January 28, 2008

Brands line up for Kate Modern

Bebo is hoping the explosive start to the new series of Kate Modern will continue to hold the attention of the show's massive fan base and its sponsors.

The second series will run for 24 weeks. About 120 episodes will be made and uploaded at an average of five per week.

Second series sponsors - which get to see their products placed within the video - will be Cadbury's Creme Egg and Toyota's youth-targeted car Aygo. Sponsors of the first series included Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Warner Music, Paramount and Orange, which each paid up to £250,000 to appear within the show.

The first series, which was made up of 155 episodes, lasting between one and four minutes each, that ran from July 16 until January 1, drew a total audience of more than 35m videos viewed - an average of 1.5m per week.

No figures have been revealed about what each company might pay to be involved with the second series. However, each company stumps up cash based on the amount its brand is integrated into the storyline, which includes monitoring the number of times it appears in the video and is mentioned in the script.

Warner Music, for example, used its sponsorship to put its act The Days into the show, while Paramount used the series to promote movie Hallam Foe by featuring actor Jamie Bell.

The popularity of the first series of Kate Modern, produced by LG15, the company behind the internet TV hit LonelyGirl15, has led to the development of other programmes for social networking sites.

Bebo has since commissioned two more series, the Sony-made Sofia's Diary, and "interactive online reality drama" The Gap Year, produced by Big Brother maker Endemol.

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