For Your Imagination

Heffernan Moderates Convergence Panel, DadLabs Shows Up

2008-05-16T03:09:58Z

In New York City this week, Virginia Heffernan, author of The Medium, a weekly column about digital culture for the New York times Magazine and a blog on The Times site about online video, moderated a New York Women in Film and Television panel called "The Future of Content Production: The BIG Mash-Up!" Virginia was joined on the panel by Christopher Barry - Senior Vice President, Digital Media and Business strategy, Sundance Channel, Peter Kay - Managing Director, Product Development, MTV Music and LOGO, Steven Mendelson - Founder and CEO of BrandX Network and Paul Kontonis - CEO and Co-Founder of For Your Imagination. Viriginia did a great job moderating as the panelists tried to address all the current and future Web TV challenges for the interested audience. And then...a DadLabs video shows up on Virginia's blog alongside a Sundance Channel "Green Porno" video by Isabella Rossellini. Thanks Virginia!

New Media Minute Sneaks a Peek at Hilton's Mini Series

2008-05-14T19:08:51Z

TVWeek writer, Daisy Whitney reports on digital media in the "New Media Minute" web series. This week’s episode of the New Media Minute digs into the latest venture capital speculations around Twitter. You’ll also get a look at TVGuide’s broadband strategy via a closer look at its new deal to carry “The Hiltons” produced by online studio For Your Imagination. And finally — she reveal the top three finalists in the New Media Minute-TVWeek.com Hottest Male Web Host Tournament.

Spend a Day in the Lives of Kathy, Paris and Nicky Hilton

2008-05-13T05:01:18Z

Arriving this week to the web will be an exclusive mini-series, “A Day with the Hiltons,” starring Kathy Hilton and her two daughters, Paris and Nicky. Produced by New York online media company For Your Imagination and distributed exclusively by TV Guide Broadband, the series will document the winners of the “Kathy Hilton - My Secret” Mother’s Day contest, in which a lucky mother and daughter duo receive an expense-paid trip to Los Angeles to spend the day with the Hiltons. The series follows Kathy, Paris and Nicky, as they talk about beauty, family and much more while they visit a salon, attend an intimate brunch and spend the afternoon shopping.

TV Guide Broadband will release “A Day with the Hiltons” in six daily installments starting on May 14, 2008. TV Guide Broadband is an online video service provided by TV Guide Network which delivers short-form entertainment programming on Hulu, YouTube, Veoh and other TV Guide Broadband affiliates. In March 2008, TV Guide Broadband delivered 8.7 million plays across all of its distribution partners.

“Kathy Hilton and her daughters are committed to fashion, luxury and the finer things that life has to offer, and this mini web series will highlight the family interests and their strong family bonds,” said Paul Kontonis, CEO of For Your Imagination. “We’re looking forward to working with TV Guide Broadband as they are the ideal partner to help distribute these videos.”

“Our audience craves celebrity coverage and Hollywood-driven video content, so an exclusive web series starring Kathy, Paris and Nicky Hilton is the perfect fit for us,” said Dmitri Ponomarev, vice president of TV Guide Broadband.

OmniReliant Holdings, Inc. launched the Kathy Hilton - My Secret fragrance in January 2008 with much fanfare and acclaim. Paul W. Morrison, CEO of OmniReliant Holdings, Inc. says, “This is a unique fragrance and event as no other mother has launched a perfume the same year as her daughter, regardless of celebrity status. It is truly a rare and special happening in the fragrance and celebrity market.”

Tomatomania Hits Green House's Gardenfork

2008-05-12T21:46:30Z

Litchfield, Connecticut's White Flower Farm is hosting their annual Tomatomania on May 16th and, as part of their online promotions, are featuring a Gardenfork video about White Flower Farm. Gardenfork is a weekly web series about country living hosted by Eric Gunnar Rochow and distributed on The Green House network, a social entertainment community for eco-conscious people that enjoy helping the environment.

Paris Hilton and The Shirtless Apprentice?

2008-05-12T18:07:46Z

Paris Hilton was seen shopping in Beverly Hills this weekend with Matt from The Shirtless Apprentice? Here is the picture proof, below!

DadLabs Recognized by iParenting.com

2008-05-07T00:27:23Z

Each month, iParenting.com features a "Dad of the Month" who is recognized for not only being an excellent father and dedicated to his children, but also for having special qualities that they appreciate. "Daddy" Brad Powell from our very own parenting video network, DadLabs - Taking Back Paternity, was named the "Dad of the Month" for May! Thanks to Renee Roberson from iParenting.com who wrote a great profile about Brad and the rest of the DadLabs crew (including Brad's Green Chili Stew recipe). We love the site and appreciate the support!

Dave Ford Does Earth and For Your Imagination

2008-05-05T12:43:02Z

What do you give a guy that has traveled around to some of the remotest parts of world and is featured in a Lonely Planet video of him taking the polar plunge in Antarctica? An awesome job at New York City based online media company For Your Imagination as the Director of Business Development! Dave has that great blend of sales experience, charisma, nerves of steel and an understanding of web video monetization. Welcome aboard Dave!

Official biography: Born in Baltimore, Dave Ford attended the University of Maryland where he studied marketing. His experience in advertising, sales, and account management started in the radio business in Baltimore working for Hearst Radio's WIYY-FM, 98 Rock. From there Dave moved to the Washington DC market and worked for an additional 3 years at Clear Channel's rock station, WWDC-FM, DC101—the same station where Howard Stern got his start. He has managed advertising campaigns for Toyota, Coca-Cola, Apple, Discovery Channel, Washington Post.com, Hair Cuttery, and the WWE. In 2007 Dave took a one year sabbatical from work and traveled through South America, North America, and Africa. While traveling he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, trekked through both the Andes and the Amazon, and sailed below the Antarctica circle. He logged his journey at www.daveforddoesearth.com.

LIVE@FYI, JAMNOW and Great Music

2008-05-05T02:04:01Z

New York City based online media company For Your Imagination today announced the next round of artists and new developments surrounding their popular series, LIVE@FYI, a web series devoted to showcasing the best and most promising artists the music industry has to offer.

LIVE@FYI joined forces with JamNow to bring Blessid Union of Souls in front of the cameras on Friday, May 2nd in the For Your Imagination studio. Best known for their Top Ten single “I Believe,” the Cincinnati-based quintet will be on tour all summer. The partnership with JamNow will be a strategic one, allowing each company to promote their programming to a wider base of fans. Both companies will also combine certain resources including the bookings of artists while partnering on the technical aspects of the show.

“The partnership with JamNow was a good fit for us both in terms of widening our reach and allowing us some more technical flexibility in how we present the show,” said John Henkel, For Your Imagination’s Vice President of Artist and Industry Relations. “Our combined ability to book artists along with our video crew and JamNow’s start of the art audio made this an easy decision.”

Singer-songwriter Jay Clifford follows on May 8th as part of his nationwide Spring Acoustic Tour 2008. Jay will be performing songs from his recent debut Driving Blind and is working with Scrubs star and actor Zach Braff on the video for his new single “Know When To Walk Away.”

On May 9th, LIVE@FYI makes its first foray into hip-hop with a performance by the skyrocketing Blitz The Ambassador. Blitz will be performing alongside DJ J. Period, marking the first official collaboration between the two.

May 15th will feature an exclusive online performance from red hot MC Joe Budden with a performance the following day from Blue Note’s The Wood Brothers.

Each episode of LIVE@FYI will be streamed live over the Internet using the live online broadcasting platform Mogulus, and consists of both a live performance as well as intimate discussions with the artists and behind the scenes moments. The show is hosted by For Your Imagination’s own Jon Johnnidis. The show can be found at www.liveatfyi.com.

53+ Million YouTube Views in the For Your Imagination Studio

2008-04-28T14:50:34Z

At the April 2008 BigScreen LittleScreen meetup, a group of superstar YouTubers gathered - Nalts, TheHill88, Mr. Safety and xgobobeanx - and shot a funny video about the one thing that unites them all, see below. This group of four highly creative people represent over 53 million YouTube video views and over 203K subscribers and they were sitting all together on the couch in the For Your Imagination studio. We are never going to clean those cushions.

Hottest Male Web Host? Green House and DadLabs in the Running!

2008-04-25T22:13:01Z

Daisy Whitney, TelevisionWeek’s new media reporter and host of the New Media Minute, believes in "equal opportunity objectification of the sexes" therefore she is hosting the first annual New Media Minute-TVWeek Tournament for the Hottest Male Web Host. Amongst the twelve nominees are two of For Your Imagination's hot male hosts, so make sure you vote by May 2nd to help them get into the next round!

In the first corner, you have "The Battle of the Sweet Guys" between Troy Lanier, host of Gear Daddy on DadLabs and Michael Somerville from Love, Somerville. That Troy really is a sweetie with the ladies!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Then you have "The Battle of the Eric/Ericks" between the newest member of the For Your Imagination network, Eric Gunnar Rochow from The Green House and Erik Beck from Indy Mogul. Hands down Eric wins here. Come one, he is weilding a chain saw in his picture!

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Green House's Gardenfork at Garden Faire

2008-04-24T14:33:39Z

The Chalet in Wilmette, Illinois is presenting Garden Faire 2008 on Friday April 25th until Sunday April 27th with special guest Eric Gunnar Rochow, host of Gardenfork of the Green House network and top garden podcaster in iTunes. According to Garden Center Magazine, The Chalet is the 3rd largest garden center, landscape and grower in the country based upon annual sales and has received innumerable gardening leadership awards and recognition. Eric will be recording a live Gardenfork episode at the Garden Faire on Saturday, April 26th at 12 pm CST as part of the newly launched Green House, a social entertainment community for eco-conscious people and fans of the green living video web series Gardenfork and Real World Green to ask and answer questions, post pictures and video, and enjoy helping the environment.. For more information on the Garden Fair visit www.chaletnursery.com. Thanks Maggie, Freya and Tony!

DadLabs Featured on Viddler Homepage

2008-04-24T02:23:39Z

Viddler, one of the coolest video sharing platforms and the video player embedded on dadlabs.com, is featuring a new DadLabs The Lounge video on its homepage. Every Tuesday a new Lounge episode is released, and this week the dads and expert parents discuss that part of your home that is definitely not babyproof. Can you guess which is the most common? Watch the video and see. This week of DadLabs videos is sponsored by One Step Ahead. Previous sponsors of DadLabs have included the premiere baby brands - BabyBjorn, Boon and Graco.

TV Producer Tochterman Joins For Your Imagination

2008-04-23T14:47:02Z

David Tochterman has joined the advisory board of New York based online media company For Your Imagination and will consult on strategy for developing multi-platform web video series and formats for television. The For Your Imagination advisory board is led by former television executive and CNN co-founder Pat O’Gorman.

Currently Tochterman leads Moving Target Entertainment, which develops and produces multiplatform and branded projects, as well as providing consulting and management. Tochterman has developed and produced comedy, drama and reality projects across all prime time and cable network and is currently in production for a new live action series for the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block based on an award winning series of viral videos, entitled FAT GUY STUCK IN INTERNET which will premiere in Spring 2008.

“David has demonstrated success in building mass-appeal entertainment and we are very excited to have him on our team,” says Paul Kontonis, CEO of For Your Imagination. “His well-known creative and entrepreneurial abilities will play a major role in the expansion of original web video to television.”

Early in his career as Senior Vice President and Vice President of the independent powerhouse Carsey Werner Company, Tochterman played an integral role in the development and production of many top 10 television shows including THAT 70S SHOW, 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN , GRACE UNDER FIRE, and ROSANNE. Tochterman also served as Executive Vice President for the launch of Will Smith's production company Overbrook Entertainment and discovered such stars as MTV personality Nick Cannon. He also was Executive Producer for the original pilot of the current Comedy Central reality series KENNY VS SPENNY.

In 2006, Tochterman was recruited to launch the broadband website ChannelBlast, creating and producing live original episodes of interactive branded content. ChannelBlast amassed over 8 million page views at launch and was featured in multiple press articles including the New York Times, Forbes and Broadband Today. As a result of his work with that venture, Mr. Tochterman has appeared as a panelist and moderator at such media conferences as Digital Hollywood, CES, OMMA and AdTech NY.

Eric and The Green House on Tilzy.TV

2008-04-23T03:45:37Z

Jamison Tilsner, from Tilzy.TV, interviewed Eric Gunnar Rochow from The Green House and star of both Gardenfork and Real World Green about the Earth Day relaunch of The Green House network. This eco-friendly community with video content is real standout in the web series and online content world. Thanks Jamison!

Green Living Videos Launch for Earth Day

2008-04-21T21:26:15Z

For Your Imagination today announced a partnership with Eric Gunnar Rochow, the creator and host of the popular Internet television shows in an eco-conscious
social entertainment network, The Green House. Starting tomorrow, as the world celebrates Earth Day, both Real World Green and Gardenfork will be available as part of the network for green enthusiasts and supported. With the relaunch, the New York City based media company, For Your Imagination, will begin exclusively representing and managing the distribution, marketing and advertising sales of the video network.

Additionally, For Your Imagination will continue to develop the already healthy and active community elements integrated into the site powered by Ning. Viewers of the programming are already able to post questions, photos, and videos and share their personal experiences with the entire community. All past and future videos from Gardenfork and Real World Green will be available on the newly designed Green House as well as syndicated to web sharing sites including YouTube, MySpace, Viddler and as podcasts on iTunes.

“For Your Imagination excels at all the things I don't, and this partnership will allow me more time to focus on producing more great content,” said Rochow. “Their success with both DadLabs and Break a Leg shows they know how to make it all work and I knew I wanted to work with them.”

“The Green House is an amazing opportunity to combine informative and entertaining web series with a vibrant social community into a complete video socialization hub for green living,” said For Your Imagination CEO Paul Kontonis. “This is a terrific addition For Your Imagination's portfolio of targeted video networks and web series.”

Eric Gunnar Rochow is the creator and star of The Green House network and an accomplished videographer. Eric’s eclectic background and compelling drive to share the stuff that swirls around in his head with everyone makes him a passionate web series celebrity. Eric started Gardenfork in the spring of 2006 after watching an episode of a popular cooking web series and realized that he could do this as well.