AMD is growing its presence in the movie industry, particularly with virtual reality promotions. Last year, it partnered with Alienware, Fox Innovation Lab and Practical Magic to promote the movie Assassin’s Creed with a five-minute virtual reality experience. This year, the computer hardware company is gradually launching its line of super-powerful Ryzen processors along with the Radeon 500 series of video cards, and it’s looking to show off their capabilities with some extreme projects. In comes a massive-sized movie from India called Baahubali 2: The Conclusion to fill that need.
Baahubali (which translates to “The One with Strong Arms”) is an epic Indian historical fiction film series written and directed by S. S. Rajamouli. As its title might indicate, Baahubali 2 is the long-awaited sequel to Baahubali: The Beginning. The movie premiered in late April and it has been breaking global box office records ever since, becoming one of the highest-grossing Indian films of all time, having brought in over $160 million US within ten days. It is almost sure to break even more records once it hits Chinese theaters later this year.
AMD helped to promote the film with a custom designed VR experience called The Sword of Baahubali, which bears little resemblance to the Assassin’s Creed VR Experience. Unlike Assassin’s Creed, which used live-action footage collected during the shooting of the movie, Baahubali uses all computer-generated graphics for its settings and characters. The elaborate experience, which was featured at events such as the Tribeca Film Festival ahead of the movie’s premiere, plays out similarly to a video game. The point-of-view switches to the first-person and users can then interact with their environments by choosing different paths or manipulating objects by gazing at them.
Daryl Sartain, director and worldwide head of virtual reality and displays at AMD’s Radeon Technologies Group (RTG), spoke with AListDaily about how AMD came to work on The Sword of Baahubali.
“AMD collaborated with ArkaMedia and the producer S. S. Rajamouli on the first Baahubali movie, then continued our engagement on this second movie,” said Sartain, explaining how the VR experience began. “As this second movie was being crafted, we discussed the opportunity to co-develop a VR experience around the same storyline. This VR experience was planned to launch with a lengthy experience across many cities in India.”
According to Sartain, AMD became involved with Baahubali because the epic scope of the movie required extreme processing power for its digital effects. “Modern movies leverage massive digital assets—rendered environments—and therefore the studios require equally massive CPU and GPU compute capability,” he said. “This is the domain in which AMD excels and is the reason for our initial collaboration.”
The experience was shown using an HTC Vive and was demoed at venues such as the Tribeca Film Festival, and Sartain said that it “received tremendous reactions to the realism and immersion,” fully demonstrating what AMD Ryzen processors and Radeon video cards are capable of.
When asked why AMD chose to use digital characters instead of live actors, as was with the Assassin’s Creed VR Experience, Sartain explained that “the final solution is a blend of both worlds. However, digital characters provide the ability to interact with the experience.” A separate representative told AListDaily that AMD worked with Rajamouli to create the experience, and his vision for the environments were so big and vast that it had to be created digitally.
Sartain said that AMD is currently in discussions with various venues around the world to bring The Sword of Baahubali onto the market. Furthermore, even though The Sword of Baahubali bears some similarities to a video game, Sartain doesn’t think VR entertainment should be compared directly with video games because “they have unique value propositions to consumers.” He then added that “movies are one of the largest entertainment sectors in the world today, and we believe that VR can provide an additional value to large portions of the movie industry.”
In discussing how AMD is using VR to promote its products, Sartain said that “VR is being evaluated in almost every business and entertainment sector today. Our goal is to ensure that the experiences or tools needed for this emerging industry are tuned and ready to provide the best performance possible on our hardware.”
As VR technology continues to grow, Sartain said that he hopes to see more investment in educational and “experiential” content. “Items that are of interest to a broad base of consumers,” he clarified. In the meantime, users can embark on epic adventures with Baahubali.
Wonder Woman could lasso herself a cool $175 million box office weekend—$75 million in the US and $100 internationally. If predictions are correct, this would be the top-grossing female superhero movie of all time—not bad for a marketing campaign that relied on subtlety—albeit at an estimated total between $125 million to $150 million in spending.
Compared to other DC films such as Suicide Squad, fans and marketers wondered if Warner Bros. was skimping on Gal Gadot’s full-length super debut. When speaking at Oracle’s Modern Marketing Experience in Las Vegas last month, Time Warner’s chief marketing officer Kristen O’Hara explained that the company has planned very carefully for Wonder Woman.
“We want the release of Wonder Woman in June to be a heroic moment for our company, but I think in a data-driven world the heroic marketing moments aren’t those big, huge moments,” O’Hara explained. “They’re an aggregate of tiny little moments that happen over a long period of time that help us get smarter and smarter about our customers [and] their behavior . . . in the case of Wonder Woman, this is a release that we started talking about two years ago . . . the collection of data across the entire DC franchise—whether it was video games, comic book releases, TV shows, or theatrical releases—every moment mattered to us.”
According to Fandango’s summer movies survey, Wonder Woman was selected by film fans as the season’s most anticipated blockbuster. The digital network for all things movies said that 92 percent of people polled are excited to see a standalone female superhero movie, 87 percent wish Hollywood would make more movies featuring female superheroes and 73 percent watched the Wonder Woman TV show when they were kids.
Despite actually spending more than they did on Suicide Squad, Warner Bros.’ marketing for the film has certainly relied on those “tiny little moments.” from teaser trailers to movie posters that held Wonder Woman front and center without a long list of celebrity names. Gal Gadot, the Israeli supermodel who portrays Diana Prince in Wonder Woman, has personally marketed the character since she was cast in Batman vs. Superman—speaking about the character’s strengths and how she has prepared for the role. She even gave late-night host Conan O’Brien a few workout tips.
Lynda Carter, the actress who portrayed Wonder Woman on TV in the seventies celebrated the heroine’s return with a tie-in promo for Super Girl—another DC Comics franchise—in which she plays President Olivia Marsdin.
The world premiere was broadcast live from iHeartMusic’s Facebook page and special women-only screenings were hosted across the country by Alamo Drafthouse. Those attending the US premiere in Wonder Woman costumes had a chance to receive special seating on the carpet.
Wonder Woman‘s premiere coincides with the 75th anniversary of DC Comic’s most iconic heroine. The publisher celebrated with comics, articles, videos, merchandise and a US Forever postage stamp, just to name a few.
The premiere also coincides with the release of Injustice 2, the fighter game that pits DC comic book heroes against one another. Warner Bros. has introduced Wonder Woman events in the game, including her costume as it appears in the film.
Speaking of games, a new 16-bit game on Snapchat allows players to control Diana on the battlefield and unlock a Wonder Woman lens.
— Wonder Woman 1984 (@WonderWomanFilm) May 27, 2017
According to the Los Angeles Times, Warner Bros. is also “teaming with brands and retailers for clothes and accessories such as Betsey Johnson backpacks, Alex & Ani charm bracelets and Nanette Lepore watches featuring the famed double W insignia. Pieces from designers such as Louis Vuitton and Versace will be displayed and auctioned for charity at a June 7 event in Paris.”
“There is a pent-up appetite for seeing a female hero with the strength that Wonder Woman has,” Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment toldthe newspaper. “People are ready for it.”
Around for many years but popularized by Pokémon GO, augmented reality (AR) technology has been embraced by pioneering brands around the world. AR combines real life with virtual objects for an interactive experience and its practical uses extend far beyond video games. Gartner believes that by 2020, 100 million consumers will shop in augmented reality.
According to a report from DigitalBridge, there is an increasing “imagination gap” impacting purchasing decisions in the UK. The research found that a third of consumers delayed or decided against buying items when they couldn’t visualize how they would look like in real life. The majority of consumers revealed they would use a visualization tool if it was offered, and more than 55 percent believe it would make them more likely to make a purchase.
Ikea has embraced this challenge by allowing users of its mobile app to place AR furniture inside a room. Using the physical Ikea catalog and the official app, shoppers can visualize and play around with styles before purchasing.
https://youtu.be/IkF7BzWK8Ds
Visualization is especially important in the cosmetics industry, since opened products cannot be returned and bad hair cuts don’t grow back overnight. L’Oreal’s Makeup Genius and Style My Hair apps let consumers experiment with new looks, styles and “try on” the latest trends risk-free.
According to a Demandware study, 72 percent of US beauty brands are testing a form of “guided selling” to push sales—like Snapchat lenses and augmented reality—and L’Oreal isn’t the only beauty brand to embrace an age of social media.
The fashion industry has been an eager adopter of new technology such as VR, AR and social media. During Fashion Week, designer Lindsay Freimond presented her latest styles with a first-of-its-kind AR fashion show. Through their mobile devices, the audience was able to view real-time digital effects alongside the models, along with information about the models and clothes.
Mars celebrated the launch of M&Ms Caramel by hosting an AR experience in Times Square. The “ARcade” featured real-life games, photo ops and interactive AR games courtesy of the Blippar app. Hungry fans can access these games by pointing the Blippar app at a bag of M&Ms Caramel.
Disney has filed a patent for a projector-based AR system that would allow park visitors to interact with virtual objects without a headset. Like many patents, there’s never a guarantee that this idea will ever come to fruition, but never put anything past the Mouse House.
With a pair of hit free-to-play mobile games under the Best Fiends brand and a third on the way later this summer, game maker Seriously is taking another step in the same direction as Rovio Entertainment with the launch of its first animated short.
Best Fiends Boot Camp features an all-star voice cast of Kate Walsh (13 Reasons Why), Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Pamela Adlon (Better Things), David Herman (Office Space), Billy West (Futurama) and Alan Oppenheimer (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe). The short features full 3D computer animation production by Reel FX, the studio behind The Book of Life and some recent Looney Tunes shorts. Boot Camp’s music is composed by Heitor Pereira (Despicable Me), and is written by Emmy Award-winning producer and writer J. Stewart Burns (The Simpsons) and produced by veteran animation producer, Claudia De La Roca (Futurama).
Andrew Stalbow, co-founder and CEO of Seriously, told AListDaily that the company has created an entertainment franchise built on mobile first. Seriously is building out games, animations and consumer products based on the Best Fiends property.
“Best Fiends Boot Camp is our first attempt to share the world of Best Fiends in animated form, and given how we’re connected to a large audience in the Best Fiends game, we’ll be using the app to promote it,” Stalbow explained. “To round out the mobile experience, a live Boot Camp event will simultaneously be released inside the Best Fiends games, where Hank and Roger, the stars of the short, will make a special guest appearance.”
The three-and-a-half-minute-long short introduces female lead JoJo, voiced by Walsh, and Temper, voiced by Hamill. It took nine months of development in Hollywood and it’s part of an ongoing series. The second short film, List Minutia, will launch later this summer and introduce Billy Dee Williams (Empire Strikes Back) as Pilot Slug and Maurice Lemarche (Pinky and the Brain) as Howie. Stalbow said production on the next two shorts has just begun and the plan is to release many more humorous shorts in the future.
“We set a vision to create a short that had the quality to play in movie theaters before a feature like Despicable Me 3, and worked really hard to assemble an incredibly talented team to help us achieve that,” Stalbow said. “We always try to differentiate our apps by trying to build a gorgeous, rich experience that stands out because of the care we put into every detail. Having been lucky enough to work with some wonderful brands at Rovio and at Fox, the number one thing we’ve learned is that you have to love and sweat every single element, and I think that shows in both our games and now in our first animated short too.”
Stalbow said Seriously wanted to go after animation that felt “subversive yet sweet” and could appeal to the whole family. Claudia de la Roca, who has worked with Matt Groening, became part of the core creative team that assembled the rest of the talent.
This marks a continuation of Seriously’s work with Kate Walsh, who partnered with the game company last year on the Don’t Download Best Fiends video, which was viewed over 8.5 million times. Stalbow said the actress was a fan of the game franchise and wanted to continue to work with the team on these animate shorts. Walsh worked with YouTubers Joey Graceffa and Rosanna Pansino on the viral video, which was part of a strategic marketing approach the company has taken for this brand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qCks6ebtgo
“We have a roster of influencers we are working with to introduce the animated short to a wide audience from the opening weekend, primarily focusing on YouTube and Instagram,” Stalbow said. “We’re also buying a little bit of outdoor media in major cities in the US to promote the short a little bit like a movie, even though it’s available in the app. We think that’s a fun way to differentiate ourselves and spread the message that we’re building a ‘World on your Mobile,’ and then we’ll also promote the animation through various Google channels.”
Seriously’s app has more than 70 million downloads and approximately two million daily players. The company reaches an additional seven million fans across its branded YouTube channel, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, VK, Weibo, the Best Fiends website and its newsletter.
These animated shorts are part of a long-term plan to use the game and its audience as a delivery platform, like Rovio does with Angry Birds.
“We feel like the direct connection with our audience through mobile differentiates us from other entertainment brands,” Stalbow said. “We think that Hollywood will ultimately make a transition over the next few years to focus on building direct relationships with audiences through the content itself. Right now, Hollywood makes most of its money creating content and then distributing it through third-party platforms. Suddenly with mobile, a small content creator like Seriously can build and distribute content directly to the audience, and we want to lean into that opportunity.”
Stalbow said Best Fiends was built as an entertainment brand that can appeal to everyone. There are over 200 characters within the world, which is spread across multiple games and now animated shorts. He said there’s an over-arching theme that focuses on “small things can make a big difference,” which ties into the transformation each of the Fiend characters go through as they level up from cute to fiendish while battling against the Slugs to restore their world (Minutia) to harmony.
“This theme is also reflected in our attention to all the little details in our games and animations,” Stalbow said.
He added that long-term, the hope is to bring Best Fiends to the big screen, which is also something Rovio did successfully with Angry Birds.
Shaffer Chimere Smith never gave himself a Plan B. It was either breaking through with Billboard hits as the internationally acclaimed entertainer Ne-Yo, or homelessness.
Those are extreme ends of life’s success spectrum, but sometimes such is the self-imposed hand creatives deal themselves when the passion for arts and expression means more than just about everything else.
The three-time Grammy Award-winning R&B singer is now looking to change the life of a burgeoning star with the same make-it-or-break-it attitude he once had by serving as a judge for NBC’s high-stakes talent show World of Dance, a reality competition that brings skilled performers from all ages and corners of the globe under one roof and awards a lucky sensation with a $1 million grand prize.
World of Dance premieres May 30 and is complemented with a standalone Snapchat series ahead of the NBC debut. Ne-Yo will be joined by judges, including Jennifer Lopez and choreographer Derek Hough. Actress Jenna Dewan Tatum will play as the 10-episode TV show’s host and dancer mentor.
“I jumped on World of Dance because I saw it as an opportunity to give back to the guy behind the guy, and make sure that dancers start earning the proper compensation that they deserve,” Ne-Yo told AListDaily in an exclusive interview. “Most of the time, dancers are working just as hard as the artists—if not harder. A lot of people don’t know that they rarely make the amount that they should be earning—especially for what they do. World of Dance gives them the opportunity to be in the spotlight, and in the best way possible. With NBC’s production quality at their disposal, the dancers will have their time under the sun.”
Ne-Yo says the show, made in partnership with the World of Dance Federation, is marketable because it brings universal appeal and intrigue to the screen. Viewers don’t need to know anything about dancing to tune in—it is expression without words, people painting pictures with their bodies, vividly, with more color.
World of Dance is also tapping into a social community by inviting fans to join in at home and gyrate to J-Lo’s “On the Floor” as part of the #WorldofDanceChallenge.
“The show is definitely spectator friendly,” Ne-Yo says. “These cats can do amazing things with their bodies. You almost can’t even look away. It’s infectious. You watch them, and you want to get up and do the same thing.”
But here’s a warning shot—the 37-year-old will be playing more heel than face when judging the freestyle dance-offs in genres such as hip hop, krump, pop, lock, tap, ballet, ballroom, clogg, stomp and more.
“I didn’t get on the show to make friends and be nice. I’m trying to change somebody’s life. I’m the difficult judge. Everyone feels that I am hard. I kind of am, I won’t lie. But there’s a reason,” he explains. “You literally have to be the best of the best to even be a part of the discussion for this Olympics-of-dance-like show. I’m not going to just give away a shot at a $1 million. They’re going to have to earn it.”
Ne-Yo knows all about earning his keep. Before blowing up into the mainstream, he was working as a composer and producer under the limelight penning hits for the likes of Rihanna, Beyoncé, Jennifer Hudson, Usher, Carrie Underwood and Celine Dion, among others, at the turn of the millennium.
In 2006, Jay-Z changed Ne-Yo’s life forever when he signed the Arkansas-born, Las Vegas-raised artist to Def Jam Recordings. All Ne-Yo needed was a chance to break from the background and into the forefront, and he made the most of it by since recording three No. 1 albums and selling over 10 million LPs worldwide.
Ne-Yo with the Holberton School founders Sylvain Kalache and Julien Barbier and Trinity Partner Dan Scholnick / Holberton School
And much like he’ll soon be playing an integral role in changing the life of a talented dancer, he’s doing the same in tech by taking on an active role in attracting underrepresented groups—particularly African-Americans and Hispanics—to software engineering.
Last month, Ne-Yo expanded his personal brand and portfolio by announcing his part in a $2.3 million investment in the Holberton School, a radical Silicon Valley coding college that charges no upfront tuition. It’s the singer’s first foray into tech, and he’s promising that he’s not just slapping his name behind it for marketing or financial gain. He wants to be hands on and help shape future generations.
“When you think about coding and software engineering, it’s not realistic for cats coming out of the hood to aspire to be working on apps and video games,” Ne-Yo says, now a member of the school’s Board of Trustees. “The technology space is very one-sided right now. No offense to anybody else, but not a lot of people look like me in the tech space. That’s just the reality of it. I did this as an opportunity to try and diversify the playing field with more minorities, and women. The world is changing around us. And only rich people should not be shaping the world.”
The Holberton School, named after Betty Holberton, one of the first computer programmers, is a two-year alternative to college for full-stack software engineers that uses a progressive curriculum concept of project-based learning, and peer learning. Their disruptive approach to diversity does not require students to have any previous qualifications—just the desire to learn the trade. Instead of paying for school, assuming that you land a job, Holberton charges 17 percent of internship or salary earnings over three years once a student finds a gig. The first graduating class for 2018 has already been hired or interned at Apple, NASA, LinkedIn, Dropbox and Docker.
“My passion for the Holberton School came from using my platform to empower and educate the underrepresented groups in society,” Ne-Yo notes. “I’m trying to lead by example for anyone who looks in my direction. . . . I’m trying to promote an option, and an alternative, to not being on the one-trick pony that everybody is kind of on right now.”
The “pony” Ne-Yo alludes to are his peers in the rap, hip-hop and R&B scene—and the overall flavor and tone of the industry—which has shifted to churning out music at a fast-food-restaurant rate.
Whereas Ne-Yo’s soulful vocals hit you right in the feels and tug at your heartstrings, ears for the current consumer—and how they are actually getting to content—are always adapting and evolving.
Ne-Yo came into the industry right at the tail end of when people still bought CDs and artists could make some good cash solely of off album sales. Those days are long gone in a mobile-first world. But he’s trying to make a change.
“There is more music being consumed nowadays than ever before. The only thing is the way that they’re getting to it—because they’re not buying it. Now it’s all about the streaming and downloading part of the game,” he says. “The laws for that are still iffy and messed up. I’ve actually been to Congress with ASCAPseveral times just trying to get the government to look at the music laws because they are over 100 years old. They need to be updated. It’s an ongoing battle. The money that we used to make off of publishing and album sales is crumbs compared to what it was.
“It’s a good time for music. But it’s also a bad time for music. As much as people’s appetite for music has grown, I feel like their appreciation has not. That’s a little disappointing, but it is what it is. You can sit back and complain about the evolution, or you can be a part of it. You have to stick with the times or you get left behind. I commend the young cats who have already figured it out, and applaud them. Now, I’m just trying to figure my place out.”
It shouldn’t be too difficult. The self-described “gentleman” is a triple-threat singer, performer and songwriter with retro style and sharp swag, and he plans on bringing a combination of that entertainer flavor with a reintroduction and new album slated to drop later this year, his first since his sixth studio album “Non-Fiction” in 2015.
The harmonious crooner with such party-starting hits like “Let’s Go” and “Time Of Our Lives” to his credit has already delivered a steady diet of new appetizers this month. The upbeat single “Another Love Song” marked the musician’s first original melody since his last LP. He also collaborated with protégées Candice Boyd and RaVaughn Brown for a sensual audio soap opera, and added his own flair by remixing Kendrick Lamar’s hit song “Humble” to reflect on his Grammy-winning career and rise to fame. He also stormed the stage for Spike TV’s Lip Sync Battle in April to show off his cover skills with Cameo’s “Candy.”
“Everything is sex, drugs and rock and roll these days, which I’m a fan of all three, too,” Ne-Yo says. “However, I’m just trying to show others that there is more in life that you can get into. The world needs a love overhaul right now, and I’m trying to be a part of that movement by spreading the love. And I can do that in a number of ways.”
Love has always been a common theme in Ne-Yo’s songs—and should be even more so now that he married Crystal Smith Renay last year, who gave birth to Shaffer Jr., his third child.
“The things that were important to me before I got married have completely shifted,” he says. “My priorities have changed, and I am in a different place. At times, it can prove to be a little difficult as you’re trying to relate to the world. I can’t write solely about myself because everyone is not in my position. I want to make sure my music is relatable, and music that everybody could get into. I don’t make music for the sake of throwing it out there. A lot has changed since my first album. Heck, a lot has changed since my last album. I’m just making sure that whatever I have to say is worthy to my fans.”
If he’s not using his music to speak with admirers, he’s doing so directly with social media. He’s even previously allowed fans to be a part of the creative process of his songs. Ne-Yo knows that brands are closely paying attention to how artists engage with their audiences, and he thinks experiential brand relationships with musicians are going to be more important in the coming years—especially from a financial standpoint—as the industry evolves.
“You’re going to see this a lot, where one hand in the brand washes the other in the artist,” says Ne-Yo, who previously has collaborated with the likes of Hennessy for a concert series, wrote jingles for brands like Fruttare, and has spoken at Cannes on the matter of brand relationships. “That’s been a part of the business since the beginning. But it’s gotten to the point where, whether they’re deserving of it or not, the number of followers an artist has on social media has translated into opportunities. Now you have companies connecting with artists solely based on followers. The hell if they think you can do the job or not. They just care about the number of eyes they can turn toward a certain direction. And I don’t agree with that.”
He says the same social follower count plague has hit the dancing world, and some of his friends and business acquaintances with proven track records are having a hard time getting booked because they just don’t have the numbers social celebrities do. It’s all the reason more why he really wants to reward the best performer in World of Dance solely on the merits of talent with the grand prize.
“I hope this doesn’t sound egotistic, but I always knew that I’d get here. I always had a little voice in the back of my head saying, ‘Just keep going—don’t stop.’ That voice was God bringing me to this opportunity. I want the lucky winner to fulfill that dream too,” he says.
“After World of Dance, I’m still me, doing what I do with music. I’m never not working. I’m in a good place mentally, spiritually and physically. I want to spread positivity, and love. When it’s all said and done, and Ne-Yo is gone, I want people to say, ‘he was an uplifting dude, a good person who always had a smile on his face, and he could write the hell out of a song.’”
Activision Blizzard’s first shooter game has come a long way in its first year of existence, from Game of the Year to making esports dreams come true. Overwatch has taken the world by storm with a player base of over 30 million—appealing not just to a core group of shooter game fans, but attracting new demographics, as well.
Overwatch League has proven popular across the globe not just for playing, but viewing, as well. In terms of global reach, Overwatch comes in third place in North America and Western Europe, according to Newzoo. While the game boasts a large player base on both console and PC, a “sizable” group of people watch Overwatch esports exclusively.
IEM Gyeonggi’s Overwatch tournament finals attracted close to 100,000 peak concurrent viewers on Twitch and the official Overwatch League announcement has over 19 million views on YouTube. The city-based franchise approach presented by Activision/Blizzard seems to have materialized, Newzoo observed, as it’s rumored that the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins are among the first traditional sports teams to claim a spot in the Overwatch League.
“Overwatch succeeded where Heroes of the Storm failed—in offering a broad variety in gameplay and a new, original aesthetic,” SuperData CEO Joost van Dreunen told AListDaily. “By starting the franchise from scratch and building characters and environments from the ground up rather than relying on their tried-and-true formulas, Blizzard managed to release a title that is an antidote to the dominance of military shooter games. Without sacrificing any frivolity, Overwatch explores a broad range of social and cultural topics that have clearly resonated with audiences, making it a favorite among streamers and players.”
SuperData predicts that the worldwide audience for overall game video content (GVC) will reach 665 million in 2017, more than double the population of the US. Overwatch is certainly holding its own in this arena, averaging 23,515 Twitch viewers per hour in 2016 according to calculations by GitHyp.
The colorful shooter has also changed views on consumer habits in China, the world’s largest gaming market. It has often been thought that Chinese gamers, who typically pay for MMOs by the hour, would not be willing to pay for a video game upfront. That outlook has changed, thanks to Overwatch. Up to 40 percent of full game downloads of Overwatch in August 2016 can be attributed to Chinese sales, SuperData reported.
Activision Blizzard has much to celebrate and is passing on the rewards to its fans. Overwatch: Game of the Year Edition, a digital re-release that includes cosmetic items for Overwatch and other Blizzard games, is available now on PlayStation 4, Windows PC via Battle.net and Xbox One.
Players on PS4, Windows PC and Xbox One will also be able to try out Overwatch with a free weekend. The game will be free to download and play May 26-29.
Turner presented at Upfront last week with one underlying message evidently clear—the television network is aiming to attract a slew of cord-cutting binge-watchers in the ether with a slate of programming that is highlighted with comedies for TBS, and dramas for TNT.
One series in particular that has struck a chord with consumers is Animal Kingdom, a drama that dives into a Southern California family whose excessive lifestyle is fueled by their criminal activities.
The show’s second season comprises 13 episodes and continues May 30. The serialized nature of the series is a huge segment of a Turner roster—one that is expected to churn out nearly 17,000 hours of original content this season.
Turner prepped Animal Kingdom fans with a bingable crash course by partnering with Amazon Prime in March for an exclusive VOD streaming deal of its 10-episode first season.
That same month, they doubled down on their marketing with an experiential, gritty SoCal-beach installation at SXSW that featured a surf simulator and wave pool, a custom sneaker bar with Vans, an Eater-curated beer garden and a live graffiti wall.
Telmo Tabuas, vice president of marketing for TNT and TBS, joined AListDaily to share their marketing methods for Animal Kingdom.
What are the learnings from season one of Animal Kingdom that you’re applying to your marketing strategy now?
Our talent has gotten so much traction across social platforms. The women viewers in particular love the Cody boys because they’re charismatic and passionate about the show, and their characters. We want to bring consumers more interaction with the talent. So for us, it’s about bringing them to the forefront. The show has intense action elements of crime and family. These are drivers for consumers. We want to play up everything so they can interact with the elements.
What was the strategy behind that Amazon Prime partnership?
We’re excited now that we partnered with Amazon Prime because it’s a great opportunity to get new fans hooked on the show. The first season of Animal Kingdom was a huge success for us. What we learned was that as the season progressed, people were catching up by binging on the show, and ratings grew. Another thing we saw was large consumptions when we were marathoning the series. They weren’t necessarily waiting week-after-week to catch up; they were watching in bulk, as most consumers do with shows that lend themselves to that.
Can you take us through your SXSW activation?
We wanted to bring the Southern California vibe from the show to consumers in a very experiential way. We looked at our opportunities to where we could launch a large-scale activation, and we thought SXSW was the perfect place and time because it kicked off our marketing campaign. It was a way for us to reach both consumers, press and influencers all in the same space. We wanted to make sure it wasn’t just about what was happening on the ground.
How are you approaching influencer marketing?
It’s really about creating advocates for our brands and shows. We look for people who organically love the programming and can talk about it in a very genuine way. They end up becoming our megaphones to get new consumers interested in the programs. At SXSW, we worked with a lot of media partners like Eater and Complex. It was the right place for us to be. As we made our way into the launch of the series, we ramped up our work with social influencers to get the word out.
Animal Kingdom is an adaptation of a 2010 Australian original film. Is recreating shows from original movies a trend you see networks moving toward?
With TNT, our big brand push is for storytelling. Good storytelling can come from a variety of places. We’re about to head into a big summer on the network in terms of launching new programming. The first one is the launch of the second season of Animal Kingdom, which is based on a movie. But we’re also launching Claws, which is an original idea. It’s Florida-noir with an all-female cast. Will is the original story of William Shakespeare. We’re also adapting The New York Times bestselling book The Alienist. TNT is embracing storytelling—and different storytellers—to bring their vision to life in a compelling way.
How would you classify the pecking order of your programming marketing?
Animal Kingdom is a big priority for us. We saw in season one that it was gaining a lot of traction. The fan community was growing; the audience was growing. You typically don’t see that with a lot of shows. Oftentimes shows launch big and then sort of peter out. Now, we see Animal Kingdom as a huge opportunity for us to bolster the show even further while making sure that the fans we recruited along the way stay with us, too. . . . We’re charged with everything with the media plans, to experiential marketing activations like the one at SXSW. We’re really charged with bringing the campaigns to life. Anything that reaches consumers falls into our wheelhouse. There is the bulk of your media, which are promos, key art, print ads and radio, but then there is the fun stuff like our one-to-one activation in Austin. That’s where they can have experiences with us in an organic way in unexpected environments.
What are some new verticals and platforms you plan on experimenting with?
The next thing that we’re dipping our toes into and embracing is the notion of virtual reality. That’s the new buzz. We’re trying VR in ways that are true to the shows. That’s where we see the next iteration of experiences heading into. It’s different. We’re filming 360-degree content on set to then bring that to viewers in their own homes in a new and compelling way. We’re interested in exploring 360 video and VR because it’s bringing a world that our storytellers are creating for consumers in a fresh way. There are some big ideas coming down the pike.
While a great deal of TV programs are viewed live—especially premieres and season finales—40 percent of Gen Z and 38 percent of millennials who subscribe to cable or satellite say they have plans to cancel their service in favor of an online-only option. VOD fits more easily into the young cord cutter’s lifestyle, which is why more TV networks are making the move to OTT.
YouTube, already a major source of free entertainment, has taken its YouTube Red subscription idea even further with the launch of YouTubeTV. The OTT service offers access to the top four broadcast networks—ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS—and close to 35 of their affiliated cable channels, including ESPN, Disney Channel, MSNBC, National Geographic and Fox News. For $35 per month, viewers can watch live TV or record unlimited programs on a virtual DVR, but the service is not ad-free, and YouTube Red is not included (only YouTube Red Originals).
During the network’s Upfront presentation, CW discussed its shift from broadcast to being a multiplatform player.
“The CW lineup is better and broader than it’s ever been,” said CW president Mark Pedowitz. The network now offers on-demand viewing thanks to partnerships with Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Roku and other digital platforms. Pedowitz said the company is taking a “360 degree” approach as it reaches a wider demographic. The average age of a CW TV viewer is 45, he said, while a digital user is 26.
Missed that episode of Game of Thrones all your friends are talking about, and don’t have an HBO subscription? Touting over two million domestic subscribers, HBO Now is available as a standalone service and does not require a television subscription to use—targeting cord cutters who use competing services such as Netflix and Hulu. Thanks to partnerships with Amazon, Microsoft Xbox, Samsung and PlayStation Vue, HBO Now is available to those without access to traditional cable or satellite subscriptions.
The digital video audience will grow 8.2 percent in 2017, according to eMarketer, and PwC predicts that OTT/streaming subscription VOD revenue will grow to $10.4 billion by 2020.
As networks make the move to OTT programming, the benefits are obvious but the challenges aren’t always easy to overcome. Measuring OTT viewership has been limited to secret, internal data and estimates from third-parties.
Just in time for Digital Content Newfronts, comScore has announced a new offering—ComScore OTT Intelligence—that sheds light on audience behavior across platforms. Measures include household reach, audience size and demographics, along with a variety of usage metrics, comScore said. In addition, data can be segmented for cord cutting and “cord never” homes, as well as those with a cable or satellite subscription.
“With very limited insight into viewing behavior across providers, the OTT market has largely been a black box,” Mike Rich, comScore’s vice president of emerging products, said in a statement. “As more TV viewers look beyond traditional content sources, it’s more important than ever for networks, content producers, device manufacturers and others in the ecosystem to understand this growing segment of cross-platform viewing.”
Mountain Dew has teamed up with Origin PC and Twitch influencers to build a $50,000 custom gaming PC on Rig Up—a live eight-week show that kicks off on May 31. Each weekly livestream will be hosted by a different Twitch influencer, allowing viewers to vote on how the rig is built. At the end of the program’s run, one viewer will win the Mountain Dew-branded gaming PC, while many others will win PC gaming parts.
Stephanie Danzi, brand manager at Mountain Dew, told AListDaily that the soft drink brand is always looking to push the culture of gaming. “For many gamers, creating and customizing their own gaming rig is a rite of passage, so we wanted to give Dew Nation the opportunity to create the most epic rig yet, without price as a limitation,” Danzi explained. “We looked to Origin as the premiere partner to help bring Rig Up to life.”
Danzi added that Mountain Dew has a legacy in gaming and the brand is focusing on how it can enhance its passionate fans’ gaming experience. “We’ve seen amazing responses from our fans through our first entry into PC gaming—our amateur CS:GO league—the Mountain Dew League,” Danzi said. “We wanted to continue connecting to PC gamers, and since gaming rigs are an extremely important part of their gaming experience, this seemed like a natural next step. We’re excited to take the PC gaming experience to the next level by letting them choose the very best components and parts to amplify how they game.”
The program will run on Mountain Dew’s Twitch channel, which Danzi said has given the brand direct access to the gaming and eSports community. “We have attracted an extensive and truly engaged audience through our Twitch channel,” Danzi said. “Those who are on our streams and in the chat have been really active and vocal, but also supportive of others in the stream. Because of Twitch’s reach, the chat typically has viewers from all over the world who tune in each week to be part of the stream.”
Prior to Twitch, Mountain Dew would reach out to gamers through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as traditional media. “While we still use these [traditional] platforms, we’ve seen that Twitch has been able to unlock an even more authentic engagement with this core gaming audience,” Danzi said. “For many gamers, Twitch is their primary form of entertainment. If they are not playing games, they are watching others play them.”
One of the guest hosts for this program is professional gamer Optic Diesel. Mountain Dew has worked with Optic Gaming in the past through Call of Duty promotions. “Our plans in the coming months is to expand on this idea of engagement and put the power in our gamers’ hands, with more appearances and content being produced by known influencers and esports players such as Optic Diesel,” Danzi said. “We will continue to have our lifestyle shows, but we will add in new shows that have a focus on esports and the athletes themselves.”
Mountain Dew is working with Origin in guiding the program to make sure the final rig being built is one that can stand out as one killer gaming rig. Danzi said Dew Nation will get to decide what the rig will ultimately look like, adding that the design options are all true to Dew, “one-of-a-kind and bold.”
“Our goal is really to do something that is both unique for Dew and true to these gamers that pushes the culture of gaming,” Danzi said. “They love building custom rigs, and this program amplifies that concept in a democratized way. The gaming community and Dew Nation ultimately determine the final rig. And, they have the chance to win a ton of cool gaming parts and components in the process.”
Mountain Dew has created multiple gaming activations over the years, focusing earlier on Xbox promotions around Halo and Activision Call of Duty campaigns. The Mountain Dew League for CS:GO marked the brand’s expansion into PC gaming.
“We also drew upon the ‘Dewmocracy’ program, where consumers were able to pick and name a new flavor of Dew,” Danzi said. “Ultimately, we want to empower and encourage the consumer to be bold and creative in their life, and this extends into their gaming lifestyle.”
Mountain Dew recently partnered with Arby’s to bring its Mountain Dew Game Fuel Citrus Cherry fountain drink to more than 3,000 restaurants nationwide.
“The PBS Kids Plug & Play is the first kid-safe television and playtime educational streaming stick,” said Dawn Ciccone, vice president of brand licensing at PBS, describing the educational channel’s media streaming stick that launches on May 24. Unlike similar media streaming devices such as a Roku or Amazon Fire TV Stick, PBS’ device is playfully designed to look like a toy racecar and it comes with a child-friendly remote control.
The PBS Kids Plug & Play, which is available at Walmart and will come to other retail stores later this year, is one more way PBS Kids is bringing its edutainment content to families, adding to its broadcast channel, website, various mobile (and media streaming device) apps and a kid-friendly tablet called the PBS Kids Playtime Pad. To kick off the family fun and learning, users simply insert the Plug & Play device into their televisions through the HDMI port. It comes preloaded with content, including games and sing-alongs, so it doesn’t necessarily need a Wi-Fi connection to work. However, linking to the internet gives users access to the PBS Kids 24/7 Channel livestream and over 100 hours of PBS Kids video content.
Speaking with AListDaily, Ciccone detailed what led to the development of a media streaming stick. “The PBS Kids Plug & Play was formed from an interest in creating new ways for parents and kids to play together,” she said. “Reviewing the PBS Kids digital products available on various OTT devices, we felt that there was a place for a unique family room experience created especially for viewing on the television by parents and young kids. We wanted to create a device that could be fun, easy for young children to use, worked offline, and is capable of accessing all of the other great PBS Kids content available online and via other streaming platforms.”
Given the variety of products PBS Kids currently has, we asked Ciccone what audience they were trying to reach with the toy-like device. The Plug & Play is designed for children as young as two-years-old to operate, but it’s made for family enjoyment. “We expect families to be enjoying the Plug & Play together,” said Ciccone. “According to a recent study of parents who have children ages two-to-six, 89 percent of parents reported they watch TV together as a family and 74 percent were in favor of anytime access to educational programming. The Plug & Play is perfect for families looking for educational programming to play and learn together.”
Dawn Ciccone, vice president of brand licensing, PBS.
Ciccone then went into detail about how the device fits in with all the different ways families can access PBS Kids content, particularly the mobile apps. “The PBS Kids Plug & Play is an extension of our approach of developing content for various platforms, where all of the content that is pre-loaded on the PBS Kids Plug & Play was created especially for a television experience,” she said. “All of the content is exclusive to the device, except when connected via Wi-Fi to the PBS Kids 24/7 Channel or the PBS Kids video on demand content available on all platforms.”
As for how the kid-friendly media stick compares to other streaming devices such as Roku, Ciccone made it clear that “the PBS Kids Plug & Play is not a replacement, but complements other media streaming devices and—more importantly—does not require any type of subscription. It is an entirely new experience for young viewers created for viewing on the television with PBS Kids content that is not available on other platforms.”
When asked about how the Plug & Play fit into the PBS Kids’ family of products, which includes the PBS Kids Playtime Pad, Ciccone reiterated how the devices “is meant to be another great option for children and families to access PBS Kids educational content. One of the great things about the Plug & Play is that it creates an interactive family room experience with content such as games and sing-alongs that make it easy for families to play and learn together.”
How is PBS Kids making parents aware of its racecar-shaped media streamer? “Through press coverage of the device’s awesomeness—people like you!” Ciccone said. “And through enthusiastic retailers and happy customers on social media.”
When asked why AMD chose to use digital characters instead of live actors, as was with the Assassin’s Creed VR Experience, Sartain explained that “the final solution is a blend of both worlds. However, digital characters provide the ability to interact with the experience.” A separate representative told AListDaily that AMD worked with Rajamouli to create the experience, and his vision for the environments were so big and vast that it had to be created digitally.
e is playfully designed to look like a toy racecar and it comes with a child-friendly remote control.
