February 21, 2013 – The effort, called Curve Films, was introduced in April by the Integrated Media group unit of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.
The goal of Curve Films—the name is meant to evoke “ahead of the curve”—is to find more interesting and engaging methods by which to provide Madison Avenue with demographic data that would, in the end, lead to decisions to buy commercial time and advertising space on NBCUniversal networks, channels, Web sites and related properties.
The first initiative from the group was composed of a book on trends in consumer culture, The Curve Report, and a film, Y Now, about the so-called millennials, or Generation Y. Next up is a second film, which is being released on Thursday, titled Indie Women, about women in their late 20s and older who are independent—on their own, not married or living with a significant other, and without children.
There are more than 30 million American women who fit that description, said Linda Yaccarino, President for Advertising Sales at NBCUniversal, and they “overindex in the consumption of certain products: fashion, travel, household products, health and nutrition.”
Of course, NBCUniversal offers advertisers properties that can reach Indie Women, among them the Bravo cable channel, Chelsea Lately on the E! cable channel, and the DailyCandy Web site.
Among those who are interviewed during Indie Women are some familiar faces from NBCUniversal, including Megan Hilty, a star of the NBC series Smash, and Alex Wagner, the host of Now With Alex Wagner on MSNBC.
Others who appear in the film include Kate Bolick, who wrote an article for The Atlantic, “All the Single Ladies”; Eric Klinenberg, a professor of sociology at New York University; and Claudia Cahill, Chief Content Officer at OMD, a leading media agency that is part of the Omnicom Group.
“You can thank my agent and managers for that,” Ms. Cahill said of her appearance, laughing.
The demographic group of Indie Women is an appealing one to many advertisers, Ms. Cahill said, and she praised Indie Women for being able to “stitch together a nice, compelling story, something that a lot of advertisers will want to know more about.”
“The film, which runs eight minutes, is being sent by e-mail to about 5,000 people who make media decisions at agencies and client companies,” said John Shea, Chief Marketing Officer and Executive Vice President at the NBCUniversal Integrated Media group.
Those e-mails will be followed up, Ms. Yaccarino said, “with a lot of one-on-one meetings to discuss activating”—that is, turning potential interest in the demographic group of independent women into ad buys.
To read full article on The New York Times, click here.
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