Strategy Verdict - KateModern

coverage and even maintained momentum after it came out that it was a
commercial campaign and not just a voyeur's wet dream. But what was it
promoting? No, I don't know either.

So now from the same production house comes KateModern. This time on
Bebo instead of MySpace, but with a different twist. Firstly, it's an
open and honest commercially funded venture. Secondly, the "product
placement" is a little more blatant (for example "it's Orange Wednesday
tonight ...").

Before I saw it, I thought that this approach goes against the whole
spirit of social networking (multi-way interactions between groups of
friends), but after one episode I was addicted. The product mentions are
subtle enough not to be too annoying, but it is the content that is the
winner. It is engaging, addictive and, this time, honest. Think of Bebo
as the distribution channel, rather than a media type (a cinema rather
than a magazine) and suddenly it makes sense.

On 5 August, KateModern had 23,000 views and by 8 August it had 196,130
views - not quite Coronation Street levels, but significant
nevertheless. My expectation is that this will continue to grow in a
typically viral manner if the content maintains its engaging nature. It
could be big - check it out.