Kin expands its celebrity-driven ‘neighborhood’ model for online video

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Digital media company Kin has announced a slate of new video series from singer/actress Jordin Sparks, Bachelorette JoJo Fletcherand Jordan
Rodgers (who successfully proposed to Fletcher over on the series).The company also revealed more details about its programming with Vanessa
Lachey (who had already signed on with her husband Nick)
She&ll be hosting a competition series called Beauty School Knockout, where contestants compete to create specific looks using
unconventional products.This is all part of what the company calls its &neighborhood& strategy, where it launches a set of interconnected
channels, usually featuring stars who became famous on traditional media
The new announcements bring Kin up to five channels, with the goal of creating three more by the end of the year.&[Ultimately,] We want to
create 20 of these channels … a neighborhood of channels for women inwhat we call the ‘builder& phase of their lives,& Kin CEO Michael
Wayne told me
&And they all have sort of the same like-minded, inspirational, accessible feeling to them, in women lifestyle verticals.&The company first
big success with this model wasTia Mowry Quick Fix, a series of lifestyle and how-to videos from the Sister, Sister star.According to
research by Nielsen, Quick Fix reached 8.8 million total viewers in the week of June 25, including 3.7 million women between the ages of 18
to 34 — an audience that comparable to cable reality hits likeChopped, Property Brothers and Keeping Up with the Kardashians
So Kin said it extending its partnership with Mowry to develop more lifestyle content in addition to Quick Fix.In Wayne view, it makes more
sense for Kin to work with a &mainstream star& like Mowry rather than someone who recently became famous on social media, especially since
the first wave of social media influencers is being &completely disrupted by the next wave.&He said that Mowry, on the other hand, has been
in the public consciousness for decades: &No one searches for Tia because she did a smokey eye video.&Wayne added that he remains focused on
a cross-platform strategy, where individual platforms might get early access to the videos (Beauty School Knockout will premiere on Facebook
Watch), but the videos ultimately get posted toYouTube, Facebook, Instagram TV and Amazon
He also said it crucial that the &unit economics& of advertising on each series makes sense, so Kin isn&t relying on the platforms or on
custom, branded video deals to subsidize production.&WithTia, I know exactly how much money I&m spending on Facebook, I know howAmazon will
monetize,I can chart this investment and know it going to pay off and become profitable within 9 to 12 months,& he said.