Fox Promotes Family Guy App Created by Rhythm

June 19, 2009

By Dan Butcher

Fox Mobile Entertainment is running mobile advertising within iPhone applications on the Quattro Wireless mobile ad network to promote its new Family Guy iPhone app.

The banner ads feature click-to-download functionality, redirecting consumers to the App Store. The “Freakin’ Sweet Family Guy iPhone application,” which combines pay-per-download and ad-supported business models, lets fans of the animated Fox show view up to 20 show clips and create custom video mixes.

“This is a big one for us, because this is the first mobile app that we’ve published ourselves, so we wanted to come out with one of our strongest brands first,” said Andrew Stalbow, senior vice president of Fox Mobile Entertainment, Los Angeles.

“Family Guy is such a terrific show, and its fan base and audience is a very good fit for iPhone and mobile content users generally—the overlap should be pretty good,” he said.

Family Guy’s core demographic skews male and hits the coveted 18-35 age range.

Fox runs mobile ads to promote Family Guy iPhone a

“The strategy is to take advantage of the unique features of the new iPhone, for example we made sure to leverage the video functionality and let fans share it with their friends and publish it to FamilyGuy.com plus other viral aspects,” Mr. Stalbow said.

“This app gives Family Guy fans content that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get,” he said.

Fox Mobile Entertainment is the exclusive mobile licensor of all Fox mobile content.

The Family Guy iPhone app's mixer feature lets fans sequence video clips

Titles licensed through FME include television programs such as “24,” “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy,” as well as major motion pictures such as “Night at the Museum 2” and “Ice Age 3.”


Family Guy, created by Seth MacFarlane, is an animated TV sitcom that airs on the Fox television network and syndicated stations.
The show centers on the dysfunctional blue-collar Griffin family, including Peter Griffin, his wife Lois and their children, teenagers Meg and Chris, infant Stewie and the family’s talking dog Brian. Fox Mobile teamed with Rhythm NewMedia, which specializes in developing and monetizing ad-supported mobile video applications, to create and serve the Family Guy app to iPhone and iPod touch users.
	"Best of Stewie" video clips

Rhythm NewMedia has worked with 60-plus media companies, including the E! Entertainment network, and 50-plus top name brand advertisers.

Rhythm's services include ad sales, ad serving, custom smartphone application development, mobile site design and mobile media hosting and serving.

Fox Mobile Entertainment is also considering expanding the current mobile ad campaign promoting the Freakin’ Sweet Family Guy app to other mobile ad networks, in addition to Quattro Wireless.

Complimentary to the mobile ads, Fox is spearheading a viral push to the 1.7 million Family Guy fans on Facebook, the 700,000 fans on MySpace, Twitter and various viral components within the app itself.

The application uses Apple’s 3.0 OS for the iPhone and lets fans buy full episodes of Family Guy through an embedded link to iTunes.

The Family Guy iPhone application offers access to 20 video clips at any given time, giving fans access to a wide variety of moments from past Family Guy episodes.

There are four different video channels—Best of Stewie, Brian’s World, Peter’s Life Lessons, and World According to Chris—each offering five Family Guy clips from previous seasons.

The application also features a video mixer, letting users create their own custom Family Guy video montages. Users can build their own short video mixes by dragging individual clips and favorite quotes from the show into a timeline in the mixer.

In addition to custom video mixes, the application includes features such as “Stewie Pin-up” and “Peter Toss,” which let fans to have some fun with the show’s popular cast of characters.

Users can share their original montages with friends and other fans via email or online at http://www.familyguy.com, and can also post them to personal pages on various social networks.

The Freakin’ Sweet Family Guy iPhone application is now available through the iTunes App Store for $1.99.

The app is further supported by limited, interactive, pre-roll video advertising.

This is not the first appearance of the Family Guy franchise on mobile.

“Family Guy has been a stellar performer in mobile platforms—it’s currently live on both Verizon and AT&T, and we partnered with Glu for the Family Guy Uncensored mobile game, which launched a few weeks ago,” Mr. Stalbow said. “We’ve also distributed ringtones and wallpapers over the years.

“Fox has been very innovative over the years, and we’ve taken several of our brands to mobile phones,” he said. “Mobile is a great platform and a great way to reach our fan base.”

Staff Reporter Dan Butcher covers banking and payments, carrier networks, commerce, database/CRM, manufacturers, music, software and technology. Reach him at dan@mobilemarketer.com.

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Fox Promotes Family Guy Application Created by Rhythm