Pat Baron at AdFest: It’s complicated

Pat Baron, Executive Creative Director at McCann Melbourne is on the Branded Content and Entertainment Media Jury at Adfest  in Pattaya, Thailand. He writes exclusively for CB.

Scheduled for two days the Adfest 2016 Media Branded Content and Entertainment jury needed three and then some. The variety, complexity and scale of entries into this category, was a challenge. A knowledgeable and distinguished jury composed of Josy Paul Chairman CCO BBDO India, Sokichi Nakazawa EM Hakuhodo Japan, Sarnchatt Chansrakao MD Dentsu Thailand, Evan Teng MD JWT Taiwan, Georg Warga CD Director Founder Goodstein Shanghai, Darren Watson ECD APAC Fitch Singapore first had to answer this question. What exactly is branded content and entertainment?

It’s complicated.

Jose felt it be defined neither, broadly or narrowly, the role of brands in entertainment varies so widely. For me the beauty of this category is the lack of a clear definition. Which won’t surprise anyone. What fascinates me is the sheer diversity and innovation of the work being created and the technology being used to deliver it. In branded content and entertainment you can’t buy the consumers’ time, you have to earn it.

Branded entertainment has a long history. Before digital media, snake oil salesmen sold their miracle potions with traveling entertainers on the back of wagons, luring audiences for the sales pitch. It’s about telling peoples stories, connecting with the hearts and minds of an audience, and then thinking about how you can creatively link that to your product.

Some jurors argued to restrict the term “branded content and entertainment” to traditional narrative forms, such as scripted films and series. In this narrower definition, it is still possible for campaigns to use multiple strategies such as social and experiential. But what of product placement? It’s amazing how often the product becomes the central character of the story. This may involve simply centering plot lines around brands. But simply placing a brands logo or product into the narrative of content doesn’t make it entertaining. The advertising and entertainment industries will likely evolve new production modes, distribution platforms, and formats to serve brands’ future needs. Because not only are audiences more mobile, so too is content, thus making it harder for us to capture mass attention in a fragmented marketplace. Brands can no longer rely on “pushing” advertising onto audiences.

The jury could agree that entries must demonstrate how the brand integrated with the creative content by using single or multiple media platforms to engage consumer satisfaction. The criteria was strategy 20%, creativity 20%, execution 20% and results 40%. The best examples of branded content are often winning awards across multiple categories. Will this lead to a consolidation of award categories remains to be seen, but it provides a possible glimpse of the shape of things to come and that branded content will be at the heart of every strategy.