While BermanBraun has not confirmed plans to launch a branded video portal where consumers can find a range of neatly packaged entertainment content, that would no doubt be a "big, fantastic
business," said Lloyd Braun, the production company's co-founder and executive producer.
By contrast, creating bits of content here and there for online audiences -- a favorite pastime for
many a producer -- is ultimately not worth the investment, Braun said during a "fireside chat" with David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards, at a WebbyConnect conference on
Wednesday.
"That's the big problem with this type of content," the former Yahoo entertainment head said, regarding one of BermanBraun's most recent efforts, "Peter Mehlman's Narrow World of
Sports," which debuted on YouTube this summer, and features Mehlman -- a writer-producer-cum-personality best known for his work on "Seinfeld" -- interviewing iconic sports celebrities like LA Lakers
MVP Kobe Bryant ("Do you ever stop in the middle of the day and say, 'Holy shit, I'm Kobe Bryant'?") and Boston Red Sox All Star Kevin Youkilis.
The first show, which was tightly integrated with
the Palm Pre smartphone, attracted about 1.6 million views on YouTube, according to Braun, and is presently being developed into a larger brand. "It's not just 'The Narrow World of Sports,'" he said.
"It's 'The Narrow World' ... We think Peter has all the attributes of being a hit in the Internet world and beyond."
Braun insisted that everyone made money on the show's maiden voyage: "We
made money; (YouTube) made money; Peter made money." Still, he says, the big question remains how production companies can create content that can thrives in a larger branded environment.
Braun
on Wednesday also had some advice for advertisers: Consumers "don't mind shameless integrations when it fits organically into the content," he said, using Palm's integration with Mehlman's show as an
example.
Also, the first thing marketers have to ask themselves is whether or not consumers will want to watch a particular piece of co-branded content -- not whether it hits on every brand
attribute. "I do believe," Braun added, "in bringing in the brand at the earliest possible point."
As a nation of consumers and as an industry, Braun insisted that "we're nowhere in mobile,
still." He does not, however, doubt that the market is poised to explode, saying: "That's the frontier for us over the next few years."
When will the industry witness a true tipping point with
regard to media dollars going online? Also, Braun speculated that it isn't likely to happen until WebbyConnect conference attendees -- largely made up of mid-20- and early-30-somethings -- assume
their positions as the next generation of chief marketing officers and agency heads.
"Most of the agencies don't quite fundamentally understand how (digital media) really works," he said. Braun,
who was born in 1958, added: "Execs are people my age who like to see their media dollars at work ... and a lot of these CMOs, they don't see it (online)."
To date, BermanBraun's best-known Web
effort is Wonderwall -- a celebrity news and gossip Web site it launched in partnership with Microsoft early this year.