NYmag.com has launched a new web series, “Where’s Rogan?”, using Microsoft Silverlight. The project uses Silverlight to present an online film series with time-coded product placement – a new model for online advertising and promotion – which will trigger advertiser assets.
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NYmag.com’s advertisers for the project are Continental Airlines, Olay, and TRESemmé. The unique, engaging, Silverlight-powered “Where’s Rogan?” experience is being delivered with Akamai Technologies, Inc. and EyeWonder, Inc.
Directed by John Gutierrez, a rising talent in documentaries and music videos, and produced by Hat Trick Media, “Where’s Rogan?” follows a fictional story-line around celebrated fashion designer Rogan Gregory, a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award winner, who goes missing during Fashion Week in New York City. Featuring Rogan’s real-life friends, associates, and fashion industry insiders, the whodunit was filmed during New York Fashion Week in September 2008. The series will unfold with two new episodes each week for four weeks, with each episode running approximately three minutes in length.
The series will reside at a custom microsite at NYmag.com/Rogan, and be promoted through print advertisements in New York magazine, display ads at NYmag.com, and e-mail blasts to NYmag.com users. The “Where’s Rogan?” web-series is unique in its combination of an engaging and lively story with a novel, interactive advertising strategy. Hat Trick Media (www.htrick.com), a New York-based creative agency specializing in broadcast and interactive content, developed the concept of combining product placement with innovative technology to display contextual ads that provide real value to marketers. Hat Trick delivered on a mandate from Microsoft Corp. to showcase the breadth and scope of Silverlight 2 and an equally critical mandate from New York Media to make the content compelling.
“The ‘Where’s Rogan?’ project illustrates the unique opportunities NYmag.com is able to offer advertisers,” says Michael Silberman, General Manager, Digital, at New York Media. “Bringing together Silverlight technology and Hat Trick’s production skills to fulfill our marketing partners’ needs created a clear win. It’s innovative from both a technological and a marketing standpoint, while being artistically compelling.”
“Silverlight and the ‘Where’s Rogan?’ project is another great example of how the robust technology behind Silverlight can create unique online media experiences that engage audiences in a very powerful way,” said Brian Goldfarb, Director of the Developer Platform team at Microsoft. “This project allows for advertisers to present their brands in an innovative and overall cost-effective manner.”
“For our team it was crucial to create an experience that people find novel, playful, and unexpected,” says Rob Veksler, Creative Director, Hat Trick Media. “We developed a concept we hope will be an innovative and engaging four-week journey for the audience and sponsors.”
