Branded Content Brings Ashton, Demi, and Tyra to Online Video

“你知道什么真正打动了我吗 me? When we watched the videos coming in, and just the way that these women — it meant a lot to them. They said it changed their marriage; it changed their relationship with their mother. It became this really beautiful, relevant experience for them. And therefore, it was great for the brand,” said Stephanie Sarofian.

Sarofian is a senior vice president and managing director at Digitas, and what touched her were the results of an online campaign that her agency created, 一个人推着奶油奶酪.

The Real Women of Philadelphia has been amazingly successful for any ad campaign, 更不用说依赖在线视频的公司了. 由名厨宝拉·迪恩主持, the campaign invites viewers to create their own cream cheese-based recipes. Winners get $500 and become site hosts, offering tips in their own videos.

“It’s such a simple and elegant process for letting the community take over and become the spokesperson for the brand,Sarofian补充道.

The promotion, now in its third season, has broken through to become more than a recipe contest. It’s become a virtual community for women across the country.

这也提升了卡夫食品公司(Kraft Foods Co .)的销售额.费城奶油奶酪公司(Philadelphia Cream Cheese)的销售额下降了35%, 因有效营销而获得艾菲奖, and has gotten a lot of people to think of the product as more than just a bagel spread.

群星做主

At Digitas, Sarofian runs a division called The Third Act, which is devoted to brand marketing. That puts her at the front of the new wave of branded entertainment, a wave that will have an enormous impact on what videos succeed online.

艾什顿·库奇品牌娱乐并不新鲜. It dates from the earliest days of television, when soap operas got their names from the soap companies that sponsored them. 这在网上并不新鲜:想想The Hire吧, a series of short online films made in 2001 and 2002 by BMW starring Clive Owen.

但是 is new is that celebrities are now taking an active role in creating branded online videos. 他们正在开发专门针对网络的项目, 他们正在寻找合作伙伴的品牌. They’re completely open to working a product into a story-line and doing it in a way that goes beyond simple product placement.

对于男女演员, creating branded entertainment gives them a chance to be con- tent creators, something they don’t get to be when reading other people’s lines.

“这些名人中的大多数都是创作者, and they want to be in a room working with writers and brands and content creators and creative directors. 这是他们的机会. 他们实际上玩得很开心。.

卖出和买入

One of the key events for online branded entertainment is Digitas’ NewFront, 哪一个是为期一天的会议，活动同样多在会议室的门后，就像在主舞台上一样. Digitas held its fourth annual NewFront event in New York City in June.

NewFront derives its name from the television tradition of upfronts, or advertiser meetings that pitch a slate of shows months before they air, 寻找一整年的承诺. NewFront acknowledges that entertainment and advertising now take part in a yearlong marketplace and that brands need to always be thinking about how to spend their budgets, 不只是一年一次.

Celebrities are jumping into online branded entertainment, Sarofian说, because they know they can’t depend on movies or television shows that are sold yearly.

“They have to be in this game, in every facet of this game, all year round,” she said.

今年的NewFront看到了阿什顿·库彻, 黛米摩尔, 伊莎贝拉里尼, 提拉银行, and Zach Quinto all take the stage to pitch online shows directly to the major brands that could cut checks and make their projects a reality. Last year’s event included Martha Stewart and Teri Hatcher.

对品牌而言, they love working with celebrities because their Hollywood partners come with built-in fan bases. That guarantees any project a certain number of eyeballs. The celebs typically reach out to their social network fans and followers to promote the shows.

奇怪的是, 对于任何有记忆的人来说, is that it wasn’t that long ago that A-list celebrities wouldn’t risk their reputations on commercials. Now, they’re so unconcerned about looking like sellouts that they’re driving the projects themselves. 什么改变了? 为什么他们能如此自如地与广告商合作?

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