Hulu's Big Harrah

I was thrilled in October to turn you on to the Hulu Beta - but nowhere near as happy as I am to point you to their full launch, released to the world last night. This site is beautiful, and continues to reveal to my family that I was a total geek growing up (Welcome Back, Kotter? Really??).

The press is loving it too, check out this sweet spread from Fortune Mag.

I don't know about you, but if I was one of those naysayers from back when 'newsite' was announced, here's what I'd be feelin today:



But that's okay - now that the full launch is live, you can enjoy it too. It'll be our little secret. :)

TOM TV - Favs from the Big Game

We've been a little busy - so apologies all around for the lack of posts this last month, but if this is a place to talk about what audiences really LOVE... then Top Of Mind TV simply can't miss the Big Game! No, not to watch the Giants and Pats battle it out.. for the ADS. :)

(and yes, in case you're wondering - I didn't say "SB" cuz I'd prefer not to get sued)

The big winners this year are all the amazing CG and Motion Graphic artists that are alive and thriving in Advertising today! You'll see some great examples in our favorite Ads from this year, and all the ads can be viewed after the game at http://myspace.com/superbowlads :

• CareerBuilder.com's "Follow Your Heart" where a despondent worker's heart actually bursts out of her chest, marches into the boss' office, and holds up a sign saying "I Quit". Great work! CB also had another ad "Wish", but the animation and story clearly wasn't as strong.
  
• SOBE Life Water pulled out all the stops with "Lizard Thriller" driving to thrillicious.com. Go see this one if you missed it, it's a classic. The environmental-based landing site is especially interesting, with use of WD's famous multi-plane visuals to create the depth and breadth of the environment while still keeping it fairly light. Not thrilled with the art, but thumbs-up for the overall effect!
  
• Fox's promo for "The Sarah Conner Chronicles" where the Terminator robot beats up the Fox Football robot definitely got a cheer at our party. LOVE it. And the follow-up Robot Grudge Matches were almost as fun.
  
• Tide to Go's "Silence the Stain" campaign was not only wierd and intriguing on it's own, but a trip to mytalkingstain.com continues the experience with an interesting UGC campaign where users can upload their own 'Talking Stain' ads. Clever.
  
• Coca-cola Classic definitely pulled out one of the cutest commercials of the night with the Underdog/Stewie battle for the coke. This was hilarious all the way through, but immensely satisfing at the end when Charlie Brown won the day (and the coke, of course)!
  
• Another favorite was from Bridgestone. A car is driving down a curvy road late in the night when it has to swerve to miss a deer caught in it's headlights (Oh NO!). Then, around another corner it has to swerve again to miss Alice Cooper trapped in the middle of the road (GASP!). Around the final corner you see... Richard Simmons? Accelerate!

Overall we thought the ads this year were pretty great - some good trailer premieres as well with Wanted, Prince Caspian, WALL-E, and a few others. However, there were the extremely bad standouts like the GoDaddy.com "Exposure" Ad. GoDaddy is SO three years ago! And the ETrade baby commercials were exceptionally creepy, think I'm gonna have nightmares from those for awhile.

:)

Catastrophes and Cameos

So after a disastrous episode at the salon today that has nearly turned me into a Brunette (I may never leave the house again), I needed a little pick-me-up and decided to waste some time surfing some old favorites. It'll come as no surprise to well, anybody, that I'm a fan of Jim Hill Media - and Jim seemed the perfect person to cheer me up this rainy evening!

What I found was this delightful article - it's a look at many of the in-jokes and sightings across Pixar movies of other Pixar characters and properties. Most of these I have already noticed and watched many times, but some - like the "Incredibles" manga shown in "Finding Nemo" - were a surprise. I hope you enjoy it too.

Photo credit: Copyright 2007 Disney / Pixar. All Rights Reserved

TOM TV Says Goodbye to Two Favs

As many of you, we've been out of touch over the Holidays - but now that we're back, we've got USA Network's "The 4400" and "Dead Zone" Top of Mind.  

After the dramatic escalation of 4400's Season 4 and the Zone's major bounce-back last season, news is that what has aired thus far is all we'll ever get. We're definitely sad to see these sci-fi romps go - but I guess we've seen the last of these favs from the Patriot. *Sigh*

Naked Tuesday Two-fer: An Evil Plot and a Game-changing Block

Couple of hot stories you should check out for Naked Tuesday...

HD-DVD/Blue-ray Wars

First, you gotta see what director Michael Bay thinks about the HD DVD/Blu-ray format war. Anyone who's tried it knows the amazing depth and superior quality of Blue-ray (Sha!). But until now, no one could figure out where the market confusion was coming from. Turns out it's all part of a fiendish plot from the evil empire, and we've got Michael Bay to thank for the scoop! ;)

Visit Crunch Gear for the full story.

A Game-changing Programming Block

Next, NBC has changed the game with a first of its kind deal to buy a two-hour — or perhaps even three-hour — block of prime-time programming from an outside producer.

This summer we introduced you to Thom Beers, the creator of "Ice Road Truckers" (my son's favorite show) and hilarious speaker at this year's LA TV Fest. Now Beers will produce at least two new hours of back-to-back programming, with a minimum of 10 nights - over 30 hours of programs. The key benefit is financial - these shows are incredibly cheap to produce, and this marks the first time a major network has commissioned outside producers to fill primetime programming. Check out the New York Times to read the full article.

Reality TV and E-Commerce: A Recipe for Success

Last July NI introduced you to one of our favorite sites in “Flypaper: Producer’s Tips for Sticky Sweeps.” The Bluefly sweeps are second to none, and now they have taken it even farther - integrating with every diva’s Wednesday indulgence: Project Runway.

This new promotion goes beyond a great sweepstakes (they are giving away a trip to the finale), and does what every online TV site or promotion must do to cultivate a loyal audience - extend the storyline.

What? A story-based extension that connects a Reality show AND a commerce site?? Not possible, you say? WRONG.

Each week, Bluefly.com and PR take the show to the next level by inviting fans to “Get the Winning Look.” You can get it by shopping for items that epitomize the winning design. Throw in polls, the Bluefly Accessory Wall from the show, the previously mentioned sweeps, and clips from the previous night’s episode on Fly TV (First you watch it, then you Shop It) and fans can immediately dive right in to embrace or improve upon the designer's vision. It's a recipe for success - an extension that delivers an audience who joyfully comes back again and again throughout the season.

Everyone is trying to do online extensions, but the only other TV show that has done it this well is Heroes (with the most popular Comic Book of all time) - and NBC has never even come CLOSE to cracking the nut on elegant commerce.

Hats (and Hermes and my Prada slingbacks) Off to Bluefly and Project Runway - you've got my vote!

TOM TV Favs "Chuck" and "Life" Picked Up!

We hate to do it, but two props to Yahoo! scoops in the same day --- as they just broke the news that Top Of Mind TV favorites "Chuck" and "Life" have been picked up. HOORAY!!!
Read the article on Yahoo for the fully skinny.

Who Else Wants and Additional $40k A Year?

Today Yahoo.com posted an amazing "American Dream" story that you'll love, "Rolling in Cash," courtesy of Kevin Sites via Yahoo's People of the Web.

The story is about Linda Katz, a part-time entrepreneur who started her online business, the Prairie Tumbleweed Farm, as a joke. It was 1994 and she wanted to teach herself how to design a website. Since she lived on the prairie in southwest Kansas, where rolling tumbleweeds are sometimes the only dynamic feature of an endless flat horizon, she invented a farm that sold tumbleweeds, listing prices at $15 for a small one, $20 for a medium and $25 for large.

Though she’s coy about her annual income from tumbleweed wrangling, she says it is over $40,000 a year. Not bad for a bunch of dead, dried-up weeds. Read the full article here - and then come up with your own unique, simple and original idea!

Attention Jericho Rangers: The Date is Set!

Couldn't resist announcing that it's official - start planning for February 12th. Jericho is coming back! Congrats to all the fans that contributed - GO RANGERS!

Jericho

New SeasonSeason 2 starts February 12, 2008

10 PM ET/PT