| Making your mark |
| Wednesday, 01 June 2005 | |
|
NMA - Online and offline, branded content is everywhere, and one of the places it's predicted to end up next is on 3G mobiles. If video is seen as a cornerstone of 3G, the argument goes, it has to have a perceived value to the consumer. So it has be identified with properties that already have mass-market resonance, be they Coke, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? or David Beckham.By Nic Howell. Branded content is already being enlisted to drive mobile use and 3G take-up. Examples include Vodafone's 'mobisodes' for 24 Conspiracy earlier this year or Pete Tong's Fasttrax video show on 3. Graeme Oxby, 3's marketing director, says, "There's clearly the opportunity to take the best bits of branded content, whether they be of artists or well-established programmes, and present them to mobile users."On the other hand, as terrestrial TV audiences fragment, advertisers are looking for new ways to connect with consumers, and they're banking on the 3G handset becoming the platform for sponsored content. From the operator's perspective, there may some mileage in selling advertising; 3 recently struck its first ad deal with film distributor Redbus. But for a combination of reasons, such as the fact that users can opt out of advertising, it's unlikely that this will become the sole source of revenue for 3G services. Something for everyone So it's far better to create content on which users place a value, ideally funded by a commercial sponsor. "By providing useful, meaningful, interesting content to mobile users for free, paid for by the advertiser, everyone wins. It's quite a virtuous circle," says Oxby. "The customer gets something they're interested in looking at, the advertiser gets their undivided attention, and of course we can generate a revenue stream from it." Video is hungry for bandwidth, and that costs money. In an attempt to avoid customer 'bill shock' for data transfer services, Orange has adopted a subscription model for its 3G TV service, limiting users to 20 hours a month for £10. "It's the easiest way for customers to understand the pricing," explains Stuart Jackson, spokesman for Orange UK. Having a sponsor pick up all of the costs could go one step further in helping to kick-start video for mainstream audiences at a time when networks are unwilling to bear all the costs. "I don't see the networks putting their hands in their pockets and starting to commission content," says Celador's head of interactive Simon Gunning. "What that means is there's a real opportunity for brands to get involved with creating content." This content could take many forms. It could be argued that ringtones and wallpapers are a crude form of branded content and the market for those is already established. But ultimately what the operators want to be able to provide is fully fledged multimedia that shows off the capabilities of 3G handsets. Stewart Atkins, head of digital at Proximity London, thinks that audio content, such as music or MP3 radio formats like podcasting, will take off before video, "simply because it's less bandwidth hungry and is easier to deliver and cheaper to produce," he says. He points to the Kiss archive as an example of successful branded audio content delivery. But operators are most excited about video content, as Orange's recent foray into mobile TV and Vodafone Live!'s streaming of this summer's Big Brother demonstrates. While some research still questions the immediate demand for TV on mobile - media content was absent from customers' top ten wishlist for 3G, according to a recent report from the Impaq Group - the operators are wedded to the idea that customers will sooner or later develop a habit for 'snacking' video content. "Quite a lot of the services that we offer are a combination of video, text and pictures, but the video is really the important stuff," says 3's Oxby. Despite claiming to have prepared 10,000 music videos for download onto mobile, he says that one of the most fundamental issues for an operator like 3 is that there aren't enough people providing great content. "The only thing that's concerning me at the moment is how few content partners I have to play with, with good content that's designed and ready for mobile," he says. According to Celador's Gunning, consumers won't mind if content is sponsored, particularly if it helps get production values up. "Consumers want content," he says. "No one particularly minds the fact that this entertaining piece of content is bought to you by X. That isn't an issue." Sponsored content has been on commercial TV for years, albeit subject to tight restrictions (see box). The key difference for mobile, Gunning argues, is the built-in return path. "A brand can have a lot of impact by placing its name next to entertaining content, then allowing the consumer to enter into that dialogue after that entertainment," he says. Proximity's Atkins agrees. "If people have a strong relationship with a particular brand, what the research we've done shows is that they'll be happy to take content from them," he says. The ability of properties like The X-Factor, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and Big Brother to generate mobile revenues means production houses like Celador, Fremantle and Endemol now take mobile seriously. "Mobile video is pretty much top of our list," says Claire Tavernier, Fremantle Media's senior VP of interactive. Morgan Holt, executive producer for interactive at Endemol, says, "Pretty much everything we do has a mobile attitude to it and we have an awful lot of 3G projects that are building up." These companies are encouraging their creative teams to think about the possibilities for mobile content at the commissioning stage. At the same time, specialist mobile agencies say they already have valuable expertise in making this content work. "People who have been in mobile marketing for a few years understand what works for the medium," says Nick Fuller, operations director at Flytxt and chair of the Direct Marketing Association's Mobile Marketing Group. Youssef Hammad, MD of mobile video production house Inventa, the firm behind the Pete Tong 3G show, says, "We're slightly ahead of all our larger competitors as our shows have been 'on air' for a year and a half now." 3G is a platform that brings together many different disciplines, from broadcast to mobile to direct marketing. Fuller questions whether one company has all the required expertise. "For some of the content projects we're working on, we use external suppliers that, for instance, build WAP sites or Java games," he says. "We're right at the centre of mobile but we wouldn't claim to have every piece of expertise in the building." The operators also believe they have expertise in content production. "We have 10,000 music videos produced, edited and prepared for presentation on our network, so we're pretty expert at it," says 3's Oxby. "What we can do now with two years' hard-won experience is tell the likes of Fremantle and Endemol what works best on mobile." First port of call Certainly in the initial phase of branded content, it seems, operator portals will be the most obvious place for this kind of content. The networks have most to gain from luring users to 3G, and certain brands understand this already. Fuller says content owners like Emap have understood this, making brands like FHM available on Vodafone Live! and O2 Active. "It's a fantastic brand with great content, and that sits very neatly with the operators," he explains. "There are obviously some conversations to be had between great brands and the portals." Because they're closest to the customer, the operators are also best placed to support an emerging ecosystem of mobile suppliers like Inventa, says Hammad. "Initially, what we want to do is make sure we have very strong relationships with the operators, because they own the relationship with the customer. That's the approach we've been taking, building strong content for the operators." He agrees with Fuller that, as 3G matures, brands may feel ready to distribute content off-portal. For now, though, partnering with the operators is more realistic, simply because it's a pragmatic way to share the commercial risk. The truth is that, in a rapidly emerging market, no single distribution channel will dominate, believes Oxby. The introduction of video shortcodes by 3 for content such as news and clips from Angry Kid (NMA 12.05.05) is an attempt to provide customers with a range of access options that suit their situation. "Given how fragmented the media market is and how many different routes to the customer there are, you'll see people going directly to content providers, some going through a portal, some using shortcodes," he says. "I think there'll be a tremendous richness of ways of accessing content." Fremantle appears ready to gamble, but on a third distribution model entirely. In March it announced a joint venture with US wireless media company Mobliss called Thumbdance. The idea is to create a short-form mobile video service that will feature new content as well clips from The X-Factor and Baywatch from Fremantle's 9,000-hour library of content. Mobliss and Fremantle will split Thumbdance revenues and are closing deals with two major US carriers to offer the service on a subscription or pay-per-download basis. The aim is not to short-circuit the operators, explains Tavernier. The long-term vision, however, is to capitalise on the Fremantle franchises to build a new brand. "It's trying to create a place where users can find a branded distribution channel for our content," she says. "That's quite exciting because it's a move towards being in a position to distribute the content ourselves." Chasing the audience Traditionally production houses like Fremantle and Endemol have relied on commercial TV to deliver the mass audiences for their properties. But at a time when audiences have access to more channels and more media, Celador's Gunning says, "It's incumbent on all us of to make 3G work, because finding new distribution models for our content is fundamentally important." Fremantle is confident it has the resources to deliver enough compelling content to help Thumbdance establish itself as a mobile video channel. Certainly it has learned that existing properties can be successfully spun off from TV. "I think the users are convinced if the content is good," says Tavernier. "That's what we've seen with The X-Factor." It can even be a way of making money from unused inventory, as when 3 offered unseen outtakes from The X-Factor. "They've proved to be some of the most popular clips on the service," says Oxby. "So it's an outlet for footage that has not been seen before or can't be shown because you don't have enough time in the TV schedules." But as 3 and Vodafone are likely to discover from their content deals with Celebrity Wrestling, which failed to get the audience it hoped for, finding truly compelling content isn't easy. "The consumer isn't stupid. We have to give them something good to get excited about," says Fuller. "With something like WAP or MMS, part of the reason they failed was that the content was never compelling enough," says Tavernier. "This market will live or die by how good the content is." The regulatory environment for branded content It's not just the fact that 3G creates new ways to get your brand in front of a consumer that's generating interest in the medium. It's also the belief that, for the time being, the channel offers the chance to do this without the same obligations that advertisers are subject to in older media, such as TV and radio. "Advertisers are waking up to the fact that this is the perfect platform, in no small part because of the fact that it's completely unregulated at the moment," says Claire Tavernier, senior VP of interactive at Fremantle. "A lot of things you can't do on TV, in terms of product placement and so on, you can do on these new platforms." Broadcast advertising has always been subject to regulatory control in the UK. It's a condition of the licences that Ofcom grants to TV and radio broadcasters that their advertising complies with the Ofcom Code and that they have pre-vetting procedures in place. The 2003 Communications Act farmed out Ofcom's responsibilities for investigating and adjudicating advertising complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA is clear that viewers must always know if they're watching advertising. Sponsored programmes must follow Ofcom's Code, which states that there "may be no reference, whether visual or oral, to the sponsor (or the sponsor's product or service) in the programme or series they are sponsoring". How much of this will directly apply to 3G is unclear. At the moment Ofcom doesn't place specific obligations regarding content on 3G licence holders. For example, the industry has been left to self-regulate on adult services. "There are no regulations on content that's broadcast to 3G mobile," Ofcom spokesperson Simon Bates confirms. He adds that Ofcom prefers self-regulation and welcomed the establishment by the industry of the Independent Mobile Classification Body. It would be sensible, however, to assume that existing precedents will set the tone for the nascent mobile channel. The ASA regards mobile as a non-broadcast medium that falls within its remit - SMS campaigns are already subject to its adjudication. "3G would be covered by the Committee on Advertising Practice's non-broadcast code in the same way that all mobile phone advertising is," says ASA spokeswoman Donna Mitchell. She knows of no complaints about 3G yet, and the issue of branded content hasn't come up. "With the way 3G has been operating, you've had quite clear lines about what is and isn't advertising," she says, adding that the ASA would have to reserve judgment on this issue until it could see an example in context. With regulators primarily concerned with ad messages that people haven't sought out, content that's clearly branded and specifically requested is a grey area. "There's a good window of opportunity for advertisers to do some very interesting stuff," Tavernier believes. So how far might sponsorship go? A brand could commission entertainment, as BMW did in 2003 with bmwfilms.com, a series of short films by Hollywood directors that featured BMW cars. But how acceptable would it be to have a mobile soap opera in which characters only ever ate one confectionery brand, or a football academy where all the kids' sportswear was from the same manufacturer? Mainstream advertisers may not be willing to test the ASA's resolve, even if specific guidelines on mobile branded content are yet to be drawn up. "Those rules perhaps aren't quite so distinct in mobile," says Celador MD Simon Gunning. "I don't think it will be long before that changes. It's down to us to make sure that we're self-regulating to a certain extent." © Copyright Flytxt Ltd 2006. Unauthorized use of any content constitutes a material breach. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|