Craig Bierko, Julie Warner, Startup CEOs 'Leap' Into Branded Comedy Web Series

New York, New York (PRWEB) June 06, 2011

Hiscox, the first U.S. insurer to offer small businesses the ability to quote and buy online and over the phone direct and in real time, has taken a leap in marketing communications with its new scripted comedy series Leap Year , premiering today on Hulu™.

Produced exclusively for Hiscox as a means to market its direct and online small business insurance, the ten-episode series tracks the entrepreneurial highs and lows of five friends who make the proverbial 'leap' and go it alone in the wake of corporate downsizing.

Co-written and directed by Yuri Baranovsky, Leap Year features an impressive cast of film, television and web series talent including Craig Bierko of (Damages, Boston Legal), Julie Warner (Crash, Doc Hollywood), Alexis Boozer (Break a Leg), Wilson Cleveland (Suite 7, The Temp Life), Daniela DiIorio (Lovemakers), Mark Gantt (The Bannen Way), Drew Lanning (7-Eleven Road Trip Rally), Rachel Risen (The Temp Life). Mashable Editor in Chief, Adam Ostrow joins real-life entrepreneurs and bestselling authors Guy Kawasaki (Enchanted) and Gary Vaynerchuk (The Thank You Economy) in cameo appearances.

Leap Year is part of a suite of content put together by Hiscox for startups and established small businesses which can be found on the Leap Year website. Content includes commentary on each episode from The Young Entrepreneur Council (Y.E.C) and startup stories featuring successful founders such as Pete Cashmore (Mashable), Scott Belsky (Behance), Adam Rich (Thrillist), Michael Lazerow (Buddy Media), Josh Williams (Gowalla) and David Karp (Tumblr).

"We wanted to talk to our target audience - entrepreneurs and small business owners in professional services - in a non-traditional and exciting way," said Hunter Hoffmann, U.S. Communications Manager at Hiscox. "Leap Year follows the ups and downs that our small business customers experience every day. We have been supporting startups internationally for over five years so there's not much we haven't seen. We hope the trials, tribulations and successes the characters experience in this series will resonate with small business owners, and keep them entertained."

New episodes will debut every Monday on www.leapyear-hiscox.tv , Hulu™, YouTube, Inc.com and iTunes as well as on connected TVs and Blu-ray players, gaming consoles, set-top boxes and mobile devices via the subscription-based Hulu Plus service. Leap Year was produced exclusively for Hiscox by its marketing/PR agency CJP Communications through its CJP Digital Media branded entertainment group and in association with Happy Little Guillotine Films and Attention Span Media.

(Movie) Insider Trading: Visiting the Hollywood Stock Exchange ...

The Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) advertises itself as “just like the real stock market, only way more fun.” There is truth to that, but only if you already happen to enjoy the real stock market. It’s a simple process: one may sign up for free, buy and sell virtual shares of films and celebrities using the site’s “Hollywood Dollars,” and then play the market depending on how things make out at the box office. Interests piqued, I had to investigate further.

Feeling lucky, I enrolled on a lark and bought a few shares each of the recently released “Paul” and “The Lincoln Lawyer.” These two particular movies performed about the same on their opening weekend, but then purchases of “Paul” went down, and “Lawyer” shot up. Why? I have no clear idea. Maybe the old hats on the Exchange deemed Matthew McConaughey to have more legs than two Brits and an alien/Seth Rogen. Seems plausible, but then again Hollywood is obviously fickle. The whole situation is left up to each individual trader to figure out and maneuver, but there is never any real payout beyond the site’s fake money. Essentially it’s World of Warcraft for the financial transaction set.

HSX has some reach, though. It was created during the late ‘90s tech boom by financial players Max Keiser (current broadcaster and business pundit) and Michael Burns (now vice chairman at Lions Gate Entertainment). The company eventually raised around $30 million in private investment. The company had legs to withstand the dot-com bubble and was eventually purchased by the global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald in 2001. Steady growth has led to over two million traders worldwide. HSX makes most of its money now on advertising, but the future may hold more diversity.

I spoke briefly with Richard Jaycobs, president of Cantor Exchange, a futures trading house and subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald. Jaycobs is very optimistic about HSX‘s growth into the world of apps, Facebook games and other partnerships with content providers. Ideas also on the table are the selling of data garnered from the site’s box office predictions, as well as allowing users to pay for more virtual trading money. HSX already figures into general financial predictions one reads about all over the internet (on top of awards season estimations and the like) so such maneuvers seem like a natural progression, though any kind of leap into gambling arenas remains off the table for now, according to Jaycobs.

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