It’s becoming quite common for brands to have an off-portal presence as well as one on-portal. Here Universal Studios articulate why they go to the effort of having both:
“We want to be master of our own destiny more, to have an environment we control,” said Jeremy Laws, the Los Angeles-based senior vp at Universal Mobile Entertainment, a division of Universal Studios.
“We’re basically beholden to the way operators want to merchandise our brand in their own shops,” Laws said. In contrast, the “off-deck” site will put Universal squarely in charge of the look, feel and presentation of its content. It also will give it a greater share of revenue.
Laws said the Universal site will make it easier for one-stop mobile shopping because Universal will put ringtones, wallpaper and games all on a film’s same page, whereas carrier decks tend to scatter the merchandise across different pages. It also makes Universal films the center of attention. On busy carrier decks, the studio vies for visibility not only against other studios but also against a plethora of content providers from the sports, news and music world.