branded entertainment

Date: 10-18-2007
Venue: HBO office in midtown – 1100 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY.

Organized by – IRTS Foundation, a foundation that offers New York City based educational luncheons, seminars, and workshops which cater to a diverse range of media interests

Speakers:
Advertisers:

§ Robert Friedman – President, Media & Entertainment, Radical Media

§ Robert (Bob) Riesenberg – President & CEO, Full Circle Entertainment

Network folks:

§ Dan Longest – Sr VP, Integrated Marketing & Promotions, ABC

§ Linda Yaccarino – Exec VP & Gen Manager, Turner Entertainment, Ad Sales & Marketing

Hollywood Reporter rep, Gail Schiller was the moderator for the Q&A session.

Event description:

The event had response from 70-80 folks and about the same number of turnout. It was well-organized as it made the most optimal use of everyone’s time. A set of pre-chosen questions were asked for the large majority of time and then the podium was opened for the audience for about 15 mins or 2-3 questions

Audience:
Broadcasting and Publishing were the two prime domains of the audience.

Notes from the Q&A:

Branded Entertainment’s demand drivers:

§ Declining engagement power of the 30-second TV spot – however, its not going to go away

§ Fragmentation in the media industry – this leads to difficulty in reaching critical masses

§ Time-shift leading to use of devices such as the TiVo.

BE’s demand has increased by multiples but the supply is restricted. There are very few advertisers who don’t ask for BE. The networks cannot supply enough BE because:

§ Relevance: They want to have the right spot in the program for the right brand

§ Limited inventory: The networks want to ensure that the inventory does not lose ratings due to incessant brand-placements.

§ They may not be ready themselves (this was not discussed at all)

T&T has a focus on micro-series, why?

§ Mobility – multi-layered communication

§ The other means are not enough for the advertisers

Business models are one of the two:

§ Revenue sharing

§ Barter system

Mostly, it is the latter in case of large networks as they are not running behind the ad agencies.

Challenges:

§ Infancy stage of the industry

§ Impatience shown by the advertisers – Ratings, Retention, Recall become a challenge for the networks if they don’t turn down the impatient advertisers

§ Focus: Large project teams – cross-functional service areas within the networks and/or ad agencies. In order to address this issue, liaison groups are being formed (say Promo development group at Turner which liaisons between the ad sales group and the programming group)

§ Fit: Brand must fit naturally with the content, adding to the story in a relevant and a tangible manner. However, folks are bringing in money to get irrelevant stuff done. This may kill the industry in its pre-mature stage.

§ Scalability: Limited inventory and controlled environment by the networks leads to lack of scalability in the model. Networks have the control. They do exert it. However, they are undertaking initiatives for the same – such as staff augmentation and/or staff training in the BE direction.

New trends:

§ Pressure on “creatives”: Creatives are going to find themselves squeezed due to the huge demand for the BE content. Network sales folks have aligned themselves with the best interest of the network. For instance, for the network sales folks, the focus has changed from selling programs to selling “commercial pods”. This will further put pressure on creatives to align themselves with network’s objectives.

I think this can lead to inflation of wages or significant terms and conditions change for the writers. Writers’ guild has already asked compensation for brand placements in their scripts.

§ Cross-media: A new emerging trend is in the increasing demand for cross-media BE.