Branded Media: The Business of Brandcasting

NMK seminar report from September 2001

Panellists: Simon King, Ross Sleight, Colin Cardwell

This evening seminar explored the commercial implications of brand-sponsored content, both for the brands themselves, and for the creative agencies and production companies. The panel considered consumers' changing attitudes towards advertised brands, and looked at how brands are turning to creative content in an attempt to build stronger relationships between customers and products.

The evening began with some introductory remarks by the chair, Simon King, who provided a context for the perceived need of a new relationship between brands and consumers. Twenty-five years ago it was estimated that just five TV advertising spots would reach 80% of the audience, while today more than 300 such spots would be needed for a similar reach. The proliferation of new channels, be it magazines, digital TV, radio or new media, have meant that advertisers have had to work harder and harder to �get through the clutter� and impact on audiences.

For Simon, however, the interactive media channels are more than just marketing and communication opportunities � they are also sales channels, which can be used to disintermediate retailers and sell branded goods directly to the audience. It is within this context of new business models and means of interacting that brandcasting should be seen, rather than just an extension of traditional advertising.

For marketing and sales to come together in this new way successfully, advertisers should follow the �three I�s� of brandcasting:

• Innovation: provide unique and exclusive content of a high quality.
• Interaction: consumers should have a rich interactive experience with the branded media, either through community participation or the return path with the media itself.
• Integration: brandcasting should be well integrated, as part of a wider media and sales strategy.

Ross Sleight began his talk by defining brandcasting as advertiser-funded content in which (unlike sponsorship or product placement) the advertiser actually controls and, usually, owns the content. The question, of course, is why should people do it, and Ross put forward some suggestions, in light of recent consumer and marketing trends.

1. There are too many media products, channels and adverts out there � so advertisers have to find new ways of differentiating their message.

2. Increasingly, products are all the same! Every product innovation is immediately copied and brought to market, so brands have become further and further divorced from the product itself. Marketers have therefore started to created affinities not between the brand and the product, but between the brand and what consumers like (such as football, pop music and film).

3. This process of brand-affiliation has already been well developed by sponsorship strategies, but it is no longer enough: branded content offers a far deeper relationship.

4. There is a growing awareness that brands are not owned by companies but by consumers, and it is consumers who will dictate which brands succeed or fail. Branded content is a means by which brands can directly interact with consumers.

5. For media owners, brandcasting offers the prospect of free content, paid for by the brand-owner, while still getting advertising revenues scheduled around the programmed content. It is clear from this that brandcasting is in many ways a natural commercial extension of existing advertising practice, but it will only succeed as a strategy if it delivers value to consumers themselves. It must bring focused, quality content that consumers enjoy and generates gratitude and good will towards the brand.

Ross went on to outline the opportunities for brandcasting that are currently available, and he presented the following list of media channels:

Terrestrial programming
Cable/Satellite programming
Sponsorship
Advertising
Games
Internet

Ross pointed out that the higher up the list, the wider the reach of the medium, but there are also much tighter regulations governing the behaviour of advertisers, and restricting the extent to which advertising and content is allowed to cross-over. However, further down the list there are increasing opportunities for interaction and capturing data returns.

Finally, Ross demonstrated that brandcasting is already a vibrant activity, and has been a popular strategy for advertisers for many years. In the last few weeks, the Italian jewellers Bulgari have announced a sponsorship deal for Fay Weldon�s latest novel, while the history of radio and then television soap operas is intimately connected with early marketing campaigns for soaps and detergents.

A current example particularly admired by Ross are the short films commissioned by BMW which can be viewed on the website, www.bmwfilms.com Here, short films directed by well-known film makers are owned and controlled by BMW, allowing high-quality content to also feature product placement and appropriate brand tones. This is the natural evolution of BMW�s product placement in the James Bond films, making use of the lack of legal restraints on the Internet to create compelling cross-format content which can spread virally across the Internet, and also be used in show rooms and corporate videos over the world.

The third speaker, Colin Cardwell, presented an interesting case-study of brandcasting in operation: PlayJam (www.playjam.com), the interactive TV channel. A channel consisting entirely of games and puzzles, more than 80 million games are played each month and the channel is proving to be more popular than many of the better-known digital entertainment channels. There are no advertising breaks on PlayJam, rather every game is branded, with the game content devised in consultation with brand-owners to provide consumers with an immersive and enjoyable brand experience. People are playing directly with the brand, and as a result, a whole range of new marketing, promotional and retail opportunities have been created.

The presentations were followed by a lively discussion, in which the audience and panellists discussed ethical and regulatory issues, as well as strategies for managing clients and brand-owners who risk over-exploiting the opportunities that brandcasting presents. In particular, the panel concluded that:

• Brandcasted content must be of high quality, compelling and believable. Otherwise, it is just not worth doing.
• As with traditional advertising, it is vital to measure the success of brandcasted content, to capture data and precisely evaluate its response.
• A flexible, cross-format strategy is needed, with different formats used for different objectives (e.g. reach, data-collecting etc) and taking account of both technical and regulatory restrictions.

Speaker Profiles

Chair: Simon King , Director of Strategy, Outrider
Simon King has worked for Tempus PLC for two years, spending most of that time with subsidiary business Outrider Ltd, a full service digital marketing agency. He is currently working on a Tempus Group project to develop growth strategies for global brands, and also continues to work across Outrider's advertising, media and web development businesses on interactive television projects. Previously, Simon worked at the BBC on the commercial development of BBC properties.

Ross Sleight, HCCL Group
After working in advertising, Ross Sleight founded BMP interAction (now Tribal DDB) in 1994, where he directed interactive strategies for clients, and was until September 2000 their Non-Executive Chairman. Ross has also worked with Online Magic, on secondment from DDB; founded Fingertips Media, a start-up in the entertainment recommendation space; and has developed his own consultancy, Zhong, as a platform for his writing and public speaking activities. He writes a monthly column for New Media Age, articles for many other trade publications, and is a regular speaker at new media conferences. Ross is currently working with the HHCL Group in developing a new traditional and digital direct marketing agency, due to launch at the end of the year.

Colin Cardwell, Media Sales Manager, Static 2358
Since November 1999 Colin has headed up the Media Sales department of static 2358, working with major agencies and brands to develop interactive advertising based campaigns. Prior to this, he ran his own sales and marketing consultancy, helping sales and marketing teams to integrate new technologies into their campaigns. He also managed an internet startup back in 1996, and ran the sales and marketing team of a major training company for five years. Colin reglularly writes for the media press and speaks at conferences about interactive TV.

This event was developed in association with Incline: www.incline.co.uk.