Digital Talent Agency

Hasbro's Hollywood Tie-Ins.

Toy maker Hasbro Inc. parlayed its Hollywood tie-ins to boost second-quarter earnings on slightly improved sales, bucking an industrywide slump.

Toy sales have been declining throughout the recession because of consumers' diminished spending and retailers' efforts to curb inventories. Mattel Inc., the leading toy maker, reported a 19% second-quarter sales decline last week.

But Hasbro's action figures and other toys linked to Paramount Pictures'"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," a summer blockbuster, helped the company boost sales by 1% to $792.2 million. The company was also aided by toys already on the shelves linked to the release next month of "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," also from Paramount, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc.

Hasbro owns the property rights to Transformers and receives a small percentage of the movie's box-office receipts from Paramount. Under the agreement, it also gets to keep almost all of the toy and related sales. It has a similar arrangement for G.I. Joe. "Transformers," which made its debut last month, has rung up $772 million in box-office sales. Chris White, a Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst, called Hasbro's exposure to Hollywood "the big reason for its upbeat results."

Complete article here.

Lindsay Lohan on Facebook issues, imposters, and Myspace

by Tam Vo for Venture Beat

"If Lohan was a truly savvy Facebook user, she would’ve been smart enough to create a Facebook Fan Page in order to peddle her atrocious line of leggings, address gossipy rumors and answer the question, “Who is the real Lindsay Lohan?” Feel free to befriend the Lohan impostors below, or suggest ways that Facebook can better verify celebrity profiles."

Here's the complete article.

Hybrid firm combines Hollywood, digital media (last we checked)

from the Los Angeles Times

"Agency 3.0, will help companies, content providers and advertisers navigate the digital landscape by performing some of the traditional functions of an ad agency in addition to tackling technical areas such as user interfaces and product development."

William Morris’ decision to take an undisclosed equity stake in Agency 3.0 signals the talent agency’s desire to play a larger role in digital media.

This year it announced it was joining with Silicon Valley venture capital firms Accel Partners and Venrock, as well as telecommunications giant AT&T Inc., to invest in consumer technology and media start-ups.

Other talent agencies have taken different tacks when it comes to new media. Creative Artists Agency joined with Sequoia Capital to back Will Farrell’s online entertainment site, FunnyOrDie.com. And advertising agency Spot Runner and United Talent Agency helped start 60Frames Entertainment, which creates short-form online content."

Interesting concepts but perhaps a lack of direction as their blog hasn't been updated since July. Watch this space ;)

Complete article here.

The World Loves American Media, Even If It Hates Our Politics

by Tim Arango for the New York Times.

"Media companies have gotten what they wanted, even if the White House has not. In the last eight years, American pop culture, already popular, has boomed around the globe while opinions of America itself have soured.

The television program “CSI” is now more popular in France than in the United States. Hollywood movies routinely sell far more tickets overseas than at home. A Russian remake of the TV show “Married With Children” has been so popular that Sony, the producer of the show, has hired back the original writers to produce new scripts for Russia. Even in the Muslim world, American pop culture has spread."

The complete article here.

Twilight's Online Marketing Success

by Cyndy Aleo-Carreira for the Standard

"The online marketing for the film has been astounding. It's a complex, multifaceted outreach effort to fans and new customers, comparable with what the Obama campaign did online before the election. The online campaign has generated a huge amount of buzz for the movie, and a surge in online sales for tickets, books, and the upcoming film soundtrack.

In fact, if you need proof that the Web can encourage young people to buy music, look no further than the soundtrack sales data. Billboard announced yesterday that the soundtrack had reached the number one spot on the charts, selling 165,000 copies in its first week of release, 29% of which (48,000) were digital copies, making it the second highest for online sales since the company began tracking them. The soundtrack marketing effort has been highly successful, ranging from videos released on author Stephenie Meyer's site to exclusives available for fans depending on format and place of purchase: iTunes has a digital booklet and three additional songs, while the physical CD contains a poster from the movie, with several different posters randomly placed in the CD cases. In addition to the Billboard ranking, the soundtrack currently sits at the top of the iTunes chart, as well as #4 on Amazon's MP3 Albums chart, and #3 on Amazon's music chart for the physical CD. Amazon is also seeing huge sales for the books, with Twilight: The Complete Illustrated Movie Companion at #37, and the book the movie is based on at #5 two years after its original release."

from an online survey of Fandango ticket buyers:

"Fandango has an informal survey the site is taking of users indicating interest in purchasing pre-sale tickets for Twilight. Over 2000 have responded, and the results show some interesting trends. Of those who completed the survey, 41% say they are online all the time, and another 34% say they are online several hours a day, and 4% have their own Twilight fan site or series-related blog. They are also social media-savvy, with 20% saying they "always check" MySpace and 23% "always check" Facebook. The age spans also seem to indicate that the book and film have a wider appeal than the "young adult" audience they are geared for; 41% of intersted ticket buyers are 25 years and older, and 29% couldn't think of another film that appealed to the whole family as they believe Twilight will."

Here's the complete article.

Repurposing Archival Footage

Here's the original.

Here's the VW re-appropriation.