Audiences respond to entertaining brand content. So what's standing in the way of more compelling campaigns? See the results of the iMedia branded entertainment survey.
Not everyone can develop a digital success story like BMW Films or Burger King's Subservient Chicken, but a majority of digital agencies will go down that path, according to iMedia and Digital Broadcasting Group's branded entertainment survey.
The survey polled 72 agency leaders about their thoughts on branded interactive media, its effectiveness and the challenges that stand in the way of creating compelling content.
Nearly three-quarters of the respondents have either already executed a branded entertainment campaign or plan to in the next six months. Here's how they responded to the rest of the questions:
Have you executed or do you intend to execute online branded entertainment in your forthcoming initiatives over the course of the next 6 months? 
Whose responsibility is it when identifying, concepting, developing and executing branded entertainment opportunities?
Why would you most likely use branded entertainment for your clients?
What do you think might be the most difficult aspects of developing web content?
Please select your top consideration when using -- or thinking about using -- branded entertainment for your clients:
When measuring the effectiveness of online branded entertainment campaigns, which metric will ultimately define the success of the effort?
What do you perceive to be the biggest challenge right now with branded entertainment?
Do you envision more original webisodic content migrating from online to offline content in the days ahead?
What are the greatest obstacles to producing compelling original branded entertainment?
Historically online video marketing has been pre-roll/mid-roll inventory, rich media enabled video units for :15s and :30s, and creative use of UGC. Will professionally produced branded entertainment someday replace these three vehicles as the focus to any video based online marketing efforts?
Some media executives believe the web is a pilot platform for television and film when it comes to branded entertainment. How true do you feel this statement is?
In general, what percentage of your clients' digital/online budget is currently being allocated to web video initiatives?
In general, what percentage of your clients' overall media spend is allocated to web video initiatives?
Have your clients' brands ever encountered difficulty aligning :15s and :30s spots against relevant content to their communication objectives and or consumer targets?
Survey comments:
In this tight economy our clients cannot invest money in something that can generate quantifiable results. They will not be spending much on branding for now -- only DRM.
The biggest issue is finding the right audience with some sort of guarantee of traffic. Your webisode might be a hit or a miss, so it's difficult to judge against traditional media planning metrics.
Your question: "3. Why would you most likely use branded entertainment for your clients?" doesn't seem to recognize the strategic importance of engagement and building authenticity.
It is the future, we need to embrace this and have our client test, test and test some more till they find what works for them.
Standards for exposure to the brand through online video are inadequate and therefore its valuation is not adequate.
Re-purposing TV spots as :15s or :30s is not compelling on the web. B-roll, custom engagement is paramount. The medium is different and the execution needs to take advantage of the dialogue.