Entertainment brands as partners

With the digital revolution, sponsors are increasingly able to tie-in with entertainment brands across different media delivering more value to brand owners. It promises to help sponsors achieve both brand and sales effects. Julian Saunders and Jon Reay explain

About 10 years ago doomsayers started to predict the demise of the TV ad – a combination of the internet then the broadband-internet then PVRs and later ‘video on demand’ would mean audience fragmentation, ad skipping and time shifting. And that is a killer combination. Or so the doomsayers said.

Now it hasn’t quite worked out like that. Much of the initial research with early adopters was not a good predictor of future mass behaviour. The TV channels also got their act together through thinkbox, and staged a good comeback by making the effectiveness case for TV advertising. Yet most of the trend presentations that marketing people were seeing through most of the last decade told them that they needed to prepare for the demise of their favourite and most expensive marketing tool – the TV commercial – and, at the very least, test alternative approaches. It was an important stimulus to innovation. As Doctor Johnston once said: ‘The prospect of being hanged concentrates the mind wonderfully.’

Out of the break, into the Programming

No wonder that advertisers started to say we need to get out of the ad break and into the entertainment – that’s the stuff that engrosses people, the bit that they won’t skip.

Some responses to this were refreshments of very old ideas – product placement in programmes and TV programme sponsorship. If people were skipping the ad break they would still see the idents at the beginning and the end of the break. This led to an upsurge of creativity in pieces of communication that last just a few seconds. Others were more entrepreneurial and funded the creation of original programming. Advertising groups set up specialist units.

There were some successes but these units are still peripheral – not garnering big revenues nor are they the bread-and-butter of media agencies or advertising groups.

There are obvious barriers to success, the most significant of which is that the people who make programming are a different tribe from the people who plan media or make ads. Admen read Campaign, programming types read Broadcast. They have different networks and different clubs. For one of the big advertising groups to get serious they would have to invest heavily in a production house, like a Freemantle for example.

Advertising people got excited by the idea of breaking into programme and film making but not many brand managers had the stomach for the risks associated with it.

Then digital technology – a ‘surprise generating machine’ as Professor John Naughton calls it – threw in a few curved balls that got us thinking again.

The dream of the viral

About five years ago we started watching video on the web big time – the web traffic stats tell their own story. Youtube pioneered among the young and the BBC iPlayer spread the idea to middle-Englanders. Increased broadband penetration supported this trend and other media brands introduced video and audio onto their websites. Most of us, to varying degrees, got into watching videos on the web.

This was great news for ad agencies; they are past masters of telling compelling little stories in short formats, which is the bread and butter of YouTube. Agencies pitched edgy ideas in the hopes of being able to deliver huge audiences cheaply, bringing the brand and agency fame and fortune.

A formula seemed to emerge. These little stories had to offer something awesome or humorous or a good slab of schadenfreude. But there is a fundamental problem. If you are a conservative marketing organisation these are choppy waters and if you need a proper 12-month promotional plan then commissioning a viral is a bit like buying a lottery ticket. It might come up but don’t see this as your retirement plan.

Social media got big, very quickly with new rules

Then another curved ball from the surprise generating machine; social media, got big. In fact it got big only about two years ago but internet years are like dog years and most folk in digital agencies can’t remember a time when Facebook was not enabling revolutions in the Middle East and eating up all the customer data that had previously belonged to Tesco and Google.

People could connect with their networks and create new networks as never before. What did they talk about? Some brands did well, especially the ones that were famous in the first place like Apple or M&S or Starbucks. But that was to miss the fundamental point. People talked about the things that interested them. They talk about each other and in particular the things that they find entertaining – football, films, music, high profile individuals, celebrity gossip, books, what’s in the newspapers and on the box.

"The message seemed to be clear for brands. Create something that is irresistible and entertaining and above all worth sharing on Facebook and YouTube"

To do well in social media you had to be interesting and/or entertaining. It created extra careers for celebrity tweeters such as Stephen Fry and Rio Ferdinand, and others came from nowhere by having Youtube hits, like Justin Beiber. Some traditional techniques got a shot in the arm. Make a really entertaining TV ad or tell a story with verve and imagination and it will get shared and commented on. John Lewis has created this expectation. And it was Steve Jobs’ stock in trade.

The message seemed to be clear for brands. You needed to think like a challenger. Don’t see yourself as ‘an advertiser’, create talking points and publicity. Create something that is irresistible and entertaining and above all worth sharing on Facebook and Youtube.

The life of an entertainer is Difficult

But here is the big problem: it’s not easy and certainly not easy to do all the time. Very few business leaders have the flair for publicity that Steve Jobs had and very few short pieces of film that are designed to go viral do so.

But there are some brands that create something that is irresistible and entertaining and above all worth sharing on Facebook and Youtube. These are the natural partners for brands seeking to create something compelling and shareable. Those partners are what we might broadly call entertainment brands.

Partnership with the business of entertainment

People in the business of entertainment know how to keep it fresh and vibrant. By this we mean brands such as sports clubs (football, cricket, rugby), film franchises, rock bands, singers, TV channels and franchises, and institutions like the Royal Opera House or the National Theatre.

Most other types of brands are not set up to deliver entertainment and can do so only fitfully; the brilliant much-shared TV ad comes along once in a blue moon and no sensible agency would guarantee to be able to create a successful viral every time. Knowing what your customers do find entertaining, rather than taking a punt, drives the growth in sponsorship. Traditionally football clubs have eaten most of the pies in terms of revenue, now we are seeing growth in other categories.

Entertainment brands and the digital revolution

Digital is also transforming the entertainment experience and therefore making sponsorships more commercially valuable and more able to deliver value to sponsors in a number of ways.

The modern entertainment brand has been equipped with new media – not just in the live event itself which has nonetheless been greatly enhanced with live screens but other digital media that can be used to heighten the whole experience from the moment you buy the ticket, to during the event itself and afterwards.

In a nutshell there are now many more opportunities for communication both from entertainment brands to customers and via sharing between customers through their personal networks. Entertainment brands can create new channels that add a whole new dimension to the entertainment.

Take Matchday Centre created by Manchester City FC (see right). People who go to the ground on a match day may follow the match on it. Fans can watch it on their mobiles and laptops. It offers an addictive mix of live commentary and stats on the course of the match. Wherever you are you can tune in and satisfy your craving for data analysis. Clubs are rich in data and can engross fans if they share it with fascinating graphics as MCFC do.

Fuelling fan involvement

The fans themselves have their own media – fan pages and fanzines. Fans have their own ‘second screens’ as a result of the mass adoption of smartphones. Entertainment brands, of course, can’t control their fan but the clubs like Manchester City are becoming adept at fuelling the banter between fans.

Victoria Stansfield, digital delivery manager at MCFC, says: ‘It is not difficult or expensive to put a gallery together of players training on your site, retweet a fan picture from an away match or get them to pick the pre-match music to play in the stadium on match day.’ Where Manchester City FC lead others can follow. It might mean sharing a video that gives you a privileged peek behind the scenes at the club or a piece of video showing the amazing skills of its players. All you need is insight into what excites fans.

Mobiles, location-based apps and social media are creating the chance for companies to use proven marketing techniques – such as competitions and offers – delivered in more innovative ways. This ties sponsor and entertainment brands together for mutual benefit. (See box, left. )

Increasing professionalism

A great deal more is now possible from a partnership with an entertainment brand, not least because these brands have been busy hiring marketers and experts in handling their digital platforms. This is evident with big football clubs but the trend can be seen elsewhere.

Managers of rock bands have traditionally not been the kinds of people who would understand the needs of a brand manager. Some – whisper it – have been cowboys, who see big brands as cash machines to be milked. That is changing. Managers now talk the language of brands and see their acts as brands and are looking for a match between the bands’ values and those of a sponsoring brand.

A business group has formed (Brands and Bands) that brings together all the different parties to share success stories and best practice. Brand owners and band managers are getting more knowledgeable about how to set up things in the right way and manage relationships.

The key message? Set up a proper partnership and allow plenty of time to do so: share objectives and work out how the brand and the band can use their assets for mutual benefit – such as sales channels, on-pack on the brand side and exclusive access, offers on the band side.

Correspondingly some brand owners, such as Diageo, have become expert at harnessing music to their brands. Their solution is not to tie themselves to any one act but to create a bigger platform that many acts can participate in. This increases brand attribution and decreases the risk of backing an act that turns out to be a letdown.

Database marketing and segmenting the fan base

One sure sign of increased professionalism is better database marketing and segmentation. This is the engine that enables targeted communication before and after an event and thus both extends and makes the entertainment experience more personal. Segmentation can bring the value of a sponsorship more directly into the hands of different types of customers.

Not all fans are the same. Some are armchair fans, others are new fans or junior fans and others are fanatics who just can’t get enough. This translates into different types of value for different types of customers. Or more relevance. It helps marketers who have been fretting about losing control of their customers’ data for awhile – first Clubcard was the villain then Google and now Facebook.

But Facebook is considerably more open with its data than the first two and smart marketers can use Facebook to build their own database. Partnerships with entertainment brands mean giving customers many more reasons to use your mobile apps, visit your website and give permission to use their data. Offer customers something that is entertaining and or valuable and they will be much more likely to give you permission to use their data.

The business value to brands

One of the challenges of sponsorship has been in evaluation. Brands are looking to get credit with customers for their sponsorship investment, and ideally to link that credit to other metrics such as predisposition to purchase and recommendation.

This is not straightforward especially where there are multiple sponsors involved. When there are only two brands, that is still one more than you find in most TV ads. Also setting up and nurturing a sponsorship is always going to be more time consuming than going your own way and commissioning a 30-second spot.

However, the digital revolution is making sponsorship more powerful and turning it into something that is more accurately described as business partnership. One way to think about this is in terms of closeness. In the past you might go to a match and see your logo on the shirt of a player or on a perimeter board. Your brands might be 20 or 30 metres away. But now your brand might also be in the pockets of people via their mobiles. It might also make relevant and targeted communications over a period of months driven by a database.

Imagine you are a customer of 02. You vaguely know about The O2 (formerly ‘The Dome’) but have never been to an event there. Then most weeks you get a text offering the opportunity of early access to tickets. You may rarely take these up but instead share them with a friend – by simply forwarding the text – who says ‘please buy me a ticket’. So this is a sponsorship that leads to both a direct appreciation of value, sharing with personal networks and even e-commerce. Brand attribution is made less of a lottery through frequent and relevant communication.

Then your 02 contract comes up for renewal. You think about going elsewhere for a cheaper tariff but decide not to: the exciting possibility of seeing Beyonce live at the O2 is just too good to pass up.

Julian Saunders is founder of The Joined Up Company

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Jon Reay is strategy director at Aqueduct

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