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Entertainment
The ad industry is failing to provide ENTERTAINMENT.
The first day panel about entertainment was introduced by the VCU Adcenter students. Consumers are generating much of the content we see today. Anyone with a camera can create media that will be seen by millions of people. Access to the technology is now easier to gain by the masses.
“Consumers are beating us at our own game. It’s an opportunity. It’s a challenge. It's time for marketers and advertisers to step up to the plate and really listen to what consumers want”. – VCU Adcenter students.
Entertainment Panel: Mitch Kanner - Founder 2 Degrees Ventures introduced his panel, Catherine Davis – SVP Marketing Services, Diageo North America, Mike Fisher – CMO, Xbox USA, Benjamin Palmer – Founder, The Barbarian Group Boston, Matt Smith – Founding Partner, The Viral Factory, Mike Tunnicliffe, Mark Hider - EVP Director Engagement Strategy, Publicis USA.
Content and good ideas are everywhere. The integration of ideas is the challenge. Mitch Kanner started by saying ”it’s strange why ad agencies are still concentrating on the 30-second spot”. The example given was the Geigo Caveman, who today it was announced, is going to have his own sitcom on television. It’s a great example of advertising trying to be entertainment and then becoming strictly entertainment.
Benjamin from The Barbarian Group, who was behind Subservient Chicken, made it a point that clients and agencies need to keep it in their heads, their plans, and their briefs that they are not competing with their competitors (Coke vs. Pepsi) but that they are competing with Joe Schmoe’s home-made viral.
The line between entertainment and advertising is becoming less and less clear. Automotive clients are now being asked to take concept cars and put them in video games. Mike from Xbox talked about how the Burger King Xbox games were a massive hit and a big driver to get people to use Xbox live. When compared to the best selling game “Gears of War” Burger King wasn’t far behind. Click here for more info http://www.xbox.com/en-US/promotions/burgerking/default.htm
The viral nature of ads: What can you learn from the funny video of the guy getting bit in the balls by a dog?
Matt from the viral factory said. “The only thing you can learn is that it’s completely random. You can’t predict if will be a success or not.” On the web, buying media space is pretty limited. It’s hard to be around the most viewed content on the web, so you have no option but to try to create it.
The advice given to clients and agencies was “MAKE FUN.” You have the opportunity to make the world a better place. If we can do our job to entertain people, we’ll be making a better world vs. playing on people’s fears and aspirations.
Keep it simple, keep it short
The second day session on entertainment was curated by Lee Maicon, Head of Planning, StrawberryFrog. The panel talked about how to effectively use entertainment in brand communication today.
“Today it’s not about how brands can use entertainment, it’s about the new ways of thinking about the fundamentals of entertainment” stated Calvin Baker, one of the panelists. He went on to describe how good narratives have certain elements, and that the fundamentals of entertainment are these elements. These elements are: great characters, great plot, great dialogue, etc.
Baker went on to say that with narratives, many people try to get to the apex right away, and miss the build up, which in his opinion is so crucial to growing the narrative and making the entire experience stronger. He used an example of how a company bought media for an entire show, and used each commercial break to show a piece of the narrative, in doing so they built a story, in-between the story of the show, which kept people wanting to see the next commercial to piece the rest of the story together.
The panel came to the consensus that to connect with people you need to keep it simple, and keep it short. They referred back to the multiple commercial snippets during a show as a great example.
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Issue #2.1 - NY Summit Special
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