Markets

MIPTV has chosen to give its Brand Content of the Year Award to Kimberly-Clark’s global phenomenon Carmilla, a branded entertainment digital series that has evolved to include a feature film, book deal, and primetime series in development, becoming a brand in its own right.

The flagship global TV and digital content market, MIPTV takes place in Cannes, France from 9-12 April 2018. The 2018 Brand Content of the Year Award will be presented during the “Carmilla” Keynote Showcase that will take place at noon on Wednesday 11 April in the Auditorium Debussy.

The “Carmilla” Showcase presents a new approach to producing original scripted content. Shaftesbury, the producers behind this successful brand, is an award-winning creator of scripted content for TV, film, and digital, and have become leaders in branded entertainment. Shaftesbury CEO Christina Jennings and SVP of Branded Entertainment Kaaren Whitney-Vernon will discuss their successes in partnering with global brands to create scripted series that have garnered both critical acclaim and international fandoms. Kimberly-Clark will accept the Brand Content of the Year award and offer insights into how “Carmilla” has driven engagement with consumers and global sales.

With over 71 million views, “Carmilla” has been viewed in 193 countries and translated into over 20 languages, with more than half the views coming from outside North America. Viewers of this scripted digital series are 91% female and 9% male, with 48% of those viewers in the 18-24 demo, according to YouTube analytics. Fans of the series, who refer to themselves as “Creampuffs” after a line in the series, have catapulted “Carmilla” leads Elise Bauman and Natasha Negovanlis to international stardom; most recently, Bauman was awarded the Fan’s Choice Award by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards, an award that co-star Negovanlis won the year prior.

“Carmilla” is created and produced by Toronto-based Shaftesbury, in association with U by Kotex®, A Kimberly-Clark company, as executive producer, and was co-created and written by award-winning playwright Jordan Hall, and directed by Spencer Maybee. The series puts a modern spin on the cult gothic vampire novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, meshing the vlog aesthetic with scripted storytelling as it follows the adventures of university student Laura (Bauman), whose world is turned upside-down after a vampire (Negovanlis) moves into her dorm room.

Season One launched in August 2014, Season Two in June 2015, and the third and final season in September 2016, for a total of 108 x 5 minute episodes. The series boasts one of the most engaged fandoms in the world, particularly with the global queer community, with nearly 500,000 fans across its official social accounts on YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, and YouNow.

Due to overwhelming fan demand, Shaftesbury announced in 2016 that it would extend the series into a feature-length movie. “The Carmilla Movie” premiered in fall 2017, playing for one night only at Cineplex theatres across Canada, before making its world television premiere on Hollywood Suite.

“Carmilla” has been recognized with numerous national and international nominations and awards including the Streamy Awards, the Webby Awards, the Shorty Awards, and the Canadian Screen Awards. Shaftesbury Sales Company holds worldwide distribution rights for the series and film.