Business Development

With Apricot, clients get expertise in the building of revenue and brands for entertainment content across multiple digital platforms, including television, VOD, broadband, and wireless.

The following list represents a list of strategic partners Apricot has brought to its clients and/or closed deals with on their behalf:

• Distribution: Comcast Cable; Time Warner Cable; Charter; Mediacom; Insight Cable; Sprint; Cingular/AT&T; Helio
• Programmers: ABC; NBC; CBS; FOX; HBO; MTV; Lifetime; Showtime; Turner
• Internet/Mobile: YouTube; MySpace; Savvy; doubleagent; stupid/pure videos; Destroy; Akimbo; Helio; Revver
• Content: ChumTV; WarnerTV; MGM; Bennett Productions; VAS; Fremantle
• Advertising: Mediaedge; Mediacom; Mindshare - Cingular; Dodge; Amp'd

Web Traffic Generation

Apricot is currently responsible for driving traffic to a variety of portals representing different niche verticals and varying demographic reach. Apricot has been contracted by RipeTV, for example, since its launch in 2005. It has driven traffic from 0 to 4 million uniques per month using a combination of several Search Engine and organic traffic driving mechanisms (Ripe was recently ranked #11 in Men's Lifestyle sites by Hitwise).

The company can advise its clients on SEO & SEM strategies that have proven successful in generating efficient Search buys while it also utilizes 3rd party solutions and its own white label network of over 400 affiliate sites to generate organic traffic flow to almost any Internet vertical portal.

Apricot also uses a double redundancy measurement system to assure you are only paying for the traffic which truly ends up as measurable on your site as unique and will carefully research, assess and determine where each clients' ROI per unique is set.

For more detail contact: info@apricotcorp.com.

Content Acquisition & Sales

Apricot has acquired over 1500 hours of content in the last 3 years, and specializes in finding/creating short-form content for new digital platforms (including mobile and broadband). Jonathon Barbato has held executive positions at three studios, representing hundreds of thousands of TV and film titles for domestic and international syndication as well as marketed TV and film titles in cable and headed acquisition for Ripe's production team, editing titles into short-form content.

Apricot has serviced many clients with production strategy, acquisition strategy or negotiation, or selling and distributing entertainment content.

Ad Sales Strategy

Jonathon Barbato co-authored Ripe Digital Entertainment's original "Connective Advertising" sales strategy, now responsible for eight figure revenue across three platforms, and having sold to agencies like MindShare, MediaEdge and Mediacom and advertisers like Dodge, Cingular and Axe. For more detail on "Connective Advertising" visit www.ripedigital.com.

The company is also confidentially devising a multi-platform sales strategy for other clients to create sales presentations, identify customer targets and determine price-to-market and revenue ceilings on entertainment-related products or properties.

Business Plans & Revenue Models

From presentations to business plans, P&L projections and PPMs (Private Placement Memorandums), Apricot has participated in the raising of over $40 million dollars in angel and Series A & B funding.

The following list represents some of the deals represented:

• $6 million Series A & $32 million Series B for Ripe Digital Entertainment
• $1.5 million angel for ScreenFriends
• $6 million combined currently being sought for RingTales; Destroy & confidential web portal

Brand Marketing & Development

Creating comprehensive brand strategies and shaping consumer's opinions and awareness for entertainment properties is more critical than ever in today's ever-fragmenting marketplace.

From mark development to promos; Identity binders to consumer campaigns; video, radio, outdoor to print; stunts and events to talent tours; online viral campaigns to street teams; design to consumer and trade PR strategies. Apricot has done it all and can customize a strategy for you.

Brands directly managed/marketed include:

• RipeTV; OctaneTV; Flow.tv; ScreenFriends
• Starz; Starz On Demand; Encore; Mystery; Action; Love; WAM!; MoviePlex
• Outer Limits; Bradshaw; LAPD; Poltergeist; Whoopi Goldberg Show
• Seinfeld; Mad About You; Ricki Lake; Married With Children; The Judge; Highway To Heaven; Dallas; Falcon Crest; Knots Landing; and hundreds of other Warner & Sony Studios shows/movie packages
  
  

Multi-Platform Distribution

The future of digital entertainment is multi-platform. Television, cable, the Internet, wireless, game platforms and more will all survive side by side in an ever fragmenting market where consumers become increasingly more in control of their entertainment choices: when, where, and how they watch.

"Talk of TV's short-term demise is premature," says Ben Macklin, eMarketer Senior Analyst and the author of the new report, US TV Trends: The Impact of DVRs, VOD and the Web. "Yet it is equally shortsighted to think that the traditional TV model will not change significantly over the next decade."

By 2011, eMarketer estimates there will be more than 200 million broadband Internet users in the US, 92% of whom will regularly watch video online.

At that time the broadband audience will be two-thirds the size of the total US TV audience, up from less than half the TV audience in 2006. In addition, 45.1% of TV households will have DVRs and nearly 59% will have VOD capabilities - both of which are used to avoid advertising.

"TV advertising dollars will inevitably shift to alternative channels," says Mr. Macklin. "Online advertising is likely to be the major beneficiary of this redistribution." eMarketer's most recent online advertising spending estimates show that by 2011, $44 billion will be spent on online advertising, up from $16.9 billion in 2006, and 10% of all online advertising will be spent on online video advertising.

Apricot brings its clients the benefit of deep-rooted relationships in the worlds of cable distribution, Internet portal distribution and wireless on-deck and off-deck solutions.

Due Diligence

Apricot is able to utilize its intimate knowledge of the television, cable and Internet entertainment platforms to accommodate its clients' due diligence processes either for acquisition or investment. Although not a certified investment entity, Apricot has the experience to assist in the assessment exercises necessary to determine reasonable valuation and ROI for target companies under review by its clients.