On June 25th, Bill O’Dowd, President and CEO of Dolphin Digital Media, Inc. (OTCBB: DPDM) and Dolphin Entertainment, presented at the annual “What Teens Want” conference hosted by Nielsen in association with Adweek, Brandweek, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, teen.com, and Alloy Media + Marketing in New York City. Mr. O’Dowd was asked to discuss how original programming, viral and community-based marketing and good storytelling are fundamental to grabbing teens’ attention. Mr. O’Dowd should know — Dolphin Entertainment is a leading producer of children’s and young adult entertainment, including Nickelodeon’s hit series “Zoey 101” (a Primetime Emmy-Award nominated show) and Nickelodeon’s first-ever musical, “Spectacular!”. Mr. O’Dowd also served as executive producer for the teen/tween TV movies “Roxy Hunter” mystery movie and Nickelodeon’s “Shredderman Rules!,” “Last Day of Summer,” and “Gym Teacher.”
At the event, Mr. O’Dowd also discussed his company’s findings over the last year regarding social media and its influence on the teen demographic – a topic integral to Dolphin’s new family Internet solution – Dolphin Secure (http://www.dolphinsecure.com). Dolphin Secure is a web-based platform that allows parents to customize and manage their children’s experiences online, making web surfing safer for kids. Utilizing state-of the-art fingerprint identification technology, Dolphin has created a way to have secure social networking websites for children — much needed in an age where cyberbullying and cybercrimes are on the rise along with tween online usage.
The company will use content from the Dolphin family of brands for its “Dolphin Surf” social network, which is planned for official launch this fall during Back-to-School 2009. Dolphin Digital Media has an exclusive, worldwide, ten-year license agreement with Dolphin Entertainment for the use of its current and future brand properties for the creation of the secure social networking sites and other digital media commercial opportunities.
Dolphin Secure easily downloads onto any computer in the home and allows parents to set guidelines that can be applied to each child whenever and wherever they go online. The system identifies each child by matching their fingerprint to a unique number inside Dolphin Secure –- which means no more passwords to share, steal, or even remember. Upon identification, each child’s personal, customizable home page within either “Dolphin Surf” or “Dolphin Surf Kids” becomes promptly loaded. The child is then free to explore the Internet and seek new friends within the parameters established for that specific child by their parent –- all at a cost of about $5 per child per month. (The company also provides fingerprint readers for an affordable rate of about $15.)
Dolphin is ramping up sales effort for its biometric software solutions. In May, the company announced it has hired an initial sales force of ten representatives to market the Dolphin Secure platform to parents, youth groups, and education providers; and it plans to add more sales and marketing reps over the summer.
In other news, in an interview for the The Hollywood Reporter at the “What Teens Want” conference, O’Dowd revealed that “Unpopular” will be the first feature film set for production out of the film fund received from Continental Entertainment Capital, an affiliate of Citigroup. In late 2008, Dolphin Entertainment secured more than $100 million in production and marketing financing from Continental Entertainment Capital for a slate of six feature films for teens and tweens.
To view an interview with Bill O’Dowd recorded at the June 16th RedChip Small-Cap Investor Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, visit Dolphin’s profile page at http://www.redchip.com/visibility/investor.asp?symbol=DPDM.