Insider Trading

Let me tell you a secret

What?: Bebo, the AOL-owned social network, is to launch an ambitious and multifaceted new online drama ‘hot on the heels’ of its successful soaps KateModern and Sofia’s Diary. The new online drama will be based in the London offices of Universal (and made by Globe Productions, a subsidiary of Universal). The Secret World Of Sam King will focus on an employee who secretly sets up a label, from his lowly postroom status, within the major. As with previous dramas on the social networking site, Bebo users will be able to interactively influence the storyline of the show as well as Sam’s fictional music label.

Sam’s love interest, Katie, is set to feature in a spin-off online music TV show, called Katie’s Love In. Plus Johnny (Sam’s friend) will also appear in a spin-off radio Podcast. Financing for the show comes via brand integration, with Sony Ericsson entering into a sponsorship deal that sees the mobile company committing to the first three months of the show. Plotlines are also set to feature cameos from actual Universal artists.

So what?: When I think of this campaign I can’t help imagining Amy Winehouse and Johnny Borrell bounding from room to room to the sound of Yello’s ‘Oh Yeah’ – like Michael J Fox in the ‘80s film, The Secret Of My Success – as Sam King (like Simon Cowell, if his autobiography is to be believed) rises from the postroom to the big time. The big question here is whether Sam King’s journey will relive the same hedonistic ‘80s excess or follow the more realistic struggles of setting up a label? It’s all Universal-led, so it will be interesting to see just how ‘secret’ the world’s largest label remains.

“Ah, the enduring myth of the glamorous record label world. It’s amazing that in a time of commercial tumult, the industry is still perceived as the home of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. But it will probably cut it with ‘the kids’, and roping artists in will certainly help lend it some authenticity.”
Dom Hodge, Strategist, FRUKT

“For Bebo this is yet another example of how the social network is actively and repeatedly engaging with its core 16-24-year-old audience. That Facebook Funwall suddenly just looks like a wall.”
Giles Fitzgerald, Editor, BBF

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