DECA

DECA CEO Michael Wayne, meanwhile, takes a different approach, as DECA removes its shows from the Internet following their cancellation. The reason for that, though, is the same reason they also don’t use the word “cancel”: for DECA, according to Wayne, a show isn’t just a show — it’s a brand and a standalone business.

So in considering whether or not to continue making a show like the now-defunct Bush League TV, “We look at it as: ‘Is this business heading into profitability or not?’” If it isn’t, they shut it down. “When you shut down a brand and you don’t take it offline, it can look bad, and that inevitably doesn’t reflect well on the company,” he said.

Of course, DECA’s focus has also changed dramatically over the last few years, as they’ve started almost exclusively targeting women over 25 with shows like Momversation and Good Bite, which partner nicely with brands. They only got to that place, though, after experiments like Bush League. “At the end of the day, you have to take risks, and you’re never going to be successful 100 percent of the time,” Wayne said.

In other Streamys/IAWTV news: Michael Wayne, CEO of DECA, has been named chairman of the IAWTV, with Blip.tv co-founder Dina Kaplan serving as vice chair. (The announced board of directors was common knowledge as of last October, when the IAWTV met as an organization for the first time.) Those who have applied for IAWTV membership for this year are still waiting to hear if they’ll be allowed to join the non-profit advocacy group.

Web series fans, take note. The International Academy of Web Television, the independent, non-profit organization that serves as the voting body for the Streamy Awards, officially announced its Board of Directors today along with its first Chairman, Michael Wayne, co-founder and CEO of DECA (Digital Entertainment Corporation of America).

“Just as the Academies of Motion Picture and Television Arts and Sciences had humble beginnings, so do we,” said Wayne in the IAWTV press release today. ”While our industry may be in its early stages, it is growing at an exponential rate … 2010 promises to be a phenomenal year for the International Academy of Web Television with the 2nd Annual Streamy Awards and the continued expansion of our membership.” Before DECA, Wayne served as the Vice President of Strategic Alliances for Sony Pictures Digital and Sony Pictures Television.

By supplying content in a robust, visual manner through video, you can engage audiences on a whole new level. Momversation does this very well through a network of online influencers who contribute videos on topics of interest to moms, ranging from sick days to learning disabilities, to how to keep your kids healthy. The videos provide additional exposure for the influencers involved, and another forum for ad-based revenue.

For marketers, this is a reminder that today’s video goes beyond the traditional 30-second spot. Production quality can vary, length of time can vary, and even tone can be modified, but as with social media, the voice and the content should be authentic and genuine.

Over at the Momversation this week, Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com is leading a candid talk about depression. She has been extremely open over the years about the postpartum emotional crash that led her to a psychiatric hospital. Her fellow bloggers on the video — Alice Bradley, of finslippy.com, Mindy Roberts of themommyblog.net and Danny Evans of DadGoneMad.com — have been somewhat less public about their suffering, and their conversation about what Bradley calls “being filled with crushing despair” is a moving one.

DECA is fast becoming to parenting what Revision3 is to gamers and techies, building up a stable of original web series around an super-focused audience. Their Target-sponsored hit Momversation recently rolled out its 100th episode and Daphne Brogdon’s Cool Mom is still going strong. Sure, they also rock World of Warcraft slugfest Project Lore and Boing Boing, but in terms of new properties it’s all about the parents.

“We know that parents are looking online for answers to the tough questions about raising their kids, so we set out to bring together a panel of the top experts in the country,” said DECA’s CEO Michael Wayne. “We created Parents Ask to directly connect parents with the most knowledgeable authorities on every parenting topic.”

DECA CEO and the appointed IAWTV chairman of the board Michael Wayne gamely parried a wide variety of questions, desires and dissents from a roomful of members and would-be members, many of whom had flown to LA for the event.

For now, the IAWTV’s principal responsibility is to run the second-annual Streamy Awards show next year, but along the way it’s also hoping to structure itself in the Hollywood mold. Wayne laid out a plan for 22 peer groups — which sounds rather unwieldy given the total current membership is around 100. But to be fair, the second part of his session was addressed to prospective members, and the room for that was packed. No actual academy business was carried out; this was more of an informational meeting.

The ad market for original online video has been hit hard of late by the recession and an oversaturated market.

But the online video startup firm Deca has scored a spate of successes—particularly with traditional brands—by focusing on aggregating and nurturing grassroots Web talent. The company has unveiled a branded entertainment video program for General Mills’ Betty Crocker on its recently launched property Good Bite, as well as a new service-oriented parenting site called Parents Ask.

How do you craft a video conversation among four out of 10 extremely opinionated women, all of whom live in different area codes? That’s the challenge Rob Morhaim faces every week as the executive producer of DECA’s Momversation, which distills the mommy blogger phenomenon into a thrice-weekly, 5-minute-long series.

But after more than 100 episodes, Morhaim has it down to a science.

Carl’s Jr., the CKE Restaurant fast food retail chain, in June sponsored Smosh, a Deca-produced comedy sketch for teens and 20-somethings. In addition to their normal slapstick humor episodes about picking up girls, Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, the two young hosts of the show, dedicated a two-minute short to their preferred methods of eating what they refer to in full as “a Carl’s Jr. portabello mushroom $6 burger.” The video, which can be seen on the Smosh Web site, YouTube and a number of social networking and video sites, has pulled in over 1.3 million views.

“Reaching our target audience, males 18 to 34, is really challenging with traditional media,” says Brad Haley, executive vice president of marketing at Carl’s Jr. “Guys aren’t watching TV shows, but they are on the Web, tuning into videos.” The ability to reach the right audience coupled with the low cost of production made it absolutely worth doing, Haley says.

Audiences in this space also tend to be more engaged, says Michael Wayne, Deca co-founder and CEO. On Momversation, a Target-sponsored talk show run by mothers, moms can post videos with their reactions to episodes. “This isn’t passive TV,” Wayne says. “It’s engaging audiences and marketers like that.”