A Brave New World for Branded Content

Based on a recent Ofcom study it looks like branded content is going to be an ever more growing tactic in the great bar brawl that is the 21st century branding popularity contest.

When it comes to change in communication and technology anyone who professes to know exactly what’s going on is bending the truth.  I don’t think anyone can deny though that digital is bigger than ever before and that it has the potential to produce some pretty wicked stuff (Nike Grid and Old Spice being two good’uns). The reality I reckon is there’s some sort of middle ground between those who are outright cynics of Microsoft Office’s future and the fully fledged suckers who think that sometime tomorrow afternoon we are going to be using smartphones to order a drink at the pub.  Basically somewhere in the middle of this stand off here.

What I hope is that we get to see better stuff.  Whether it’s branded, sponsored or publicly funded I’m not that fussed.  Just make sure it’s worth watching and good.  The shareable factor will follow suite if people feel that way inclined.

Arts funding is a pretty revelatory subject at the moment.  The government seems to be debating whether it should fund the arts at all right now (fair enough, it’s a good debate) and inevitably there’s bound to be a bit of tension.  What’s the point subsidising contemporary art galleries because in ten years time what they’ve got in the lockers isn’t contemporary?  Surely they’d be better off funding themselves by buying and selling art to keep contemporary stuff coming in.  Obviously this argument doesn’t really stand for a 19th century Impressionist gallery.  In reality then brands are going to end up pumping cash into quite a bit of content / sponsorship.  This fact has created a bit of a mess at the Tate and raises questions about what content / experiences are most worthwhile for brands to indulge in and how they should go about it.

I think that the classic content framework is evolving quite quickly.  What started out as just paying for something for people to watch and sticking a logo in the credits has become more experience / involvement based (there’s definitely still room for this if it’s done really well… Red Bull being the ultimate example but Coke’s energy drink Burn also had a good video recently see below).

This more experience based model where we don’t just watch but take-part in the brand’s content is something a few brands are getting good at it…

Orange has attempted to become synonymous with cinema.  It’s a big, clear simple aim and this ad sums up why they’re going about it in the right way.  Good effects, standing for something and well executed.  They’ve dedicated time and effort to become associated with a whole content category.  Some ambition.

They’re also following Nike’s lead and testing the water with a broad spread of ideas and seeing which pay off: Movie Mates and Tweetagrams.  You can’t really say that in the future brands just need to create ‘ideas’ that people want to spend time with, because firstly, time is becoming the new frankincense, and secondly, that’s what they’ve always tried to do with engaging advertising.  Instead brands should now be trying to provide value (whether it’s sponsoring the Turbine Hall, providing entertainment with novelty vending machines or helping people monitor their running progress).  The digital consumer has options and choices.  They’re far more likely to opt in if the ‘content’ has value.