July 01, 2008

By By Kamau High, N.Y.

Microsoft's Zune, as part of a marketing campaign with hat manufacturer New Era, will be releasing a series of Webisodes featuring artists such as Nelly, Linkin Park and N.E.R.D.

The free Webisodes, which are expected to be from five to seven minutes long, will focus on lifestyle questions such as "'What's on their Zune player?' 'What are they listening to?' and 'Where do they get their inspiration from?'" said Jen Yu, entertainment marketing manager for New Era, New York. They will be seen on the Zune marketplace and neweracap.com.

"We wanted to focus on lifestyle content and show how our brand is aligned with it," said Yu. "We're supporters of music and the artist we're promoting are big supporters of New Era."

In addition to the Webisodes artists and other celebrities such as UFC wrestler Rampage will design hats for New Era. Zune will then release custom players that feature the cap. Zune is hoping the artists will create additional content for the Webisodes.

For example, the show about N.E.R.D. might show the group designing a New Era cap, practicing for one of their concerts and include performance footage from a show, said Damian Bulluck, New York based manager of product marketing, Zune.

"We're working with athletes and artists with compelling human interest factor," said Bulluck. "We wanted to make sure the artists would create additional content."

N.E.R.D.'s "Spaz" from their 2008 CD "Seeing Sounds" was recently featured prominently in an ad for the Zune created by I.P.G's TAG agency.

Subscribe to Billboard magazine today!