Friday
Entertainment Advertising Moves the Needle
By Underscore Marketing
Entertainment is defined as “something diverting or engaging, for example a public performance.” Throughout the whole of human experience, as we’ve lived together in collectives and first created the conditions for leisure, entertainment has been essential to keeping us socially sane. It is a need we have, as individuals, that makes being part of a group tolerable. Entertainment has, at times, even served to make us part of a group, a tribe, or a society.
Since Greek tragedy (literally translated, means “goat song”) and Roman theater, entertainment has served as a kind of catharsis. It is a purification or purgation of the emotions through art that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension. It gives cause to the elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression.
Because of this essential role, entertainment is valuable. And being valuable, it is no wonder it is also BIG business. In the year 2001, adjusted total revenues for all publicly reported entertainment companies were $44.1 billion, and would have been better were it not for loss of revenue due to a horrendous recorded music market.
Like all big businesses, entertainment products need to be advertised. Two of the top 10 advertisers of 2001, the last year for which complete data has been published, were entertainment companies – AOL Time Warner and Disney.
Entertainment Advertising Needs the Web
The Internet has fast become an important medium for entertainment category product to be promoted. Entertainment products like movies and music are more reliant on interactive marketing strategy and tactics than ever before. Starting with something like “The Blair Witch Project” and evolving to something like CBS’ 24/7 video offering of Big Brother, the Internet as a medium has shown it is THE vehicle for helping to promote entertainment product.
One of the contributing factors to this is the continued splintering of audiences into smaller and smaller groups. Tastes and interests, particularly for all things “entertainment,” have become increasingly specialized, rendering blunter instruments like broadcast less effective on their own. But, the digital space has to be part of a comprehensive communications package.
“As audiences grow increasingly fragmented, targeting becomes essential, and interactive media is best suited to this,” says Norman Basch, former general manager of Interactive for FremantleMedia, most recently responsible for the program American Idol.
“Regarding American Idol, the Web site is promoted on air and in print, as part of the promotion of the TV program. In addition, for the first series we partnered with MSN, which provided billions of impressions linking back to the official site idolonfox.com.”
Entertainment Products Require “Brand Engagement”
Entertainment category products rely even more heavily on being advertised than other product categories. Most products in the category can be considered “perishable.” Brands such as movies, music, and other saleable components of pop-culture are not necessarily built to last. They need to be promoted and sold quickly.
As cultural products, they also are not considerable as traditional “hard goods.” Therefore, they rely almost solely on their being positioned emotionally and personally relevant. They require being almost “instantly” branded. Entertainment product has to find its way into our daily lives, become special, and then move on.
In the 21st century, becoming part of an individual’s “flow experience” is going to be necessary in order to win out for our attention over all the other products and services competing for it. “If a user is on Moviefone getting information on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ and decides to buy a movie ticket, he will see a link to NewLineShop.com on the Moviefone Two Towers detail page,” explains Lisa Cross, director of E-Commerce Marketing at New Line Cinemas. “Our thought is that if someone is in the process of buying a ticket for the movie, he is most likely a fan and it's a good time to let him know about our collectible Lord of the Rings merchandise.”
“Brand engagement is the ideal form of marketing for ALL advertisers,” declares Steven Marrs, formerly president and COO of TribalDDB and currently founder and CEO of Brand Entertainment Studios, a provider of cross-platform service offerings such as entertainment marketing and promotions, interactive development and marketing, and product integration.
“If you can create an environment that is entertaining to your desired consumers and allows them to be entertained within the context of the brand,” Marrs continues, “then you have an ideal form of communication with your consumer that is relevant, original and impactful.”
One of the interesting things about instances of engagement branding is that the immediate outcome of the response element made possible through the use of digital media isn't usually to sell a widget. Since entertainment product, particularly film or television programming, is not something you can “click and buy,” the quality of the discourse between an advertiser and a prospect takes on elements unique to the digital media space.
Instead the result of the "lean forward" activity an interactive advertising asset might create is data. This data can be turned into valuable information about a product: brand perception, attitude, usage, what kind of individual is attracted to that product's value proposition, etc.
Engagement Branding Leads to New Discipline
Understanding customers and their needs has traditionally been a separate endeavor to that of advertising. It is research and development, it is marketing, but it hasn't really been advertising. Advertising usually happens after the project of understanding consumers and their needs.
The concept of engagement branding could be where marketing research and advertising co-exist to create a new, synthetic marketing discipline. It appears that entertainment product marketing on the Web is leading the way there.
So far, tactics actualizing these concepts of amalgamated marketing philosophies have manifested themselves as things like affiliate marketing, cross-promotional activity, and integration with other entertainment product divisions within the same company.
“Our revenue share-based affiliate program has been one of our most effective advertising programs,” states Cross. “Partnering with other New Line Cinema divisions like home video and our online division to integrate the shop into the movie sites are also important strategies. In addition, cross promotional programs with other AOLTW companies are important pieces to our marketing and advertising mix.”
By becoming part of the environment, the advertised product (movie, CD, game, etc.) has become a vital part of the content an audience is considering, weaving itself into each individual’s experience in a unique way.
“We believe all advertising, to be successful, needs to think about marketing within the context of a consumer’s day by telling a story that is entertaining, informative and experiential, but more important, relevant,” comments Marrs. “The Internet is a great media to serve as a ‘hub’ for these integrated efforts.”
Entertainment Advertising Becomes Part of a “Flow Experience”
Branding traditionally has been a "lean back" experience, a passive state of being awash in moods and tones tied to sound, motion, and images that all work in concert to elicit an emotional response from an audience that will connect with a given product or service.
Direct response has traditionally been more of a "lean forward" experience, especially in the online space, where an audience is asked to submit actively to a call to action.
Entertainment product (and perhaps all product for that matter) is moving towards becoming part of a user’s “flow experience” through a kind of “engagement branding” -- bringing the ideas of branding and responding together, allowing for the rhetorical exercise of convincing an individual that by interacting with a given product or service that individual will alter his or her relationship with the world around him or her in a positive, meaningful way and allow the person to satisfy that constructed need within the confines of the medium itself.
“Integrated advertising campaigns seem to be most effective for successful Web stories. Consumers do not ‘live’ and consume a single media,” concludes Marrs of Brand Entertainment Studios. “They’re exposed all day long to various forms of media. The true Web success stories come from those companies that understand how to communicate to a consumer throughout the day in a consistent and relevant way.”
By Underscore Marketing
Entertainment is defined as “something diverting or engaging, for example a public performance.” Throughout the whole of human experience, as we’ve lived together in collectives and first created the conditions for leisure, entertainment has been essential to keeping us socially sane. It is a need we have, as individuals, that makes being part of a group tolerable. Entertainment has, at times, even served to make us part of a group, a tribe, or a society.
Since Greek tragedy (literally translated, means “goat song”) and Roman theater, entertainment has served as a kind of catharsis. It is a purification or purgation of the emotions through art that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension. It gives cause to the elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression.
Because of this essential role, entertainment is valuable. And being valuable, it is no wonder it is also BIG business. In the year 2001, adjusted total revenues for all publicly reported entertainment companies were $44.1 billion, and would have been better were it not for loss of revenue due to a horrendous recorded music market.
Like all big businesses, entertainment products need to be advertised. Two of the top 10 advertisers of 2001, the last year for which complete data has been published, were entertainment companies – AOL Time Warner and Disney.
Entertainment Advertising Needs the Web
The Internet has fast become an important medium for entertainment category product to be promoted. Entertainment products like movies and music are more reliant on interactive marketing strategy and tactics than ever before. Starting with something like “The Blair Witch Project” and evolving to something like CBS’ 24/7 video offering of Big Brother, the Internet as a medium has shown it is THE vehicle for helping to promote entertainment product.
One of the contributing factors to this is the continued splintering of audiences into smaller and smaller groups. Tastes and interests, particularly for all things “entertainment,” have become increasingly specialized, rendering blunter instruments like broadcast less effective on their own. But, the digital space has to be part of a comprehensive communications package.
“As audiences grow increasingly fragmented, targeting becomes essential, and interactive media is best suited to this,” says Norman Basch, former general manager of Interactive for FremantleMedia, most recently responsible for the program American Idol.
“Regarding American Idol, the Web site is promoted on air and in print, as part of the promotion of the TV program. In addition, for the first series we partnered with MSN, which provided billions of impressions linking back to the official site idolonfox.com.”
Entertainment Products Require “Brand Engagement”
Entertainment category products rely even more heavily on being advertised than other product categories. Most products in the category can be considered “perishable.” Brands such as movies, music, and other saleable components of pop-culture are not necessarily built to last. They need to be promoted and sold quickly.
As cultural products, they also are not considerable as traditional “hard goods.” Therefore, they rely almost solely on their being positioned emotionally and personally relevant. They require being almost “instantly” branded. Entertainment product has to find its way into our daily lives, become special, and then move on.
In the 21st century, becoming part of an individual’s “flow experience” is going to be necessary in order to win out for our attention over all the other products and services competing for it. “If a user is on Moviefone getting information on ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’ and decides to buy a movie ticket, he will see a link to NewLineShop.com on the Moviefone Two Towers detail page,” explains Lisa Cross, director of E-Commerce Marketing at New Line Cinemas. “Our thought is that if someone is in the process of buying a ticket for the movie, he is most likely a fan and it's a good time to let him know about our collectible Lord of the Rings merchandise.”
“Brand engagement is the ideal form of marketing for ALL advertisers,” declares Steven Marrs, formerly president and COO of TribalDDB and currently founder and CEO of Brand Entertainment Studios, a provider of cross-platform service offerings such as entertainment marketing and promotions, interactive development and marketing, and product integration.
“If you can create an environment that is entertaining to your desired consumers and allows them to be entertained within the context of the brand,” Marrs continues, “then you have an ideal form of communication with your consumer that is relevant, original and impactful.”
One of the interesting things about instances of engagement branding is that the immediate outcome of the response element made possible through the use of digital media isn't usually to sell a widget. Since entertainment product, particularly film or television programming, is not something you can “click and buy,” the quality of the discourse between an advertiser and a prospect takes on elements unique to the digital media space.
Instead the result of the "lean forward" activity an interactive advertising asset might create is data. This data can be turned into valuable information about a product: brand perception, attitude, usage, what kind of individual is attracted to that product's value proposition, etc.
Engagement Branding Leads to New Discipline
Understanding customers and their needs has traditionally been a separate endeavor to that of advertising. It is research and development, it is marketing, but it hasn't really been advertising. Advertising usually happens after the project of understanding consumers and their needs.
The concept of engagement branding could be where marketing research and advertising co-exist to create a new, synthetic marketing discipline. It appears that entertainment product marketing on the Web is leading the way there.
So far, tactics actualizing these concepts of amalgamated marketing philosophies have manifested themselves as things like affiliate marketing, cross-promotional activity, and integration with other entertainment product divisions within the same company.
“Our revenue share-based affiliate program has been one of our most effective advertising programs,” states Cross. “Partnering with other New Line Cinema divisions like home video and our online division to integrate the shop into the movie sites are also important strategies. In addition, cross promotional programs with other AOLTW companies are important pieces to our marketing and advertising mix.”
By becoming part of the environment, the advertised product (movie, CD, game, etc.) has become a vital part of the content an audience is considering, weaving itself into each individual’s experience in a unique way.
“We believe all advertising, to be successful, needs to think about marketing within the context of a consumer’s day by telling a story that is entertaining, informative and experiential, but more important, relevant,” comments Marrs. “The Internet is a great media to serve as a ‘hub’ for these integrated efforts.”
Entertainment Advertising Becomes Part of a “Flow Experience”
Branding traditionally has been a "lean back" experience, a passive state of being awash in moods and tones tied to sound, motion, and images that all work in concert to elicit an emotional response from an audience that will connect with a given product or service.
Direct response has traditionally been more of a "lean forward" experience, especially in the online space, where an audience is asked to submit actively to a call to action.
Entertainment product (and perhaps all product for that matter) is moving towards becoming part of a user’s “flow experience” through a kind of “engagement branding” -- bringing the ideas of branding and responding together, allowing for the rhetorical exercise of convincing an individual that by interacting with a given product or service that individual will alter his or her relationship with the world around him or her in a positive, meaningful way and allow the person to satisfy that constructed need within the confines of the medium itself.
“Integrated advertising campaigns seem to be most effective for successful Web stories. Consumers do not ‘live’ and consume a single media,” concludes Marrs of Brand Entertainment Studios. “They’re exposed all day long to various forms of media. The true Web success stories come from those companies that understand how to communicate to a consumer throughout the day in a consistent and relevant way.”
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