Too many brands are starting to look like randy dogs shagging legs just to grab our attention, argues ITV’s Simon Daglish
Wait, before you scream ‘Ratner moment’, can I just explain what I mean? 99% of Branded content is crap – yes, we all know about Red Bull but examples like this are few and far between. This doesn’t mean that brands shouldn’t get involved with content but the approach is so often wrong.
What works is when a brand approaches the content not as a piece of promotion but a piece of entertainment.
A viewer wants to watch or engage with content when it is relevant, interesting or entertaining – or best of all when it is all three. Sadly, with the rush of new content creators the brief starts with the brand story rather than the consumer. The first question which is so often forgotten on the route to producing commercially driven content is: why are you doing this?
Is your idea funny, entertaining and informative? If not stop now. Don’t waste your money and do something that you know works. It is extremely rare that someone would watch a piece of content just because brand X is behind it.
If brands continue behaving like this they risk being like a randy dog shagging your leg just to grab your attention.
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Remember it is amazingly hard to produce content that people actually want to watch. Much like Hollywood, ITV and other hugely experienced content makers have been working for decades to find the ‘secret source’ of creating engaging content, sometimes we are successful and sometimes less so. The bare facts are there is no tried and tested formula for success in this area if there was all content makers would be making millions and taking Fridays off! What is certain is that it takes a unique skill, which is both rare and often difficult to repeat.
So why is it brands keep on thinking they can create content from a standing start which consumers will want to watch, when billions are spent by those with a track record of success, on huge platforms and with the most skilled and experienced team behind them?
The answer is simple, when brands get it right it is pure magic and can literally transform a business. We saw that with Suzuki and the partnership with Ant and Dec, to the point that for the first time in Suzuki’s history demand was so big that the only Vitara you could buy in the UK was a toy one from Hamleys.
So whilst I say that there is no secret source if we unpack what went into this campaign it seems obvious what helped make it such a success.
First, start with two of the best-known celebrities in the UK (Ant and Dec); take their production team, writers and directors (the people they trust). Mix with an established and loved part of their hugely successful TV show and allow them to make the content around the brand not the other way around. It takes a brave client to relinquish this amount of control but what you get is gold dust.
The brand becomes playful and relevant in the eye of the consumer because it has been filmed through the creative and production process that they are familiar with, in this case ‘I’m a celebrity get out of my ear’.
I was once judging some awards and came across a branded content entry for a toothpaste brand. The content described how they made their product but I couldn’t help thinking that if they really wanted to engage people around toothpaste (which is more an essential product than an entertaining one) why not do a piece of content around kissing, its much more interesting, could be entertaining and informative and guess what, the brand is relevant.
So in summary I have two concerns, one is the idea that anyone can create great content – they can’t! As Sir John Hegarty recently mused “everyone can paint, but only some should exhibit”.
Secondly, that the new content makers are starting with the brand message not what the consumer wants. If that happens you end up with 99% not the 1%.
Simon Daglish is Deputy Managing Director, Commercial at ITV and a partner for the Mediatel event ‘Whose Job Is It Anyway?‘
