Contagious Magazine\'s Extracts from their 2008 Branded Entertainment Report

1. BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT
2008

2. branded entertainment / index p.02
INDEX / page 02
BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT
CHAPTERS /
01 / page 03 06 / pages 21-23
01 /
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY THE FALLOUT/
SUMMARY
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG
02 /
INTRO 02 / pages 04-05
INTRODUCTION 07 / pages 24-31
03 /
HISTORY
AROUND THE WORLD
04 /
03 / pages 06-07
OVERVIEW
BACK TO THE FUTURE 08 / pages 32-52
05 /
O&P
THE WORK / CAMPAIGN ROUND-UP
06 /
04 / pages 08-14
THE FALLOUT
BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT/ 09 / pages 53-54
07 /
AN OVERVIEW FUTURE VIEW
THE WORLD
08 /
THE WORK
05 / pages 15-20 10 / page 55
09 /
OPPORTUNITIES & PARTNERSHIPS RESOURCES
FUTURE VIEW
10 /
REFERENCES

3. branded entertainment / executive summary / p.03
01 / pages 03
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CHAPTERS /
02 / Introduction 07 / Around The World
interactive campaigns, video games and more.
Subtlety, creativity and tonal appropriateness are
01 /
SUMMARY
As a concept, branded entertainment (BE) is the keys to success. As planning and projects A quick scan of the world’s branded entertain-
nothing new. But recent, irrevocable changes in evolve, branded entertainment will become ment landscape: France’s broadcast legislature
02 /
INTRO the way we consume media has thrust it back more sophisticated, emcompassing multiple allows for sponsored, bite-sized pieces of
into focus for brands and advertisers. In order touchpoints and technologies. content in primetime; China is a sleeping giant
03 /
to cut through, messaging now has to be enter- but is slowly starting to get involved; Sweden is
HISTORY
05 / Opportunities and Partnerships
taining, and ideally with interactive elements. The years ahead in the digital game and therefore
04 /
new challenge for advertisers in the 21st century market leaders in interactive work; India is hugely
OVERVIEW
is finding a way to do that while staying on This is the era of the media partnership. The stratified, but branded entertainment is making
05 /
message. new advent of branded entertainment opens up strides thanks to Bollywood, sport and desperate
O&P
a number of mutually beneficial partnership alcohol and tobacco companies.
06 /
03 / Back to the Future possibilities for brands. Proven hotspots include
THE FALLOUT
08 / The Work
the hobbled music industry, IPTV (Internet televi-
07 /
Branded entertainment began in earnest with the sion stations such as Joost), digital television
THE WORLD
Procter & Gamble-sponsored radio plays of the service providers, and social networks, who many Here we take a look at over 40 significant
08 /
1930s, which later evolved into the television believe have the capacity to reach the Y and Z branded entertainment projects to emerge in
THE WORK
soap operas of the 1950s. For the next 50 years, generations in a way that television no longer can. the last 18 months, worldwide.
09 /
the combination of brands and ad messaging
FUTURE VIEW
06 / The Fallout / When Things Go Wrong 09 / Future View
continued along fairly conservative lines, with
10 /
product placement and straightforward sponsor-
REFERENCES
ships being the order of the day. All that changed Success in branded entertainment is about Branded entertainment will not replace regular
with BMW's The Hire film series in 2001, finding a balance between legitimately com- advertising; better to consider it as one of many
which paved the way for marketers to re-address pelling content and on-point brand messaging. tools in a marketer’s toolkit. There are home truths
branded entertainment as a concept. Stay true to your brand’s tone: the worst, most about what works, but by and large, there is no
destructive thing you can do is get involved in final word: this is a time of experimentation and
04 / Branded Entertainment / An Overview branded entertainment for the sake of it. exploration. As ever, technology and the web will
Execution and openness are key; make sure your drive and shape this sector, but mainstream
What we call ‘branded entertainment’ can take a content is simple to access and share. If it’s television also stands to play a big role in BE’s
variety of different forms, spanning sponsorship, worthwhile and entertaining, consumers will be ongoing maturation. All brands have a right to this
product placement, the creation of original happy to do both. arena – there is no velvet rope.
content, alternate reality games, experiential
solutions such as live concert and social events,

4. branded entertainment / an overview p.08
04 / pages 08-14
BRANDED ENTERTAINMENT / AN OVERVIEW
Common’s Be, which married the Chicago rapper’s
Like ‘viral’ and ‘digital’ before it, ‘branded
CHAPTERS /
critically acclaimed single with Nike products and
entertainment’ is one of those container terms
01 /
related imagery; and NBC Universal’s recent
that represents a vast array of drastically
SUMMARY
campaign for the drama Life, which featured
differing disciplines and forms, a lot of which
02 /
MasterCard-sponsored ‘pod-busters’ during the
INTRO
agencies, entertainment companies and commercial breaks that reinforced the show’s
brands are still in the course of refining. So,
03 /
characters with a series of small clues that sent the
HISTORY
in the interest of adding some definition to viewer back to the MasterCard-sponsored Life portal
04 / NBC Universal / Life
on NBC.com for more.
the subject, we thought it’d be helpful to
OVERVIEW
provide a rough taxonomy of the most preva-
2. Product placement
05 /
lent and promising trends within branded
O&P
entertainment. Although often derided as a patently unsexy solution,
06 /
product placement still accounts for a significant
THE FALLOUT
chunk of AFP’s transactional tally in America, and
07 /
04.01 / Advertiser-Funded Programming thanks to legislation announced by the EU in
THE WORLD
November, looks poised to become a factor in Europe
Since AFP, or advertiser-funded programming, is one
08 /
as well. Under the new EU directive, television, IPTV
THE WORK of the quickest ways for brands to get immediately
and TV-on-demand networks will be able to broadcast
involved, it’s also one of branded entertainment’s most
09 /
product placement in ‘cinema, films for TV, sports
popular categories. And although AFP encompasses
FUTURE VIEW
broadcasts and light entertainment’ programmes, with
a raft of strategies that range from simple brand /
10 /
the proviso that broadcasters must demarcate the
content partnerships to the development of bespoke
REFERENCES
beginning and end of each segment with title signals.
content, you can more or less divide the work into
three basic subcategories: Elsewhere, though, the advent of serialised web-
based content has already created more opportunity
1. Sponsorship for brands. A good example is the recent Bebo.com
smash KateModern (more on that later), which
Essentially just a glorified update on the traditional
features ‘deep brand integration’ from names like
sponsorship work that brands have been participating
Orange, P&G, Disney, Cadbury and Microsoft. As
in for decades (‘This show has been brought to you
ever, success in product placement favours a subtle
by…’), sponsored AFP generally presents a low-effort,
touch. ‘Brand placements become forced the moment Bebo / KateModern /
low-stakes opportunity for a brand to soak up the halo
there's any overstatement,’ says Bates Asia’s
effect from a particular piece of content. Examples
creative group head Diptanshu Roy. ‘It has a
include the 2006 Nike-sponsored video for

5. branded entertainment / an overview p.14
While the agency had pre-written enough plot points over the
course of the five days to ensure the story’s general arc, a huge
portion of the campaign was ultimately supplied by viewers, who,
through chat requests, polls and blog posts of their own, helped
guide much of the action. And while having three photogenic
CHAPTERS /
models prance around in their skivvies on a live webcam didn’t hurt
01 / the site’s traffic figures (which reportedly tripled as a result of
SUMMARY
the campaign), it was ultimately the level of engagement and
meaningful interaction that kept users there for the better part of a
02 /
INTRO
week. It’s these kinds of experiences, says Farfar’s creative director
Nicke Bergstrom, that brands need to deploy if they want to have
03 /
HISTORY
any real claim to the word ‘interactive’. ‘Let's say you go to a car
website that's [branded] an interactive experience, but the interac-
04 /
OVERVIEW tive part is you can choose between green, blue and red for the rim.
In some ways that's interactive, because you can pick and choose,
05 /
O&P but they could have made a catalogue with the same content.’
06 /
Another award-winning interactive campaign from 2007 was the
THE FALLOUT
California Milk Processing Board's Gettheglass.com, built by
07 /
Swedish whiz kids North Kingdom and backed by an integrated
THE WORLD
Gettheglass.com /
campaign from Goodby Silverstein & Partners. The site boasts
08 /
beautiful graphics that wouldn't be out of place in the latest com-
THE WORK
Links/
mercial games releases coupled with a compelling narrative, urging
www.nbc.com/Life www.visitlondon.com
09 / gamers to overcome a series of challenges while moving along
FUTURE VIEW www.bebo.com www.42entertainment.com
a board game grid towards a life-giving glass of milk. The site
www.bartleboglehegarty.com www.ilovebees.com
10 / achieved lengthy dwell times of up to 30 minutes at weekends and
http://channel.audi.co.uk www.beinggirl.com
REFERENCES
deservedly gained a Gold Cyber Lion at Cannes.
www.idealogue.com www.cathysbook.com
www.greygoosevodka.com http://cpbgroup.com
This year sees the Got Milk campaign continue with a new web-
www.sundancechannel.com www.farfar.se
site at www.whitegoldiswhitegold.com, this time in collaboration
www.mtv.com www.diesel.com
with design studio Odopod. The campaign features an irreverent
www.radicalmedia.com www.gettheglass.com
rocker White Gold, styled like an over the top Ben Stiller complete www.gluesociety.com www.northkingdom.com
with flowing white hair, backed by The Calcium Twins. White Gold www.officemax.com www.goodbysilverstein.com
started life as a mess of frail hair, a dull smile and a scrawny body. www.iagr.net www.whitegoldiswhitegold.com
Before he hit the milk. Now, he's a model of masculinity and a true www.cakegroup.com www.odopod.com
rock God. The highly interactive website – which needs to be www.benjerry.com
explored rather than uncovered through simple menus – features
games, videos and footage of the band, whose album can also be
downloaded.

6. branded entertainment / around the world p.28
07.02 / China
As evidenced by the advertising industry’s increased awareness of
China and its intimidatingly enormous market, the one billion strong
nation is catching up on the marketing front, and branded entertain-
CHAPTERS /
ment is an unmistakable part of that. OgilvyOne China president
Chris Reitermann has witnessed the industry’s incredible growth
01 /
SUMMARY spurt firsthand, and although he’s doubtful that the traditional televi-
sion model will relinquish its stronghold on the country any time
02 /
soon, he’s also noticed a significant uptake in consumption and
INTRO
interest levels in other kinds of entertainment across other kinds of
03 /
media. Because television is so heavily regulated, he says, a lot of
HISTORY
that content is heading towards the web. And although branded
04 /
entertainment as a discipline isn’t nearly as well-defined in China as
OVERVIEW
it is in the US or UK, the nation’s burgeoning interest in new kinds
05 /
of advertising combined with the opportunities afforded by the
O&P
web’s slightly less-controlled environment has opened the door for
06 /
some world class-level work.
THE FALLOUT
One such piece is an OgilvyOne initiative for adidas called The
07 /
THE WORLD
Rook. Designed to leverage adidas’ NBA professional sponsored
starpower against China’s basketball-crazy demographic, the
08 /
THE WORK project attracted over 200,000 registered users during its six-week
run from November to December 2007. Over the course of five
09 /
FUTURE VIEW 15-20 minute instalments (which the agency has dubbed
‘gamisodes’), users undergo a full rookie season from a first-person
10 /
perspective, starting with The Draft and finishing with The Finals.
REFERENCES
With a full-screen interactive film module at its core and cameo
appearances from some of the NBA’s biggest stars, the project also
offered up exclusive footage, interviews and unlockable bonus
materials. The fact that it took over 100 different people to facilitate
this particular production, says Reitermann, speaks to China’s
increasing interest in making content of this kind. ‘There's a lot of
stuff happening online that's happening much faster and more
aggressively than it probably does anywhere else,’ he says. ‘The
online space is kind of a big, kind of laboratory right now. There’s
many things where nobody knows the best way to do it, and I think
clients are a bit more open to like let you just try things.’ adidas / The Rook /

7. branded entertainment / future view p.53
09 / pages 53-54
FUTURE VIEW
You’ve probably realised by now the one simple branded entertainment model, HoneyShed’s detrac-
CHAPTERS /
tors hold that the model goes completely against the
truth about branded entertainment: there is no
01 /
way people normally conduct commerce on the web.
one simple truth about branded entertainment.
SUMMARY
While we’ll reserve our judgement until all the cards
More than anything, this is a time of experi-
02 /
are in, we applaud the intent behind Publicis’
INTRO
mentation and exploration. Some initiatives commitment. The fact is that branded entertainment is
are going to capture public imagination,
03 /
only going to get bigger; the brands that realise this
HISTORY
while some are going to fall by the wayside. sooner are more likely to be rewarded.
04 /
This scattered marketplace makes it almost
OVERVIEW It's not just the creative entities who need to pay
impossible to say with any certainty just more attention: branded entertainment has the
05 /
exactly how things are going to play out, but potential to shake things up on the media side as well.
O&P
there are some things we can say for sure. The digital distribution model that most BE is founded
06 /
on seriously undermines our concept of the traditional
THE FALLOUT
media spend.
In June 2007, the New York agency Droga5
07 /
THE WORLD
and New York’s Smuggler Films launched a bold Whereas in the old-school broadcast model, it
and expensive new venture called HoneyShed.
08 / wasn't uncommon to spend a wodge of cash on an
THE WORK Bankrolled by the Publicis Groupe and further advert and then five times more on the media buy,
supported by brands, HoneyShed is basically an these kinds of projects invert the ratio: you might
09 /
FUTURE VIEW online television channel that merges original content spend more money on the production, but relatively
with the sales pitch. David Droga describes the less to get it seen. You can see why some brands who
10 /
vision: 'Most of the time the strategy has been to
REFERENCES
can't compete on the level of massive media buys
create entertaining content and then seed it, put it on might find this compelling.
YouTube, or elsewhere. So content is king but the king
BBH's Mark Boyd cites their recent project for
didn't really have a throne. Our idea was wouldn't it be
Audi, TT Remastered, as a perfect example. 'It was
brilliant to have a site where you could be overt about
an album, it was a podcast by Jo Wiley, it was a music
the brand. The site gets at the entertainment value and
HoneyShed /
mixer where you could upload the tracks that we
the sociability of shopping.'
owned, it was a TV programme, it was a radio show, it
While early results on the venture are still out, the was a partnership with Observer Music Monthly, all
site (which some have likened to a home shopping with that kind of central idea of TT Remastered at the
channel for hipsters) has been the source of intense heart of it and all with very clear consistency you can
public scrutiny. Where its supporters maintain that the feel across every execution,' he says. 'We took the
vision behind it marks a brave new evolution for the whole lot and went quot;Listen, for the kind of consumers

8. branded entertainment / credits p.56
CONTAGIOUS
page 56
CREDITS SPECIAL REPORTS
CHAPTERS /
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01 /
SUMMARY
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02 /
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INTRO www.contagiousmagazine.com
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HISTORY
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OVERVIEW
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O&P
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THE FALLOUT
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07 / ad-vertising monitoring from around the world.
THE WORLD
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08 /
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THE WORK
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09 /
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FUTURE VIEW Diesel ‘Heidies’, courtesy of Farfar
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10 /
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REFERENCES
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Published April 2008
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