branded content

Yes; these days, brands are enthusiastically creating “content”, the material publishers used to call editorial, in a bid to blend in and influence consumers. But what is the real place of “content” in a marketer strategy? And are they prepared to to the next step – to create content that’s so good people would pay for it? […]

CANNES — How should a financial giant market to young adults in the digital age? By giving it to them straight. That’s according to Vice Media CEO Shane Smith, whose publishing company us helping Bank Of America do just that. At Cannes Lions, the bank announced the launch of The Business Of Life, a video […]

CANNES — Over the last year, Beet.TV has been reporting on BBC Worldwide’s growing branded content initiative. Now the organization is formalising its offering in a new unit. Announced at Cannes Lions, BBC StoryWorks is the name of the content marketing that will have offices in Singapore, Sydney, New York and London and will be headed by […]

AUSTIN — Last October, ad agency Leo Burnett and online publisher Huffington Post announced they would be partnering to help create content for brands. One of many initiatives in which publishers are working to do so for brands, this partnership is different from most, in that Huffington Post staff are embedded with the ad agency for at least part […]

How does pricing for branded content shape up against that for display ads? The two are like chalk and cheese, suggests Gannett national sales president Randy Kilgore. “It’s very different because it’s not a formula,” Kilgore tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “Some of these things are six-month programmes where you send people out and do videos […]

CHICAGO — Brands should development a measurement plan when embarking on branded content, says  Tom Weeks, SVP and Group Brand Director at SMG’s LiquidThread  in an interview with Beet.TV. Knowing what to count from the start can set expectations for branded content campaigns, especially when working with a partner. “Partner with the right companies and figure out […]

CHICAGO —  Placement on a site and or media channel is vital to ensuring branded content actually reaches consumers and can be viewed, says Jonathan Hoffman, President at ZeroDot/President Experience Design at Starcom MediaVest Group, in an interview with Beet.TV. In addition, brands should think about how to create a value exchange with their content. “We need to […]

CHICAGO — When embarking on branded content, a marketer should consider what part of its story fits best in that format, Cristel Turner, Director of Brand Advertising, Strategy and Business Marketing at U.S. Cellular, in an interview with Beet.TV. “What doesn’t lend itself as easily to a 30-second spot or a print ad?” she asks. “What […]

LONDON –Media agency ZenithOptimedia is one of those now helping clients produce branded video – and it reckons tapping in to existing talent with large audiences is the way to go. The agency has a division, Newcast, dedicated to creating TV and online video content opportunities for its clients. “It’s become much richer than ‘just […]

Branded video has emerged as the hottest marketing approach for advertisers. At the  Cannes Festival, the “branded entertainment” track was the fastest growing with submissions. Media agencies, creative shops and new boutiques are lining up to produce digital-specific video content. But in the midst of this expansion, there are questions and challenges: how and where […]

Brands can win an audience for articles and videos they made, even in newspaper websites – if their material is worth consuming, according to a news group executive. Asked why users would consume content made by brands in vehicles designed to convey the news of the day, News Corp SVP and video head Rahul Chopra […]

It may have started life as a tool for editors to validate user-generated content for editorial stories but, following its acquisition by News Corp, Storyful is also being set to work for advertisers’ commercial goals. “We saw a social radar,” News Corp. video SVP Rahul Chopra tells Beet.TV in this video, ” – tell us […]

There’s “too many cooks”, and then there’s “not enough cooks pulling in the same direction”. For the new branded content opportunity, multi-disciplinary teams must all work together on clients’ creative projects, according to a Beet.TV panel of agency folk. “Creative by committee is death, creative by small SWAT team works really well,” says Mindshare Entertainment’s chief content […]

Brands shouldn’t just make content that reflects a particular message, they should create participative campaigns, says an innovative marketing exec. “Storytelling is something everybody talks about in this space,” says JWT executive creative director Eric Weisberg. “I’m most empowered by story-doing and story-building The best brand campaigns are when a client “had a goal but they […]

At this point, many brands will have heard enough about the “branded content” craze that they might seek out a “native” campaign. But decisions about which campaign tactics are used are best left to agencies, says one agency division exec. “Clients want to tell brand stories – they’re more open to us helping them figure […]

If marketers want to make a splash with their own own content, it needs to be socially shareable – and that means giving people something that can reflect their identity, according to a branded content production agency. “People are consuming content and thinking ‘Is this something I’d like to share to reflect my knowledge of […]

Paid, owned and earned media can work well on a real-time basis, and brands need to rethink both their allocations for paid media and the timing too, says Pete Stein, CEO of Razorfish, in an interview with Ashley J. Swartz, CEO of Furious Minds, for Beet.TV. “It used to be that paid media was planned years in advance […]

Collaboration with creators is vital for brands working with digital producers and talent, says Jason Krebs, Head of Sales at Maker Studios, in an interview with Ashley J. Swartz, CEO of Furious Minds, for Beet.TV. Maker Studios creates and distributes video content focused on millenials and its videos generate 6.5 billion views each month to more than 450 […]

Nevermind your product, what do you stand for? That’s what OgilvyEntertainment’s senior strategy and operations director Abby Marks tells her clients, channeling her agency’s late founder. “David Ogilvy was always about research and treating the cons as an equal, thinking about what’s of value to them,” Marks tells Beet.TV. “We work under the creative umbrella of […]

Branded content is not an “if” for marketers; it’s a must-have, says Eric Weisberg, Executive Creative Director at JWT, in an interview with Beet.TV. To be effective, branded programming needs to deliver on the right combination of entertainment and utility. As an example, he points to work that JWT did with Johnson and Johnson for […]