Saturday, August 16, 2008 || Scrounging For Gold In 'The Hills'
The Hills serves up sun-drenched beauties and petty cat fights. It's silly television and solid business.
In its first three seasons on the air, the Laguna Beach spinoff evolved into both a commercial success and a pop culture phenomenon, luring some four million viewers from week to week. Last year's 28-episode season, which chronicled the lifestyles of the young, bronze and seemingly empty through a reality-ish Los Angeles, generated $40.3 million in advertising revenue for MTV and parent Viacom (nyse: VIA - news - people ), compared to $12.9 million for the show's first season, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
No wonder everyone involved in the series--from its stars to the bars they frequent and brands they wear--are pushing hard to make the most of this fourth, and perhaps final, season.
Front and center is star Lauren Conrad. In addition to gracing upward of 20 magazine covers over the course of the year, the 22-year-old Laguna Beach alum parlayed her reality stardom into a fashion line, endorsement deals and countless tabloid spreads. This exposure, plus the $1.5 million she raked in, earned her a spot on our Celebrity 100 list of the most powerful people in Hollywood.
Her co-stars are cashing in, too. When Heidi Montag isn't working the paid-appearance circuit with bad boy beau Spencer Pratt, she keeps busy with a newly launched retail line, Heidiwood, and a fledgling singing career. Whitney Port is similarly peddling a personal fashion collection, Eve & A, along with a potential MTV spin-off, while Audrina Patridge prepares to star in a surf flick, Into the Blue 2. Brody Jenner, arguably Conrad's most famous love interest, has a MTV reality series entitled Bromance is in the works.
Nightlife group Bolthouse Productions, a subsidiary of entertainment company SBE and employer to Hills antagonist Montag, isn't far behind. The company's president of VIP services, Jenifer Rosero, says the show helped make its clubs, including Hyde and Foxtail, must-visit destinations for plugged-in Angelenos and vacationing 20-somethings. Frequent appearances on the show also impressed major investors, she says, many of whom have Hills fans for children.
Teen Vogue, a former employer and frequent backdrop for Conrad and cast-mate Whitney Port is another beneficiary. While rival teen glossies like YM, ELLEgirl and Teen People shuttered production, Condé Nast's 6-year-old Teen Vogue increased readership. Coincidence? In the two-year period beginning July 2006 (shortly after Conrad and Port began their internship at the Vogue offshoot) the magazine's circulation increased 4.6%, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. By comparison, the title's biggest competitor, Seventeen, saw a 0.54% rise.
People's Revolution, the fashion public relations firm that counts Port among its employees, has seen a similar bump in both client interest and brand exposure.
"There has been an influx of [new] client inquiries, but even more important, it's allowed a tremendous amount of exposure for the clients that we're already representing," says the firm's founder Kelly Cutrone.
Rather than have to pay a hefty fee to advertise on the network's hit show, Cutrone's clients are seamlessly--and at no extra cost--entwined into the show's story lines.
"There's a huge marketing value to being seen on The Hills," she says. Season five, anyone?
Source: forbes.com
posted by Lysandra @ 6:25 PM
"New City, New Drama"
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