Heavy.com Rides The Publicity Wave; Launches Upfront

How nice for Heavy.com … the same day the site officially announces its first upfront, it’s profiled in the NYT as the poster child for using “racy, humorous” video to attract young users. The headline almost says it all: “A Web Site So Hip It Gets Laddies to Watch the Ads.” Not only that, it attracts mainstream advertisers in decidely non-traditional ways — videos made with Burger King masks , an animated “Pimp My Weapon” for Sony PS2. The BK videos have been viewed 9.1 million times and the Sony segments 6.5 million times since September, according to the story.
Heavy’s upfront pitch, not mentioned directly in the article, includes 30 hours of what the self-described “entertainment behemoth” calls “Must Stream TV” aimed at 18-34 year males and available for broadband and mobile. The slate includes “Behind The Music That Sucks” and “The Massive Mating Game,” the first dating game played entirely on cell phones. The site is pitching agencies in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit.
It’s not too surprising that Heavy.com would be proficient at advertising; the site followed internet ad agency Heavy Industries, co-founded by Simon Assaad and David Carson in 1998. It almost disappeared in the bubble-burst but Assad and Carson nursed it through while working on other projects, then started to bring it back to full power a couple of years ago. Now Heavy.com is backed by $10 million in funding from Polaris Ventures and anticipates ad revs of $20 million for 2006.
Related: Heavy.com Does Get $10 Million; Broadband Community and Mobile Push
VOD Nets Seek Own Upfront

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