JACKED, INC. AND KCAL 9 PARTNER TO LAUNCH CARL’S JR. LAKERS LIVE SportsTop™
INNOVATIVE ADVERTISING PARTNERSHIP ENGAGES NBA FANS VIA TELEVISION’S FIRST WIDGET-BASED INTERFACE
SANTA MONICA, Calif. – March 18, 2008 – Jacked, Inc.™ (www.jacked.com), developer of a new Webtop publishing platform designed to synchronize Internet content with live television, announced that it has partnered with KCAL 9 in Los Angeles to promote “Carl’s Jr. Lakers Live SportsTop™,” an interactive, two-screen viewing experience for all Lakers games throughout the remainder of the current NBA season as well as the 2008-09 season. Sponsored by Carl’s Jr., the product is the first major two-screen sponsorship that combines on-air, online and in-game promotions with a synchronous dashboard of real time, interactive content, commerce, communication and advertising widgets.
“Everyone at KCAL 9 is excited to take our award-winning coverage of the Lakers to an exciting new level with the Carl’s Jr. Lakers Live SportsTop™,” said Don Corsini, President & General Manager, KCAL 9. “Our partnership with Jacked allows us to enhance the viewing experience for Lakers fans by providing them with new and innovative online components that will support the live KCAL 9 broadcast experience.”
Available to Lakers fans through the KCAL 9 Web site (KCAL9.com), the Carl’s Jr. Lakers Live SportsTop™ powered by Jacked will provide fans with a synchronized, interactive companion for live Lakers broadcasts. Users can log on to the site and choose from a catalog of widgets that they can drag and drop onto the screen to create a fully customizable user experience with the ability to save their setup for future games. The launch offering includes a portfolio of 16 widgets including Scoreboard, Player Profile, Box Score, Play-by-Play, Video, Team and Cheerleader photos, Flickr Fan photos, Team News and Ticker, and a trivia game. Viewers can also use the Chat widget to message live with other fans and KCAL personalities – or create private chat rooms to discuss what’s going on in the game.
The Jacked platform monitors the television broadcast and automatically populates the users’ selected widgets in real time with content that is relevant to what they’re watching. This presents a unique opportunity for advertisers to extend their brands to consumers online when they are most engaged in the broadcast experience. The Jacked platform includes standard IAB leader board, banner and button ad units. Jacked is also introducing a new breed of ad units that dynamically size and publish to widgets on the user’s screen. The ads can be tied to contextual events during the broadcast, geo-targeted and eventually synchronized within broadcast ads.
“We are always looking for new ways to reach customers, especially our target of young, hungry guys, 18-34. The partnership with Jacked and KCAL allows us to reach them on multiple levels in an environment where they are most engaged,” said Phil Hruska, Carl’s Jr. media manager. “We know that many sports fans are cross platform, multitasking consumers, and we view this sponsorship as the perfect opportunity to provide Carl’s Jr. customers with a natural, yet innovative way to experience our brand on the TV and PC simultaneously.”
According to recent research, there are currently 112 million total televisions in U.S. households and more than 82 million portable computers*. Sports fans embracing the second screen are also on the rise with recent reports showing that 39.5 percent of adults and 35 percent of U.S. college students regularly watch TV while going online. Of the 70 percent of individuals under the age of 34 who watch TV while online, more than 13 percent of them are looking up information on what they are currently watching.
“This partnership marks a key milestone for Jacked in its effort to establish a local SportsTop network enabling broadcasters like KCAL to collaborate with advertisers like Carl’s Jr. to provide sports fans with a truly unique and engaging cross-platform experience,” said Bryan Biniak, CEO of Jacked, Inc. “The Lakers are having a fantastic season and we look forward to supporting LA’s favorite team as excitement builds for the NBA Playoffs just around the corner.”
About Jacked, Inc.
Jacked™ is the developer of the first Webtop publishing platform designed to synchronize Internet content with live television. The company’s initial product is the Jacked SportsTop™, a unique browser-based virtual desktop using proprietary multi-patent technology to allow sports fans to customize their game experience through a dashboard of widgets. To date, Jacked has partnered with NBC Sports to power its PlayAction Web site for Sunday night football broadcasts and the Notre Dame football season. In addition to NFL and NCAA football, Jacked currently supports NBA, NCAA Division I basketball and will be launching support MLB games over the next several months. Jacked was recently recognized by media company AlwaysOn as one of the OnMedia 100 Winners and was also selected as one of 30 leading technology companies to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program.
Jacked is a venture backed company with funding from Provenance Ventures, Core Capital Partners, and Gabriel Venture Partners. Jacked was founded in June 2006 and is based in Santa Monica, CA.
About KCAL
KCAL 9 and its sister station CBS 2 are part of the CBS Television Stations, a division of CBS Corporation. KCAL is currently in its 31st season as the local television home of the Los Angeles Lakers. KCAL is one of the leading local broadcasters of major professional sports in the nation. In addition to its extensive Lakers coverage, the station is the broadcast home of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In addition, KCAL 9 airs the John R. Wooden Classic and, along with CBS 2, serves as the broadcast home of Special Olympics Southern California. In all, KCAL provides coverage of more than 100 major sporting events each year.
About Carl’s Jr.
Carl's Jr. is celebrating more than 65 years in the quick-service industry. What began as a lone hot dog cart in Los Angeles, Calif. in 1941 is today an international organization that employs nearly 30,000 people worldwide. Carl's Jr. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: CKR) of Carpinteria, Calif. As of the second fiscal quarter ended Nov. 5, 2007, CKE Restaurants, Inc., through its subsidiaries, had a total of 3,036 franchised or company-operated restaurants in 43 states and in 14 countries, including 1,121 Carl's Jr. restaurants and 1,915 Hardee's® restaurants. For more information, or to find a Carl's Jr. near you, go to http://www.ckr.com or http://www.carlsjr.com.
* Sources: Nielson/NetRatings; IDC, Parks Associates, June 2007, Bigresearch, December 2006
