Marketers today have a renewed interest in branded entertainment -- the shorthand term for content created when advertising and entertainment meld, from the early soap operas sponsored by Procter & Gamble dating back to the 1930s, to more recent Webisodes like "In the Motherhood" sponsored by Unilever and Sprint -- and for good reason. The combined reach of digital TV, Web and mobile devices, coupled with the knowledge marketers now have of how best (and more cost-effectively) to produce compelling entertainment via these platforms, means greater opportunities to engage with consumers.
Some savvy marketers, seeing the ever-growing numbers of consumers who access entertainment via mobile phones, TVs and PCs, are leveraging the benefits gained by using these media in tandem. One of the best examples in recent memory is "The Rookie," a Webisode series that partnered Unilever's Degree brand with 20th Century Fox for a spin-off of the hit show 24. The effort smartly combined Web, mobile and iTV platforms to reach consumers in every type of media they use for entertainment. With average engagement times of more than seven minutes -- 14 times that of a traditional 30-second TV spot -- the effort was so widely successful that sales of Degree increased 22 percent over a three-month period, making it the fastest-growing brand in its category (it also won Mediaweek's Media Plan of the Year Grand Prize in 2009).
Branded entertainment hits like this, which leverage a multimedia platform with digital being a full partner to the endeavor, only beg the question of why some marketers still believe their campaigns can succeed by focusing on a single, generally non-digital medium. That's a missed opportunity to improve engagement.
With 70 million U.S. homes today having access to broadband Internet connections, and more than 80 million homes now receiving digital TV services with advanced interactive and/or on-demand capabilities, viewers can fully enjoy rich media experiences online that allow them to engage in digital video content.
One of the biggest hesitations marketers have had about making branded entertainment a central component of the overall marketing mix -- rather than simply a complementary element to campaigns centered around the more traditional media of TV, print and out-of-home -- is the Web's failure to consistently deliver measured effectiveness equal to its promise. What marketers have learned, however, is that television -- ironically the medium once perceived to be the least advanced in delivering measurable branded entertainment -- is a key element for delivering this effectiveness. That's because TV has gone digital and a combination of digital cable, satellite and telco TV now reaches more than 85 million homes.
Leveraging extensive observed digital behavior data, marketers can now harness digital television techniques that enable audiences to voluntarily extend their ad exposure beyond 30-second commercials to substantially boost the awareness and effectiveness of episodic Web experiences. Moreover, digital TV enables an array of new advertising encounters (read: sources of impressions) that are impervious to DVRs. In many cases, marketers can double the reach of branded entertainment vehicles by combining online destinations with on-demand and/or interactive. As viewers spend far more time watching video on TV than online, supplementing the Web with TV distribution can dramatically increase potential reach, and by teasing accordingly, even drive consumers online to see more/other exclusive content. Similarly, utilizing iTV also boosts the success of mobile opt-in campaigns.
When mobile, TV and Internet are all players in the branded entertainment game, the quality of the content improves. In the fight to deliver more compelling and engaging viral content and messaging to key audiences, branded digital experiences are improving the production and entertainment quality of advertising. Take the success of Fox's American Idol. As a model for branded entertainment, it has increased awareness, reach and interaction to an extent never before seen by marketers prior to its 2002 debut.
The lesson here is that branded entertainment can't exist in a platform vacuum: Web campaigns can't deliver the measured results they promise on their own, and success increases exponentially when digital TV is harnessed to raise both awareness and engagement. In a recent New York Times story, Kevin George, chief marketing officer at the Beam Global Spirits and Wine division of Fortune Brands in Deerfield, Ill., astutely said, ". . . Each piece of the [digital media] puzzle plays a role." The bottom line: if consumers are accessing their content from all three digital channels -- watching all "three screens," as it were -- then advertisers must follow suit. The most successful branded entertainment campaigns integrate digital media and effectively engage customers across all aspects of their digital lives.
Jacquie Corbelli is CEO of BrightLine iTV Marketing Specialists. She can be reached at jcorbelli@brightlineitv.com.
