Sponsored Web Series

As advertisers and the creative industry workers continue to collaborate in the creation of web series I am increasingly interested in the way in which the brand of the products or services influences the genre and narratives of the content. In this series, IKEA has done the majority of the financial backing and thus the genre becomes a workspace comedy. As streaming video is increasingly colonized by advertisers and entertainment industry creative teams it will be fun to watch how the user generated genres that have been established on YouTube will co-exist with more traditional industry genres. Despite the amount of stars in this series it really seems to struggle to be anything more than a commercial.

Lunchtime is the New Prime Time with Fox

Fox television is currently running an advertisement during their coverage of the MLB playoffs for an internet service that they claim will bring "primetime to lunchtime." This information comes after recent research by Visible Measures that states that internet traffic increases on video websites during the "lunch hour." Fox has chosen to serve this audience by offering daily sports programming. Of the hour block the most interesting show is an homage to the Office called, Cubicle. The show "stars" a group of office workers who use the internet to settle disputes and create top ten lists. I am, as ever, fascinated by the development of the workspace audience and the assumption that that audience is male and interested in sophomoric comedy.

article on research:

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-lunchtime-is-the-new-primetime-2009-10