Interactive One Expands Reach And Connection With The Millennial Audience By Creating New Custom Video Content

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In December, Interactive One (iOne) acquired Global Grind, founded by Russell Simmons, as the first step towards expanding its reach among young Americans across all races and backgrounds. Today it has announced that Global Grind is re-launching, adding new original video content and expanded coverage of Millennial entrepreneurs, while continuing to provide a platform for an active cross-cultural audience of influencers to consume and interact with compelling content and unique digital experiences.

The first new original content and video series being added to Global Grind is Global Grind's Top Entrepreneurs, sponsored by Honda.  Premiering today with an episode featuring Ernest Estime, co-founder and creative director of DUNK360, it chronicles the lives of America's most intriguing and remarkable Millennials.

"We see great value in expanding our reach with Millennials: a valuable, diverse demographic that is made up of young Americans from many races across the country. That begins with the re-launch of Global Grind, along with an expanded focus and fresh, new content," said iOne President Tom Newman. "With 12 million collective social media followers, and a mostly unduplicated audience that engages with iOne content twice as long as our competitors –this expansion continues to position us as leaders in the multiracial space."

Additional new series being created for Global Grind include Before the Album Drops and Bestie (see below for more info).  GlobalGrind.com will also be getting a facelift, with new features, design and more to be unveiled in the coming weeks, under the leadership of iOne VP of Programming and Global Grind Editor-In-Chief Michael Skolnik.  This will expand the brand in line with its mission to be an all-encompassing destination that, since its 2007 launch, has covered the "Hip" side of Pop culture across Entertainment, Celebrity, Music, Style and Fashion, Culture, News and Politics. 

In addition to Global Grind, iOne now reaches Millennials through more than a dozen sites that target this young, diverse demographic, including Stuff Fly People Like, newly-launched QOTD (Question of the Day), and several local hip-hop sites.  To support this expanded Millennial footprint, iOne has promoted Joshua Lustgarten to Director, National Sales, Millennials, reporting to iOne Head of Sales Maria Weaver. 

Lustgarten joined the company in 2011, spending four years as the company's sales director prior to his recent promotion, bringing in blue chip advertisers such as Marines, BMW, General Mills, Macy's and L'Oreal.  In this new role, he is focused on growing the existing client base as well as developing new relationships with clients across categories including Auto, Entertainment, Spirit, QSR and CPG looking to reach a young audience via iOne's new Millennials Channel which already delivers more than seven million unique visitors monthly. He does this by offering custom content experiences paired with relevant talent that have strong social media footprints, as well as off-platform extensions on YouTube, MCNs and events. In addition, Arton Gjonbalaj has joined the team as Account Executive, National Sales, reporting to Lustgarten.

"We have established the online and mobile brands within the iOne Women's, Men's, Latino and Affluent Channels as digital destinations for people who expect premium, unique content that can be entertaining, engaging and thought-provoking. This has not only helped us build loyal audiences, but also to attract advertisers seeking a powerful partner that will help guide them as they look to engage with valuable consumers," added iOne Head of Sales Maria Weaver.  "We are excited about Josh's new role, and his team – including its new addition, Arton – are aggressively leading our expansion in the Millennials space."

About Global Grind's New Original Series

• Global Grind's Top Entrepreneurs (Premieres today) – a video and editorial series sponsored by Honda, Top Entrepreneurs chronicles the lives of America's most intriguing and remarkable Millennials. The audience will be given an inside look at 10 adventurous movers and shakers – from an extreme athlete to a party promoter and a Hollywood publicist – who shape the new cool of this generation. In addition to GlobalGrind.com, videos will also be showcased on iOne's HelloBeautiful.com and TheUrbanDaily.com.
• Before the Album Drops – a new video series where Global Grind raids your favorite new artist's personal space (bedroom, hotel room, tour bus) to discover who they really are and how they got here. In each episode, Global Grind will find interesting items in the new artist's personal space to discuss on-camera, revealing something insightful about that artist as a person.
• Bestie – a new video series that captures the lives of some of our favorite celebrities' closest friends, and what it's really like to be part of the entourage. Global Grind follows a celebrity's best friend for an all-access pass to how they live, work, and play.

About Interactive One

Interactive One is the fastest growing and definitive digital platform for African American, Multiracial and Millennial audiences, reaching millions each month through its suite of online, mobile, social and content offerings. It owns and operates a number of branded destinations, including Global Grind (Millennials), HelloBeautiful (Women), News One (Affluent) and TheUrbanDaily (Men) - as well as digital destinations for dozens of local radio stations. Interactive One was launched in 2008 by Radio One, Inc. [NASDAQ: ROIA and ROIAK, radio-one.com] to complement its existing portfolio of media companies targeting Black Americans. Since then, its news, entertainment, video and lifestyle content has driven its growth, with Interactive One reaching 30 million unique monthly visitors as of January 2015 (up 138 percent from the prior year).  For more information, visit www.interactiveone.com. 

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