|
|
JibJab Caters to
New Crowd: 'High School Musical' Fans
Disney Sponsors Interactive Feature at
Site Renowned for Political Satire
Beth Snyder
Bulik
Advertising
Age
September
18, 2008
YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) -- "High School Musical" fans
already excited for the upcoming "HSM3" in theaters next
month now have something else to be excited about --
starring in a video with main characters Troy and
Gabriella!
JibJab and Disney have teamed to offer free customizable
web videos of the 'HSM3' musical number 'Now or Never,'
where pre-teen girls can upload photos of themselves and
paste their heads onto Gabriella and Troy's bodies.
Well, not really. But through the magic of online videos
with cut-and-paste capabilities -- perfected by online
entertainment company JibJab -- and a Walt Disney
sponsorship, it's as close as they'll probably get
without entering a reality contest.
Disney foots the bill
JibJab and Disney have teamed to offer free customizable
web videos of the "HSM3" musical number "Now or Never,"
already shown on Disney TV properties. Consumers or,
let's face it, pre-teen girls can upload photos of
themselves and friends, then cut and paste their heads
onto Gabriella and Troy's bodies. Most of the videos,
which can be e-mailed, on JibJab require a subscription
account ($13.99 per year, or $4.99 a month), but the
well-branded Disney videos are free.
"The value to Disney is the ability to create a fun
interactive experience in advance of the movie," said
JibJab's co-founder and CEO, Gregg Spiridellis. "For us,
it's the ability to partner the JibJab brand with the
'High School Musical' franchise. ... 'HSM' has six of
the top 100 YouTube videos of all time."
JibJab is best known for its political satire composite
videos, such as "This Land," from the 2004 presidential
election, and "Time for Some Campaignin'" from this
year's primaries. But Mr. Spiridellis maintains that the
more commercial and teen appeal of 'HSM' is not too much
of a stretch for JibJab political fans.
"We're all about silly fun. It's not straight -- it's
'High School Musical' with a JibJab twist. It's really
fun or funny based on who you put in," he said. "The
political videos have a sophisticated theme, but it's
also very silly and goofy on the surface."
Characters welcome
He also pointed out while half of JibJab's 2 million
members joined during its political-satire-only days,
the other half have joined since it added "Starring
You," a feature that allows personalized characters, in
August 2007.
JibJab has done a few other sponsored videos, one for
Pepsi than ran last holiday season and pre-Super Bowl,
and another last year for rapper Snoop Dogg to promote
an album.
|
|
 |
|
|
This article is copyrighted material, the use of
which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We
are making such material available in our efforts to advance
understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic,
democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this
constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided
for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without
profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational purposes. For more
information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml If
you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your
own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner |
