• by Karlene Lukovitz , February 16, 2009

Live interviews with pop singer Hilary Duff and "Project Runway" winning fashion designer Christian Siriano will be broadcast on New York's Times Square billboards and the Internet today as part of Diet Coke's "Style Series."

This is the third installment of the series, a high-profile example of linking sponsored content and digital distribution.

For the series, produced and distributed by Digital Broadcasting Group (DBG), entertainers and fashion designers are interviewed in the studio of the Reuters building in New York City's Times Square. The interviews are broadcast live on the NASDAQ and Reuters billboards and streamed live through the series' microsite (DietCoke.com/StyleSeries) and video banners on sites in the DBG Video Network. The events are also accessible live to mobile phone users who are MobiTV subscribers.

After each event, the footage is edited into Webisodes that are released weekly on the Style Series Web site and DBG's network. The network reaches 109 million uniques through sites including Yahoo Video, YouTube, Google Content, People.com and InStyle.com.

At a time when "consumers can choose to switch a brand on and off," the digital distribution syndication guarantees viewership, DBG CEO Chris Young tells Marketing Daily.

Duff, soon to star in the movie "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde," will be interviewed between 12:30 and 1 p.m. Siriano will be interviewed between 5:30 and 6 p.m.

The first Style Series episode, on Dec. 9, featured fashion designer Cynthia Rowley and recording artists Robin Thicke and Rihanna. The second, on Jan. 21, featured recording artist Natasha Bedingfield and fashion designer Stacey Bendet. The fashion designer segments feature highlights of their latest lines in runway shows.