The redesigned website for the Disney Store is an enhanced e-commerce channel for the brand’s toys, clothes, entertainment and packaged media. “The new DisneyStore.com delivers a magical shopping experience that guests can only receive from Disney,” stated Disney EVP Paul Gainer.

Part of that magic is the ability for shoppers to record and customize a “Disney Magical Message” video to send along with any DisneyStore.com gift purchase. Recipients receive email notification of a special delivery and when the gift arrives, a card provides a site URL and a personal ID where they can view their personal video. 

Enhanced tools for sharing on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and e-mail, via desktop, tablet or mobile have amped up the social shopping experience while an animation feature lets users interact with favorite characters and classic Disney films.Continue reading...

"Hipster Disney Princess: The Musical" has been going viral on social media and YouTube since it was posted on Oct. 1. Shot in Times Square (a la Enchanted) and dropping Urban Outfitters, Kombucha tea, Starbucks and Twitter references, the musical-a-week wags at AVByte present a quartet of geek-framed, F-bomb dropping, post-Disney princesses just in time for Halloween. Starring: Elizabeth Oldak (Belle), Tiger Darrow (Snow White), Molly Gallagher (Ariel) and Tanja Nagler (Cinderella).

In a serious challenge to Amazon's latest Kindle moves and Apple iPad, Barnes & Noble has introduced the two newest tablets in the NOOK family of e-readers: NOOK HD ($199) and NOOK HD+ ($269). The New York Times sees B&N positioning the first HD Nook tablets as "iPad Lite," and call the retailer's new "video service for the Nook color devices similar to the iTunes store and includes movies and TV series from Disney, Viacom and Warner Brothers."

According to B&N's press materials, NOOK HD is "the lightest and highest resolution 7-inch HD tablet ever. NOOK HD+ is the lightest Full HD tablet with a brilliant 9-inch HD display that magazine and movie lovers will adore. Enjoy incredible reading and entertainment like never seen before – all starting at just $199."

They're available for pre-order at nook.com and in-store on Nov. 1st; AP took a look at how they stack up here.

"Keep Good Going" is the tagline and rallying cry for New York Life's new campaign. The Facebook announcement includes a Twitter hashtag and the call to action, "What inspires you? There is good all around us, and at New York Life, we believe in perpetuating that good. The people, words, videos and stories on this page have touched and inspired us. #KeepGoodGoing"

The Facebook and Twitter push promotes to a microsite featuring "found" video and photographs in "Snapshots" that highlight a cross-section of ages and customers. The digital hub for the campaign also invites visitors to ponder life lessons such as "#27 Be the man your dog thinks you are" and then share the life lessons that means the most to them.Continue reading...

NowThis News is hoping to put the likes of CNN, ABC News, the Washington Post and Huffington Post on notice with a new model of how to report and distribute the news — one, not coincidentally, staffed by a team of newshounds who came from those old school media outlets and who are eager to reinvent their business.

Formerly known as Planet Daily, NowThis News (don't call it NTN) describes its mission as a post-TV, post-newspaper and post-website newsgathering operation, "A brand new video network built from scratch for people who get their news on mobile devices and through social streams."

The startup has emerged from stealth mode with a Tumblr, a Facebook page and Twitter feed — not to mention details on its executive team helmed by former CNN executive Eason Jordan as GM, Ed O'Keefe from ABC News as editor-in-chief and Washington Post vet Katharine Zaleski as managing editor.

“We’re creating NowThis News to meet straight on the inevitable and rapid changes happening in news consumption: digital, mobile, social and video," Kenneth Lerer, Partner of Lerer Ventures, co-founder of NowThis News along with business artner Eric Hippeau, said in a statement.

“It makes no sense for me, at all, to produce what’s already on TV,” said Lerer to AllThingsD. “We’re going to produce short video pieces that will hopefully be very viral and very social, one at a time.” Jordan added, “There’s an abundance of talk. We intend to report the news.”Continue reading...

If music indeeds soothes the savage beast, the folks over at Ultimate Fighting Championship missed that Shakespearean memo. The organization has turned to the world of pop music to try and stoke more fire-breathing fans and tap into the crossover audience of house music-crazed youths. As USA Today points out, UFC already dominates the world of mixed-martial arts, but, just as its stars do, UFC would love to crush anything it has in its path and expand its fan base exponentially. 

Once they become fans, there are plenty of DVDs, books, collectibles, and clothing to suck cash from their wallets, but how does something like UFC maximize its exposure to fans who may not be aware of its subtly and grace? Music, it turns out, is the channel UFC has turned to with the help of Canadian house-music DJ, performer, and producer Joel Zimmerman, who performs as Deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse") sporting a giant mouse-head mask.

Thanks to a partnership with UFC, Deadmau5’s video for his new single, “Professional Griefers,” features the musician controlling a robot that takes part in an MMA battle against a robot controlled by My Chemical Romance lead singer Gerard Way.Continue reading...

Cisco has taken on historical themes before, imagining Paul Revere with a Cisco Cius tablet and an updated Braveheart in the office. Above, its new video evokes Helen of Troy vs. hackers insides a Trojan horse virus, a means to communicate the brand's value protecting small business networks. Tagline: "The right network changes everything."

Indie video producers have been waiting for the moment when they could eliminate the middleman and market and distribute direct to their fans.

Digital media startup Pivotshare, which just closed $1 million dollars in Series A funding, offers the next step in disintermediating audio and video distribution, filling a gap in the market between free services relying on advertising and expensive online platforms.

“The media landscape is evolving and advances in technology are creating new opportunities to distribute and monetize content. Pivotshare is focused on providing a complete solution that enables anyone to maximize the value of their digital media” says Pivotshare founder Adam Mosam. “We’re excited to work with both seasoned and emerging content creators and help them launch their media businesses online.”

Pivotshare’s self-service digital streaming media platform describes itself as a “complete media business-in-a-box,” handling all aspects of infrastructure, support and payments. Offering no startup costs or monthly fees for in-depth analytics, publishers can monitor total income in real-time, know which media is the most popular, and use their own branding and design elements. Continue reading...