Virgin Mobile to Sponsor Bebo's New Online Drama The Secret World of Sam King

London, UK - August 6, 2008 - Virgin Mobile has announced they will sponsor Bebo's latest online drama, The Secret World of Sam King. Using the new funding model of brand integration developed by Bebo, Virgin Mobile will be cleverly referenced in the show.   An additional dimension to the sponsorship will see Virgin Mobile take the show on location to the V Festival.

The Secret World of Sam King, a first between a social network and music company, launches on Wednesday 6th August and revolves around junior 'facilities' employee, Sam King, who from his base at Universal Music secretly founds his own start-up label in the post room. 

Produced by Universal Music UK's production arm Globe Productions in partnership with Monkey Kingdom, The Secret World Of Sam King will upload 3-5 minute episodes daily on Bebo, a format made successful by stable mates on the social network KateModern and Sofia's Diary. For a sneak preview, go to http://www.bebo.com/samking.

James Kydd, Managing Director of Marketing at Virgin Mobile commented: "This sponsorship deal is a great tie-in for us as a brand.  Virgin Mobile is constantly looking for ways to engage with its customer market, and we are confident that such an innovative sponsorship opportunity will create real impact with Bebo users."

Mark Charkin, VP Sales Bebo added: "We are very excited to have Virgin Mobile on board for Sam King.  Their interest in aligning with our newest entertainment property is a fantastic opportunity for us to demonstrate our ongoing success in the arena of social media, and in particular our proven funding models."

About Bebo
Bebo is the world's only global Social Media Network. This radical new vision for online media combines community, self-expression and entertainment to enable its users to consume, create, discover and share content through the Bebo website.  Unlike its competitors, Bebo offers access to a line-up of high quality programmes and entertainment from professional broadcasters, independent producers and other rights owners and gives users a simple set of tools to create their online media collection and communicate their tastes to everyone in their network.  Recent hit shows include the BAFTA nominated KateModern, Sofia's Diary and GAP Year (co-produced by Endemol, who also produce Big Brother).  Founded in 2005 as an online community, Bebo has a membership of more than 45 million individuals worldwide and is geared towards an audience aged under 30, with the core of 16-24 year olds spending 2.14 billion minutes on the site per month.