Online Branded Entertainment
One important topic we should explain in some more detail is what “online branded entertainment” means. I’m not going to try and give it a dictionary definition, but as money shifts more and more towards online advertising, it’s important to look at the structural foundations of the entertainment industry and understand the implications for web.
Much of the buzz in online now is around PPC, Search, etc. What we’re starting to (finally) generate more excitement around with sites like YouTube and applications like Joost, winners like Heavy and AtomShockwave - is online entertainment. I wonder if sometimes advertisers forget that, with some exceptions like HBO, they are funding - by themselves - every huge network TV show. Every show on ABC, CBS, etc. is paid for by advertisers. Yet there has been next to zero money going into professional online entertainment development, relatively speaking.
As we start to spend more money on web entertainment, the possibilities are endless. Good content attracts eyeballs and becomes a channel - if you nurture it, like Wrigley has done with Candystand, to generate a regular audience of millions. An audience that is larger than many specialty TV channels, owned by a brand, and populated with interactive “episodes” of branded entertainment.
But as we push the boundaries further into what interactive technology can deliver, I think we’re going to see the advent of even more innovation. Web entertainment can do everything television can - but so much more. It’s a gaming platform, a video delivery system, an information retrieval system - it’s everything. It’s nonlinear on-demand information and entertainment in any format. And as money funds R&D, new content ideas, new channel concepts - we’re going to see an explosion in professionally produced entertainment delivered exclusively via web, by advertisers - and soon delivered nicely to your television via Sling or Apple TV.
I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. No one does. But I’m very excited.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Online Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 29th
2007 at 9:12 pm
Great post. I agree that more money will be poured into the online entertainment space. The future is exciting for the very fact that the rules are being writen as we go and anyone can have a hand in the future. I use to be in PR but now I’m on the advertising side of things, I’m just as excited if not more excited then before about our future in the always-on digital/internet space.
P.S. Great new site, I really love it. Been waiting to see it since Ryan talked about it a few months ago. Can we get some pics/video of the new office? Just a really big fan of the company.