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E! News targets millennials, premieres first Snapchat exclusive show

E! News, the entertainment news broadcast owned by NBCUniversal, debuted one of the first fully produced weekly shows made exclusively for Snapchat yesterday called The Rundown.

The show is part of E!?s larger ?Be Pop Cultured? marketing campaign which included mobile campaigns quizzing users on their pop culture knowledge. The Rundown will continue that campaign, airing weekly on Snapchat every Thursday.

?Connecting to users on the go is essential to any brand or publisher in media today,? said Bryce Kristensen, vice president of social and video at E! ?We want to be able to deliver the best content no matter the screen, but feel vertical video can be a key creative tool going forward, particularly in the mobile space.?

Rundown of ?The Rundown?
The Rundown is E!?s first foray into the relatively young world of Snapchat-exclusive shows. The social media platform recently revealed its plans to produce more TV-like content, in addition to the current lineup of daily stories from various media companies such as BuzzFeed and Vox.

Each episode of The Rundown has an introductory segment, two sections on pop culture and celebrity news and ends with a Final Word section summing up the events of the week.

The first episode focused on the relationship between Khloe Kardashian and her new boyfriend Tristan Thompson. E! News correspondent Erin Lim, who hosts the show, speculated on how the two met, accompanied by relevant clips of interviews and photos.

The second section turned its eye towards the Burning Man festival and the various celebrities who were in attendance. Ms. Lim commented on a few social media clips of the celebrity figures who spent the week at the desert festival.

The final section was about the break up of singer Taylor Swift and actor Tom Hiddleston, followed by a concluding segment. The whole show is produced in a fast-paced, Snapchat-friendly style that can be replayed and skipped through just as a regular Snapchat story can.

?Connecting to users on the go is essential to any brand or publisher in media today,? Mr. Kristensen said. ?We want to be able to deliver the best content no matter the screen, but feel vertical video can be a key creative tool going forward, particularly in the mobile space.?

Expanding network
Snapchat has lined up deals with companies such as NBCUniversal, which in addition to The Rundown, is developing others shows for the platform as well.

NBCUniversal competitor Fusion is the most visible of the networks taking advantage of Snapchat?s openness to airing exclusive shows. The network premiered a Snapchat reality show centering on Sofia Vergara, called Vergaraland, last summer on the platform?s Discover page.

Additionally, Fusion has five more series in development, all exclusive to Snapchat.

Snapchat has continually expanded its app from the core use of sending short-lived pictures to friends through its Discover page, where the majority of its third-party content lives. The space has proven fertile for advertisers such as Post cereal who successfully ran ads for Honey Bunches of Oats through the platform (see story).

Snapchat?s filters have also offered an opportunity for brands to capitalize on millennial love for the platform. Bloomingdale?s was one brand that made use of Snapchat?s branded filters earlier this month (see story).

No word on the advertising opportunities for The Rundown yet, but the move potentially opens up an entire new audience for brands to get in front of.

"We?ve seen great success with the recent launch of our Facebook Live slate of programming and now the premiere of The Rundown on Snapchat, so we?ll continue to focus on those projects,? Mr. Kristensen said.  ?And as new platforms and products evolve, E! News will continue to be a leader in the space, developing best-in-class content experiences across every screen.?