Advertising: In the World of Content, Web Follows a Trail Left by TV

In the World of Content, Web Follows a Trail Left by TV

IF in real estate, as the saying goes, the three most important things are “location, location, location,” when it comes to wooing viewers and advertisers to online video from television, the corresponding mantra seems to be “content, content, content.”

Seth Meyers was the host of a Hulu presentation on Tuesday, where he promoted a Web series he will help create.

Erin McPherson of Yahoo with the actors Ed Helms, left, and Zachary Levi, who will appear in a yahoo.com series.

As a week of presentations by media companies continues in New York, under the banner of the Digital Content NewFronts, the focus is squarely on efforts to create high-quality, engaging Web series and other programming that can be watched on smartphones and tablets as well as on desktop and laptop computers. Borrowing a page from the broadcast networks and cable channels whose so-called upfronts inspired the week’s events, the media companies are recruiting for their shows stars who will work on both sides of the camera.

AOL, in its presentation on Tuesday, described plans for a number of new projects that featured familiar names like the designer Jonathan Adler, Hank Azaria, the chef Rocco DiSpirito, the Nascar driver Dylan Kwasniewski, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and Nicole Richie.

Also on Tuesday, Hulu, the online video Web site, described at its event several series, planned and potential, involving the likes of Mario Batali, the Tony-winning British actor James Corden, Carson Daly, Eva Longoria, Seth Meyers and Jay Mohr.

And on Monday evening, Yahoo shared a lineup of programs involving Ed Helms, Cheryl Hines, Zachary Levi, Morgan Spurlock and John Stamos.

In the last year, Yahoo has more than doubled the original video programming on yahoo.com, said Erin McPherson, vice president and head of video at Yahoo, who shared the stage with stars like Mr. Helms and Mr. Levi. The actors, in a comedic Web series, “Tiny Commando,” will play a private eye who is 4 inches tall (Mr. Helms) and his arch-nemesis, also in miniature (Mr. Levi).

Other new Web shows for Yahoo include “We Need Help,” with Ms. Hines and Rachael Harris as high-maintenance Hollywood divas who share a personal assistant, and “Losing Your Virginity With John Stamos,” in which Mr. Stamos will interview other celebrities about their tales of loss of innocence; Mr. Stamos and Mr. Spurlock are to be the executive producers.

Marissa Mayer, the new president and chief executive at Yahoo, told the audience that premium content was one of her three goals for Yahoo’s products supported by advertising, along with innovation and performance.

Ads were also a topic of discussion at the Hulu presentation, as Jean-Paul Colaco, senior vice president for advertising at Hulu, declared, “We celebrate advertising at Hulu,” where, he said, executives are “building the world’s most effective video advertising service.”

On television, “brands are just one DVR skip from losing valuable viewer engagement,” Mr. Colaco said, referring to the practice, common among owners of digital video recorders, of skipping commercials when watching shows they recorded. By contrast, he added, commercials on Hulu enjoy high recall of the brands as well as their messages.

Several of the original series discussed by Mr. Colaco and other Hulu executives, including those with Mr. Batali, Mr. Daly and Mr. Mohr, are “brand-contingent” â€" that is, they will be made if advertisers sign up to support them. Such shows would integrate products in the plot lines, a practice known as branded entertainment or content marketing.

Mr. Meyers â€" who also hosted the Hulu presentation in addition to promoting an original animated Web series, “The Awesomes,” that he is creating for Hulu with Michael Shoemaker â€" even spoofed Hulu’s practice of refining its commercial-targeting through user surveys. “Was that joke relevant to you? Click yes or no,” Mr. Meyers said at one point, elaborating on the Hulu entreaty “Is this ad relevant to you? Click yes or no.”

Mr. Colaco and the other Hulu executives spoke confidently, despite it being an uncertain time for the company as two of its owners, the Walt Disney Company and News Corporation, weigh whether to sell. In March, the founding chief executive of Hulu, Jason Kilar, stepped down; one of his top lieutenants, Andy Forssell, is now the acting chief executive and spoke during the presentation, announcing that Hulu doubled the number of subscribers to its paid service, Hulu Plus, in the last year, to four million, with half of them ages 18 to 34.

In the increasingly crowded online environment, commissioning shows is becoming a way to stand out. Hulu, for instance, became this week one of only two places to watch “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” the canceled ABC daytime soap operas that were resurrected online by a production company, Prospect Park. (The other outlet is Apple’s iTunes store.)

Stars from each soap appeared during the Hulu presentation, including Erika Slezak of “One Live to Live,” who spoke for the casts of both when she proudly declared the series are “no longer ‘daytime.’ ”

Because they can now be watched “whenever, wherever, however,” Ms. Slezak said, “we are anytime.”

In another sign of the growing prominence of online viewing, Nielsen said on Tuesday that it would begin a pilot of what it called Nielsen digital program ratings, measuring audiences for linear television content watched online. AOL is among the participants in the test, from May through July, along with A&E, ABC, CBS, CW, Discovery Communications, Fox, NBC and Univision.

The Digital Content NewFronts, under the aegis of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, are to run through Friday.

Brian Stelter contributed reporting.