A Sloppy Survey of Branded Content
I see a possible future where almost all commercially-produced entertainment will be what we call today, “branded entertainment”. Whereas today we are awash with “interruption marketing” (commercials that punctuate your TV show with pauses), tomorrow we will have stories that are financially supported more directly by brands. Positive side effects may include more visibility into who is footing the bill for our content. We will also benefit, as media consumers, from the increase in variety and the decrease in interruption. However, the pitfalls are many. Dangers include the possible triumph of propaganda over free press or the diluting of all that is culturally pure. But whatever, bring on the entertainment!
It has been called advertainment, branded content, advertorial and content marketing. Some call it story marketing, capturing the imagination first and the wallet thereafter. Merchandise joins narrative. Experiential campaigns with brand integration. A new age where brands speak to their audiences thru the use of stories, ideas and characters. The much-blathered-about death of the 30 second spot.
Some modern entertainment more closely resembles a traditional TV commercial. For example, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is essentially a 60-minute Sears commercial. Sponsor and creator become one. Other branded content, while still being a commercial, feels more like entertainment. One example is the BMW Films campaign which started a massive trend back in 2001, paving the way for numerous experiments and innovations.
Back in 1995 I worked on a website project for MCI. Gramercy Press was a fictional office from their television commercials, filmed in a “reality TV” style. The website displayed clickable photos of office locations, allowing the visitor to dig into the desk or listen to the voicemail messages. The audience began to identify with the characters in the episodic TV commercials and had a ravenous appetite for online “back-story”. I remember talking to one MCI partner who was under the impression that Gramercy Press was a real company, staffed by real people and was worried that the website would be left unattended if “Sheila” from the commercial was hit by a bus or was out sick. I distinctly remember a conference call where my colleagues and I at Free Range Media in Pioneer Square, patiently explained that Sheila was a fictional character from a marketing campaign…and this was an MCI vendor close to the project. Story Power! (Evidence of this campaign is hard to come by. All I could find was this and this.)
Today giant corporations like Microsoft understand the power of story and encourage marketing campaigns such as SiteOfChampions.com, an interactive, narrative Flash/video campaign to promote their SideWinder mouse. And huge brands such as Got Milk? develop richly imagined and painstakingly executed interactive marketing art like GetTheGlass.com.
A frenzy has begun to infect all modern media. Today this phenomenon of the merging of brand and story is explored in many mainstream media. PBS Frontline broadcast a great documentary called The Persuaders which explores this world. Characters seem to be jumping seamlessly from sitcoms to advertisements and even the reverse. Caveman began as a Geico commercial and has now become a TV show. Even mainstream magazines like AdWeek have created sub-brands like Madison & Vine to explore the merging of Madison Avenue and Hollywood.
This swirling vortex of modern messaging in mutating before our eyes. Watch it unfold and you may find yourself simultaneously fascinated, repulsed, intrigued and disgusted. Behold!
The ON: Digital + Marketing blog has a page of posts regarding branded entertainment including stories about Hanes underwear, Mercedes-Benz.TV, P&G’s Crescent Heights online soap opera, Scion’s “Little Deviants”, Oprah’s product placement and more.
Gamekillers: Axe Dry and MTV team up to bring you a show about guys sweating over chicks.
Wikipedia talks about how branded content blurs conventional distinctions between what constitutes advertising and what constitutes entertainment.
A search for branded entertainment on Del.icio.us brings up almost 600 links.
There is even a Branded Content Marketing Association.
Hottest Mom in America, a reality TV series that auditions American women vying for the title of "Hottest Mom", is one of the first entries by a pharmaceutical company into Branded Entertainment. The show from Buzznation studios is backed by a single sponsor, Medicis Pharmaceutical, the makers of the Restylane cosmetic injection treatment.
Aquent is a marketing company with “the world’s largest creative talent pool”, more than 400,000 working creatives. They understand the growing need for creators to build story-driven campaigns.
Seattle-based Digital Kitchen promoted themselves via a mocumentary. Designerslashmodel.com: I love design but what i really want to do is direct.
Subservient Chicken: classic viral marketing content from Burger King
Branded Entertainment online magazine interviews R/GA, the world's most award-winning interactive agency
Branded integrations are many things, but "measurable" is not often a word that can easily be used to describe them. But NextMedium, a branded entertainment company based in Los Angeles, is bringing accountability and detailed metrics to the art of product placement.
What can actually be called “Branded Entertainment” anymore? The production of most modern entertainment was paid for by someone, somewhere along the line. Is branded entertainment simply the stuff where the brand is exposed? I don’t mind watching sponsored content, as long as it is of high narrative quality…plus I also like to be told who is paying for it.
Much of the new branded entertainment will not resemble a traditional product promotion model; in fact some entertainment may not mention a product at all. A simple brand identification at the beginning may allow the viewer to make the association. A viewer might think, "Brand A created this content. I like this content. Therefore I like Brand A."
We’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors…
It has been called advertainment, branded content, advertorial and content marketing. Some call it story marketing, capturing the imagination first and the wallet thereafter. Merchandise joins narrative. Experiential campaigns with brand integration. A new age where brands speak to their audiences thru the use of stories, ideas and characters. The much-blathered-about death of the 30 second spot.
Some modern entertainment more closely resembles a traditional TV commercial. For example, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is essentially a 60-minute Sears commercial. Sponsor and creator become one. Other branded content, while still being a commercial, feels more like entertainment. One example is the BMW Films campaign which started a massive trend back in 2001, paving the way for numerous experiments and innovations.
Back in 1995 I worked on a website project for MCI. Gramercy Press was a fictional office from their television commercials, filmed in a “reality TV” style. The website displayed clickable photos of office locations, allowing the visitor to dig into the desk or listen to the voicemail messages. The audience began to identify with the characters in the episodic TV commercials and had a ravenous appetite for online “back-story”. I remember talking to one MCI partner who was under the impression that Gramercy Press was a real company, staffed by real people and was worried that the website would be left unattended if “Sheila” from the commercial was hit by a bus or was out sick. I distinctly remember a conference call where my colleagues and I at Free Range Media in Pioneer Square, patiently explained that Sheila was a fictional character from a marketing campaign…and this was an MCI vendor close to the project. Story Power! (Evidence of this campaign is hard to come by. All I could find was this and this.)
Today giant corporations like Microsoft understand the power of story and encourage marketing campaigns such as SiteOfChampions.com, an interactive, narrative Flash/video campaign to promote their SideWinder mouse. And huge brands such as Got Milk? develop richly imagined and painstakingly executed interactive marketing art like GetTheGlass.com.
A frenzy has begun to infect all modern media. Today this phenomenon of the merging of brand and story is explored in many mainstream media. PBS Frontline broadcast a great documentary called The Persuaders which explores this world. Characters seem to be jumping seamlessly from sitcoms to advertisements and even the reverse. Caveman began as a Geico commercial and has now become a TV show. Even mainstream magazines like AdWeek have created sub-brands like Madison & Vine to explore the merging of Madison Avenue and Hollywood.
This swirling vortex of modern messaging in mutating before our eyes. Watch it unfold and you may find yourself simultaneously fascinated, repulsed, intrigued and disgusted. Behold!
The ON: Digital + Marketing blog has a page of posts regarding branded entertainment including stories about Hanes underwear, Mercedes-Benz.TV, P&G’s Crescent Heights online soap opera, Scion’s “Little Deviants”, Oprah’s product placement and more.
Gamekillers: Axe Dry and MTV team up to bring you a show about guys sweating over chicks.
Wikipedia talks about how branded content blurs conventional distinctions between what constitutes advertising and what constitutes entertainment.
A search for branded entertainment on Del.icio.us brings up almost 600 links.
There is even a Branded Content Marketing Association.
Hottest Mom in America, a reality TV series that auditions American women vying for the title of "Hottest Mom", is one of the first entries by a pharmaceutical company into Branded Entertainment. The show from Buzznation studios is backed by a single sponsor, Medicis Pharmaceutical, the makers of the Restylane cosmetic injection treatment.
Aquent is a marketing company with “the world’s largest creative talent pool”, more than 400,000 working creatives. They understand the growing need for creators to build story-driven campaigns.
Seattle-based Digital Kitchen promoted themselves via a mocumentary. Designerslashmodel.com: I love design but what i really want to do is direct.
Subservient Chicken: classic viral marketing content from Burger King
Branded Entertainment online magazine interviews R/GA, the world's most award-winning interactive agency
Branded integrations are many things, but "measurable" is not often a word that can easily be used to describe them. But NextMedium, a branded entertainment company based in Los Angeles, is bringing accountability and detailed metrics to the art of product placement.
What can actually be called “Branded Entertainment” anymore? The production of most modern entertainment was paid for by someone, somewhere along the line. Is branded entertainment simply the stuff where the brand is exposed? I don’t mind watching sponsored content, as long as it is of high narrative quality…plus I also like to be told who is paying for it.
Much of the new branded entertainment will not resemble a traditional product promotion model; in fact some entertainment may not mention a product at all. A simple brand identification at the beginning may allow the viewer to make the association. A viewer might think, "Brand A created this content. I like this content. Therefore I like Brand A."
We’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors…
Labels: Todd+Tibbetts, TV+Video
posted by Todd at
2:05 PM
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