Loading ...Cast Away is an awesome movie. You see it and you come back with two things. One, Tom Hanks survives the lonely island. And Two, he is a FedEx employee and he delivers that Wilson ball in the end.
Then there is a book called How Starbucks saved my life. You read the book and you again remember two things. One is making tough decisions. And two how Starbucks helped a guy discover what he wanted in life.
Both these, the movie and the book are awesome pieces of entertainment. People have seen these, talked about these and recommended these to their friends. On a standalone basis both of them are pieces of art. And most probably, both were original productions created by individuals without any influence by the company they talk about. And this is where the idea comes. What if both of them were sponsored and paid by the company they talk about?
I have been thinking about a company that creates these branded entertainment products for money. Obviously there are limitations and issues but none that stops the company from flourishing. Please note that this is very different from product placements in media. This is creating the product first and then inserting the brand.
Business Need: Advertising as we know it, would be dead very soon. People would start filtering advertisements automatically and recommendations from influences would start loosing meaning. then what? The solution lies in creating media around brand. Think of The Truman Show done at a smaller scale.
Possible Entertainment Options: This could be a very very long list. Starting with movies, television shows, radio shows to print media (newspaper, magazines, books, travelogues etc.) to interactive media (Internet, blogs, websites), others (computer games, hotspots, retail). The list is long.
Problem Areas: There are quite a few. Biggest one is obsolescence. Once an entertainment outlet is used for a brand, it becomes difficult to innovate and use the same medium for another brand. Then there are other petty issues like it being very expensive for brands. We are talking about professional book writers, movie makers, gaming companies working on the brand. We can explore cheaper options like blogs and websites but how many consumers of a brand like say Rin, be on Internet? They would be on TV for sure.
A lot more thought needs to go in place. I have about 4 more pages of random thoughts and comments. If anyone is interesting in talking more about it, please let me know and I shall share those docs.
Any opinions? thoughts? Crossposted
My My. For One Saurabh, extremely well written post. Brands. Placements. Business Opportunity - There is most certainly a business there.
Will the Advertisement industry as we know it, perish and fade away? I doubt it. It will become more efficient, evolve and become part of the content and entertainment itself, as it gains contextuality - even blend in into the very things that you are talking about.
Take a very simple example. During a conversation with someone in the advertisement industry, he pointed out to me how once there were 3 hour movies, which were then shot to 30 mins.. ah actually 23 minute clippings, and in the web they’ll eventually be further shortened into 5 mins clippings. There are story tellers and quite a few film makers working already on some projects to launch “soaps” over the net. I believe rediff is working on one such project.
So where does that leave brands. I used to imagine what would happen if all the advertisers came together and did one video, and merged all their products together, and made a sequence out of it. It’d be quite amazing, but I think it will start to drive “combinations” which is a bad thing. Lets say Nokia and Youtube partner and drive an ad, and a Nokia Mobile shoots a video and uploads it into Youtube, they’ll both benefit, but there are probably other partnerships as well, that each of these could explore - this is a silly and simple example.
The Audience today is much receptive and would pick up these “placed products” way too quickly, driving us to the climax of the truman show
Saurabh,
Interesting thought. This is done on some scale by large interactive media agencies. Remember, the Shah Rukh movie (forgetting the name) where one of the cola companies paid the producers for placement. Another one I remember is Topaz paying to be the back drop of a Mithun dance sequence in one of the movies.
Companies are taking it far with in-game “advertising” and finding more subtle ways of touching the consumer. Nike, last year commissioned a gym in Manhattan, where a trainer can help you figure out your body mechanics — all for free.
As the noise increases in traditional media outlet — smart advertisers are creating (or rather discovering) brand new channels of reaching the customer. I think there definitely is a void in that space!
Indus
Like this post, this comment has been crossposted :p
Yet another of the many different ways to engage the customer. Branded entertainment as opposed to in-film promos can be either sponsored, in-your-face or subtle. The imperative here (for the former) if it has to deliver the desired impact is, it’s not enough if the creative content (movie, book or play) is good enough. It has to succeed in weaning the attention away from the star and making the brand the real star. People can forget Tom Hanks; But they shouldn’t forget the Wilson ball or FedEx.
Another I remember, executed ever so subtly is Qantas placement in the movie Rainman. Dustin Hoffman plays the role of an autistic savant, blabbering away incoherent nothings throughout the movie. In one scene where Tom Cruise offers to take him by flight, he throws a wild fit betraying acrophobia (fear of altitude). Eventually they choose to drive. But on the way when Tom asks why he hates flying, he rattles out air accident statistics of almost every airline. Then he asks him which airline has best safety record. He immediately announces “Qantas” !
It was a fact. But it never got so remarkably highlighted before. It was just a passing mention and I am not sure if Qantas got billed for that by the makers of that movie. But it sure became its USP later.
Hi Vijay, Indus, Krish,
Thanks for your comments and thoughts.
@Vijay: As you rightly mentioned that customer would evolve and would spot a product placement or an advertisement even before it starts to leave its marks. And exactly for the same reason product placement would stop working. BUT if we create media with brands at the centerpiece, it might work. Please note that this is different from product placement.
@Indus: This is very different from product placement. Placements have been there for a long time now. Oldest I can remember is Mere Rang Main song from Maine Pyar Kiya where neon lit signs dot the skyline. We are talking about creating brands and then creating entertainment avenues. Things that solve a consumer’s entertainment problem first and then talk about brands.
@Krish: If we could get Quantas to pay, we would have created success for our business.
Thanks again.
Regards,
SG
Would the hindi film “Road” qualify? It must’ve been sponsored by Tata Safari, but it was about the road not the car. (Bad movie, great camera work)
Not many products truly inspire people. Not head and shoulders shampoo, though there was one movie entirely based on it which was utterly horrendous when it was revealed. Not even Coke and Pepsi (can you imagine a “How Coca-cola changed my life”?)
On a smaller note, ads are startign to have storylines - Airtel, HCL etc. Fevicol always did, darn cool stuff. Bajaj too, in a way.
Hi Deepak … end of the day it will still remain an ad.
Road is a very good example what I want to do. Probably MTV Roadies comes close. It has an entertainment value and people start knowing the brand of the bike they are riding.
Saurabh,
Very apt post. Just once itch that I’d like to scratch here w.r.t. your comment “..BUT if we create media with brands at the centerpiece, it might work…”.
If I read it right, my personal feel is that media creation should always be done with brands *not* at the centerpiece, atleast not directly. That way a great story can be essayed.
My fav. e.g is those (old) SHELL company TV ads. if anybody
had noticed, it used to be run very frequently some 3-4 yrs back. The ads largely talks abt their employees who do various work for the environment and the people and so forth.And the ad closes by saying “S/he also works for SHELL”.
p.s. - FWIW, those ads was my sole point of inspiration
for people2meet.com (a story in progress!)
On “Creating Media Around brand”: I think the prevalence of the brand may influence the success of the product.
Do you think having a relatively unknown brand and creating media around it would a) Convey the message and still be subtle? If I did not know what Tata Safari was — maybe this would be just another SUV in the movie, totally un-noticeable b) Overpower the product itself. Again, if it is not a widely known product and the messaging is not subtle, the brand may overpower the product.
Corollary to this could be — If the brand is very popular or widely known it may be allowed to overpower the product. Take a look at the NFL Madden football. John Madden and NFL’s association shadows the pro football gaming franchise but they’re also very strongly recognised and the gaming series itself is very successful.
I’m in line with your thoughts, right?
Here is an interesting concept. How about setting up Cricket Batting Cages with Virtual Twenty20 Arena all over India’s metroplis ? The idea is bound to click, have an enormous potential to succeed, great investment opportunity and is totally unheard of and non-existent anywhere in the world.
Thoughts ?? Comments ? Feedbacks ??