Making Branded Content Irresistible

Chris Goldson, sponsorship and promotions director at Virgin Radio, discusses the best ways for advertisers to get the most from branded content…

Ah, ‘branded content’! A beautiful little phrase that’s been doing the rounds for quite a while now. And rightly so. But sometimes I can’t help feeling there might be something missing…

It’s true that branded content is growing more popular among advertisers searching for different ways to engage customers and achieve that all-important marketing cut-through. It’s also proving to be a rather healthy revenue stream for commercial radio, which has seen consistent revenue increases in the form of sponsorships and promotions. A 14% increase in branded content revenues nationally in 2006 alone is not to be sniffed at, and is something that media owners like me cherish more than the family puppy.

However, creating great branded content isn’t straightforward – we can all recall instances when the sponsorship of a particular media property hasn’t been quite the right fit, or when a promotional mechanic has been aimed at the wrong audience. This can have massive impact on how the listener interacts with, and responds to, the sponsorship or promotion – the audience needs to know why a brand is connected with a particular piece of content. Badging exercises aren’t acceptable either as listeners can easily spot a fake or a tenuous fit. With branded content on the airwaves, listener engagement has to be the main priority.

Without getting too caught up in semantics, the term ‘branded content’ has something missing: an acknowledgement of the audience. Branded content on its own simply describes the stuff that can happen when a brand and a media owner decide to get together – occasionally creating something new just because they can. However, irresistible branded content suggests there’s something in it for the listener; i.e. they’re involved, they have a part to play, and the content they seek is actually enhanced because of the brand’s involvement.

To develop our irresistible branded content, we work shoulder to shoulder with our programming teams to develop solutions that pack a punch. When a client wants to connect with Christian O’Connell’s 1m+ listeners we’ll get Christian himself involved right from the start, at the beginning of the brainstorming process. That way we know that that the promotion will fit exactly with the tone and style of his show. If it’s something he wants to do, then he’ll do it well. Here are two great examples:

We developed a breakfast promotion for Barclays Small Business team, and asked listeners to contact Christian with their small business ideas, with the best ideas making it on air. This mechanic worked because it involved the entire listening audience who could vote for their particular favourite, as well as involving the hundreds of listeners who submitted their own business ideas.

The winner won a cash prize from Barclays to kick-start their business of providing dancing classes for brides and grooms. Whilst the client may have paid for a 30-second competition mechanic, the content and listener involvement was so compelling that it actually ran for 45 minutes on the show! A far better listening experience, and a higher level of engagement was achieved because of its closeness to the show’s content and style.

As well as the mechanic, branded content can also become irresistible if the engagement is prolonged. This can be achieved through longer pre-promotion periods to build interest ahead of the promotion and deliver more impact. Online pre-registration and early listener participation becomes as important as the promotional mechanic itself does. It gives the listener more time to consider their active involvement in the promotion, and they consider the brand’s marketing messages well before the promotion actually takes place – providing much more impact and resonance.

A great example of this is our Breakfast Show Challenge Churchill promotion. Insurance brand Churchill was looking to support the launch of its now well known ad campaign, asking the public to challenge them to beat their insurance quote. We brainstormed with Christian and his team, and developed a national competition that asked listeners what their own personal challenge would be, encouraging them to register them on a branded microsite at virginradio.co.uk.

Those with the best personal challenges – anything from writing a novel to bungee jumping – were invited onto the show to pitch live to the nation. There was much at stake… Churchill would finance the winner’s challenge to life-changing tune of £25k! The response was phenomenal, with hundreds registering their personal challenges and listeners voting for their favourite. Aside from a great competition, and a very worthy winner, there are two important points to note:

1) Listeners who weren’t able to win still took the time to vote for their favourite challenge. What was in it for them? Some compelling content thanks to Churchill, and the chance to shape a radio show and to make a tangible difference to somebody’s life. In short, they cared.

2) In the lead up to the promotion we’d planted a marketing seed in the listeners’ heads. What’s your personal challenge? Marketing strapline or not, it was an irresistible question.

And for the one winner we had, there were hundreds that entered, and thousands of other listeners who will have carried that question around in their heads for a number of days. Instead of hearing ‘branded content’, they were engaged, involved, and doing Churchill’s marketing themselves!

Virgin Radio has won eight out of the last 13 RAB Planner’s Choice Awards – fantastic independent approval of our work in the area of S&P. And at the heart of each of these projects were the same three things: great brand presence, superb content for the station, and something irresistible for the listener that drew them in.