Happycat has gone Hollywood. We are incredibly excited to announce the upcoming premiere of LOLwork, a Bravo show about I Can Has Cheezburger.

Press release below:

BRAVO MEDIA POWERS UP FOR HUGE NOVEMBER WITH TWO NEW AND FOUR RETURNING ORIGINAL SERIES

NEW YORK – September 20, 2012 – Bravo Media storms into November with the climate ranging from heated drama to cool competition as it announces a 40 percent increase in its original programming. The network’s robust schedule continues to fulfill its promise to meet the six passion points – Food, Fashion, Beauty, Design, Pop Culture and Digital – with the premieres of the new shows “Silicon Valley Start-Ups” and “LOLwork” and also returning is “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” “Top Chef: Seattle” and “Million Dollar Decorators.” For more information, visit www.BravoTV.com and follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BravoPR.

“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” kicks off on Sunday, November 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT with new housewives Actor/Director/Producer Kenya Moore and Atlanta socialite Porsha Stewart who join the returning ladies Cynthia Bailey, Kandi Burruss, NeNe Leakes, Phaedra Parks and Kim Zolciak. Season five serves up a whole lotta donkey booty, sizzling romance, new ventures, and the two new ladies arrive to crank up the heat in Hotlanta. For more information on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” visit: http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-atlanta

The ladies of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” outdo themselves in another glamorous, exciting and dramatic season of wealth, glitter, animosity, and major life changes premiering Monday, November 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Kyle Richards, Lisa Vanderpump, Taylor Armstrong, Adrienne Maloof, Kim Richards and Brandi Glanville all return with new housewife, Yolanda H. Foster. Yolanda is a former model and the wife of multi Grammy award winning producer, David Foster. This season the ladies will be joined on occasion by Camille Grammer as well as a new friend Marisa Zanuck. Take a look at the new season here: http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills/season-3/videos/no-one-will-escape-the-drama-in-beverly-hills

Executive produced by new media entrepreneur Randi Zuckerberg and premiering Monday November 5 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, the new docu-series “Silicon Valley Start-Ups,” explores the intertwining lives of a group of young professionals on the path to becoming Silicon Valley’s next great success stories.

The tenth season of the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning series, “Top Chef: Seattle” premieres on Wednesday, November 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Famed chef and restaurant mogul Wolfgang Puck joins as a judge this season, alongside Tom Colicchio, Gail Simmons, Hugh Acheson and Emeril Lagasse with Padma Lakshmi returning as host, as 21 chef’testants compete for the top crown. For more information, visit: http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef

Ever wonder who is behind those hilarious cat memes? Bravo Media goes inside the office for ICanHasCheezburger.com, one of the largest humor publishers on the Internet, with “LOLwork” on Wednesday, November 7 at 11 p.m., ET/PT. The 30-minute doc-com goes inside the world of Ben Huh and his eccentric staff as they attempt to make the world laugh five minutes a day by putting nimble yet grammatically incorrect captions on cute photos of domesticated pets and animals. For a sneak peek into their quirky world, visit: http://www.bravotv.com/lolwork/season-1/videos/hidden-talents-at-cheezburger

Bravo brings design filled nights when “Million Dollar Decorators” returns for season two on Tuesday, November 13th at 10 p.m. ET/PT. Los Angeles’ most exclusive and sought-after interior designers – Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Kathryn Ireland, Jeffrey Alan Marks and Mary McDonald are back. With big budgets, big personalities and big projects, the designers take on A-List celebrity clientele and a few encounter some very familiar faces that turn out to be their most difficult clients to date. For more information, visit: www.bravotv.com/million-dollar-decorators/season-2/videos/battle-of-egos-and-tastes

“The Real Housewives of Atlanta” is produced by True Entertainment for Bravo. Steven Weinstock, Glenda Hersh, Lauren Eskelin, Omid Kahangi and Megan Sanchez-Warner serve as Executive Producers.

“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” is by produced by Evolution Media for Bravo with Douglas Ross, Dave Rupel and Alex Baskin as executive producers and Toni Gallagher as co-executive producer.

“Silicon Valley Start-Ups” is produced by Den of Thieves with Jesse Ignjatovic and Evan Prager serving as Executive Producers along with Randi Zuckerberg as Executive Producer. Eric Detwiler serves as co-executive producer.

“Top Chef: Seattle” is produced by the Emmy Award-winning Magical Elves. Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz serve as executive producers.

“LOLwork” is produced for Bravo by executive producer Tom Forman of RelativityREAL, and executive producers Jay Blumenfield and Tony Marsh of The Jay & Tony Show.

“Million Dollar Decorators” is produced by Goodbye Pictures for Bravo. Rich Bye, Ed Lavelle, Fred Pichel, Brittany Lovett and Talia Lesak serve as executive producers. Lyle Gamm serves as co-executive producer.

Bravo is a program service of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. Bravo has been an NBCUniversal cable network since December 2002 and was the first television service dedicated to film and the performing arts when it launched in December 1980. For more information, visit www.BravoTV.com. Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BravoPR.

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BRAVO MEDIA CONTACTS:

For “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”
Julia Nietsch
212-664-7459
Julia.Nietsch@nbcuni.com

For “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and “Silicon Valley Start-Ups”
Chloe Ellers
818 840 4508
Chloe.Ellers@nbcuni.com

For “Top Chef: Seattle” and “LOLwork”
Ashley Kline
818-840-3903
Ashley.Kline@nbcuni.com

For “Million Dollar Decorators”
Ivana Nimoh
818-840-4691
Ivana.Nimoh@nbcuni.com

Amber Dunn joins the Cheezburger team as our new CRO, replacing current CRO Todd Sawicki who is moving into the role of Cheezburger’s VP of Audience. Welcome, Amber!

Press release below:

Amber Dunn Joins Cheezburger as Chief Revenue Officer, Todd Sawicki Moves to VP of Audience.

Seattle, WA — September 6th, 2012 — Cheezburger named Amber Dunn as its new Chief Revenue Officer on Tuesday. Todd Sawicki, Cheezburger’s current Chief Revenue Officer, will move into the role of Vice President of Audience. Both executives will report directly to the CEO.

As CRO, Dunn will be responsible for all of Cheezburger’s advertising sales, marketing, merchandise and licensing efforts. Dunn most recently served as the Senior Vice President at AllRecipes.com — the world’s largest digital food brand — where she grew the company’s annual ad revenues over 100% year-over-year for 4 consecutive years. Dunn was also a key member of the executive team that recently sold AllRecipes.com to Meredith for $175 million.

Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh noted, “We’re very excited to bring on Amber. Amber’s experience building significant revenue for the world’s most successful user contributed content platform for food will help drive Cheezburger’s growing native advertising products for social humor content.”

Sawicki’s new position as Vice President of Audience means he will oversee all consumer-facing teams — content, social media, and community engagement — a role that was filled by Huh for the past year. Sawicki will also add responsibilities for content business development and consumer marketing.

“The VP of Audience role is one of the most critical at Cheezburger, and Todd is uniquely capable of driving user engagement and continued traffic growth. Since joining Cheezburger in 2009, Todd grew our revenues almost 10x, launched both our brand advertising programs and our popular merchandise business, and oversaw the publishing of 5 books including a NY Times bestseller. Todd is uniquely qualified to head our efforts to be the leading next generation media brand and the #1 humor platform in the world,” said Huh.

Company Blurb
Cheezburger runs more than 60 popular meme sites including I Can Has Cheezburger?, FAIL Blog, Memebase, The Daily What, and Know Your Meme. Cheezburger is one of the largest humor destinations in the world and where millions of people come to enjoy their 5 minutes of happiness every day. Cheezburger counts a passionate fan base of more than 25 million people who contribute hundreds of thousands of pieces of content and remixes each month.

Press Contact
Jen Nausin
PR@cheezburger.com

Cheezburger, Inc.
200 W. Thomas St., Suite 200
Seattle WA 98119
Main: 206.402.3605
Fax: 206.257.0710

Cheezburger wants to bring LOLs and memes to SXSW!

SXSW Interactive Festival voting runs through Friday, August 31st, so vote for Cheezburger now before the clock strikes twelve and our panels turn back into burgers, err, pumpkins. Click on each panel’s link to see a full description of the panel and sign in or register to cast your vote.

The Art of Making Fun of Yourself by Ben Huh, Cheezburger CEO
Can a sense of humor be strategic? In the age of hashtag fails and campaign flops, it’s crucial to use a dash of humor in your social recipe. How do you incorporate humor from the beginning of a process and not as an afterthought? By laughing at themselves, brands and agencies can diffuse conflict around campaigns in crisis, overcome messaging mess-ups, and put out fires with funny. It’s all about knowing when and how to deploy the humor bomb. CLICK HERE TO VOTE.

Memes: The New Pop Culture Super Format by Todd Sawicki, Cheezburger CRO
Memes have already taken over your Facebook newsfeed and now they’re aiming their lasers at Pop Culture. From Lipton Iced Tea hiring Scumbag Steve as a spokesperson to the TV show Community writing jokes that specifically translate into animated GIFs, memes are taking a leap into the mainstream. Why are Internet users — and especially Millennials — choosing to communicate via memes and social content? What is the science and theory behind the social spread of memes? Will the subjects of Internet memes break through to become not only social media stars but TV, advertising and movie stars? LOL and learn as we peel back the memes. CLICK HERE TO VOTE.

Cheezburger wants to bring LOLs and memes to SXSW!

The polling booths are open and it’s time to stuff your ballot into the Intertubes. Vote now for Cheezburger’s panels for the 2013 SXSW Interactive Festival! Click on each panel’s link to see a full description of the panel and sign in or register to cast your vote.

The Art of Making Fun of Yourself by Ben Huh, Cheezburger CEO
Can a sense of humor be strategic? In the age of hashtag fails and campaign flops, it’s crucial to use a dash of humor in your social recipe. How do you incorporate humor from the beginning of a process and not as an afterthought? By laughing at themselves, brands and agencies can diffuse conflict around campaigns in crisis, overcome messaging mess-ups, and put out fires with funny. It’s all about knowing when and how to deploy the humor bomb. CLICK HERE TO VOTE.

Memes: The New Pop Culture Super Format by Todd Sawicki, Cheezburger CRO
Memes have already taken over your Facebook newsfeed and now they’re aiming their lasers at Pop Culture. From Lipton Iced Tea hiring Scumbag Steve as a spokesperson to the TV show Community writing jokes that specifically translate into animated GIFs, memes are taking a leap into the mainstream. Why are Internet users — and especially Millennials — choosing to communicate via memes and social content? What is the science and theory behind the social spread of memes? Will the subjects of Internet memes break through to become not only social media stars but TV, advertising and movie stars? LOL and learn as we peel back the memes. CLICK HERE TO VOTE.

The Daily Beast recently named Ben Huh as a Top 10 Virologist in their Digital Power Index, a round-up of the people “shaping and changing the world” online. Congratulations, Ben!

Peanut butter and jelly. Poptart cats and rainbows. Memes and advertising.

A recent Businessweek.com article focuses on the growing trend of brands like Nike, Nokia, Lipton, Vitamin Warer and others using Internet memes as part of their advertising. Why?

“Memes are a tremendous asset for brands because, like celebrities, they have an audience that recognizes and appreciates them.”

The familiar banners that have been vehicles for brand messaging in years past are now just one piece of the online advertising puzzle. It’s not always enough to just see a picture or animation of a product you might be interested in: consumers are also looking to connect with a brand by directly engaging them and creating and remixing their content.

The key will be staying true to your brand voice and your consumers and not trying to take it too far.
- HuffPo: Banners Are Here to Stay

Cheezburger’s popular meme and humor platform is a proven method for promoting brands via native advertising. Because our users visit daily to create and remix memes and share their sense of humor with others, Cheezburger is a perfect place for them to also creatively engage with a brand’s identity.

Brands like Toyota Yaris and Kraft come to us for our experience with memes:

Sometimes our campaigns win awards:

Simply put: our knowledge of memes and our clever, funny audience (the most engaged of any humor publisher) make us the best place to promote your brand.

“You as the person who created something are not the most valuable person on the chain,” says Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger. … “The MVPs are the people who change it, appropriate it, and turn it into something greater.”

2012 Hollywood Fringe Festival
June 10, 17 & 24 @ HUDSON THEATRE | click here for tickets!

LOLPERA is back! If you missed the first sold-out showing of the only epic opera about the Internets (or liked it so much you’re ready for MOAR), we’ve got some great news. Three performances of LOLPERA will be presented as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival this month and we really, really think you should go.

LA Weekly’s “Pick of the Week,” LOLPERA is a “giddily absurd” opera with a score referencing everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to 80’s power ballads. The libretto is assembled entirely from the internet’s “biggest inside joke”: the multi-user-generated captions and images of the LOLCAT meme.

Check out this video of last year’s performance, buy your tickets, and tell them Cheezburger says O HAI: