Advertiser Funding
A successful example of branded entertainment is an advertising campaign developed by Onesum Agency for the Tampa Bay Rays. An animated team of super heroes “The Defenders of the Game” (DOTG), is an on and offline original branded entertainment platform that featured the franchise and players as animated superheroes defending baseball from the evil Umperor. The campaign was created and launched in 2007 as a marketing platform that connects the franchise and spirit of the game, to what was deemed a high yield consumer by the MLB; the typical family nucleus of mom, dad and 2.5 kids. It featured players such as All-Star Carl Crawford, James Shields, Scott Kazmir, Carlos Peña and B.J. Upton, as well as team coach Joe Maddon, and team special advisor, Don Zimmer.
An example of “Branded Entertainment” can be shown in The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. Since 2001, ABC and then CBS, demonstrate how branded entertainment can turn into a sponsorship. Lotz contends that, the entertainment portion of the hour long show displays the quality of the lingerie. The advertising time is then divided among companies to cover the production cost of the show.According to Lotz, branded entertainment involves a mixture of viewer behavior and perception of content as opposed to the standard form of advertising.
Another example of Branded Entertainment is BMW's The Hire which featured a series of eight short films produced specifically for the Internet in 2001 and 2002. "The Hire" featured among other famous actors, Clive Owen as the driver and celebrity directors such as Guy Ritchie, Tony & Ridley Scott, Alejandro González Iñárritu and John Woo and John Frankenheimer. These movie shorts were viewed over 100 Million times.
A example of true branded entertainment is "City Hunters", an animated TV series for AXE Body Spray. The series premiered throughout Latin America on October 2006 on the FOX network. It was co-produced by Unilever for the AXE brand. It is a male-targeted series that integrates the AXE brand into the storyline. The animated series follows the antics of an aging Casanova, Dr. Lynch, and Axel (a reference to AXE), the young man Doctor is training in the art of seducing women. The series was created by Catmandu Branded Entertainment, a branded entertainment firm in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The characters were developed by Italian illustrator Milo Manara. The series, also has an on-line component.
Hottest Mom in America, a reality television series that auditions American women vying for the title of "Hottest Mom", is one of the first entries by a pharmaceutical company into Branded Entertainment. The show from Buzznation studios is backed by a single sponsor Medicis Pharmaceutical, the makers of the Restylane cosmetic injection treatment.
The Reuter's Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University is currently working on a study of the editorial challenges and opportunities in branded content, run by Alex Connock.
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