Let’s Discuss

Entertainment and Marketing. Two separate entities? Not so much. More and more they are one in the same.

EMG 30-Second Rundown

As Chrissy mentions below, the amount of information thrown at us each day is astounding. On most days, I would venture to say that a vast majority of our activities are tied to a brand. Wake up in the morning and get into the shower and realize you are out of your Pantene shampoo. Make a mental note to go to CVS to get more. Look in your closet and decide to wear your favorite t-shirt from American Apparel. Get in your Toyota and drive to work. Along the way note how terrible that new movie, “She’s Out of My League” looks based on the billboard you drive by. Get to your computer and automatically your MSN messenger opens, you check your Gmail, get served ads, watch the OK Go video, sponsored by State Farm. Wait, OK Go and State Farm? What might they have to do with one another? Honestly, nothing, other than opportunity—an opportunity for State Farm to associate itself with really great content. This is where marketing has started to get interesting.

The EMG Takeaway

Marketing has historically been about messaging. Over the years it’s gotten much better at targeting that message, making campaigns more cost effective and ideally more efficient. However, a new crop of marketing is on the rise, and it is more about entertainment than ever before. Ever heard the adage “Content is King”? It’s no lie. As people have become wiser and more impervious to traditional marketing (who has time in their day?), they are, at the same time consuming more and more content (thank you, internet and mobile phones). As brands like State Farm are realizing, aligning themselves with entertaining content that holds consumers attention gives them something that more traditional brands don’t have—a personality. When creating a marketing strategy EMG will always clearly define the target audience in terms of both demographics and psychographics. What “branded content” provides is a vehicle to not just say you understand your audience, but rather to show them that you speak their language and get what they care about. EMG always blends the art of storytelling when positioning a brand and is creating content that doesn’t just inform but entertains as well. More traditional sponsorships were the beginning of this evolution and now we’re in the middle of the true upswing of branded content and branded entertainment (BE has had a few false starts as the next big thing).

Final Words

Reese’s Pieces in E.T. opened the doors and showed what aligning with a great story could do for a brand. Now is the time for brands to step out of the box and create their own content. Check out Sony’s “The Rocket Project”—it’s a story about how the Vaio’s capabilities are great enough to launch a rocket. Informative and entertaining.

Don’t be overwhelmed. “Content” doesn’t have to mean million dollar video project. It can be a small step—contests, user generated videos, sponsorship (never doubt the power of affiliation…just ask Sprite (NBA))—that sets the stage for current and future fans to take notice and pay attention. At the end of the day, before any Call to Action can be completed, you’ve first got to get that consumer to PAY ATTENTION!

3 Questions to Continue the Discussion

1. Have you noticed brands popping up where you wouldn’t have necessarily expect them? For example, at the end of an OK Go video? (FYI, the video is pretty cool….you can find it here)
2. Would you be deterred from watching something if you knew it was blatantly funded by a brand? No offense, but chances are, no. Top Chef wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for GE and the Glad family of products.
3. Got any awesome ideas for a branded entertainment campaign?

I think it’s important for us to get a clear understanding of the playing field as it relates to digital marketing today in order to prepare for the challenges we most definitely will face tomorrow. My hope is to provide context for the ideas and direction EMG is heading.

I begin with a few questions that I ask myself every day.

What ideas should we lead with? – The one’s with the best or most compelling creative, relevant strategy, newest technology, most popular or that shows the most promising return on investment? Is it all of the above or something much more complex, integrated and visceral?

How do we measure or benchmark success? Monetize social media? Break through barriers? How do we adapt faster and test quicker? Who are we influenced by? Who do we want to influence?

We now know that digital marketing can at times become the single backbone to success or failure – that it is no longer for simply marketing to youth, Millennials and soccer moms.

We have a continuous flood of information and intelligence resources to help us monitor, uncover and identify common campaign curses, unforeseen pitfalls, potential market penetration opportunities, unique engagement challenges, unconventional strategies and user experience best-practices.

Thought Leaders, must now work together to quickly take advantage of the ever changing digital landscape in order to continue to meet and surpass audience expectations; to not become stale; to determine what to embrace and what to ignore.

Digital marketing has now moved well beyond its infancy of simple electronic press kit sites and landing pages, search marketing, widgets, apps, online promotions and mobile contests, display advertising and even alternate reality games.

Think about the ground-breaking campaigns that are showing success with non-competing partnerships; campaigns that are reaching unbeknownst audiences via aggregated and unique content, popularity rankings, social evangelism and innovative creative; that are creating a personalized story and connection with our audiences outside the boundaries of the previous conventional digital campaign.

How much risk do we take, however?

Regardless of the complexity, all of our goals are singular, simple and historical. Identify the audience, both the core and the fringe, find the best way of delivering our content to them, learn from our success and failures, and risk just enough to stand out and be different.

An economy like the one we’re in is what pushes businesses to try things that they would never consider under normal circumstances.  It’s interesting to look at retail stores and see how low they are  willing to drop prices these days. Companies will do whatever is  necessary for survival, no matter how dramatic or crazy the idea  may seem.

On October 2nd and 3rd, the Orange County Performing Arts Center  (OCPAC) will be presenting a dance show, the Trey McIntire  Project, for $10 a ticket. That’s $10 for any seat, whether you’re  sitting in the back row of the second tier or the 4th row of the  orchestra section. Audience members who frequent performing arts  shows know that this type of rate is unheard of. OCPAC tickets can often run anywhere around $50-$130.

OCPAC, which relies on the support of donations, has no doubt  suffered some losses from the dwindling economy. However, with  tickets at $10 each, they’re hoping to bump up ticket sales and  that’s exactly what’s happened. I looked the other day and seats  are selling out fast! The low price approach has also brought on  new customers, people that wouldn’t have ever even considered  buying tickets to see a show in the past. After all, how can  anyone pass up a $10 deal?

If you’re interested in learning more about the show, check out  http://ocpac.org/home/Events/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=961

The tough economic circumstances are bringing businesses out of  their comfort zones and inspiring different tactics. Now that  OCPAC has created a way to bring in new audiences, it will be  interesting to see if they keep this newly discovered approach  once the economy becomes stable again. The same goes for other businesses as well. Only time will tell.

Each week, I inherit the previous week’s New Yorker from my husband. Why not read the online version the day it’s published rather than wait to get the hand-me-down print version, you ask? Well. That’s the topic of another blog. So, for now, let’s just go with this – I just really like knowing someone’s been through those articles already and that I’ll have someone to talk with about whatever topics and ideas those articles stir up.

Despite our unspoken hand-off routine, a few weeks ago, I got to the issue first! Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker’s pop music and cultural navigator / critic, has an article on one of my latest fixations – Lady GaGa. I saw her live last fall as an opening act, and ever since, have been trying to figure out what’s behind her magic. And since Frere-Jones picked up on this, too, I now feel like I can take being gaga for GaGa public. So, here goes . . .

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