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Branded Entertainment

Breaking Through the Borderlines Between Culture and Commerce
Maximilian Franzke

Research Paper English Advanced Course
Ignaz-Taschner-Gymnasium Dachau 2007

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1 Introduction

The lately deceased icon of the advertisement industry, Court Crandal, hypothesised three statements, which have dictated the industry’s behaviour in the past as well as today [1]:

«The client pays the bills.»
«You’re only as good as your last ad.»
«The people who work for you are everything.»

It may seem strange to claim that these three statements have always been significant for the advertisement business. However, every single hypothesis sounds logical: The contractor dictates the rules, to which the creative heads are at beck and call. These people are always under pressure to improve themselves, to not relax on their past achievements and to keep the process of development in the advertisement industry going. Finally, it is definitely very important which famous artists and marketing-professionals conceive the campaigns.
This pressure to succeed has lead to a new phenomenon of advertisement during the last years, at first within North America, later on worldwide, which separates clearly from its typical appearance at the beginning of the 20th century, for example: companies now began to produce interesting and profound movies on their own hook, assigned famous pop stars to tape songs for a new product and approached noted bestselling- authors to design stories with a message about their products.
In order to distinguish this new variation of advertisement from common established forms like advertisements in magazines, commercials for television and product placement, this species was titled «Branded Entertainment».

Just like every other revolutionary development, this extreme trend also wakes up its critics, some may even feel that the stakes are high for the freedom of culture and fear an omnipresent exercise of influence by the huge companies.
This research paper deals with the phenomena Branded Entertainment; it will on the one hand be analysed and compared with common forms of advertisement and on the other focus on the companies’ reasons and calculations and at last give a possible forecast about this trend’s development and its impacts.

2 Comparison: Branded Entertainment vs. Traditional Advertisement

Every type of advertisement keeps trying to attract the target groups’ attention. This can happen via several media: posters, television commercials or even serial letters. But unfortunately these common types suffer from their own success: posters are big and cheap, consequently there are way to many of them, they are not looked at consciously anymore. During a commercial on television most viewers switch over to another channel or take advantage of this interruption and go to the bathroom or use digital video-tape recorders to cut out commercials from television programs just as ad-blockers on the internet are used to mask advertisements [2]. Serial letters have gotten – strengthened by the internet phenomena spam – a bad name of an unserious swizzle. Studies in the field of television advertisement proved as per Marc Drüner from Steinbeis academy that in the near future up to 20 percent of today’s viewers will not be reached anymore by television at all2 by switching over to alternative entertainment and information programs like TV-on-demand, internet-TV and similar – this means, they will totally vanish from the group of TV-watching potential customers into thin air!
This is exactly the point where the concept of Branded Entertainment applies: The target group should be noticing ads consciously, not interrupt this cognition and also not feel bothered by it. Why therefore not extend the ad to an entire program? Someone who wants to know if the villain in the BMW movie will escape is definitely not going to turn of the program, but sit agog and patiently in front of the TV. Furthermore this kind of advertisement will not be seen as an annoyance by anyone who has consciously decided to watch it. Because this program is additionally provided for free and was produced in a professional way the viewer will get the feeling of even taking profit out of this offering!
Another aspect for producing own entertainment programs is the legal situation in the U.S.A., which prohibits companies from influencing a radio- or TV-station’s programming if money is provided or paid (Title 47 U. S. C. Sec 317). Sony for example was fined US$ 10 million for giving program chiefs presents for playing music from Sony’s product range [3]. Of course no station will broadcast contents of any preferred company without any reward (which are, however, prohibited). Here the concept of Branded Entertainment now fully shows its strong point: Instead of having to depend on the program chief’s favour, marketing departments simply start to produce their own exclusive contents and programs, which will be consumed voluntarily by the target group, hankering for entertainment.

3 History and Development

Surprisingly, the first productions were already made in the 1960s and are, therefore, not a temporary fashion of the modern world of technology [4]. In those days manufacturers of products for housewives like detergents produced the so-called «soap-operas», from which the still in use title for this genre derived. So, for the first time, contractors in the advertisement business began to produce their own programs.

But the production of actual (short-) movies – on the contrary to evening series – began in the 1980s and 90s. Big companies like BMW and the Belgian beer brand Stella Atrois started to support artistic productions in cooperation with the film industry on the one hand, as well as commissioning their own productions on the other. Jörg Schweizer, manager for product placement and AV media of the BMW Group, praises this cooperation euphorically: «BMW AG works very closely with the film industry. (...) For 20 years we have had specialists in our company to work in this area. This is not just press relations, but more and more time is being spent on forming direct relationships with the entertainment business.» This aspiration for cooperation then becomes clear, for example, at the Munich International Film Festival, where BMW awarded a prize of €100,000 for short movies. [5]
Unlike BMW, which has been mainly looking to contact the film-makers and artists, Stella Altois developed Branded Entertainment from a new concept of TV-commercials: The company first began in the 1990s to produce a series of commercials in the style of actual cinema movies in order to bring out the brand in a different light. For this reason, the commercials contained an fully-fledged plot, just like a movie. Due to the success of these commercials, Stella continued this process of branding and was finally sponsoring every single movie broadcast on Channel 4 of the British television network. [5]

On the basis of this example one can clearly recognise the significant evolution and origin from classic advertisement and the symbiosis that is created together with the media and entertainment programs. Advertisement is not the bland counterpart of the wished interesting entertainment program anymore, but an addition to it and a more and more growing component of it.

4 Individual Types of Branded Entertainment

4.1 Podcasts

In the field of online advertising a new type of ads has emerged during the past years, the so-called Podcasts. These are – seen from a technical point of view – audio files published on the internet, which can be copied to a mobile music player, like an MP3-player or an iPodTM. Podcasts are issued regularly, just like a news program, and there is additional software which allows the download of the latest Podcast and will automatically copy it to the music player. The typical Podcast is then listened to on the way to work or while doing sports, for example, but can also be played at home from a computer – the numbers of listeners at home and users of mobile devices are in principle the same. [6] Podcasts became popular with the production of the iPodTM, a well-known music player by Apple. It has got a market share of about 70 percent within the mobile music players [6]. Furthermore, this device is also responsible for the term «Podcasts», which derived from the phrase that they were broadcasted for the iPod - this is the common accepted theory of the term’s origin, stated by Ben Hammersley. [7] On the contrary, ZENcast defines the term as an abbreviation for «personal on demand broadcast» [8]. Podcasts are still a comparatively new technology, the technical specifications were published in the first place on August 19th 2002 by Dave Winer [9]. Before, of course, it was possible to provide audio files for downloading, but these have never been Podcasts according to the current definition.

For companies, Podcasts are offering different possibilities and opportunities to place and produce their advertisements appealingly in the following ways.

Considering aspects of multimedia possibilities, Podcasts allow the implementation of music and melodies as well as spoken words like news, interviews, comments and stories. In effect, the Podcast will become more interesting and diversified.

Because of the fact that Podcasts are as a general rule exclusively published on the internet, there are – except for the production of the Podcasts – comparatively low charges for the servers’ and data links’ cost of operation, that means for the publication in general [10]. The consumer also does not have to pay a huge bill: Once he has a music player, which nowadays contain large, rewritable memory capacities, he can easily download his desired Podcasts for a minimal of charge (about US$ 0,02 fees from the internet service provider per podcast [11]).

For taking a closer look at the argument of customer loyalty, you should remember the already mentioned Podcast-software. It automatically takes care of always downloading the latest and most recent contents. Once the customer subscribed for free and without obligation to a Podcast [12], the possibility that he will download the next issue again is going to be high. The number of active Podcast-listeners in the U.S.A. is estimated to be about three million people, ten million are assumed to have listened to a Podcast at least once [13]. The range of programs is also still dominated by the English language and therefore mainly in use in English-speaking areas – there are a lot more high-quality Podcasts available in English than there are in other languages [14]. Interesting for the advertisement industry to look at from this point of view, it might be the specialisation of topics and therefore target mostly homogeneous groups: Listeners interested in, for example, programs about classical music tend to show similar interests and are therefore able to be canvassed in a target group oriented way, just as every time when like-minded people come together [15].

The BMW audio books, published on a website which was set up only for this purpose by BMW [16], are a perfect example for a commercial Podcast. After a toll-free registration requiring only the user’s first name, his e- mail address and his native country, the user will be able to download four different audio books, which are:

Beautiful Ride by Don Winslow
Master of the Storm by James Flint
The Debt by Simon Kernick
Cold Cold Heart by Karin Slaughter

It is an interesting fact that the famous authors’ names are much more highlighted and emphasized than the books’ names, because the stories are exclusively published on the BMW website and do not therefore appear very often in any rating or discussion – they are simply unknown.

Image 1: Screenshot of BMW's audio books website [17]

On the website – note the screenshot copied above – you can find a special menu item titled «Featured Cars», containing the images and descriptions of several automobiles using language that will raise the reader’s desires for a special situation, as they are described later on within the audio books. Of course, the featured car can easily satisfy these feelings. When more information about the cars is desired, the user will be forwarded to the common BMW website.

Because the audio books can easily be saved to the hard drive without the necessity for special software, they can be shared and forwarded to others (this could be easily avoided through technical instruments) it seems logical that this is wanted and supported by BMW. Strengthened by the fact that there is no advertising for the products at all (except the mentioned topic «Featured Cars») the logic consequence is that the «ad» must be located within the audio books! So it is naturally the purpose of the advertiser that the audio books (and therefore his message) are autonomously spread by users.

Every audio book starts with a short segment introducing the author and narrator, a warning notice about non-intended contents for children and – the only time specifically mentioned – the publisher of this story: «...brought to you by BMW.»
The story «Master of the Storm» is told in a «you»-perspective. The listener is addressed more directly and feels even more connected to the plot, whose sensitive descriptions enable an easy integration of the listener into the story. Central symbol is, of course, the automobile, even if it not expressly named a «BMW» – because the listener knows the story’s publisher, he will automatically keep this brand at the back of his mind.

The narrator is very busy suggesting the listener feel comfortable and there are certain feelings provoked, like happiness and freedom while driving; emphasized through a visual language using expressions like «gliding on air» or «you are testosterone» while racing through the landscape. You are told you are on your way home, after you have completed a business meeting successfully, you are admired by your daughter and feel comfortable and satisfied: Common goals in life like occupational success and a happy family life have been reached, and now you are sitting in a car enjoying your life.
When there happens to be an accident on the road, you are in danger of losing control over the car. Luckily, the car regains its grip on the street on its own and the situation returns calm. The car means, therefore, protection and security and becomes an essential supporting condition for the life on the road.

This continuous homage and emphasis of the automobile’s importance is of course not of random origin: Besides a thrilling story, the listener is subtly taught about a car’s relevance. The association with a BMW follows automatically in the listener’s mind, as already explained, without having to explicitly mention the brand again, which would perhaps make the text lose its impact as short story and would make it seem like an advertisement.

4.2 Video Games

A perfect opportunity for approaching entertainment-addicted youth is video gaming: In the United States about 60 percent of the population are playing games, either on a personal computer, or a games console like Sony’s Playstation or Microsoft’s Xbox [18] – providing infinite opportunities for advertisement! This was exemplified by Microsoft when the company presented marketing opportunities to advertising agencies at the introduction of the new games console Xbox360 [19]. Ads within videogames – called «in-game advertising» – can be placed in many different ways: the most simple is so-called static advertisement, typified, for example, through perimeter advertising within the virtual soccer stadium – refer to the image provided.

Image 2: Perimeter advertisement from Adidas within the game FIFA International Soccer [20]

But with most current popular video games requiring a persistent internet connection for multiplayer purposes, the advertising industry is able to come away from static ads heading to dynamic ones, because static content has an crucial disadvantage: As soon as the ads are placed in the produced and rolled out game, it is impossible to change their content! Announcements for film openings or dates for events are therefore not an ideal subject for static ads. That is the point where dynamic content can triumph: within the game, there are several areas, like posters, marked as «ad space», just like in the real world. If the player now reaches one of these points while playing, highly customized messages and contents, depending on pertinent facts like time of day, date and season, are downloaded via the internet and displayed at those ad spaces [21].

The U.S. Army even went to the length of producing a computer game named «America’s Army» and distributed it for free on the American Independence Day – July 4, 2002. The game is about fighting in the role of American soldiers for «the good thing» [22] – the game is another innovative step to enthuse youth, discouraged by the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq and recruit new soldiers. Although all production costs, amounting to US$ 7 million, are, at the bottom line anyway, paid by American taxpayers, the U.S. Army calls this game expressly a «cost- effective recruitment tool». According to Chris Morris, a columnist at CNN, «the Army has seemingly hit the jackpot» in reference to propaganda effects [23]. Please note the attached image to make your mind about this point. Not lastly, for this reason, the game has been disputed on ethical grounds.

Image 3: «Rangers provide cover from above, as the VIP is escorted to the extraction area» – Screenshot from America’s Army [24]

Despite the discussion going on about this recruitment tool, the game itself is a perfect figurehead for Branded Entertainment: The entertainment subject is provided for free to the target group, in this case in the form of a free download [25] and data volumes distributed at special events [26]. The game itself imparts, completely in the style of Branded Entertainment, a very special perceptual image that of enthusiasm for the deployment of military forces. It shall, according to this influence, convince consumers, in a more or less subtle way, in the value of service in the Army. Finally the game has been continuously customised, depending on the current situation: the newest version of the game, released on November 6, 2003, carried the surname: «America’s Army ‘Special Forces’» The connection between the game and the plans of the Department of Defence to double the number of special forces is self- evident, even if this theory has never been confirmed by the game’s designers [26].

4.3 Songs

In addition to the previously mentioned types of media, there are also songs that can be selected for an advertising campaign. They are just an effective mass medium. Admittedly, there are several peculiarities of songs which are most suitable to be shown and explained using the following example.
In 2004, Mercedes Benz instructed the famous pop-singer Christina Aguilera to produce a song for the release of Mercedes’ new A-Class. This song was titled «Hello. (Follow your own star.)» – the allusion to Mercedes’ logo, a three-edged star, is definitely not unintentional.

While the song was from the beginning broadcasted on the radio, Mercedes was, at the same time, distributing free copies on CD for marketing purposes – the CDs contained, therefore, the following notice: «For promotion only. Not for sale.» On the front cover, which is imaged on the right, there was – very uncommon in the eyes of traditional advertisement – no logo or sign from Mercedes, however, a large artistically designed letter «A» parades the promoted A-Class. Furthermore Christina Aguilera is posing on the cover of the CD in front of an automobile – the same model photographed so that mainly the car’s differences to the previous model type get the viewers attention.

Image 4: Front cover of the Song «Hello»

In addition, the lyrics and a statement from Christina Aguilera are attached to the CD, which contains two versions of the song. The statement says: «I absolutely followed my own star in my career. I had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way. I've definitely learned to follow my own heart, my own instinct and that - I can say - is I what betters me every day.» This quote transmits a subtle message in a way similar to the methods of the BMW audio books: You are definitely successful, if you just follow your wishes and dreams (or perhaps your «star») and you should not let yourself be misled by others.

What if this wish for success can only be fulfilled by buying the perfectly promoted automobile? Why should you then be detained by other things, for example rational considerations, from your personal desire to buy the car?
When you’re asking yourself these questions seriously, the marketing campaign has accomplished its mission.

5 Economic Gains and Expectations

Despite its effectiveness, Branded Entertainment is a very expensive advertising option. The production costs of a single Podcast can easily exceed a medium-sized business’s annual marketing budget. From this point of view, this type of advertisement will certainly remain a tool of giant and mighty companies.
Moreover, it is not every single product or service that is able to be promoted in this way, based on the fact that the targeted group of the advertisement medium must also be consuming the product. Therefore, Branded Entertainment has until now been used exclusively to promote lifestyle products like cars, beverages and clothing, and not very different goods like production materials or pharmaceuticals – although Branded Entertainment’s target group accuracy would be especially suitable here, deriving from arguments that have already been explained in the chapter «Podcasts». You have to calculate before the production for niche products to know if it will be cost-effective or not. Therefore you can theoretically assume that Branded Entertainment will remain, at least in intermediate-terms, an opportunity of the «global players» to promote mass market products.

It is wrong to expect Branded Entertainment to be an option for cheap and fast product presentation, or to expect a direct increase in sales from its usage. The thoughts behind this concept gain rather in the direction of defining and strengthening products and company brands. The sponsorship manager for Interbrew UK (parent company of Stella Artois) confirmed that fact again while explaining reasons for film productions in the name of Stella Artois: «Other sponsored TV programs are generally short-lived, but we didn’t want the Stella brand to be fly-by-name. Sponsoring (...) films (...) positioned us as a premium brand and showed we had commitment.» [27]

When looking at the financial aspects of Branded Entertainment, you may not ignore the question of who finally pays the production and distribution costs: it is in cases like the video game of the U.S. Army the ordinary taxpayer and productions of free enterprises ultimately the consumer of the products. Some may think that it does not matter whether you go to the cinema or a movie store and pay there for your desired film, or if your new sports car will become a little more expensive on order to finance the company’s entertainment programs. A determining factor usually forgotten within this calculation is the consumer’s autonomy of decision: at the movie store he is able to make his decision freely, which film to watch and thereby financially support, while this variety and range is not given in the case of a commercial movie. With the most extreme case, you have to watch what the big companies want you to watch – without any consideration for the consumer’s preferences. Within this scenario concerns increase their influences on the target group’s decisions, of course. Although such tendencies can not (yet) be recognized by BMW or others, the previously mentioned video game «America’s Army» illustrates in a precise way how this influence is used. This increment of influence and control, the possibility of even more easy manipulation, is clearly and undoubtedly given in this case and had been the initial impulsion why the game was anyway produced.

From a financial point of view it is interesting to see Branded Entertainment’s yield return in comparison to alternative, traditional types of advertising. This means you have to individually look at the ratio between expenditures and desired effects on the target group. Therefore, a direct comparison with the already mentioned common ad mediums is helpful:

Point of View	TV Commercials	Product Placement	Branded Entertainment
expenditures	straightforward and manageable depending as a general rule on time of broadcasting and duration, billing based on price list	oscillation in midrange sector, may vary from providing sample products to high license fees	usually expensive, very high production costs (longer and complex productions), charges for broadcasting and distribution
reaching of target group	only limited control due to high loss within the audience	exact reaching possible when promotion placed in relevant programs	far reaching, nearly no diversification
legal issues	none, liberal regulations	mainly high restrictions and regulations in the U.S.A.	none, not bound to regulations of broadcasting stations, unrestricted distribution via own channels

6 Cultural Influences

After all these facts and information a certain question arises that has remained unanswered until now: To what extent will Branded Entertainment influence our life, even our total entertainment culture?
Will Branded Entertainment create new purposes in life that had not existed before? Are cinemas and radio stations going to atrophy? In the future, will economical «global players» decide what we experience in our free time? Are the boundaries between consumption and culture going to blur? What will possible symbioses and fusions look like? Schweizer from BMW already has said about the short movies: «The idea for this offensive stems from BMW’s American subsidiary, which until then had only experience with advertising films and traditional product placement. The aim was not simply to create conventional advertising films, but enhancing short films of high artistic value containing subtle information.» [28] At first comes, therefore, the value of entertainment, more important than singular, well-placed product integrations.
Furthermore, the question about the future spread of Branded Entertainment implies also a fear about whether there will be only sponsored books and films left. Can the individual artist, stage director or author complete his dreams or is there going to be a multimillion-Dollar- company breathing down his neck? There are already arrangements between TV stations and advertisers to confer with advertising agencies before the production and broadcasting of programs and to provide preliminary versions which, for example, exist between Fox and Crispin Porter+Bogusky or NBC Universal and Volkswagen [29].
The originally free and independent artist will no longer follow his own ideas anymore as he becomes more and more a promoter [29], following his contractor’s orders, and required to fulfil the guidelines expected of him instead of following his own ideas and interests – he becomes a kind of commissioned artist. In the long haul this situation may lead to an extinction of artistry or, said in other words: art as a whole may soon belong to the global corporations and therefore be stuck within their area of influence. The companies retort that this will never be a real situation, because these commissioned artists will only do Branded Entertainment projects during their free time between their own individual projects. «Do you think that they are selling their soul? Of course not! They have nothing to do between their movies. And no one was very influenced by it. Everybody could realise his own style for the BMW advertisement.», Dave Morrison, a protectionist of the new «media-brand-world», responses [29]. But if you take a closer look at the subtle elaboration of, for example, the BMW audio books, you may disagree with him at least in the argument that there was no influence – why should all four authors write simultaneously about how great it is to drive a car? Of course the advertisers will take care to preserve an artist’s style, because otherwise the effect of his popularity would vanish. If it was, after all, not about this driving effect, the companies would definitely not employ famous celebrities in the art business – no, it is also finally the artist’s name which is used to increase sales. Advertiser and artist thereby form a symbiosis in order to make both of them profit from it –financially as well as through gaining stardom. To reach these targets, both naturally have to make sacrifices: the artist has to give up some of his freedom, the contractor has to provide the necessary money.

The fact that Branded Entertainment causes an expansion of the term «advertisement» stays otherwise independently unharmed by the discussion about the liberty of art. Companies as advertisers will be more present than ever before, will continue to form the daily life. Just because we have the choice to decide between sponsored and independent culture, those brands are going to be more and more perceived – because whenever there is this decision to make, you remember the brand, even if you are not going to consume the sponsored production.

So if there will not be created any legal regulations, like they already exist in the United States concerning product placement, Branded Entertainment is going to be used to reinforce brands in people’s daily life. To demonstrate that the state is actually interested in preserving daily life with its privacy and national, as well as regional, culture it is a good argument to mention the quarrel between the Munich city council and the Mercedes company: in 2004 the concern was likely to place a huge illuminated logo on the roof of its new monumental corporate building within the Munich city centre. The city filed an action against these plans, worrying about the future appearance of its historical cityscape. After the administrative court entitled Mercedes to build the logo, it is now enlightening the area around Donnersberger Brücke, a heavily used traffic junction [30]. The front page of this research paper shows a night shot of this scenery and gives an idea of the ability, power and money companies have to promote themselves [31].

Bibliography

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Court Crandal: What My Dad Told Me, published on Inside Branded Entertainment, January 8, 2007
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[7]
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[10]
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[11]
Calculations done with AT&T Service Plus Plan offer from October 19 2006 for 16,95US$ per month and expected average listening time of ten minutes per Podcast
AT&T: Plans & Pricing – AT&T Worldnet Service Plus Plan
http://download.att.net/plans/service_plus1.html

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[20]
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[24]
Screenshot of America’s Army, published on the official America’s Army Website
http://www.americasarmy.com/gallery/

[25]
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