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A Katalyst for fun RE-vision 2009: Ashton Kutcher's Katalyst Media recently launched the first web series to be released via Facebook using an application developed by San Francisco-based social entertainment firm Slide. Jonathan Webdale reports. Katalyst HQ (below) has become the first sponsored web series to premiere on Facebook. Bearing more than a passing resemblance in its style to The Office, its setting is rather more glamorous - a TV production company instead of a paper merchant. Oh yeah, and it's got Ashton Kutcher too.  The first instalment of the 12-episode shortform show debuted on Facebook in early February. Made by Kutcher's Katalyst Media, it was distributed on the social network courtesy of a partnership with widget specialist Slide.Kutcher may be best known as a Hollywood star but he's also a keen proponent of digital media, something he demonstrated earlier this year when he posted a rant about a noisy neighbour on YouTube and Twittered expletives on the subject. The outburst helped boost his following on the micro-blogging site and he's now close to achieving his goal of beating CNN to achieving one million followers. Last year, Katalyst debuted its first animated web series, Blah Girls, on MySpace and now it has followed this with Katalyst HQ, in which Kutcher has an occasional role. He doesn't appear as frequently as Cheetos, the cheesy snack brand that sponsored the series and whose packets pepper every episode. Amid all the noise about social media, Slide director of business development Jared Fliesler (below) says it's a rare example of a project that has actually made money, albeit one that takes the form of a traditional media deal.  Katalyst approached Facebook directly to tease out ideas about how to release a series via the social network. The firm had met with Slide before when weighing the options for Blah Girls and Slide was after something exclusive to promote its FunSpace Facebook application. The two parties' interests coalesced with Katalyst HQ.Slide started in 2005, set up by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, and in January 2008 it raised US$50m in fourth-round funding from Fidelity Investments and T-Rowe Price, valuing Slide at US$500m. Of course, that was back before Wall Street, along with the rest of the financial sector, went into meltdown. Slide started out with a widget for MySpace that allows people to create their own online slideshows and quickly diversified, launching the FunSpace application on Facebook in 2007, when the social network opened up its platform to third-party developers. "There are probably as many companies in social media as there are in the rest of industry and across the world that aren't making money. We don't happen to be one of them," says Fliesler. "With the Katalyst deal, that's probably the most evident and interesting piece about it and separates it from a lot of the other news you hear. The really key piece about this is that we did successfully work with a brand to get it integrated with the series." Fliesler says Katalyst HQ was an example of the multiple six-figure deals that can be structured with big names like Cheetos. It has also run campaigns for AT&T, Comedy Central and Paramount. "There are definitely social media budgets that exist at these brands that you can tap into if you have the right product." FunSpace was the right product in this instance. It is distinct from Facebook's own video uploading capability and is designed to serve as a hub around which Facebook users congregate to discover, watch and share content. Katalyst HQ was granted its own channel, alongside categories including comedy, sports and TV. CBS and E! Entertainment are among those that have partnered with Slide to populate FunSpace with premium content from which it takes a slice of ad revenues. Hulu has made clips available via the service too, but much of the content currently comes from YouTube. While video sharing is the crux of sites like YouTube, Metacafé, Dailymotion and already exists on Facebook, Fliesler says FunSpace's distinguishing characteristic is the facility with which it allows a network of friends to share the clips they're interested in. Seventeen million use the application on Facebook every month, he adds. While Katalyst HQ's initial run extends only to a dozen episodes, Fliesler says Slide is in discussions with Kutcher's company to get other projects up and running. "We want this to be the first of many with them and other innovative content partners," he says. But he notes that the intention is not to try to turn FunSpace into a domain for longform programming. "I don't know if long-term users are going to watch TV on social networks. They might. But ultimately we believe that social media is key for shortform video. Users have expressed that they absolutely love to consume small chunks of information through social media; they do this with every post and message they put on Facebook and MySpace today, and we want to be the video side of that." Jonathan Webdale 16 Apr 2009 © C21 Media 2009 
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