Why do we need Branded Content?

According to New Media Age: “Ad-funded online video content is gaining renewed interest from brands and media owners, in spite of the likely exit of original ad-funded video pioneer Bebo at the end of this month”. (We’ll await this decision with interest)

And this comes as no surprise to The Dubs.

So, why is this the case?

Ad-funded/branded content is emerging as a more convincing model for winning hearts, minds and purse strings.

Most of the time it’s not as instant as a well-crafted one-liner but it is more believable and better engages the consumer – on their own terms.

Branded content goes the extra mile to entertain and connect with the consumer. It’s about finding more intelligent ways of elongating engagement with a brand – it’s more than just an extended TV ad dumped online.

Interestingly, Marketing Week reports that “up to two-thirds of a brand’s profits may rely on effective consumer engagement” – so potentially, branded content has a huge role to play.

Whether a brand is prepared to go the full hog and place ‘product’ within a piece of content/content series, or takes a more subtle approach, choosing instead to engage audiences by ‘associating’ itself with a piece of content, (rather than ramming product placement into a narrative), good branded content works harder for brands because it better harnesses the power of suggestion.

Suggestion is embraced by the masses and becomes infectious.  

Infectious branded content creates fans and fans love to talk about the branded content and advocate the products, this in turn drives sales/awareness/buzz.

The most interesting question surrounding branded content, in our opinion,  is whether or not brands will ever be bold enough to truly harness fan created content as ‘branded content’?

Take this as an example, Alex Day – avid Lost fan. Alex has produced an excellent piece of content about Lost and delivers it brilliantly via Post It notes:

Post It, if you reading this – you have a really great brand advocate out there who is producing excellent content using your product! Perhaps it’s time to harness this chap and commission him to produce content for you?

We’d watch it (and by association be drawn to the stationary cupboard to pick up a new pack of Post It notes, making sure a new stash is on order...)

And ABC – perhaps you could have produced a branded content series around demystifying Lost, starring Alex and sponsored by Post it?

The possibilities are endless and the potential is huge when it comes to content, brands and engaging audiences.

As we move to a world in which product placement on TV is the norm - how will its obviousness hold up against the well crafted, socially enabled and inherently 'on-demand' branded content which is beginning to emerge?