Starcom MediaVest Group Canada CEO Bruce Neve says his company stopped being mere media planners and buyers five years ago. “We looked at our business and realized that the future is in placing people and experience at the heart of what we do.”
Neve, kicking off the new SMG Thought Leadership Series (a partnership with AOL), made sure everyone in the room – mostly clients and partners invited to see SMG’s new Canadian functionality – knew exactly how serious he takes his content. “Content is stimulus that creates human experience.”
It’s why SMG used the event to soft-launch Liquid Thread, SMG’s branded entertainment unit, in Canada. The company says Liquid Thread is the fastest-growing brand within the SMG universe, having recently launched in India and China. It’s currently looking for senior leadership in Canada and are building the Canadian team with help from the New York office, and plan to fully launch next spring.
Neve then made way for Brian Terkelsen, president of Liquid Thread, who quickly took the audience through his past life as a Hollywood foot soldier and his eventual rise to branded content pioneer with his 1992 launch of Eco-Challenge Lifestyles with Mark “Survivor” Burnett. He spelled out the challenges faced by big broadcasters saddled by rights issues and little choice but to spend gobs of money on formulaic, increasingly safe shows that don’t take the risks necessary to create a hit.
The takeaway: playing it safe rarely makes for good viewing, but no one wants to take risks because viewership is spiraling downwards.
It is in this gap between safety and success that SMG positions Liquid Thread, a model that’s publisher-originated, brand-owned and consumer created. Content that’s owned outright by brands or publishers can be segmented and sequenced more easily, which is the gateway to the one-to-one Holy Grail of customer engagement. The company specializes in creating communities, conversation and brand advocates by using “screen neutral content.”
Friday morning’s thought leadership event was buttressed by talks that lauded utility and user partnership by AOL branded content specialists Rick Rutter and David Shing.
