Rolfe Auerbach, CEO of Brand In Entertainment, demonstrates how to create new revenue streams by building brand messages organically into your storyline or show structure. Using examples of national and international brands that have been seamlessly incorporated into some of the biggest movies, television shows, webisodes, concerts and music videos in the world, he’ll show you how to expand your budget with funds that do not have to be paid back.
Rolfe Auerbach, CEO of Brand In Entertainment, is a veteran entertainment and advertising executive with seven Telly Awards, five Vision Awards and an Emmy nomination to his credit. Since its inception in 2000, Brand In Entertainment has integrated products and brands directly into the storylines of numerous entertainments. As President and CEO of Brand in Entertainment’s predecessor, HP Media, Rolfe created and operated the Product Integration Organization for Fox Television Studios, incorporating products into productions at Fox, MGM, Lions Gate and Paramount. He also created product integration for such music labels as Atlantic, Lava, Elektra, RCA, Arista, Universal, Jive and Sony.
CEO, Rolfe Auerbach, traveled to the film shoot in Akron, Ohio this past week to personally oversee the integrations between the brands and producers. He was joined by BiE Project Manager Nicole Berger. The clients were thrilled about their integrations as production on set wrapped. Juliana Toro, the Creative Coordinator/Project Manager for Dual Saw, responded by adding, ”It was great working with you. I had a great time in the shoot and we couldn’t be happier with the outcome.” From Rolfe, “This is what we do, we’re hired by the producers to bring them secondary funding and we deliver for our clients!” BiE looks forward to the release of Corbin Bernsen’s “25 Hill.”
Check out the images below to see how everything went on set with the integrations for GEICO, Dual Saw, and Tire Rack into “25 Hill”:
BJ Global Direct, an Irvine company built by 35-year direct response veteran BJ Fazeli, is finding all sorts of new media ways to get exposure for its products.
The company dreams up, manufactures and sells several dozen beauty and home fitness products under the brand name Kymaro. (The name is a combination of Fazeli’s daughters Kyana, Mahadice and Romy).
The company’s biggest seller for the past couple of years is the Kymaro Body Shaper. The newest product is the Rhythm Rocker that Lacey Schwimmer of Dancing with the Stars is promoting. It launches July 26.
BJ Global also produces the infomercials used to sell these products. But increasingly the company isn’t limiting the showing of those long-form commercials to television.
“We started on television,” Fazeli says. In today’s world we have a second screen with the Internet. And the next step is a third screen we’re looking at, cell phones.”
The company’s selling website, UbuyEZ, has links to its commercials on YouTube. It also has Facebook and Twitter accounts and a blog.
“We’re breaking onto the silver screen with product placement in a movie this fall,” Fazeli says. He won’t disclose the name of the movie but says that in one scene, an actor will be watching an infomercial for the Body Shaper and the toll-free ordering number will be visible.
“We don’t expect people in the theater to write down the phone number but when the movie goes to DVD, people can pause it and write down the number,” he says.
BJ Global is also doing product integration with a reality TV show this fall. Again, Fazeli says he can’t yet give the name of the show but the theme will be ultimate fighting for women and the Kymaro Rhythm Rocker will be one of the pieces of equipment used to get into fighting shape.
“We’re marketers,” Fazeli explains. “You just keep your ear to the ground and keep moving with technology.”
Fazeli has been involved with infomercials since the early days when he set fire to the hood of a car to show how well a certain car polish protected the finish.
About five years ago BJ Global Direct decided to concentrate on products that make people look good, feel good and are priced under $50. It has about three dozen active products including clip-on hair extensions, backless bras, sunless tanning products, tummy control jeans, facial hair removers and an exercise devise that fits in the doorway.
“As Seen on TV products are blossoming because we are spending so much money to promote them,” Fazeli says.
And with big dollar investments, Fazeli is not about to ignore any medium that will reach potential customers who want to look better and have $50 in their pockets.
AKRON, Ohio—The All-American Soapbox Derby has fallen on hard times.
In November, the organizer of the race, in which kids ride cars they build down a hill, was sued by its hometown bank, FirstMerit Corp. The bank was demanding repayment of two loans totaling $623,000. The derby couldn’t pay.
That led to a bailout: The city of Akron guaranteed the debt of the nonprofit derby group. And the bank restructured the loan on favorable terms.
The uproar caught the eye of Corbin Bernsen, the actor best known for his portrayal of sleazy lawyer Arnie Becker in the 1980s TV series “LA Law.” Now a director and producer with his own production company, Mr. Bernsen was inspired to write a script about a young boy who saves the derby after a bank calls its loan. The movie is now being filmed here in this former tire-making capital; part of the profits will go to the race organization.
The derby’s problems have much to do with how the world has changed and how the 75-year-old race hasn’t.
The competition began in Dayton, Ohio, during the Depression, when children started racing homemade cars. The first “All-American Race” was held there in 1934. It moved to Akron a year later. Derby Downs, the group’s track, was built by the Works Progress Administration.
It’s still a “gravity race,” meaning no engines. The cars just roll down a hill. For safety, the course is designed so the cars don’t go faster than about 35 mph. Since speed is largely determined by how far the cars roll, the track was shortened in 1971, from 1,175 feet to 953.75 feet. A sign at the starting line notes that fact. The fastest time ever logged on the hill was 27.10 seconds in 1974.
In one sense, the race has grown. Competitions in the 1960s typically had about 100 contestants; last year, there were 603 boys and girls—in three separate divisions, including a “masters” division open to racers up to 17 years old (and weighing up to 160 pounds.) Sanctioned local races are now held in 150 other cities and about half a dozen countries.
But kids today are more likely to play video games than to tinker in the garage with power tools. And audiences have other distractions. The annual race, held in July, once drew crowds of more than 50,000; last year it attracted only 15,000 people paying $5 at the gate.
The erosion of corporate support, however, has been crippling. In the heyday of the derby, in the 1960s, Chevrolet sponsored and promoted the race. Over the years, big corporate backers brought celebrities, including Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson, Evel Knievel, and O.J. Simpson. The late actor Jimmy Stewart attended six times.
The derby lost its last major sponsor, Levi Strauss Co., in September 2007, as the recession was hit and companies of all types were slashing promotional spending. Levi Strauss says that was no reflection on the derby, just “changing budgets.” That left the derby reliant on the income it gets from donations, selling the $500 kits used to build cars and from licensing fees it charges other cities that have races.
The lack of a major sponsor willing to pay $250,000 a year for the privilege, forced the derby deeper into debt. Even after slashing spending, it has an annual budget of about $1.1 million.
“Corporations are looking for return on investment,” says Roger Rydell, a public-relations executive at Akron’s Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., a newcomer to the derby board who heads a new marketing committee. “It could be that the metrics associated with that return have become a little more mercenary than in the past.”
The race isn’t in the clear yet. The city, as part of its bailout, pressed the group to replace most of its board with local business leaders who could help it modernize. And it still has to pay the debt. “We really need one large title sponsor—or five at $50,000,” says Jim Huntsman, the derby’s chief executive. The group is toying with new ideas, including a possible tie-in with the Boy Scouts.
The derby’s rich history and the prospect of a great family-oriented tradition falling by the wayside attracted Mr. Bernsen. “We could do this very Disney-esque,” he says, “but we’re doing it kind of dark.”
The movie, “25 Hill,” is about a young boy named Trey Caldwell whose father, a reservist, is killed in Afghanistan after the two have begun building a derby car. The script is full of real-life dilemmas: The boy gets the derby car for Christmas, but he had wanted a laptop. He eventually becomes obsessed with winning the big race and upholding its traditions. In the movie, Mr. Bernsen plays a fireman and past champion soapbox derby racer who steps in to help the boy build the car.
Then there’s the bank. In the script, young Trey goes to Akron to confront the banker who has called the loan. The banker turns out to be a grandfatherly fellow who explains to the boy that the problem is a lack of sponsors.
For the record, FirstMerit declined to speak about the real-life issue. In a statement, the bank’s chief executive, Paul Greig, said the bank was a “proud annual contributor to the derby for decades,” and noted that the bank contributed $50,000 to the current fund-raising effort being led by the local chamber of commerce on behalf of the derby.
Meanwhile, the effort to make the movie may also be helping to solve the current sponsorship problem: Mr. Bernsen has signed a deal with Geico, the auto insurance giant, to play the role of the sponsor that comes to the rescue in the film. And Geico has agreed to be a sponsor in real life. Says Ted Ward, Geico’s marketing vice president: “Who doesn’t like an all-American Soap Box Derby?”
