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As a national leader in insight-informed
research, marketing and delivery of services to urban
America, MEE has begun to recalibrate our offerings to
reflect the ever-changing world. There is no place that
this revolution is more obvious than in our work in media
and entertainment. MEE has long been a provider of services
to the entertainment industry, from the days of doing
market research for the launch of Judge Judy and Third
Rock From the Sun to the over 70 motion pictures
we provided advertising services to-- such as Friday,
Panther, Menace II Society and Barbershop.
We took a significant step in our growth by launching Khepri Entertainment in 2009, intended to be the preeminent provider of research-informed content targeting urban youth. MEE partnered with legendary film producer Preston Holmes (Malcolm X, Tupac Resurrection, Do the Right Thing), film distribution and marketing expert Russell Schwartz (New Line Cinema, Focus Features and Gramercy Pictures) and Dwight Williams (Krush Groove, New Jack City, Hustle & Flow) to form Khepri Studios, an entertainment group with the mission of developing, marketing and distributing theatrical content to the urban marketplace.
Since that time, we have made significant progress towards becoming an innovative urban-content marketing and distribution enterprise. In 2010, based on our own "community search" for a brand name with both street credibility and long-term resonance, we renamed this venture NStar Entertainment (referencing the North Star). NStar represents the intersection of entertainment, media, technology and social responsibility, using a unique managed social media and community mobilization strategy to become the top distribution brand for entertainment targeting the urban marketplace. We built an NStar Website that has been a critical tool for communicating the company's value proposition to potential investors, and keeping strategic partners in the loop as the venture nears its official launch. Also last year, after months of negotiations with the Shakur family and their legal representation, Preston Holmes and MEE successfully secured the rights to a feature film penned by the late Tupac Shakur, whose albums have sold more than 75 million copies worldwide. The feature-length screenplay, Live 2 Tell, was written by Shakur during his 1995 incarceration in upstate New York. It tells the story of a teenage drug lord and his efforts to right his wrongs and leave a life of crime.
In 2011, MEE President Ivan Juzang will continue to leverage his start-up and strategic financing expertise to help secure an initial $25 million in production co-financing to fund the launch of NStar's next-generation business model for making and distributing urban films. A full-scale campaign focusing on the acquisition of the Tupac screenplay will also be a key strategy in raising additional funding for the enterprise. This year, MEE will launch the PR campaign as an introductory splash for NStar with the film industry and its urban consumers. Our initial focus will be African Americans in the Top 25 urban markets, with a related target of urban Hispanic American audiences.
MEE will also continue leveraging its expertise in understanding the lifestyles and behavior of the urban market in order to keep the brand strategy for its film distribution business fresh and relevant. We are committed to using our successful research-informed approaches in every aspect of developing this enterprise, for maximum profitability. Key to this undertaking is to always determine, define and design all of NStar's aspects based on MEE's market research methods, tried and proven over two decades.
As part of expanding its creative footprint, MEE (in partnership with Insight Capitalists) will continue to build out the NStar brand, including the creation of NStar Life, an online/grassroots mobilization property that will be a vehicle for urban consumers to exchange ideas and information. The NStar Life Website will serve as an organizing vehicle for leveraging the power of grassroots mobilization, using the latest social media technologies. We will be able to deliver real-time information to and interact with our audience, with capabilities of podcasting, video streaming and interactive marketing activities. We will also incorporate other social media tools as the enterprise advances.
The NStar Life Website will also give organizations and businesses direct access to the urban audience (business-to-consumer marketing). In 2011, MEE is piloting a replication model (from recruiting through training and activation) for street teams that will be NStar's on-the-ground presence in the top 25 urban communities. This will allow MEE's successful strategies and tactics to be implemented consistently and effectively across the country. Overall, MEE will continue to use its proprietary, proven research methods and community mobilization expertise to help NStar Entertainment become the premier entity in acquiring, co-financing, producing and distributing urban-themed films.
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