of the internet, unlike Kate's more reserved forerunner, who found fame without sponsors in what now seems like a quaint, old-fashioned, unbranded world.

Microsoft Corp., Disney's Buena Vista International, France Telecom's Orange, plus Procter & Gamble's Gillette, Pantene and Tampax brands were all launch partners for "KateModern."

Backlash against backlash
Hewlett-Packard and Paramount also have signed up as sponsorship partners since the series began July 24 -- all a big contrast from "LonelyGirl15's" Thanksgiving episode, when branded items on the table were turned to face away from the camera because the show's producers thought the audience would disapprove of commercialism. In fact, there was a backlash against the backlash -- people liked Bree and wanted to know what brands she consumed and where she bought her clothes.

Three weeks into the show, Microsoft extended its partnership with Bebo, the U.K. social-networking site that hosts "KateModern" and premieres each episode (it is also shown on YouTube and LG15.com). "KateModern" is now available on MSN in the U.K., and Windows Live instant messaging has been integrated into the Bebo site.

In the first three weeks, "KateModern," a drama about a troubled young art student and her three closest friends, has registered 3 million views and is building an audience quickly -- the first episode was seen by just 23,000 people.

Audiences play an integral role in influencing the plot, and all the characters have their own social-networking profiles where they respond to e-mails and messages. Like "LonelyGirl15," "KateModern" integrates puzzles and clues into the storyline.

"KateModern" is being hailed as a new and sophisticated way for marketers to reach consumers via the internet. The product placement, for example, doesn't take itself too seriously: Disney's new movie, "Hallam Foe," is integrated into the drama's plotline via a cardboard cut-out of the lead character. One of Kate's friends, Gavin, fools around with it in his office, pretending to be Jamie Bell, the film's star.

Product placement opportunity
Mr. Bell also appears in person in an episode where one of Kate's friends runs away from him in a pub. It has been the most-watched episode so far, with 200,000 views. This is particularly significant in a country where product placement is still banned from TV.

Bebo's international-sales director, Mark Charkin, said, "With 'KateModern' we are trying to create a lot of dimensions for brands to relate to consumers. We can use the natural interactivity that is taking place as long as we do it well and remain authentic. It feels like we are defining the future."

For example, Gavin also downloads a "Hallam Foe" skin to his profile on Bebo, talks about the film on his own blog and links to the film's profile page.

Mike Jefferies, operations director at Tribal DDB, London, sees even bigger implications for show's success. "I like the way brand owners have got onboard. ... It's so bite-size and right for the platform," he said.

Link to AdAge Article

Bebo Becomes Most-Visited Social Networking Site in UK

UK property Bebo.com became the most visited social-networking site from within the UK in July, attracting 10.6 million unique visitors, an increase of 63% over the start of the year, according to a comScore study of UK traffic in July to a selection of leading social-networking sites.

Bebo was closely followed by social networking behemoth Myspace.com, which enjoyed a 25% increase in traffic over the same time period, to reach 10.1 million unique visitors in July.

The fastest-growing social-networking site in terms of UK-based unique visitors was Facebook.com, which grew 366% since the start of the year and attracted an audience of 7.6 million unique visitors in July.

Other, comparable social-networking sites also experienced growth over the same time period. HI5.com increased its UK-based traffic 36% to 1.9 million unique visitors, while Faceparty.com grew 9% to 1.7 millionnnn.

Link to Marketing Charts Article

KateModern

Hot on the heels of Michael Eisner’s successful short form episodic web series Prom Queen is a new online video series called KateModern. Created by the producers of LonelyGirl15 and hosted exclusively by social networking site Bebo (the top site in the category in the UK), KateModern is the next evolution of web video.

Similar in ways to ARGs, KateModern is an interactive storytelling platform. Making the webisode genre more experiential, the series is intended to engage the Bebo community beyond just watching a video. KateModern’s characters and plotlines have already been extended outside of the video medium and have been injected into quizzes, polls and comments within the Bebo site. Going forward, site visitors may see “Kate” upload a photo from her mobile phone relating to the story, and will be able to give feedback and clues, thus becoming involved in the story themselves---almost like a real time Choose Your Own Adventure.

With this interactive component, marketers are clamoring to get on board (six brands have signed on thus far). Bebo has two other shows debuting in the next few months, and if KateModern proves to be a hit, you can bet the competition for ad real estate will become fierce.
Link to TrendCentral Article

Once Upon a Social Network

Bebo-hosted serial from LonelyGirl team tests interactive storytelling capabilities of social-networking sites.

Social-networking site Bebo debuted the new online video serial KateModern only last week, but already the fictional main characters have extended the drama of their daily lives into the comments, polls, quizzes, and other areas of the Bebo site, interacting with real-life Bebo users and creating a richly drawn world where real and fake become difficult to decipher.

It’s the kind of Internet-specific storytelling that KateModern’s producers, the folks behind the popular LonelyGirl-YouTube fake-out that had the world baffled and enthralled a year ago, have become experts in. And London-based Bebo is hoping that by scoring an exclusive for KateModern, it can profit from the experimental form of interactive storytelling emerging on the web and show that in a competitive online video landscape, social-networking pages can become the natural home for interactive serial dramas.

“YouTube is a great place to broadcast linear video, as you can only comment on things or forward them,” said Bebo President Joanna Shields, who on Monday officially announced the debut of KateModern. “In social-networking sites, if [KateModern’s main character] Kate uploads a photo from a mobile phone, people can react and speculate and give her clues, and you know the plotline is feeding into the community. I think there’s a potential to build a new form of entertainment here.”

That emerging genre is transforming social-networking sites like Bebo, the top such site in the U.K., Ireland, and New Zealand, from sites where the primary purpose for users is to personalize their own pages and connect with others, into full-scale entertainment destinations. The idea is to give sometimes-fickle users more reasons to visit a site, even after they’ve done just about everything they’re going to do to their own profile and met just about everyone they’re going to meet. Video serials also become a chance to cash in on the lucrative promises of video advertising. KateModern was profitable before it even started airing, Ms. Shields said, as Bebo and the show’s producers, working together, have already sold advertising incorporated into the storyline to six brands.

But Bebo, not alone in its attempts to become a destination site for online serials, is entering a suddenly competitive arena. Last April, with the debut of Michael Eisner’s Prom Queen series, MySpace began to focus on incorporating online video serials into its social-networking pages and separate video site, while interactive online game shows that incorporate user contributions—such as recent forays by Mark Burnett and AOL—are popping up all across the Internet. Not to mention that numerous video-focused sites are tripping over themselves to sign up a limited pool of proven web video talent.

Ms. Shields said the way to entice video producers like the LonelyGirl production team, Telegraph Ave. Productions, is to offer more personalized services that let them overlay their content on top of a richly networked community.

Telegraph Ave. bought that pitch. Miles Beckett, KateModern’s executive producer and co-creator, said that after meeting with the likes of Google, MySpace, and numerous Hollywood production studios, he preferred the controlled environs of Bebo that included tons of natural areas of the site for the fictional characters to inhabit. He figures the deal will let the makers earn about the same amount of money in advertising revenue shares as they would through other deals. Plus, the team liked the idea of a U.K.-centered site that could expand the basic idea behind LonelyGirl into new territories.

But the LonelyGirl team could be a special case. The producers have been at the forefront of attempts to create alternative reality storytelling online—the kind of storytelling that’s particularly suited to social-networking sites. And they’ve already proven themselves attractive to advertisers, with a built-in audience of 250,000 to 300,000 viewers per LonelyGirl episode, as well as several large-scale deals with teenage-friendly brands like Neutrogena.

Ms. Shields said Bebo has fielded countless pitches for new web serials, with two more shows on the way in the next few months. With the competition for attention online fierce, observers will be watching to see if this new genre of storytelling has enough in it to convince users to flock to social-networking sites for entertainment, rather than just to connect.

Link to Red Herring Article