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BREAKING NEWS
Five Key Conditions for Preventing ChurnBy Jon Banks and Kim Thomsen Churn. If so many of us agency folk hate producing it, then why do the majority of our agencies create it daily? The answer is as simple as it is illuminating: because it’s easy. Unfortunately for consumers, clients and marketers alike, the majority of agencies today don’t like to do anything that’s hard. Rather than bothering with the strain (both creatively and operationally) of creating a promotion that will deliver original thinking, these agencies opt to create promotions that are expected, but don’t create any sort of marketplace resonance. As a result, the work becomes a waste and the client and the consumer are left wanting more. So, if churn is the norm, do we have to fall victim to it? Read More Branded Entertainment: A White Paper by the ANABy ANA Insights (a publication from the Association of National Advertisers) You’ve heard the buzz surrounding integrating your brand into mainstream entertainment
properties. Branded entertainment is the merging of an advertiser and an
entertainment asset, ranging from television programming to video games to music
to movies. The concept goes far beyond basic product placement to a level where
the consumer is engaged with an entertainment property (or in some cases, several).
The importance of branded entertainment as a marketing tactic has become more
relevant in recent years due largely to media fragmentation. The benefits and intangibles
of these deals can boost a brand’s image, awareness, and sales if properly
integrated. However, companies face broad challenges to justify branded entertainment’s
cost in order to properly calculate its effect on the bottom line. There is also
the possibility of the integration being lost in the clutter of the rapidly growing space
or improper utilization of the brand’s attributes. Read More
TUNE UP Articles from MarketingProfs
How to Create Effective Brand-Driven Entertainment for the WebBy Ted Page I read somewhere recently that simply mentioning Paris Hilton on a Web site or blog greatly increases the number of hits it gets. So I want to make it clear at the very outset of this article that Paris Hilton is not featured in any way in this article. While Paris Hilton may be appropriate for campy TV shows, there is simply no room for her—for Paris Hilton—in this article, because Paris Hilton simply has no bearing on my topic. Read More TUNE IN Cool Websites and Trends The Association of National Advertisers: leading the marketing community in insights, collaboration and advocacy
www.ana.net
Be a celebrity for your cause:
www.sixdegrees.org
Date my pet: a place for you and your pet to find a date
www.datemypet.com
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FINE TUNE Cool Marketing Stuff We Have Found from Around the World 
Screen shot of Sneak King, one of Burger Kings' Xbox games as mentioned in CEO Jim Holbrook's column.
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| A Note from CEO Jim Holbrook: Embrace Entertaining Branding |  Branded entertainment: We all talk about its importance in exciting consumers to purchase our products, but what do we really mean?
Better pick up the pace, because in today’s world, effective “branded entertainment” is evolving fast. Gone are the days when consumers fell for the old Ray Bans that just so happen to be a plot point in the Men in Black routine. (Or even more overt, the two hour QVC-like Bond movie “Die Another Day” sometimes referred to as “License To Shill” due to the wide range of placed products.)
Rather, consumers today know the score-they know why celebrities go to Sundance (for the swag) and they know why brand names appear in movies and TV shows- because they’ve been paid for. The Apprentice made this overt. So let’s adopt this transparency as a good thing and evolve our thinking from context to content.
To start, let’s flip branded entertainment around and start embracing ‘entertaining branding’ a little more passionately.
We need to focus on how we can authentically build entertainment around our brands. Think that’s too challenging or hard? Take Burger King’s partnership with Xbox as a perfect example. Equity Marketing partnered the QSR client with Xbox, a cool and hip brand that had a built-in authenticity with gamers, to create three proprietary games featuring Burger King branded icons.
The games, received more than favorably with gamers and consumers alike, showcases how a partnership can work: both Burger King and Xbox understand the importance of entertaining branding. By creating games that were not childish, but rather appealed to gamers of all skills and levels and by partnering with an authentically entertaining brand like Xbox, the QSR was able to create a name for itself that was synonymous with entertainment; it is no longer a secondary byproduct of such entertainment like the product placement models of the past.
Another example of entertaining branding is what the Upshot agency just pulled off in Toronto for P&G- a truly entertaining over-the-top retail experience. Called the Look Fab Studio, Upshot created a pop-up beauty retailer (it “pops” up only for a month) that offers women exactly what they want: free beauty advice and applicable lessons that they can put in their arsenal for years to come.
Featuring complimentary hair styling by renowned hairdressers, personalized makeup application lessons by professional makeup artists and extensive beauty treatments like facials, the Look Fab Studio has no hidden strings or purchased required tricks; rather, it acts much like a luxury car showroom, attracting consumers to its products and then letting the products speak for themselves. Equipped to handle crowds up to 150 people at a time, the Look Fab Studio is entertaining branding in a nutshell. What better way to position P&G’s beauty brands including: Pantene Pro-V, CoverGirl, Olay, Nice 'n Easy, Crest and Venus, in a fun, practical and exciting way?
So, if we look at the Xbox and Look Fab examples (and many others), is it safe to say that we’re graduating from branded entertainment as a context for brands to entertaining branding as the brand’s content? For best results, give it a try!
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