Branded Entertainment: A Clever Way To Market Products
Over the past several months we’ve seen a number of viral videos spread like wildfire around the web that have directly or not-so-directly featured product placements of well-known brands. Lady Gaga’s recent “Telephone” music video, for example, featured appearances by over nine different products from Virgin Mobile to Miracle Whip to Pepsi and more. Then just last month, the “Old Spice” videos took Twitter and the internets at large by storm. Together, these two videos have attracted over a hundred million views combined.
At a time when most consumers do not want to see intrusive advertisements, branded entertainment is a creative approach to marketing. Afterall, entertaining ads are fun to watch, and humor is a good strategy to camouflage what would otherwise be (for the most part) unwanted product marketing.
Does branded entertainment help increase sales? Results from the Old Spice campaign, which attracted 35 million views in 7 days, according to ClickZ, suggest that indeed branded entertainment has a positive impact. Following the release of the Old Spice videos, the company’s body-wash product sales are up 107%.
With branded entertainment on my mind, I came across an entertaining video today featuring one of my favorite products and brands: Cisco’s Flip Cam HD.
Produced by two Cisco summer interns, this video (embedded below) is low-budget branded entertainment compared to the Old Spice and Lady Gaga productions. Nevertheless, the video is definitely entertaining and is a clever way to raise awareness of the Flip Cam HD product. Check it out and feel free to share your thoughts on branded entertainment videos in the comments below. What do you think?
Also, what are your favorite examples of branded entertainment? What role does branded entertainment play in your business’s marketing mix? What key points do you think are needed for branded entertainment to be most effective?
