Latest Articles

Business Briefing: Where Next for Venture Capitalists?

Despite the economic downturn venture capitalists are still looking at investment opportunities in digital media. New Media Knowledge spoke to one to get the low down on what VCs want.

more

Social Media in Practice: BBC Radio 5 Live

Web publishers and broadcasters always have to look for new and innovative ways to maintain existing audiences and win new ones. When BBC Radio 5 Live realised it was losing listeners to other sources of football-based content it launched a new service to win them back. New Media Knowledge met the people responsible.

more

Conservationists Embrace Social Media

Television is increasingly embracing new media to reach new audiences and add interesting applications. New Media Knowledge talks to the people behind a new online conservation series that aims to raise wider awareness of the plight of endangered species.

more

• The Language of the Web
• Rough Guide to: In-Game Advertising
• Alexander McCall-Smith Engages Web 2.0
• Business Brief: Video Advertising Looks to Future
• ‘Virtual Home’ for Ex-Pats in London Established
• Rough Guide to: Social Media and the Law
• Record Visits for UK Blog Sites

Related Articles

• Web TV on DVD

  The success of web TV shows such as Bebo’s Kate Modern and Lonely Girl 15 has lead to a renewed interest in the industry. MySpace has just announced plans to distribute its own TV shows through television and DVD, as it seeks to broaden its reach away from the computer. more

• Internet TV in the Mainstream

  With Internet TV rising in popularity, it is no surprise to find that for many, the PC has become the second TV in many homes, according to new research by Internet video specialist Simply and media boutique Work Research. more

• Beers & Innovation: Filthy Lucre

  What can the digital industry learn from the adult entertainment sector? At the latest in our Beers and Innovation series of events, NMK dons its grubby mac to uncover the ways in which mainstream internet businesses might evolve by emulating this often uninvestigated industry. How might you adopt some of these tools and techniques to generate new business, embrace change and engage with mass markets effectively? more

• Branded Content & easyMoney Viral Game

  In an imaginative foray into the terrain of branded content, digital marketing agency Kerb has developed a viral marketing game for easyMoney car insurance, in which rival insurance firms are hunted down by easyGroup owner Stelios... more

• Regulating Branded Media

  The regulatory and ethical issues raised by the convergence of content and advertising in a multichannel environment. more

Reasons for branded entertainment

Games or advergames have proven an excellent way to engage with audiences. With more people now spending time online than watching TV, the increase of broadband and the growing appeal of social groups, video and games online, branded entertainment looks like a great avenue online, writes Andrew Azorbo.

Games or advergames have proven an excellent way to engage with audiences. With more people now spending time online than watching TV, the increase of broadband and the growing appeal of social groups, video and games online, branded entertainment looks like a great avenue online, writes Andrew Azorbo.

Using entertainment to build brands and market products has been fairly common place within the mass medium of television. The internet has been more known for using the realm of short viral clips that spread through social groups and even other experiments in short films, animations and clips. Games, or advergames, have proven an excellent way to engage with audiences and so with more people now spending time online than watching TV, the increase of broadband and the growing appeal of social groups, video and games online, branded entertainment looks like a great avenue online.

To enable your brand and product reach a larger audience here are eleven reasons why branded entertainment could work for you:

• Branded entertainment helps you create stronger and more loyal communities that keep coming back for more, time after time.
• By increasing addictiveness of your site, you keep your visitors hooked many times longer than the average site.
• You can boost your brand building by developing a strong positive association with branded entertainment.
• Branded entertainment helps you increase website traffic by viral marketing, word of mouth and placements on co-operative websites.
• It enables you to develop groups of advocates that actually promote your brand on their own accord.
• Appealing branded entertainment helps with search engine optimisation if planned well as you get more inbound links from external sites.
• Branded entertainment can provide you with an additional means of added revenue using premium content or advertising or even as an add-on to something else.
• It helps you delivers higher brand exposure through prolonged and increased stay when users interact with your branded entertainment content.
• It allows for promotional tie-ins with other parts of your company and marketing initiatives.
• It assists in collecting large user lists you can use to reconnect with your audience repeatedly.
• You can cut through the clutter and get your message seen as users actively seek out your branded entertainment.
• Like any other piece of entertainment the creative aspect is very important but the internet allows us to add measurable data and to get a very quick response for ROI.

You'll need to be very intimate with your target market and their tastes but the rewards could be exponential if done well.

For full details and a comprehensive whitepaper report please visit Branded Entertainment Whitepaper.

About the author
Andrew Azorbo works for AzACreations.