Social Farming, think Gold Farming with Social Identities
The business of Gold Farming – where paid gamers amass gold to sell to less-experienced users to game the MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games like WOW (“World of Warcraft”) is a well known practice. In a parallel world of connections, perhaps equivalent to “gold” in terms of business leads or viral marketing armies to launch brands, one could imagine a new kind of innovative farming for profit around social media relationships. Think “Twitter sweatshops,” “Facebook factories,” “Diggsourcing” and “LinkedIn (Assembly) Lines.” After the jump, a metaphorical goldmine…
William Morris + Endeavor, Future of the Mega-Agency
The mega-agency merger is made: William Morris Endeavor (WME) Entertainment is the combined talent agency merging film, television, music and book publishing between WMA and Endeavor. Architected on one side by Ari Emanuel, who left ICM (under Wiatt) nearly 15 years ago, and his senior partners – Patrick Whitesell (former CAA), Adam Venit and Rick Rosen (the fourth, or fifth, principal was Tom Strickler, who resigned presumably because he was anti-merger); and, by Jim Wiatt and Dave Wirtschafter from the WMA, now Chairman and Co-CEO, respectively, with Emanuel and Whitesell. A breakdown of the deal math, what it means, and where they go next in relation to CAA.
The Agency/Deal Math:
With Endeavor’s 80-100 agents (about 280 total employees, per LAT) and WMA’s 150 agents (800 employees), Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily’s (DHD) blog, which expertly followed the merger, predicts 100 or so layoffs over the next few weeks.
Add to that the requisite agencies’ assimilation issues – agents/agency poaching and conflicts, agents-turned-managers, change of client marketshare – comes the understanding that while this merger helps both companies survive the current economic storm and a changing entertainment environment (lower DVD revs and TV budgets, less upfront/more backend for theatrical).
With combined revenues of $300-325M – research points to a 2:1 split between WMA:Endeavor – the goal will be to challenge the dominant CAA, while maintaining course with current clients.
And with the new classification as WME “Entertainment” (as opposed to “Agency” or better “Media”), one wonders if they will stretch the model as has been seen with the Endeavor-MRC relationship.
The toss-up will be how the two sides intermingle and work together to produce coherent results for their shared clients. Early on, Emanuel said, “We need a bigger boat,” given the merger exploration process which took an emotional toll on both sides, not to mention their clients.
Endeavor Advantages:
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WMA Advantages:
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Both sides now realize that any newly merged company has to consist of only 150 core movie/tv agents at most. The mantra of these negotiations is “make it smaller”. That means, of WMA’s 150 agents, and Endeavor’s 100 agents, about 100 from the combined total will have to be let go. And since CAA’s Richard Lovett has pursued a policy of 100% marketshare when it comes to clients, the new WMA-Endeavor is making as its goal to rep only the elite Top 2%.
After the jump, more on the new agency makeup, the financial value of the enterprise, and the new-and-improved mega-talent agency skirmishes and wars to follow…
MySpace Facelifts COO+CPO: Michael Jones, Jason Hirschhorn
Fox Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller is a busy recruiter these days. After bringing in Owen Van Natta as new CEO, Michael Jones (formerly of Userplane which sold to Miller’s AOL, and recently Tsavo Agency) and Jason Hirschhorn (formerly President of Sling Media and CDO of MTV Networks) as COO and CPO (Chief Product Officer), respectively. Think “AOL + MTV [x Facebook] = New MySpace.” After the jump, insight into where this troika takes MySpace to innovate the social network/portal. Read more >>
Recent Innovation Jobs, April 2009
Yes, there are still jobs to be had – a few recent finds:
Creative Director at Momentum agency- Director of Strategy for FLO TV at Qualcomm
- Head of Marketing & Industry Development at Screen Australia
- Senior Manager, Market Development for Mobile TV & Games at Motorola
- Director of Business and Client Development at Random House
- Creative Department Web Developer at TOM’s Shoes
- CEO at MySpace (well, that’s already filled…)
For more information and specifics, visit New Medici Jobs. In addition, we’ll be highlighting a top headhunter early next week – add your choices in the comments section below.
MySpace Facelift, New CEO Owen Van Natta
MySpace’s “loss of face” to Facebook, a rough and tumble economy and a pivotal change of company seats, i.e., Peter Chernin, at News Corp (and MySpace’s own COO and senior technical team’s exodus) has contributed to a major executive facelift of MySpace. While their track record of change with Jeff Berman as President of Sales and Marketing and pitch towards being framed as a “social portal” has helped, the inability to keep up with Facebook’s growth rate and product innovation has forced change at MySpace. With the forthcoming announcement (today) by new CDO Jon Miller of former Facebook COO, Owen Van Natta, to the CEO spot, Fox and Murdoch are betting on social competitiveness to regain position. After the jump, we’ll look at Van Natta, and outside choice, Jason Calacanis’ recommendations. Read more >>
Anti-Studio: Media Rights Capital(izes)
MRC, Media Rights Capital, is quickly becoming the new model for production companies and talent agencies – a hybrid of financing, rights ownership and innovative packaging. Its rights’ model shares ownership equity with film talent, moving beyond the usual pay-or-play contracts. After the jump, we’ll dive into their recent formation, industry perspective and what their success means to the market. Upcoming MRC titles include:
- Brüno- $42.5 million from Universal, rights revert to MRC; received new R-rating instead of NC-17 yesterday
- The B Team – Will Ferrell+Mark Wahlberg action/comedy, rights to Sony
- The Adjustment Bureau – Matt Damon action/romance/sci-fi, $62M budget, rights to Universal for 20 years, then revert to MRC; 20% first-dollar-gross backend. The studio puts up P&A and gets worldwide distribution rights. Read more >>
TwitLit, Twitter’s First Multi-Book Deal for Gary Vaynerchuk
Call it “Micro Diaries of a Mad Twitterer,” but early 30s Gary Vaynerchuk has amassed a meta-canon of video blogs (aka vlogs) and Twitter-Facebook updates. Specifically, these are not normal ‘human’ numbers of vlogs or Twitter updates – GaryVee (GV), as he goes by, has 208,000+ Twitter followers and upwards of 20,000 once-counted Facebook fans. He’s creating a legacy of video bloggers – Samantha Ettus at Obsessedtv.com – to build on his “personal branding” meets “social business” platform. And the recent non-digital coup: a book deal with HarperStudio – 10 social branding books for a 7-figure deal. A breakdown of the deal, the frequency dilemma for GV, and his growing personal brand network – after the jump… Read more >>
BusinessWeek, Top 25 Unsung Innovators
Another week, another innovator breakout list. BusinessWeek, via partnership with Boston Consulting Group, put together a list of 25 companies that could be the bigco innovators in 10 years, i.e., the Apples, Googles and Toyotas of tomorrow. Many of these companies already command good to great revenues for 2008 (included), with some having been around the block and back. In the midst: Alibaba.com, Future plc, Grameen Bank, Hulu, Mint.com and a few you wouldn’t expect. List after the jump… Read more >>
Breaking Through the Broken: Innovate Your Capital Goals
For those innovative startups feeling the credit crunch – and which of the few/many aren’t(?) – an intriguing 33-slide read from North Venture partners, aka former Virgin Interactive team members. Given the lack of investor appetite these days, many newco’s are going the bootstrappy, ‘develop revenues first’ route. This “Breaking” deck talks about getting past the filters and gatekeepers of capital. And speaking of Virgins, Sir Richard Branson is running an interesting PitchTV or pitchfest online, via his Business Stripped Bare blog, and airing on Virgin Atlantic planes. The 33-page deck after the jump… Read more >>
iPod Touch + Skype = Free Mobile Calls
Chalk this up to a little next generation (i.e., teens) or the international community who travel often, but it seems everyone under 20 and those abroad from Australia/UK/New Zealand/etc. are dropping their iPhones in favor of iPod Touches. Now with Skype and a good wi-fi connection, there’s no cost calling plans. How’s that for innovating your office, kids’ utility fees or travel abroad access…? Read more >>
Jerry Maguire’s Manifesto Revisited, The Things We Think And Do Not Say
With one late-night manifesto, fictional sports agent – Jerry Maguire, played spot-on by Tom Cruise – removed himself from corporate contention and revolutionized his life and career. How many of us today can say the same without nervously eyeing our 401K’s or reviewing our latest Chase credit statements? It’s not easy to “Show. Me. The. Money.” as Rod Tidwell (Maguire’s lone client, aka Cuba Gooding Jr.) demanded Jerry repeat, when the money is the check – as paychecks so often arrive “paycheck to paycheck.” This post is the preamble to the “Anti-Studio: Future of the Mega-Agency” article that we’re all writing at New Medici. You have to ask yourself, given the recession: are you doing what you love? And is your business – whether executive or entrepreneurial – a long-time affair? Is this recession a crisis point or a moment to celebrate that we can innovate our way back to greatness? An overly long excerpt from Jerry Maguire’s “The Things We Think And Do Not Say” manifesto after the jump… Read more >>
Reelist: Brüno vs. Borat for Box Office
Sasha Baron Cohen’s Brüno - the Universal and Media Rights Capital (MRC) film – promises to push the boundaries of taste in a very cash-positive way when it opens on July 10th. Below, the “Red Band” restricted trailer – MySpace video is on-and-off, so via TrailerAddict:
After the jump, a comparison of Brüno v. Borat with 14 Brüno aggregated clips to boot… Read more >>
Stim-novation: U.S. Ranked 6th in Innovation
Not to crowd the ‘bad/depressing news’ queue, but a recent report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, or ITIF, puts the US 6th in innovation and competitiveness – behind Singapore, Sweden and South Korea. 15th in higher education attainment. 8th in advanced degree education – behind France, Spain and Russia. 5th in corporate investment into research and development (R&D) – behind German and South Korea; making it 17th in percent change over last seven years. And the worst news of the study: the US made the least progress in innovation/competition over the last decade of any of the 40 countries in the report. Read more >>