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Playboy expands digital strategy to focus on social video

By Andrew Redfern @ 30th April 2008 10:41 pm

Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (PEI) (NYSE: PLA, PLAA) today announced a suite of digital partnerships introducing the Playboy Audience Network, which initially will include YouTube(TM), Break, Veoh, Howcast, and Metacafe.

Additionally, Playboy entered into a deal with Mixercast, a social advertising and marketing solutions provider, to develop a suite of ad-supported content and contest widgets to bolster these efforts.

Through the Audience Network, Playboy will create new levels of engagement for consumers through the distribution of the global brand’s lifestyle-video content and also will collaborate with its distribution partners to integrate current and new advertisers into the network.

Building on recent successes such as E!’s top-rated TV show “The Girls Next Door,” the Playboy Audience Network will highlight Playboy’s free and ad-supported lifestyle programming and will include new original short-form
content franchises created specifically for third-party distribution, including the “Playboy Radio Minute” featuring video highlights from the Playboy Radio Morning Show on SIRIUS; “Bridget’s Mansion Minute” a video blog featuring Bridget Marquardt of “The Girls Next Door;” and “Playboy’s Guy 101″ how-to videos.

Later this year, Playboy will unveil contests and user-generated content initiatives to fully leverage the platforms of its Playboy Audience Network partners. The Playboy Audience Network programming will be entirely non-nude.

To kick off its relationship with YouTube, Playboy simultaneously announced the launch of a nationwide talent search on
http://www.youtube.com/playboycasting that will enable female fans to submit non-nude videos on YouTube to be selected for a private audition with Playboy’s assistant photo editor Holly Madison, the star from “The Girls Next Door.”

Winning submissions will celebrate the opportunity with a trip to the world-renowned Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles for a Playboy.com pictorial, participation in a catalog fashion shoot featuring Playboy’s latest apparel collections, and an audition with Holly to be Playboy magazine’s 55th Anniversary Playmate.

This YouTube talent search is complementary to Playboy’s content channel on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/playboy), which is the first to launch Playboy’s Audience Network channels.

“As one of the most iconic entertainment-lifestyle brands in the world, Playboy is uniquely positioned to leverage video and social-media platforms to create compelling new ways and places for fans to interact with our brand while also generating innovative marketing opportunities for our advertising partners,” said Jeremy Westin, Executive Vice President, Business Development, Playboy Media Group.

“With the Playboy Audience Network and initiatives like the YouTube talent search, we want to create more of the interactive engagement in our digital business that we’ve traditionally been able to provide in the high-touch world of our parties, events, location-based entertainment venues, and retail stores.”

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