Honkworm International is riding Flash animation to more than $1 million in advertising and online sponsorship revenues.

Using a technique Honkworm CEO and co-founder Johan Liedgren calls "flexible programming," the Seattle web studio produced a series of 14 Fox Sports Net commercials for major league baseball.

Developed in conjunction with WongDoody Advertising, Los Angeles, the spots feature two characters discussing baseball in a sports bar who are joined by a player from the local team. Using Flash, Honkworm was able to tailor the conversation and athlete in each spot to match the region where it was being broadcast.

"We did it in the exact same way as we create Web animation, with Flash," says Liedgren. "We increased the frame rate, used slightly higher resolution and some effects which are easier to do in AVID than in Flash."

WongDoody approached Honkworm after seeing the Fishbar series. First seen on www.honkworm.com and on MTV in late 1997, the absurd comedy shorts feature Flash animated photos of two rough-talking fish smoking and drinking at a bar.

Budweiser was the first company to show interest in the program. Liedgren says Honkworm was able to form a three-way partnership with Budweiser and www.Excite.com, which now syndicates Fishbar.

"We have a 1950s tv model because it's too short to insert 30-second ads; so we use sponsorships or what we call flexible programming," says Liedgren. "At the beginning of the show there is a message that says, 'This show brought to you by Budweiser' and at the end, 'Hope you enjoyed the show - brought to you by The King of Beers.' And if you look closely you see the fish are drinking Budweiser."

Liedgren explains inserting Budweiser bottles into the program was simplified by the use of the same "flexible programming" technique used in the Baseball ads.

WEB.FILES
Honkworm: www.honkworm.com
WongDoody Advertising: www.wongdoody.com