Finding Your Niche in Branded Entertainment
An early and
obvious question to ask when investing in branded entertainment is something along the lines of “is there a potential audience for my brand’s videos?”, “do I have an entertaining subject matter?” or, probably more accurate, “will anyone watch these damn things?!” The short answer is, of course, yes - depending on you! Achieving the right mix of entertainment and quality production to capture an actual audience and not just stray YouTubers can be a challenge, but the niche that your brand’s unique blend of content could fill is most definitely out there waiting to be found.
We are talking about entertaining video here, though, so before I lose you in any more discussion of niche audiences let’s roll tape on some awesome examples of this concept in practice.
Expedition Overland
Here’s a great example of the inherent potential in mixing great production with an underserved and hungry audience. Into their 4th “webisode” with no signs of stopping, this crew of “overland enthusiasts” (defined as self-reliant, off-road travelers in remote or rugged terrain) built their own entertainment niche around a storyline that also happens to feature the use of high-end, adventure brands who really don’t have an existing broadcast channel for this type of content. Sponsor brands from Ex-Officio clothing to Leatherman to lesser known Australian outback-ing equippers like ARB are joining in droves just to be associated with something other than a YouTube review of their products. It’s the story that captures the audience, but the brands that make out like bandits.
Intel’s Visual Life
Intel launched its Visual Life video series in 2011 around the notion that popular blogs and bloggers would probably make great subjects for short films digging into the more artistic and inspiring side of computer chip-set manufacturing. It was a good hunch and the 9-part series has so far garnered a great deal of attention from enthusiasts of the various subjects (3D animation, digital photography, fractal art, touring musicians, etc) and gained YouTube views from 50,000 to over a million on their most popular pieces. Again, by avoiding product reviews and focusing each piece of high-quality, high-production video on a specific audience Intel dipped into an eagerly waiting audience.
Seen examples of great branded entertainment that speaks to your interests or your brand? Feel free to share and look for an expansion of this topic in my next post!
As Marketing Manager, Luke Meyers handles all aspects of marketing, branding and market research for McMurry and writes on topics related to content marketing, branded media and emerging technology. Before McMurry, Luke worked in fundraising and development for the Visiting Nurse Service, one of the oldest non-profits in the country.