Branded Content
April 4th, 2007 | Published in Ad Formats, Branding, Stuff We Like
At 10ton, we have become fans of a particular form of advertising that has a great deal of potential online: branded content. Branded content is an ad that draws your attention to the product, but provides an experience that’s more like entertainment. What makes branded content different?
- It may be in an ad, but it’s not a commercial. It something you want to watch, rather than an interruption that you try to avoid.
- It’s not in-your-face about the fact that it’s promoting a product, but it doesn’t try to hide it, either.
- It’s a destination of its own, but can link back to the sponsoring brand’s main site to tell more of the product’s story.
- People can pass it along to their friends. The current buzzword for this phenomenon, a term which we’re not too enamored with, is going viral. The best way to improve the odds of this happening is to make your ad as entertaining as possible.
What does branded content look like? It can be anything from a short video to a whole online TV network. Your Perfect Girl is branded content, promoting a dating site. Bud.tv is a whole network of branded content, consisting of online shows designed to appeal to beer drinkers. A new site, Get the Glass is a 3d milk themed video game for kids.
In my next post I will go further into why branded content works, and why the Internet is the perfect venue for this hybrid form of advertising.
