Spider-Man, the crime-fighting superhero that has carried Sony Pictures Entertainment to the top of the box office heap for the past few years, could have a real future as a product spokesman.
At least that conclusion can be drawn from the Davie Brown Celebrity Index (DBI) survey released today that shows Spidey as tops among superheroes in terms of appeal, notice, and influence. The index was created to help brand marketers and agencies determine celebrities’ ability to influence brand affinity and consumer purchase intent.
Devised by Los Angeles marketing agency Davie Brown Entertainment whose parent company, TMA, is a division of advertising giant Omnicom Group Inc. the year-old database helps pair brands with the celebrity beauty or brawn required to increase product popularity by rating more than 1,500 celebrities based on eight attributes.
Spider-Man isn’t alone when it comes to superheroes in terms of product-pushing clout, according to the DBI. Batman is still the best-known superhero among Americans and Superman ranked first in the DBI’s “trust” and “aspiration” categories.
The index data is culled from a 1.5 million-member domestic research panel, and respondents evaluate celebrities along eight key attributes: appeal, aspiration, awareness, endorsement, influence, notice, trendsetter, and trust.
The DBI is updated on a weekly basis and includes special requests from DBI subscribers to gauge celebrities who are on the rise.
Should Spider-Man turn pitchman and say, help Cal Worthington sell Fords, Marvel Entertainment Inc. would be obliged to share any payments with the character’s creator, Stan Lee.
CAA, Joost Partner
Online TV and video firm Joost has enlisted serious talent agency muscle to bring in more entertainment content by partnering with Century City behemoth Creative Artists Agency Inc.
Joost, which is running in beta stage now, is trying to stake out its turf in a growing field of broadcast-quality Internet TV providers companies that are jockeying to replace traditional TV with high quality broadband services. The company started up by the founders of Kazaa and Scype distributes TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology. The potential is clearly great, but users of the service have seen bugs and playback problems lately.
Joost already has deals with Viacom Inc., Warner Music, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Burbank-based Centerstaging’s Rehearsals.com.
Up to No Good
NGTV Inc. also known as No Good TV is the world’s largest producer of what it bills as “uncensored celebrity news and entertainment programming.” The firm announced the beta launch of NGTV.com last week, a free online broadband network.
The beta site is the first phase of a multi-platform launch that will cover television, mobile and broadband distribution along with a next generation social-networking site set for release later this year.
The Beverly Hills company has a 10,000 hour content library of exclusive, uncensored original footage and “directors cut” music videos.
Individual series episodes are broken down into five- to seven minute segments with new clips added online daily. The site offers more than a dozen original series and different themed broadband channels, with plans for more than six new series concepts added by summer.
The network content has gained some notice recently: In less than two months, the channel has cracked the top 40 most-watched partner channels on YouTube, territory normally reserved for media heavyweights such as NBC, CBS, the BBC, Warner Bros. Records and Google.
Give a Shout
Video download service Movielink.com, and Shout! Factory have signed a deal to make Shout! Factory titles available for digital delivery via Movielink’s online rental and purchase service.
The new offerings include a premiere catalog of Warren Miller winter action sports adventure films, documentaries, independent feature films and stand-up comedy programs, consistent with the L.A. music-label-turned-entertainment-firm’s focus on pop culture favorites like TV series, animation and live music performances. Annabelle Gurwitch’s comedy “Fired!” is among the more high-profile offerings.
Movielink, based in Santa Monica, is owned and operated by Movielink LLC, a joint venture of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros, and pulls its content offerings from the studios’ libraries as well as from those of Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox and independent studios.
Militant Mouse
Walt Disney Co.’s Chief Executive Robert Iger said he was “appalled” about a terrorist group’s use of a Mickey Mouse-like character, and lodged an official complaint with the government.
Iger made the disclosure at the Society of American Business Editors and Writers conference last week in Orange County. Iger’s reaction came after seeing a video of a figure resembling Mickey Mouse posted on the Web site of a television station controlled by Hamas.
The U.S. government registered a complaint with the Palestinian government, which pulled the plug on the show last month and removed the program from the station’s Web site. The program, which is called “Tomorrow’s Pioneers,” shows a man dressed in a mouse costume teaching children militant Islamic beliefs.
Staff reporter Anne Riley-Katz can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.
