Saturday, May 30, 2009

Nalts Named Chief Strategy Officer for Hitviews

Within a week of announcing that he had left his corporate marketing job in the pharmaceutical industry, Viral Video Genius Kevin "Nalty" Nalts has landed a new gig as Chief Strategy Officer of HITVIEWS, an online entertainment studio featuring a wide roster of talented web celebrities that produces viral marketing videos for agencies and brands. Hitviews
harkens back to the early days of the Hollywood studios by marrying web stars with brands and marketing campaigns. Hitviews' growing stable of stars have a cumulative view count of over 400 million – and a base of over 1 million "fan" subscribers according to their site. Nalts has been associated with Hitviews since its launch last year.

"These video stars are creating content regularly," says Hitviews co-founder and CEO Walter Sabo. "It's not just user-generated videos. These are video performers who have a large following and who understand how to get people engaged and to respond. Rather than attaching pre-roll, billboards, product placement and interruptive commercials, our video stars organically build videos around a marketer's message. Products are presented in ways that are organic – part of the video."

Hitviews launched in November 2008 under the guidance of  20-year old Australian Caitlin Hill, who is a co-founder and serves as Chief Creative Officer and is one of the most popular video stars on YouTube producing under the name TheHill88. Hitsview is backed by  entertainment industry leaders Robert Weinstein of The Weinstein Company, Slaight Communications' Chairman Gary Slaight, cable news entrepreneur Reese Schoenfeld, former ABC Radio executive Allen Shaw and Sabo, who was former head of ABC and NBC radio.

According to Jack Myers of The Huffington Post, "Hitviews offers marketers and agencies one stop shoppinghandling creative, video production, editing, music scoring, rights management, and distribution wherever the brand wants. But, Sabo adds, the brand has full control and approval before videos are distributed."


In his new role as Chief Strategy Officer Nalts will be responsible for continuing Hitviews' aggressive entry into the marketplace. Sales tactics, marketing rollouts, public relations and industry relations will be his responsibility. 

"Listening to Kevin Nalty talk about the power of online video marketing is inspiring to our clients and prospective clients," says Sabo. "He has extraordinary marketing experience at the highest corporate levels working for the most demanding clients. Hitviews is very lucky to have his leadership." 

As Nalts embarks on his new role at Hitviews and develops his social media consulting strategy he spoke with Jim Edwards of BNET Pharma Blog about social media marketing and had this to say, "Almost every major brand has a desire to move from traditional online and offline media, and engage in the conversation already taking place. The smart brands are engaging expert liaisons to help them be invited guests rather than annoying salespeople, and there are a load of amateurs with large audiences that can help. I’m focusing on the industries that are already serious about this medium — entertainment, consumer-product goods, and travel — rather than pharmaceutical. However as pharma gets serious about social media and video marketing, it’s a natural fit."

Visit the Hitviews website for more information, or call 877-HITVIEWS.

Related:

Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , ,