Publicis Groupe has pulled the plug on Honeyshed, the hipster-and-youth-oriented shopping website it ran in partnership with Droga5 and production company Smuggler. I have viewed exactly one, two-and-a-half-minute segment of Honeyshed programming, apparently selling a tampon case and featuring two, leggy models wearing the kind of ridiculous clothing that one can only expect will be removed for the camera. It wasn’t, and so Honeyshed (by at least this viewer’s reckoning) violated the retail maxim about living up to consumer expectations. Honeyshed CEO Steve Greifer said that there was nothing wrong with the concept — a mix of entertainment, commerce and social networking. It was the timing that did them in. Since the website will go dark this week or next, one can only hope that spokesmodels Rachelle and Samantha won’t let their MySpace pages disappear along with it. Adweek Feb. 2, 2009
a HoneyShed Honey -- is that what they're called, can we say that? -- modeling something or other...
After a beta-test run of a year, HoneyShed.com is taking a break to re-tool before an official launch, followed by aggressive audience-development plans. A partnership between Publicis Groupe, Droga5 and production firm Smuggler, HoneyShed targets 17- through 27-year-olds with edgy, host-driven, sales presentations designed to sell products likely to appeal to the demo. Although the site never registered an adequate audience for measurement by ComScore and Nielsen Online, management plans an aggressive online advertising campaign to raise awareness. The long-range plan is to offer advertisers performance-based pricing based on sales generated. As part of the re-tooling, HoneyShed will eschew use of the “F-Bomb.” but HoneyShed’s will be maintained through the continued use of attractive, mostly-female, scantily-attired hosts. Adweek Nov. 10, 2008
