BELL FUND PICK: Boost your brainpower with SmartWomanTV.com

Now entering its third season on W Network, The Smart Woman Survival Guide - a cross between The Larry Sanders Show and Martha Stewart Living - is a prime-time drama series that takes us behind-the-scenes of a fictional lifestyle show called Smart Woman, where we follow the team of women who produce the show.To create an enhanced interactive extension for the series to further engage their growing audience, broadcaster W Network and producer Magee TV formed a unique partnership with marblemedia Interactive to build out the online experience at http://www.smartwomantv.com/.The deep interrelationship of content between the television and digital media components began at the script writing stage for the television series, and continued throughout an integrated production process for both television and interactive media. At the heart of the Smart Woman Survival Guide website an innovative and proprietary Interactive Flash Video player, created in-house at marblemedia.The Smart Woman player offers full streaming episodes are that are enhanced through the inclusion of real-time pop-up tips. These pop-up tips are presented as the video is viewed and each tip populates a text list of tips as the viewing progresses. From this populated list the tips can be saved, cleared or sent to a friend at the user's whim.Not interested in the interactive experience of the player? Audiences can also view entire episodes without the enhancement, or select just the video associated with a specific category of tips in categories including relationships, career, fashion, health, technology and much more. In addition, bonus video clips from each of the series' principle characters are available for fans to take in, make their favourite, share with friends and watch again and again.Each month the site features a new interactive "personality test"-style quiz containing about eight questions. Once they're answered, a video clip is shown, featuring a unique video message from one of four series characters who shares the most in common with the respondent.Another feature of the player and the site as a whole is the ease of sharing. Sending to friends and saving to a user's W Network profile page is a function embedded throughout the site. In addition, all video clips, tip lists and Smarty Woman quiz results can be "widgetized". This feature allows audiences to easily display a badge that can be embedded into their own personal web pages, blogs or social media sites such as facebook, sharing the message of Smart Woman and driving traffic back to the W Network portal.Highlights of the features of the content-rich portal, SmartWomanTV.com include:Watch, share, and interact with approximately 800 non-linear video clips, from complete episodes to short "tip clips." (three seasons of the show are included)Watch exclusive-for-web interviews with real experts that have been on Smart Woman Browse and search archives of video and text-based tips according to episode, date, category, and charactersSearch, read, save, print, share, and interact with helpful and informative lifestyle tips based on specific episodes, characters and tips in the Smart Woman show.Submit tips - users can submit their own tips to the site.Participate in and share interactive quizzes, with web exclusive video responses from the charactersWith so much content, you've gotta have great search and the interactive player certainly delivers. Search by any keyword or by character, episode or category. Of course, any video content found through search can be immediately "favourited" to be saved to the W Network personal pages, and the Web at large. In the end, the venture has proven a success for all three partners:For the W network the player includes pre-roll and mid roll ads for the shows sponsors to supplement the site-wide sponsorships already developed by Corus Interactive. For Magee TV the series now has a robust and highly interactive web site that is solidly integrated to the show's content to further engage audiences.Lastly, for marblemedia Interactive the creation of the site represents with another unique and successful partnership and a proprietary interactive player that can be used as a part of marblemedia's original sites as well as licensed to third parties looking to create a similarly content-rich experience.See more Bell Fund Picks from months past here.

BELL FUND PICK: Boost your brainpower with SmartWomanTV.com

News | 08/15/2007 4:51 pm EDT

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