Branded content in the 'age of the screen'

Here's my first post on my brand new blog on video advertising. Follow by new blog here: http://miketeevee.wordpress.com/

2010 promises to be a very big year for both online video and mobile, and the pace at which this year has started in terms of workload is certainly in line with that promise.

We’re making lots of really positive changes to our online video at the Telegraph, which includes far larger video player sizes and creating video article pages meaning that every video will have contextually relevant words around it – which really helps search engines find the content.

We’re looking at producing a number of great commercial video projects, which should all work really well.

That is what I would like my inaugural post to be about, branded content. As with anything I ever write here, I would really welcome your comments, suggestions, thoughts and feelings as I firmly believe that dialogue and collaboration will help everyone in the market move forward.

Anyway, on to branded content. There is a big debate raging on at the moment about whether broadcast television should be allowed to offer brands the opportunity to place their products in television shows. In online video, we have the edge here as we can offer advertisers not only the chance to place products, but we can make entire videos around the brand if the mood takes us and that is a benefit that I think will bear fruit this year.

Channel Flip produced a really nice piece of branded content recently with Volvo. The campaign set out to demonstrate the fuel efficiency of the Volvo S70. The video treatment was entertaining, engaging and totally unexpected from a a historically safe brand.

You can see the content starring Dom Joly and Rufus Hound on the IAB Video site here -> http://www.iabvideo.com/video/channelflip-ad-funded

Branded content can be the very best of online video in my eyes, because it allows the brand to go from advertising around other people’s content to actually being the content. Done well, it can engage, inform and entertain an audience whilst communicating multiple messages about the brand. That has to be infinitely better for a brand than spot advertising, surely?

I have worked on a number of successful branded content projects with brands since we launched Telegraph TV in September 2007, with brands such as BMW, Intercontinental Hotels, VW, and Nissan to name a few, but there still seems to be a real reluctance to bring it into the mainstream. Why do you think that is?

Does the perceived complexity of a branded content project along with the perceived risk put agencies and client off the idea of taking the plunge? Is there a knowledge gap that is preventing brands from producing more entertaining video? I don’t know, I suspect it could be a little bit of all of that, but with online video growing in leaps and bounds and the rise and rise of the video-tastic iPhone from Apple, I think it is the brands that innovate with video now that will be reaping the rewards this year.

Mobile phones are becoming ever better at handling video, e-readers are on the up and the launch of the Apple reader is imminent. They don’t get things wrong at Apple, so I imagine that their coffee table sized, face recognition, ten-finger responsive tablet will be mind-blowing and be yet another screen where video can engage consumers, and bring brands to life.

Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, calls this ‘The age of the screen’ and I agree. Everywhere the consumer looks there are screens that educate, entertain, inform and assist. The television in the living room; the PC or laptop either at home or at work; the cinema; digital outdoor; iPods; in store tv screens; car dashboards; and the mobile phone that is always at hand. Kevin wrote a book that I recently read called Sisomo. The Si stands for Sight, the So stands for Sound and the Mo stands for Motion. To us media types, that means video.

If a picture paints a thousand words, then a video must paint a million, with the added power of sound and motion. I believe the reason that it is the most powerful medium in existence is due to the fact that it is the medium that most closely resembles the way people experience real life. The opportunities in ‘The age of the screen’ for ‘Sisomo’ are only limited by our imaginations, and that makes this an extraordinarily exciting time to be working with video.

So how do we convince more brands to invest more time and money in branded content?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Regards,

Mike