Branded Entertainment is still a relatively new practice, and as such, it can be difficult to find and deploy branded entertainment best practices. While many organizations have founded success with branded content, it’s not always immediately clear how their success can translate to other brands and other industries.

Currently, when Branded Entertainment is discussed as a new opportunity—depending on who is having the conversation—one of three common scenarios usually follows. In each case, these scenarios often look more like a way out of trouble than an approach to doing business in a different way. But if we look at these scenarios from slightly different angle, some Branded Entertainment best practices do emerge

COMMON BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT SCENARIOS

Some quick-fix Branded Entertainment scenarios that are presently missing the bigger picture (as seen from their respective perspectives) include:

• Brand Manager: Our brand has found a way into desirable content. Perhaps, but is this situation creating a real shift for the brand? Consider this frequent scenario. A serial show becomes a hit, and brands want to be a part of that success no matter what. For instance, when talent-search shows were hitting big numbers and capturing instant success, powerful consumer product brands had to get a piece of the action, even if it only meant having a glass with their logo on the table of the show’s celebrity judges. Achieving the presence of the brand on the show was accomplished, but did it really create a significant shift?
• Content Producer: How are we going to get the series off the ground? We need a brand! The content has a chance to be produced only because of a brand’s investment; but, is there real creativity put toward the inclusion of the brand into the creative? This scenario is the traditional method of raising funds for production through standard product placement. Think of hugely successful prime-time competition shows like America’s Got Talent, seen by millions. Slap a logo on the cup the judges are drinking from, front and center to the viewer. There’s not a great deal of creativity to this approach. The goal to reach a particular number of consumers may be reached, but is this goal good enough to create a personality for the brand?
• Agency: Branded Entertainment definitely sounds innovative enough to keep our agency’s billing growing. Has the creative work been done to really think through the brand fit? In the case of an online series, created solely by the brand’s agency, the brand is well positioned in each webisode, but is the content authentic enough to create a viral following and true consumer engagement? Health and beauty brands have often taken this approach in search of in-content participation, but in doing so did the approach create a real shift for the brand? Most importantly, have the webisodes really been watched by a wide enough audience to make an impact?

In each of these examples, Branded Entertainment is viewed most often as a solution to a problem, not as a new approach to doing business. Branded Entertainment is looked at as an immediate problem solver. Now, you might be wondering what’s wrong with that? Well, immediate solutions have a tendency to die young. When Branded Entertainment emerges as a simple solution to common media problems, the engagement process gets shortened, creative corners are cut and, as a result, partner goals tend to be ignored and there is little reach into spreading a brand’s audience. This is where problems begin. Now you have a new set of obstacles to overcome rather than a truly new approach.

Moving Past a “Quick Fix” Mentality

The “quick-fix” misconception misses the mark because it fails to fully appreciate the concept being put in motion as a complete business methodology. That said, as we look at the various ways Branded Entertainment is understood, or partially understood, in the industry, a three-dimensional image is beginning to emerge from the many observed sides. In addition to having the potential to solve problems, Branded Entertainment is also:

• A cool trend
• An alternate approach to the 30-Second Spot
• The 2.0 version of product placement

Each of these trends can help us develop a branded entertainment best practices approach:

• Cool. Industry insiders who view Branded Entertainment as “cool” are latching onto it because they see Branded Entertainment as both new and innovative. Branded Entertainment reflects modern thinking for the brands and an unexplored way to get consumers.
• An Alternative Approach: Recognizing Branded Entertainment as an alternative approach implies an acceptance of the concept that brands have options to choose from. Brands can create content beyond traditional 30-second spots. A brand can opt in on ideas for entertaining content and play an integral role in the development of the content.
• Product Placement Version 2.0: Ultimately, embracing Branded Entertainment as “Product Placement 2.0” reveals an understanding that content and brands can now live side by side – the brand is no longer relegated to the background. The 2.0 upgrade specifically refers to the potential of Branded Entertainment to create a more even relationship between the content and the brand.

To stay up-to-date with the latest Branded Entertainment news, sign up for updates from Shaftesbury. And if you’re ready to start putting some Branded Entertainment best practices in to play, reach out to us at any time.

Branded Entertainment marketing is growing, and growing fast. Since the recent explosion in content consumption, brands have found new avenues to deliver their brand messages by creating content relevant to their audience. eMarketer projects $8.8 billion in Branded Entertainment spending by 2018, nearly 12 percent of what television spend is projected to be three years from now. That’s a large number, considering television’s 60+ years of advertising dominance.

DEFINING SUCCESS WITH BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT

Today’s brands are recognizing the importance of Branded Entertainment. However, clear and defined ways to measure their effectiveness have yet to be determined. Additionally, brands are struggling to figure out exactly what kinds of content will resonate best with their intended audience, and the issue of scaling these Branded Entertainment pieces has yet to be fully understood.

People have different expectations for online content than they do for TV or print. In more traditional forms of media, there seems to be an aversion toward advertorial-type executions due to audience expectations regarding the content relative to the medium. In terms of digital Branded Entertainment campaigns, research found that 61 percent of consumers agree: as long as the content the brand is producing is good quality and provides what that they want from their content consumption, they do not care if the content is sponsored.

USING AUDIENCE INSIGHTS TO GUIDE CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT

Much like how television concepts are pre-tested before production, the development of a Branded Entertainment can benefit from using similar practices. To zero-in on the type of content that would appeal most to the audience, Shaftesbury developed a technique to gauge audience interest in potential pieces of a branded entertainment program.

After setting content parameters for a specific brand and its objectives, we run a long list of content ideas (headlines and short copy blurbs) through a MaxDif conjoint technique. In layman’s terms, a MaxDif is a type of trade-off analysis. It efficiently allows for identifying which concepts have the most potential appeal to the audience — before incurring any production costs. The resulting analytics then rank the concepts in order of most appealing.

The industry has spent years amassing an enormous amount of data on other forms of advertising to determine best practices. Branded Entertainment has not been afforded that luxury, leaving marketers understandably wary. Shaftesbury’s experience definitively proves that content marketing is a reliable and consistent mode of brand messaging that works. However, to reap its full benefits, it’s important that brands truly understand what their respective consumers want from content. Additionally, brands should continue to experiment with the format and be open to the idea of including more of their brand messaging with the content they produce. Branded Entertainment is a powerful tool that brands should employ, as its efficacy in terms of brand equity is clear and can be proven. Identifying core content needs and nuances are key to success. Armed with these insights, brands can fully invest and embrace the challenges and benefits that come with deploying a successful Branded Entertainment campaign.

DEPLOYING BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT BEST PRACTICES

As Branded Entertainment grows and brands consider shifting their marketing and advertising budgets, many will struggle with how to get started. Keep the following best practices in mind as you develop a Branded Entertainment strategy:

1. Although the digital and analog worlds of content are colliding, what works (or doesn’t work) on television and other offline channels does not necessarily translate online. Be mindful of the medium when creating content and adapt.
2. Test to understand what content (topic and format) will resonate best with your audience to yield greater returns in brand equity and campaign performance.
3. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the amount of brand messaging and presence injected into your content. Test and see what works best for your brand and consumers.
4. Orchestrate consumer research with digital analytics to provide a more complete view of how the program is working.

To stay up-to-date with the latest Branded Entertainment news, sign up for updates from Shaftesbury. And if you’re ready to start working a Branded Entertainment plan of your own, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at any time.