60Frames Numbers After One Week
January 24th, 2008 by Alec McNayrPosted in Content, Marketing, Media, Metrics, Strategy |There’s been a lot of talk lately about independent production studios hoping to sidestep the traditional Hollywood producers and publish their own content online. NewTeeVee has done a great job of covering the announcements, finance deals, and great promises of new “digital studios” Virtual Artists, Jackson Bites, and the like. I won’t try to duplicate their coverage here.
Digital production company 60Frames (backed by $3.5 million in venture capital and former UTA agent Brent Weinstein) launched its first slate of shows last week. It marks, to my knowledge, the first significant independent network of shows on the Web. 60Frames seeks to provide its content creators with all the tools needed to succeed as creators/writers/producers, from advertising connections to production equipment.
Brent Weinstein provides more detail in an interview on Veoh’s Guru:
I’ve watched the first episode of each of the shows, and I actually liked them. I’m usually a pretty harsh critic of online fare, but I’m quite impressed with the concepts of each — Brent must have a great sense of getting the “hook” right.
I’m interested in learning more about how effective 60Frames’ marketing is, so I’ve also tracked the publicly-available audience numbers after one week. (More after the jump.)
A quick synopsis of each show:
Black Version
Memorable scenes from movies, only starring black actors with new, more racist dialog. Hilarious. The first episode, a spoof on Silence of the Lambs is pretty funny. It should be a good “one-off” series, where you don’t have to follow the action from week to week.GILF
A 37-year-old grandmother’s antics in her neighborhood and life. The name alone should draw traffic, but it will take some hefty character development to keep me coming back.Douchebag Beach
My choice for sleeper hit. Three toolboxes try to score ladies in New Jersey. The Axe body spray scene in the first one is genius. These characters are so shameless; I can’t wait for them to really get in trouble later in the series. I hope the creators allow the worst to happen.Erik the Librarian
An odd, almost existential series about a nerdy librarian. It’s clearly unique and clever, and was created by Brent Forrester, a writer on The Office, so it could feature a revolving door of name talent (Mindy Kaling co-stars in the first two).Who What Wear
I had thought this a comedy. Imagine my disappointment when I finished the first episode without a laugh. It’s a simple yet well-done style and fashion show. I’m clearly not the target market, but I wonder how this show will ultimately differentiate itself from similar shows on TV… how is this unique for online delivery?Phake TV
It bills itself as a spoof on reality TV, but I’m not sure where it’s going yet. The first episode is both crass and violent — not really my style, but certainly a commentary on shocking behaviors of faux-celebrities…Cockpit
Our friends at Big Fantastic created this comedy about all the naughty things that shouldn’t happen in a jet’s cockpit. From what I can tell, the entire series will take place in the actual cockpit, so the shady characters and dialog will carry the story.Numbers
Finally, a look into the first week after 60Frames’ launch.
A big caveat before looking at these numbers: they don’t include views from blip.tv (blip keeps stats like these private to researchers like me). The problem is that blip.tv handles a significant amount of 60Frames’ viewership: all the videos for all 7 shows on the 60Frames.com web site, RSS feeds, iTunes podcasts, and even on Bebo. So, don’t consider these numbers definitive — only a general measure of marketing effectiveness.
Thoughts
- You’ll see that YouTube provides the bulk of the views. I wonder how Black Version got so many views more than its counterparts. Could that be duplicated?
- 60Frames.com lists MySpace as a “distribution partner,” which I interpret as a deal to secure consistent home-page features. Yet, the numbers are dreadfully low for the social net… I would have secured exposure on MySpace prior to launch, especially for Douchebag Beach. I wonder what the story is?
- Why isn’t Crackle included as a distribution partner? We recently got big numbers with Hollywood Rumble on Crackle. It seems like a prime place for comedy.
- Why don’t these series have their own stand-alone web sites? I would think they would benefit from secondary content (blogging, photos, etc.). 60Frames’ marketing model, it seems, is to rely on the subscription tools available within each of the video distributor sites (for now).
So, 128,000 views in one week (beyond its primary blip.tv distribution). Certainly not a landslide, but I don’t think 60Frames is looking for an immediate revolution. They’re experimenting like everyone else. But they’re a year ahead of most financed online producers, and they’re positioning themselves for success. I’m looking forward to their next slate of shows.
