The power of ‘advertainment’ in brand communications: where entertainment meets advertising

In an era of sensory overload, where consumers are faced with a barrage of content at every waking moment, standing out is becoming an increasingly difficult task for brands. But there is a solution to capturing the attention of the distracted generation. Back in my TV production days in Paris, about 15 years ago, we were already exploring the concept of ‘advertainment’. We pitched innovative mini-series ideas to brands like McDonald’s and Club Med.

While the vision was clear and ahead of its time, the concepts failed to see fruition. The evolving priorities and dynamic goals of marketing departments at the time made it difficult to sell the concept of long-term promotions.

But now, with consumer scepticism on the rise, we’re seeing a backlash against traditional advertising. Today’s marketers are crying out for new ways to capture hearts, minds, and most importantly — attention.

As the lines between content and commercials blur, the brands riding this wave are rewriting the rules of engagement.

Welcome to the future of brand communications.

What is ‘advertainment’?

‘Advertainment’, a portmanteau of advertising and entertainment, is a creative strategy that seamlessly weaves marketing messages into pure entertainment content.

Modern ‘advertainment’ subtly incorporates promotional messages into forms of content, including video, games, podcasts, virtual reality experiences, and interactive web series.

Rather than interrupting the flow of the content with an ad, the brand becomes the storyteller, engaging viewers with content that feels organic, authentic, and relevant. The content is the ad.

In a landscape where consumers are quick to skip, mute, or block ads, ‘advertainment’ offers an enticing promise: an audience willingly engaged, emotionally invested, and, ultimately, more receptive to the brand’s message.

One of the first notable examples of ‘advertainment’ was the 8-minute short film for Pirelli, Mission Zero, starring Uma Thurman back in

Read More ...

Bettendorf Online Advertising & Marketing Agency: Brand Awareness Service Launch

PRESS RELEASE

Published July 4, 2023

The full-stack marketing agency now offers data-driven online marketing solutions for brands across sectors – with options including search engine optimization, paid advertising, and social media growth strategies.

More information can be found at https://zorgtek.com/

With the latest expansion, ZorgTek enables clients to outsource their marketing efforts to a specialist team – with expertise spanning graphic design, blog writing, and video production.

ZorgTek’s digital marketing services offer a strategic approach to improving online visibility, enabling businesses to reach their target audience effectively and boost organic traffic. This is increasingly important because more than two-thirds of all users on Google never reach the second page of results.

SEO services include optimizing on-page elements, conducting keyword research, and implementing link-building techniques. ZorgTek optimizes website performance through technical SEO audits and creates responsive designs – improving search engine rankings while creating a more engaging experience for customers.

To complement the organic efforts, ZorgTek integrates paid advertising solutions into its digital marketing services. Businesses can reach a broader audience and enhance brand visibility through expert ad copy – and drive leads through managed social media promotions on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

The agency’s web design service creates a strong foundation for every other aspect of its digital marketing packages. The designers create visually appealing, user-friendly websites and landing pages optimized for conversion. By aiming for positive user experiences across devices, ZorgTek helps businesses establish a strong online presence that drives customer engagement and fosters long-term growth.

The digital marketing services are backed by comprehensive tracking and analytics capabilities. Detailed reports cover campaign performance metrics and ranking improvement – allowing clients to make data-driven decisions and make specific adjustments over time to enhance engagement.

A spokesperson states: “Any business seeking to increase visibility, authority, reputation, exposure, traffic, and sales

Read More ...

How Spikeball’s CEO plans to build the brand without paid advertising

Chris Ruder wanted Spikeball to be known as the beach game when he founded the company in 2008—so much so that he made it the product’s tagline.

It turns out that playing on the beach isn’t necessarily representative of the game’s clientele. “When sales started coming in, I realized that most of our customers didn’t live within 100 miles of a beach,” Ruder said. He ended up scrapping the original tagline and going with “Find Your Circle” instead.

Regardless, it’s not appearing in any massive ad campaigns: The company has, for the most part, forgone more traditional types of advertising, instead taking cues from sports like Formula 1, which have relied on storytelling and community to build the brand and the sport.

Story time

Summer’s an important time of year for a sport like Spikeball (which is actually called roundnet, but that’s a whole different story). Frequency of play is 100x higher in the summer than in January, Ruder said, and mid-April through early August marks the time when sales tend to, well, spike.

As a result, it’s also when players are creating the most content around the game. And for better or worse, 99% of that video content is of “what happens on the field,” Ruder said.

While it’s fun to watch, videos of players diving to make sure the ball doesn’t hit the ground don’t exactly provide viewers with much background on the sport and its players. So, in addition to that type of content, Ruder said he wants to follow the Netflix documentary formula, citing the success of the streamer’s tennis series Break Point, its golf series Full Swing, and the F1 series Drive to Survive—the last of which helped boost the sport’s popularity among viewers and advertisers in the US. (While there’s no

Read More ...

In the in-game advertising world, tension is mounting between intrinsic ads and immersive brand experiences

As brands increasingly look to reach gamers in their natural habitat, stakeholders in the gaming advertising world are coalescing into two camps: those porting programmatic adtech into games via intrinsic in-game ads, and those integrating brands into more immersive gaming experiences. As these two sides increasingly compete for marketers’ gaming budgets, the tension between them is mounting. 

Last month, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney caused a stir by coming down hard on in-game ads in a Q&A with Digiday. But for many executives and observers in the space, Sweeney’s comments disparaging in-game billboards came as no surprise; it’s a drum he has been beating for years. But despite Sweeney’s statements that he “hates advertising in games,” Fortnite is arguably chock-full of ads in the form of brand integrations, the equivalent of Hollywood product placement for gaming.

That isn’t to say that Sweeney’s comments didn’t come across as good sense to many marketers in the space.

“I agree with Tim wholeheartedly; I am almost 99 percent aligned with what he said,” said Brent Koning, the global gaming lead at Dentsu. “When you look at in-game advertising, just generally as an industry, there are some challenges. Candidly, we have just RFP’ed all of the major in-game advertising partners, and a lot of those platforms are saying very, very similar things.”

Still, while Sweeney’s points are fair, it’s hard to deny that they favor the work his company is doing over other companies’ efforts to integrate brands into games. The argument that Fortnite’s brand integrations are more seamless than other forms of in-game advertising ignores the higher barrier to entry of this format. Compared to intrinsic in-game ads, which can be placed programmatically inside game environments, bespoke branded game worlds and in-game items require more pre-development and consistent updates to be effective. And

Read More ...

Top English-speaking Advertising & Marketing firms in Korea to Help global startups build strong brand value

Advertising and marketing are crucial for startups looking to gain visibility, establish their brand, and attract customers. A well-planned marketing strategy can help startups reach their target audience and attract venture firms.

In today’s highly competitive business environment, advertising and marketing are vital for startups’ success. However, language barriers can significantly challenge international startups looking to market themselves in Korea. That’s why it’s essential to partner with an English-speaking advertising and marketing firm that understands the local market and can help startups achieve their goals. 

By investing in effective marketing strategies, startups can establish a strong brand, attract customers, and achieve long-term growth and success. Despite language barriers in Korea, several English-language ad campaigns have become successful  and helped increase brand awareness and sales for various companies in Korea. 

In 2006, McDonald’s launched its famous “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign featuring K-Pop stars singing the catchy jingle in English. Coca-Cola’s “Taste the Feeling” campaign was launched in 2016 with English-language ads and a social media campaign, encouraging people to share their “Coke moments.” Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign, launched in 2002, inspired people to push themselves to achieve their goals with English-language ads featuring Korean subtitles. Apple’s “Think Different” campaign, launched in 1997, established the company as a leading brand in Korea’s technology market with English-speaking ads and Korean subtitles. 

Finally, Samsung’s “Do What You Can’t” campaign, launched in 2017, encouraged people to break down barriers and achieve their goals with English-language ads and Korean subtitles. Cheil Worldwide, a South Korean multinational advertising and public relations company, was the ad agency that made the successful Samsung campaign.

Here are some of Korea’s top English-speaking advertising and marketing firms that can help global startups.

 Cheil Worldwide: For startups looking for English-speaking  advertising and marketing firms in Korea, Cheil is the largest advertising

Read More ...

Shifting Ability Dynamics Are Championing Creators In Brand Advertising

Shoppers right now have experienced enough with the interruptive and disruptive mother nature of classic advertising and marketing and advertising and marketing, and at the exact time, are partaking far more with social platforms like TikTok and YouTube to resource industrial information and facts on solutions. Collectively, these variables have helped give rise to major purchaser demand for influencers and creators to information their obtaining decisions. This has developed a change in the brand name-influencer power dynamic – for lots of models, constructing partnerships with influencers is now a essential and more pertinent way to arrive at their goal audience.

An impression.com-commissioned report in partnership with WARC previous 12 months unveiled a stark disconnect in between how brand names and influencers understand a mutually advantageous partnership, indicating a growing urgency for sincere, valuable partnerships. With soaring costs owing to inflation next a long time of digital-initial exercise because of to the pandemic, individuals are far more and extra aware of their digital ecosystem and makes have been attempting to attraction to these on the net audiences with different levels of good results.

I spoke with David A. Yovanno, CEO at impression.com, to take a look at how the model-creator relationship has advanced and in which makes are actually seeing the price of creator partnerships.

Gary Drenik: How has the brand-creator romance developed in modern decades?

David A. Yovanno: With customers, specially Gen-Z, becoming fewer tolerant and frankly more tuned in to the tactics utilized in interruptive marketing and promoting procedures – like pop up ads and retargeting – creators are turning out to be far more integral in brands’ advertising strategies.

This has led to the manufacturer-creator connection getting to be more of a partnership. Brands are no more time relying strictly on conventional paid

Read More ...