Why I hate the expression: “branded content”
The Glue Society co-founder Jonathan Kneebone today gave the keynote address at The Festival of Branded Entertainment. Here is an edited text of his speech:
I have to start by saying that I genuinely hate the expression “branded content”.
I think perhaps even more than that, like most people in the real world, I have absolutely zero interest in watching something called “branded content”.
If by calling it “branded entertainment” someone somewhere is hoping that I might think it suddenly becomes something worth watching, I think that someone is kidding themselves.
Nice one – thanks for sharing.
best thing I’ve read on here all year
Isn’t this guy a silver-tongued devil! No, it’s not “branded content” or even “branded entertainment” – it’s nothing more than the lowest card in the deck, the compromised world of “advertorial.” Always has been, always will be. Stick it on those digital shopping channels with the endless array of exercise machines, junk jewelry and cheap make-up that everyone flicks through on their way to something hopefully a little more enlightening, although that’s a disappearing commodity on commercial TV these days.
Get your heads from up your bums. On the commercial networks from the age of Burkes Backyard every infotainment prog depended on Branded content. Show me a local production that doesn’t have it please… The ABC doesn’t count because we fund that…. Elsewhere producers have to sell the show to get the dough to make it…
Finally a lone voice of sanity in the wilderness. Well done JK. It’s scary, hard, new and likely littered with failure, but it’s exciting and interesting and has the potential to be great. Thanks for the injection of faith.
A great read Jonathan. I agree there is a greater need for content creators to understand their audience, and Kevin Spacey’s keynote was a brilliant expression of this. Call it what you will, if content involves a brand, then the onus is on the brand custodians to understand the nature of content consumption before they even think about content creation. Lifting the bar requires brands and content creators to be better educated, to invest in new ideas, to challenge the norm and to be prepared to fail along the way. Surely Dumb Ways To Die (as our jewel in the crown) will find a successor soon????
Long.
… Moo.
Very good points though regarding PRIORITISING the AUDIENCE, and the need for the marketer and the brand to have a shared agenda.
I would almost argue they need a shared spirit or perspective… Vice is particularly interesting in their approach.
So basically, you are reinventing the soap opera? Procter & Gamble have been created unbranded content for specific audiences to place their advertising in for over 60 years. Same old thing, new term for it.
It’s easy for creative people to prioritise the audience, we do it naturally. Marketers and people in business, however, find it impossible. I have made ads for Toyota that were solely aimed at ‘the dealers’, it’s mental. As soon as you turn from human into businessman, all your compassion, judgement and humanity goes AWOL. Go ask any CEO how interested he is in storytelling, he’ll probably ask you what that is. Reason? No soul.