Forget the product, it´s all about the brand

For majority of companies, a brand is just a tool to sell products. A necessity to increase the value of a product line or a factory. Their eyes are on the product, which for any company is short sighted.

If companies would shift their focus from products to brand, they could discover new opportunities that a strong brand can create. Take Angry Birds. A Finnish game company that set out to create positive brand experiences for their fans now has wide set of products ranging from toys to soft drinks (a cola that in some markets outsells Pepsi and Coca-Cola on a weekly level). The mobile game they started with, only brings about 30% of their revenue (depending on the media that reports). Their ToonTV now distributes content from Disney and Sony as well as stuff from Stan Lee turning them into a media house. Red Bull has also made content a thriving business, by shifting the focus from an energy drink to "the world of Red Bull". Jamie Oliver is a household name in food industry, because he is not focusing on one single product, but on the brand called Jamie Oliver and the potential it has to grow in to new business areas (knowingly or unknowingly). What all these brands have in common is that they constantly develop new ways to use the brand to engage, not just optimising single product sales.

At the same time media companies have less and less capital to produce content for the ever increasing demand and this opens new possibilities for brands to create compelling stories that build awareness and drive business. In a fast moving world, who else has the knowledge and the expertise to produce specific quality content but the brands. It´s just a matter of turning sales in to positive brand experiences for the fans.

In the future this is also necessity for brands. As more channels appear and the major ones try to monetize their audiences, it just get too expensive to reach the hearts of fans through plain marketing. Brands need to start producing quality content that we all enjoy and share. In social media or in real life.

The trouble with the law

With the ever increasing amount of brand content being produced in the world today, the fine line between advertising and entertainment needs to be redefined. Advertising traditionally can be easily spotted and separated from entertainment, but what happens when brand starts to behave like a media?

Take Chipotle, which has ventured in brand content before with heartfelt short animations, haunting soundtracks and mobile games, but now they are launching a four episode comedy series on Hulu called "Farmed and dangerous". The series carries on Chipotle´s message of natural farming and will no doubt receive millions of views in the beginning and, depending on the quality of work, millions afterwards.

This brings us to the problem. In many countries, advertising and entertainment has to be clearly separated. In Chipotles case the question is: is this tv-show entertainment or is it advertising? It has all the characteristics of good entertainment. Good actors, director and production value. It also is in the format of entertainment, a TV-show. But, it will eventually advertise Chipotle and it´s products. Making it then, what? Brand content.

The idea of brand content is nothing new. Red Bull has done it for some time and found new sources of income from content and let´s not forget toy industry. Would G.I.Joe and He-Man sold so well if there hadn´t been an animated series for kids for all those years. It would be fair to mention Disney here, but that seems kind of obvious, right?

In all of these previously mentioned cases, the fans get what they want: good entertainment in the form of popular culture. The brands get also what they want. Their message in a form that their customers love and make them spend more. As more brands try their wings in brand content and the line between advertising and entertainment blurs, goverments should rethink their legislation. Not to thighten it, but to create clear rules so that the fans and the brands can both win. It is possible. At least, that´s what I feel watching my old G.I.Joe figures.

New Entertainment Ecosystem

By publishing good quality games about the movie or TV IPs, studios and production houses engage an audience that might not be interested otherwise. Hollywood studios spend millions of dollars to promote the upcoming movies with TV ad campaigns but seem to forget that the cost of creating a good game is only a fraction of that. Not to mention that if the game becomes a hit, the studios can earn more money. But of course not every game becomes a hit, just as not every ad campaign brings results. Before in order to get the attention of the 15-25 year olds, the studios have to advertise in TV with millions of dollars. What the new entertainment companies have realized, is that by releasing an IP as a game as well as a TV series or a movie, they reduce the need to market with bought media. In fact, the IP ecosystem can be used as a platform to market other brands more efficiently than with traditional bought media. The game drives engagement and grows awereness and monetizes the IP. The TV and movies grow the awereness even further and keeps on monetizing (the long tail is of course the DVD release and the TV rigths). 

Game IP´s on the other hand, need the TV/Movie adaptations and licensing of their games to reach a wider audience and to build depth to their story. This is needed especially with casual games, that have to be simple enough to engage the widest audience possible which often means that the story behind the game is minimal. TV/Movie adaptations bring depth to the game characters and open up the game world which deepen the relationship between the fans and open more possibilities to licensing.

Merchandising and licensing is the third and equally important part of the new entertainment ecosystem. If for some reason the IP hasn´t reached all of its potential audience, the merchandising and licensing will. And will also monetize the IP even further. In order to support the new entertainment ecosystem however, the M&L must be done with the same dedication to quality in mind as the game and the TV/Movies. Again the devil is in the detail and nothing can screw the IP like a bad product and the risk of that happening is high, since majority of production is usually done by third parties.

Rovio´s Angry Birds is a prime example of the new entertainment ecosystem. The company has hundreds of millions of fans that connect with the Angry Birds brand through games, videos, products, theme parks and more. Even Disney has noticed the change, they released Wreck-It-Ralph as a game and a movie simoltaniously and merchandise is sure to follow. But just releasing a game and a movie doesnt make hits. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. At the end of the day, fans decide whether or not an IP makes it and the fans are well equipped to see through scams. That means that the game and movie studios need to evolve in to entertainment companies that sustain immemerers brand experience through the different touchpoint, be it games, movies or merchandising.