After a long career as director of brand partnerships with Bell Media, Carmen Lago packed up her personal effects, turned in her employee ID and walked out of the company’s Toronto offices for the final time on Friday. Later that weekend she was on a plane bound for the Rockies, where on Monday she formally launched her own business venture, Branded Content Television (BCT), at the annual Banff World Media Festival.
BCT’s mandate is to create “compelling content” that seamlessly weaves brands into the storyline. While the concept isn’t new, Lago said marketer interest in these types of ventures is growing significantly.
Carmen Lago and Tony Chapman
The company also has a high-profile partner in Capital C president and CEO Tony Chapman, who is providing financial backing and working with BCT in an advisory role. Lago and Chapman had been discussing the proposed venture for the past year, but began accelerating BCT’s launch plans in the past six months, with an eye to the annual media event in Banff.
“He’s always been a mentor to me,” said Lago of Chapman. “I’ve always talked to him and gotten his advice along the way in terms of my career, so when I thought of starting up a company and doing this, he was a natural choice.”
Lago’s primary role at Bell was conceptualizing ideas and working with a brand integration team to bring them to life. Among the programs she conceived are “On Set Inspiration with HomeSense,” which placed the retailer in vignettes shot on the sets of hit U.S. shows including Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice, and the “TD Making of a Star” program with the talent show The X Factor.
She has spent her entire professional career in business development, first in the agency world with Saatchi & Saatchi, and later with broadcast groups including CHUM Television, where she created advertiser vignettes inserted into MuchMusic programming and shows like Cityline. “I’ve always lived and breathed it, but now it’s on a bigger scale,” she said.
Chapman said he has enjoyed great success investing in entrepreneurial ventures in the past (most recently with the Toronto-based market research firm Fresh Intelligence which bought him out just last week).
Chapman said that Lago possesses the characteristics of a proven entrepreneur: a fearless top performer who constructed very good and complicated deals for Bell Media.
“She’s known as a creative, win-win deal maker,” said Chapman. “To me there was very little risk to me saying ‘I’ll take away the financial risk of you being an entrepreneur, I’ll give you the equity of an entrepreneur, and if you prove yourself you can buy more of that equity back.’ That’s a model I’m very excited about because she does all the execution.”
Chapman said his involvement with BCT will be limited (“a day a month and mostly on weekends”), but he will create concepts that Lago can pitch to prospective clients. “If I think that an insight can turn into a really interesting thing, I think we can really have a lot of fun with it and make a good living doing it,” he said.
The goal, said Chapman, is to create programs that portray brands as “enablers of life and livelihood,” rather than merely goods and services. The content will be uplifting, he said, eschewing what he called “train wreck” shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
Monday’s BCT launch coincided with the launch of another new content venture, Bent, headed by a group of media and marketing veterans including Cue Digital Media founder David U.K. and media start-up veteran Stephen Tapp.
While brands and agencies have been dabbling in the branded content for more than a decade, Lago senses a renewed interest and commitment to the practice. “More people are realizing that the business model has to be broken from the way that we’ve been doing business for so many decades,” she said. “This is a natural place to move forward to. Everyone’s been dabbling in it, but we’re saying there’s a need for this now.”
BCT is launching with called The Disorganized Woman, a self-help show featuring with actor/television personality Lisa DiMarco, and is currently pitching potential brand partners. Lago said she is “pretty confident” that the concept will attract an advertising partner.
Other development deals will be announced in the next 10 days, said Lago.
In addition to creating original content, BCT will work with and partner with brands to identify, package and negotiate appropriate content and media deals. The company will be based out of the Frantic Films offices in Toronto.
