TV producers urged to ‘lift cloak of mystery’ in bid to get more brands on board
Gemma Hunter
TV networks and agencies must lift the “cloak of mystery” surrouding the making of television programs in a bid to bridge the gap between producers and brands who want to become involved in content marketing.
The executive creative director of MediaCom Beyond Advertising, Gemma Hunter, said bringing brands into the process is the only way they will truly understand what will work and what won’t when it comes to integrating products into TV shows.
She also insisted agencies and brands should “own” the international distribution and sale of TV series they have funded. Air Rescue – the agency’s six-part series funded by Westpac – was the first time such IP has not been relinquished to the network “but it won’t be the last,” Hunter said.
Maybe Emma should watch the episode of the SBS series “The Sixties” which covered TV. It revealed how sponsor “involvement” in program content was not necessarily a “good thing”. Of course I’m laughing myself silly that she (and I’m sure other young things) thinks that “… it was probably the first time it had ever happened”! Remember the ABC in the mid-90s? I’m sure David Hill and Paddy Conroy do!
If media agencies and their brands want to fund-to-own content and retain global distribution rights then why engage a production company? Agencies should just switch to making brand funded content in-house and push their long play advertorials to audiences. I’ll probably miss it though as I’ll be viewing high quality pay-on-demand entertainment produced by creative storytellers using innovative production teams.