The rise of branded experiences
The last year ushered in an exponential rise in branded
experiences and stunts, which we predict will get even more
ambitious and meaningful. The power of digital has increased
agencies' and brands appetite for commanding attention in the real
world -- via a clever vending machine, an elevator hack, an
ambitious food fair or a music festival, as such experiences
provide fuel for social-media fodder.
Chipotle, for example, captured the Grammys TV audience with the
endearing "Back to the Start" animated film, and then brought meat
to its message by forming the Cultivate Foundation and sponsoring a
series of concerts and events around to support sustainable
farming. A-B resurrected its Budweiser Superfest via a new
partnership with Jay-Z, who headlined and curated a summer music
fest "Made in America" in Philadelphia, to be made into a Hollywood
film by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. And Absolut, which just named
Sid Lee its global lead agency, will be looking at the circus --
specifically, Cirque du Soleil, which is a stakeholder in the
agency -- as a model for its next campaign, which, as Ad Age
reported, is expected to include branded content along with a
touring show.
Production: streamlined, for better or worse
Advancements in digital offerings, the globalization of
marketing ideas and the increasing pressure from clients to cut
costs and provide more integrated-marketing packages are
streamlining production. While agencies have increasingly brought
production in-house, companies like Interpublic's McCann Worldgroup
formalized and expanded on the idea. It launched Craft Worldwide, a
business unit that combines print studios, editing, digital and TV
work and boasts an arsenal of skilled production craft talent.
One of the trends driving this formalization of production is
that the boundaries of media have become more blurred, and a
division such as Craft is "bringing them together," said Fred
Schuster, CEO of Craft. But no doubt keeping production costs down
is an impetus as well. This type of structure is meant to deal with
high-volume work, so whether it will produce the level of talent
that comes out of independent production shops remains to be
seen.
Streamlining is affecting specific areas of production as well,
such as music. Take Jingle Punks, the New York startup that has its
own Pandora-like searchable song library that lets users type in
moods or genres to find licensed music -- using technology to do
what music supervisors have traditionally done.
