For 24 hours today (starting midnight ET Oct 6), thanks to a promotional commitment from our sponsor, Starburst, our great animated series Nite Fite is being featured on the front page of YouTube in the upper-right spot usually reserved for advertiser videos, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Nite Fite is not a branded entertainment series, like many other videos that have appeared in that space. It’s a fully independently-owned show that has a standalone sponsor integration within each episode, not unlike Seth McFarlane’s Cavalcade of Comedy and its sponsorship by Burger King. The Cavalcade is being distributed by a Google AdSense buy, just as we’re getting a distribution boost from our front page buy (which we fully expect to be effective, as the show is good enough to have viewers then rate it, share it, and forward it along). I think it’s a tremendously innovative way for an advertiser to get their messaging out to the YouTube audience. By embedding a sponsorship in a YouTube partner channel (in this case Channel Frederator) that already has a ton of credibility and love in the YouTube community (with over 20,000 subscribers and 13mm views), Starburst is promoting a great independent show that deserves a wider audience, and getting their sponsorship viewed at the same time.

As of now, the latest episode, “TV is Crap,” has been up for around 1424 hours, been viewed 120,000300,000 times, and is holding steady at a four-star rating, with comments from viewers like, “this is the first ad on youtube that was actually good,” and, “Finally, a sponsored video that’s actually funny.” But my favorite one of all is this one from Trayxx:

I just clicked in to this 45 minutes ago out of curiousity, now after watching all the eps I’m hooked! Great job and keep it up!

One of the smartest people I know in the space, 7 Robot’s Sarah Szalavitz, a programming advisor of ours and, along with Damien Somerset, one of the owner-producers of our hit show Zaproot, has long been saying that companies like ours should spend less on producing and more on promoting content. Today’s trial, the results of which we’ll share here later in the week, could be a great model, not unlike the Seth McFarlane deal, for tying sponsorship and promotion together to get great programming in front of a wider audience.

In the first week of our new series, Nite Fite, we’ve had amazing feedback from fans, blogs and the press, as much for the great quality of the show as for the innovative sponsorship model we’ve undertaken with Digitas and Starburst. To celebrate a great first week and a successful launch, we’re having a party tomorrow night at M1-5 with Nite Fite creators Dan Meth and Mark Vitelli as special guests, along with many people from Frederator, Digitas and Next New Networks who all worked so hard to make the show happen. There’s a Facebook invite if you’d like to RSVP, or leave a comment here to get the Evite by e-mail.

Here’s a roundup of some of the show’s coverage so far. Daisy Whitney of TV Week wrote:

[Starburst’s] entry into the online video business is one of the first big bets by a name advertiser on independent Web video. It’s a signal to the marketplace that shows repurposed from broadcast networks won’t command all of the dollars that are flowing into Web video.

AOL’s TV Squad called Nite Fite “very funny, and one worth setting a bookmark for.” NewTeeVee wrote:

Nite Fite is a fun, well-executed concept you’d want to watch even if candy weren’t telling you to do it. Animated dork humor that goes down easy. Sweet tooth optional.

But most importantly to us, all three episodes of Nite Fite so far have an average rating of five stars on both YouTube and the Nite Fite site, and comments are overwhelmingly positive. Nite Fite has already been featured by the editors of YouTube, iTunes, and Yahoo! Video, and by some of our favorite blogs including Drawn! and Cold Hard Flash.

Thanks to everyone who’s spread the word and helped us get this series rolling — we’ve got a lot of great episodes on the way, and this is just the beginning. Stay tuned to Nite Fite’s newly created Twitter feed, Facebook fan page, and blog for more updates, and if you’re in NYC, we hope to see you Thursday nite, where we’ll premiere some of the show’s upcoming episodes.

Jeaux Janovsky, our community manager for Channel Frederator and Pulp Secret and a wonderful artist as well, stopped by a talk by Giant Robot founder Eric Nakamura at the Korea Society earlier this week. Jeaux summed up the talk on the Channel Frederator blog, and posted his notes from the evening in the form of this awesome drawing:

Looks like it was a pretty inspiring event — and it’s obvious Eric dug the drawing, too.

Working at Next New Networks has its perks. Two weeks ago I received a random email invite to a screening of the new Indiana Jones movie, The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull. At first I was wondering what PR list I had managed to get myself on, but what I didn’t know it at the time was that it was actually a Next New Networks field trip set up by Tim Shey and our awesome contact at Paramount, Casey. With permission slip in hand, I hopped in a cab to the premiere with Tim, Rachel, Justin, Erik, Steve, Scott, Vanessa, and a few others.

When we arrived there were a TON of lines set up outside with fans, photographers, and Dr. Jones look-a-likes! Of course, being the cool kids that we are (well, that and Casey being the bomb), we didn’t have to wait in line and we walked right in to grab our seats, and then predictably made a mad dash to the concession stand. Hot dogs, popcorn, and nachos in hand, we returned to our seats on the balcony (which were sweet!) to relish in the delight and excitement brewing within the theater. As we relaxed into our seats we were serenaded into anticipation by the Indiana Jones theme music. Right before the film got started there was a ruckus at the balcony entrance, and low and behold, it was Shia LeBeouf hanging out! Next walked in Karen Allen and Harrison Ford! With all the stars in place, the lights dimmed, and the adventure began continued.While I won’t spoil ending for you, I will leave you with a few online features to warm up with before you go see what many of us have been waiting almost 20 years for! (more…)

Photo by Jared.

I first met the brilliant Ben Ross (of Channel Frederator, Ultra Kawaii, and more) on Channel Frederator RAW, our Ning-powered social network for animators and animation fans. He had posted the first episode of Inside Ben’s Head, his own original series, and there were so many crazy, great ideas, like “Nolte-Busey-Busey-Nolte” and “Italian Techno,” that I wrote him a fanmail right away. Here’s the episode in question:

Find more videos like this on Channel Frederator RAW

Ben wrote back and said he’d actually had a cartoon way back in the second episode of Channel Frederator (unknown to me, Fred had a similar experience, meeting Ben at an event and never making the connection that he was the same guy who sent that great cartoon in to Channel Frederator). Such was the pace of those early days at Next New Networks that about a week later, I walked over to meet a new intern who was sitting over with the Frederator team, and it turned out to be Ben. He’d already been hired before I’d gotten the chance to tell anyone about him. (more…)