What’s In A Name? Getting The Industry On The Same Page About How To Talk About—and Measure—Brand Funded Content

By Megan Wells, Sarah Colamarino & Stephen Marshall, PhD

“The Changing Content + Media Landscape.” Everyone seems to be talking about it. And it’s true what THEY are saying: we’re witnessing a disruption shift like never before in the history of the industry.

The option to tell more stories in more ways in more spaces–driven by a multitude of factors like innovation, changing content strategies, and low barrier to creation entry–has created alternate ways for brands and distributors to connect with audiences. Brands are becoming more like media machines and content providers, and traditional media channels are having to compete for audience attention like never before. Brands, studios, publishers, content providers, influencers, streamers are all trying to capture this currency, to keep humans engaged, entertained and brand loyal, but the oversaturation of messaging, content and constant bids for attention aren’t making it easy.

Our evolving media ecosystem is challenging how brands and publishers are approaching attention and engagement, and the good news is that this is opening opportunities for connecting with audiences in ways outside of the traditional marketing matrix. You want to sell someone a shoe? You can show them an ad, sponsor a podcast, have an influencer wear it, build a documentary about it, or create a live or immersive experience around it. And that’s just in the moving images part of the activation plan. So, how do brands know which to choose and why? And, since each of those types of content perform differently, have different intent, and are created for different types of engagement, how do we measure if they work? Allison Polly, Head of Original Programming at PepsiCo Content Studio, shares this: “No brand wants to invest money on what they cannot measure. So, we spend a lot of time discussing objectives and KPIs before we start any content project. Target, timing, role of the work in the broader comms plan, minimum and stretch goals for each objective–all must be clear before pushing off the dock. And since some of these films may take time to complete and distribute, a brand must have the discipline to stick to the objectives.”

Evidence of the influential power of emotion, story and content immersion cannot be ignored; investing in original storytelling is a powerful tool to engage audiences in deeper, more meaningful ways, and can be an impactful way to both build brand equity and motivate change. These stories can–and should be–told in partnership with traditional marketing and ad units that operate with the intention to interrupt, rather than immerse. The fact that consumers are making more active choices around when and how they engage with interruptive advertising versus entertainment or purpose driven content only proves that an investment in brand funded storytelling and entertainment content is both needed and necessary to engage with audiences in a more authentic and holistic way. While traditional ads will remain important in the mix, these longer formats do a better job connecting emotionally with consumers. They can be entertaining, informative, stand for a cause, motivate towards a purpose, or inspire change, amongst other things, and that emotional metric should be directly tied to longer term brand value.

That said, ask a hundred different content commissioners and a hundred different content creators, and they’ll all most likely disagree on the terminology and definitions, as well as the subcategories which fall under brand storytelling as an overarching umbrella. Is the docuseries for Prime Video about the McDonald’s All-American Games, or the hugely popular “Formula 1: Drive to Survive” streamed to audiences globally on Netflix? Or is it the BBC’s “Race Across the World,” a content series intended to drive tourism to Canada, or “A Voice for the Wild,” a beautiful and inspiring brand anthem for non-profit Friends of the Boundary Waters? We’d argue any of those formats fall under the brand storytelling and brand entertainment umbrella, but we’ve noticed confusion in the proverbial room when we ask both makers and commissioners to rally around which of these is the best example of Brand Storytelling. We’d argue yes, and. They all are, but they are examples of different sub-categories under the broader Brand Storytelling umbrella. “We’ve certainly observed some dissonance in terms of how brand leaders, marketers, production companies and creators are talking about all the different types of content that could be created for a brand,” shares David Sheldon-Hicks of Territory Studios. “Oftentimes, we’re having the same conversation, but with a lack of shared understanding about the type of content and the intent, since there’s no one size fits all title for the types of content that a brand can create. It can lead to confusion upon final delivery, and we’ve noticed that that’s mostly attributed to the fact that the terms haven’t been universally defined.”

We do have established systems of definition and assessment for many of the other types of content created for other parts of the funnel, but when it comes to brand funded entertainment and storytelling, there’s a gap there that directly impacts proving ROI on the front end, and performance and impact on the back end. Many decision makers are using systems of metrics that were designed for units that were intended to perform differently, and they’re making decisions on where to allocate their budgets based on a lack of proof points around how brand content can support long term growth and affinity. “In traditional advertising, I’ve seen multi-million-dollar deals closed on a handshake. But, trying to secure mere fractions of those budgets for non-traditional content deals, it’s death by confusion,” says Paul Furia, MEDIA BY MOTHER’s Head of Content & Creative Packaging. “Many decision makers are often unfamiliar with how brand funded entertainment works, what it can do, and what performance bucket to put it in. Clearly defining it all across the industry is vital to both selling in these partnerships as well as proving their massive impact on long-term affinity.” Getting us all on the same page in terms of nomenclature, and then custom engineering a correct system of metrics that can correctly prove how it can amplify performance content, will ultimately change the way brands invest in content, story, and purpose.

With that in mind, the authors–in partnership with BRAND STORYTELLING–have launched a global, multi-tiered research project to establish a unique and agreed upon set of standards, definitions, best practices, and metrics, to help brands and storytellers across all functions of the industry tell more stories in more ways. We want to make sure we’re using the right terms to talk about the types of stories brands can fund and distribute, and we want to make sure that there’s a custom set of assessment tools to validate the investment for budget holders. Based on custom data, research and academic insights, our work will provide a roadmap that commissioners and creators worldwide can reference to justify investment and measure impact and effect.

We’ll be unveiling PHASE 1 of our findings during a panel at TribecaX in NYC in June and will host a workshop to share how to put some of this research into practice at the annual ELEVATE event in Park City in July. Both sessions will unveil different insights from the leaders we’ve spoken to across the globe, specifically about how and why they’re choosing to invest and activate these types of content. We’ll also focus on some naming conventions we hope the entire industry can get behind and will provide concrete examples for each of the terms we’re coining to describe the different formats. And we’ll explain how and why each is used most effectively and discuss how to activate in support of the full funnel and holistic customer journey in support of brand KPIs.

We’d love to have you along with us on this journey to change the way we’re talking about, justifying and creating the future of the entertainment and brand storytelling industry.

Wells, Colamarino and Marshall are part of the industry and academic task force team that is chairing this project on behalf of BRAND STORYTELLING. The BRAND STORYTELLING network sits uniquely at the intersection of Brands, Agencies, Production Companies and Creators, and brings together diverse and holistic perspectives from each section of the industry. Strategic brand management is linked with creative and distribution, forming a unique team geared for today’s ever evolving brand content landscape. For more information on the project, and to get involved in the work, please visit: www.brandstorytelling.tv/innovation