Advertising and Content
Branded content has changed drastically. Advertising is taking the form of content and visa versa. In the next few years the advertising of yesteryear will have very little effect if at all. Advertising that isn’t entertaining or that doesn’t share useful content won’t yield results, particularly as Millennials age and become an even greater buying share.
Need an example, look no further than the recent release of The Lego Movie, a full-length feature to advertise Legos. If you saw the Lego movie chances are you left the theater wanting to buy the entire Lego collection almost as much as your kids.
The Lego Movie is the perfect example of building brand loyalty through a content marketing strategy. Its branding success comes primarily from branding integration; they created a seamless and cohesive brand experience between all their products, packaging and promotion. Through the launch of the movie they extended their brand reach to a new medium and as a result extended their customer experience with the Lego brand.
The Lego Movie’s messaging was spot on, most importantly because it was never treated as “branded content”. The product and brand are so effectively interwoven that the film could not exist without it. The Lego Movie may be built around a brand, but nothing about it says “ad”. The movie serves a greater purpose and that is to entertain its viewers, and to extend its reach with its existing clients.
The primary goal was to entertain, not to sell a product. As the lines continue to blur, it is important that selling isn’t the primary goal of contextual marketing or it will fail. The art of context marketing is finding the perfect balance.