TV networks have been teaming up with digital publishers, hoping to tap into their often-younger audiences as their own viewers age. That’s led to investments by NBCU in BuzzFeed and Vox Media, and Vice deals with HBO and A+E Networks, to name a couple.
Along those lines, A+E Networks is tapping PureWow, a women’s lifestyle startup, to produce a dozen 45-second recipe videos for FYI, A+E’s 2-year-old lifestyle channel. The videos are appearing on the channel’s food series, “Man vs. Child: Chef Showdown,” where precocious kid cooks challenge established chefs in the kitchen. 45th & Dean, A+E’s multiplatform studio and agency, provided input for the videos, which tackle subjects like how to candy bacon, butcher a chicken and temper chocolate. They began airing June 21 and also will live on PureWow’s site.
A+E was drawn to PureWow for its understanding of how to create content for multiple platforms, slightly quirky voice and young, upscale audience; PureWow’s average visitor is aged 33 while FYI’s is 48.
Video, whether for digital or TV, is hard to do, especially for publishers that don’t have a long track record of doing it. As for linear video, it demands higher production quality than digital, and like any platform, has its own sensibility.
“It’s very platform-dependent,” said Paul Greenberg, evp and GM of FYI and head of 45th & Dean. “A Snapchat story is very different from a Facebook video. With linear, you’re really catering to people who are in a much more lean-back mindset and may be watching from one longform to another longform content. So the short form has to complement and feel like the longform programming.”
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And there’s so much food video out there, PureWow’s had to feel different. So while PureWow’s FYI shorts may resemble the frenetic hands-in-bowls, shot-from-above food videos that have exploded on Facebook, they’re “a little more relaxed,” Greenberg said. “They do a nice job in not making it feel cramped.”
PureWow is one of those pure-digital publishers that came out of nowhere and built an audience of 6.4 million uniques (comScore multiplatform uniques, June) in six years on the back of how-tos and lifestyle content aimed at women 25-49. While other publishers have raised a ton of venture capital, PureWow has only raised $5 million, so it can’t afford to invest tons on every new platform out there. One of the bets it has been placing is on video. The 60-person company has eight people on video who are on track to produce 12 short-form videos a week, said Ryan Harwood, CEO of PureWow.
Harwood said his company doesn’t receive any ad revenue from the deal, but does get the chance to learn about TV and exposure. (A+E wouldn’t disclose terms of the deal.)
“It’s a great brand awareness play for PureWow, and it’s a great way to dip our toe in the water of TV,” Harwood said.
Image courtesy of PureWow.
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