Dear members, we hope that 2015 is off to a good start and wish you prosperity, health and success for the new year, both on a personal and professional level!
 The first egtabite of the year focuses on how advertisers can strengthen their relationship with broadcasters and viewers through branded entertainment, also known as content marketing. According to SevenOne Media, the sales house of the German ProSiebenSat.1 Group, branded entertainment can be a strong asset in increasing television sales and conversion rates.
The concept
The concept of branded entertainment implies that a brand is directly integrated into a programme by merging the content with a product or service in an informative or amusing way. Over the past five years, SevenOne Media has broadcast over 120 branded entertainment campaigns of which 82% generated increasingly higher conversion rates than their standard television campaigns. In Germany, branded entertainment is classified as an infomercial, since it typically lasts between five to six minutes. These pieces of content are considered to be programming and not included within ad breaks, and as they are therefore not counted as part of the 12 minutes-per-hour advertising limit, their use offers broadcasters an additional opportunity to monetise their airtime. The advertiser benefits as well, since branded entertainment fully involves the brand’s identity and is considered both interesting and entertaining for the viewer. In addition, the advertiser has exclusivity within this time slot.
Case studies of branded entertainment
 An excellent example of branded entertainment is Fiat Urban Stories. The auto maker approached SevenOne Media with the desire to create a campaign that appealed to both male and female viewers. With this in mind, SevenOne Media created two separate series consisting of sixteen original episodes with attractive content targeted to the viewers of the male-oriented channel ProSieben MAXX and the female-oriented channel sixx. Episodes featured a well-known TV-host and real life stories of artists, designers and musicians. The episodes were cross-promoted on other television channels and on a website that was specially created for the campaign by Fiat, which encouraged people to compete in a sweepstake to win “money can’t buy” prizes.
 In another campaign for L’Oreal’s Diesel brand, which was seeking to promote two different fragrances to men and women, SevenOne Media took a similar approach, showing different spots and creating its own real testimonials with celebrities and special ads on the two biggest commercial channels, ProSieben and Sat.1. Just as with the Fiat campaign, these were associated with a competition. Results show that the Diesel campaign generated 20 million TV contacts, 2600 participants in the sweepstake and a 65% increase in sales compared to a traditional TV advertising campaign.
As a content producer with six television channels, SevenOne Media acknowledges that the unique structure of ProSiebenSat.1 gives it the opportunity to establish a cooperation between all relevant teams involved, including production, digital, media-buying, creative, etc. While this teamwork results in highly effective, fast and well produced content, the higher production costs of such advertising need to be considered. Furthermore, as most advertisers desire a 100% guarantee of success, their needs are often in conflict with innovative and experimental campaigns such as branded entertainment. Through case-studies like Fiat Urban Stories or the Diesel campaign, SevenOne Media can provide the figures to support the claim that branded entertainment is a highly successful form of advertising for both the advertiser and the broadcaster.
Why does this matter to egta members?
At a time when smart television, digitalisation, apps and second screen viewing are buzz words in the debate on television advertising, it is important to remember that a simple creative combination between a television channel’s content and a brand’s product can result in a highly effective and innovative campaign. By combining the strength of traditional advertising, online and social media, even something as traditional as branded content can create a real buzz within the industry, as can be seen in Germany. Through branded entertainment, SevenOne Media not only showcased excellent teamwork between their in-house teams, they also established an excellent cooperation between the broadcaster and the advertisers offering a great customised product, which resulted in a win-win situation for all parties involved. |
