Golddigga Rocks Sofia's Diary

Hot urban label Golddigga is the first official fashion sponsor of Sofia’s Diary (Sure Girl by Unilever was brokered earlier by MindShare Performance and Interaction) on Bebo. Golddigga will help in “shaping the imaginative storylines” and aims to open up a dialogue with the Bebo audience by offering the opportunity to “befriend” the brand via its profile page and enter competitions to win clothing.

Mercedes GLK Gets Sex And The City

Head of Mercedes-Benz Entertainment Liason Office in Los Angeles, Ferdinand Froning has sonar senses when it comes to proofing Hollywood scripts for product placement opportunities on behalf of the marque. So it was when Stuttgart gave Froning and the producers of next month's must see Sex And The City feature, the all clear to position the new SUV GLK in the film and to reproduce all its product banners for a special New York Fashion Show tie-in scene. The film opens 23 May girls.

Lights, Camera, Action at Edelman Studios

The cat's now well and truly out of the bag with PR giant Edelman readying the launch of Edelman Studios, a virtual studio that will link emerging talent and professional talent with brands such as Burger King Corp., Butterball, Expedia and Kraft's Philadelphia Cream Cheese to name a few. Whether it's client money underwriting the costs of production or in the case of WPP's GroupM actually staking the content themselves via multimillion dollar investment funds to co-develop programs with the TV networks, the appetite for content creation and ownership has only just begun.

Animax Unplugs Branded Content

Animax Unplugged, a joint venture studio for developing branded digital content for the desktop and mobile Web plans to produce interactive campaigns and original content that includes casual games, Facebook and iPhone applications and widgets.

Puma Opens L.A. Offices

Fashion athletic company Puma said that it will open a new office dedicated to entertainment marketing next month in Los Angeles. The West Coast office will be geared at increasing the company's partnerships and product interaction with music and film celebrities.

Omnicom Taps Product Placement Online

Omnicom Media Group Digital has entered into a strategic partnership with NBC Universal's Digital Studio division with ambitious plans for scripted brand integration opportunities for its clients in digital programming. At least one production, “Gemini Division,” is scheduled for the summer with the first brands to be involved in the series are Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, United Parcel Service and the Acura TSX sold by American Honda Motor.

The move positions Omnicom and it's new digital CEO Matt Spiegel over its rival WPP, who only last year created some branded television content of its own, co-producing the drama series October Road with Touchstone Television. That move took Group M, the media planning and buying division of WPP, into a role that traditionally is held by a production company, using its own finances to invest in the production.

Last week, Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, spoke of his group's plans to work more closely with Hollywood stars and media companies to help finance films and television series in a bid to promote its clients’ products.

All things being EQAL

Lonelgirl15’s creators, Miles Beckett and Greg Goodfried have formed EQAL, an interactive media company that will continue producing the Lonelygirl15 and KateModern series among others to come. The new company has raised $5 million in Series A from Spark Capital and individuals such as Conrad Riggs, Ron Conway, Marc Andreesen, and Georges Harik.

Sorrell on Owning Branded Content

WPP chief Sir Martin Sorrell said in Italy this week that agency groups must work harder to crack the key opportunity of owning and producing branded content by tapping the intellectual property talent houses of William Morris and alike. Sorrell is right, the taps do need to be turned on. But for fear of technology innovation overtaking his group's worldwide creativity revenues, WPP must also begin to make significant media technology investments of its own. That includes owning 24/7 Real Media and adding Yahoo! to its radar watch.

MySpace takes a Shine to Web-to-TV

International Web-to-TV might actually be a viable aftermarket for Web shows. Michael Eisner just sold "Prom Queen" into several international markets, including France and Japan and not long after her MIPTV keynote address on "creativity without borders" in Cannes last week, CEO of Shine Group Elisabeth Murdoch has been tapped by MySpace TV to license "Quarterlife" and Roommates" abroad or create localised versions of the shows.

Branded Virtual Goods

The great thing about branded virtual goods is that, the objects themselves (take Dr Pepper on Facebook) identically resemble products consumers use in the real world. The objects just also happen to be the ad unit, something we find just tantilising in our own little part of the development world on Facebook.

Product Placement Continues Skywards

In a growing sign of things to come, more advertisers are turning to product placement. Nielsen's product placement service showed a 13 percent increase to 25,950 in the number of placement occurrences in prime-time broadcast network programming in the US last year. By contrast, Internet ad spending was up 19%, while all other media categories continued to decline with the top spot-TV markets down 5%.

FYI Raises + $1 milllion in Seed Capital

New York-based online media company For Your Imagination (FYI) has raised an additional $1 million in seed capital, from CensensusOne Ventures, LLC, and will also be partnering with the firm in order to raise a Series A round of capital. For Your Imagination is a company that develops and markets quality content for Internet television and web video series. So far it’s produced DadLabs and Break a Leg, among other projects.

Mercedes Shifts to Web Show

Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz has launched its own music show on its own Internet-based television station. The drive away from print and TV towards the Internet -- a move that BMW AG tried successfully with their series of film shorts, now sees Mercedes using the Web to shift attention away from individual cars, and instead draw attention to the brand itself.

Stream wins Häagen Dazs

TBWA/Stream, the brand entertainment arm of TBWA-London, last month won the UK branded content business for premium ice cream brand Häagen Dazs, following a three way pitch.