Advertising 2.Oh! Recap #3

March 26, 2008 at 9:55 pm (advertsing, new media, PR, PRSA, PRSSA, public relations) (advertising, Advertising 2.Oh!, blogs, branded books, branded cinema, branded remix, branding, community, consumer, networks, new media, on demand, public relations, search, Steve Lance)

Click here for Advertising 2.Oh! Recap #1 or here for Recap #2

Advertising 2.Oh Recap #3

Lastly, he discussed the paths to engagement. The first one was “branded cinema.” Tom Hanks was the primary example. The movie, You’ve Got Mail, was essentially a long infomercial for AOL. It is the same for his other movie, Cast Away. The two brands involved were FedEx and Wilson.

Then there are “branded books.” The main point with these is that they are all done from a different point of view. You don’t know if the CEO of the company actually wrote it, or the publisher just had someone write it and slapped his name and face on the cover.
Next were “blogs and search.” There is a blog called the Huffington Post and it had written something about John McCain and his “bomb Iran” song. the thing with this clip is that it will never go away.

Then there was “community.” There was a printer who had a strange youtube video called “Printing’s Alive.” But it had 113,000 hits the last time Lance checked. Where else can a printing business get that much free publicity?

“Branded remix” relates to music. The example was the Starburst berries & creme ad. It was remixed from its original footage and had received over 1.6 million hits. So here’s something not even done by Starburst, yet ended up promoting it still.

Actual commercial:
Remix commercial:
With “on demand,” people come for information. His example was a local tax attorney who wanted younger clients to attract his own son into taking over the firm. They ended up setting up a beta site called “You’re on your own now,” offering financial advice. They got a sponsorship from a bank and also got the audio versions onto radio stations. The bank is happy because they get publicity, kids are happy for the advice, and the radio is happy for the content.

Last was “shopping.” The example given by Lance was AutoNation. The printer took over and manages the databases. From the database, they can send personalized reminders (and discounts) for oil changes, etc. Sales have gone up, apparently.
The last point he made was that branded content lowers the budget. If your content already contains your brand, then you spend less.