Web savvy consumers demand engaging, entertaining content from advertisers. Entertainment content is so crucial to the success of a web site and can help advertisers dazzle their audience.
“The best advertising doesn’t look like advertising.” – Elias Plishner, vice president of interactive marketing, Universal McCann.
That’s right, Elias. The best advertising doesn’t look like advertising. It looks like an entertainment experience that just happens to contain a marketing message.
The entertainment category occupies a pivotal space on the web. Not only can entertainment content make or break a destination site, but it can also provide environments in which advertising brands can associate themselves with some of the newest, hottest and most engaging experiences available to consumers. Web users have come to expect entertainment from new and emerging media.
“In my opinion, the best online entertainment is the creation of an experience that the user cannot get anywhere else,” said Richard Fusco, a new media consultant. “Sponsorship of unique content goes a long way to building a positive image of the advertiser. Depending on what the advertiser is looking to do (brand building vs. direct sales vs. generating leads), targeted ads in conjunction with sponsorship can be very effective in boosting everything from intent to purchase to perception of the brand and double the click through rate.”
Interaction with entertainment content is one of the web’s central promises. The immediacy of the web, as well as its ability to carry messages in multiple formats, makes it an ideal medium through which to deliver entertaining content. “The optimization capabilities of interactive media and the lower cost of creative allows a marketer to experiment a bit more and take some risks that would be financially unfeasible in traditional media, “ said Lauren Kay, senior vice president of sales and marketing for The Content Project. Videos and movies can be streamed or downloaded. Music can be shared through peer-to-peer (P2P) networks. Concert tour dates and opening dates for movies can be e-mailed or sent to wireless devices. Games can be distributed digitally, or played together in online communities. And the demand for such multi-platform entertainment content doesn’t appear to be receding any time soon.
An Arbitron study released earlier this year showed that of the online consumers who have listened to Internet audio, 9 million would pay for the channel they listen to the most. According to Jupiter Media Metrix, people who swap music online via P2P networks are 41 percent more likely than average online music fans to have increased their spending on music over the course of last year. More than a quarter of online users would pay to access full-length movies via their PC, according to the Cable & Television Association for Marketing (CTAM).
Are Entertainment Companies Their Own Worst Enemy?
With interactive channels generating so much interest in entertainment content, it’s almost baffling that major entertainment companies have yet to figure out how these channels can enhance their business. The well-publicized lawsuits brought by the major record labels against P2P networks like Napster were seen as largely a defensive move, intended to protect existing distribution and sales platforms.
“Right now the RIAA - the record industry’s watchdog - is fighting to basically destroy the diversity of Internet audio and webcasting and eliminate peer-to-peer file sharing,” said Fusco. “To me, this is a giant mistake. They are alienating their customers. Now that the digital genie is out of the bottle, new media and free distribution of music cannot be stopped. The music industry needs to find new ways of doing business. Their current model is outdated.”
Reuters reported in late May of this year that between 400,000 and 600,000 movies are illegally downloaded from the Internet every day. This represents a rise in digital movie piracy of 20 percent over last year. Obviously, the demand is certainly there for this content. For entertainment companies, it’s just a matter of harnessing that demand and figuring out ways to get paid for digitally distributed content.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next few years we see a major studio distribute a film on the web,” said Plishner, whose agency works with Sony Pictures. “The bottom line is, with home broadband penetration increasing, although not as fast as the original analyst projections, the increased pipeline and then the growth in consumer demand for entertainment content should someday make that concept a reality.”
Drive Traditional Distribution...For Now.
“Our goal at the end of the day is to get people into movie theaters,” said Plishner.
His goal mirrors those of many entertainment companies that advertise online. And although the large movie and music entities haven’t yet embraced digital distribution, they are using interactive media to do the next best thing – drive offline distribution and sales.
According to comScore Media Metrix, the release of summer blockbusters fueled a 25 percent growth in visitation to online movie ticket sites from April to May of this year. The most popular movie ticket site, Moviefone, drew over 7.3 million visitors in May, which was up 55 percent from the previous month. In part, this can be attributed to cross-media promotions of summer movies like “Spider Man” and “Minority Report.”
Across the entertainment sector, companies are advertising to drive consumers to offline media. Even television and radio shows advertise to get consumers to tune in.
“Given the size of our audience and that people are really interested in entertainment content as an overall percentage of our searches, there’s a pretty decent propensity for people to type in individual shows and artists, and that gives marketers a chance to really drive home the tune-in message,” said Justin McCarthy, Google’s director for the entertainment category.
Given the breadth of what is available online, entertainment companies need to use search engines to drive consumers seeking information to the appropriate venue.
“Someone who’s typing in just ‘Spiderman’ is clearly interested in the brand Spiderman - they may be interested in the movie, the game, a comic collection, any one of a number of different things,” said McCarthy. “It’s important for marketers to realize that they can give us multiple messages that drive to multiple distinct and unique URLs.”
Creating Advocates for Entertainment Brands
One needs only think of the passion that consumers show for their favorite films, rock bands, TV shows and games to get a taste of how dedicated consumer audiences can be to their favorite entertainment brands. One of Underscore Marketing’s executive managers describes himself as “a slobbering Van Halen fan” to anyone who asks about his music preferences. Like many web users, he is driven by a need to acquire the latest news and gossip about the band – a behavior that is seen in action across all digital media. This need drives a sort of brand advocacy that turns ordinary consumers into devotees of an entertainment brand – advocates that will recommend their favorite brands to friends across multiple digital channels.
“We’ve always said that the best marketers for our films are the ones who are waiting to see the film,” said Plishner. “Anything we can do to send content virally, all of a sudden our prospective consumer becomes a spokesperson for our film.”
And what is it about viral campaigns that make them work? “One of the reasons people use the online medium to forward information to one another is because the act of sharing an email is entertaining” said Nick Pahade, vice president and managing director of Beyond Interactive. “Therefore, it makes sense that viral marketing is a successful and appropriate tactic for entertainment products.”
“I believe that entertainment content will circulate if it is relevant to the current pop-culture psyche,” said Eric Feinstein, a convergence consultant. “Dropping hints in website discussion forums, newsgroups, bulletin boards, and listservs certainly help get the word out, though credibility must be maintained to be effective more than once.”
The strength of this advocacy is one of the major drivers behind the dissemination of entertainment content, its popularity, and its domination of popular culture.
Leveraging Entertainment Content for Brand Benefit
Since entertainers have historically been tremendous influencers of popular culture, advertisers have sought to obtain their endorsements to give them an edge in the marketplace. With the commercial explosion of the web, many marketers have sought to align themselves with entertainment celebrities through digital media.
Pepsi has taken this approach many times in offline media. Historically a strong number two in its category, Pepsi boosts market share, loyalty and lifetime customer value by aligning itself with the younger generation. And entertainment celebrities play a crucial role in this positioning. (Remember Michael Jackson and “The Choice of a New Generation?”)
Early this year, Pepsi ran a cross-media promotion with Yahoo! and Britney Spears. Visitors to the Yahoo! home page in early February were greeted with a DHTML Pepsi ad that allowed users access to unique content from the popular singer. The Yahoo! home page could be “peeled back” to reveal a special content section containing Pepsi commercials featuring Ms. Spears, an MP3 download, and a survey that allowed Yahoo! users to tell the site what they thought of the unique ad execution.
This is a classic example of furthering desired brand attributes by latching on to an entertainment celebrity who embodies those attributes. And the approach seems to work.
“Right now it’s tying in with popular brands - TV shows, entertainment, sports brands, and creating extensions that take advantage of wireless mobility,” said Brian Hill, chief operating officer at wireless media company Mobliss. “It’s creating a sense of urgency and community. It’s everything from getting the inside scoop on ‘American Idol’ to knowing who just hit a grand-slam for the Seattle Mariners.”
How Can the Web Leverage its Interactivity?
The web is a place where consumers align themselves around their interests. Entertainment brands can be powerful catalysts for developing communities and loyalty.
“Audience attrition is always a factor, especially as the number of offerings grows and tastes change ever more quickly,” said Feinstein. “It’s very difficult to stay fresh and balance the ‘new’ with the proven. Interactive has the potential for more immediate response and for developing strong, long-term relationships that really are tailored to the needs of the customer. As long as it’s done right.”
Entertainment content can provide the pull it takes to start a relationship between a brand and a consumer, but marketers should aim to preserve that relationship and derive as much value from it as possible.
“We use the Internet to close the loop,” said Plishner. “Not only do we want to prove that our messages lead to the desired outcome…we use interactive in a number of ways, to ask consumers what films they plan on seeing this weekend, where they went to find information on a film, and what messages appealed to them most.”