• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 2, 2006

MySpace this week launched a page for aspiring and established comedians. Sponsored by Pepsi-Cola's Sierra Mist, MySpace Comedy marks the gradually more ordered and ad-friendly face of MySpace.

Aside from one rectangle ad for Paramount's Jack Black vehicle, "Nacho Libre," MySpace Comedy is the province of Sierra Mist. "Sierra Mist is all about comedy," said a Pepsi-Cola spokeswoman, "It's the cornerstone of our marketing on TV, radio, and online. Our sponsorship of the MySpace comedy section is a natural fit."

This is only the second such sponsorship deal for MySpace. Pepsi-Cola's Aquafina bottled water brand already maintains a presence throughout the MySpace Film page.

"Every program section we launch grows exponentially each month," said Shawn Gold, senior vice president-marketing for MySpace.com. "Companies like Pepsi have been very smart in hedging that growth by sponsoring new content sections and programming features as they launch. When you tie into a section as a static, long-term sponsor, a good deal in February ends up being an exceptional deal by May."

The deal illustrates MySpace's current challenge to parlay its huge popularity into profits. Indeed, despite displaying more Web pages per month than any site except Yahoo--and a membership base of over 70 million--the News Corp. property currently earns less than other, older Web companies, particularly Yahoo.

As a result, MySpace is exploring special sections and sponsorship deals. Just last week, MySpace announced a sponsorship deal with Walt Disney Pictures to build buzz for this summer's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." The plan on Monday was for MySpace to pick one "friend" of the movie's profile--corporate brands can create "personal" profiles with friends lists just like individuals--who will get first dibs on the movie's trailer, and the power to spread it throughout MySpace's community as he or she sees fit. Then, assuming the title of MySpace press correspondent, the winner will be sent to Los Angeles to participate in the film's press junket.

Also, fast food chain Wendy's--another company to create a MySpace section--has attracted the attention of grassroots marketers, now that about 100,000 MySpace members have joined the friends list of a profile kept by its animated square hamburger cartoon character.

Executives navigating the super-risky social networking landscape are watching MySpace closely. Aaron Cohen, CEO of MySpace rival Bolt.com, believes his competitor is having to change tack amid a recent string of bad press. "MySpace is dealing with an unfortunate misunderstanding that it's not safe," said Cohen. "So it's incumbent upon them to drive people to an area that feels more edited."