There’s a reason it’s called “brand content”. While one of the publishers most commonly associated with the practice is certainly skilled at creating its own content, it says the involvement of paying sponsors is critical.
Vice Media head of sales Dawn Williamson says those campaigns don’t just look better; they perform better, too.
“We often do brand studies associated with programs that we do and what we found is, when Vice creates the creative in conjunction with our partners, the lift of the brand usage is much greater,” she tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “The brand lift awareness is there.
“So it’s about really leveraging our ability to get the message across for an advertiser in an impactful way, and we’ve done research to make sure that that’s an attribution tied to those custom-created units.”
Vice Media sponsored content includes that from Warner Bros, promoting the movie Kong: Skull Island, and Nike, with a short documentary film on 15 Years Of SB Dunk.
Williamson says a favorite example is Smirnoff’s Equalizing Music campaign, an effort to double the number of female headliners at electronic music festivals.
“We worked in tandem with Smirnoff, with this insight, to create a whole programme to elevate awareness of that and build the headliner base of females in electronic music,” she says.
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. The series a co-presentation of Beet.TV and the IAB. Please see additional videos from the series on this page.
