Branded Entertainment:How to Advertise to Your Consumers Without Advertising

By: Vinayak Ahuja

Brands including Coca-Cola, Levis, and Converse are now heavily investing into Branded Entertainment, entertainment that is meant to perfectly align with a brand’s attributes and be a reflection of the advertiser's personality. As both the fragmentation of media and divide of consumers' attention continue to grow exponentially, traditional mediums of advertisement continue to loose their impact on audiences, placing a lot of pressure on brands to find new and inventive ways to cement their message into the right-minds.

Branded Entertainment aren’t direct spots promoting a product, and there's not meant to be any particular message; it’s purpose is to induce a particular mood and feeling amongst an audience then link the product with those feelings by association. It’s a great idea and not impossible, but it’s so complicated to conceptualize that not all brands will have an easy time tackling this format. We’re talking about creating content that, in almost every aspect of its fiber, reflects a particular image and way of life that speaks to a given demographic.

Let’s take two pieces of work, for example, which I selected particularly to make my point: Mountain Dew’s First Descent, and E-bay’s Hooves/Force 1. Both are respectable for what they are, we’re not trying to compare the quality of a feature-length documentary (First Descent) to a short film (Hooves/Force 1), but only First Descent conveys a complete brand reflection that a viewer can connect with. I don’t think I need to explain why First Descent works; click the link, check out the Mountain Dew website and make your own opinions. Hooves/Force 1, on the other hand, is nowhere as clear of a link.

If you watch the video in its entirety, you’ll realize that the two friends are helping their blind friend, Louis, get baby shoes they found on e-bay for his seeing-eye pony, Carmine, in time for prom the next day. My first problem is in the plot itself, why do they have to drive out of the way to get something they need in an emergency? It gives a sense that e-bay, or online shopping, isn’t completely reliable.

The second thing that really got on my nerves is the ringtone used on Vincent’s phone, a tone so prominent in the film that I can recognize it instantly. It leads me to believe that it was a perfect sonic branding opportunity that was either botched or lost. Essentially, when creating branded content, all these concepts need to be taken into consideration – it sets the stage for what audiences will come to expect from your brand in the future.

"He's so GQ", "Google it"; Hooves/Force 1 may become viral, but what’s the point if I don’t appropriately link the work to brands? It would’ve been better to focus on finding all the necessary components needed for the coming prom then go on the trip for the shoes near the end. That says to me they were able to personalize their prom experience through online shopping, and that's all I'd need to know.