Manatt Digital Media's May Newsletter Is Out - Evolution of the Digital Economy

Click Here to View on Mobile Phone or Web

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP May 13, 2015 Manatt Digital Media – May Newsletter: The Growth and Evolution of the Digital Economy The Rise of the Global Digital Content Market—Esprit de Corps at MIP Digital Fronts MCNs No More, “MPN” Please! (or, What’s in a “P”?) Digital Influencers, Millennials and the New Rules of Engagement 5 Questions with New Form Digital SVP JC Cangilla—Exclusive Q&A MDM Spotlight Profile Social media, livestreaming, feature films, original programming, virtual reality—these are all areas new to the old world of YouTube, and areas into which digital-first media companies and influencers are quickly expanding into as they evolve their business and content models. In this newsletter, we take you behind the scenes of this evolution and introduce some of the players who are driving change. The Rise of the Global Digital Content Market—Esprit de Corps at MIP Digital Fronts By Eunice Shin Warm weather with a gentle breeze on the French Riviera is pretty fantastic. Add to that a wave of excitement in seeing the growth and potential of the global digital market—and there you have an incredible MIP Digital Front event. Read more MCNs No More, “MPN” Please! (or, What’s in a “P”?) By Peter Csathy As many of you know, we write regularly about MCNs (multi-channel networks). But, just in the past few months—reflecting how fast things are moving in this space—the relevant lexicon has changed. Read more Digital Influencers, Millennials and the New Rules of Engagement By Mary Ermitanio Digital influencers—popular personalities on YouTube, Twitter, Vine, Instagram and other social platforms—are increasingly attracting a large share of the consumer attention pie and are transforming the rules of engagement with Millennials. A survey conducted for Variety last year concluded that YouTube stars were more influential than mainstream celebs among U.S. teens. Read more 5 Questions with New Form Digital SVP JC Cangilla—Exclusive Q&A By Peter Csathy New Form Digital, a digital-first studio, was launched with great fanfare almost exactly one year ago by Hollywood legends Ron Howard and Bryan Grazer, who joined forces with Discovery Communications. I recently spent some time with SVP JC Cangilla who runs overall operations, among his many other tasks. Cangilla previously worked as a senior executive in video at Yahoo! and has been a digital dealmaker for years. In a digital video world still dominated by low production values and large doses of serendipity (not necessarily bad traits, by the way), New Form Digital’s approach is very different and, well, a bit more “traditional”—focused on high production values and scripted story-telling—but with digital, mobile and Millennials top of mind. Read more MDM Spotlight Profile MDM’s multi-disciplinary team of business consultants, lawyers and venture capitalists provides a unique perspective in addressing the challenges and opportunities our clients face. Eunice Shin leads MDM’s consulting team and advises media, technology and emerging growth companies on business strategy, organizational priorities and business development.  Read more Contact Us:  T. Hale Boggs Chairman Email 310.312.4269 Peter Csathy CEO Email 310.231.5445 Eunice Shin Director  Email 310.231.5494 Mary Ermitanio Senior Analyst Email 310.312.4170 Practice Area Links Manatt Digital Media Team

Manatt Digital Media's February Newsletter Is Out -- The Month's Most Important Deals

February Newsletter: 2015 Predictions - 30 Day Scorecard Top 10 Digital Media Predictions for 2015—30-Day Scorecard (or, “One Year in One Month!”)  Amazon-ics—The Tech Giant’s New Hollywood Math Oculus’ LOST VR Cinematic XP Debuts – Its Pixar Luxo Jr. Moment? More Media in Social Media January 2015’s strategic movement in the digital media business already seems like a full year squeezed into one month. In this edition of our MDM newsletter, we walk you through some of those major developments that set the stage for ever-bigger and transformative changes in the coming months. Let’s start with a scorecard/recap of our Top 10 Digital Media Predictions for the Year matched against relevant significant developments in January—and then drill down more deeply from there. Top 10 Digital Media Predictions for 2015—30-Day Scorecard (or, “One Year in One Month!”)  By Peter Csathy One month ago, TechCrunch posted several of my predictions for the digital media world in 2015 in an article titled The Future of Digital Media in 2015. I then expanded upon that article here to give my very own Top 10 Digital Media Predictions for 2015. Although we are officially only one month into this brave new year of digital media, many of the predictions are already coming true . . . and in a very big way. Read more Amazon-ics—The Tech Giant’s New Hollywood Math By Peter Csathy Amazon is the new kid on the theatrical motion picture block, having just announced its Hollywood studiolike motion picture ambitions to produce roughly 12 films per year (at very indielike budgets of $5-$25 million each). Amazon already is a major player in OTT video, of course, with both Amazon Prime (including HBO-like original programming) and its “under-the-radar” stealth YouTube-like short-form video platform, which continues to grow in prominence. Bottom line—Amazon is now a full-fledged media company. After all, it just won its first highly coveted traditional media accolade—a pair of Golden Globes. Read more Oculus’ LOST VR Cinematic XP Debuts – Its Pixar Luxo Jr. Moment? By Peter Csathy This past month may have represented a momentous and landmark day in the annals of cinema. In January, VR powerhouse Oculus premiered its first VR cinema “experience” titled Lost at the Sundance Film Festival. Up to this point, most in media and entertainment have viewed Oculus and its VR technology to be gamer-focused. But, cinematic storytelling — on a wholly immersive new plane — has always been a central part of the plan. And, this past month may have marked that moment in time . . . Read more More Media in Social Media By Mary Ermitanio Competition continues to heat up among the social media giants as they expand their media operations to enhance experience for users and create opportunities for brands and content owners. Last year was a big year for video on Facebook, which ended 2014 with a whopping average of 3 billion videos viewed on its platform daily (including videos autoplayed). Earlier in January, Facebook reported that the number of videos uploaded per person increased 75% over the last year. Although the volume of videos is still lower than that of YouTube’s, video sharing on Facebook is significantly higher. Marketers understand the emotion-inducing impact of videos and see their audiences consume much more online video now than ever. With high video engagement levels on Facebook, some senior industry observers and pundits believe that Facebook now presents a potential real threat to YouTube.  Read more

MDM Newsletter #2 - “Brands & Media Edition -- The Opportunity"

We here at Manatt Digital Media (MDM) just published issue #2 of our monthly newsletter -- this time, the “Brands & Media Edition -- The Opportunity.”  It is truly jam-packed with timely helpful pearls o’ wisdom about how brands can capitalize during our digital media transformation.  Articles include:

(1) “Top 10 Legal Considerations for Brands Involved in Digital and Social Media Advertising”

(2) “Brands, the New Media Companies/MCNs?  Red Bull and Now Marriott”

(3) “Case Study: Manatt Digital Media Accelerates a Beauty Products Company’s Transformational Shift Into a Full-fledged Media Company”

(4) “Welcome to Hallyu-wood! The Addiction to Korean Dramas -- Why Big Brands Should Be Watching”

(5) “MDM Client Company Spotlight: Whistle Sports”

(6) “MDM’s Advertising Expertise and Spotlight Profile”

This follows MDM’s Newsletter #1 -- “The MCN Edition” -- another must-read about ... you guessed it ... all things multi-channel network-ish ....

If you find these newsletters helpful, interesting, thought-provoking, inspiring, provocative, intriguing --  or at least not boring and useless -- then subscribe.