Old and New Media Coexisting Nicely, Thank You

For example, the Jim Beam Web series will be supported not only with TV but also with ESPN Radio, ESPN the Magazine and displays in stores.

“This is primarily driven as a Web series, using ESPN.com as a lever,” said Kevin George, chief marketing officer at the Beam Global Spirits and Wine division of Fortune Brands in Deerfield, Ill., “and each piece of the program plays a different role, all the way down to retail.”

“Digital is important because our guys are watching online video a ton,” Mr. George said, referring to the men at whom the campaign is aimed, “and ad recall on digital is great.”

Still, “the TV part is nice,” he added, because “it gets you the awareness.”

This week, the Principal Financial Group introduced a campaign, “America rebuilds,” centered on a Web site with video clips featuring experts like Jean Chatzky. The campaign, by the Los Angeles office of TBWA/Chiat/Day, part of the TBWA Worldwide division of the Omnicom Group, includes a sponsorship of the “Building Up America” series on the CNN cable channel.

“I’m a big believer in using all the tools in the toolbox,” said Mary O’Keefe, chief marketing officer at Principal in Des Moines. “People can get the information however they like to.”

In developing the online video for “Pairings,” said Dominic Sandifer, president and managing partner at GreenLight in Los Angeles, “we made sure during production that we captured enough great content and story line” to create sample episodes of a TV version.

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A television version would “take an even deeper look at the creative collaborations and inspirations” of the celebrities who appear in the webisodes, he added, including the musicians Dave Matthews and John Legend and the chefs John Besh and Tom Colicchio.

Of course, not all Web video has a television counterpart. For instance, “Undercover” — a weekly Web series created and produced by A. V. Club, part of The Onion — can be watched only online. (The Onion does offer computer users make-believe TV, with video clips on sections of theonion.com called Onion News Network and Onion Sports Network.)

“Undercover,” which began on Tuesday, presents 25 new music acts like Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and the Retribution Gospel Choir. They were invited to perform cover versions of 25 rock standards like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Kokomo.”

The first eight webisodes are sponsored by Starbucks, which gets an old-school “Brought to you by” acknowledgment. Budweiser, sold by the Anheuser-Busch unit of Anheuser-Busch InBev, was signed on Wednesday as a second sponsor, said Steve Hannah, president and chief executive at The Onion.

Asked why he sought sponsors for the Web series, Mr. Hannah replied, “Because we want to pay for it.”

“Contrary to what the world thinks about The Onion,” he said, laughing, “we are rapacious capitalists.”

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/business/media/19adco.html?ref=technology