Media Decoder: Lights! Camera! Ahoy There!

James Brolin is directing a Web video series for Royal Caribbean International to showcase its newest ship, Allure of the Seas.

Another advertiser is clambering aboard the bandwagon of sponsoring original series of video clips that can be watched online.

The newest convert to the trend is Royal Caribbean International, which is behind a series of webisodes under the title “Ocean Views.” The videos will be available on March 14 on the Royal Caribbean Web site and the cruise line’s YouTube channel.

The online series is being created and produced by Mindshare Entertainment, part of the GroupM unit of WPP, and Generate LA. The videos will feature actors who will also direct the webisodes.

James Brolin will act in and direct a video called “Royal Reunion,” which tells the story of the many generations of a family taking a cruise on the newest Royal Caribbean ship, Allure of the Seas. Among the cast members are familiar faces like Dean Cain and Amy Yasbeck.

Jenny McCarthy will act in and direct a video called “The Allure of Love,” which also takes place on the ship; it is a comedic look at a star-crossed romance.

The Royal Caribbean webisodes typify another trend in online video, the increasing involvement of celebrities in such campaigns after early clips mostly used unknown actors.

Among the known quantities in recent Web series are the comedians Samantha Bee and Adam Carolla, the cook Paula Deen and baseball players like Albert Pujols.

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Media Decoder: Volvo Drives Campaign on YouTube

Teaser banner ads will appear on youtube.com to promote the Volvo S60 Augmented Reality Driving Game.

For a car that is sold on being safe, Volvo rarely plays it safe when it comes to advertising, as demonstrated by a campaign to get under way on Saturday.

In addition to its mainstream campaigns in media like television and magazines, Volvo, owned by the Chinese automaker Geely, has been among the most experimental of the automotive marketers in trying to figure out what works — and does not work — in new media.

For instance, in 2005, Volvo commissioned a racing video game for the Microsoft Xbox system. And two years later, Volvo sponsored a series of humorous webisodes on msn.com about a make-believe driving school.

The next effort in new media is for the new Volvo S60 sports sedan. Volvo and its agency, Team Volvo, part of Havas, are joining forces with the YouTube unit of Google for a campaign centered on augmented reality.

Teaser banner ads that are to start appearing on youtube.com will promote what is officially called the Volvo S60 Augmented Reality Driving Game. There will also be a contest — lasting one day, Saturday — that incorporates Android and the iPhone along with YouTube, with an iPad as a prize.

Consumers will be invited to download the game applications to their iPhones or Android devices, then play the game on Saturday. The apps, which are free, function only in tandem with YouTube.

One reason that Volvo makes forays into new media is that “there’s more buzz, chatter, when we do these things,” said Linda Gangeri, national advertising manager at Volvo Cars of North America in Rockleigh, N.J.

Another reason is that innovating in media is meant to represent “innovation to move our brand forward,” she added.

There is a third reason for Volvo’s willingness to try new media, according to Ms. Gangeri.

“It’s important not just because it’s cool,” she said. “Our budgets are a lot less than our competitors’,” meaning that campaigns in new media, which often have lower price tags than those in traditional media, “allow us to do more for less.”

There are, of course, potential problems with ads that run in new media.

“Innovation inherently contains a lot more risk than traditional advertising,” said John Steward, creative director at Euro RSCG New York, part of Euro RSCG Worldwide, which is one of the agencies that belongs to Team Volvo.

“Yes, certain things will be more successful than others,” Mr. Steward said. “So we make sure it’s a calculated risk.”

For instance, the Volvo S60 campaign will appear in what YouTube calls a masthead ad, which is a large display unit at the top of a page — hard to miss or ignore.

Another risk is that Volvo, Team Volvo and YouTube are counting on consumers to want to take a couple of steps: download the apps at the iPhone App Store or the Android Market and then play the game.

“The payoff is an entertainment experience at the end of it,” Mr. Steward said, so the hopes are high that the participation rate will also be high.

There are other new-media elements to the S60 campaign, including social media and search. Traditional media is represented with television and print ads.

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Media Decoder: Spotify Cracks the Million-User Ceiling

Spotify, a streaming music service in Europe that is trying to enter the American market, has reached something of a milestone for digital music: a million paid subscribers.

Daniel Ek, one of its founders, announced the news in a company blog post on Tuesday. It is the biggest subscription base for any digital music service, and a quick jump from the 750,000 paid users the company said it had in December. (Rhapsody, the biggest comparable American company, has 750,000 paid users.) Spotify, which lets users listen to music for free or upgrade to an advertising-free version for about $15 a month, is available in seven European countries, and late last year said it had a total of 10 million users, counting both free and paid versions. Mr. Ek did not update that total, and a company spokesman also declined to provide the number.

Spotify is negotiating with the major record labels for distribution in the United States, and says it will come to the American market soon. But after announcing and then missing several arrival dates over the last two years, the company hasn’t stated any concrete plans.

In other digital music news, the British company Beyond Oblivion announced that it had raised $77 million from the News Corporation and the Wellcome Trust to help it begin operation around the world. The News Corporation, which owns MySpace, Dow Jones and the Fox network, among many other media properties, was an early investor in the service, which has an unusual business model: unlike other digital services, Beyond Oblivion wants to charge computer and mobile device manufacturers license fees to operate software to access a library of music in the cloud, but it will be free to consumers.

Jon Miller, the News Corporation’s chief digital officer, said in a statement, “Our additional investment in this business serves as an endorsement of the progress that Beyond Oblivion has made in bringing this innovative new music product to market.”

Beyond Oblivion’s deal is the latest in a string of investments in digital music over the last several months. Spotify is raising $100 million from private equity firms to help it come to the United States, according to reports in the news media that the company has not confirmed. And at least $57 million in venture capital has gone into music start-up companies since the end of 2010.

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