SONY Pictures Television: Crackle TV Upfront
April 2015. New York City, Hudson Theater
SONY Pictures’ digital entertainment network, Crackle, once again partnered with Empire to produce their 2015 TV Upfront— an annual presentation to advertisers and media. With an exciting lineup of both new, original programming and returning series, Crackle had much to talk about.
The Upfront took place at the beautiful Hudson Theater in the heart of Times Square, and opened with welcome remarks by SONY Pictures Television’s President of Worldwide Networks, Andy Kaplan.
Next up, an opening video featuring Michael Richards as Dick Corcoran, a fictitious Crackle executive, led to a surprise reveal of comedian Jerry Seinfeld who took the stage to talk about his Crackle series "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee".With over 100 million streams on Crackle, the Emmy Award-nominated series’ sixth season will feature a star-studded cast including Bill Maher, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Steve Harvey, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah (the newly named “Daily Show” host) and Jim Carrey.
SONY Picture’s Television’s EVP of Digital Networks, Eric Berger, then took the stage, emphasizing that “Crackle is a smart complement to TV buying that offers you a valuable new audience, a groundbreaking TV-like experience and ad solutions you cannot find anywhere but here.”
Crackle Senior Vice President of Digital Media Sales, James Smith, also appeared on the program stating “With TV reimagined, we’ve overhauled
the old online metrics for engagement. The fact is, most people don’t click on ads, so why use this as the standard for streaming TV? We believe attention and viewbility are much better measures for TV advertising.”
Eric Berger then presented Crackle’s programming slate accompanied by many of Crackle’s biggest stars and show runners including Seth Green, Dennis Quaid and Kate Bosworth.
Among the many announcements of the day, Crackle also announced that it had produced the first ever made-for-digital sequel to a major motion picture and David Spade and Brittany Daniels came on stage to introduce “Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser.”
To close the star-studded event, country hip hop star ‘Colt Ford’ took the stage to perform the hit ‘Diggin’ which is featured on the Joe Dirt 2 soundtrack, in front of a giant projection screen running scenes from the film.
In addition to securing the venue, designing the spaces, managing event logistics, catering and stage managing the complex program, Empire provided all staging and technical production support.
Empire continues to set the industry standard for producing outstanding presentations for clients seeking to communicate their mission, motivations and value proposition to key customers. Empire is proud to have served SONY Pictures Television and Crackle for their Upfront.