Five by Five

Brands have value which make them important company assets needing to be evolved, remain compelling and provide return on investment. Providing disruption, impact and engagement, traditional media and press, whilst important, only provide part of the story in a digital world. Social brand interaction empowers us to contribute, both directly and indirectly, which in turn informs, is measurable and interpreted by brand owners.

Unlike a consumer-led society where products were king, in a media-driven, celebrity society, entertainment is king. Although now in sharp focus, the concept of branded entertainment has its routes already established. Disney recognised the potential with its inclusive entertainment model of films, videos and theme parks providing compelling and true delight at every brand touch-point to grow the corporate brand. Record companies consider bands as brands. They don’t start off as such but, through popularity, adopt a consistent attitude that appeals to their target audience in the music they produce, the way in which they go to market and in the way they live. They become role models for as long as this is the case in effect they are living brands.

Brands existing as entertainment have the potential to develop longevity through engagement. Consider Corrie or Friends and the potential association by a brand with shared values would achieve. Being synonymous with a programme rather than sponsoring it or arranging product placement can provide long term consumer relationship potential based on entertainment and shared values subliminally keeping the brand front of mind over extended periods of time. Diesel has achieved this with Diesel:U:Music engaging it’s global, edgy, fashion led audience with video, detachable content, live music and no adds. They have developed a brand outpost for information and engagement.

Developments in technology now provide us with the ability to access content where ever and when ever we choose. We have almost limitless options and access potential for information and entertainment when ever and where ever depending on our needs and moods at that time. Trusted sources are paramount in this over-supplied environment and “trusted brands” with ‘brand outposts’ have a big role to play. Search engines have started to achieve this role albeit in a narrow sense. Google and Microsoft have expanded content from search into news and a variety of specialist areas, comparable with any traditional mainstream magazine, with the added advantage of a more regular update to stay fresh and attract. News media networks like the BBC and CNN are inherently and naturally ‘trusted’ brands for rich information and entertainment and recognising this lead the way in providing detachable content.

Consumer brands like O2 and some informed drinks companies, Carling, Bacardi, and Stella have built entertainment brand association by promoting music and leisure events. Leveraging social media activity helps these brands assess consumer reaction; channel appropriateness and relevance, participation and importantly achieve commercial growth. The objective is for consumers to associate great experiences with the brand, producing affinity and permission to extend involvement – trusted brands.

In 2002 BMW took branded entertainment a stage further with ‘BMW Films’ incorporating famous actors and celebrity directors producing a series of 8 film shorts under the series title ‘the Hire’. These shorts featured story lines far beyond product placement, capturing and endorsing the spirit and qualities associated with the product brand and achieving a staggering 100m viewings. In the States the concept of branded entertainment has become part of everyday life with TV series like ‘Hottest Mom in America’ produced in association with Medicis Pharmaceutical cosmetic injection brand Restylane. The talent show is produced for, and contributed by, the target audience with Restylane being the seamless facilitator with powerful consumer associations.

More recently Staples has worked with NBC to leverage their version of ‘the Office’ going beyond product placement and feature their MailMate shredder as a solution within a series storyline. In Portugal, in 2005, the global home improvement retailer Leroy Merlin integrated their wide product range into a popular TV DIY renovation show which helped increase sales for Leroy by 72% in 2 years and become the country leader in the segment.

Recently, Five by Five’s Director of Content, Paul Shurey, whilst at Tiger Aspect/IMG Media was Executive Producer for Model.Live which served to both increase traffic to, and dwell time on, the Vogue.tv website, to stimulate fashion sales via Express.com and to promote both brands to a wider audience via Bebo.

This cross-platform project was funded by Vogue and Express.com and ran over 3 months, with up to 12 pieces of content being posted daily (videos, photos, audio of phone calls between models and their agents, blogs etc.). It was designed to stimulate maximum interactivity with the audience (12m video views to date) and to reveal the reality of being a new young model as opposed to the glossy sanitized impression given by TV shows such as America’s Next Top Model. It played out on both Bebo and Vogue.tv and was made available via the Hulu VOD service in the US.

It was also generated e-commerce via Express, with the clothes worn by the models (or similar items) made accessible via click through links. This proved to be far more successful than anticipated with approx $1.5m of sales generated over the run of the series.

Contagious, in their ‘Branded Entertainment’ report, predicted that; “As planning and projects evolve, branded entertainment will become more sophisticated, encompassing multiple touchpoints and technologies.” With devices like iPhone’s, social media applications, pod cast content and mobile access for TV shortly to arrive, that time has surely arrived. Brands need to take the next step in embracing entertainment or they will become irrelevant.

At Five by Five we help clients optimise branded entertainment strategies by carrying out a brand ‘health-check’ in order to answer the questions:

· Is the current brand positioning relevant as a social brand?

· Is the proposition compelling and true?

· What are the differentiating attributes of the brand?

· How is the brand positioned?

With these questions answered we then develop social brand strategies to listen, engage and manage reputation with target audiences and measure everything.

Brand communication planning in a digital age is social and has just become a whole lot more entertaining. Scary or exciting? Very, very exciting!

Author: Graham Freeman, Brand Planner

graham.freeman@fivebyfivedigital.com

twitter.com/grahamblog1

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 10:16 am and is filed under Front Page Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.