The Association of National Advertisers’ recently released survey results that showed 63% of marketers surveyed said they’d be using branded entertainment in 2012 (overview).
Quoth the release: “The most popular forms of branded entertainment being used include commercial TV, the Internet and sporting events/venues. Among these the number of client-side marketers involved with Internet films has doubled since 2006 (from 15% to 31%), while companies involved in other Internet branded entertainment projects jumped from 28% to 55% over the same time period. The use of commercial TV is trending downward, having decreased in popularity by 10% since 2006, the last time this survey was fielded. Branded entertainment projects at sporting events/venues grew by 20% in the same five years.”
If Canadian marketers are interested in pursuing similar tactics, we present a selection of Cannuck cases that produced favourable results.
RBC Blue Water Project: Cause-based owned media
Message: Short films feature the freshwater research work of grant recipients, not RBC.
Medium: YouTube channel shorts. “It’s an environmental cause, so we need to get our message out… in channels with less of an environmental impact,” says Melissa Steadman, senior manager of brand marketing at RBC.
Results: 40,000 Facebook users, nearly 170,000 YouTube views. “Research is showing that consumers are caring more about our brand and feel good about our brand,” says Steadman. Cloudraker’s creative director Christina Brown says, “[RBC] can actually make a difference to the cause by community-building, educating and giving hundreds of grant recipients a platform and audience they might not otherwise have.”
Recipe to Riches : Owned-media entertainment
Message: Canadian home cooks are the stars; Loblaws provides the stage. An actual marketer (Capital C’s Tony Chapman) is one of the judges.
Medium: Broadcast TV episodes by Temple Street Productions on Food Network Canada this fall.
Results: The winning recipes will be developed and featured for retail sale at Loblaws, connecting the dots between viewer, consumer and brand. This kind of crowdsourcing of innovation “could be used to create the next generation of consumer brands,” says Chapman. Similar models are already in development with other brands.
TD Canada Trust Up Close and Comfortable: Exclusive custom content
Message: Go behind the scenes in exclusive interviews with a Grey’s Anatomy director, Dancing With the Stars costume designer or CSI co-executive producer.
Medium: The talent gets comfortable in TD Canada Trust’s big green chair. Spots were embedded in CTV hit-show broadcasts in late 2010 and featured at TD.CTV.ca.
Results: “A huge success… We got great feedback,” says TD Bank Financial Group executive vice-president, marketing, Dominic Mercuri, of the Starcom initiative in partnership with CTV.
BMO SmartSteps for Parents: Owning credibility and trust
Message: Financial knowledge for parents to share with their kids, geared at the discerning Gen-X supermom.
Medium: Rich and dynamic online content – tips, games, videos – that looks like a branded website, reads like a magazine.
Results: The mom-blogger network and contributors like Rogers TV’s Alyson Schafer help give the banking brand family cred. “There’s a value exchange,” says Ariad Custom Communications senior vice-president Baron Manett. “The blogger network has to get something out of it, and the brand and the agency have to think about that.”
Degree Men Adrenaline series: Leased media
Message: No-sweat excitement for outdoor adventurers 25 to 34 who use Degree for Men Adrenaline. “Deodorant and antiperspirant are a low-involvement brand decision,” says Ariad’s Manett. “We need to meet our audience where they already go.”
Medium: Digital agency Mindshare brokered a six-month Degree “leased media” sponsorship with existing Sympatico ski and snowboard site Push.ca.
Results: A 2010 digital marketing campaign made Adrenaline Degree tops in the category; this year’s leased-media experiment is a further investment of that brand equity.
