Episode 20: The Branded Entertainment Episode
Listen (25 min, 40 seconds)In celebrating the achievement of twenty episodes we have a bumper edition of The Digital Edge this week.
Imagine yourself watching the latest action movie featuring Brad Pitt. In the scene Pitt is involved in a high speed car chase with three pursuers, a literal life and death scenario. In the next twenty minutes of celluloid Pitt manages to evade his pursuers, rescues the girl and saves the day, all while driving his sleek and sexy BMW. What you’ve just seen is an example of branded entertainment, a new form of advertising that is proving extremely popular as people’s perceptual filters tend to block out traditional forms of advertising.
In this episode we take an in-depth look into the how branded entertainment is infiltrating the world of T.V. We speak to Jason Xenopoulos and Peter Gird from new agency, 2point0 to see what it takes to build a piece of branded entertainment, how much it costs and when it's more appropriate than a 30-second advert. We're also joined by Stanley Edwards from Platypus Productions and Heather Swarts from Zoom Advertising to see whether Branded Entertainment is going to be the death of the 30-second spot.
Our Agency of the week this episode is "HelloWorld", a recently formed agency that focuses on conversation, collaboration and interaction. Our top ten this week are ten of South Africa's most loved brands and as always, Kerry-Anne Gilowey from Cape Town Daily Photo joins us with the news. In our final segment we get a chorus of compliments from local web celebrities.
Here's to twenty more episodes
Guests:
Jason Xenopoulos:
Jason is a filmmaker and entrepreneur whose media ventures have covered the areas of film, television, music and the Internet. His first feature film as writer-director, Promised Land, was released in January 2003 in Cinema Nouveau and Ster-Kinekor theatres across South Africa.
Peter Gird:
Peter Gird began his career at the Cape Town agency, Rightford, Searle-Tripp and Makin in 1980. Gird joined the Ogilvy Board at the age of 24, becoming a shareholder of the Group at the age of 30. He headed up Ogilvy’s production division, and won the Grand Prix at The Loerie Awards seven years in a row. After twelve years with Ogilvy, Gird set up his own production company, Peter Gird Productions in 1991. He now runs 2point0 with Jason Xenopoulos
Stanley Edwards:
Stanley received his National Diploma in Photography from the Port Elizabeth Technikon and has worked as a producer / director for production houses in Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Besides directing productions, he evaluates marketing and communication applications for new media technologies with a focus on video delivery over multiple platforms. He also has vast experience in the co-ordination and production of conferences, launches and roadshows.
Heather Swarts:
Heather holds a Diploma in Marketing from IMM and a diploma in Strategic Planning from the AAA School of Advertising.
She has over 16 years' experience in retail advertising, working for the JD Group as an Advertising Manager and then for SBBW and FCB on accounts such as OK Bazaars, Five Roses, Budget Rent-a-Car, Ster-Kinekor and SABCOS. Heather now heads up Zoom Johannesburg and is heavily involved in Cashbuild and new business.
Pedro Van Gaalen:
Pedro is currently the Group Media Director at Hello World Agency and was previously the Media Director for Redcube.
Thanks also to Charl Norman, Andy Hadfield, Catherine Luckhoff, Heather Ford and Matthew Buckland for their kind words about us reaching twenty episodes
Links:
2point0: http://www.2point0.co.za/
Platypus Productions: http://www.platypus.co.za/index.html
Zoom Advertising: http://www.zoomadvertising.co.za/
HelloWorld: http://www.helloworldagency.com/
Cape Town Daily Photo: http://www.capetowndailyphoto.com/
Jarred Cinman: http://jarredcinman.com/
Saul Kropman: http://saulk.co.za
Comments:
For some classic Branded Entertainment have a look at the series called 30Rock. It takes the P*** and does it very well with all product placement. Very clever and funny. http://www.nbc.com/30_Rock/
by Lantz Mattinson on May 25 2009, 13:48
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