For years, the fashion industry has worked the premise that consumers buy what they see in TV and movies. Product placements and celebrity endorsements have been a part of Hollywood for decades.
But now a Web site has gone one step further by selling the exact products that appear in the shows within an hour of their air time.
The site’s name sums it up: SeenOn.com.
If fans want those spiked heels that Wilhelmina wore on “Ugly Betty,” or the Cuisinart seen on “Top Chef,” or even the under-wire bras worn by the Pussycat Dolls, they can get it all at SeenOn.com, developed by Delivery Agent Inc., a company with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“It all starts with a contract with an entertainment property,” said Mike Fitzsimmons, chief executive officer. “We create a new revenue stream for them by allowing fans to buy stuff they see on screen.”
Currently, SeenOn.com has deals with 15 television networks, 24 movie studios and about 125 independent TV production companies. The agreements give SeenOn.com the right to use the shows to promote the products as well as access to information on the set.
Fitzsimmons believes his biggest asset is the Production Agent, a handheld gadget that keeps an electronic record of every item in a show. The Agent connects to the Internet to load the information into SeenOn.com’s massive and growing database.
A typical hour of network television involves about 150 to 300 product exposures. The company’s L.A. office helps in collecting this data, but Hollywood’s wardrobe directors, set dressers and prop masters are the real worker bees. They benefit from the Production Agent because it gives them a digital record for use in continuity, budgeting and inventory tracking.
“We complement a number of processes already in place we just digitize it to make it easier,” said Fitzsimmons. “If you can’t figure out what’s in the show before it airs, you can’t do this business.”
Buying information
With data in hand, the SeenOn.com team has between a few hours (for some TV shows) to six months (for a studio movie) to monetize the information.
For some items, SeenOn.com sells the merchandise directly on its site through a deal with the manufacturers. However, for a lot of the stuff, it refers Web visitors to other e-commerce sites. For example, if a private-label Victoria Secret robe appears on a show, SeenOn.com will refer shoppers to Victoria’s online store.
“Our goal is to provide buying information for every object seen on the show,” said Fitzsimmons. “But let’s say Bree on ‘Desperate Housewives’ is driving a Volvo. We’re not going to sell the Volvo on our site. We pass it on to Volvo.com or Cars.com.”
Money from the sale gets divided between the supplier, SeenOn.com and the show. And the numbers can add up. In its early days, SeenOn.com scored a big hit with the poncho that Martha Stewart wore when she left prison. The company reaped nearly $1 million in revenue from that single product, and since then the site has had “a series of other hits,” Fitzsimmons said.
Current shows that tip the e-commerce scales include “The Office,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Heroes” and “Top Chef.” In terms of characters, Fitzsimmons cites Kate Walsh on “Grey’s Anatomy,” the cast of “Desperate Housewives” and the Pussycat Dolls. He expects an uptick when “Project Runway” returns in the fall.
To even out the seasonal spikes and sputters of these shows, SeenOn.com carries steady performers, including such talk shows as “Martha” and “The View” as well as gear associated with such celebrities as Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson. While different shows attract different audiences, the core buyer is a woman in the 18 to 49 age bracket, living in a high income household who feels comfortable shopping online.
Besides SeenOn.com, the company operates about 45 other e-commerce sites with the same software. For example, SeenOnMTV.com sells stuff from the music channel. Earlier this month Delivery Agent announced a partnership with Interscope Geffen A & M; Records to help the company make incremental revenues from its list of musicians.
At present, the goal of providing a buying opportunity for every item on every show remains beyond the company’s logistical capabilities. Delivery Agent started in 2002 and currently has 85 employees. The company has raised a total of $35 million in venture capital, with about half that amount coming earlier this year. Revenues have grown 200 percent per year since 2004, and Fitzsimmons expects the company will break even within 18 months.
Gary Mezzatesta, president of UPP, a product placement firm in Burbank, thinks SeenOn.com has taken a logical step by moving onscreen brands to the retail level, but the strategy only works for certain products in a middle price range. “It’s appropriate for impulse buys and the fashioned-oriented,” he said. “I can’t believe Lexus will sell more cars because some character on a show drives one.”
Fitzsimmons’ real ambition lies in making the Hollywood-to-home sales connection a consistent habit. “The biggest challenge to turn this into a mainstream form of commerce is customer awareness,” he said. “We’ve been patient with the entertainment industry and with building our infrastructure, but people just don’t know about us. It’s not a headache, but definitely the challenge.”
Mezzatesta believes that if TV-based buys really became a major retailing mechanism, the studios would simply take the business back. “That’s what always happens,” he said. “In fact, the most advanced model is in Britain, where basically you have the Web and TV integrated into one box. Some households can order what’s on the show in real time. That’s where I think it will head here.”
But Fitzsimmons hopes a critical mass of audience and product offerings will present competitors with a significant barrier to entry. “The business clearly demonstrates the value of scale,” he said. “If we were selling for one TV property, we wouldn’t get the sales we get today. If were doing this on a network stand-alone basis, we couldn’t sustain enough interest from the consumers.”
