Conference presentation at the 1st World Research Summit for Tourism and Hospitality at the ICON hotel, Hong Kong.

1. BRAND ENTERTAINMENT AND PLAY
Evidence from National Restaurant Chain’s Integrated Marketing
Communications and Social Media Management
Pasi P Tuominen
University of Hertfordshire Business School
World Research Summit for Tourism and Hospitality 13 Dec, 2011, Hong Kong, China

2. “DEFINITION” OF BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT
• A convergence of advertising and entertainment.
• A new term to describe a more contemporary, sophisticated use of product placement
• Branded products are no longer just 'placed'; they are entwined into entertainment content
making a stronger emotional connection with the consumer

3. LITERATURE
• Hudson, S. (2006). Branded entertainment: A new advertising technique or product
placement in disguise? Journal of Marketing Management , 22, 489-504.
• Moore, E.S. & Rideout, V.J. (2007). The Online Marketing of Food to Children: Is It Just
Fun and Games? Journal of Public Policy & Marketing: Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 202-220.
• Pellegrini, A. (1995). Future of Play Theory: A Multidisciplinary Inquiry into the
Contributions of Brian Sutton-Smith. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
• Terlutter, R.D. (Ed.). (2010). Advances in Advertising Research (Vol. 1). Cutting Edge
International Research. Germany: Gable Verlag.
• Zhang, J.Y. (2010). To Play or Not to Play: An exploratory Analysis of Branded
Entertainment in Facebook. American Journal of Business , 25 (1).

4. example
Energy Drink Red Bull
• Introduction and background stories
about the designated X-fighters
• Redbull.tv with multiple channels for
(extreme) sports, music and fashion
• High class Games & Apps are
changing according to their usage
• News, results and video footage
from around the world
• 23,6 million followers in Facebook

5. Sample for this research
Amarillo Restaurant Chain
• Casual restaurant chain with 21
units operating in Finland and
Estonia
• 31 000 followers in Facebook
• Research period June – December
2010
• Facebook Insight Reports
• Whitevector Chat Reports (Social
Media Monitoring)
• Snoobi web traffic reports

6. 35000
30000
Findings from the study
25000
• Campaigns started late August or
during September.
No. Of followers
20000
• The amount of followers in
Facebook increased with 2504% 15000
• Between August and October, the
increase was from 3174 to 25113 10000
5000
0

7. 80
70
Findings from the study 60
• Interaction (the volume of) were
highest, when company (or a 50
devotee) published content at the
end of the week.
40
• Cross-media content provision by
the company created most 30
interaction in Facebook, re-tweets
and blog reading. 20
10
0
1
7
13
19
25
31
37
43
49
55
61
67
73
79
85
91
97
103
109
115
121
127

8. 1800
1600
1400
1200
Findings from the study 1000
• Incoming web traffic was higher in 800
other medias than Social 600
Networking Services. 400
200
• To be able to participate or to be 0
able to gain monetary compensation
or status proliferation enhanced the
incoming web traffic.

10. 300
250
Findings from the study
• Reactions to content 200
Number of reactions
150 Promotion
Fact
Entertainment
100
50
0
0 1 2 3 4
Subject category

11. PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS
• Ambient presence is required in order to compete in the evolving brandsphere
• Active and creative content creation and customer service play key role in acceptance
• Entertainment valued content creates most impressions ( and reactions )
• Promotion or fact related content has to be exclusive and offer real long term value
• Bargain hunters will rarely commit or build emotional connection to the brand perusing
special price incentives

12. THANK YOU