Web University

Web Advertising’s Future Format: Branded Entertainment

How do you deliver a marketing message to a Web-audience that
hates advertising? A few years back I proposed a solution based
on short-form television-style programs: the “120 Second
Solution,” two minute brand-story commercials formatted in a
mini three act Web-video presentation. Today this concept is
called Branded Entertainment: a two to seven minute commercial
that combines content, advertising, and entertainment in a brand
story format designed to attract and hold an audience’s
attention while delivering a memorable core marketing message.

The concept has been a hard sell as it flies in the face of a
lot of conventional wisdom about advertising formats, attention
spans, and content credibility. Like most good ideas it seems
that branded entertainment’s time has finally come. Various
marketing blogs are all a twitter about Orbit Gum’s new
campaign called “Dirty Shorts” featuring its first branded
entertainment effort, a 5:17 minute branded video from Jason
Bateman and Will Arnett. It seems these well-known actors have
enough faith in this advertising format that they’ve formed
DumbDumb, a branded video production company. Their first
effort, “The Prom Date,” was viewed 110,000 times in just
three days.

(http://videos.sitepronews.com/video/2278/The-Prom-Date)

Commitment To A Core Message

Of course not everyone has the deep pockets required to hire
Jason Bateman, but with proper planning and implementation a
branded entertainment video campaign is within reach of most
successful small and medium sized companies.

The single biggest obstacle in implementing this kind of
campaign is not the cost, but rather, the commitment to a style
and format most business owners find hard to swallow: the need
to focus on a single core reason why customers should buy your
product or service and to deliver that message in some bold or
offbeat manner.

All too often entrepreneurs think of advertising in conventional
terms like display, banner, and classified (e.g. Adwords). Even
Web video has been pushed, prodded and crammed into pre-roll and
post-roll television style spots. The Web isn’t television; it
requires a whole new way of thinking when it comes to marketing
presentations.

The Web is by nature an unconventional arena that demands bold
content. You can say and do a lot of things on the Web, but the
one thing that won’t be tolerated is boring your audience. Add
to that the fact that we live in a product placement world where
the line between advertising and content has been permanently
erased and you have an advertising environment that demands
something different.

You must stop thinking of your website as a digital brochure and
start thinking of it as a total immersive multimedia advertising
environment that connects to a target audience using standout,
break-through communication techniques. The goal is quality
engagements not shotgun traffic.

The Goal Is Quality Engagement NOT Traffic

For the average Web business it is important to remember that
huge viral numbers don’t come from clever campaigns alone, but
rather, are the result of great campaigns plus advertising
support, extensive PR, and paid-blog placement. That is not to
say that small and medium-sized companies shouldn’t pursue this
approach but rather, the goal of these campaigns should be
quality engagement not quantity traffic – a far more affordable
and productive objective.

How To Deliver Break-Through Advertising

There are various ways to achieve what ad agencies call
break-through advertising, but in every case those methods call
for content that stands out from the crowd, be it humorous,
offbeat, alarming or just plain entertaining, if it doesn’t
standout it won’t make a connection, and your website
presentation will be instantly forgotten.

The best and most complete example of branded entertainment that
I have seen was the brilliant Shredded Wheat “The Palace of
Light” campaign. It was very funny while delivering a powerful
marketing message. Unfortunately the campaign is no longer
running, but if you can find some of the videos on the Web, they
are definitely worth seeing. They are great examples of how to
turn advertising into content, and content into a memorable
experience.

In a speech about break-through advertising, Chuck Porter,
co-founder of Crispin Porter + Bogusky states the average person
sees conservatively 1600 to 3000 marketing messages a day.
That’s a lot of advertising. If your marketing communication
doesn’t standout in some way, you are probably wasting your
advertising budget.

Two Kinds of Advertising

In response to a question asking whether advertising was
technology and data driven, or creatively driven, Porter
explained that there are basically two types of advertising.

The tech-data driven ad is all about finding that person who
needs what you sell at a time when he or she wants to buy it and
then delivering the message to them. This is the reason why so
much of what you see, hear, and read in marketing journals and
blogs is filled with statistics and analysis of who is doing
what and where. All of which is perfectly fine if the only
customer you want is the one that needs what you sell instantly
or who is motivated by impulse.

This kind of advertising is all about immediacy; the customer
needs or impulsively wants what you offer right now. The key is
instant access. If customers don’t have instant access, chances
are the impulse to purchase will fade, or the prospect will find
it more convenient to get the product elsewhere. In this type of
advertising, timing and immediacy is paramount. The downside is
no long-term relationship is established.

Digital products that can be downloaded instantly seem to be
most appropriate for this approach, however that must be
qualified by the level of cost and sophistication associated
with the product or service: the higher the cost and the more
complex or advanced the offering, the less impulsive the
decision, and the more a client must be wooed. Advertising
theory commonly suggests it takes seven engagements in order to
win over a client.

The other kind of advertising is creative-based; it’s
advertising built around brand awareness and identity. This is
the kind of advertising that creates customers, and establishes
long-term loyalty. This is the kind of advertising that can
benefit from implementing a branded entertainment campaign.

Why Branded Entertainment Works

If branded entertainment is done right, it engages an audience,
it informs and enlightens, it entertains and amuses, it’s
meaningful and memorable and potentially viral. Branded
entertainment is more than advertising, it’s marketing, and it
is designed to influence attitudes, change perceptions, and
prompt action.

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