“Man vs. Wild’s” seven-season run on Discovery Channel is over due to a contract dispute. But its star, survivalist Bear Grylls, has his sights set on a new business, Bear Grylls Ventures.
The Santa Monica firm opened its doors last month to handle Grylls’ product licensing deals and future productions. It is staffed by three of Grylls’ acquaintances.
Much of the business now involves sponsorship deals, though Chief Executive Heather Krug said productions are forthcoming.
“He eventually will be on TV again,” she said.
Episodes of Grylls’ “Man vs. Wild” opened with a shot of him parachuting into a remote, inhospitable location and then followed his return to civilization.
At one point, however, the show was criticized because his crew was providing support on some of the expeditions. Disclaimers were added to explain.
Brands continue to market their products with his image. For example, Grylls has appeared in a series of commercials for multinational consumer goods company Unilever’s Degree deodorant. And outdoor equipment makers continue to stock shelves with custom Bear Grylls lines of outdoor gear such as knives and parkas. He also has deals in the works with Bushnell Corp. of Overland Park, Kan., for a GPS system and Coreban of Noosa, Australia, for custom paddleboards.
Krug, who previously handled public relations for Grylls, said the new firm will promote his frequent adventurous stunts, and help find sponsors or links with charitable foundations. For example, Grylls navigated the Northwest Passage on an inflatable vessel in 2010, in part to raise money for Global Angels, a charity that fights child trafficking and poverty.
Krug is joined at the firm by Delbert Dean Shoopman III, executive head of production and licensing, and Juan “CJ” Cardenas, vice president of finance and operations.
Pop-Out Posters
With DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. rolling out its next feature, “Rise of the Guardians,” in November, the studio is hoping it can make moviegoers familiar with the characters this summer. They include versions of Jack Frost, the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny, and the movie follows their quest to protect the dreams of children around the world.
Since each mythical character had its back story tweaked for the film, the studio devised an interactive marketing campaign to acquaint people with them. The campaign sent more than 1,000 six-panel, accordion-shaped posters to theaters across the country for the week of the Fourth of July holiday. Each panel of the posters features one of the six main characters. Moviegoers can scan the image of any character using a downloadable DreamWorks mobile app and watch a clip from the film on their devices.
The campaign provides “the extra opportunity to interact with the characters,” said Anne Globe, chief marketing officer at DreamWorks.
The animation house has a distribution deal with Paramount Pictures for marketing and distribution. Paramount pays then gets reimbursed from the box-office gross from the movies. Globe said the app represents a relatively small portion of the movie’s roughly $150 million international marketing budget.
The app uses image-recognition technology from Cambridge, England’s Autonomy Corp. It was developed by a half-dozen people led by the studio’s head of digital, Jason Alex.
“The challenge was, How could we bring (the posters) to life?” Alex said.
Laughs on Demand
Scott Montoya, founder of L.A. digital distribution company Lol Comedy Inc., thinks he’s found the sweet spot for people buying digital comedy specials: $5 or less.
He recently announced the launch of a service called LolFlix.com, which allows users to steam and download comedy specials from the likes of Jon Lovitz, Tom Arnold and Pauly Shore at that price point.
There are about 30 specials listed for download at the moment and all have previously aired on CBS Corp.’s Showtime Network.
Montoya also plans to release about 20 original titles in the next year or so. He said the venture was inspired by the success of comedian Louis C.K., whose $5 digital download via his website, “Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon,” sold more than $1 million worth of copies in its first 10 days of release last year.
“Louis C.K. proved that you can self-distribute directly to fans if you make content easy for them to own and available for a reasonable price point,” Montoya said in a statement.
Taking Seat
Ryan Kavanaugh has made a name for himself by financing big Hollywood films such as “The Social Network” with Wall Street money.
Now he’s using his cash to invest in something more mundane: your living room sofa.
Kavanaugh, chief executive of West Hollywood’s Relativity Media, recently invested $25 million in L.A. manufacturer nuMobilia LLC, which makes leather-upholstered couches and other furniture for retailers including Ikea.
The company announced last week that Kavanaugh will serve as chairman of the company, which sells to 50 retailers worldwide.
NuMobilia, founded in 2011, took over the manufacturing operations of defunct San Diego company Robinson & Robinson Inc., including a Mexican manufacturing plant in Tijuana. NuMobilia also operates a plant near downtown Los Angeles.
So what does Kavanaugh know about manufacturing? Hard to say. He wasn’t made available to speak with the Business Journal, but nuMobilia executives said in a statement that his leadership as an investor has already helped the company grow to become a global furniture brand
There’s also no word whether the pieces will be making an appearance in any of his upcoming films.
Staff reporter Jonathan Polakoff can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 226. Staff reporter James Rufus Koren contributed to this column.
