Following last week’s piece, this will be our second ‘In-depth’ post on Branded Entertainment and will address the next pressing question on “How To Make It Work”. Having figured out the decision variables of pursuing a Branded Entertainment (BE) initiative, let’s look at how it all comes together and how the whole process can be sustained on a consistent basis. Here we go…
2) How to Make It Work
Brands need to engage the entertainment industry and adopt best practices in order to tell stories and create experiences that can properly resonate, entertain, and engage audiences. With so much content available across the board and so much media competing for an audience’s time and attention that no one can take anything for granted anymore. Brands increasingly need to create stories that can stand up to, and compete with, apps, shows, games, and experiential advertising. Against a crowded field of content, anything funded by a brand has to be entertaining. It has to match the ideas, production values and artistry of the wealth of programming that audiences are now able to watch
Now, let’s quickly identify the requisite elements of a BE initiative that need to be seamlessly blended
A) Recognize the Elements of Branded Entertainment (BE)
Brands must focus on their inherent equity, insights, and understanding of their consumers to create marketing that is of value and appreciated by an audience? Entertaining marketing can only enforce the relationship, loyalty, and engagement with its audience
Reinforce the Story: An authentic piece of branded entertainment will help the story feel “more honed and focused on your core values, message, and mission.”
Reach the Audience: The brand may have an established audience and already know the channels they frequent. But what if they could reach their audience and some more? One way to do this is to have a “symbiotic relationship” with micro-celebrities and influencers
Create Trust: For brands, establishing and growing trust should be a top priority. If they focus on showing customers that they are willing to put them first, instead of focusing exclusively on their profits, brand are creating trust one piece of content at a time. Users seek out brands that are consistent, but that can also excite them
Be Accessible: one of the biggest reasons for brands to pursue branded entertainment is the fact that consumers are carrying around dynamic sources of entertainment in their pocket, i.e. their smartphones. The access is immediate, and the opportunities are countless. As brands become creators more often, the effect will be that brands will develop an enduring direct-to-consumer relationship
Use Emotions: Visceral, real content that makes users feel something should be the goal here. Not every piece of branded content needs to make users cry, of course. But it should elicit a palpable emotion––joy, melancholy, surprise, anticipation, love, etc. After all, the whole point of brand content is that it’s designed to connect with an audience on a deeper level
Entertain Consumers: A large part of branded entertainment is ‘to entertain’. Consumers have options. Lots of options. So any branded content choices need to be interesting, authentic, and captivating. In the digital age, attention “needs to be earned”
Be Visual: It’s a classic scenario of show, don’t tell. Branded Entertainment is, by nature, visual. So brands must use that to advantage with imagery, videography, animation, etc. Whether done in-house or outsourced, the goal here is to create something memorable and meaningful
Do Good: A Brookings report has revealed that almost 90% of millennials want to support brands that do good. “Doing good” means a brand is associated with a particular cause or charity and has a purpose beyond profits. A relevant content outlet here could be a scripted collaboration in support of the brand’s cause
B) Choose the Entertainment/Content ‘Vehicle’
Most narratives around branded entertainment refer to the all-star (read: big budget) examples of RedBull Stratos and The Lego Movie. Fortunately, there are other ways to incorporate branded entertainment into a brand’s marketing strategy without producing a full-length feature film or sending humans into space. It can include articles, videos, podcasts, and even live elements that bring relevant value to the consumer. Some top-of-mind illustrations are noted below:
Web Series: One of the most popular ways to do branded entertainment is through original programming published on brand social media channels. Web series allow brands to steadily raise awareness through stories that share their values, rather than direct product or service ads. Consistent publishing and the balance between informative and entertaining are keys to the success of this strategy. Example: Fabulous Wives of Bollywood, Masaba Masaba
Content-driven PR ‘Gigs’: The goal here is to create social media content entertaining or exciting enough to spark a wave of positive earned media and results in mass awareness for your brand or product. When coming up with ‘Gigs’, it’s important to remember: Social media is about people, not your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide for you. Example:Queensland Tourism’s ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign where one lucky candidate was going to be awarded a 6-month job as a ‘Caretaker’ of the Great Barrier Reef. Check the detailed story here: https://teq.queensland.com/industry-resources/teq-case-studies/best-job-in-the-world
Blockbuster Ads: This is where branded entertainment invades traditional ad turf. Born and raised at the Super Bowl, blockbuster ads only became possible for brands without million-dollar budgets thanks to the rise of online video. The objective of these ads is to pack blockbuster-like entertainment value into the format of traditional ads, and therefore make the ad more memorable than the content people came to see. Example: The John Lewis Christmas Stories – covered in detail in my earlier post on How to Decide on Branded Entertainment Elements
Reports/Articles: A great example of branded content in reports and articles format is GE’s website GE Reports (https://www.ge.com/reports/about/). They launched GE Reports to tell interesting stories related to their industry. GE Reports features articles from many different voices. They talk about innovation, digital transformation, and also business at GE. One thing they don’t do is advertise their products. Their website is a source for news and information, not direct sales. It is an authority source and it provides a benefit to consumers
Podcasts: A branded podcast is a podcast created by a brand or a business. These businesses could be startups, small and medium businesses, large companies, or non-profits. The biggest of reason of their success is the magnitude of impact they can have on the brand at a fraction of the marketing cost. Example: McDonald’s ‘The Sauce’ – In 2018, they re-introduced a "super-limited batch" of Szechuan sauce that they once introduced in 1998 as a promotion for the Disney film called Mulan. When the supply of sauce could not meet the demand, riots broke out at many McDonald's outlets. The fast-food brand soon found itself drowned in negative PR. They decided to introduce a limited 3-episode branded podcast called The Sauce. Very soon, the newspapers were talking about the podcast and not the riots
Community Forums: Reddit is a brand that calls itself the front page of the internet. It's a network of communities based on people's interests. We know how the website surfaces the trending conversations and categorizes them as best, hot, new, top, and such. They decided to take this one step further and bring in real people behind these conversations – with “the endless thread by Reddit”. On this “podcast”, the hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson dig into the website’s vast and curious ecosystem of online communities, collaborating with Reddit’s 330 million users and over 140 thousand communities to find all kinds of jaw-dropping narratives
Physical Exhibition/Contests: Branded content can also be experienced in person. Example: In 2018, Vox Creative, and MGM Grand Hotel & Casino worked together on a new hotel lobby display. This project began as an online contest and became an in-person installation. Together the production studio and hotel created a cutting edge display. It featured a mirror-laden design and illuminated Leo the Lion, MGM’s mascot. Visitors to the lobby can interact with videos, animation, and computer technology. This new display began as an online contest hosted by MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. They wanted to choose a production company to create an exciting new lobby display. The competitors each created branded content videos that were posted online. Viewers then voted for their favorite videos
C) Blend the Elements of BE
According to Nielsen, there are certain qualities in all good branded content. These are: a central personality, a unique concept, and connection with the audience. It is also important for the style of content to be a good fit for the brand. Instead of looking at a product (say), thinking “how can we make content to sell this” — it all starts with “how can we make great content that people will enjoy” and then thinking how does it fit the brand or product, tweaking until the two are aligned
Let’s look at an example of distribution with YouTube as a primary Publishing Channel and Google Networks as a primary Distribution Network
Destination – Develop the Concept: Create the branded entertainment campaign with the platform in mind
Distribution – Make It Discoverable: Part of the science of creating branded content that gets results is knowing where it will be viewed. According to a study conducted by Polar, 55% of branded content is viewed on mobile devices. Creating content that works well with phones and tablets will mean more views and shares. Brands must utilize precise targeting on the largest entertainment distribution networks. We are going to be wherever the user wants us to be – Scott Mavens, Director of Business and Audience Development, Portfolio.com.
D) BE – Program Management
Outside In visualizes the below approach for Branded Entertainment Program Management:
E) Accountability – Measuring Impact
Producing branded entertainment means deliberately refraining from any conventional ways of tracking clicks or conversions. The way to measure the impact of branded entertainment is in sync with changing online behavior, where people are less likely to comment or share brand posts directly — while they are more likely to tweet about it or share to their Instagram story.Brands must go beyond views and clicks to measure engagement with the audience – Downloads, Embeds, Responses, Comments, Ratings, Impressions, Times Shared, Time Spent, Videos Viewed, Subscriptions, Submissions, Friends, Leads, Sales, Etc.
For detailed analysis of the program, brands can seek inputs from the likes of Comscore who have devised a Branded Content Analysis Toolkit. Check them out here at: https://www.comscore.com/Products/Marketing-Impact/Branded-Content
In Conclusion
“Content builds relationships. Relationships are built on trust. Trust drives revenue.” –Andrew Davis, Marketing Speaker & Author
Nobody watches ads. People watch what entertains them. Sometimes it’s an ad. – Howard Gossage
The lesson to be taken from it is everything we make should be entertaining – Patrick Milling-Smith, co-founder and CEO of SMUGGLER
References and Sources
1) Decision on Branded Entertainment: https://www.brandstar.com/blog/how-to-know-if-branded-entertainment-is-right-for-your-business/
2) Branded Entertainment is the future, Get used to it: https://www.shots.net/news/view/branded-entertainment-is-the-future-get-used-to-it
3) Twitter Feed: @GoodMarketingHQ
4) Medium Post On Entertainment/Content Vehicle: https://medium.com/ketchupcreative/what-is-branded-entertainment-9d753cf81683
5) Medium Post On Branded Content: https://medium.com/the-mission/branded-content-the-what-why-when-and-how-fb9426dc3e14
6) Elements of Branded Entertainment: https://savyagency.com/branded-entertainment-the-what-and-the-how/
7) Blend Elements of BE – Slideshare presentation on Bring Branded Entertainment Online (with Google and YouTube): https://www.slideshare.net/AchillesMedia/expanding-branded-entertainment-online
8) Podcasts Helping Brands: https://yourstory.com/2020/12/ways-branded-podcasts-helping-brands-results