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How do you create effective Brand-Driven
entertainment content for the web that delivers bottom line results?
Make the entertainment grow out of the brand
Some people confuse the concepts of brand-driven entertainment and "branded" entertainment.
To me, branded entertainment means you've created something that's fun,
and then you put your brand on it, not unlike painting a logo on a racecar.
This could work fine for sponsoring a race, but it doesn't make sense
as an interactive Web experience; it's too obvious and superficial. True
brand-driven Web entertainment involves focusing on the core elements
that define a brand, then designing the whole experience from scratch
to reinforce the brand in fun yet subtle ways.
To do this right, boil down your brand essence to three or four key
points, and use them as a kind of filter for all your creative brainstorming.
Whether you are making an interactive quiz or video, a promotion, an
e-card, or whatever else you dream up, ask yourself this question: After
my customer has this experience, will the key attributes of my brand
be reinforced in his/her mind? If the answer is no, keep at it until
you find the right answer.
Here's a recent example for Dunkin' Donuts. Captains
of Industry worked with Dunkin' to create a micro-site called the D
Stop. The site contains a range of brand-driven entertainment content
that's designed to engage customers. The Dunkin' Donuts brand is all
about great coffee. Customers are understandably fanatical about Dunkin'
Donuts coffee, to the point that they've formed a kind of tribe. The
Dunkin' brand is a culture all its own, with coffee and other beverages
and foods making up an important part of their customers' everyday rituals.
The Captains team visited Dunkin' Donuts stores and saw how people interacted
with each other and with the counter staff (they also drank a lot of
coffee and ate untold numbers of bagels). They talked with senior Dunkin'
managers, and with many customers. This immersion in the Dunkin' brand
and culture was the genesis for the Web content. For example, they created
'Dunkinese' hand gestures, a fun, easy way for Dunkin' Donuts lovers
to communicate with each other at a noisy construction site or across
a sea of cubicles. The concept also works because every culture has its
own unique ways of communicating. Now Dunkin' Donuts culture does, too.
Another good example of content growing out of the brand is
the Norelco full-body shaver campaign (website).
A white-robed guy walks onscreen to talk about why the new Norelco
shaver is ideal for men because it helps make a certain body part appear
longer. I would assume the product brand document would read something
like: "The cool, high quality 'all over' body shaver for young
guys; fun, irreverent, edgy, and sexy." Using bananas and other
fruit to describe male “body parts” would not exactly fly
with the Dunkin' Donuts brand, but it's perfect for Norelco.
To be really engaging, it needs to be interactive
Just having a funny video on a Web site is not enough these days. If
people want to watch funny video clips, they can find all they want at
youtube.com or a thousand other sites with user-generated content.
Instead, you can use the latest version of Flash to combine the best
of video motion pictures with clickable features. You can include branching
storylines, "hot spots" within a video that trigger other content
on the page, or other elements that put your customers truly in the driver's
seat. You need to recognize that your audience has complete control on
the Web, something they really enjoy. Give people a chance to play with
the brand, and they'll stick with you longer.
Tell stories
Every brand and product has a story. You need to tell it in fascinating
ways, taking advantage of the Internet and broadband so that every desktop
computer becomes your storytelling medium.
Perhaps your company has a mascot or icon that could become a lead character.
Let's take Hush Puppy shoes, for example. Whenever I think of those shoes,
that floppy-eared dog comes to mind. That dog could make for a great
character in an online parody of American Idol, with different breeds
of "singing" dogs. People could vote online for their favorite
performance. Every song sung by the floppy-eared dog could link to a
different kind of comfortable shoe, using different musical styles that
correspond with shoe styles. This may be a dumb example, but you get
the picture.
Design your entertainment just for the people who really matter
Brand-driven Web entertainment doesn't have to be funny and engaging
to everyone on the planet. In fact, you can make something that's only
gut-bustingly funny to a few thousand people, provided they're the ones
who end up buying your product. You can include inside jokes for software
programmers, shoe manufacturers—you name it.
This is all part of the trend that began when cable TV first emerged.
Now we have hundreds of very specific channels for a whole range of interests,
like fly-fishing. The personalization of TV now extends to corporate
Web sites, allowing marketers to turn their sites into TV channels that
appeal specifically to customers. For that reason, it's not necessary
for a campaign to "go viral" and be viewed by millions of people
in order to work.
In the case of Dunkin' Donuts, the D Stop was launched without a big
media buy to announce it; advertising was done on the local level via
the Web, newspaper, and emails to a limited list. Simply by having fun,
brand-driven content on the site, Dunkin's email open and click-through
rate was five times higher than the industry average. And people stay
on the site four times longer than they used to stay on dunkindonuts.com.
Mister Rogers attributed his ability to connect with children to the
fact that no matter how many kids were watching, he knew he was always
speaking to "one little Buckaroo." So don't be afraid to personalize
your message to just the people you need—even if it's only one
person (a CEO for example).
Plant 'Easter eggs'
An "Easter egg" is a piece of comedy or other surprising,
fun thing that is hidden within the site experience. Bloggers are always
trying to find things so they can brag about it to the world, which can
increase the possibility of viral spread through the blogosphere. Within
24 hours of someone posting about the video on Slashdot.com, someone
found the hidden message and created a post about it, further fueling
discussion about the video. Over 75,000 additional views were logged
on the video within that 24-hour period.
Create professional productions
There is a lot of competition already on the Web for entertainment.
Most of it is user generated with a home-video look and feel. The vast
majority of this content is absolute garbage. But because of the sheer
volume, some funny material rises to the top.
Unless you're deliberately going for a home video feel, however, it's
a mistake to cut corners with your company's Web productions. Most video
that goes through digital compression for the Web loses considerable
image resolution; so, if you're starting from less than high-quality
source material, your Web video will look grainy and blurred. So set
your standards high, and trust your gut. If it's not making you laugh,
it's not going to make other people laugh.
Experiment
The Web is a fast-moving medium. People are always hunting for new things
to enjoy and tell their friends about. Plus, the Web provides a great
deal of measurability and relatively low cost compared with traditional
TV commercials and media buys. The combination of these factors provides
you with an opportunity to experiment, gauge customer reactions, make
improvements, and take things to the next level. That's why more and
more marketers are carving out just a piece of their overall budget to
test the waters in the world of brand-driven Web entertainment.
Be integrated, but keep the focus on creating quality content
While there are some viral campaigns that need little or no marketing
around them to get going and build an audience, most brand-driven Web
entertainment need to be promoted in a thoughtful way and integrated
with your other marketing. This integration can include the usual tools
of our trade, from email campaigns to print ads and trade shows.
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