Plant Blog

UPDATE (Feb. 2, 2009): Droga5′s Publicis-backed web shopping venture Honeyshed is set to power down at the end of the week, capping a year-plus venture that started with the optimism of content-led brand stardom but never fully got off the ground. Economic conditions were cited as the reason for the closure.

“Honeyshed was a great experience and an idea we all firmly believed in,” says Droga5 and Honeyshed founder David Droga. “Sadly our ambitions weren’t quite in sync with the economy.”

The site, launched in beta in November 2007, was created as a partnership between Droga5 and production company Smuggler, with funding from Publicis. Touted as “Online Shopping for the Digital Generation,” the site envisioned a sort of brand-centric content warehouse where the product shone.

ORIGINAL BLOGPOST BELOW (May 11, 2008)

Honeyshed which is backed by Publicis, Droga5 and Digitas is a pretty strange/original way of selling stuff online. It loads a bit slow, but you definately have to see it to believe it!

Here’s an article from Business Week from last year.

“Life of the Party”
Honeyshed intends to erase the line between branding and entertainment altogether. But its content won’t be traditional online advertising. No banners. No rollovers. No 30-second spots. Instead, it will provide a mix of live programming and character-driven sketch shows paid for by—and promoting—sponsors, which will collaborate with Honeyshed to come up with suitably entertaining concepts aimed at the ever-capricious but nonetheless influential demographic of 18- to 35-year-olds. According to sources, content partners already associated with Honeyshed include video production company Smuggler, as well as executives from Viacom (VIA), Condé Nast, and Microsoft.

“Honeyshed is a broadband destination that celebrates the sell,” says Andrew Essex, CEO of Droga5, who was left to field calls in the agency’s offices in New York City and who describes the venture as “MTV meets QVC.” “There’s a lot of so-called branded content out there, but it doesn’t have many places to live,” he says. “It gets lost on YouTube or it’s like bud.tv, a brand in isolation. In contrast, this is totally transparent and completely entertaining. It’s overt advertising based on the idea that people love brands. They just don’t necessarily love it when brands interrupt or deceive them. This will make brands the life of the party rather than the uninvited guest.”

So far, Publicis, Droga5, and Digitas have invested between $5 million and $10 million in developing the project, which they hope will allow them to tap into the projected $19.5 billion that will be spent on online ads this year, according to an eMarketer report from February, 2007.