LevelRed.com
1450 Front St.
San Diego, CA 92101
619/615-3110
Is it a Web publisher, radio broadcaster, video producer or event-marketing firm? Yes. New media aggregate LevelRed.com emerged from beta testing July 15 on a mission to
capture the elusive GenX market that other online players such as Yahoo and AOL just can't seem to grab. While the site itself functions as a content-rich portal for the 21- to
34-year-old digerati, LevelRed makes its bread and butter - and shores up twenty-something loyalty - by staging offline events and securing corporate co-sponsors. (Ford Motor Co.
is on board to co-brand September's Street Scene 2000, a San Diego food and music festival set to be Webcast from LevelRed.com.) LevelRed execs also are finalizing a deal to
produce a national extreme sports/music TV program that's already begun airing on Fox Sports and UPN, reaching 45 million households. In the ten days following its July launch
party (which drew 6,000 guests vs. an expected 1,500), the site received 2 million page views and registered 2,000 members. Today, the URL logs more than 53,000 hits daily, with
each visitor spending an average of 17+ minutes on the site (up from an average visitation time of 16 minutes during launch week).
Content/Contacts
Version 1.0 of LevelRed.com features eight channels covering topics as diverse as clubbing, music, travel, extreme sports, fashion, film, books and sex. But president Bill
Kerig reports that an imminent redesign will simplify the site menu, re-grouping content into three big channels: nightlife, adrenaline and style.
LevelRed may be operating with a lean staff of 32, but it doesn't mess around in the talent department. Kerig who joined the venture as VP of content before becoming president
six weeks ago, touts a background including stints as a pro skier, contributing editor to Skiing magazine, Fox Sports TV show host, book author, Winter X Games TV
commentator, and CBS producer for the Nagano Olympics. He also recently piloted an extreme travel adventure show for ABC News, and wrote and produced a Blockbuster premiere
feature film. VP Cia Rosenberg, the executive producer who now oversees site content, is an ABC News transplant.
Pitch site content ideas to Rosenberg at [email protected]. To discuss event partnership opportunities, contact Kerig at [email protected].
Pitch Tips
The pace at LevelRed is frenetic and online content is updated daily. Given that the site bills itself as a "real world and online community," reader contributions are an
integral part of the mix. (One community member recently offered a first-person account of how hypnosis improved his love life.) Expert athletes, musicians, and adventure
travelers also play a leading role in the site content, but old fogies need not apply. Professional surfer Dino Andino and San Diego DJ Jon Bishop are indicative of the ilk
they're seeking.
Furthermore, the best online features are those that can be brought to life with streaming video (e.g., a short list of fashionable "rave" attire, bolstered with video footage
from an actual rave event). LevelRed producers prefer to send their own film and recording crews on location, but content has a better chance at being applicable if can be Webcast
as audio or video.
Comments
LevelRed is "an adjective that describes that moment when all your stars align and all your cylinders fire in sync - when you're living out your passion," says Kerig. "Our
community is characterized by those people who want to live exciting, passionate lives - particularly those interested in night life, adrenaline sports and fashion/style."
Just remember that in twenty-something verbiage, nightlife means electronica and hiphop, sports means surfing and snowboarding, and fashion means toe rings, purple pageboy wigs
and Vicks VapoRub (as perfume for going out at night).
LevelRed has ambitious franchise plans to reincarnate itself en Espanol - as well as in locales such as the U.K., Germany, Ireland, Japan and Scandinavia. Site producers plan
to take the model global before they worry about traveling east of the Southern California market.