BBE Renews Web Talk Series Jen and Barb, Mom Life
Online video network/producer BBE (formerly Broadband Enterprises) has renewed the female-targeted talk series “Jen and Barb, Mom Life” for a second season which will begin on July 15.
The show, which features a pair of real Los Angeles mothers tackling various issues and interviewing parenting experts, premiered in the fourth quarter of last year. Since then, the series—originally pitched as “Real Moms”–has produced 42 episodes to date, generating a total of 45 million views, per BBE internal data. Individual episodes have averaged 1.5 million views reaching roughly 750,000 unique users, said Darryl LaRue, BBE’s executive vp of operations and business development.
According to LaRue, Jen and Barb’s success can be attributed to a lack of similarly-targeted content along with the hosts’ genuine appeal. “There are tons of dogs on skateboards and funny video stuff that appeals to young males online,” he said. “There really wasn’t much female-targeted video. And there were celebrity mom shows such as In the Motherhood, but nothing with real mom talking about real issues.”
Like last season, Jen and Barb will be streamable on www.jenandbarbmomlife.com and on various sites throughout BBE’s 2,000-site affiliate network, including the community site Mamasource.com, E!’s fashion-themed Mystyle.com, Reader’s Digest’s Allrecipes.com and the female-oriented blog DivineCaroline.com.
Advertising-wise, LaRue said that BBE is close to signing on several new sponsors to run pre-roll ads and product integrations during the upcoming season of Jen and Barb—and that those advertisers will ultimately determine the show’s scheduling and episode frequency. The show’s premiere season, which wraps up next week, was sponsored by Kraft, S.C. Johnson and most recently, A&E’s The Cleaner.
The A&E sponsorship, which promoted the second season of that rehab-themed drama, was particularly gratifying for BBE, said LaRue—given that the advertiser was promoting a time sensitive message.
“Typically when you do a timely blast like that, you never think to go to an original video series,” he said. That’s because so many Web series have short life spans or unpredictable audiences. “We think this is a first.”
