From The Online Reporter
Content creators at CES discussed the role brands play in the financing, creation and distribution of online content. On a panel entitled “The New Hollywood Equation – Content Owners, New Platforms, Agents and Commerce” panelists all agreed that brands, and by default branded content, has become a significant component of Web originals – though no one would go so far as to say it is driving the market for online video.
In the wake of the big media companies, which practically abandoned the online video space after initial disappointments some six plus years ago, content creators are finding eager partners in brands that are looking to explore engagement and audience in the online format.
“Brands are motivated to finance content, or advertising against content,” said David Tochterman, head of digital media at Innovative Artists. “That’s kind of an old-media way to look at it, but there are a lot of old-media aspects of this. At what point in the timeline does the brand become important?”
Online content is peppered with successful and popular branded originals, and some of which are really challenging the boundaries of storytelling and advertising.
Winners in content ownership seem to be Lexus’ LStudio, which created the show “Web Therapy” that stars Lisa Kudrow and eventually landed on Showtime. LStudio is somewhere outside of the traditional branded-content experience. There are no cars in “Web Therapy,” for example, and Kudrow’s Macbook is probably the most conspicuous product on the show.
LStudio strikes an interesting contrast with Ford’s “Escape My Life,” a show about a woman who wins a Ford Escape in a contest. In that show, a Ford representative comes with the car, and is available to highlight special features of the model while freeloading off the protagonist.
“Brands have different criteria – sometimes is a whole 360 experience, sometimes it’s just exposure and awareness.” Tochterman said.
“The role for brands around content is that they want to talk to their audience,” said Jeremy Lockhorn, VP of emerging media at Razorfish. “They want to connect with their audience around content that they love. It’s about understanding your audience and what they want.”
To be fair, the Ford show is pretty funny, and strikes a great balance between turning each episode into a commercial and making fun of itself for turning each episode into a commercial.
Less self-aware and in-your-face in sponsorship is “Let’s Big Happy” a series on MySpace that is branded for Taco Bell. The show is about a young woman who helps bands get noticed by pulling humorous stunts. The show’s big name and supporting role is Andrew WK, who happens to have a lifetime supply from Taco Bell. Hence, the characters eat a lot of Taco Bell on the show, in between musical performances by real-life, not-yet-famous bands.
For content creators, this type of relationship offers a great opportunity for actors and comedy writers, and even up-and-coming bands, to reach an audience.
There was also discussion about whether brands know how to own content, and more specifically what to do with it.
“There’s this new thing, which is what can brands offer, what role can they play?” said Eric Korsh, VP and group director of brand content at Digitas. “Does the brand want to create its own world and experience and business?”
Does branded content serve only to bring awareness to a brand, or advertise a specific product? Or do brands actually want to become content owners?
Tochterman brought up the recently released “Cybergeddon,” a 9-part thriller series that debuted on Yahoo! Screen. The series is a $6 million project from “CSI:” creator Anthony E. Zuiker and is about cyber crime. The series was also funded in part by Symantec, which produces Norton Anti-virus products.
“[Symantec’s] Norton put up a lot of money for ‘Cybergeddon’ on Yahoo!, and I don’t think that was entirely to sell more Norton systems,” Tochterman said. “And they were executive producers of that content.”
In other words, Symantec’s return on that type of invest is at this point unclear. The series is available in 10 languages and has been released in 25 countries. Zuiker said he is hoping for 20 million views, which really isn’t that much in a global online context. No word yet if it has come close to that goal, or whether that investment was worth it for Symantec.
“My experience is that an entire TV network is built to own content and know what to do with it,” Korsh said. “Unless you are ready to invest that kind of resource, then you really have to step back. Don’t own as much.”
Red Bull
Touches Branded Content
Ceiling with Stratos Jump
“When you see brands like Red Bull, they know they want to own content. And there are other brands that [don’t care],” said Miles Beckett, CEO and co-founder of EQAL. Panelists agreed Red Bull’s successful event was more of an anomaly than a model.
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