gregsteen.tumblr.com

Trend, Fad, or Epic Shift: Branded Entertainment

I’m trying out a new format today: “Trend, Fad, or Epic Shift”.  The idea is that new and cool things are constantly working their way into the spotlight, where they are usually proclaimed to be one of these things.  And to me, the diagnoses are wrong on a somewhat predictable basis.  

Fads are often called Trends by people who don’t really think about the difference between the two.  Trends are often touted as Epic Shifts by earnest folks who are really excited by cool new things.  And Epic Shifts are often accused of being Fads, because they are vastly overblown in the media while still in their infancy.

So I’m going to examine various innovations, developments, and other nouns, attempting to reach a verdict.  Is it a Trend, a Fad, or an Epic Shift?

Today, we will examine branded entertainment.

Branded entertainment has been around since the 60’s, probably even longer.  It has many obvious benefits: deeper focus and recall from viewers, more canvas to paint a message on, and long term attention from the audience, if you draw one.  

But it’s always been appreciated as a novelty; a cool idea that’s usually too demanding on budgets, on brainpower, and on guts.  I say guts because getting into branded entertainment means your exposure is based on the quality of your creative product.  You can’t just shove the message in someone’s face by buying into a creative product that they actually enjoy.  Essentially, branded entertainment forces marketers to respect their target.

So, what does branded entertainment look like in 2010?  Usually, stuff like this.  Really cool, clever ideas.  Easy to get.  Single-minded.  Often irreverent.  Ideas born out of the culture of the 30-second spot.

I love that Toyota campaign, but I also think it is benefiting from a consumer culture that expects most marketing to be self-centered crap and is thrilled when someone puts a funny skit in front of them.  

But SNL is only on for about 90 minutes a week.  What kinds of creative properties do people spend most of their time with?  Television and film.  Longer, deeper, more sophisticated narratives that have intricate plotting, pacing, and often a message or an insight on the human condition.  Even films that are considered low-brow meet these criteria, if they’re worth a damn.  (Just TRY to watch Superbad without admiring the prose.)

The ability of marketers to buy the attention of a captive audience is declining rapidly, and soon they will be forced to find ways to get audiences to willingly think and learn about their products.  There are many ways to do that, but I think this will put branded entertainment in a position for rapid adoption.  And before long the novelty factor will be gone and branded entertainment will have to compete legitimately with the very best and most popular entertainment properties.  

If you want the high-brow audience, you’re going to have to be as good as Mad Men and The Wire.  If you want the mainstream audience, you’re going to have to figure out how to mash the same psychological buttons as American Idol.

I think this is mostly a matter of time.  Pretty soon a breakthrough campaign/product/series/book/feature will capture the imagination of the world and it will become abundantly clear that this is the future.  This is a great start.  But it will take something popular on the level of Lost and The Dark Knight to do for branded entertainment what those properties did for daring serialized drama and gritty superhero movies.