Iconduit, in conjunction with  UK company, Never Odd Or Even, has launched an iPhone App for David Hasselhoff called Ask The Hoff. The app, which is available in the iTunes Store, has already proved to be popular and has won favourable reviews from fans and from the press with articles in the Northern Echo, Geek.com, and FierceMobileContent. Wes and Joe met with Paul Smith of Never Odd Or Even while he was twittering his way round the world (literally!!) to develop the app, which is a great example of one of the many ways that Iconduit creates New Media opportunities for our clients.

UK-based Teesdale Mercury News has published an article about Iconduit co-founder Joe Townley, and the unusual path that has brought him to the helm of the company. The piece focuses mainly on the strong relationship between Joe and one of Iconduit’s “larger than life” clients, David Hasselhoff, but it also outlines the power of using social media to reach a worldwide audience, and creating opportunities that just a short time ago may have been impossible.

Read the entire article here - www.teesdalemercury.co.uk/teesdale-news/, and see David Hasselhoff’s social networking site here - www.davidhasselhoff.com.

Daymond John, creator and head of FUBU clothing as well as the star of ABC’s hit new show Shark Tank has signed with Iconduit to address his New Media needs. Iconduit is thrilled with this new partnership and is excited to really get things under way with this new venture.

Verne Troyer, made famous by his role as Mini-Me in Mike Myers’ Austin Powers and star of Terry Gilliam’s new film, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, has signed with Iconduit to create and build his New Media presence. The site will feature blogging, a social network, and photos and videos from Verne as he travels all around the world.Check out VerneTroyer.com to see what happens!

Twitter is, of course, the single best known micro-blogging service out there.  There are others, but so far nothing has matched the ability of Twitter to connect people on such a large scale with so few characters.  Our clients LOVE their Tweets.  It’s a great way to keep their fans and friends up to date with their daily activities and be able to interact with their fan base in real time.Check out our client’s tweets!Verne Troyer Daymond John Lisa Rinna  David Hasselhoff 

After the success of The Hoff: When Scott Came To Stay, a show that began its life on the Iconduit-created HoffSpace, the UK network Living were extremely keen to work on further projects with David Hasselhoff and Iconduit’s Joe Townley. The result is Meet The Hasselhoffs, six one hour specials of David and his daughters travelling around the UK with Scott Mills. The producers of the show, Summer Films, were keen for Joe, whose vision had paired Scott Mills and David together in a series of webisodes, maintain his involvement with the new show. As a result Joe was brought in as the US Producer, developing the show with Summer Films from the US. However, when Scott Mills was unavailable for all of the shooting schedule, the producers decided Joe should step on camera and act as David’s guide and organiser in his native land. The result is a very funny on-screen relationship as David and Joe travel around the UK.The show will air in September on Living in the UK. Worldwide distribution is still to be decided.

Iconduit has successfully transitioned David Hasselhoff’s video blog onto television screens around the world. Scott Mills, the leading DJ on the UK’s BBC Radio 1, was entertained by David’s ground-breaking social networking site HoffSpace and mentioned it on air. Careful traffic monitoring ensured that Iconduit noticed this upsurge in traffic and worked to develop this relationship.

David subsequently appeared on Scott’s show and rekindled a relationship that had begun when Scott had pushed David’s song Jump In My Car to #3 in the UK charts. When Scott was coming to LA, he wanted to hang out with David, so he called Joe Townley, Iconduit’s creative director, who organised a wild night on the town for Scott with David, on the condition that it would be filmed and appear on HoffSpace. TV producers from Summer Films and Living TV in London saw the footage and thought it would make an excellent TV show.

Having helped create the original, Joe was brought in as a producer and, after a very intensive weekend of filming that involved wild partying in Vegas, private jets, jet skis, barbecues and an amazing performance by David’s daughters, The Hoff: When Scott Came To Stay was created. It will air on April 6th on Living TV in the UK.

Everybody encounters New or Social Media throughout their day.  Do you use Facebook?  That’s Social Media.  Are you a Twitter addict like me? Also Social Media.  Watched anything on YouTube?  Yep, that’s Social Media, too.  So while we’re all pretty much addicted to one form or another, many of these platforms have had a problem figuring out how to actually make money.  Twitter and Facebook don’t actually have a business model; as a matter of fact, Twitter had a competition to see who could submit the best way to monetize their platform.  As our economy gets worse and worse and people turn away from “traditional” communication channels because they’re often too expensive, New Media is going to see quite a surge.  Therefore these companies are going to have to come up with viable business models in order to capitalize on their users increasing needs.Already, companies that have shied away from using online advertising are jumping on board because they are beginning to recognize the vast numbers of people they can reach and that they can create a truly interactive experience for their customers, which often helps create brand loyalty.  Here at Iconduit, we believe that customer loyalty and brand recognition are the cornerstones of good business, but also that any website we run or create should generate revenue.  So as 2009 and Social Media take off, Iconduit  will continue to find new and innovative ways to help our clients maximize their returns while being conscious of their standing amongst their customers and their own economic situation.

Iconduit will launch Lisa Rinna’s new sites in early December.  It will manage her personal blog and website, her e-commerce site for Belle Gray, and her brand new social network, Cafe Belle Gray.  There will be tons of interactive content; everything from videos, to blogs, to chat, to exclusive live broadcasts directly to the site. Lisa will be dishing out personalized fashion tips on a regular basis and the site will be the source for celebrity gossip and fashion advice.

Stop by Belle Gray during or after the second week of December to see the results!

If you’re the parent of a teenage child, you’ve probably spent a good portion of your time worrying about how often and how long they seem to be online. They always seem to be texting, IMing, playing on Facebook, Myspace, or some other social networking site you’ve never heard of and you wonder what they’re actually doing. According to a study by the MacArthur Foundation entitled “Living and Learning with New Media” and published Wednesday in the New York Times, they’re doing exactly what they say they’re doing and it’s not a bad thing.

“It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it’s on MySpace or sending instant messages,” said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study.” “But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”

The study also found that: “New media allow for a degree of freedom and autonomy for youth that is less apparent in a classroom setting. Youth respect one another’s authority online, and they are often more motivated to learn from peers than from adults.”

So while it’s probably still advisable to know what your kids are up to, you don’t have to worry quite as much while they’re online. They’re learning new things, exchanging ideas, and engaging in a truly new social experience.

Read the full article here.