A quick talk I did at ESCP Creativity Marketing Centre on 09/07/2015. The point was to spark a debate about branded content and who is better prepared to get it right.

1. TOP GUN
BRANDED
CONTENT
@adrimedia
After the release of Top Gun, sales of the Ray-Ban Aviator 3025 rose by 40%. However, that was just product placement;
the real brand that took advantage of the movie was a very different one…

2. The US Air Force! And this is the first result you get when googling “Top Gun meaning”.
We talk a lot about branded content these days, but why? Is that because people are tired of traditional ads?

3. IS MARKETING BROKEN?
http://www.havasmedia.com/press/press-releases/2015/top-scoring-meaningful-brands-enjoy-a-share-of-wallet-46-per-
cent-higher-than-low-performers

4. THAT’S WHAT DIGITAL IS FOR, RIGHT?
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/google-admits-56-banner-ads-human-can-see-moey-shawash

5. THAT’S STILL 44% OPEN TO OUR PRODUCTS!
http://blog.pagefair.com/2014/adblocking-report/

6. YEAH BUT WE STILL HAVE MOBILE
Google makes more than 90 percent of its revenue from online advertising. Given that people don’t see half of the
banners they serve, are blocking away the rest and apple is kicking them out of OS devices, I’d be worried if I were them!

7. SO NOW WHAT?
http://www.warc.com/Content/News/N32933_Consumers_welcome_brand_content_.content?PUB=Warc%20News&CID
=N32933&ID=d2aa02d7-a763-4a85-86f8-a92333ceee36&q=content&qr=

8. BRAND CONTENT MUST BE THE ANSWER THEN

9. WHO DOES CONTENT BEST?
Creative agencies? Media agencies? PR companies? Brand owners?

10. ACCORDING TO THEM: NONE

11. SO, SHOULD ADVERTISING COMPANIES DO CONTENT
… OR CONTENT COMPANIES DO ADVERTISING?

12. ADVERTISING IS LIKE ARCHITECTURE
Some of it is beautiful, some of it is terrible, but the reality is that for the most part it’s undistinguishable blocks of
grayness that don’t stand out and nobody actually sees (or cares about)

13. (GOOD) ADVERTISING IS HARD
Doing ads is difficult. This is an admittedly extreme example of an ad run by American insurance company Nationwide
during the 2015 Super Bowl. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKUy-tfrIHY

14. (GOOD) ADVERTISING IS HARD
The results: the ad became a meme online (and the brand was mocked ad infinitum) and a few months later the marketer
responsible for the campaign lost his job

15. … BUT GOOD CONTENT IS HARD TOO!
Putting nipples on a batsuit killed Batman for a decade, Playboy had to kill NSFW content if they wanted to get any online
traffic at all, Warners failed with the spin-off to the most successful TV sitcom ever and Madonna proved Etna from The
Incredibles right when she said never wear capes.

16. WHAT BRANDS WANT
Awareness
Consideration
Brand attribution
Sales
WHAT CONTENT IS ABOUT
Entertainment
Story
Ratings
Tickets
The challenge with branded content is that it needs to make two very different worlds coexist.

17. WHAT IS THE FUNDAMENTAL
OBJECTIVE OF ADVERTISING?
TO INCREASE SALEABILITY.

18. ENTERTAINSELL
POLAR OPPOSITES?
A person who wants to sell you something is not necessarily someone you want to spend time with; you would not go for
drinks with the guy who is trying to sell you a vacuum cleaner!

19. THE MOST LIKELY OUTCOME
BRANDS
SELL
PUBLISHERS
ENTERTAIN

20. ONE BIG DIFFERENCE
AVERAGE ADVERTISING
IS EASIER TO GET AWAY WITH
THAN AVERAGE CONTENT
Through the sheer force of sufficient media buying it is relatively easy to move the needle on metrics like brand
awareness or attribution.

21. THE REASON IS THAT THEY WORK IN OPPOSITE WAYS
AD
CONTEN
T
Advertising is a push model while content is a pull model

22. IT IS EASIER TO BE INTERRUPTIVE
THAN INTERESTING
This is hardly news for anyone who’s been in a bar on a Saturday night

23. WHEN DOES ADVERTISING BECOME CONTENT?
EARNED REACH > PAID REACH
When given a certain level of media investment an ad overperforms (it reaches more people, it is shared more often, etc.)
this means that consumers like it, share it with their friends. It becomes content on its own right

24. GOOD BRANDED CONTENT
IS CONTENT YOU WOULD WATCH
IN SPITE OF THE BRAND
(This is a provocation, but I quite like it as an approximation to a definition). Your thoughts?

25. @adrimedia