PopSugar and Z Living hope to reach new audiences and advertisers with TV partnership
One of the trends emerging from this year’s Upfronts season is that online publishers, in somewhat of an ironic twist, are partnering with networks to create content for linear TV. Networks are seeking to recapture some of the audience that has turned its attention to emerging platforms, while publishers are seeking to elevate their brands beyond the web.
Earlier this month, PopSugar, a leading online desintation geared toward millennial women, and Z Living, a fitness and health-focused linear TV network currently available on Verizon Fios, DISH, and Cablevision, announced a partnership that will combine PopSugar’s appeal with Z Living’s reach.
PopSugar will be creating original content for the network and it will also reformat for TV versions of already-popular online series. David Grant, President of PopSugar Studios is confident that the brand’s content creation prowess across multiple platforms will work well in longer formats.
“We've been in TV before; we did over 300 episodes of a daily lifestyle show for PopTV in 2014-15. As the former President of Fox TV Studios, I am very comfortable with TV, having overseen thousands of hours in my career,” Grant tells Found Remote. “At heart, we are video content creators that optimize our stories for multiple platforms: PS.com, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, OTT platforms, and yes, TV. Most of our content is short-form. However, when we have creative we believe is right for longer form storytelling, we consider TV a great platform for that. We also like the diversification of our business between advertiser-supported and licensing.”
For Z Living, which is affiliated with Zee Entertainment but which is also trying to establish its brand in an increasingly crowded space in the U.S., partnering with PopSugar makes sense.
“When you're establishing an entertainment brand in such a cluttered world, you have to use a great deal of resourcefulness and need to leverage valuable relationships like the one we have with Popsugar,” Rafe Oller, GM, Z Living, says. “Something that's worked for brands I've steered in the past – lead with meaningful PR, magnify by rapidly increasing distribution, validate with engaging content, hyper-target with on-air and amplify through preexisting online communities. The rest is gravy.”
PopSugar and Z Living will also join forces in creating unique opportunities for advertisers to jump into the fray, reaching both linear and digital audiences.