Having just announced the launch of in-house sports marketing agency Turner Ignite Sports, the Turner Ignite unit has taken another step well beyond its traditional linear television clientele in content creation and distribution. And it’s not only the biggest advertisers that have come to embrace content creation and are seeking distribution beyond their own means, according to Frank Kavilanz, SVP of Social Strategy & Solutions at Turner Ignite.
Turner Ignite Sports is the latest iteration of Turner Ignite, which was created to offer content and data solutions. It’s described as an in-house, full-service sports marketing agency focusing on intellectual property, live events and experiential marketing, creative services and data solutions, as ADWEEK and Digiday report.
In an interview with Beet.TV, Kavilanz says Turner Ignite is well into virtual reality video creation along with finding niche audiences for marketers across Turner’s massive social, digital and linear presences.
One example is Turner Ignite’s work to promote Sully, the Warner Bros drama film about the “Miracle on the Hudson.” Calling VR “a fascinating place where we love to experiment,” Kavilanz explains how a VR camera affixed to the underside of a helicopter simulated the flight path of the crippled airliner, generating video that was augmented by CNN footage.
Having created a compelling piece of content, the next challenge was locating and targeting VR enthusiasts, according to Kavilanz.
“Given the fact that we are able to access all of Turner’s social handles, we’re able to find people who like VR,” Kavilanz says. “We have found that there are certain people who will watch anything that’s VR-centric on YouTube or Facebook. Because of our unique structure, we’re creating an audience of people who love VR in addition to people who are fans of a respective show.”
Turner initially believed its Turner Ignite clients would consist mostly or solely of its linear TV advertisers. But with so many marketers of all sizes having jumped onto the content marketing bandwagon, they need help finding audiences for it, according to Kavilanz.
Most of Turner Ignite’s work involves traditional one- or two-minute videos. “The way we typically structure these deals there is a content component and a media component,” Kavilanz says.
Using its data and insights to make sure the content reaches right audience, Turner Ignite guarantees video views or impressions. “About 70% of our deals are on a cost per view basis and the balance on a CPM basis,” says Kavilanz. “We’re also offering the opportunity for guarantees of a minimum of 30 seconds of view time, which is very unique and something advertisers are increasingly asking more and more to participate in.”
One code in particular that Turner Ignite would like to crack is video sharing, according to Kavilanz. “What we’re going after is not just deriving a quality view, we’re trying to unlock the share,” he says. “That’s something that we’re spending a considerable amount of time figuring out how we can do both.”
