For the last couple of years we noticed some brands straying from the norm and focusing more on only-digital campaigns especially during the holy month of Ramadan, which is known for its most awaited and creative TV ads.
Now for the first time, the motion picture industry is embarking on this new endeavor, by producing a movie to be only viewed digitally, and in less than a week it reached 3,134,095 views. This is more affirmation that digital is the way to go?
We can conclude the advantages for the viewership on digital platforms as; having time leisure and not being tied by a certain time to see the movie, it is already there for you to watch whenever suits you. Furthermore, the viewer has the complete freedom to pause, rewind or fastforward and most importantly, he can repeat the movie or have a movie marathons in the comfort of his home.
It is a win/win situation, the viewer do not forgo quality for feasibility. Do you think more film-makers will follow suit. Considering, the feasibility of watching a high-end movie in the comfort of your couch?
Branded Content: Digital Opportunity for Brands in the MENA region?
The oldest advertising format has seen significant changes; mobile convergence, developments in digital platforms and data sources are changing industry perception. While brands’ have the timeless commercial embedded in movies. In my opinion, it’s a more cost-effective method.
Product placement was named and identified formally only as recently as the 1980s, however, it was used even before that. Meets for the first time, a movie made entirely with cinematography equipment that meets the requirements of the big screen, to be viewed only digitally!
Regarding the brands’ strategy of going about product placement, is that, they deliver the message either in the context of the movie, smoothly, to make you as a consumer more attracted to the brand. Or none subtly, they deliver the brand’s message directly instead of advertising it on YouTube, in this case, to not disturb the viewer and distract him from the movie, because let’s be honest, if an ad paused the movie to play, we would just click on “skip”.
Moreover, It is estimated that two-thirds of TV viewers cut the sound during commercials!
As the ads nowadays, are popping everywhere you look, either on digital media, tv or billboards. It can get bit annoying to have it interrupt your movie as well.
The value of having your brand integrated within entertainment compared to traditional advertising ways, it can cost millions of pounds, however this cost is cheaper compared to the viewing time cost, companies pay to run their ads.
Moreover, it is everlasting. When you buy a slot on tv to run your product’s ad, it is placed for a certain time and then disappears, however, with movie product placement, it lives forever.
As well as, branded entertainment doesn’t necessarily have to be paid, many motion picture productions would team up with brands , just to have the brand’s value and validation.
It’s easier for the product to reach the targeted audience when the consumer is involved emotionally in the storyline which it is being presented in, they sell him the feeling or the “coolness.”
Remember how you just instantly loved BMW mini cooper after watching The Italian Job? If you are anything like me, then you probably went speed chasing in your car right after the movie while hoping it was one of the cool mini coopers that was featured.. Brand’s got you hooked on the adrenaline and just having to have one yourself, they got you involved with the experience of the product.
Branded Content reaches more consumer subliminally in comparison of placing ads totally out of context. And it worked: BMW saw a 22% increase in sales in the year the film was released.
However, brands should think well and hard about product placement, they have got to deliver it in a way that sticks to consumer’s subconscious, by doing it subtly within the context of the storyline.
TUC and OLX Product placement
Brands who wish to go for branded entertainment in movies should play it smart. In the Arabic version of Titanic, it was in-your-face advertising, aside from the comedy genre of the movie, the product integration was executed poorly, within the 27 minutes duration of the movie the product placement was way out of ratio with the authenticity of the movie itself.
Firstly; by choosing the right movie, your consumer state of mind matters enormously while watching your brand spots during the movie, you want them hooked. Enthralled.
Secondly; place it in a context, otherwise it will most probably backfire, because you did not even interrupt viewers’ experience by an ad they can skip.
And that’s what happened in the Arabic version of Titanic, Tuk and OLX, placed their ad in an appropriate context, however it wasn’t subtle. You just disconnected the viewers from their mental state by shoving the ad, uninvited and or, irrelevant!
Brands should collaborate with the directors and scriptwriters, to provide the best harmonized experience, without interruption and disturbance in the storyline and characters psyche and you should make sure that it is not placed haphazardly.
One thing we have to give to TUC and OLX is that they jumped head first without waiting to test the water. They placed their products in this non-traditional movie. No Risk, No Fun!
Whether you are a fan of the movie or not, we can not deny the courageous move these two brands did to take the first mover advantage.
Digital Branded Cotent: Bye bye Ad blockers
Another element that is effecting marketers lately, is the rising dilemma of Ad blockers, lots of people are now installing ad blockers, however, in a recent research study it was obvious that viewers and browsers did not mind ads, what 91% agreed to however is that ad placement is more intrusive now than it was two years ago, as well as, they find autoplay ads to be immensely disturbing to their browsing experience.
And there are 1M users in #Egypt that have adblockers. – Tamer Alphonse #CreativeIndMENA #advertising #adblocks pic.twitter.com/ekxrGUdrsT
— Think Marketing (@ThinkMarketingM) September 5, 2016
What expected now is this diversity will cause many controversy. If and when more film-makers followed in their footsteps, movie theaters will be threatened by being replaced with digital, but the theater experience will never vanish, we mentioned before the benefits of the digital, but to go out to the dark room, with huge screen, utterly sophisticated sound systems. Digital movies will never completely replace the experience of meeting friends for movie nights.
The future is here now, and it is Digital Entertainment.